Chapter 34 The Phoenix
Chapter thirty-four
The Phoenix
“I hope you remember what arguing got you the last time,” Daxton’s deep voice rumbled over the phone.
“I promise, her friend is on his way to give her a jump; she’s just running late.
And the cameras are all installed, so you can watch to your heart's content.” I wanted to roll my eyes, but remembered he could possibly see me, though part of me wanted to toe that fine line again.
When Daxton dominated me, when he took control, it made me want to melt.
A real man didn’t have to resort to becoming a bully to get a woman to submit to them.
“Call me if she’s going to be any later than an hour? I have to go get my last client, and if she’s not back, I can always swing by.”
“I will, doors are locked, Riley is on guard, and I have the cameras you insisted on.” Opening the refrigerator, I took out a bottle of blackberry wine to pour into the glass I had set on the counter.
“Thank you for relenting on that,” he said. I heard a door shut in the background of our phone call; he must have been leaving his office to get his last client. The hospital had another difficult patient, so all their appointments got pushed late into the evening.
“You didn’t give me a choice, but you’re welcome. Call me when you’re done.”
“I will.” We said our goodbyes as I grabbed my wine and the bowl of popcorn I had made. With Halloween right around the corner, I was on a Halloween movie kick every night with Michelle.
Hocus Pocus waited, paused on my small flat screen TV hung above my white brick mantel in my living room.
The gray sectional sofa was decorated with fall throw pillows and plenty of fleece blankets to make for a cozy evening.
A small black camera was mounted in the corner near the ceiling, the blue light letting me know it was on and working.
Riley was lying on his side of the couch, chomping away at his favorite toy.
Setting my drink and snack down on my coffee table, I grabbed the remote and hit play.
Michelle would probably kill me for not waiting on her, but I didn’t mind restarting one of our all-time favorite holiday movies if she wanted me to.
I grabbed one of the large blankets from the sofa and settled in to watch the movie.
The overhead lights were off, with only a small lamp and the candles I had lit around the room providing light.
Danni Dennisen was trick or treating with her brother Max, when a shadow outside at the edge of my porch light drew my attention away from the television. The light was bright enough that it reached out halfway into the yard, barely illuminating the side of my shed that was closest to the house.
Riley was alert, his ears straight up as his head cocked to the side to look out the sliding glass door.
It was a habit for me to keep the long curtains open until I went to bed since my yard was fenced in, and no person or animals should be lurking about when I made it a habit to keep the gate locked.
I didn’t like feeling closed in with a lot of pulled curtains and shut blinds.
“What is it, boy?” I set down my half-drunk glass of wine and went over to the door, the movie still playing, though I wasn’t hearing it.
Riley jumped up from his spot on the couch, hackles raised as he stood beside me, his body tense and ready to bolt.
A growl rumbled deep from his chest as he looked out into the dark yard.
Staring out into the yard, I tried to see if there was anything out there that would have caused the movement.
It was so subtle before out of the corner of my eye, that I couldn’t be sure.
My nerves were shaky despite the wine I had consumed.
Pulling my long sweater tighter around myself, I squinted, trying desperately to find a logical reason for the movement.
Riley started barking as a silhouette moved from behind my shed, the size of a man with his face hidden behind a dark hood.
My blood froze, crystallizing in my veins and slowing my movements.
He was here, in my gut, I knew it was him.
Riley lunged at the door, his muzzle bouncing off the glass while I fumbled for my phone on the couch.
It took me three times to dial nine-one-one correctly, with how bad my fingers were shaking, constantly hitting the wrong numbers on the screen.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” the dispatcher answered on the first ring.
“There’s a man in my yard.” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the shed, scared that if I blinked, he would disappear and subtly appear somewhere else.
“Are you being threatened by this man?” the woman asked.
“He’s a fucking stalker who has tried to kill me twice, not some random guy walking by.”
“What’s the location of your emergency?” She asked robotically without an ounce of empathy in her voice.
I rattled off my address, hanging up the phone even though she advised me to stay on the line. Her tone wasn’t calming me down, and I needed to call someone that I knew would.
He answered on the second ring as I continued my vigil by the back door, Riley still growling and barking at the unseen threat.
“He’s here,” I said, panic lacing my voice. “He’s in the backyard.”
“I’m on my way. Where are you in the house?”
“I’m still downstairs. I called the police.”
Blue and red lights started flashing from the front door, catching my attention away from the backyard for a split second. A sharp knock followed, making me jump and drop my phone.
“Raelynn!” I could hear him yelling as I snatched up my phone, rushing to the front door. One hand on my phone, the other on Riley's collar.
“The cops are here,” I said into the phone, setting it down on the table beside my door to keep an eye on Riley and open it for the officers.
Only one stood at my door, the lights still flashing behind him, creating a strobe effect around my neighborhood.
Riley continued to bark as I gripped his collar, letting the officer into my house.
Behind him, I could see Daxton's Jeep pull up.
A manila envelope was in the officer's free hand. An envelope with my name on it that hadn’t been there when I had gotten home earlier.
“My partner went around back to see if anyone was back there,” he turned, hearing someone behind him, and had his hand on his gun by his side. “Whoa, there, buddy. Can I help you?” The middle-aged officer was close to pulling his gun out.
“He’s fine, he’s here for me,” I said quickly, praying that the weapon wouldn’t be brought out unless it was pointed at my stalker.
“This was taped to your door,” He said, handing me the envelope, obviously not putting two and two together.
I handed what felt like a bomb to Daxton to open, not wanting to give up the comfort of holding my dog. Nothing good was going to come out of the sealed wrapping.
“Do you mind if I check the back yard from here?” The officer asked, not waiting for much of a reply before heading toward my back door.
The sliding glass door in the living room was a straight shot from the front door, easy to see when anyone walked in.
“I’ll ask the two of you to stay here until we’re done. ”
I nodded, not really knowing what else to do.
Daxton's hand rested on my shoulder, rubbing in a gentle motion to help calm me down.
Riley's barks became less frequent, though he was still wound up like a coiled spring ready to be released. Once he was out the door, Daxton unceremoniously ripped open the envelope, pulling out one photo. His face hardened with fury from viewing what I couldn’t see.
“That mother fucker is dead,” he growled, turning the photo so I could see it, his hands shaking slightly as his temper started to grow.
In the photo, the exposure was shitty. Taken without a night lens, the quality was grainy and not super clear.
It was clear enough for me to see myself on my knees before Daxton in the backyard, though, his hand fisted in my hair and a look of euphoria on his face.
On the side of the photo, it was blocked by something solid, the side of my shed, if I had to guess.
My stomach plummeted, thinking back to that night.
I had thought I saw movement, but I just never thought it would have been a person.
Daxton had held my full attention that evening.
He had been there, watching one of our intimate moments. For a man who was constantly telling me to go find better whenever we argued, he was having a hard time letting go now that I had.
“Are we going to show the police this?” I whispered meekly, wanting more than anything for Daxton to take control over the situation.
“It’s up to you. I’d rather not show them.
It won't change what they need to do; all it would do is put you in the spotlight for the content of the photo,” He slipped it back into the envelope and placed it nonchalantly on the kitchen counter.
“Is Michelle here?” he asked as we watched the officers search my backyard.
It was by no means a large space; a third of an acre would be a generous description of my property.
There were a few trees, some bushes, and my shed where someone could be hiding.
“No, she had texted she was stopping for gas about fifteen minutes ago, and that was it. She’s still half an hour away.”
“It will be okay,” he said, rubbing both of my arms, giving me something to feel other than sheer panic and grounding me with his presence.
Riley finally sat down at my feet as the middle-aged officers came back in through the back door. Empty-handed without the person I had seen.
“There’s no sign that someone was back there other than the lock on your gate has been cut with bolt cutters.” The first officer said as his partner looked around the room.
“Do you have a security system?” The other asked, noting the cameras Daxton had installed.
“Yes, the security cameras we put up last week,” Daxton answered, and I didn’t mind that he talked to them like he lived here.
“Are the feeds backed up?”
“Yes, everything is backed up and stored. Give me just a moment, and I can pull it up for you. I’ll need to get my phone out of my Jeep.
” He gently squeezed my shoulder before leaving the house.
The moment he was gone, I felt like my safety net had been ripped from underneath me.
Where cutting had once been my tether to neutralize strong emotions and ground myself in reality, Daxton was becoming that—and more—taking its place.
“Did you see who was outside?” The second officer asked, moving to stand beside his partner.
“No, he was wearing a hood and I couldn’t see, but I know who it was. The same man who probably tried to run me over a few days ago and strangle me to death a few weeks ago.”
“Who would that be?” The first officer asked as my front door opened again.
“Craig Grasso,” Daxton answered for me, not looking up for his phone as he searched for the video. Part of our agreement was that he would have access to the camera feed as well, as a backup, just in case something was to happen.
The second officer took out a notebook and made a note, but didn’t ask any further questions.
Within seconds, Daxton had pulled up the feed from where everything started to go wrong, showing the officers first. I didn’t bother joining them, I was sure he’d show me once they left, and I already knew who had been out there.
Seeing him lurking even more on a handheld screen wasn’t going to change that fact.
My mind hovered somewhere between needing to escape and needing to do something to put an end to this shit. It was a breakup, a simple fucking breakup. You’re supposed to mope around, maybe eat a pint of ice cream, watch a sad movie, process it, and move on—not stalk someone and try to kill them.
The officers left after assuring us the yard was empty and telling us to call back if anything else happened.
They said at most they would increase patrols in the area, so they should be close by tonight in case he showed back up.
I let go of Riley's collar almost numbly once the door closed, letting him have free rein over the house again.
My phone “, a text message had come in, but I didn’t move to retrieve it from the table next to the door.
“Hey, where’d you go?” Daxton asked, placing his hands around my upper arms and pulling my attention to him. His touch siphoned off the need to run and hide, to try to avoid this problem instead of facing it head-on.
“I was just in limbo, I guess,” I said, letting him pull me into an embrace as Billy was brought back from the dead by Winefried Sanderson. The movie was still playing and barely halfway over, that’s how quickly the events had transpired.
“We will fix this, Rae, I swear we will.” His determination was my rock against the storm. An anchor that refused to let me drown in the overwhelming mess Craig had created.
“Fix as in your method of fixing or more security around the house?”
“Do you want to use my method?” He asked, not balking “my request.
“More than anything, I’d love to see him pay for this. He’s not going to stop, and to what end? With actions like this, he has to have an end goal in mind.”
“My professional opinion? He’s formed an obsession with you, not based in reality.
I’m pretty confident when I claim that he’s a narcissist, so that, combined with this unhealthy delusion that’s causing him to stalk you, is just going to escalate.
He’s not going to let go of the delusion unless he’s forced to.
” Forced too. I doubted he was referring to psychiatric care—I knew him too well.
“Then your method. The police have all the information, and they haven’t been able to do anything.
We just need to figure out where the cockroach is hiding out.
” I let Daxton lead me back over to the couch and sat down while he pulled my white curtains closed and double checked the lock on the back door.
“I’m staying here tonight,” he announced as he took a seat beside me, pulling me into his side and letting me lay my head on his chest.
The rapid pulsing from my heart slowly started to get back to a normal rhythm as he tucked the blanket around me. I wrapped my arm around his stomach, gripping him tightly as Riley finally settled down and took back his spot on the couch.
“That was your sister who texted,” he said gently, stroking my back in long, gentle motions. “Her car wouldn’t start again while she was getting gas; she’s going to be late.”
I nodded my head against his chest; words felt like too much effort at the moment. With the adrenaline waning from my body, I felt myself crashing, drifting off into the abyss where I hoped to get a reprieve from my living nightmare.