Her Only Defense

by Kami Larke

  “Shall we?”

  Abby led the way to the elevator and to the conference room where the first lecture she was attending was located. Rob glanced around the room as they sat. Abby looked over at him and smiled, tapping at the notebook laid out in front of him. She watched in approval as he opened the notebook and uncapped his pen. She went through the same motions and turned her attention to the front of the room where the guest speaker was getting ready to start.

  Rob fidgeted in his seat for the rest of the morning. He wanted to ask Abby more about her home security system. If it recorded video or just registered when someone entered without entering the proper code. He thought it odd that in all the times he had been there, he had never noticed a keypad.

  Thinking about it, he realized that as they approached her apartment each time, she always had her phone out, punching in something. Now, he realized it could have been her using an app to deactivate her alarm system.

  As soon as the last lecture wrapped up for the morning, he tugged her to the elevator. As they approached the room, he asked her about her system.

  “Yeah, I have an app on my phone to deactivate it. It’s also on my laptop.”

  “How come I’ve never noticed a pad for it in the apartment?”

  “Because it’s disguised,” she said, touching her finger to the side of her nose playfully. “Why all the questions about the system?”

  “Well, the thought occurred to me that the cops could use info from your security system to make sure they have the right guy.”

  “Yeah, I never thought about that, but I suppose you are right. I’ll call Jade when I get a minute and have her ask the officer in charge of the case if he wants that info.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Rob agreed. As they entered the room, Abby’s phone began to ring.

  “Speak of the devil, it’s Jade,” she said.

  “Do you want me to order room service?” Rob asked.

  “Yeah, just no fish for me, please.” Abby smiled as she went into the bedroom to take the call. Fifteen minutes later, she emerged to find Rob seated at the table where her laptop had been that morning. Glancing around she saw it sitting on the sideboard. It had been usurped by lunch, twin grilled-chicken salads with raspberry vinaigrette, water with lemon, and a sorbet for dessert.

  “Mmm, this looks good,” she said as she sat down.

  “What did Jade want?” Rob asked casually.

  “She wanted to let me know they had brought in the messenger boy. No official arrest yet, but she’s confident they have their guy. It’s over.” Abby smiled as her whole body relaxed.

  “That’s great news,” Rob told her. “Too bad I didn’t know before, I would have ordered something more special to celebrate.”

  “We can celebrate tonight. We have the night off from parties, since they are doing the big bash at the bar upstairs tomorrow night.”

  “It’s a date then.” Rob smiled. They talked about different subjects as they dined, ranging from his favorite part of the convention so far to what she thought her apartment would look like when they got back.

  Rob was worried about making sure dinner was special. He knew he didn’t have time to really call and make a reservation somewhere, but he managed to slip away and talk to the concierge for his floor about getting one. The man assured him he would make sure they had a night to remember.

  Hurrying back downstairs, Rob made his way to the conference room where Abby had told him she would be for the last lecture of her day. Slipping inside, he cringed slightly as he realized the lecture was almost over. He stayed at the back of the room, not wanting to cause more of a disturbance by slipping into his seat next to Abby, who was inconveniently seated in the middle of the row.

  As soon as the speaker wrapped up the session, Rob made his way over to Abby, who was talking with a couple other people. He waited politely for them to finish and greeted Abby with a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “Sorry I missed most of that, but by the time I got back in here, everything was started, so I stayed at the back of the room.”

  “It’s okay, I’m sure it’s boring to you anyway,” Abby said.

  “How many more of these do we have today?”

  “Just three more,” she teased.

  Rob groaned. “I’m not sure I can sit through another one,” he told her honestly.

  “I’m joking. This was the last one today.”

  “Okay, good.” He wondered if the concierge had been able to find anything for him yet. Deciding a delay was in order to give the concierge more time, he spoke. “You know, it’s going to be hectic for the rest of the week. Maybe we should get some sightseeing in while we can.”

  Abby laughed. “I guess so. Maybe we should have gone with A.D. after all.”

  The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the strip, drifting in and out of different casinos and stores. When they came to a Louboutin boutique, Rob didn’t bother trying to resist as Abby hauled him inside. She gushed over the shoes on display. When the salesclerk approached, he told the man they wanted special shoes for a special occasion for a very special, one-of-a-kind woman.

  The man had hurried to the back after taking Abby’s measurement, returning moments later with a pair of open toed high-heeled shoes that took her breath away.

  “Rob, oh my God. These are exquisite.”

  He grinned as the clerk slipped them on her feet then helped her to her feet. The protective strips on the bottom kept the soles from getting marked up when they were tried on. Abby took a couple steps and turned and grinned at him.

  “I have to have these,” she said.

  “They are over three thousand dollars,” Rob said, looking at the label on the box.

  “It’s a once in a lifetime thing, right?” She grinned and handed over her credit card. “I’m wearing them Friday night to the ball.”

  Sitting, she eased the shoes off her feet and handed them back to the clerk. “They are perfect. Thank you.”

  “My pleasure, ma’am.” The man smiled and took her credit card to complete the sale.

  Abby hugged the bag to her all the way back to the Rio. She refused to give in to buyer’s remorse.

  “I guess I need to find a better dress for these now.”

  Rob chuckled. “If you think so. I think you’d look great in just those.”

  Abby laughed. “I think they might have an issue with that here. I mean, it is Vegas and all, but even they will have a problem with public nudity.

  “Well, there’s always tomorrow for dress shopping I suppose.” Rob cringed mentally. If there was anything he hated, it was clothes shopping with a woman. Although this afternoon hadn’t been all that bad with Abby. He really enjoyed seeing Abby happy. Maybe they could find something she would like together. Strangely, he found the thought of her parading in front of him in various sexy dresses to be rather arousing.

  They had barely been in the room a minute when there was a knock at the door. Rob hurried to answer, hoping it was the concierge. The grinning man on the other side of the door silently handed him two passes to the X Rocks show, luckily happening in the Rio. He gave Rob a quick salute and turned smartly and left.

  “Who was it?” Abby asked as he came into the sitting area of their suite.

  “Just a delivery. We are going to celebrate after all.” With a flourish, he presented her with the tickets.

  “X Rocks? What is this?” Abby asked, turning the tickets over as if they would tell her what the show was about.

  “It’s a dance review. They perform to heavy metal songs from bands that actually knew what music was.”

  “Sounds fun. The tickets say the show doesn’t start until 10. I suppose we can hit a buffet before then.” She didn’t want to tell him, but she was dying to try one of the famous buffets.

  “Well, we could, but I had rather hoped to visit one of the finer dining establishments in the area.” With that, he presented her with the card that had them down for eight o’clock at one of
the five-star restaurants that the Rio boasted.

  “Wow, you really did mean it when you said we would be celebrating.” Abby’s face softened as she reached up to touch him. She gave him a soft, lingering kiss. “Thank you for making today so special.”

  “Anything for you, my princess,” he replied, his hands sliding down to cup her ass. “Now, how about we go see if that shower really will fit two?”

  “You are so deliciously wicked. I like it,” she said before twisting out of his arms and racing him to the bathroom, leaving a trail of clothing behind her.

  Abby wasn’t sure what she had expected from the show that night, but it was an experience for her to see the girls dancing topless to the music. She was worried Rob might be more turned on by them than her, but the way he kept her hand pressed to his groin while the lights were down, combined with the naughty things he kept whispering in her ear when he wasn’t nibbling on it made her forget her fears.

  She could hardly wait to get him back upstairs after he spent practically the whole show teasing her. They barely made it into the room before she attacked him, popping off buttons in her haste to strip his clothes from him. He, in return, skimmed her shoulders, sliding the spaghetti straps of her dress from her, letting it drop. It caught at her waist, and his fingers found the side zipper as his mouth captured hers.

  Abby’s fingers had somehow learned how to undo his belt and pants in the past few weeks. Before she knew it, she was left with just her panties, stocking and garters, and heels while his pants were pooling around his ankles. Rob kicked off his shoes and stepped out of his pants as he picked her up and headed to the bed without breaking their kiss.

  Chapter 19 ~ jade

  “Hey, Jade? You got a minute? I found something interesting about that case you were looking at.” Anthony, the senior detective on Abby’s case, stopped by Jade’s desk Friday morning.

  Jade swallowed her coffee quickly and followed the man into the conference room.

  “What’s up, Anthony?”

  “Do you know if your friend had a personal security system installed in her apartment?”

  “Yeah, she had it done after the first letter was received.”

  “Do you know the security firm that monitors it?”

  “I think she just has it routed to her computer. Do you need the files?”

  “Yeah, I think it might give me concrete proof of who vandalized her place last week. The building security system was offline, but maybe hers will have something, since it wasn’t linked to the building’s system.”

  Jade nodded. “I have access to the online account. I’ll give you the user name and password. I don’t know how much good it will do, though. Wasn’t the power out that morning and that’s how no one noticed the main security system was offline?”

  “It’s a long shot, but maybe it booted back up in time to catch a picture of who was in the apartment.”

  “That would be good. I wonder that none of us thought about it before.”

  “We probably overlooked it since the main system was down because the power was out. If the power was out to your friend’s system, it probably never sent her an alert that someone had broken in. Like I said, it’s a long shot, but it’s worth looking at.”

  Jade nodded and wrote down the login information he would need and handed it to him.

  “I was looking over the guy’s statement for the case, getting the paperwork done up, and something doesn’t add up.” Anthony said as he accepted the slip of paper from her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know we found the messenger’s fingerprints on the outside of the envelope, right?” Jade nodded. “But there were no fingerprints inside the envelope. It seems strange that someone who would be so careful about not leaving a single fingerprint inside would be so careless that he left fingerprints outside, on the envelope.”

  “Okay, so that doesn’t really add up, but maybe he took his gloves off after he stuffed the envelope.”

  “That might be possible, but I went back and questioned the suspect. He says he was hired by a man to deliver the contents of a larger envelope to your friend, without the larger envelope. There’s some other things that didn’t add up as well. How did your friend’s boyfriend know what the first two letters looked like? He wasn’t on the scene yet for the first one, was he?”

  Jade shook her head. “No, in fact the first letter is why Crissy and I made her sign up for self-defense.”

  “What about the second one? Where was he for that one?”

  “He had just dropped her off from their date….” Jade’s voice trailed off as her eyes grew wide. Anthony nodded as he pursed his lips.

  “That’s what the report said. But the boyfriend told me he knew the third one was the same as the other two. I asked the messenger if he knew what the guy looked like. When he said yes, I had him flip through the perp book. He didn’t find the guy in there, so I had him sit down with the sketch artist. Here’s what he came up with.” Anthony passed her the drawing.

  “You know as well as I do that a sketch can be disputed in court, but if the video from your friend’s system hasn’t been scrubbed, it will provide what we need to get this guy.”

  Jade felt her palms start to sweat as she went cold. Fuck, she thought as she fumbled for her phone. Punching her friend’s number, she prayed Abby would answer. It rang through to voicemail over and over.

  “Ant, this isn’t good. She is in Vegas right now with this guy,” Jade’s voice was tense with fear and adrenaline.

  “Oh, fuck,” Anthony echoed her thoughts. “All right, I’ll send this to the LVPD. She has a restraining order out on the messenger, but it’s the wrong damn guy.”

  “I’m going to Vegas. Abby is going to need me.” Jade hurried from the conference room. “You better pull a background on this guy. And see if you can get a search warrant for his place. I have a feeling you will find plenty to tie him to her,” she said to Anthony, pausing in the doorway.

  “Hey, what am I supposed to tell the captain?”

  “Tell him I had a family emergency,” Jade yelled back at him as she stopped by her desk long enough to collect her keys and purse before practically running out of the station. Habit alone kept her from speeding as she made her way down 10th Street to Veterans Parkway. Traffic had never irritated her more.

  Punching a number on her phone, she called Dario and filled him in. Hanging up, she called Anthony at the station.

  “I’m going to catch the first flight I can get to Vegas. I’ll keep trying to reach Abby. Let me know as soon as you get a response from the LVPD as to who I need to talk to.”

  “Righto. Be careful. You know you have no jurisdiction out there.”

  “I know, but Abby will trust me, she won’t trust some strange guy who says Rob is a threat.”

  The next hour flew by for Jade as she rushed home and threw a few things into an overnight bag. Dario drove her to the airport, waiting until she got her ticket and was on her way.

  Jade couldn’t stop fidgeting as she sat on the plane for the short flight to Atlanta to catch the connecting flight to Vegas. She was forced to leave her sidearm at the apartment with Dario, even as an officer of the law, she didn’t have a permit to carry in Nevada and really couldn’t risk the fine and jail time she would face for bringing it with her. She did keep her badge on her, however, figuring it would come in handy. She had been to a few author conventions with Abby in the past and knew from experience the people working the convention would get snippy about her trying to gain access when she didn’t have one of their passes to get in.

  Seven hours later, she landed in Vegas and hailed a taxi. Telling the driver to take her to the Rio Hotel, she settled into the back seat, trying to reach Abby once again. Checking her messages, she cursed under her breath. Anthony had sent her a message stating Rob was in fact the stalker. Derek was a messenger, literally, and was being set up to talk the fall for him.

  Jade : Do you know WHY he kept s
ending messages after he was with Abby?

  Anthony : No, ask him when he’s in custody

  Jade: Local Leo gonna help?

  Anthony: They are sending someone to the hotel. Get with security.

  Jade let out another string of curses, wishing the taxi would move faster.

  The sun was setting as the taxi pulled up at the Rio Hotel.

  “I wasn’t gonna say nuthin,’ lady, but they got this convention going on. You ain’t gonna get a room unless you have tickets to the convention right now.”

  “I’ll worry about that later. Thanks for the ride,” Jade said as she shoved some bills at the driver, grabbed her bag and scooted out of the car. Hurrying inside, she made her way to the registration desk and asked to speak to the head of security.

  A few minutes later, a well-built young man approached her.

  “Can I help you, miss?” he said as he drew near.

  “Are you in charge of security?”

  “I’m the supervisor on duty for this shift. My name is Steve Andrews.”

  “Jade Townsend,” she replied, shaking his hand. “Is there somewhere private we can talk?”

  He nodded and lead the way to his office. “Is there a problem?”

  “You could say that,” Jade said. Glancing around the office, she noticed the fax from her police department sitting unnoticed on the fax machine. Pointing, she indicated the paper. “That should explain everything,” she added.

  Steve raised his brows and obediently picked up the paper. “This says the LVPD has been notified of the situation,” he said as he looked up from the paper.

  “I’m CPD,” she told him.

  “That’s nice, but you know you don’t have any jurisdiction here.” Steve said with a smile designed to soften the blow.

  “I know that, but I know Abby. She won’t believe your officers, but she will believe me.”

  “Even with the danger she is in, she won’t believe our officers when they tell her who the stalker really is?”