Intercepting Love (Second Chances #5)(51)
Sighing, Cooper’s smile slowly disappeared and his gaze grew wary. “I know you have a lot on your mind, Kate. It’ll all get figured out soon, okay? Just try not to worry so much.”
It was hard not to when stuff was happening to the one you cared about. What if it got so bad that he didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore?
“What if things get bad, Cooper? It’s all because of me that you’re going through this.”
Eyes wide, he shook his head quickly and held my face firmly in his hands when I tried to look away. “Look at me, Kate.” Releasing a heavy sigh, I lifted my gaze and stared into his crystal blue eyes. “Nothing and no one is going to keep me away from you. Do you think I care about my tires or my car? None of that even compares to you. I’m not going anywhere … I promise. Now let’s get out of here.”
Swallowing hard, I held back the tears and nodded quickly. I passed the test by staying with him during his hard times, now it was his turn to try his luck during mine.
Over the past six hours we’d gotten through a bulk of Cooper’s boxes and put everything away, but we still had a ton more to do. I was ready to make a night of it just to stay busy. Cooper went to take a shower while I offered to clean the kitchen after finishing his famous grilled chicken dinner. Finally, the call I’d been waiting on came through … it was my brother.
Heart pounding, I rinsed off my soapy hands and dried them before grabbing for my phone. “Evan, what’s going on?”
I could hear someone arguing in the background, and I knew it was Luke by the sound of his voice. “Dude, calm down,” Evan snapped at him. Then to me, he said, “Sorry about that. He’s kind of pissed right now.”
“Where are you?”
“We’re on our way to your house. He’s angry because I wouldn’t let him use my phone to call you.”
“Where’s his phone?” I asked curiously.
“Somewhere out on in the woods. That’s why no one could get in touch with him. He lost it out on the trails when he went out riding on his bike.”
“Evan, you can’t bring him here,” I warned. “The police are looking for him.”
“They’ve already let him go. As soon as I found him at the cabin and told him what was going on, we immediately left and I took him to the station. His alibi was solid, Kate. He hadn’t been in town in three days.” Luke fumed some more in the background. “All right, I have to get off of here before dumbass makes me wreck. We’ll be there in five minutes so you can talk to him.”
Quickly, I finished up the dishes and bolted out of Cooper’s house. By the time I got into my driveway, Evan and Luke were pulling up in Evan’s black Toyota Tacoma. Luke bolted out of the truck first and rushed over to me; his blond hair matted to his head and his jeans and navy T-shirt covered in mud.
“What the hell is going on, Kate?”
“I should probably be asking you the same thing,” I said, glancing down at his dirty clothes.
“Well, I had just gotten back from riding when I saw Evan’s truck in my driveway. When he told me what was going on, I jumped in his car and told him to bring me back.”
Evan scoffed, his nose turned up in disgust. “Yeah, it wasn’t fun riding back with him stinking up the truck and covering everything with mud. He’s definitely going to clean that shit up.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “I wanted to get here as soon as I could. I didn’t want you thinking I had anything to do with what happened. You didn’t, did you?”
Sheepishly, I hung my head and shrugged. “I don’t know what I thought,” I told him truthfully. “On one hand I knew you weren’t the type to do something like that, but on the other it was your knife. I gave that to you. I thought it might have been your way of showing me how pissed at us you were.”
Lifting my chin with his hand, Luke shook his head and sighed. “I loved that knife, Kate. I didn’t want to tell you that I lost it, but it appears now that someone took it. I was afraid I’d hurt your feelings by telling you I didn’t know where it was. Usually, I keep it in the center console of my truck, and now the police are going to dust for prints to see what they can find.”
“What made you want to leave in the first place, Luke?”
Casting a glance in my brother’s direction, he blew out a nervous breath and pulled me further away so my brother couldn’t hear. “You did,” he answered. “I knew that if I stayed I would see you and Cooper out together, and I didn’t want to get pissed off more than what I already was. At first, I wasn’t that angry, but then I had time to think. I didn’t understand why you would choose him over me. We were always so close and I thought I could use that to my advantage.” He paused for a second and bit his lip before saying, “Look, I don’t think it’s safe for you to be around Cooper.”
I heard the low growl from Cooper’s throat before I could even speak. “And I don’t think it’s safe for you to be around her.”
Glancing over Luke’s shoulder, I saw Cooper scowling with damp hair, wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a white T-shirt. Luke huffed and turned around, gritting his teeth. “All I’m saying is that whoever is after you is coming to Kate’s home. What if this person goes after her next? The first warning said to stay away from her; that’s not something to joke around with.”