Chapter 38

Trinity

After spending so many days with Lucian, I thought I should wait at least a day before trying to contact him since we last saw each other. But it had been three days. The car that came to take me to the lab the next time I was due to give blood was empty. The driver drove me there and back without a word, but I never saw Lucian.

He didn’t call. He didn’t text.

Was everything okay? Maybe something had happened to him. Maybe he was just busy. I knew he had feelings for me. I felt it in the way that he had sex with me over and over again, but he’d never said it.

A pang of doubt went through me. I had been with guys before who had slept with me, pretended to like me, and then never contacted me again after they got what they wanted from me.

I thought Lucian was different, given everything he’d done for me, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe he was just taking advantage of my feelings. Maybe he’d gotten exactly what he wanted out of me and now he was done. Or maybe he was just going to leave me hanging until it was convenient for him to come back.

I pushed that thought away. I loved him. I had to have faith in him. He was just busy. He was just dealing with things that I probably had no clue how to help with. Maybe he’d been in an accident, or his friend, or his family. There were so many things.

I couldn’t jump to conclusions.

So, I tried to focus on anything else. I was still going to school, but I hadn’t returned to work because I was looking after my dad. I had no clinical hours because Lucian hadn’t booked any, but Sindia still took me aside and helped me work towards getting through my semester in good standing with the program by watching observation tapes with me in place of clinical hours.

The money I had earned from giving blood was a lot. A lot of it had gone toward paying for dad’s hospital stay and medications. There didn’t seem to be a sign that I wouldn’t be welcome to come back and give blood, but what if that changed? What if I had displeased him somehow and they would start lowering the amount?

We could live off $50,000 for a year if I didn’t have loans and Dad wasn’t injured. Once I factored that in, I needed to give blood at least a few more times before we were set to the end of my program.

It made my stomach churn, and I felt like I was running in circles and obsessively checking my phone.

More than the money, I wanted to see him. I wanted him to touch me. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted more. I waited and waited, hoping to hear something, but nothing came.

Finally, days later, my phone rang.

“Hello?” I asked. “Lu—”

“Trinity, are you okay?” My shoulders slumped at the sound of Mark’s voice. He hadn’t even crossed my mind in all this time, and I didn’t even want to talk to him after the way he’d treated Lucian.

“I’m fine… are you?”

“Fine. Can we meet? Are you at home?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll swing by and pick you up.” He hung up, and I frowned at the phone. I didn’t want to talk to Mark about anything, but I guess setting him straight now would be in my best interest. I stared at my phone, waiting for Lucian to call until Mark honked his horn outside. I left the house and got into his squad car.

He looked better, like most of his injuries had healed, but I glared at him.

“What’s going on?”

“The investigation of the dean’s death is done.”

I frowned. “So?”

“They aren’t considering you a suspect anymore.”

I shrugged. “So?”

He glanced at me as continued to drive. “Don’t you think it strange that he just so happened to die so suddenly?”

“Accidents happen.”

“I think Lucian killed him,” Mark said.

“You’re being ridiculous. Lucian—”

“He just so happened to be there? Then he just so happened to contact you after the dean was dead?”

I scoffed, “I gave him my number and told him how to find me, Mark. Stop with these crazy conspiracy theories.”

“But he didn’t call, did he?” Mark asked. “He just showed up.”

“What’s your point?” I asked. “You’re just sounding more and more crazy.”

“I looked into him. I ran his plates. There’s no information on him. I can’t find a driver’s license or a school record. Don’t you think that’s strange?”

“He's probably foreign,” I shrugged. “And why would you do that?”

“No fingerprints either.”

“He’s not a criminal!”

“No, Trinity,” he said softly. “No fingerprints as in he has no fingerprints.”

I frowned, “How… How do you know that?”

“I dusted the doorknob and the chair—”

“Mark!”

“I’m suspicious of him, and I was right to be. There wasn’t a single print that’s not already accounted for.”

I sighed trying to ignore the headache that was building in my head. “He could’ve burned them off or something. Remember when you burned off your fingerprints trying to get a pan out of the oven?”

I looked at his hands pointedly. Mark still had no fingerprints on that hand.

“Sure, but all of them?” He asked.

I scoffed again. “Maybe he decided to pull the pan out with both hands instead of dropping it on the floor. He could have been in a fire. A power tool accident. —Mark, there are so many ways to lose your fingerprints, you’re being ridiculous.”

Mark grit his teeth. “Don’t be naïve just because you’re fucking him.”

My face heated. “Stop the car right now and let me out.”

“No,” Mark said. “You’re going to listen to me.”

“Let me out, Mark—”

“He’s hiding something, and it only makes logical sense that he’s connected to the dean. He’s harassed plenty of women before you, but now he ends up dead? If you didn’t do it, who else would have a reason to?”

“Maybe someone else he’s harassed!” I screamed and pulled at the door. “Let me out!”

“You’re seeing him more and more. He’s got an obsession with you. Isn’t that obvious?”

He would be calling me back or wanting to see me if that was the case, but the fact that he hadn’t appeared gave me doubts. Was he in hiding? Was Lucian a murderer? Did he kill the dean for me or for some other reason?

“You don’t have to be afraid,” Mark said. “I’m going to keep looking into him, but you have to stay away from him until I get through the investigation, okay?”

I didn’t want to. I glanced over at him and frowned, noticing that the silver ring that was always on his hand was gone. While his face wasn’t bruised, he seemed pale and leaning forward a little.

“Are you… you injured again?”

“I’m fine.”

“… what happened to your ring?”

He frowned and looked down at his hand. “I must have left it at home.”

He was lying, but I couldn’t tell about what. We picked up food, and his phone rang. He answered it. He winced.

“I’ve got to take Trinity home, but I can—”

“I can catch an Uber,” I said, putting the food in my bag. “Go on. I’m sure it’s important.”

He hesitated, but as I pulled out my phone to order an Uber, he nodded. The car pulled up. I got in then he drove away.

My eyes burned with tears. I sniffled, trying to keep the tears back, but they escaped me. I couldn’t control it. The tears rushed down my face, and I just couldn’t stop sobbing.

I was in love with Lucian, but he could be a murderer. I didn’t know what to do about that. I didn’t even know where to begin to make sense of it. It felt crazy, but Mark wouldn’t have just brought it up like this if there wasn’t a good reason.

“Oh, shit!”

I looked up as the car swerved and tipped over. The world blurred, and I heard someone else’s voice than the Uber driver. I couldn’t breathe. Fear crawled through me and turned my blood to ice. When the car skidded to a stop. I got out of the car as the Uber driver started to curse. He got out of the car and marched towards the group of masked people in front of us, blocking the road.

“What the hell is—”

One of them darted forward, cutting the man’s throat. The knife glinted under the streetlight. The smell of blood made my stomach heave.

I was frozen then. They turned towards me. Each of them had a weapon. The darkness that I had been running through in my dreams seemed to swarm around me. I turned and ran back down the street.

“Someone help me!”

Pain plunged into my shoulder, and I fell to the ground. I reached out towards the other street, where cars drove past, but no one heard me.