“Robert’s going on.”
“Oh my God.” Tristan sat back down on the bed. “Where’s Lucia? Is she okay? Thatbastardisnotallowed in my apartment, and he knows it.” Tristan tried to control his breathing. It didn’t work. “Start with the first one: Where is Lucia?”
“Lucia’s fine.”
“He only left four bruises where no one could see them fine, or fine fine?”
“Fine fine. I promise. She’s in the living room giving her statement to the cops, and she specifically told me not to call you, but... if you ever mention that I did this, we’re done, okay?”
A strong hand landed on Tristan’s shoulder, fingers digging in. Tristan grabbed Henry’s fingers as he spoke. “What happened?”
“Robert fucking showed up.”
They’d been here before. Too many times for Tristan not to ask Karen. “Did she call him?”
“I checked her phone’s history myself. Which you’re also not allowed to tell her about. I guess there’s only so many places Lucia would disappear to. He was going to figure it out eventually.” Karen blew out a breath, the sound crackly and staticky over the phone. “When he showed up, she wouldn’t unlock the chain, so he started reaching in to get at her. She tried to shut the door on his hand, force him out, but he just busted through and started screaming. I promise you, she wasn’t expecting this. She didn’t want him anywhere near her.”
Some of the knots in Tristan’s stomach loosened. Robert had such a magnetic hold over Lucia that, even with her seemingly determined to stay away, Tristan had to worry Robert would find a way to persuade her to come back. He always had in the past.But maybe not this time?“Did I mention he’s a bastard?”
“Yeah, you don’t need to convince me.” Karen huffed harshly. “He tried to rough her up when she wouldn’t cooperate. I maced him, he ran, and Lucia marched over to call the cops.”
Tristan breathed out a long-held breath and caught the end of it turning into a laugh. Lucia called the cops. She called the cops on Robert. She never, ever did that before. But then, he’d never broken into someone else’s apartment to come and get her.
“How is she?”
“She’s shaken up, but I don’t think he hurt her. No marks I could find.”
That was something. “Karen, can they actually charge him? If he didn’t mark her up, like, what’s the recourse?”
“Man, mydad’sthe cop, not me.”
“Come on, Karen. I’m not using you as legal counsel.”
He could almosthearher eye roll, but she did answer. “They can get him on breaking and entering, destruction of property—hedidrough up your place pretty bad—probably even robbery and an aggravated assault charge. Maybe some other incidental stuff. Enough to get him in jail for a while, pay a fine.”
“For awhile?”
“Yeah, I know. He’s scum and deserves a long, long time in jail, but this is the only crime we have him on. It’ll hopefully be enough time for Lucia to get herself in a better situation, get a restraining order, start divorce proceedings, all that stuff.”
Tristan sighed, not letting the “divorce proceedings” bombshell break through yet. “You really think she will?”
“You know, I do think so. It’s not like the other times, Tristan. It’s hard to describe, but if you saw her, you’d get it. You’d totally get it.”
“I trust you.” Not enough to stop worrying, but enough that his stomach unclenched a little further, and his shoulders fell. “Areyouokay? Sorry for not asking before.”
“Yeah. Everyone’s fine, except Robert. You know, mace hurts. But your apartment took the brunt of the damage. He broke the chain, did some damage to the door and the wall where it was attached. And he smashed a lot of stuff in your kitchen while he was throwing a fit. You’re, um, going to need a new oven, I think. And I’m pretty sure your mixer isn't going to go back together. Your laptop hit the wall pretty hard, too. I haven’t exactly taken full stock of the damage. But you know Robert. He gets violent when he gets angry.”
Shit.His door and decorations didn’t matter. But his kitchen? How was he supposed to test recipes if his kitchen was in shambles? How was he supposed to do his fucking job? Still, he shoved that aside for the time being. “It’s fine. Fuck, Karen, I’ll take all of that over you and my sister beaten bloody. It’s not like I’ve filled my house with Chihuly glasswork.” This wasn’t the place for his own personal panic.
“Well, look, they’re going to want my statement, and Lucia’s probably going to call at some point. You don’t know anything I just told you, understood?”
“I got it. And I’m glad you’re safe.” Tristan blew out a nervous breath. “I’m glad you were there. I don’t think Lucia would have been able to mace him, even if she’dhadmace in her pocket.”
“Thank God I’m a cop’s kid, huh?”
“Yeah. And thank God he trained the shit out of you.”
“That too. Okay, I need to get off the phone. But everyone is fine. Everything’s good. Go bake something, I guess.”
