Chapter 8
Alexa
I woke up to the shrill, incessant ringing of my phone and groped for it on the nightstand.
“Yeah?” I answered.
“Oh, honey,” my mom said. “Were you still sleeping?”
“It’s fine, Mom. Don’t worry. Are you okay?”
“Yes, dear, I’m fine. I just wanted to know if you want to come over for coffee today? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
I lay back on the pillows and smiled. “I’d love to.”
“Great. I’ll see you in a bit then. Love you.”
“Love you,” I said and hung up. I took a deep breath and tried to relax. The phone call had yanked me out of a deep sleep, and adrenaline pumped through my system.
I got out of bed and got into the shower, singing as I washed my hair. When I got out, I wrapped a towel around my body and started blow-drying my hair. My ringtone sliced through the sound of my hairdryer, which I switched off.
“Luke?” I asked when I answered.
“Yeah. I’m outside your door. I don’t think you can hear me knocking.”
“Oh my God,” I said and hung up. I opened the door, and Luke stood in front of me, grinning. His eyes slid down my body, and I realized I was still just in my towel. I clutched at my chest.
“Sorry,” I said. “Come in. I’m just getting dressed.”
Luke followed me in, and I left him in the living room. I pulled on jeans and a blouse and slid into cork wedges.
“You can come to the bedroom,” I said. “I’m getting ready to go to my mom’s.”
Luke came into the room, looking at me as if he wasn’t sure I would be dressed. He sat down on my bed.
“How was your night last night?” he asked.
I stood in front of the mirror, pulling my hair back into a ponytail.
“It was okay,” I said. “Chilled.”
Luke nodded. I wasn’t going to tell him where I’d been, and I wasn’t going to tell him what had happened with that asshole and the drink he’d poured on me. Some men were such pigs, and Luke would only get mad that he hadn’t been there to look after me—especially considering I’d been at a BDSM club and one of the guys had been masked.
Yeah, better not to mention it at all.
“How about you?” I asked Luke, glancing at him in the mirror before starting to apply makeup. “What did you do?”
He shrugged. “Stayed in, too.”
I applied base with a sponge. “Why are you here?” I asked. “I mean, I don’t mind it of course, but I thought you said you would just call?”
Luke shook his head, grinning at me. “Mom invited me for coffee, too. I thought I’d pick you up on the way and drive you there myself.”
I turned around. “Thanks, Luke. That’s awesome of you.”
He shrugged, but he still grinned.
When I was done, we headed out to his car. I sat in his passenger seat again. I liked being in his car with him. How many times had Dalton been in this same seat? Too many to count, I was sure.
“Have you found out anything about Dalton’s murder?” I asked.
Luke glanced at me. “Yeah. I spoke to Sam. Do you know him?”
“I think I met him once. I don’t really remember his face.”
“Okay, well, I spoke to him. He couldn’t tell me much without risking my safety, but it was something along the lines of Dalton making a deal with the wrong people.”
Alexa narrowed her eyes at me. “He couldn’t tell you without putting you in danger? God, Luke, that sounds terrible.”
Luke nodded. “If the world Dalton was in wasn’t as bad as it sounds, he would still be here.”
Luke’s words hit me like punches, but he was right. I knew he was.
“Is that all?” I asked.
“No. He sent a part of a conversation to my phone. He didn’t want to tell me in person. It was between the president and the VP, something about not letting any of the other members of the Samurai find out because it would be really bad.”
I shook my head. “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know exactly. What I do know is that whatever it is, Dalton must have known something about it, and they’re so serious about keeping it quiet that they killed him for it.”
When he said “killed,” it felt like he stabbed a knife into my chest. I struggled to breathe around it.
“Are you okay?” Luke asked.
I nodded. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t want to show him. If he thought it would upset me too much, he’d stop telling me things, and I couldn’t deal with that. I needed to know.
We stopped in front of my mom’s place, and Luke and I walked up to the front door.
“Oh, my darlings,” my mom said, opening the door as we approached. She hugged both of us together, holding on longer than usual. “I missed you so much.” She put her hand on my cheek, and in her eyes, I could still see the sorrow.
We walked into the living room, and Luke went with her to fetch the tray with coffee and cups from the kitchen. She poured it for us out of the silver coffee pot she’d inherited from her mom and handed us each a cup.
“So, tell me how you’ve been,” she said to me.
I started telling her. I was doing better. I was getting on with life, even if it was still hard. I missed Dalton.
When I said that, she turned her face to the window and closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” I said.
She shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was thin. “Never be sorry for missing him or speaking about him. We’re not going to push this away. He deserves to be spoken about, to be remembered out loud. We’re not going to forget about him because it hurts too much.”
I took a deep breath, trying to swallow the lump that had risen in my throat.
“Instead,” she said, “when are you going to start dating? It’s time for you to get serious about settling down!”
Luke glanced at me, and I was suddenly blushing. My cheeks flushed and I felt lightheaded.
“I don’t know, Mom. Dating hasn’t exactly been a priority lately.” Not the way having sex was. In a BDSM club. With someone I barely knew. No, I wasn’t about to add that to my story. My mom would have a mini heart attack and then tell Luke to stop me from doing it.
And I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me who to be.
I felt Luke’s eyes on me, and when I looked at him, I couldn’t read his expression.
We drank coffee and kept the conversation light and cheerful. By the time we were ready to leave, my mom was in a good mood, and I was in a good place, too.
She hugged me at the door, holding on to me.
“I love you, honey,” she said. “Don’t forget that. I don’t think I told your brother enough. I regret that.”
She looked like she was going to cry again when she let me go.
“He knew, Mom,” I said.
Luke nodded next to me. “He did. He knew that you loved him very much. This family is the definition of love.”
My mom covered her mouth with her hand and turned away. I put my hand on her shoulder.
“I think I’m going to go lie down,” she said and walked into the house without looking back. When we were in the car driving back home, I looked at Luke.
“We have to find out who did this. We can’t let it slide. Look at her.”
Luke nodded. “I’ll figure it out, okay? Don’t worry. But don’t get involved, Alexa.”
He was using my full name. This was serious.
“I want to help.” Dalton was my brother. I wanted to do something.
“Help me by staying out of trouble and as far away from danger as you can get. If you do that for me, I don’t have to worry about keeping you safe, too.”
I looked out the window. Would Luke classify going to Blush as being safe? I didn’t want to know.
We drove in silence for a while.
“Are you going back to work tomorrow?” Luke asked.
I nodded. I was a Key Accounts Manager at CadFin. My boss had given me two weeks off after Dalton died.
“I have to get back into the swing of things. Life goes on. If I don’t go on with it, it will leave me behind.”
“You’re right,” he said. “Are you going to be okay?”
I nodded. “I think so. It will be good to have a distraction at least, something to focus on. It’s hard not to think about everything all the time when I have nothing to do with my mind.”
Luke nodded. “I hear you. This has been hard on everyone. I didn’t get nearly as much time off with my job. Dalton was like a brother to me, but because we’re not actually related, I had to put in some personal leave.”
I hadn’t thought about that. Luke and Dalton had been brothers for all intents and purposes, but that wasn’t important enough in the business world. And Luke was a franchise insurance broker. It wasn’t an easy game to play.
When Luke pulled up in front of my building, I looked at my door. I was going to spend the night alone again. It never used to bother me before, but lately…
“Is it okay if I spend the night again?” Luke asked. “I don’t always like to be alone.”
He looked shy about admitting that to me. I smiled.
“I was just about to ask,” I said to make his embarrassment better. “But let me get out the blowup mattress for you. The couch is way too small, and I have real blankets, too.”
Luke grinned at me. “You noticed that, huh?”
“The leg blanket will do in a pinch, but something tells me you need a little more at night.”
Something slid behind Luke’s eyes, and I couldn’t tell what it was. But it was gone as quickly as it came, and he was his usual self, grinning at me. He parked, and we walked to the apartment together.