Chapter 21
As soon as Sascha screamed, she woke herself up. Everyone was waking in the house and hollering for her, concerned for her welfare, while heavy footfalls headed for her bedroom as the bodyguards converged on her bedroom.
Thankfully, she was dressed in modest pajamas as the men threw her door open and checked on her. She felt foolish for alarming everyone.
The men quickly checked under her bed, the windows to make sure they were locked, the balcony door to make sure nobody was on the balcony, and her bathroom.
“No one is here,” Omar confirmed as he left the bathroom.
Henry asked Sascha, “What happened?”
She ran her hands through her hair. “I was having a nightmare.”
“Or a vision,” Aunt Meg said, peering around the men in the bedroom.
Sascha wasn’t sure whether all the bodyguards believed in her special abilities, and they probably just figured she was having a nightmare. But it was different this time. Not like the first time when she had nightmares about the truck knocking the limo into the river.
“What happened in your dream?” Omar asked.
“A man in a mask was trying to strangle me.”
“Here? In your bed?”
“While I was in bed, I don’t know if it was here or somewhere else,” Sascha said.
She shook her head. “It was hazy; I had been asleep, and then I felt a presence over me, a dark shadow, and opened my eyes to see a man wearing a mask. His hands were outstretched to strangle me. I…I was fighting with my covers and managed to throw them aside and kneed him in the crotch.”
Henry was on the phone and saying, “Sascha had a nightmare, though her Aunt Meg said it could have been a vision. Yes, sir. She saw a man wearing a mask, who was planning to strangle her.”
Henry glanced at her. “Yes, sir. I think that’s an excellent idea.” He smiled at Sascha. “Your fiancé is coming to join you.”
So much for it being a total bachelorette party, but she was glad he was going to come stay with her. And secretly, she’d wanted that all along.
It didn’t take long before Gregory was there, joining her in the bedroom.
But Prescott showed up too, and he joined his mate in her bedroom.
Then they all made sure the house was clear, and Gregory climbed into bed with Sascha. He pulled her into his arms and said, “Are you really okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Was it a vision?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to know when I’m in a deep sleep.” She glanced at the clock. “It’s two in the morning.”
“It is. If…if it’s a vision, where were you when it happened?” Gregory stroked her hair, held her close, and kissed her forehead.
“A bed. I don’t know if it was here, at home, or in some other bed. It might have just been a nightmare.”
“All right. You’re all right with me barging in on your bachelorette party and joining you in bed, right?”
She laughed. “Absolutely.” She wrapped her arms tightly around him. “You don’t have a choice.”
Then they cuddled and went to sleep, and she really didn’t believe she would have any more trouble with nightmares or visions while she was with Gregory tonight. She hoped that if she did have a vision, poor Gregory didn’t “see” it too.
Gregory made love to Sascha in the morning, glad she didn’t have any more nightmares or visions and that he had been with her the rest of the night.
She smiled at him. “Okay, are we good to go back to our separate parties?”
“Yeah, if you feel like you and the ladies are safe…”
“I do. I won’t be near any beds.”
“Okay, I’ll have breakfast with you ladies and Prescott.”
“I was amused he had come to be with Katrina.”
“You know it. He was worried about her when Henry called about you.”
They joined everyone else downstairs for breakfast, then Prescott and Gregory kissed and hugged Katrina and Sascha, and then went to join the other guys for parasailing.
Gregory was excited about the prospect, though he was still worried about Sascha. Then he and the others drove to the beach where they were doing the parasailing, and he couldn’t wait to be up there high in the sky like the ladies had been.
After breakfast, the ladies took their beach bags and towels and went out to swim in the Gulf. As before, they had reserved chairs for them, but Henry and Omar had to get rid of the people lying all over them.
It was annoying because the chairs were wet and sandy, when they should have been dry and clean. But then the ladies put their beach towels over the backs of the chairs, dropped their beach bags and flip-flops off, and raced each other to the water.
After swimming for a while, even Aunt Meg and Mrs. Landry joined them, and they finally returned to the chairs and dried off.
“Are you ready to take a walk along the beach?” Sascha asked. She wished they could watch the guys parasailing, but it was too far to walk there, and she was afraid the guys would be done with their activities by the time they got there.
“I’m ready to go,” Kat said, grabbing her coverup.
Aunt Meg put on her wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, her blousy coverup whipping around in the wind.
Mrs. Landry wore a shift coverup and slipped on her sunglasses. “I’m ready.”
They all grabbed their bottles of water, and Rose tied her wet hair back in a tail, then donned a ball cap, a turtle embroidered on the cap.
They had walked about an eighth of a mile when they saw a tanned guy in hot pink bathing trunks talking to a woman, but she shook her head and returned to her chair where her friends were sitting.
Then the guy tried to engage in conversation with another couple of women, but they shook their heads and ran into the water to swim.
He tried speaking with a woman sitting with another under their umbrella and they shook their heads. He raised his hands, continued to talk to them, but they shook their heads, and he finally walked off.
"It appears the man in the pink swim trunks is harassing women on the beach if they're alone or just with a girlfriend," Sascha said.
"I thought that too. He targets someone and heads straight for them. He has been doing it several times," Rose said.
"Do you want me to talk to him?" Omar asked.
"I think I can handle this," Aunt Meg said.
Sascha knew she would use her abilities on the guy, though she was curious about what she would actually do.
The guy suddenly tripped in the sand, fell on a big, muscular dude, knocking the drink he was holding out of his hand, the drink splashing him and his girlfriend or wife.
The muscled dude rose to his feet. He was about six-four, while the harasser was about five-ten.
He backed away from him, his hands outstretched in apology, showing contrition.
The muscled dude shoved him down in the sand, and then he and his girlfriend went into the water to wash the sticky drink off.
The harasser took off and targeted another couple of women, but before he could reach them, he tripped over his feet again and fell face-first into the sand.
The women were reading books under an umbrella, sitting on chaise lounges, and never even saw him.
He got up and walked into the water to rinse off. Two young women were playing in the surf, and he approached them.
A couple of men had been sitting on chairs watching them and hurried to join the women.
Good. At least someone else was watching out for them.
The harasser hurried off in search of his next target, only to fall again.
"Eventually, he's going to give up," Aunt Meg said.
"He's determined," Sascha said.
Suddenly, his swim shorts fell down, and he tripped on them and fell on his knees in the sand.
Everyone laughed. A few caught it on video. Maybe that would do it.
But nope. He pulled up his shorts, got back up, and started searching for another woman to harass.
They continued walking in the same direction as the guy, only a short distance behind him because he kept stopping to try to engage with women or fall on his face in the sand.
Omar said, "I'll take care of it." He took off to intercept the harasser and said, "I'm beach security. I've been observing you and seeing how you've been harassing women on the beach."
"Nah, man. I don't know what you're talking about."
"I have video, still photographs, all the evidence I need to turn this over to the police." Omar spoke on his phone, and within minutes, he waved to a couple of police officers who were making their way to him.
"Hey, I didn't do anything." The guy suddenly looked worried that he was going to get arrested.
Which made Sascha wonder if he'd been arrested for crimes before. Maybe for something a lot more serious.
Omar greeted the officers and told them he was the security hired by Gregory Landry to protect Sascha Lassiter and the other ladies in their party after the attempts on her life and Gregory's. Then he showed the officers the video he had taken of the harasser and the photos.
One of the officers asked for the harasser's ID. "You have an arrest warrant out for you for sexual abuse." Then they took the man into custody. The officer turned to Omar and said, "If you need our services, just call us."
"I will. Thanks."
When they hauled the criminal off, Omar rejoined Sascha and the others. "The guy's got a rap sheet a mile long of sexual assaults and abuse."
"I didn't even know you were filming him," Kat said.
"It's the best way to prove he was doing what he denied doing. And I had notified the police, worried he was going to pick up a woman, and she would be in harm’s way."
"You said you were beach security to the guy initially," Sascha said.
"Yep, beach security for you. The officer looked up Gregory's pending cases and realized everything I said was true."
"Well," Aunt Meg said, "your way was much more permanent and worked out great."
"But we all had a laugh at the way you handled it," Sascha said.
"Wait, Meg. You caused him to fall on his face in the sand over and over again? And lose his bathing shorts?" Mrs. Landry asked.
"Yes."
Mrs. Landry smiled. "I'm going to have to take you with me to some of the wives' socials I go to. A couple of the women there are so catty. I would love to see them get their comeuppance."
"Just tell me when, and I'll be there."
Sascha loved seeing her aunt and Gregory's mom get together, even if they planned to get into mischief.