“So what’s different about this time? Were the women he harassed single? Because that’s why he ran me down, right? Because I’m withMia?”
“We think so. When we searched his house, we found pictures of her, both recent and from many years ago. There were other local women too, and some photographs of you, but it was mainly Mia. We think her return to the area ignited an old obsession.”
I sat back in the armchair, stunned, dazed, and weirdly relieved that it was all real.
Mia touched my face. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Are you?”
Her lips twisted into a snarl. “I want to kill him for hurting you.”
“Probably best keep that to yourself while we’ve got a house full of coppers, babe.”
“You think this is funny?”
“No, but he’s locked up now, and I’d take his car hitting me a thousand times if it ended this shit.”
It wasn’t as simple as that. Nothing ever was. But Iwasglad it was me who’dbeen hit by that car. Perhaps I deserved it for everything I’d put her through.
Rebecca said more words, but I zoned out, drifting instead further forward to what life could be like when this was all over, when our days went back to our brand of normal. I studied my cool, stark living room and wondered what it would look like if Mia got her hands on it. If the colour she brought to my lifebecame literal. Someone—Billy, perhaps—had once asked me if the barren style I’d brought home from the navy was deliberate, if the military had drained my imagination. I’d denied it, but fuck, I’d been wrong.
I’d been wrong about a lot of things, including my assumption that Morgan Benson was unimportant all those years ago when he’d been in our lives enough to become obsessed with Mia, andyet I’d never seen him enough to even remember his name. What did that say about me? Would we be in a different place right now if I’d shut this shit down ten years ago? Warned him off? Punched him in the face? Would that have been enough? Or would he have simply turned his attention to someone else? A woman without a bear of a brother and a lover who’d die for her. What had happened to us was shitty,but it could’ve been so much worse.
Rebecca stood. Apparently the conversation was over. “I’ll be in touch,” she said. “But I do think it’s unlikely he’ll get bail even if the CPS only goes for the lighter charge.”
Mia nodded, jaw set grimly, so I mirrored her and walked Rebecca and her colleague to the door. As she turned to leave, she put her hand on my arm. “It’s okay to be upset, Luke.”
“I’m not upset.”
“Fair enough. I’m just saying it would be a normal reaction if you were.”
She left. I shut the door behind her and returned to the living room where Mia was still pacing.
I leaned on the door frame. “Still plotting a murder?”
“No.” She stopped and turned to face me. “I’m trying to absorb some of your freakish calm.”
“Freakish?”
“Yeah. I thought you’dbe more upset that I really did have a fucking stalker.”
Upset. It was the second time that word had been thrown at me in as many minutes. I turned it over and tried to match it to the emotions running through me, but nothing quite made sense. I shrugged. “I’m livid that it came to this. If it had been you mowed down by that car, I—fuck, I couldn’t be responsible for my actions, but—” I stoppedand ran a hand over my aching head. “I don’t know. If this bloke’s done it before, it’s obvious he’s really fucking ill. Maybe him hitting me was the best thing to happen foreveryone. Even him.”
“I’d rather he’d hit me.”
My blood ran cold. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not? You have. Several times. And it’s not fucking okay, Luke. I don’t care how ill this man was, he hurt you, and I’llalways hate him for that.”
I fended off an image of her flying through the air and landing crushed on the roadside. Jesus. Did this never fucking end? I sucked in a deep, painful breath, like full lungs and agony could somehow cleanse me of this bizarre nightmare.
Mia crouched in front of me. “Are you really thinking like this? Because I have to say, you’re a better person than me.”
“I’m not better than you in any way whatsoever. I’m just tired of worrying about shit I can’t control. All I want is to be with you.”
“Do you mean that?”
“I do, Mia. More than ever.”
