Page 121 of Another Love, Another Time
He’s quiet for a minute before he speaks. “I work with her, and she caught me doing something that could get me fired. But it’s not illegal,” he quickly says and then looks away. He must know I work for the police department.
“I’ve worked really hard for this job. I think she thought I would just go through with it, knowing how much my job means to me. I wanted to talk to you to warn you, just in case she sent someone else to hurt you.” He looks around like someone is going to jump out at any moment.
“Well, it’s fortunate for you that you didn’t.” I don’t want to tell him we already have stuff on her and that it won’t be long before she’s arrested, but it won’t hurt to have the information. I need to find out who this guy is, and then I need to be on my way. I’ve already spent enough time with him.
“What’s your name?” I ask him.
“Urban Bell,” he answers.
“Well, Urban, thank you for coming here to warn me, but right before you showed up, I just got some news, and I need to leave. Can you give me your number or send me anything that you have that proves that she was blackmailing you?”
He pauses, contemplating, but finally decides. “Sure. I already have everything together. I can Airdrop it to you right now.” He pulls out his phone and works on sending it to me.
That’s when the door swings open, and Auggie comes barreling in with Mackey close behind him. When they see us, they stop in their tracks. The sight of Auggie makes me want to cry out in relief. “He’s okay,” I realize. I run to him, wrap my arms around him, and press my ear to his chest as if to confirm he’s really here.
Meanwhile, Mackey is pointing his gun at the stranger. I turn to Mackey while I wipe my eyes. “Mackey, put the gun down. He’s not here to hurt me; he came here to warn me.” Mackey lowers his gun but doesn’t put it away.
Both Mackey and Auggie look confused, so I go on to explain, “It seems Melissa wanted me out of the picture, again. She wanted him to attack me.” I hear a growl from Auggie as he squeezes me tighter. “Auggie, he wasn’t going to. He just thought I should know.”
Urban holds his hands up. “I promise I wasn’t going to hurt her.”
I feel my phone vibrate, and I look at the screen. Auggie peers over my shoulder at the information that Urban just sent me. “That fucking bitch!” Auggie snarls.
“Are you surprised by this?” I turn around and ask him as he loosens his hold.
“No, I’m not, but when will this fucking stop, Riv? She can’t hurt you. I can’t let her hurt you, not again. Will she send someone else after you? And it’s all because of me. She needs to be stopped, but at this point, I feel like she will stop at nothing to hurt you and try to keep us apart.” I can almost feel theanger radiating off of him. I pull him into another hug, and he envelopes me in his arms.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper into his ear. “We got her. We just need a couple more days.” He pulls away. “You know she tried to kill herself today?”
My eyes widen. “Really?”
“Yes, at my house. I was going through each room with the realtor, and when we got to my room, we saw her lying in my bed. I thought she was sleeping until I saw a pill bottle. That’s where I’ve been, at the hospital.”
Once again, he was with her when I could have been hurt, though I know he didn’t plan this. I have a gut feeling that Melissa planned every last detail of tonight.
He continues, “She survived and is in stable condition.”
I don’t care if she is in stable condition. I turn to Urban. “Is there a reason why you showed up here today?”
“Yes. This is when she wanted me to show up. I wanted to make sure no one else showed up,” he responds.
I start pacing. “She planned this. She planned her attempted suicide, and she planned my attack. We need to call the captain and get a security detail on her room.” I turn and walk up to Auggie. He must have come up with the same conclusion. “Do you know how long the hospital is going to keep her?” I ask him.
“No. As soon as Mackey called you and we thought you were in danger, I left. What are you thinking?”
“We need to keep her at the hospital until we finalize everything for her arrest. This will be much easier if we know exactly where she’s at.”
“I’ll call the captain and see if he can set that up.” Auggie starts to leave but stops. “Fuck. I forgot I lost my phone. I don’t know where it is. Mackey, can you give him a call and let him know what’s going on?” He speaks to Urban, “You can’t tell anyone. We appreciate you warning us about this, but if you don’t want to get dragged into this, then you need to wait until we reach out to you.”
“Understood. I just wanted to make sure she was okay.” Urban nods in my direction. “I’ll leave my phone number, and you all can let me know if you need anything else from me. I really don’t want to lose my job, but I couldn’t live with myself if my actions caused someone else harm because I was too afraid of the consequences of my actions.”
“Thank you,” I tell him before he walks out of my house.
Mackey walks back into the room. “Captain’s on board,” he announces. “He knows the head of the hospital, and he said it should be no problem. We will have some officers posted at her door until we are able to arrest her.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. This is almost over. She is going to be held accountable for her actions.
I feel my phone vibrate and look down. I roll my eyes when I see it’s my mom. I don’t have the patience for her right now. I hit the “ignore” button. I’ll deal with her after this mess is over.
