Page 51 of Secrets Beneath the Waves (Beach Read Thrillers #2)
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Jules had barely finished rapping her knuckles against Kelli’s apartment door when her friend flung it open. “Jules! Get in here.” Kelli grabbed her arm and tugged her inside before enfolding her in a massive bear hug. “Are you okay?”
“Of course.” Jules tossed her brown leather bag on the floor next to a chair.
Okay was not exactly how she would describe her state of mind after three days of dealing with the aftermath of witnessing a murder.
Kelli and Brie knew nothing about that, though, and Jules would very much like to keep it that way.
Thankfully, she’d had two long shifts at work, which had distracted her from everything that had happened.
No menacing stranger had shown up at her house after that first night, so she’d managed to get a little sleep, although she was far from caught up.
No other signs the murderer was coming after her either. Likely he believed he had frightened her enough by peering through her window that she would refuse to testify against him. He had to be a thousand miles away by now.
Telling her friends what she had witnessed would only freak them out.
They would insist she stay with one of them and it would become a whole big thing.
Now that the situation was settling a little, that was the last thing Jules wanted.
She was more than happy to put everything that had happened that night—including the disastrous date with Dante de Marco—behind her and get on with her life.
Kelli stepped back. “I’ve been going crazy not being able to text you.”
“I know. Sorry. I should be getting my phone back in a few days.” That information had come from a very short, cold email Dante had sent late in the evening after the morning he’d come to her place to check out the backyard. All it had said was
Found your phone. Lab checking it out. Should take a week or so. Someone will contact you when you can pick it up.
He hadn’t even bothered to sign his name. Rude.
Except that Jules was the one who had been rude.
If she were so inclined, which she wasn’t, she could make the case that Dante’s tone was completely justified.
Either way, she’d been incredibly relieved to find out that the murderer hadn’t taken her phone.
Although he still could have handled it.
Dante had promised to let her know if that was the case. Did she trust him?
The accusation Jules had thrown at him—that, in fact, she didn’t trust him—still haunted her. The hurt look she had noted in his eyes would as well if she could call it to mind. Sometimes aphantasia could be a blessing.
Thankfully, Kelli didn’t press her on where her phone was, only grabbed her hand and dragged her toward the kitchen. “Come on. Brie’s making fudge. We’re dying to hear every detail of your date with the gorgeous cop.”
Jules skidded to a halt, extricating herself from Kelli’s grasp. “Absolutely not. I did not come here to talk about him. I told you everything in the chat that night. If that’s why I’m here, then I’m going home.”
Her friend only took her by the elbow to direct her the last few steps to the kitchen. “Fine. No mention of Officer Dante de Marco. Got it. We have a movie picked out, so we’ll watch that and eat fudge. Who needs boys?”
“Exactly.” Jules allowed herself to be dragged into the kitchen.
Brie, her pale, freckled cheeks flushed from the heat of the stove, stirred a pot sitting on a burner. One hand still stirring, she half turned, shoving her strawberry-blonde curls back from her face. “Jules. You’re here!”
“I was promised junk food and a movie, so of course I’m here.” Jules hopped up onto a stool at the island.
“Kels and I want to hear all about?—”
Kelli coughed, and Brie glanced over. When Jules whirled on her friend, Kelli was making a slashing gesture with her bent fingers in front of her throat, clearly warning Brie not to mention Dante’s name.
Jules rolled her eyes. “All right, might as well get this over with. As I mentioned, the date was terrible. I’m sure Dante’s match is out there somewhere, but it definitely isn’t me. So, let’s move on, shall we?”
Her friends exchanged a look before Brie sighed. “Whatever you say, Jules. I’m sorry we set you up with someone so awful. We truly thought he could be the one for you.”
“It’s fine. You tried. I think I’ll handle my own love life from now on, though, if you don’t mind.”
Kelli coughed again, words this time that sounded an awful lot like what love life?
Brie laughed, but Jules could only manage a grim smile. For some reason, she rebelled against the idea of her friends thinking Dante was awful. Although Frat Boy had been awful at the pub, Officer de Marco hadn’t been. Not at all. Which was incredibly confusing.
Still, no need to muddy the waters by defending him to her friends when she wasn’t sure herself which version of Dante was real. Besides, she’d closed the door pretty firmly on any future interactions with the man, so it no longer mattered.
Brie turned off the burner on the stove before removing the pot from the heat and brushing a little cocoa powder from the front of her pink sweater. “I’ll pop this into a pan and stick it in the fridge to cool while we start the movie.”
For the next hour, they lost themselves in the light, romantic silliness that was You’ve Got Mail .
Exactly the kind of mind-sugar Jules needed after the past few days.
Just as Tom Hanks was bringing soup to a sick Meg Ryan, Brie paused the movie.
“Fudge should be ready.” She hopped off the couch and trotted toward the kitchen.
Kelli excused herself to head to the bathroom while Brie was gone.
In less than a minute, Brie was back, clutching the pan she’d poured the fudge into along with three spoons. “No sense dirtying a bunch of dishes.”
Jules really liked the way her friends thought.
Not about men, obviously, since their attempt to fix her up had failed spectacularly.
Which, thankfully, they weren’t talking about tonight.
Or thinking about. Kelli strolled back into the room, and Jules grabbed a spoon and shifted closer to Brie on the couch so she could reach the pan.
As Kelli dropped down on the other side of Brie, her phone vibrated. Kelli snatched it up from the end table next to her and scanned the screen. When she lifted her head, her brow was furrowed. She leaned forward, peering around Brie to look at Jules. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Text me. I thought you didn’t have your phone.”
Her friend’s words curdled the bite of chocolate fudge Jules had just swallowed. She set the spoon on the coffee table. “I don’t. So, I didn’t send you a text.”
“You did. It’s right here.” Kelli turned the screen toward her.
Jules read the message. The three words that had clearly come from her phone sent icy chills rippling across her arms.
I see you.
She straightened and Kelli pulled back the phone. “Creepy message too. Is this some kind of payback for fixing you up with that cop? Did you send it while I was gone from the room?”
Jules shook her head. “I didn’t, Kels. I promise.” The question was, who had? Her phone was at… The apprehension that had been rising morphed into anger. “Dante.”
“What? How would he have your phone? And why would he send me a message like that?”
No use trying to keep it from her friends any longer.
As briefly as possible, Jules filled them in on what had happened when she’d slipped out into the alley during their date.
She did leave out the little detail about that psychopath showing up at her home, looking at her through the window.
They didn’t need to know that part, right?
By the time she’d finished, Brie’s green eyes were impossibly wide. “Do you think that murderer grabbed your phone? Could he have messaged Kels?” Her voice rose, approaching hysteria.
Jules grasped her friend’s forearm. “Of course not, Brie. Dante told me he found my phone and submitted it to the lab for testing. There’s no way that monster has it, so this has to be Dante, messing with my head. I told you he was an awful person.”
Kelli frowned. “This is beyond awful. It’s completely unprofessional for a cop to be freaking out a witness. Why would he do something like that?”
Good question. The officer Jules had met at the police station and, later, at her home, wouldn’t have. Clearly, she had been right to assume that the jerk she’d been on a date with was the real Dante.
A light, tinkling sound broke the silence that had fallen between them, and all three women jumped. Kelli let out a nervous laugh as she pressed a hand to her chest. “My nerves.”
“That’s mine.” Brie pushed to her feet and clambered over Jules’ knees. “My mom said she’d text tonight to let me know how her doctor’s appointment went today. I sincerely hope that’s her and not your psycho boyfriend.”
Jules scowled. “He’s definitely not my boyfriend.
” Even if she had been harboring some tiny inkling that the man she’d had coffee with and who had been concerned enough about her to offer to sleep on her couch for protection had an outside chance of becoming her boyfriend, that was over now. She’d been right not to trust him.
Brie grabbed her bag from the chair inside the front door and rummaged around in it.
Jules slid closer to Kelli. “Kels, can I borrow your phone? I need to text that guy and tell him to knock it off.”
Her friend handed her the device. “I think you should report him. This is unacceptable behavior.”
Jules stood. The card Dante had given her was still in her bag by the door. She rounded the couch and started toward it. “I agree. Maybe I will…”
Brie stepped into her path. Her cheeks, normally pale, had gone ashen. Even her lips were white.
Jules’ stomach twisted. “Brie? What is it? Is something wrong with your mom?”
Her friend didn’t speak, only shook her head and turned the phone toward her.