Alpha Hero - Hope Ford Page 0,73

so hopped up on pills he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. He jerks on the woman’s neck and she cries out.

I take a step toward them but he points his gun at me and I stop.

“I get it. I do. You don’t want to go to jail. I don’t want to put you there. This was just a few parking tickets, Mark. I could have given you the papers and that would have been it. You could have paid them. Now you’re looking at 5-10 years for kidnapping, assault of an officer, I mean by the end of the night the list can go on and on. Unless, that is, you let us go.”

“Have you ever been in love?” he asks me out of the blue.

And although the questions surprises me, my first thought goes to Carly. I shrug my shoulders at him.

“Yeah, man, I see it in your face. You’ve been in love. Now, imagine if you lost that love? Imagine going away and never seeing her again. Do you know how much that hurts? The last time I went away, she told me, she told me if I went away again, she’s done. No more screwups.”

He’s shaking his head and the look of defeat on his face tells me that he knows he’s screwed up.

I nod my head at him. “I get it. And you’re right, I have been in love. It was new, but I felt it. But fuck, any and everything I could have done to fuck it up, I’ve done. I hurt her, fuck man, I hurt her so bad she’ll probably never forgive me. But do you know what? When I get out of here, and Mark, we’re both getting out of here, I’m going straight for her. I’m going to show her that I can be the man she needs, the one she wants. I’m going to prove my love to her over and over again until she finally takes me back. Because that’s what this is about, Mark. Love. If you love her, you won’t give up. Maybe this time we can get you help, get you off the pills for good this time.”

Carly

It’s almost ten o’clock when there’s a knock on the door. I look through the peephole and see the woman in a police uniform and wrench the door open. “Is Luke okay?”

She takes a deep breath. “No, but he will be.”

I usher her in the apartment. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

The police officer holds out her hand to me. “I’m Heather. I’m Luke’s partner.”

I put my hand in hers and she holds on to it. “I’m Carly.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, you’re all I’ve heard about for the last two nights.”

I shake my head. “I’m so confused. Is Luke okay?”

Heather nods her head. “Yes, he’s okay. Well, he was actually in a hostage situation earlier, but he’s good now. He’s at the precinct filling out paperwork.”

“Oh my God, I have to sit down. Hostage situation?” I walk over to the edge of the sofa and collapse on it.

Heather just nods her head and acts like it’s another day. When right now, my life has completely turned upside down.

She holds out her phone. “I want you to hear something. Look, I know he screwed up, but he grew up with nothing. He’s sensitive about money and I’m sure he overreacted, but I wanted you to hear this.”

I try to take the phone from her, but she holds on to it. “Technically, I can’t let you see it. It’s from Luke’s bodycam and all you’re going to see is the perpetrator’s face. I want you to listen to it, listen to Luke’s voice.”

I nod my head and she pushes the button to play it.

I hear a strange man say, “Have you ever been in love?”

I listen to the whole thing and by the end of it, when he’s talking about loving me and not giving up, that’s when I’m sobbing. I ask her to play it again and she does, gladly and with a smile on her face.

I don’t want to get my hopes up. Did he say all that because he meant it? I ask myself, but deep down I know the answer.

I start to ask her when he should be done and the front door opens. It takes everything I have not to run to him.

He looks at Heather. “What are you doing here?”

Heather just shrugs and starts walking to the door. “I had to meet Carly after