“Hmm,” he mused, nodding in agreement. “Why don’t we just go away for a bit? Just pack up and leave together for a while or something?” he suggested casually, as if that was just something that could happen.

I laughed at the hopefulness in his voice. “Luke, we can’t.” I shook my head at how silly he was being. Maybe he’s had too much sugar from all those muffins!

“Why not? I’m being serious. Let’s just pack up and leave, screw everything else, just me and you together.” He glanced over at me, keeping one eye on the road as he continued, “I can protect you. All this stuff will stop, the phone calls, the flowers, all of it will just go away and then it’ll just be us. We’ll travel for a while, see some sights, and do some of the things you’ve always wanted to do. It’ll be perfect.”

It sounded so nice, and I unconsciously started playing that out in my head. Us waking up together every day, falling asleep in his arms, no pressure, no more being frightened. Everything sounded so great, but I knew that was impossible, at least for the next few weeks it was impossible anyway. “We have our finals, we can’t just up and leave,” I protested. A frown lined his forehead as he looked back to the road and sighed deeply. I chewed on my lip and reached out, taking his hand and pulling it onto my lap as I stroked his knuckles with my thumb. “Luke, it sounds great, and if we didn’t have finals then I’d be saying heck yeah let’s go right now, but we have responsibilities, we have to graduate in order to get our places in college. We can’t let something like this ruin everything we’ve worked so hard for,” I persuaded.

His grip tightened on my hand as he nodded dejectedly. “Yeah I guess.”

“There’s just three more weeks left of school now, let’s just get those out of the way and then we’ll think about it, alright?” I bargained, wanting to take the sad expression from his face. We hadn’t made any plans for the summer, and travelling for a month or so would certainly be fun.

He sighed and nodded, bringing my hand up to his mouth, planting a soft kiss against my palm. “Okay.”

I smiled and settled down into my seat, watching the road stretch out ahead of us. Everything seemed chilled and relaxed when I was with Luke; nothing seemed to faze me because I knew that whatever happened he would look after me, just like he always promised he would. I looked over at him from the corner of my eye, feeling a little smile tug at the corners of my mouth. I couldn’t wait for those three weeks to be over with so that we could live out his plans. He was right, it would be perfect and I couldn’t wait. He caught me looking and smiled over at me. His brown eyes were soft and tender as they caught mine. “I love you, Maisie.”

My heart stuttered as I nodded in confirmation, I didn’t need him to say the words, I already knew it, I always had done. “I love you too.” He grinned that dazzling smile and turned back to the road, turning up the radio a little more so the soft tones of The Script filled the car.

After a while I remembered that I needed to charge my cell phone. “You have your phone charger in the car?” I asked, digging my cell out of my purse.

He nodded, reaching out and pulling his in-car charger from the dashboard, plugging it in for me and holding out the end. I smiled gratefully and plugged it in, waiting a few seconds before attempting to turn it on and then fitting it into the little drinks holder in his car. A couple of minutes later my cell beeped. I picked it up, looking down at the screen to see that I had a new text message from Charlotte that had been received when my phone was off. I smiled and opened it, still singing along to the music. The words died on my lips as I read the message.

‘I know you said not to, but... I just got the phone number from the cell phone company database. Here it is. Seriously, let one of the boys call it and frighten the crap out of the guy!’

Then there was a cell phone number after it. I gulped, reading the message again with wide eyes. Seeing it there, glowing in the fading daylight, made everything come to a head. It seemed to make everything more real somehow. Now that I had the number I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I shouldn’t do anything with it; the police had the number but couldn’t trace it because it was a pay as you go with no contract or fixed address. I shouldn’t get involved. Just like I told Charlotte in the first place, I should just let the police do their jobs and wait for them to contact me again so that they could trace the call like they wanted to.

But seeing it there was just too tempting. Maybe I could call it. Maybe the guy would answer and then… what? What would I do then? I frowned down at it, confused and a little afraid of it. I wanted to call the number. Curiosity was getting the better of me. I started thinking that maybe I’d recognise the voice of the person and then I could tell the police who to look into. Maybe it would be that easy and then it would be over. My mind was whirling, dreaming up and dismissing scenarios so quickly that it made my head spin.

Without thinking anymore about it, I clicked on the number, bringing it up on my screen. My thumb hovered over the green call button as I fought with myself, trying to debate if I was going to do any damage by actually calling the person. The chances are it would be switched off, like it always was when the police tried to call it. But what if they actually answered? What would I say then?

“Everything okay?” Luke asked, looking over at me with one eyebrow raised. I cleared my throat and nodded, still undecided. “Who was that from? Not that Zach guy again.” His voice was practically a growl as he said Zach’s name.

I shook my head slowly, unsure how I was going to tell him that Charlotte had illegally hacked the phone company and found the number of the guy that was calling me. I gulped, knowing he would be mad at me for getting involved. “No. Charlotte found the phone number of the person that’s been calling me. She’s just text it to me,” I mumbled, my words all mashing together as I spoke. He obviously understood though.

He straightened in his seat, his hands gripping the wheel so tightly that his knuckles went white. “She what? How? What the fuck, Maisie?” he ranted, reaching to grab my phone from my hand.

I shook my head and quickly moved it out of his reach. “I could call it. Maybe then I’ll recognise the voice and everything will be over, I can tell the police, and they can investigate and arrest them. It’ll be over,” I countered, looking at him for his opinion.

His opinion was clear across his face though, I could see it clearly enough. He was horrified, totally against the idea by the look of it. Again my finger hovered over the call button. “Don’t, Maisie, for Christ sake don’t,” he cried, reaching for the phone again.

I pushed his hand away quickly as he slammed on the brakes of the car, screeching us to a halt just as we were about to cross a bridge over the river. I was thrown forward against my seatbelt from the force of the stop, my ribs and chest instantly burning and aching from the pressure. “Damn it, Luke! What the hell are you doing?” I shouted, pulling at my seatbelt to try and get it to loosen but it was no good; the quick stopping motion had made it too tight across my chest and lap.

“Give me the phone!” he barked, holding out his hand for it.

Car horns blasted behind us where we were blocking our side of the road. “Luke, people can’t get past,” I observed, nodding my head at the traffic that was queuing up behind us pretty quickly.

He shook his hand in front of me again. “Give me the phone,” he repeated.

I gulped and pressed the call button, knowing that as soon as he took my phone off of me he would delete the number so I couldn’t call it. His eyes went wide as I put the phone to my ear, hearing the little tinkle where the phone connected to the line. Almost immediately a bell like sound came from behind me. I frowned, looking over the back of the seat to the footwell behind me. The sound seemed to be coming from there. I flicked my gaze up to Luke only to see he had his eyes closed, his head hung dejectedly as the bell sound continued in the background, muffled by the song on the radio.

I frowned, confused. “What’s that?” I asked, looking around for the source of the noise. I twisted awkwardly in my seat, reaching behind me and batting the other junk out of the way. My hand touched cool, vibrating plastic, so I gripped it and pulled it into the front. It was the cell phone that had fallen out of Luke’s pocket last night when we were making out in the back of the car. But looking at it again now in the daylight, I realised that it wasn’t actually Luke’s cell phone. It was one that I had never seen before, a cheap Nokia one and not something like Luke would buy at all.

What puzzled me the most is that my number was flashing on the screen as it continued to vibrate in my hand. “Who’s is this?” I muttered, shaking my head in confusion. Luke’s gaze lifted to mine. An apologetic, pained expression covered his face as realisation hit me like a bucket of cold water. The number that Charlotte had found for me, was calling Luke? My heart sank as my blood seemed to turn to ice in my veins. “Oh God, no,” I mumbled as everything seemed to hit me at once.

Luke.

It was Luke.

He gulped, his mouth opening as he seemed to struggle with his words as the phone rang and rang in the background. “Maisie…” he croaked, shaking his head slowly, his eyes not leaving mine.

No. No. No. No!

It felt as if a knife pierced into my heart, twisting, killing me slowly.

“It was you? But why?” I whispered, horrified, mortified, hurt, and crushed because not for one second had I ever suspected that the person I loved would do this to me.

Chapter 28

“Why?” I repeated, pulling at my seatbelt as my heart dropped down into my stomach. I’d never felt so let down or disappointed in all my life. But I just couldn’t understand it, I couldn’t take it in. Why would Luke want to do that to me? Did he not love me at all? Why would he be trying to hurt me?

He groaned, closing his eyes as he raised his elbow and pressed down his door lock, locking us both into the car. Before he did that I hadn’t even thought about exiting the car, but now that I knew I was locked in my mind was instantly wondering why he would want to keep me in the car. Would he actually want to hurt me, like the notes had suggested?