Page 19 of What Hurts Us

Wyatt Jepson and Lauren Mitchell stared back at me. Wyatt’s hand was still raised in a fist, about to knock.

“This had better be good,” I said with a searing glare. I’d just seen the two of them at the elementary school’s first responder event this morning. They were back on duty, but I wasn’t. I didn’t care if they’d just found a decapitated body in the ditch. I didn’t care if a hippopotamus escaped from the zoo and was stampeding down Churton Street. Short of a ticking time bomb, I was not about to have my sleep interrupted any more than it already had been by thoughts of a moody, grumpy cop.

“I didn’t know you lived here,” Lauren squeaked.

Wyatt jerked his thumb to the left. “Sorry to catch you like this, but you have to evacuate immediately. I’ll give you a minute to pack a bag, then we have some questions about your neighbors.”

My eyebrows shot up. “What the ever-loving fu—”

“Layla?”

I looked over Lauren’s shoulder and saw Callum Fletcher standing at a distance.

It was as if he didn’t realize my name had slipped from his mouth. He stood beside his car, stone-faced and silent as he stared at me with the hardened expression that I was slowly learning was his default.

What was the male version of resting bitch face?

Resting dick face?

I squeezed my eyes shut and rolled my fingers into fists. “Someone explain in simple terms what the hell is going on, or I’m going back to bed.”

“What do you know about your neighbors?” Wyatt asked.

It was then that I saw the man and the woman next door being led across the tight parking lot in handcuffs. The woman was dropped into the back of Callum’s car while the man was put in a different one.

I stammered. “I, uh … not much. I’ve never actually talked to them. Just that they come and go at weird hours, keep to themselves, and are way too cool with being loud.”

“Any suspicious activity?” he asked.

I looked at Lauren. “No. I’m really just here to sleep between shifts.”

A truck with SBI emblems on it rolled up, and doors flew open. People in hazmat suits and bright yellow PPE jumped out and started unloading gear. Hot on their heels, a clunker of a station wagon barreled into the parking lot. A staunch lady with a silver beehive hairdo jumped out and started arguing with one of the police officers. I pitied the officer. My landlord was sweet as pie but scary when she wanted to be.

Wyatt cut his eyes to the figures that looked like they were straight out ofMonsters Inc.I waited for someone to start shouting, “Twenty-three nineteen!”

“We just arrested the husband and wife who lived next door. They were running a meth lab out of their apartment. From the looks of it, they’d been doing it for years.”

I huffed. “Sorry, I was never intoBreaking Bad.How exactly does that affect me?”

“All that chemical contamination travels through the air and seeps into the walls,” Lauren said. “Your apartment units share some HVAC ductwork. Your landlord—” she cut her eyes to the surly lady chewing out the now arrested tenants as they sat in the back of separate cars “—will have to have everything decontaminated and repainted. She might even have to have some of the drywall replaced. Once all that gets done and someone inspects it all, you can move back in. But until then, you’ll have to find somewhere else to stay.”

I raked my fingers through my hair, stifling the urge to let out a guttural war cry as I pushed the strands out of my face. “For how long?” I hissed through clenched teeth.

Wyatt sighed. “Well, I can’t really say. Your landlord can’t get a crew in here until the county’s narcotics division has everything documented and transferred to evidence. The initial investigation could take about a week, then it’ll be up to her and whoever she hires to do the work.”

Great. Just great.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Callum watching us as he sat on the hood of his car, discreetly taking the weight off his leg while he took a witness statement.

“So, it could be months,” I guessed.

“I’ve been a part of a few drug busts, but not one this big. I’d say a few months is a reasonable timeline,” Wyatt said.

Lauren offered a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, Layla. Is there someone in town you can stay with?”

I didn’t really have a choice, now did I? “I’ll make some calls.”

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