Page 30 of Scripted for Love and Poison (Sol and Luke Mystery #2)

“ C alm down, we’ll be there in no time.” Luke heard Divya talking on the phone as soon as he hung up with Detective Owens. He didn’t like the tone of that sentence. Divya sounded distressed, and she never lost her cool.

“What happened?” he asked the second she ended the call. He had a very bad feeling.

“Sol rang me because you were on another call, and your number kept sending her to voicemail,” Divya explained, and Luke really couldn’t care less why his lover hadn’t called him directly but had called his colleague. He wanted to know if she was okay. “She’s just got a letter.”

“A letter?”

“Someone left it at her friend’s house, the place where you two are staying,” Divya explained, and Luke was losing his patience. Why was she being so slow in telling him what he needed to know? What had happened to Sol?

“What does the letter say? Is Sol alright?”

“She’s fine. She’s at the friend’s place, and she told me the friend and the husband are also there, and even the kid has taken the whole thing extremely seriously. He’s been going through all the footage from the security cameras, trying to figure out who dropped the letter off.”

“I love that kid!” Luke couldn’t avoid saying. “What does the letter say?”

“ Stop sitting on your fucking ass and start reading Simon Smith’s book ,” Divya said, her face completely serious.

“What?”

“Apparently it’s a very short letter that contains only that sentence.”

“They want her to read Simon’s book? Is there any direct threat of what would happen if she doesn’t do it?”

“No, just those words.”

“How does the letter writer know Sol has Simon Smith’s manuscript? I didn’t even know until last night!”

“Could someone have been following her and saw her leaving Jason Zit’s house with the manuscript?”

Luke had told Divya that morning about the conditions under which Sol had come into possession of Smith’s manuscript.

“Or could the killer have been watching Jason Zit’s house, and they saw Sol leaving it, and now they’re also onto her and she’s in danger!” Luke’s heart pumped exaggeratedly fast, considering he was simply standing in the middle of the street and not involved in any strenuous activity.

“It’s weird though, innit?” Divya said.

“What is?” he almost barked, even if he didn’t mean to be curt.

“We were at the point where we believed that Simon Smith’s disappearance and the two poisonings were unrelated ...”

“... but now there’s something else pointing to both cases possibly having something in common,” Luke completed Divya’s thought as they used to do while working on a case together.

“There’s something that still doesn’t completely feel right.

I don’t like it,” Divya said, and Luke also had that feeling, just at the edge of his mind, telling him something didn’t fit.

He knew he needed to listen to that feeling to crack the case.

It was how he’d cracked all the cases before that.

But he wasn’t paying attention to that feeling because there were other, more important things—like making sure Sol was safe.

“What I don’t like is someone sending Sol letters, even if there’s no direct threat in them. They’re still telling her what she should do. I knew she shouldn’t get involved in this bloody case, but the woman is the most stubborn person I’ve ever met!”

“Luke, mate, I know you’re worried. I’m worried too. But she’s alright. Breathe,” Divya said. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

“This city is doing my head in!”

“I don’t think it’s just that you miss London. You’re worried,” Divya said, compassion in her eyes in a way Luke had witnessed before when they were interviewing people in need of solace. He’d never before been the one to need that extreme kindliness from her.

“Of course I’m worried! She could be in danger, and it would be because of me. I know she’s been trying to help me, us, with these bloody cases! We’ve been cross with one another for days, and now this happens! What if something had happened to her?”

“It hasn’t,” Divya told him, and that made him snap out of it. Sol was alright. Nothing had happened, but it could have.

He was just now starting to realize what would happen if he ever lost her.

Had he even told her how much she meant to him?

He hadn’t even told her that he loved her.

It had been implied, but he’d almost felt Sol’s reluctance to hear those words.

As if her past two divorces prevented her from believing them ever again.

So he’d preferred to not tell her that and just show his feelings and regale her with plenty of other words.

He thought now that he was a complete fool, and he should be telling Sol, and everyone who listened, how much he cared for her, that he loved her.

“Are you alright?” Divya asked, taking him out of his inner thoughts.

“I am, yes,” Luke said.

“Want me to drive?” Divya offered.

“Don’t worry. One Brit driving on the wrong side of the road is enough. No need for you to also experience the sensation and be traumatized for life.”

“Okay, mate, let’s go see Sol.”

“Let’s,” he said, and he had never wanted to see his lover more than at that moment.

···

Of course, what Luke hadn’t predicted when he and Divya headed to Lola’s place, was that he’d never have the chance to have a moment alone with Sol—and to tell her everything that was eating him up inside.

When they got to Los Feliz, Lola’s family had rallied around Sol.

Alex kept scanning the security footage and had promised Luke and Divya to send them anything he could find.

Lola kept fussing and offering her friend hot tea and hugs.

Luke had the feeling that both were equally comforting for Sol as they were for Lola.

And Geoff, of course, was cooking a delicious dinner to make everyone comfortable and even invited Divya to join them.

How Lola’s husband had managed to roast to perfection a whole leg of lamb with carrots and sweet potatoes, Luke didn’t know.

There was even some apple galette for dessert.

“I think you should go back home to London,” Luke told Sol when they were finally alone after dinner.

Divya had left half an hour before, and everyone else had gone to sleep.

Luke and Sol were now both brushing their teeth in the guest bathroom.

He was wearing the pants from the black-and-green plaid flannel pajamas his family had given him for Christmas. Sol had claimed the notch-collar top.

“Wha’?” Sol said, her mouth full of toothpaste. “Why?”

“It would put my mind at rest.”

“You seriou’?” she asked, still brushing.

“Very,” he told her, and he was bracing for a strong reaction from her.

She simply finished brushing, rinsed her mouth, dried the few drops of water around her lips in a motion that he found both elegant and sexy, and looked him straight in the eyes through the mirror. Her eyes were feisty.

“It’s not a matter of putting your mind at rest, though. Is it?” The remark was full of bite. “I am the one who got the letter. I am the one who should be trying to put my mind at rest ,” she added, turning toward him, no longer looking at him through the mirror but now meeting him face-to-face.

“We don’t know who sent you that letter, and you could be in danger,” Luke said through gritted teeth.

He tried keeping his tone down; he didn’t want to disturb the whole house.

He also needed Sol to understand that this wasn’t a game.

She had to stop putting herself in harm’s way.

The sooner she was out of Los Angeles, the better for everyone—and the sooner he’d be able to finally stay focused and solve that case .

“I think precisely because I received the letter, it’s quite clear that I am not in danger.

” She had the gall of trying to reason with him.

“Think about it. One critic disappeared. Another one gets poisoned by mistake. The third one gets poisoned on purpose and dies. If I was also part of this line of tortured critics, something else would have happened to me. Something far worse than getting a rude letter.”

He wasn’t going to admit to her that her arguments were sound, and he’d probably have reached them himself if he’d been thinking clearly. But there was no way he was going to stay sharp with her there. He needed her gone. She was too much of a distraction.

“Please don’t try and play detective, will you?” It pained him when he saw the hurt those words caused her. But he really wanted her out of danger. “You’re no more than an amateur, pretending she knows what she’s talking about. Dating a detective doesn’t make you one.”

“You fucking bastard,” Sol said in a surprisingly measured tone.

He knew she, too, didn’t want to wake anyone up, even if, judging by her bulging eyes, she’d be screaming at the top of her lungs if they were alone.

“Can you stop playing mind tricks to get rid of me? How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t do overprotective men.

I can’t leave the fucking country, remember? ”

Luke cursed under his breath. He’d forgotten about Officer Hunky Dory telling Sol not to leave until Jason Zit’s death case was closed.

He was completely unhinged and not thinking straight.

What was worse, he’d enraged Sol, and it had been for nothing.

Even if he’d managed to convince her to leave Los Angeles, which he knew now he had zero chances of achieving, she’d still not be able to do it.

“I know you’re under a lot of stress,” Sol continued, her tone icy.

“And it’s the middle of the night, so I won’t be asking you to leave now.

But you’ll leave this house tomorrow morning.

And you’ll be on the mattress alone tonight.

I’m taking the fucking couch, which I know is way more comfortable because I slept there before.

I’ve been only sleeping on the fucking mattress with you instead out of fucking solidarity because we both didn’t fit on the sofa.

Don’t.” She raised her hand in front of her when he tried getting closer.

“I’ll call Divya tomorrow, because I have been reading that book, and I think I found something else—besides the allegations about Claudia.

I’ll tell her all about it. But don’t even think about calling me or reaching out unless it’s to fucking apologize.

And maybe I’ll think about giving you another chance. ”

And with that, she left the bathroom, leaving behind a hint of her intoxicating fragrance. Luke had really messed up.