Page 104 of Hold Your Breath
“He wouldn’t,” her mother finally said, although her tone was uncertain. “He just wanted you back. He said you were finally talking with him, going out with him, that he’d almost convinced you to come home.”
“When did he say this?” Lou demanded, the slap of betrayal stopping her tears. “Were you talking to him while he was here? Did you know about all the things he’d done to me? Why didn’t you warn me?” She’d gotten loud, loud enough for a nurse to stick her head into the waiting area and frown. Lou gave an apologetic wave and lowered her voice. “I can’t believe you knew he was doing this.”
“What ‘this’?” Her mother’s voice had gotten some of its snap back. “All he wanted was you. He followed you all the way to those godforsaken mountains because he cared about you.”
“If you care about someone,” Lou said flatly, exhaustion weighting her so heavily she sank into a nearby chair, “you don’t burn down her house. You definitely don’t try to kill her and her loved ones.”
“I can’t believe Brenton would do any of those things.” Her mom’s tone was now back to her usual level of confidence.
“Well, he did.” Leaning back in the chair, she fought to keep her eyes from closing. “I can’t believe you were talking with him the whole time.”
“I wasn’t.” Her mother sniffed. “We emailed a few times, but that was all. He wanted to share his progress in getting you to come home.”
“There was no progress.” Lou forced herself to her feet. If she spent five more seconds in that chair, she’d be sleeping there for the rest of the night. “Not after he slashed my tires or cut my propane line or peeked in my windows while I was sleeping or kicked me back into my burning house or after he tried to kill me and Cal. I wasn’t going to leave, I’m still not going to leave, and I’m probably never going to leave. This is my home now. I have a new family here. Good-bye, Mom.”
With a shaking finger, she disconnected the call. After hesitating a moment as she looked at the clock on the wall and the uncivilized hour it displayed, she tapped on the sheriff’s phone number. He answered after only a couple of rings, sounding alert and awake.
“Rob, it’s Lou. Sorry to call you so early.”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” he confirmed her impression. “What’s up?”
“I just talked to my mom. Brent had been emailing her.” Saying the words out loud made betrayal twist again in her belly. “You might want to look at those emails. They could explain why Brent did what he did—or what he tried to do.”
“Thank you, Lou. I’m already working with local law enforcement in Connecticut. I’ll see if we can get a warrant to search your parents’ house and seize your mother’s computer.”
Even after the conversation she’d just had with her mom, she cringed at the thought of the police searching their home. Then, she pictured Callum’s lifeless body floating in the water and hardened her heart to her parents’ upcoming distress. “Thank you.”
“How’s Callum?”
She smiled, despite her misery and exhaustion. “Better. He was lecturing me earlier.”
“Good. And you deserve worse than a lecture, after that foolhardy stunt.”
With a shrug he couldn’t see, she said, “Like I told him, I’d do that again and worse if it kept Callum alive.” The sheriff’s response was just a disapproving grumble, and she grinned again. “Good night, Rob.”
“Good night, Lou. I’ll probably need to talk to you again tomorrow once Brenton Lloyd’s body is recovered.”
“I’m not sure when Callum is getting released, but until then, I’ll have my phone on me.”
“Let him know everybody’s thinking about him.”
“Will do.”
Pocketing her phone, she walked back to Callum’s room. He watched her as she entered.
“Sorry,” she whispered, moving back to her chair next to the bed and taking his hand. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
“I just didn’t know where you were,” he grumped, although he squeezed her hand. She thought how hard it must be for a control freak to be incapacitated, even for just a short time.
“My mom called,” she explained with another grimace. “Turns out that she was email buddies with Brent. I yelled at her and got in trouble with a nurse for being too loud. And then I called Rob to let him know about the emails. Maybe they’ll shed some light into the mind of a crazy guy.”
Callum nodded, already looking like he was about to fall asleep again. His fingers tightened around hers. “Don’t leave, okay?”
“And miss out on this supercomfortable chair?” she gasped with mock horror. “As if I would.” When he just watched her out of half-closed eyes, not smiling, her own teasing expression fell away. “Go to sleep, Cal. I promise I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter 21
By the end of his hospital stay, he probably regretted making her promise not to leave. She stuck to him like Velcro, only prying herself from his side when a staff member kicked her out of the room. As he improved, his mood took a drastic dive, and Lou was pretty sure everyone at the hospital gave a deep sigh of relief when Callum was finally discharged two days later.
