7. Mike

7

MIKE

The drive from the festival to Lila's apartment was not even fifteen minutes, but I was on edge the entire ride.

I wished she would have let me drive, but by the time I'd walked her to her car, her hands had stopped shaking. I'd sprinted down the street to get my own truck after I'd made her promise to wait for me so I could follow.

I'd watched from two car lengths back for any erratic turns or fluctuations in speed, but she'd seemed to be driving fine. She'd come down from the panic attack enough to appear as if nothing had happened.

It was as if she was used to being triggered enough to calm herself down quickly, just like the day I'd taken her to Aaron to replace her tire.

Although I didn't have any details, the bad feeling I'd had about what could've made her move to Kelly Lakes so fast was now a certainty. Other than clocking Jared across the jaw—something, as a cop, I couldn't do without asking for a shit-ton of trouble—I had no idea how to help her.

I would have to wait until when and if she was ready to tell me, but there was no way I could've left her alone tonight.

I pulled into the spot behind her and jumped out to meet her at her car door. She peered at me through her window, shooting me a tiny smile before she opened her door and climbed out.

"Mike, I'm fine. You really didn't have to follow me home. I appreciate it, but I think I'm just going to go inside and try to relax after the humiliation burns off."

"And I promise to leave you alone so you can— after I walk you inside and know you're safe."

"I thought Kelly Lakes was a safe place to be," she said, her voice tired and small. I could tell she had been nervous for most of tonight, but I hadn't noticed such a deep exhaustion in her eyes until now.

It made me want to pummel Jared even more for setting off whatever was weighing on her.

"It is, but think of it as a favor to me. I'd be able to sleep better."

"As you wish, Officer Mike," she said, giving me a weak smile as she unlocked her door.

A bone-deep need to protect her had taken over me, but I couldn't fight against what I didn't know.

I shut the door behind me as Lila trudged inside her apartment, tossing her keys into a bowl on the kitchen table and slumping into one of the chairs.

"I'm really sorry." The pull in her tired features killed me. "You tried so hard to make sure I had a good time. I feel like I ruined your night."

"You absolutely did not." I took a seat across from her, my fingers itching to touch her like I had in the bar tonight. I'd been focused on calming her down, but when my thumb grazed the corner of her mouth, the temptation to taste those full lips and kiss her fears away was so potent it itched under my skin.

She'd looked so beautiful tonight, it had been hard for me to look anywhere else. And once I'd spotted her, I couldn't leave her side.

I'd said I'd stay close to help her navigate the unfamiliar crowd, but if I was honest with myself, my attachment to her tonight was from simply wanting to be near her, no matter how little sense it made.

I wanted to pull her into my arms, thread my fingers through the silky strands of her hair, and promise I wouldn't let anything happen to her.

That would probably do more harm than good right now, and I couldn't convince her not to be scared if I didn't know what she was afraid of.

"I had a really great time tonight, despite how it ended," she said with a wince. "The whole town probably thinks I'm a weirdo, which is what I was hoping to avoid, but here I am."

"They don't," I told her. "You are not the first woman to yell at Jared to back off. In fact, you probably gained some respect."

Her shoulders jerked with a chuckle.

"Thanks for trying to make me feel better."

"I'm not trying to make you feel better. All right…yes, I am," I said when she arched her brow. "But Jared isn't very popular in town, despite all the arrogance he struts around with. In fact, Aaron and I got suspended in high school for getting into a fight with Jared and some other asshole on the football team."

"Really?" Lila's brow pinched.

"Oh yeah. I broke Jared's nose when he was a senior and I was a freshman."

"No way," she gasped, her eyes wide. "Good for you, although I can't really see you being the kind of kid to fight in school."

"It wasn't one of my best moments, but I was defending myself. My father flipped out, but that was my only fight in school. Jared hasn't changed since then, and unfortunately, he never left town."

My stomach uncoiled a little bit when I pulled a laugh out of her.

"Mike, I need to tell you something." Lila exhaled all the words in one breath.

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to."

"No, I do. I need to tell you at this point."

She sifted her hand through her hair and dropped her chin to her chest.

"Okay," I whispered, leaning back in the chair, already bracing myself not to react to whatever she was about to say.

"I dated someone for a few months before I left Philly. Ted was a good friend of my brother's, whom I already told you I never got along with. And although my brother didn't want us dating, I agreed when Ted wouldn't stop asking me out."

"Why didn't he want his friend to date you?"

"You'd think it was a protective big brother thing, right? But no. He was afraid that I would ruin things and make it awkward between him and Ted when we broke up. It wasn't to keep me safe as much as keeping his friend circle intact. After a little while, he got used to it—or, at least, I stopped hearing about it."

I nodded and waited for her to continue.

"Ted was a nice guy at first. Sweet, very attentive. Always called when he said he would and texted me good morning every day. Then things started getting weird."

"Weird," I repeated. "How?"

"If I didn't text him back within a certain time frame, my phone would blow up with messages from him, asking me where I was. It was a little annoying, but my friends would tell me how sweet it was that he worried about me, so I let it go at first." She shifted in her seat, darting her eyes around the room.

"Then everything I did bothered him, especially what I wore." She motioned down her body. "I've always been curvy, but sometimes he'd comment that I was too fat for whatever I was wearing. He'd say full-figured, but I knew what he meant. Suddenly, all my clothes were too short or too tight."

"Full-figured? What the fuck?" The words slipped out of my mouth before I could help it. Lila was perfect and gorgeous. So much so that I couldn't tear my eyes away from her the entire night, and I was sure everyone I'd introduced her to noticed how beautiful she was. If anyone had caught how I was looking at her, Kelly Lakes intel would have us engaged by the morning.

I didn't have to fight any of my usual attachment hang-ups when it came to Lila.

And that was a huge danger sign and one I'd always avoided—until tonight.

But while I liked her, I had the feeling I'd hate the reason why she'd had to come here.

Jude had once told me that I had great cop's intuition, but just this once, I really wished I would have been wrong.

"You're perfect, and he's an asshole."

I wanted to mention all the heads that I'd noticed turn in her direction tonight and eyes lingering on her long enough not to be just new-girl curiosity, but I didn't want to make her any more uncomfortable.

"I knew that, even if it made me a little self-conscious. Then I couldn't make plans with friends without clearing it with him first. We started fighting all the time, and my brother accused me of messing with his mind."

"Accused you ?"

"Yes, it was all my fault. Which didn't surprise me. Then Ted would apologize, swear to me he'd be better, and tell me he just loved me that much."

She lifted a shoulder and pointed toward the picture I'd hung up for her.

"One night, I went out with the friend in the picture. Usually, my best friend Ally would come along, but she couldn't make it, so it was just us. When word got back to him that I was out to dinner with a man, he lost it. How could I do this? How could I embarrass him like this? He loved me, and look how I was treating him."

She laughed to herself, shutting her eyes as she shook her head.

"Plus, a lot of other irrational, stupid things, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I told him I wanted to break up, finally, and of course he didn't take it very well. I expected him to hate me and stew about it to my brother for a long time, but he just wouldn't stop."

I felt her exhausted exhale as she pressed her palm against her forehead.

"What did he do?"

"He'd call and text all the time, so much I blocked him. But he'd go see my brother and call me from my brother's phone, so I had to block him too. Then he moved on to flowers delivered every day to my apartment and my office, sending emails later to plead for another chance. I'd seen enough red flags to know that wasn't an option. I told him to stop contacting me and get some help."

"I'm guessing he didn't accept that either."

"Oh no, the gifts continued, and I got so pissed off I'd purposely throw them out in the outside trash cans so he could see if he came by. Then things started getting…creepy."

She squeezed the nape of her neck and chewed on her bottom lip.

"One night, I'd gone out to dinner with that same friend from college again, and Ted emailed me, describing exactly what I was wearing and how it would be a shame if my friend couldn't make it out of Philly. "

My body went rigid against the back of the chair. "Did you report it?"

"I tried, but the police blew me off." She lifted her shoulder. "Ted hadn't touched me or threatened me per se, so the cop just told me to talk it out."

"Jesus," I hissed. "There are anti-stalking laws to protect people from unhinged assholes like that." My skin crawled, thinking of Lila being watched and followed and the local cops doing nothing about it.

"Well, this cop didn't seem very interested in finding out what they were." She scoffed. "Then I went out to dinner with different friends and came out to the parking lot to find one of my tires slashed. Ted was waiting for me in the dark two cars over and said maybe now I had time to talk."

I fell back in the seat and nodded.

"That's why when you had a flat tire?—"

"I freaked out, yeah. It made no sense. Ted wasn't hiding in the bushes behind me, but…" She trailed off, her gaze drifting out her tiny kitchen window before coming back to me.

"That feeling of fear. Of being trapped with nowhere to go after I came all the way here to get away from it." She rubbed her chest. "I couldn't breathe. Had you not been with me that day, I have no idea what I would have done. So, thank you for that."

"You don't have to thank me," I told her, squeezing her hand before I could help it. "I'm glad I was there. Did you press charges?"

She shook her head. "I couldn't prove anything. He denied it, and my car was right out of view of the parking lot camera, so it was my word against his. I kept wishing for him to just move on. Meet somebody else to obsess over and forget I existed."

"I'm guessing he didn't." I dropped my eyes to our still-joined hands. I was about to slip my palm away from hers when she flipped her hand over and squeezed tighter.

"A few days after that, he showed up at my job, acting like a madman, and insisting on speaking to me, refusing to leave until the security guards had to drag him out. I happened to be by the front desk at the time, so everyone knew the Lila he was coming to see."

"Jesus, what would?—"

"Make him do that?" She lifted a brow. "I'd stopped asking myself that question at that point, although blocking him and continuing to throw out the gifts he'd sent so he'd see may have sent him over the edge, but I honestly don't really know."

"Still, that's not normal behavior under any?—"

"But wait," she said, holding up a finger. "That's not even the worst part. It was the same day we had this huge company-wide meeting, with upper management and people in from different offices across the country. Everyone witnessed it all, and whoever didn't see it later saw the viral video someone waiting in reception filmed and posted. My company was even tagged."

"Fuck, Lila," I breathed out. "That's how you lost your job?"

A humorless laugh escaped her.

"They didn't actually let me go. They couldn't after the outpouring of sympathy for the poor girl this crazy guy was coming to harass. So they put me on a leave of absence to take care of the situation ." She held up her fingers in air quotes. "How, they didn't tell me, and I honestly had no idea how to prove that Ted wouldn't come back to the office. And at that point, I was too humiliated to show my face there. I couldn't file for unemployment, and I couldn't see anyone in Philly hiring me for anything after that."

"And then you ended up in Kelly Lakes."

She shut her eyes and nodded. "This was in the works before that happened. Steven had been talking to Claudia about me staying here for a while. His original plan was to have me stay with Claudia and Jude until things calmed down. My parents live outside of Philly, but my brother lives in their downstairs apartment and Ted still comes back and forth, from what I know."

My jaw went slack. "You have got to be fucking kidding me. He's still welcome there?"

"Yep. In fact, my parents suggested that we all sit down—me, Ted, and my brother—and just get everything straightened out . But there is nothing to straighten out. They live in deep denial, especially when it comes to their son."

"But you're their kid too, and you went through hell because of this asshole. Sorry," I said, finally letting go of Lila's hand to pinch the back of my neck and get ahold of my anger.

"I am, but I don't really think they understood what I was going through, or tried to. To them, I just broke up with Ted, and refused to talk to him after. They'd even told me that Ted had some kind of traumatic past and he latched on to me. As if that made it all okay."

"It sure as hell doesn't."

What kind of family would do this? My father would never stand for anyone hurting his kids, no matter what kind of past whoever it was had had. She really had no one, and I finally understood why she'd headed up here so fast.

"Aside from dating him in the first place, my biggest regret is not breaking up with him sooner. I was delaying the inevitable fight with my brother, but I honestly don't think sooner or later would have mattered."

She fell back against the chair and crossed her arms.

"So that is the full story. I didn't mean to lie to your father. I guess I technically didn't. I really didn't have a job, but I needed to work somewhere and I didn't want him to be afraid to hire me."

"My father has done nothing but sing your praises. He'd be worried about you, not judge you. The only reason I'd say to tell him is so he's aware if this guy ever found out where you live and work."

"I don't think Ted knows where I am. I deleted my social media accounts, and my parents promised not to share my new cell number or tell my brother Doug where I was. They don't even know my address, which is pretty terrible when you can't even let your parents know where you live," she said, huffing out a humorless laugh.

"I tried to make it difficult to track me, but other than changing my entire identity, this was the best I could do in a short amount of time."

I didn't want to betray her trust, but I was tempted to talk to Jude at the station about how we could protect her from this guy if he ever found her. She had no restraining orders on file, but filing one now would only lead him right to her.

There wasn't much I could do other than watch her like a fucking hawk, and I knew she wouldn't want that.

"But while it was weird starting over, I felt safe here. Then when Jared grabbed me by the wrist and said he just wanted to talk, like Ted said a million times, I was right back there again. It wasn't the same, and at any other point in my life, I probably would have just laughed it off, but I froze."

She let her head fall back and rubbed her eyelids.

"That is something I'm going to have to work on. I can't freak out over everything, and I'm sorry you've been the one to see it."

"Again, stop apologizing, Lila. I'm sorry you went through all that, but I appreciate you telling me."

"Well, it was either that or you were going to bring me into the station," she said, the corner of her mouth twitching.

"I would never do that. I was worried about you."

"Thank you." She sent me a small smile as she squeezed my hand again. "But everybody's got something, right? And I have to learn that flat tires and jerks in bars are just that. I can't let Ted terrorize me anymore. If I do, what was the point of coming here in the first place?"

"I think you're pretty brave."

I smiled at the blush staining her cheeks, but it was the truth. She was dealing with the trauma from what had happened to her, but she was courageous enough to leave and start over in a new place where it wouldn't define her.

I was in awe of her in so many ways, and it was messing with my head so much I didn't even recognize my own thoughts or myself.

"I don't know about brave, but thank you. And I'm relieved you know and that at least you don't think I'm some kind of crazy person on the run. And Claudia knows most of the story if you ever needed her to vouch."

"I don't need Claudia to vouch for you. I believe you, and I would never let anything happen to you. He'll never bother you again. Not on my watch."

I cringed when her eyes bugged out for a minute. "Not that I'm watching you," I tried to clarify. I was showing too many cards to this girl tonight and needed to keep all these confusing feelings to myself. "I'm just saying?—"

"I know what you're saying."

She shot me a sweet smile that eased my frayed nerves.

"And it helps. You know, I was thinking tonight how nice it was to have a real friend here. I have Ally back in Philly, but most of my other ones kind of scattered, for which I didn't blame them too much."

"Then they weren't friends to begin with."

"Probably." A wry grin played on her lips. "You've been coming to my rescue since we met. Is that what all cops do? Save girls like me?"

Only the lucky ones .

"Being a cop had nothing to do with helping you with your tire or getting you home tonight."

Her gaze roamed my face, and I spied more than gratitude in her eyes. Or maybe it was just my own misplaced longing reflected at me.

A longing that had come out of nowhere and grew with every second we shared the same space.

"I know," she whispered, so low I could barely hear. Her gaze locked with mine, and it made the air that much heavier between us.

"But I'll let you get some sleep." I stood, my eyes still on Lila's as I eased toward the door. "You're sure you're okay?"

"You know what? I am." Her chest rose and fell as she breathed out a long gust of air. "Thank you, Mike."

She pressed her hand to my chest and brushed her lips against my cheek. They were soft and warm, and I'd bet just as sweet as I'd imagined—and kept imagining. I could feel her relieved breath on my neck as she lingered one glorious second and pulled away.

My skin burned at the contact as my feet rooted to the carpet, my heart thumping hard enough against my rib cage for her to feel it against her palm. The fight not to turn my head and taste that fucking beautiful mouth triggered a sharp pain down my neck.

I hadn't felt this way around a woman since…ever. Even when I was a teenager existing in a whirl of stupidity and hormones, no girl had ever knocked me on my ass each time I was in her presence.

"And now we can really be friends without me having to worry so much if something upsets me in front of you."

Friends. It was all we could be, but I was beginning to despise that damn word.

"Yes, friends." Repeating it left a sour taste in my mouth. "You're safe with me."

A smile danced across her lips and made it to her eyes for the first time tonight, stealing the little air I had left in my lungs.

I had to figure out a way to keep myself in check, or I would be the one in trouble.