Page 136 of Ruin Me Gently

“That won’t be necessary,” he said, flipping to a fresh page in his notebook. “And what is your relationship to Miss Whitlock?”

Shit.

I couldn’t tell them the truth.

‘You see, the thing is officers, I’m her long-term stalker who watched her for months and then somehow wormed his way in and has now stupidly, irrevocably, fallen for her.’

Wait. What?

Nope. No time to process whatever the fuck that was.

I straightened, forcing my voice to remain even. “She’s my girlfriend.”

The words felt foreign, but… not wrong.

The officers both glanced at each other, then back to me. I kept my expression blank even as my heart threatened to punch its way out of my chest.

“And where is Miss Whitlock right now?”

“She’s in bed.”

“We’ll need a statement directly from her.”

I exhaled slowly. “You can’t.”

A beat of silence stretched before Harris narrowed her eyes. “Why not?”

The words stuck to my throat like tar. “She’s in a… strange state right now.”

Harris’ pen clicked softly as she capped it. “A strange state?”

I dragged a hand through my hair, inhaling through my nose as I chose my words carefully. “I don’t think she knows where she is, or what’s happened.”

“That happens sometimes with victims of assault. Does she have a psychiatrist?”

I swallowed hard. “I… I don’t know.”

Barnes lifted a brow. “And you say she’s your girlfriend?”

“Yes.” The word came out too fast, too automatic. “Yes, she is. I—”Oh, I fucked up.“I’ll call their office immediately.”

Harris studied me for a long moment, then nodded. “Do that.”

They pushed their chairs back from the island, standing in unison. “We’ll be in touch if there are any updates,” Barnes said.

I rose to my feet. “Updates?”

He nodded. “Yes, when Mr. Thorn is in custody.”

My stomach turned to lead. “You haven’t got him yet?”

“Not yet. But we will.”

Not good enough. Not even close.

“But there’s video evidence.” My voice was sharp, edged with something dangerously close to rage. “You’ve seen it. You know exactly what he did. How the fuck is he not in custody?”

Barnes exhaled. “Unfortunately, video evidence doesn’t tell us where he is. It doesn’t help us with actually catching him.”

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