CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

 

 

Armed with the information from the library—though she was disappointed that it was no more than he already knew—Charlie had raced home, eager to see Jake. She’d missed him these last couple of days, which didn’t bode well for her; soon she wouldn’t see him at all. Stopping at his door, she tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut and knocked on, waiting with nervous anticipation for him to answer. All sounded quiet inside. Usually, she could hear his TV when she passed, or his guitar, but there was no sound at all. As she stood there with disappointment seeping into her chest, Charlie realised that she’d been so eager to see him, she hadn’t noticed if his bike had been parked outside. When she knocked again there was still no answer.

The sound of a door opening down the hall turned her head to see Mrs. Hughes stepping out of her flat, curlers in her hair, wearing a deep pink skirt and blouse with matching slippers. When she started to make her way up the hall, her age showing in the way she was hunched over, she began to wave a white envelope in her hand. Charlie rushed to her so she didn’t have to walk far.

“Oh, I’m afraid I’m a little stiff in my bones today,” the nice old lady said as Charlie took her arm. “Hello, my dear. I’ve been listening out for you.”

For her? Why would Mrs. Hughes be waiting for her? “You have?”

“Yes. I have something for you.” When she held up the envelope, Charlie took it with a frown. “He said to make sure you got it as soon as you got home. So I’ve been sitting at my telephone table by the door listening out for you.”

“Oh, thank you, Mrs. Hughes. Here, let me help you back to your flat.”

Gripping the envelope, Charlie offered her arm, helping to steady her kind neighbour before she saw her inside. Then she guided her to her living room and helped her sit down in a worn, red, chintz chair that faced the TV.

“There now. Thank you, dear. I wish I had your young legs.”

“Can I make you a cup of tea before I go?”

“Oh, that’ll be very kind. No milk, one sugar, if you will.”

Her mind ticking over, wondering what was in the envelope, Charlie made quick work of the tea, spotting a pack of biscuits by the bread bin and putting a few on a plate. She had a gnawing ache in her gut. Jake was most likely the he, and there was perhaps only one reason he would leave her a note.

Taking the tea and biscuits to Mrs. Hughes, Charlie was eager to leave, trying not to appear rude. After finding a space, she placed the things down in front of a framed picture of a jolly looking man on the little table next to the old lady’s chair, and waited for a minute. “You okay now?” Charlie felt sorry for the woman, wondering if the man was her husband. It must have been so lonely here for her, and she wondered why the lady didn’t live in one of the assisted living flatlets over in the next street.

“Oh yes, very kind of you,” she said reaching for a biscuit. “You get yourself home. And don’t you worry about him. He’s a strong man just like my Henry here.” Her frail hand gestured towards the picture.

That was enough to get Charlie’s feet moving. “Okay then. Thanks Mrs. Hughes. Bye.”

Charlie heard the lady’s voice in the distance saying goodbye, as she hurried out of the flat. When she was halfway down the hall, she couldn’t wait any longer and opened the blank envelope. There was a folded piece of paper inside that she could see the imprint of the message on. Opening it, her heart began to race as she read Jake’s handwriting:

 

Charlie,

I didn’t want to just send you a text. I’m not great when it comes to phones. Anyway, I know you probably think I’m an arsehole for leaving without seeing you first,” her heart dropped into her stomach then, “but I have a pretty good excuse for it. If I saw you, I know I’d probably change my mind and stay. I can’t do that goodbye. Meeting you has made me realise how lost I’ve been. I’ve been existing only for revenge. You have made me want to start living again. I’ve been thinking about the future, which is something I haven’t done in a long time. So I have to put an end to this.

Please don’t worry. I’m not planning on doing anything stupid. I’ve experienced enough of prison and don’t wish to go back there. I’m going to try to find him, and if he won’t turn himself in, I’ll do it for him.

Everything will work out. I promise.

The flat is still mine for at least the next three months.

I hope you’ll still be there when I get back.

I like you Charlie, a lot.

Jake x

 

Holding the note against her chest, Charlie fought back tears as a sickly feeling gnawed at the pit of her stomach. Though the sting in her eyes told her she wasn’t doing a great job of it.

“You have made me want to start living again.”

But he’d gone. Searching for a psychopath who wanted revenge, and so she feared he might not get the chance at a future at all.

The man was risking his life; he could be doing exactly what that murderer wanted him to do. It was clear his stepdad had been watching him. What if he walked into a trap? What if something happened and she hadn’t even had chance to tell him how much she cared about him?

Overwhelmed with panic, Charlie didn’t hear her phone at first, too caught up in her head as she wandered idly to her flat. It was when she fished in her bag for her keys that she realised it was ringing. Frantically fighting to find the phone, her pulse was racing. It could be Jake. Maybe he needed to talk to her as much as she needed to talk to him.

The moment she found it and pulled it out of her bag, the bloody thing stopped ringing. Pulling up the number gave her pause. It wasn’t listed in her phone. Wouldn’t be Jake then. She’d saved his number under his name. The only people who called were in her contacts.

Then, when a message box popped up in the middle of the screen, Charlie froze, another kind of dread taking over.

All she saw in the preview box was: Charlie, it’s Dale. Please call me back on this. . .

A battle began to ensue inside her. Part of her didn’t want to open it to read the rest, but the other part needed to see why the arsehole had used the word “please” in a sentence. Closing the phone down, she dropped it inside her bag and went inside her flat. Refusing to let him get to her, she took her coat off and left her bag on the floor near the door with her phone still in it.

She found herself still pacing up and down the hallway ten minutes later, everything swirling around in her head. Pausing, she looked down at her bag and after a minute, grabbed it off the floor, removed the phone and swiped the message away to delete it.

What a nightmare.

He was not doing this to her right now, no matter what game he was playing. She had far more important issues to concern herself with some arsehole who was irrelevant in her life, who was trying to taunt her from nearly two hundred miles away.

Jake. Right now, she needed him and he was gone.

Leaning against the wall, she closed her eyes, seeing his face. The two men couldn’t be any different. Dale, a narcissistic mummy’s boy who had never struggled a day in his life, had anger issues, liked to emotionally and physically abuse women. Granted, he’d only actually been physical with Charlie once, but that was enough on top of everything else. And then there was Jake, a man who had literally been to hell and back, and had treated her better in the short time she’d known him, than the other arsehole had in their whole relationship.

Gut twisting, Charlie hated that she’d met Jake under such difficult circumstances.

“If I saw you, I know I’d probably change my mind and stay.”

Damn him for being so strong.