Chapter 26
26
STALKER
F our fucking years. Four years without the love of my life. Four years of going through the grieving process. Four years of trying and failing to move on. Four years of hating the man who was supposed to keep our unit safe, but he didn’t. Four years of feeling like Brian needed to pay for Ashley’s death.
Then, there was Kelli. Her viral video crossed my screen one afternoon and the lightbulb went off. I recognized her immediately from the photos Brian had posted all over his bunk. For weeks before Ashley’s death, he wouldn’t shut up about her. Seeing her on my screen felt like life was shining a light on what I was supposed to do next. Karma was dropping a pretty package in my lap in the form of the love of Brian’s life. Finding out that she was also living in Boston at the time was the ultimate cherry on top.
I had only been in Boston for a year, working cyber security for a financial firm. It was soul-sucking work, but turns out everything happens for a reason. Making Kelli pay for Brian’s actions was better karma than I could have ever dreamed up. An eye for an eye and all that.
Brian had a lot to make up for. Not only was he responsible for me losing my future wife, he is also the reason I was honorably discharged. The unit could never look at him the same after the ambush, and it was my responsibility to ensure he was aware of that. It’s his fault they wouldn’t mentally clear me and the hostility everyone felt was a result of his actions.
When I first started messaging and following Kelli, I didn’t have a clear plan. She was oblivious to the world around her, which made it almost boring. I started leaving notes for her to heighten her paranoia, which worked like a charm. I would spend some nights after work studying her and looking up everything that I could on her. It was a little disheartening to discover she wasn’t in a relationship with Brian anymore, but I knew him. We had served together for years. He was not a guy that jumped into things lightly, so there was no way that he wasn’t still pining over her.
The most surprising thing that happened, though, was I started to like the girl. She made smart moves like buying knives to hide throughout her home and installing a security system. She even had security walk her to her car after work and started paying attention to her surroundings whenever she was out. The thought of her on the lookout for me, preparing for me… it made my dick hard.
Everything was going well until she went on a date with that douche nozzle. Kelli was mine to play with. He had no right putting his hands on what was mine, and I made sure both of them were aware of that fact. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. I had plans to scare Kelli back into submission, and then I was going to take her. I even bought a home just over the border into Maine that would be perfect to keep her in. Nice enough that she might want to stay, but with lots of land and no neighbors in case I decided it would be the best revenge to kill her.
Really it was a 50/50 shot. Either we would fall in love and that would kill Brian, or it wouldn’t work out and her death would be on his hands. That would kill him, too. Seemed like an easy win-win in my book. It was going well until she disappeared from the hospital after I sent the messages through her windows. She was either taken from the hospital through the only halls that didn’t have cameras, or they were wiped. I combed through them for hours and found nothing.
It took a few days to realize she had to have help since I was tracking her credit cards and she wasn’t in her house, any hotels nearby, or at her friend Danny’s house. I watched some of her nurse friends, but she didn’t seem to be staying at their houses either. My first clue to her location was seeing Brian and Josh at her house. They cleared the camera feeds of her driveway and front door, so I couldn’t see what they drove or what they were doing there, but I saw them in the backyard camera feeds. I thought that maybe they were looking for her, too. I tried looking up their addresses, but I couldn’t find anything on them. No homes or cars were registered in their names. I knew then that she had to be with them and they must have wiped all traces of themselves from places that I could find them.
That led to my next step, which was to find guys from our unit and see if they knew where they lived. After talking to a few, I was pointed to the area of lower Maine and New Hampshire. No one could remember exactly where, but they knew it was in that area. I searched and searched, but couldn’t find proof of her anywhere. It wasn’t until Josh and Brian went to the storage unit that her stuff was being stored in. When I saw Danny moving her stuff there, I paid the owner to notify if and when someone stopped by her locker, and finally, it had paid off.
He called me on Sunday and sent me the video footage of Josh and Brian driving up and filling a truck with her boxes. I was able to hack enough cameras to keep up with their whereabouts to the point that I was able to follow them back to their home. I was surprised to find that they lived together and with Logan. I drove past the entrance to their house and immediately noticed all the cameras they had.
Lucky for me, there was a house down the road for sale that was empty. I made it available to myself in order to keep an eye on them. It made sense now why I wasn’t able to find any information on them. Logan and I were the hackers of the unit, and while he was good, I was better. My best computer systems were at home, but I had my laptop with me at least. After watching their home for the night, I decided the best course of action was to try and hack their cameras to see if there were blind spots for a way in.
I had to hand it to them; their systems were good and their firewall was near impenetrable. Despite trying for hours, I couldn’t get into their system. The best I could get was live feed from two houses down that had a camera on the road to monitor their comings and goings. Five weeks of trying to find Kelli after she disappeared from the hospital, and it had finally come down to this moment.
The emergency bag I kept in my car had everything I should need to grab her. I had a sedative, rope, zip ties, a few knives, a gun, a mask, and some gloves. In between tries to access their cameras, I thought of all the ways I could get her out of the house. Logan left Monday evening but had no passengers in his car, which meant she was there with Brian and Josh alone. By Tuesday morning, he still hadn’t returned home. If there was a time to get Kelli, it would be when at least one of the guys was gone.
As I was getting ready to sneak through their neighbor’s property to get a better visual of their house, I saw a Jeep on the live feed of the road. Wouldn’t you know it? Brian was behind the wheel with Kelli in the front seat and Josh in the back. Their pathetic attempt of disguising her made me laugh. Even under a hat, those curls would stand out anywhere with her lithe, little body. They obviously had no idea who they were up against, which worked in my favor. I closed up my laptop, grabbed my bag of clothing, and jogged out the door.
My car was hidden in the driveway when they drove past. I waited a few car lengths before pulling out behind them. The downfall of them living out in the middle of nowhere was there was very little traffic, but I made it work. Being the whipped pussy he always was, Brian stopped to get her coffee. His love for Kelli was obvious in the way he looked at her coming out of the coffee shop. This day was going to be glorious. I just needed to get into their cameras so I could watch Brian’s life fall apart around him.
Their next stop was a large department store with home supplies. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I put on my own hat and glasses. This disguise was working in my favor. I kept the sedative in my pocket and gun in the back of my jeans in case I got the opportunity here. I discreetly followed them around the store, all of them oblivious to anything around them. They were love-sick fools, only focused on each other. Kelli sucked down her coffee in no time, giving me the perfect opportunity to grab her. She would have to use the bathroom eventually, separating her enough for me to intervene.
Less than an hour later, she told Josh and Brian she had to pee, and headed to the front of the store. She was less than five steps from them when Brian nudged Josh, telling him to go with her while he stayed with their stuff. Josh came up from behind her and grabbed her hand, walking to the front with her. His lips skated over her knuckles as she went into the women’s restroom and he went into the men’s. This was my chance, but I would have to take down Josh first. He was a big fucker, scrappier than any of us ever were. I made a rash decision, untucking my gun and following him into the restroom. The butt of my gun hit him on the side of his head, making him drop before he even had the chance to look over his shoulder. I took a second to enjoy the view of him sprawled out on the dirty floor, the big guy that no one wanted to take on crumpled before me. It felt good making him feel an ounce of the pain I did. He wasn’t to blame for Ashley’s death, but he never sided with me on blaming Brian either.
I slipped from the bathroom, moving straight into the women’s, making sure to keep my head low the whole time. As luck would have it, Kelli was alone in there, washing her hands at the sink. My arm was around her throat by the time she looked up, but she surprised me with an elbow to the gut. My hand moved to cover her mouth before she could scream, but she knocked me on my ass with a foot placed behind mine. Her body landed on mine, knocking the breath from my lungs. We grappled on the floor, her tiny fists landing some good shots on me.
I lunged for her again, pinning her with my legs, which gave me just a moment to get out the syringe and plunge it into her neck. She fought the sedative, her hands scratching at me, her feet still trying to kick me off. The whole thing made me hard as a rock, this wild girl fighting me as she was drug under. When her body went fully still, I took a moment to compose myself, fixing my shirt and hat. The taste of copper filled my mouth where she had landed a good hit, splitting my lip. I was going to have so much fun with her.
Cradling her in my arms, I made a hasty exit from the store, appreciative of the fact that we were near the entrance. Rushing to my car, I laid her in the backseat, securing her wrists with zip ties. I had a few options here, but decided the hour or so drive to my house in lower Maine was worth the risk. It was where I had everything set up for her arrival, and where I felt the safest.
The drive was quiet, the sedative keeping her under the whole time. I would have to wipe the cameras at the store when I got home and hope that I got to it before Brian and Josh. I could have risked doing it in the car with my laptop, but distance seemed like the smarter choice here. My driveway was long and far from the main road. Such a wonderful feeling to finally be here with Kelli in tow after all those weeks of work. This next week with her would show what my future would hold. I am hoping for a future with her, or at least a few good fucks out of her. That fire in her was such a damn turn on, I bet she would fight me in bed, too.
Carrying her into the house felt like a new start. I may have lost the love of my life, but I had another shot at love now. I had the windows boarded in the master and locks on the outside of the door to keep Kelli safe. I decorated the room with the colors she had in her room at her house. I even left her pillow in there that I had taken from her home. The only clothing in the closet were my shirts and her underwear that I also took since she wouldn’t need to wear anything other than that. A photo of Ashley and I stayed on the nightstand; she deserved to see that I was finally getting revenge for her death.
There is a poetic justice in Kelli suffering for the sins of Brian. Watching the life drain from Ashley haunted me for a long time. Lately, it seems to bring a sense of peace knowing I can see that same light leave the eyes of his girl. It was where my head was leaning, taking her life. Brian had always been a stubborn bastard; there’s no way he would allow her and I to live a happy life together. It might kill him inside, but he would ensure that he got her back. The only way to prevent that was not leaving him anyone to come back for.
I left her on the bed for the sedative to wear off, heading to the office to cover my tracks and ensure our safety here. I couldn’t risk being found, but part of me really wanted Brian to know it was me who took his precious Kelli. Maybe I would give it a few days of enjoying her company in my bed, then I could let him know he brought this on himself. A tape of us fucking would be top tier to send, but I needed to see his reaction. Otherwise, what was the point? With the store cameras cleared, I went to check on my new guest who should be up by now.