Page 121 of Fracture
Detective Hawkins sighs, clasping her fist in her hand. “We’re still investigating. We have some leads, but-”
“Just say you got nothing,” I interject, scoffing out a laugh as I run a hand over my mouth. “Man, you all are really great at your jobs.”
“Good enough to catch two punks and have them put in prison for murder,” the male detective counters.
“Cal, enough,” Detective Hawkins snaps, and the smug asshole rolls his shoulders, meeting my eyes with a satisfied smirk.
“Yeah, Cal, how about you shut that mouth of yours?” Dylan snarls, and I put out a hand to pull him back to me.
“Come on, he’s not worth it.” I look back at Detective Hawkins. “So, what do you want? Why are you here?”
“We wanted to take a statement from you about the phone call, what you heard, anything Stella might have told you about her attackers.”
“Two men, six feet tall, wearing masks, I guess? She couldn’t see their faces.” Dylan huffs out a breath and shakes his head. “Nothing useful.”
“The hospital said the attack was brutal, focused on her abdomen?” Detective Hawkins raises her eyebrows as she looks at Dylan. “Mr Kovac, was your girlfriend pregnant?”
My head snaps to look at Dylan, and something like realization seems to dawn over his face. His brow furrows as he stares at the floor, and I can practically hear the cogs turning in his head.
“No, I mean…” He shakes his head, still not meeting her eyes. “No, she’s not.”
My stomach drops, because something isn’t right here. But this isn’t the time or the place. Instead, I pull my cocky rich asshole mask back into place, and stare down the cops.
“Look, we’re both tired, and this has been a hard day. Dylan can come down and give you a statement tomorrow, but for now, we’d appreciate it if you left us alone.” I look from Detective Hawkins to her colleague, both of whom seem to have lost their willingness to fight rather quickly. But they know who I am, who my family is, and just how hard I can make their lives if they push me. “So, if that’s all, we’ll let you get back to work.”
Detective Hawkins plucks a card from her pocket and hands it to me. “Call me if you need to, and come down to the station tomorrow. Someone will help you.”
“Great. Thanks.”
Detective Hawkins sighs, then looks at her partner, jerking her head over her shoulder to indicate they should leave. Wordlessly, they head down the hallway and out of sight around the nurse’s desk.
“What the fuck?” I murmur to Dylan without looking at him. “Pregnant?”
“She… she had a scare,” he replies quietly. “She told me, last week. But it was just a scare.”
“But someone thought she was.” I turn and look up at him, that sick, sneaking feeling of dread washing over me. “Someone thought she was, and they wanted her to lose it.”
“Levi…” Dylan raises his hands and puts them on my shoulders. “Levi, listen to me-”
“Is this my mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where were you?” I hiss, and his eyes drop from mine. “Dylan, what do you know that you aren’t telling me?”
He puts a hand around the back of my neck, holding me firmly but tenderly. “Guapo, listen to me. I can’t tell you here.”
“Is it my mother?” I hiss, and his eyes snap back up to meet mine. He nods slowly.
“And your grandfather.”
“Are you asleep?”
Dylan’s voice sounds in the darkness beside me, and he rolls over to move closer to me.
“No.” I haven’t been able to put my mind at rest since the doctors sent us home. I keep waiting for the phone to ring, to tell us that Stella is waking up so we can run back to the hospital and be there when those beautiful amber eyes open up.
But the phone stays quiet, and I’ve been staring at the ceiling for an hour.