“Wait.” Curtis’ voice was different now. There was a crack in his tone. “Blood? Why was there blood? How did they die? I don’t understand. I saw him a few hours ago, and he was fine.”
“There’s been some things going on, and…I can’t tell you everything, but they’re dead…someone killed them in my apartment.”
“What the fuck,” he whispered, and then the silence stretched between us. I wasn’t sure what else I could say. I wasn’t sure there was anything I could say. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m—” My cell was ripped out of my hands, and I gasped and whipped my head up to face a very angry-looking Ford. He ended the call and dismantled my cell. “What are you doing?” I asked, raising my voice.
“What am I doing?” he asked, his voice low and threatening. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? We’re in a fuckin’ safe house, Belle. You can’t call people.”
“I…I was just talking to Curtis. He needed to know what happened.” My shoulders drooped, and my body sagged against the headboard. “Justin is his—was—his best friend. He has a right to know.”
Ford’s nostrils flared, and his hands clenched at his sides. His chest moved on each inhale, and I just stared at him, wondering what he was going to say and do. I’d never seen this side of Ford before, and even though on the outside looking in, I knew it was scary, I also knew he’d never hurt me.
“It takes seconds for someone to trace you from a call, Belle. Seconds. They’re sending you a warning. They’re sending me a warning.” He widened his stance. “I’m trying to keep you safe. I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“I…I know that,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
Ford scraped his hand up and down his face and then through his hair. “I know, Baby Belle.” His voice was softer now, more like the Ford I’d gotten to know these last couple of months. “You can’t use your cell. Not until we know it’s safe.”
I blinked at him. “And when will that be?”
“Verdict comes in on Tuesday. Until then, we stay here. Your dad is sending some of the guys to guard outside.” His body seemed to droop the longer he spoke, and finally, he sat on the edge of the bed. “How are you doing?”
I swallowed and stared at his hand as it landed over my knee. I wasn’t really sure what I was feeling right then, but I knew with Ford here, I’d be okay. “I’m sad,” I told him. “And angry. You have to find who did this, Ford. You have to.”
“We will,” he promised. “We’ll make sure they don’t get away with it.” My eyes felt like sandpaper as I stared at him, and the tiredness I’d been fighting was coming back full force. “You’re tired. Get some sleep.”
He rubbed his hand over my leg and then stood, but I reached out to him, holding him as tight as I could. “Stay with me,” I begged. “I don’t want to be alone.” I tried to convey to him how I was feeling with my eyes.
“Okay,” he murmured and shuffled onto the bed. His arms wrapped around me, cocooning me in his safeness. I closed my eyes, and for the first time tonight, I didn’t see Stella and Justin on the bed covered in blood.
Instead, it was Ford and me.
Chapter Fifteen
FORD
Four nights.
Four long nights of barely any sleep and trying to make Belle feel as safe as she possibly could. She hadn’t come out of the bedroom for two days and only ventured out after that to ask if we’d found out who killed her best friend and her best friend’s boyfriend. Each time I told her we were working on it.
I wasn’t lying. We were working on finding out who had done it. But I didn’t give her the details. Like how all the footage for the entire day had been wiped. Or how every camera for three blocks had been shut down four hours before we got back into town. Someone had been planning something, I just wasn’t sure whether Stella and Justin had been the targets, or whether it was meant to be Belle and me.
She didn’t need to know those things. All she needed to know was that we’d find the killer, no matter how long it took.
Now it was Tuesday, and the judge had made a decision, which meant all we had to do was wait to find out what was going to happen. I was trying to explain it all to Belle as she sat across the table from me while eating her lunch.
“So, if he gets sent down, that means I can go back to college?”
“Yeah.” I drummed my hands on the table. “If you want to.”
She bit down on her bottom lip and played with some crumbs on her plate. “I only have a few weeks left.” I nodded because I knew that. “Even if I just go back for those few weeks, then I can decide what to do about my last year over the summer.”
“You can do that.”
Her gaze met mine, sorrow shining in the depths. “But what about you? And the apartment?” She shook her head. “I can’t go back to my apartment, Ford. I…I just can’t.”
I reached forward and clasped her hand in mine, trying to reassure her. Brody and I had already put a plan in place if Garza got sent down, but we’d also put a plan in place if he didn’t.