Off Limits (19 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Phoebe’s show had
been very good. The production value was superb and her actual dancing was
great. Luke and I had sat in the front row during it and stood by her side
afterwards as though everything was hunky-dory.

The guilt had been
eating away at us, but the knowledge it wouldn’t last much longer was enough to
keep us going. Phoebe was beaming all the way through the weekend and it made
me feel better about things. At least she’d got to be happy in her moment.

The ride back was
what I’d been looking forward to. Just Luke and I in the car, relaxing and
chatting and building ourselves up to crushing Phoebe.

As it stood,
Phoebe had taken my seat in the front and I was trapped in the back being
forced to endure conversation that sent my guilt nearly toppling over the edge.
This evening Luke was going to tell Phoebe that he couldn’t be with her
anymore.

The next day, I
was going to go and explain that I’d slept with her boyfriend. We’d debated the
best way to do this and ruled out telling her together. It might have been one
blow, but it would have been too harsh. It would have looked like we were
plotting together. At least, that was our rationale.

Now I came to
think of it, though, she’d ring me up the moment Luke dumped her and that
wouldn’t work well. I groaned mentally. Luke needed to tell her first,
privately, because of the pregnancy thing. That was too intimate for me to be
there for, but I had to tell her almost straight away that she couldn’t expect
to be leaning on me because I was a bitch of a friend.

Luke would let me
know as soon as he’d done it and I’d swoop in and break her heart again.

My head rested
against the window despite it making me feel queasy and watched the scenery
turn familiar.

When my phone
buzzed, I pulled it out and hoped it wasn’t my father. I wanted to talk to my
mum before I spoke with him again. I needed to know everything before I agreed
to meet him.

It was a private
number and I knew what that meant.

I tried to meet Luke’s
eyes in the mirror, but he wasn’t paying any attention to me. Swallowing, I
opened the message.

Pull over in front
of the next garage. It’s just on your left in a few minutes.

All colour drained
from my skin and as much as I needed time to recover before springing this on Luke,
I didn’t have time. “Luke,” my voice was hoarse and Phoebe turned round to
stare at me in confusion. Luke’s green eyes met mine in the mirror. “You need to
pull up at the next garage. It’s on the left in a few minutes.”

His hands
tightened on the wheel and he was forced to pay attention to the road. “I have
to?”

“Yes.”

Phoebe’s gaze
dashed between our pallid faces. “What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing important,”
I dismissed, my queasiness growing rapidly. “Just stay in the car, we’ll only
be a moment.”

“No. You can’t
both lie to me like that. I need to know what’s going on,” she stared harder at
Luke than me, assuming she had more sway over him.

“Phoebe,” Luke
took a deep breath. “I’ll explain absolutely everything to you afterwards if
you promise to stay in the car whilst we deal with this. This man we’re going
to meet is dangerous and I can’t let you get hurt. Okay?”

Phoebe didn’t have
time to argue because Luke had pulled the car into the garage our stalker had
specified. It was Sunday, so everything was closed. It was just a large piece
of tarmac in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by fields on every side.

A blue Ford driven
by a masked man joined us a few moments later and Phoebe looked ready to panic.
“Stay here,” I urged her once more as Luke and I left the car.

We stood with our
sides so mushed together that it was almost uncomfortable. Luke’s warm presence
made me feel better, though. Our stalker got out of the car too, and we were
left in a standoff. “I am so glad you decided to follow my instructions,” the
computerised voice from his phone told us.

“What do you
want?” Luke demanded, keeping his voice surprisingly controlled. I prayed he
was just trying to make it awkward my forcing us to explain to Phoebe what was
going on. Maybe he wasn’t going to do anything.

“To finally have
my moment, of course,” he was forced to type rapidly into his phone to keep the
conversation going. I hoped he made a typo. “This is everything I wished for
and more. You played right into my hands.”

Our car door
opened and Phoebe stepped out. Both Luke and I shot her a glare. “Get back in
the car,” Luke snapped, diverting his attention from the stalker for only a
moment.

“No, no,” the
computer stopped her. “I needed her out of the car anyway. Come and stand
beside them. You finally get to be involved in all this. Well, in person,
anyway. Yes, yes, closer.”

Phoebe chose to
stand next to Luke, not that I blamed her. He was definitely more able to
protect her in this situation. When our stalker pulled a gun, Luke shoved me
behind him and then followed suit with Phoebe. We were crushed together behind
his back as Luke leant forwards aggressively. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Playing a game,
of course,” the man didn’t approach us. Just stood still, his gun in one hand
whilst he typed out his next sentence. “It’s got some very simple rules.”

I didn’t care
about Phoebe noticing anymore and grabbed the back of Luke’s shirt, praying it
gave me some comfort. If one of us was going to die, I just prayed it wasn’t
him. When I made a move to put myself in front of him, he fired me a warning
look and kept his arm held out behind him so that I couldn’t move.

“This one is all
on you, Luke my boy. Quite simple, as I said. Pick one. Pick one to get shot.
Pick one to save.”

My heart dropped
in my chest and Phoebe was staring at me with remorse. Luke may love me, but
Phoebe was carrying his child. He had to save her. “No, shoot me instead,” he
responded immediately.

“No, no, that’s
not the way it works. You have to pick.”

He put the phone
back into his pocket and stared us down with beady eyes from behind his
balaclava. When I heard him take the safety off the gun, I swallowed. It was
taking everything in me not to just run away from the situation. If I did that,
he’d probably just fire the gun anyway.

“Carmen,” Luke’s
thick voice broke the silence and my eyes filled with tears.

“It’s okay,” I
could only smile. “I understand.” Phoebe had to live over me. She was the good
one.

“Get in the car,”
he continued, his entire body trembling.

“Luke-”

“Get in the car.”

When I met
Phoebe’s gaze, she was already sobbing. She knew. That put all the pieces into
perspective for her and it was going to be the last thing she found out before
she died.

I backed away and
to the side of the car with tears flowing freely down my cheek. Even now I was
being a selfish, pathetic coward. I couldn’t even make my mouth say the words
“take me instead.” I didn’t want to die.

The man laughed.
It was a real laugh that told us it was exactly what he’d planned on happening.
I recognised it, vaguely, but it wasn’t enough to place the bastard who’d
caused us so much trouble. “Perfect,” the phone said. “Now, move out of the
way.”

Luke stood his
ground in front of Phoebe and I rubbed my clammy hands against my jeans. The
stalker sighed and continued forwards. He wasn’t tall, but he outmanoeuvred Luke
easily and hit him across the side of the head with the butt of his gun. Luke
staggered out of the way and I called his name, still not daring to move away
from the side of the car.

The stalker went
straight for Phoebe and a sob left both our throats simultaneously.

He hit her
straight in the stomach. She collapsed, howling as the stalker stood back with
a mad glint in his eyes. “It’s a fake,” the phone told us as he fired the gun.
It clicked, but otherwise nothing happened.

Luke lunched for
the man, but he was still off balance and our stalker had expected it. I was
already on the phone for an ambulance, praying I’d remembered the street we
were on correctly. Phoebe was shrieking, collapsed onto her knees and clutching
her stomach.

The stalker drove
off before Luke could get to him and he was left standing, watching the car
speed away.

“My friend is
pregnant and she’s just been punched in the stomach. I need an ambulance.”

Luke stared at
Phoebe, at her stomach, and attempted to approach her. She screeched louder,
backing away so quickly she fell onto her side. “Don’t you dare come near me.
Either of you.”

She recovered her
position and Luke and I couldn’t bring ourselves to stand next to each other.
We stayed on opposite sides of her and just stood, gazes on the ground.

The ambulance
didn’t take long and I knew how the scene must have looked. Phoebe, crying on
the floor and holding her stomach and Luke and I, just watching like ghosts.
The paramedics rushed out. “What happened?”

Luke and I looked
at each other once more, deciding who would explain. I bit the bullet and did
the talking. My voice didn’t sound like my own. “We’ve… we’ve been being
stalked and he was blackmailing us and he told us to pull over and then he
punched her in the stomach. She’s pregnant.” The paramedic no doubt didn’t need
the build-up. “She also… just got some bad news, so she’s a bit… unstable.” My
voice cracked and Luke took one step towards me before stopping.

The paramedic
talked to Phoebe in a soothing voice, but she was completely unresponsive. Eventually
she was coaxed into the back of the ambulance. “Only one of you can travel with
us-”

“No,” Phoebe’s
voice was dead. “I don’t want either of them anywhere near me.”

So the ambulance
sped off with its sirens blaring.

That was when I
let myself break. I wrapped my arms around myself and sobbed so hard my chest
hurt. Luke was next to me in a few strides, his grip tight around me as he
somehow managed to stay quiet. I couldn’t even bring myself to hug him back.

I’d caused my best
friend’s miscarriage.

“It’s not your
fault,” Luke murmured the mantra against my hair as if it would ever be true.
“No one could have predicted this. It’s his fault, not yours.”

I shook my head.
“There are so many things I could have done to stop it. To stop all of this.
It’s all my fault.”

“Look,” Luke
pulled back and held my face between his hands. “We need to go to the police.
We need to ring Phoebe’s parents. They should be there for her, not us. Seeing
us again isn’t what she’ll want.”

“I just-”

“Carmen,” he held
my gaze until my sobs subsided. “It wasn’t your fault. We need to go to the
police and tell them everything that happened.”

I nodded, swiping
at my eyes. “Okay.”

He pressed a kiss
to my forehead and we both shut our eyes for a moment. “Let’s go.”

“Is your head
okay?” I realised suddenly, looking up at the side of his head and not seeing
any blood. “Maybe you should go to the hospital or something.”

“It’s fine,
really. He didn’t actually hit me that hard. I don’t think he was intending to
hurt me.”

I was beyond
relieved Luke had an automatic, it meant he could hold my hand the entire way
to the police station. I brought up all the texts he’d sent me and hovered on
the one about my dad. “Do I tell them about my dad?”