Chapter 7
I missed feeling safe.
Annie
I’m sitting on my bed, holding Joan Wick close, in near tears that I have her back, when Ben storms inside and slams the door. He moves his bag to my bistro table, and I can see his shoulders rising and falling, the tension in his jaw, the veins in his neck pulsing rapidly.
He drops his head, and I hear him release a long, slow breath, then he grabs some stuff and turns to me. “Cute cat, glad she’s back.”
“What happened out there?” I dare to ask.
“We’ll talk about it later. Right now, I need to install these cameras and you need to pack enough stuff for at least a couple of weeks.”
A small part of me wants to fight him because I hate that I’m intruding on his life, but I’m also more sure than ever that I’m being harassed.
I know I’m not losing my mind, I’m positive someone was in my apartment, and I’m smart enough to know that I don’t want to know what they’re going to try next.
“Okay.”
“Valuables, too, and not just monetary. For precautionary measures, I want you to pack anything that means something to you, including important documents.”
“Okay.” I kiss Joan Wick’s nose and set her down. She runs straight to Ben and starts climbing his leg.
He picks her up and scratches her head. “Hey, cat.” She hisses at him and launches herself out of his arms. “Nice to meet you, too,” he mutters with humor.
I gather my luggage from under my bed and jam them full while Ben puts up a couple of cameras. Neither takes us long, and in less than an hour, we’re back in the Tahoe, with the addition of Joan Wick and all my worldly possessions.
Ten minutes into the drive, it’s still silent. I don’t know what to say, how to make him less angry, or if I should try to lighten the mood. Joan Wick purrs in my lap, so I stroke her soft fur and forget about anything else but being grateful she’s okay.
Another five minutes goes by before Ben finally speaks. “Tell me about Poe.”
“What about him?”
“How long has he lived there? Has he always been a creep, or did that happen after you turned him down?”
How does he know everything? “What makes you think I turned him down?”
He lifts a shoulder. “It’s written all over his face, babe. He wants you bad.”
“Wait.” I gulp. “Do you think he could be the one doing all this stuff?”
“Everyone’s a suspect at this point, but I want to know more about him.”
The truth is, Poe does give off a weird vibe, but I always thought it was just him being socially awkward.
“He’s lived there for like two years, I think.
He works at a bank. Sometimes he makes too much food and asks me over for dinner, so we watch a movie and eat.
He’s kind of a loner as far as I can tell, but he’s always been nice to me. ”
“So when did he ask you out?”
“When he first moved in. But I told him I just wanted to be friends, and we have been ever since…if you count what I just told you a friendship.” I yawn. “Sorry.”
“Why don’t you go ahead and take another nap?”
“I’m fine. Actually, I should drive so you can sleep.”
He turns his head, dips his chin, then raises his eyebrows like I’m delusional. “When we get back, I’m gonna ask you a bunch of questions, and I need you to be alert for that. So sleep.”
My palms dampen, and I cautiously ask, “Like what?”
“Your life, guys you dated, people you work with. I need to get a sense of your routine and start compiling a list of possible suspects. And I’ll need a detailed account of what led up to you running.
” He reaches over and brushes his knuckle across my cheek.
“And you’re too tired to do that now, so just close your eyes, sweetheart. We’ll talk when you wake up.”
“I’m not too tired to tell you my routine because it’s exactly that. I wake up, go to work, and come home. Although now, I don’t have a work to go to, because I got fired.”
“Why did you get fired?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, embarrassed. “I’ve been losing sleep and having panic attacks, and my work was affected by it.”
“What did you do for work? Did you end up being a nurse like you wanted?”
“No. I’m a CNA.”
“What’s that?”
“A certified nursing assistant. I actually love what I do…or did, working in a nursing home.”
“So what happened?”
He makes it seem like I have his full attention, even though he’s driving and focusing on the road.
He always made me feel like what I said mattered…
like I mattered. “I missed a shift because I overslept once. Another time I thought I was being followed, so I drove around until I the car behind me was gone, but then I got stuck behind a train and was late. Stuff like that.” I shrug, not sure how to explain the rest.
“And…? What aren’t you telling me?”
“One of my patients has a grandson, his name is Vito. He creeped me out and I tried to stay away from him when he was visiting, which was like, all the time. One of the other aides complained about it and I got written up. That on top of the other stuff is what got me fired last week.”
“That’s bullshit. If someone is making you uncomfortable, you shouldn’t be forced to be around them, Annie. Did you tell your boss about him?”
I twist the ring on my finger. “Yeah, but again, it was just a feeling. He didn’t do anything threatening.
I’d catch him staring, and he’d get super close to me when he talked.
He’d bring me and his grandma lunch at least two times a week.
She would ask me to eat with them and she was so sweet and I didn’t want to upset her, so I’d sit with them.
It was weird and gave me a bad vibe, But like the cops, there was nothing my boss could do without some kind of proof Vito was actually harassing me. ”
“That is harassment.”
I’m not going to argue with him about semantics. “So last night, my co-worker who is also a friend, asked me to meet her at a club for a drink. She was upset I was fired, and I normally don’t go out, but I did because I was upset, too. It was stupid, though.”
“Why was it stupid to go out with your friend?”
“Well, because of the…stalker, or whatever.”
Ben scoffs. “It’s not stupid to want to live your life, Annie.”
Joan Wick meows her deep, troubled meow because she hates being in the car. I reach behind me and scratch her nose though one of the holes in her carrier to calm her down.
“So last night you met your friend at a club. What happened that made you run?”
I sigh and face forward. Then close my eyes and tell him everything as it plays out in my head…
I was dancing, my hands in the air, giggling a tipsy giggle, finally having fun for the first time in years.
It was amazing. But then that chilling paranoia iced over my pebbled flesh and froze me to the spot.
Eyes were on me, I could tell. I felt them all the way across the club.
And then it wasn’t imaginary because a pair of hands encircled my waist.
I spun around, and without even looking to see who it was, I shoved them away. Vito, of all people, held his hands up and raised his voice. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
We were the same height, so I was looking right into his bloodshot eyes. How long was he here? Was he the one watching me? “Um, hi,” I said, annoyed.
He tucked some greasy hair behind his ears and scratched the back of his head. The black lights made the dandruff glow as it landed on his shoulders like a dusting of snow. “I was hoping I could talk to you for a minute.”
Shari sidled up next to me. “Vito?”
“Yeah. Hi.” He shifted side to side. If I hadn’t seen him do that multiple times before, I’d have thought he was acting suspicious, but that was his normal creepy. “I apologize for interrupting, but I just want to talk to Annie.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t until I saw you just now.” Someone bumped into him, and he gritted his teeth. “Look, it’ll just be a minute. It’s about my grandma. Please.”
I wanted him gone, so I figured the best way to do that was hear him out. “I need some water anyway. I’ll be right back,” I yelled over the music.
Vito dipped his chin and turned toward the bar, but before I could follow him, Shari grabbed my arm. “Want me to come with?”
“No, it’s okay.” I didn’t think he would hurt me in front of all these people.
“Fine, but I’ll be watching,” she assured me.
Nodding, I trailed Vito, and as soon as we cleared the crowd, he turned to me. “You look pretty.”
I ignored the compliment. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Why didn’t you tell me they fired you?”
Why the hell would I do that? “I don’t know. What do you want, Vito?”
“My grandma died an hour and a half ago.”
My heart sank for a different reason than it normally did around him. “I’m so sorry. She was wonderful.”
“I know. Can I take you out to dinner?”
It took me a second to process what he was saying. “I thought you said this was about your grandma.”
“It is. I wanted you to be the first to know.” He swallowed and then moved toward me. I stepped back, bumping into a woman, and Vito stopped. “You were her favorite, she told me so, and I just wanted to somehow say thank you for being there for her.”
Dammit.
I should have known better. I did know better. It must have been the alcohol that lowered my inhibitions. “Listen, I appreciate the offer, but it’s not necessary to thank me. I’m glad I was able to be there for her. Have a nice night, Vito.”
“Can I at least buy you a drink?”
“No, thank you.”
His expression darkened, and he clenched his fists. “You’re not being very nice to me, Annie.”
I squared my shoulders even though I wasn’t feeling particularly confident. The last thing I wanted was for him to think I was intimidated. “I said no twice. My answer is not going to change, Vito.”
“I just wanted to thank you.” He narrowed his eyes, his voice low. “And I will…someday.”
He inched back, then got lost in the crowd, and I realized I was trembling.
Maybe I wasn’t crazy. Perhaps he was the one who had been following me.
No…that didn’t make sense. It started before I ever ran into him, at least I think it did.
Plus, stalkers didn’t stalk their victims if they had contact with them, did they? Shit. I was losing my mind.
Fuck this. I needed to get out of here—I had to leave, had to go—but there was nowhere to escape. Nowhere that I wouldn’t be scared. Nobody to protect me…nobody but Ben. God, I missed feeling safe. I missed him.
I couldn’t get home fast enough, and when I got there, it hit me again…
that familiar fear closing in from the corners of the room.
A darkness that blanked every light imaginable.
This wasn’t some kind of grief that I could best in the blink of an eye.
It was something far different, but way too close.
Unease twisted around my chest, slow and deliberate, and I froze mid-step. My gaze swept the room again, waiting for the shadows to come alive. Nothing was there, nobody…not even Joan Wick.
I shiver as the memory fades and I’m pulled back to the now. “I knew I needed to get out of there. I thought about driving, but I’d been drinking, so I just ran. The bus station was close, and I got lucky that one was about to leave, so I got a ticket and came here.”
His knuckles tighten on the steering wheel. “All right so Vito and Poe are both on the list. Who else?”
“Honestly, Ben, that’s it. I’ve lived a pretty boring life. I took care of my dad and worked. I have no crazy exes or anything really…now I don’t even have a job. I have nothing.”
“Stay with me even after this is over, then.”
I whip my head over to him. “What?”
“You don’t have nothing, sweetheart, but you have nothing to go back to. Stay with me, move in, I have an extra bedroom. Get back on your feet in a place where you have something.”
“I have nothing in Matchbook either Ben.”
He snatches my hand in his and squeezes. “You have me, Annie, you will always have me.”