Chapter 36
CONDEMNING HER ACTIONS
The knock on her back door was the last thing that Meredith wanted to deal with that afternoon.
She threw her dishtowel down on the sink and went to the back door where Karl was waving at her, a massive grin on his face.
She’d spent most of her day slamming things around the house as she did them. Even broke a glass in the sink and had to clean it up. How she did it without cutting her finger might have been a miracle.
She was so stupid to tell Clay she loved him.
Even more of an idiot to actually fall in love with him!
She didn’t even know how it happened.
One minute he’s snarling at her, the next she’s asking him to take her to bed. What kind of voodoo power is that?!
“Hi, Karl. What can I do for you?” she asked, her friendly voice forced.
“I wanted to check on you,” Karl said. “You know, I haven’t seen you since everything happened days ago. I wasn’t sure where you’ve been.”
“I’m good.” Her hand was on the door and ready to shut it.
“I brought you your favorite latte.” He pulled the tray out from behind his back that he was hiding.
There were two cups on it. She didn’t want to socialize, but he’d obviously gone out of his way to get it and he’d been helpful to her lately.
She sighed. “Thanks,” she said. “Why don’t you come in and have a seat?”
He moved past her into the kitchen, then to her little table off of it and had a seat. She pulled out a chair and sat while he removed her cup and set it in front of her.
“Are you sure everything is okay? You seem a little off.”
She couldn’t understand why he’d say that. Though her voice might be forced, he wouldn’t know that. It wasn’t the first time she’d talked to Karl this way when she didn’t want to be interrupted.
She picked up her pumpkin latte and took a healthy sip. It hit the spot and was worth the interruption of her pity party.
“Everything is good. Just a lot on my mind and a crazy week.”
“I know,” Karl said. “How terrible that had to be for you. Thankfully, I saw that horrible man on your porch and reported it for the police to get here in time. You could have come and stayed with me.”
There was no use telling Karl that his call hadn’t gotten Richie caught but the camera that Clay had installed did. Without that camera, she would have gone to the door to see what the noise was and let that man into her home.
“I was upstairs locked in my room,” she said. “But I appreciate you helping.”
Karl looked at her. “Your eyes are sad. Having problems with your new boyfriend?”
She shrugged and tried to pretend his look wasn’t a hopeful one. It seemed like everything she thought or did was wrong in her life.
“Nothing new. Like everything else in life, people go at different paces.”
Karl frowned. “It’s only been a few weeks, right?”
“More like a month and a half.”
She was counting when they met for the job interview in her mind. To her, the flirting and dancing around each other started then. Otherwise there was no way to put a time period on it.
What she and Clay experienced together expedited her feelings.
“Oh,” Karl said. “You moved faster than I realized. I would have thought Fredrick and all his antics would have made you want to avoid men now, just like you said you were going to do. You know, take your time.”
She didn’t like anyone criticizing her choices in men. She did that enough to herself. She took another sip while she tried to form her words.
Karl was drinking his coffee with her and looking around the kitchen. She didn’t understand why.
“Did you want some cookies?”
“I hate drinking out of paper cups,” Karl said.
“Oh sorry,” she said, getting up. “I forgot.”
She got one of her four floral mugs down for herself and a different one for Karl. He took the top off his coffee and poured it in. She did the same with hers even though she was fine drinking it out of the takeout cup it came in.
“You never seem to remember things like that for me,” Karl said, his voice…just off. “When I know so much about you.”
Just great. Another person condemning her on her actions.
“I know stuff about you,” she said.
“Like what?” he asked, leaning back and crossing his arms. He was in a defensive stance she’d never seen from him before.
She didn’t know why he was pushing her. “You work from home. And you go into the office a few times a month.”
“What do I do?” Karl asked, his chin lifted.
“You work for an insurance company, right?”
“What kind of insurance?”
What the hell? Her mind couldn’t process anything. “Medical?”
“No,” he snapped. “Property and casualty. I process claims and have for fifteen years. Long before you moved here.”
“I get confused.”
“Because you don’t see what is in front of your face,” Karl said. “You don’t know who it is that is taking care of you and knows you like I do.”
She picked up her coffee to drink again while she tried to figure out a way to get him to leave without being a bitch. Everyone had a bad day and it seemed he was having one too.
It wasn’t the first time lately she’d seen a different side to him. A short one. Dare she say creepy dialed up more than a few notches?
But with everything else going on in her life, she just ignored Karl.
“You know me well,” she said. “I’ve really got some things to do, so—”
“What things? Your laundry is done. You’ve cleaned out your refrigerator, scrubbed your floor and then broke a glass tossing it in the sink.”
Her jaw dropped, her eyes blinking. Things were rushing to her brain and her vision was blurry.
“How could you know that? Have you been watching me through my window?”
“Silly, Meredith.” He was shaking his head at her.
There was a sneer to his voice now and a narrowing of his eyes that was almost sinister.
“I told you, it’s right in front of your face.
” Karl got up and walked toward the window over the sink, moved her curtain aside, and there was a tiny camera in the corner over the frame above the curtain rod she’d never noticed before.
“Did Fredrick know how you liked your towels folded like I do? Does Clay bring your trash cans in every week for you? No. I do.”
“You’re spying on me?” she asked, her eyes huge, her stomach churning with heat and nausea. “When? Why? For how long?”
She stood up to back away from him, but he was between her and the door now. It’s not like her legs wanted to support her to make a run for it.
She was dizzy and not feeling well overall, as if her body weighed twice as much and her limbs were dragging on the ground.
“Long before you kicked Fredrick out,” Karl said, smiling.
His eyes were dark now, evil almost. He stayed where he was by the sink away from her.
“You need someone to take care of you. I’m that person.
I can’t do it right if I don’t know how you like things.
Your towels get folded over lengthwise and then folded three times into almost perfect squares.
I do mine like that now. I practiced before I came here and did yours.
It’s not the way Mother taught me, but she wouldn’t mind. ”
“You did my laundry?” she asked, her hand going to her head. It was spinning. “How did you get in my house?”
“You left it unlocked one day. You’re always careless like that.
And then your back door key.” Karl was shaking his head at her as if he was scolding.
“When your locks were changed, you left it right there on the counter for days. The second time I came over, I grabbed it and you didn’t even notice. ”
She was going to be ill.
Physically ill.
“How many cameras are in my house?”
“Just that one. I don’t need to know what you do with other men in the bedroom. It’s just best that you’re fresh for me when our time comes. It will be better for us both. And maybe if those men learned the important things to you to make your life easier, they would last longer.”
She couldn’t address his “fresh” comment. Her mind couldn’t even process that. “You’ve done more than my laundry,” she said. Her words were slurring. She could tell. She grabbed the wall to support her. “What did you give me?”
“Come sit down before you fall down.”
He was moving toward her as if to help and she put her hand up. “Stay back.”
“Suit yourself. It’s going to be another bruise when you pass out. Don’t worry, it’s nothing major. Just a combination of sleeping pills and muscle relaxers. It will make it easier for us both.”
“Make what easier?” She had to call for help. Her phone was on the counter and she moved toward it, hoping to get it without him knowing, grabbing the wall and then the counter.
She lost her balance and bumped into it, barely missing her head, her hand hitting her phone and sending it off the back into the living room.
Karl didn’t seem to notice, but there was no way she could get it now.
She could barely stand, her knees buckling as she sank to the floor.
“That’s it. Don’t fight it,” Karl said, moving closer to her, his face in her vision, but she had no strength to lift her arm and push him off.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“I’m going to take you to our new home and show you how a man should treat a lady. After you learn how to treat me.”
Her eyes shut, her last thought was of Clay. He’d find her. He had to.
It was the only hope she had.