Thursday
February 8
Detective Alexander supports Zak, who is slumped against him. I usher them into the kitchen. Charlotte holds back, watching from a distance.
“I was jumped around the corner. I managed to get him off me, but smacked my head against a wall in the fight.” Zak collapses onto one of the dining chairs. “Alexander saw me stumbling past your place. I’m not going to the hospital.”
Oh my God.
“I think you need to, Zak,” the detective says. Zak growls low in his throat and shakes his head. Detective Alexander turns to me. “Do you have a first aid kit?”
I dash to the cupboard in a fluster. “Yeah, the landlord provided one. Shouldn’t we be taking him to the emergency room though?”
Detective Alexander scoffs. “We can’t force him.” He reaches into his pocket and dials a number.
“I’m right here!” Zak grumbles. “I don’t need to go to the hospital. I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding!” I say. A small stream of blood trickles down the side of his head.
“Barely. Honestly, I’m just shaken up and embarrassed.”
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” I say. “You were jumped!”
“Are you sure it was Jake?” Charlotte asks.
I wince inwardly. Of course it was, but that must be really hard on Zak.
Taking a deep breath, Zak shrugs. “Well, I didn’t get a good look but the way he ran reminded me of Jake. He has a distinctive run. It must have been him.”
I smile. “I remember.” Jake picks his legs up high when he runs, making it look a bit comical. At first, I thought he was just drunk, but he ran the same way playing soccer with Chace and Sonny too. “Did you get a note before this happened?”
Zak looks up, his eyes haunted. “No,” he breathes. “Does that mean it wasn’t the killer?”
“Maybe,” I say as I rummage in the cupboard for the first aid kit. I find it underneath some deflated blow-up party decorations and hand it to the detective.
“I’ve called in the incident,” Alexander says, putting his phone away.
I sit down across from Zak and lean over the table, where Alexander is treating him. “Zak, are you okay?”
“He’s my brother,” he mutters. Zak sucks in a ragged breath, unable to finish his sentence.
“If this is Jake, he’s not thinking clearly at the moment, Zak,” Detective Alexander says.
No one wants to believe that Jake would attempt to hurt, let alone murder, his own brother, but I’m not buying that it was a random mugging. Whatever is going on with Jake, he’s obviously not stable. The guy has serious issues.
Maybe hurting Zak wasn’t part of the plan though. Maybe he crossed paths with him while Jake was watching us, and he panicked. Zak would easily recognize him.
“Do you want me to call your dad?” I ask.
“No! He can’t know about Jake attacking me.”
“Potentially attacking you,” Detective Alexander clarifies. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
My eyes flick between them. “Zak, he’s going to know something happened. You have a cut on your head.”
“I’ll make something up. My brother has already broken his heart. If my dad knew he was capable of hurting family too… Please don’t tell him.”
I hold up my hands. “Okay.” He’s obviously going to find out, from the police probably, but I’ll honor Zak’s wishes and not tell him myself.
Detective Alexander tends to Zak’s head, which has stopped bleeding and thankfully doesn’t look as bad as I initially thought.
“Why do you think he tried to attack you?” Charlotte asks. “I mean, it doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t usually attack impulsively like that. This wasn’t planned so it doesn’t fit with the other attacks.”
“Or it might.” I look at Charlotte and then back to Zak. “Think about it, Zak and I hung out tonight. That could have angered him.”
Charlotte takes a breath. “Right. He’s jealous.”
Guilt lays heavy in my stomach. “Damn it, Zak. I’m so sorry.” My heart sinks to the floor. “I think I made you a target.”
Zak takes a minute, like he’s trying to process a really complicated equation or figure out Facebook after a big update.
“It’s not your fault, Lylah. This is on him.” Zak lowers his head, too ashamed or too emotional to look at us. I know a lot of men don’t like to show how much certain things affect them, and I’m guessing Zak is one of them.
“We will find him,” Detective Alexander says. “If it was Jake, he made a choice, and he will shoulder the responsibility of those actions. There are consequences.”
Detective Alexander is a man of few words. Unless he’s speaking to you or interrogating you in a professional capacity, it is strange to hear him being so…human. It’s nice.
“I’m going to need a formal statement from you, Zak,” he continues.
Zak frowns. He could refuse in an effort to protect his brother, but what would that achieve? It’s not like Jake isn’t already in serious trouble.
“You know you have to,” I say quietly. Brother or not, Jake has to face what he has done.
Zak bows his head lower. “I don’t want to go to the station in case anyone sees.”
“You could do the statement here,” I offer. “That’s okay, right, Detective Alexander?”
He nods.
“Lylah, let’s leave them to it,” Charlotte says.
I follow Charlotte into the living room so the detective can take Zak’s statement in private. Closing the living room door, I lean my back against it.
“He tried to kill his own brother. Well, maybe tried to kill,” I say. The words don’t sound right as they leave my mouth. You’re supposed to protect your family. I would be devastated if I were Zak.
“Jake has completely lost it. What’s he going to do to us, Lylah? I kept thinking that if I saw him, I could to talk him, reason with him. I mean, we weren’t that close, but we were friends. I thought. There is no chance of talking with him anymore, though, is there? We’re all going to die.”
I’m silent. It’s a harrowing thought.
Charlotte drops onto the sofa like her legs can’t take hold her weight anymore.
I move over to her, sit next to her, and give her a side squeeze. “Charlotte, it won’t come to that. They’ll catch him. We’ll be more vigilant.”
She wipes a tear from her eye. “You sound pretty sure. I’m not sure of anything.”
I’m hoping. It’s the best I can do. It’s not like I have a lot of experience with murderers.
“We can get through this if we stick together. Jake wants us separated because that makes it easier to get to us. Let’s not allow him to do that.”
Charlotte looks me in the eyes. “Do you think all of this is because of you?”
Me? I swallow the lump in my throat and open my mouth to respond, but what is there to say?
“No!” she cries, realizing she’s upset me. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not blaming you. The police are right. This is all Jake’s fault. I just meant that being turned down doesn’t seem like a legit reason to go all Freddy Kruger.”
“Who knows what’s going through his mind,” I said. “Detective Lina said that sometimes people just…snap. Like a small interaction can feel big to another person. A lot of stalkers meet their victims through a chance encounter that the victim barely even remembers. Something must have been different in Jake’s mind for a while, but now it’s blown up.”
She scoffs. “I wish his head would blow up.”
“I don’t think spontaneous combustion is going to solve anything here.”
Laughing, she shakes her head and pulls her legs up on to the sofa, wrapping her arms around them. “Well, you made me laugh at least. But I don’t think I’ll feel better until Jake is caught. I never wanted to find myself in a position where I was living in fear again.”
“When did you live in fear?” I ask gently. Charlotte has shared very little about her childhood and family. I don’t even know if she has siblings.
She shrugs.
“Sorry, you don’t have to talk about it.”
“It’s…my mom took off when I was a baby, and my dad was a violent alcoholic. My home life wasn’t pleasant. I never knew what I was coming home to. Leaving for college was the best day of my life. I haven’t seen or spoken to him since.”
“Not at all?”
“Nope. He’s probably forgotten he has a daughter. I don’t care.”
I can’t imagine getting to that point. She must have gone through hell. “I’m sorry, Charlotte. You deserve a better life than that. I hope you’re happy here.” Frowning, I add, “Besides the situation right now.”
“Thanks, Lylah.”
Thankfully we’ve all managed to keep our families away. It’s too dangerous for them to be here, for everyone. Their presence could be seen as an obstacle between us and Jake, and it could cause him to react. Detective Lina explained that it was better to have the police deal with this. They know what they’re doing. I know for a fact that my brother would get too involved.
Someone knocks on the living room door, but they don’t wait for a response. Detective Alexander smiles as he pushes it open. “Everything okay in here?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Where’s Zak?”
“An officer is taking him back to his hotel.”
“Has there been any other sign of Jake?”
“Not that I’ve heard. We’re working all our leads. If you need me, I’ll be outside.”
“Thanks, Detective Alexander,” Charlotte and I say in unison.
I turn to her. “Jinx.”
That makes her smile again, which feels like an accomplishment.
Once he’s left, Charlotte heads down the hall for a bath. I make a pot of coffee and get comfortable. Chace, Sienna, and Isaac are still out, but it’s only five minutes to midnight. I don’t expect them anytime soon. I curl up on the sofa and switch on the TV. While I’m waiting for a movie to load, I text Zak. We had exchanged numbers on a night out a few months back, but I’ve yet to need it until now.
Are you okay?
It takes him a few minutes to reply. Yeah, I’m fine. Sry to turn up on your doorstep like that.
Glad you’re all right, I responded. If you want to talk, you know where I am.
There are about a hundred questions I’d like to ask, but I don’t want to push him. I can’t begin to imagine what’s he’s going through.
This is all such a big mess.
Thanks. His message doesn’t give me anything to work with, so I don’t reply. He probably wants to be alone anyway.
As the opening credits start to play, my phone rings.
Chace. He doesn’t usually call when he’s out for the night. “Hi,” I say.
“Lylah, what the hell is going on? I just heard about Zak from the cop that’s with me. He got a message from Detective Alexander. Is he okay? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, he was alone, and he got jumped. Detective Alexander found him walking past our house and cleaned him up, and then another officer took him home.”
“You weren’t with him?”
“No, we went separate ways, and it happened on his way back to his hotel.”
Chace is quiet, and I hear a car door slam shut.
“Where are you?” I ask.
“On my way home. Where’s everyone else?”
“Charlotte’s here, but Isaac and Sienna are both still out. Should we try getting ahold of them?”
“If Jake’s been hanging around the neighborhood, fuck knows where he is now. We should all be together.”
I text Sienna and Isaac to clue them in, then try to focus on my movie while I wait for them to come home. I chew on my lip until it’s raw. A fat lump starts to rise where I’ve bit down too hard it. My hands won’t stay still. I wring them as my mind works in overdrive trying to think of a way to stop Jake. So much for the distraction.
An hour into my movie, Chace gets home. My shoulders relax with the relief of knowing he’s safe. He joins me on the sofa.
“Are you okay?” he asks, staring into my eyes like he’s a human lie detector.
“Chace, I’m fine. I promise.”
He leans back against the soda. “Good. You’re watching horror?”
“Yes.” I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. Does he think that’s in bad taste? Is it in bad taste?
Throwing his arm over the back of the sofa, he replies, “All right.”
I smile to myself. All right.
A few minutes later, Charlotte emerges in her pajamas, and not too long after, Sienna arrives in a whirlwind, flinging open the door. “What the hell, guys!” she shouts, raising her arms. “He hurt Zak!”
“Where’s Isaac?” Chace asks.
She freezes as she kicks off a stiletto. “He’s not here? We split up after some friends asked me to go to another bar. He texted me a while ago. He was already on his way home.”
It’s as if I’m on a roller coaster, slowly climbing into the sky, and when we reach the top of the track, suddenly, I’m falling.