Crossing Lines: A gripping psychological thriller (Behind Closed Doors Book 3) (14 page)

“Fifteen years. I'd be out in seven.”

I pause, taking in a breath. Suddenly, this shit seems very real.
Julia really has shot her husband. Wow! Fifteen years is a really long time.
Grateful that we’re separated by the closet door, I close my eyes. Impossible. Julia couldn't have shot her husband. She’s just, what? I shake my head again.
I only met her eight hours ago. I can't say for sure that she hasn't tried to kill her husband. Like she’s said herself, though, I don’t know her.
I reach for my jeans as I call out, “Are you going to take it?”

“I wanted …” she hesitates, “Ashleigh's advice. Heaven only knows why I’d ask her this. I already know she’ll tell me to shove it up their …” She stops, lets out a shaky breath, and then adds, “The thing is, I know Wayne won't let me go to prison. He's even told me he won't.”

Wayne has promised her what?
I stop in the doorway of the closet. Surely, she knows there is nothing Wayne could do once the DA has brought charges against her. I’m not naive enough to believe there isn't corruption in the system, but if the law worked like that, there'd be no dark side operating behind the scenes of modern society. The entire world would just be one big black hole.

“He's just hurt that I did this to him,” she continues.

That sonofa—
I clamp down on my tongue before it has the chance to run loose under the influence of my temper. Was that what Wayne was telling her? When he forgave her, he'd have the D.A. drop the charges? Hadn't Ashleigh told her the truth? Wayne couldn't help her now.

“He's mad that I called Ashleigh when it happened,” Julia sighs. “I’ve tried telling him that I only called her because Mimi wasn't responding to the EMT. And well, as you're probably fully aware, everything is done Ashleigh's way, or not at all.”

“You didn't ask her for help?”

“Well, no. But if she hadn't been there, I'd most likely be locked up for the rest of my life, instead of fighting for my freedom. I don't know what I'd have done without her. I’m so stupid. As the wife of a police officer, I should have known better than to talk without a lawyer present.”

So, she’s to blame for something Ashleigh did? My thoughts drift again. Wayne is punishing Julia for something Ashleigh did, when no one controls Ashleigh? She’s a law unto herself. And from what I know from our last session, even her parents had their hands full when she was younger.

“Your trial is in less than two months, right?” Resentment flickers in her expression as I cross the bedroom and move closer to her. I have to tell her. I can't let her go on believing Wayne can fix this. He can’t. It’s impossible for him to do so without owning up to his own lying, and I seriously doubt this particular police lieutenant is going to do that and flush his career down the toilet. Otherwise, wouldn’t he have done it already? To save his wife?

But I have a problem. I don’t know her well enough to have this frank conversation with her and not fuck this all up before I've even begun. I decide to start slowly. “I’m sorry, Julia, but I don’t think you should rely on Wayne fixing this.”

“Why not?” She shakes her head at me, and I understand why. I, a stranger, am telling her that her Prince Charming isn’t her knight in shining armor. I'd be defensive too if I was in her shoes. “He's my husband. He loves me. He wouldn't punish me like that.”

“He can't do anything for you.”

Her jaw clenches.

“Hasn't Ashleigh told you this?”

“Of course she has.” Julia stands up. “Oh, I see what's going on. She's buggered off for a week and left you here to represent the hate-Julia's-husband club. Well, it won't work, Darryl, because I know my husband wouldn't lie to me. Maybe he has the right friends in the right places to work this out for us.”

If she’s astute enough to have figured out Ashleigh's plan in just two conversations, then she can't be naïve enough to believe her husband. She just can't be! Something else is at play here. Pride. And pride is a dangerous thing.

“Ashleigh has done nothing of the sort,” I snap back at her. The barefaced lie doesn’t sit right with me at all. In fact, I want to hurl, but I've lost this hand already, so I might as well go all in and hope the bluff might be enough to pull it back. “I am not, and never will be, Ashleigh's puppet. So if you don't want to talk to me about this, that's fine by me.”
No, it isn't. Not by a long shot.
“But your best friend is a qualified lawyer; why would she make that shit up?”

“Because she hates my husband.”

“Does she? Really? Because from where I'm standing, what you’re saying is that your best friend would rather you go to prison for attempted murder than go back to the man who can guarantee your freedom.”

Julia opens her mouth to argue, then closes it again. She looks away.

“And it seems to me, Julia,” I nod again, “if your husband thinks you had an abortion, then, other than the fact you shot him, he's got a whole new reason to want to punish you!”

“You know nothing!” Her voice goes up an octave. “You're not a lawyer, so you don't know anything about how the law really works.”

“Ashleigh is a lawyer, and my wife is a lawyer, my father-in-law is a lawyer, and my mother-in-law, God rest her soul, was a judge. I know how the law works!”

“Your
wife
?” Julia looks at me like I've slapped her. “You're married?" She leaps up from her seat on the bed. “Does Ashleigh know you're married? No, of course, she doesn't!” She shakes her head. The finger of blame is definitely pointing at me now. “You wouldn't be here if she knew you were married.”

Fuck!
After all that, why was 'wife' the only word she'd heard? A slip of the tongue, and I've just fucked it all up.
Stupid. Stupid. Idiot
. "We're divorced.” I attempt at a recovery, but I’m shot down immediately.

“But you're still in love with her, right?” Julia laughs at me. “Your
wife
, I mean, not your
ex
-wife.”

“No, of course, I’m not.” It’s a gut reaction. It just came out and I’m as stunned by it as Julia is repulsed. That isn’t the answer I thought I’d give when asked that question. It was the wrong answer. I've … I feel myself hesitate.
I … I've never been asked that question before. I'll always love Izzy, and everyone who knows me knows that. But … am I still in love with Izzy? After all this time?

I look at Julia. How is it possible that someone I've only just met can shake the foundations of my very existence?
Because she's looking for a reason not to trust you. You’re too good to be true.

“I won’t lie to you, Julia, love had nothing to do with our separation. But no, I’m not in love with Izzy anymore.”

Julia shakes her head. “You, Dex, and all the others. You're all the same. You're in it for the bragging rights that Krystal Valentina is lying in your bed, not to mention the fame that goes with it.” She regards me like I’m something she's stepped in. “I don't know how you got this far with my best friend, Darryl. But I'll make sure this stops, right now!”

Shit, fuck, crap, balls.
I slap my hand against my forehead as the door slams shut.
You idiot!

There is no point in going after her and trying to backtrack. I’ve just handed her the perfect reason for her never to trust me ever again. I've just talked her into believing I’m taking her best friend for a ride.

* * *

Two hours later, I’m still beating myself around the head, when there’s a soft rap on the bedroom door. Honestly, I don't know who to expect on the other side. Considering the explosive nature of Ashleigh's relationship with Sean, there’s a chance Julia's brother is there, waiting to have 'strong words' with me. I even brace for the impending punch in the face as I open the door.

“Julia?” She hovers in the hallway, sheepishly looking at her feet, emitting the vibe of a naughty child who expects to be, or has already been reprimanded good and proper for the error of her ways.

“Ashleigh said your wife was your high school sweetheart?” I nod. Had Ashleigh remembered that from a five-minute conversation we’d had years ago? “She said if things had been different, if your sister was still alive, you and Isobel would still be together?”

I hum in agreement because, even if
I
believe that’s true, I would never tell Ashleigh anything to that effect. Honestly, I have to get her out of my head, because she’s starting to scare me.
How does she know all this?

“She said you're like kindred spirits. It’s a surprise to me that Ash would use that word, if I’m honest.” She looks at me as if daring me to call Ashleigh out. It’s like she wants a reason not to believe her. I’m almost about give it to her, when she adds. “And you both know what it's like to be in love with someone you can't have.”

I swallow again. I did. But how did Ashleigh know that? I’d done my utmost best to keep silent about how much losing Izzy had affected me. It was my choice.

“You're here, not because she loves you or you love her, but because she trusts you. Is it true that you've torn up the Non-Disclosure Agreement between you?”

Again I nod; it hadn’t exactly been torn, but it had been rendered useless all the same. What exactly had Ashleigh told her? “I've never known her to give that kind of trust to anyone, except Sean.” She looks down again. “I'm sorry for intruding, but I have to ask this of you.” She turns her eyes up to me, and I see all the hope she holds for the potential happiness Ashleigh might find
with me
. “I don’t think you realize how serious this is for her, so please, just don't fuck with her.”

“I have no intentions of fucking with Ashleigh,” I promise and it’s a request I'll give a hundred-percent commitment to keeping. I wait for a few more seconds to see if Julia has anything more to say. When she doesn't say anything or do anything to indicate the conversation is over, I feel safe enough to ask, “Why do you feel guilty for protecting your best friend?”

I wish that just for one moment I could be inside her mind. I want to know where all this anguish comes from. When she doesn't reply, I give her a gentle prod in the hope she'll open up to me. “Did Ash make you feel this way?” Her eyes take on a fierce and defiant edge that makes me wonder how Ashleigh has spoken to her exactly. “She can be a little sharp sometimes.”

“She's still not herself around you, huh?” Julia chuckles, as the creases that had appeared in her brow finally lift and she appears more relieved about my presence than she has all day. “You'd know she has a tongue like a samurai sword most of the time if she was.”

I must have said something right, because just like that she now opens up to me. “I'm sorry. I had the wrong end of the stick. I jumped to conclusions and I … Well, I didn't realize she plans on having you around for a long time, and we’ve started on the wrong foot.”

“The only impression I have from this experience, is this: You love Ashleigh, and you don't want to see her get hurt.”
And I’m a lucky son of a bitch, because it could have all gone horribly wrong if Ashleigh had handled Julia's call any differently.
“Would you care to join me in a cup of coffee and we can start over?”

Chapter Ten

12
th
October 2012

AFTER THREE DAYS
of doing nothing but hang around with Julia, talking and laughing, I’m feeling surprisingly more relaxed than I’ve ever been in the thirteen years since I received the call from NYPD looking for Faith. She has managed to get me to do something I rarely do with anyone. I’ve been talking about Faith and about how John’s brother Drew found her unconscious and the girls gone. How she was in a coma for weeks before Cal called, offering to turn himself in; he just needed John to come get the girls. He’d spoken directly to John and told him to come alone. John had been drunk and out for Cal's blood when he’d crashed his car. He had died on impact.

With power of attorney, it had been up to me to end Faith’s life support. It had flipped my family inside-out, then turned it upside-down and back-to-front, and now we were unrecognizable as the family I'd once thought to be so perfect.

I’d only opened up to Julia because I thought hearing Faith’s story would help her. But I was fooling myself. Although some of it would help her, it was helping me so much more. I'd never met anyone who didn't know Faith, but knew of her story, and didn't want to talk about or question Hollywood's version of events. When Julia asked if Faith and Calvin's relationship had always been like that, she was genuinely interested in learning how their relationship had gone from happily ever after to the perpetual horror story told on the silver screen.

“She did find happy ever after in the end.” I smile at Julia as we walk down the double-wide staircase together. “With John. They only had a few short years together, but right up until the day Calvin arrived in Hawthorne Creek, they were happy.” I squeeze my eyes closed because it was excruciating to know what they’d lost, and how much they'd trusted me to give their girls the future they couldn’t anymore … and I had failed them. “And it killed Calvin that Faith was happy without him, because he wasn’t happy without her.”

Julia falls back from our matched strides. Still, she’s close enough for me to hear the small tremor that drives her sudden halt. Her voice shivers as she speaks to me, and I turn around on the step below. “It must have been awful for you to lose Faith and John like that, with all that expectation and responsibility as the eldest just thrust upon you.” Her expression warns me that she prays I haven’t noticed the hitch in her voice, but my position on the lower steps gives me an advantage. There’s a film forming over her eyes. They glisten as she looks at her feet.