Page 153 of Someone Like Me
“Tori, please.” I hold her phone, but it’s useless. I can’t stop her.
“Iwillcall the police, and hewillbe arrested. Today.”
Drew’s at work right now. He texted me on his lunch break to say he missed me.
He missed me.
He’ll go by the hospital tonight before he comes home. I can’t let him be arrested. Not there. Not at the garage. Not in his home. Not again. And definitely not now as he’s keeping vigil for Mrs. Vivian.
“Break up with him. Leave the country.” Tori crosses her arms over her chest with a shrug. “If he still wants you in two months, hooray for you.” And then an evil glint lights her eyes. “Of course, he might be seeing other people.”
My mouth goes dry. The muscles in my quads are shaking as if my legs might give any moment.
“What’s to stop me from telling him you put me up to this?”
She scowls at me like I’m an idiot. “Because the deal’s off if you do.”
A mirthless laugh leaves me. “How would you even know? It’s not like you can watch me twenty-four seven.”
“You’re moving in where I can keep an eye on you until you leave. I watch his house. I watch you. I check your phone. I catch you even sending him so much as a text, and I call the police,” she says with menace. “No warning. No second chance.”
I clench my teeth but say nothing.
“If you want to protect your boyfriend, you’d better not contact him after today,” she warns. “I’ve seen you come and go from his apartment. No one’s invisible. Stay away from him. Leave for two months. Then he’s safe.”
Drew’s safety and welfare are everything to me.
“How do I know you won’t hurt him then?”
The corner of her mouth lifts, and I swear, she almost looks proud. As though she approves of my question. But she executes a coy shrug.
“Maybe he will find a way to return my stolen property, so then I’d have nothing to report.”
I know what this means. In two months, she’ll tell me — or Drew — where she’s hidden whatever she planted in his apartment. There’s no way I can stay away from him that long. There’s no way I’m leaving the country. But I need time to figure this out, and Tori’s not giving me any.
She reaches out and turns her palm up. “Give me the phone, or I use the house line.” Holding onto her cell is pointless, so I hand it over. Saying nothing, she eyes me with an icy smile for perhaps a minute. “Now, Evie, times up. You call him, or I call the police. What’s it going to be?”
I shake my head. “He won’t believe it. I love him, and he knows it. People who love each other don’t break up, Tori.”
Her nostrils flare. “Yes. They. Do,” she growls. “It happens all the time. And you’d better convince him if you know what’s good for him.”
The rage in her gaze shuts me up.
I draw my phone out of my back pocket and stare at it.
Drew.
I close my eyes and reach for him. Feel him. His essence. His energy. The Drew-ness of him. And it’s there. Right there. All I have for him is love. It is whole. Pure. Unbroken and unblemished. I’ve never felt this much love for anyone. Not family. Not friends.
It pours from me. It blankets me. And right now, he’s all I want.
How can I do this?
“Stop crying,” Tori hisses.
I open my eyes and find my face soaked with tears. “Please, Tori. Please don’t make me do this.”
She shakes her head in disgust. “Have it your way.” And she unlocks her screen again.
