Always Been Mine

by Elizabeth Reyes

  “Well, that’s a relief. Where were you this morning when we were swamped?” Alex pushed the door to the office closed.

  “I just got here. I didn’t even go home, came straight here.” Sal raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on with you? I heard you bolted out of here like a maniac.”

  Alex frowned. He didn’t even want to think about it anymore. “Someone tried forcing their way into Valerie’s apartment. I’ll tell you about it another time. That shit’s giving me a headache.”

  “She okay?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine. Shaken up, but fine.”

  Sal studied him for a moment, then spun his chair around to face the computer again. “Is this really the guest list for the wedding? Good Lord!”

  Alex sat down on a chair near the door and leaned his head against the wall. “Yep, that’s it. Mom and Pop are nuts. Sarah only has her mom and one aunt. Angel said they have a couple of her friends coming down from Arizona and a few local ones. The rest are all our side.”

  “You sure you ordered enough food?”

  “Yeah, the list is on that same file. Everything for the wedding is.” He watched as Sal clicked open some of the other files.

  “Damn, Alex. When did you do all this?”

  Alex leaned his head back again, rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. “I started when pop said he wanted the wedding here. You know how he can be. I had a feeling this thing was going to turn into a circus.”

  “Dude, you have graphs for the seating arrangements?”

  Without opening his eyes, Alex chuckled before responding. “Mom and her sisters? C’mon—we all know who’s gonna snap and who’s not. I had to keep things under control.”

  “Seriously, Alex, I’m impressed. I’ve hated every computer class I’ve taken so far. I just don’t have the patience. This is something else.”

  Alex took a deep breath, still keeping his eyes closed. Deep inside, though he’d never admit it, there was a part of him that still delighted in impressing his older, much more anal brother. “The software does it all, Sal. It’s not rocket science.”

  Sal didn’t respond. Alex opened one eye and saw Sal still clicking through all the hours of work he’d put into organizing this wedding.

  “Has Angel seen this?”

  Alex sat up, remembering all the work he still had to do. Valerie’s incident had thrown his whole day off. “I dunno. He’s been busy trying to find a place for his restaurant.” He stood up checking his phone just in case. “Oh, I meant to ask you. You bringing anyone to the wedding?”

  Sal turned to look at him. “Probably not.”

  “What happened to that Melissa chick?”

  Sal shook his head and turned back to the computer. “She’s too damn… everything.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Too swank. Too in-your-face sexy. Too outspoken.” He turned back to Alex. “I might’ve been able to live with all that. It’s when she got too pushy that really did it.”

  Alex smiled curiosity getting the best of him. “How so?”

  Sal shrugged. “She knew we weren’t exclusive. I made it clear from the beginning, and she said she was okay with that.” He shook his head. “Somehow she got into my place one night, made dinner and was waiting for me in her birthday suit when I walked in.”

  Alex lifted an eyebrow. “Sounds good to me.”

  Sal spun around and faced the computer again. “Yeah, it would’ve been if my date hadn’t been with me.”

  Alex burst out laughing.

  “Yeah, laugh it up,” Sal said without turning around. “It still doesn’t top your tutor story.”

  The remark didn’t lessen Alex’s laughter. He walked out the office still laughing. Knowing how proper Sal always strived to be only made the visual of him walking into that with a date even funnier. Sal muttered something under his breath, but Alex heard him chuckle as well. Today of all days, he needed the laugh. Thankful for the break in his mood he threw himself back into his work.

  CHAPTER 22

  The restaurant was a madhouse on the eve of the wedding. Food and supplies rolled in all day. Angel opened the place, helping with the set up of the banquet room. Certain things like the dance floor and the stage set up he wanted done just so. It was his wedding, so Alex watched and let him have at it. In a way he a was a little surprised Angel didn’t seem nervous at all. Then again, Angel had been sure since he’d met Sarah back in high school that she was the one. The only reason they’d waited this long was because they both wanted to finish school first.

  As if the wedding preparations alone weren’t enough to make things hectic, Sal arranged for the pay-per-view heavyweight champion fight to be watched at the bar that very evening. He mentioned doing a little promoting on the internet. Alex now knew what was behind the sly grin when Sal had told him. The place was already packed. The main fight wouldn’t even start for another hour.

  Alex should’ve known when Sal mentioned he’d hired a couple of Romero’s guys to make sure things stayed under control. They’d never needed security before, but the bar area was already nearing capacity and customers were still arriving. Romero was there, throwing a few back. He said he was off duty, but Alex could see he was doing more looking out than drinking.

  Valerie, Isabel and Sofia had taken Sarah out for dinner and some drinks. They assured Angel it wasn’t a bachelorette party. More of a dinner and girl talk the last night before the big day. Alex told Valerie it sounded an awful lot like a bachelorette party to him. She just laughed and promised it wasn’t.

  With the exception of Monday’s incident, the week went without episode. Wednesday, Alex accompanied Valerie to the hearing. There was no doubt the judge would rule in favor of granting Valerie the restraining order, especially after what just happened.

  He did, but the problem was the restraining order was only good for three weeks. Bruce had to be served first for it to be permanent. Anybody but Valerie could serve him. Alex wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  Unfortunately, when Romero went to serve him at the homeless shelter listed as his primary residence, they hadn’t seen him in weeks. His probation officer was no help either. He’d finally returned their calls today, simply to say that Bruce was only required to check in every ten days. The last he’d heard from Bruce, he’d said he was staying at the shelter at night and looking for work during the day. Bruce wouldn’t be required to check in for another week. There was no way of getting a hold of him either, since Bruce supposedly didn’t have a cell phone. The whole system was a damn joke.

  Bruce was more frightening than Alex expected. He’d been in the armed forces until he was dishonorably discharged for computer fraud. Most of that information was classified, so Romero was having a hard time getting the details of it. But apparently this guy was some kind of computer wiz. Great. This just kept getting better and better.

  All his priors were violent ones. His stalking wasn’t just limited to following his victims around. In all the cases, he’d done extensive snooping, hacking into their computers to gain more info. He’d even served a couple of weeks in a mental facility. Why they ever let this nut out was beyond anything that made sense to Alex.

  Most of his crimes included attacks against women. The only one that included an attack on a man was when he tried to run an ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend off the road. Alex more than welcomed the animal to come after him. He’d make sure the guy got what he deserved, but most importantly they’d have him locked up.

  The only positive thing that came from the background check was that it appeared his ex-wife’s disappearance was more of a self-initiated disappearance. There was evidence she’d already changed her name once. Her family never even attempted to file charges against Bruce. Basically they accepted she’d disappeared and went on their merry way. It was unlikely that a family would do that unless they knew where she really was and were intentionally keeping quiet about it.

  Very small consolation, but at least as far as Alex
knew, Bruce didn’t have blood on his hands… yet. With that thought lingering, Alex decided to check on Valerie. He walked toward the back room. The restaurant was just too damn loud for him to make a phone call out there.

  Once in the back room, he was quickly distracted going over some of the wedding details on the computer. When he was done, he decided it was better to leave Valerie alone. Hank would call and update him if anything happened. He went back to the bar. The place overflowed with loud patrons now. Alex leaned over to Sal. “You sure we’re not over capacity?”

  “We’re good now, but we had to turn some people away. They weren’t too happy about it, either. It’s a good thing we had Romero’s people here. They started getting rowdy.”

  Alex frowned, taking it all in. The tables were crammed and every booth at the bar taken, with people crowding around each booth. He sure hoped Romero’s guys knew what they were doing.

  He took a stroll to check everything else out. Workers diligently transformed the banquet room upstairs into a wedding paradise. The flowers would arrive in the morning. His parents would be pleased. They were both home working on the trinkets they’d pass out at the wedding. Alex told them he could just order them already made, but they insisted they had to be personal and hand made.

  By the time he’d made it back to the bar, the fight was in full swing and everyone cheered loudly. Alex watched along with the crowd. It was a good fight with both fighters going at it.

  One of the waiters nudged him on the arm. “You have a call on line one.”

  Alarmed, Alex reached for the cell phone on his hip. Maybe he hadn’t heard it with all the noise. He had no missed calls but he still felt the need to rush to the office to take the call. He picked up the phone as soon as he got to it, forgetting to close the door behind him.

  “This is Alex.”

  “Whose ass do I have to kick to get a beer around here?”

  Alex pressed the phone against his ear not sure, if he’d heard correctly. “What was that?” He reached for the open door with his foot and kicked it shut.

  The caller raised his voice. “I said whose ass do I have to kick to get a beer around here? The service sucks! I’ve been waiting for over twenty minutes.”

  Alex felt his adrenaline jump-start. Almost certain he knew, he asked anyway, “Who’s this?”

  “Who do you think it is, asshole?”

  Alex smiled gripping the phone. “You here, Bruce? I can get you a beer. Where you sitting?”

  Bruce cackled. “No, I’m not at Moreno’s anymore. No, no… I’m at Tres Italiano. You know where that is, Alex?”

  Alex squeezed his fist shut. It’s where the girls were having dinner. He gulped hard in a failed attempt to remain calm. He texted Romero to come to the office ASAP. “Yeah, I know where that is.”

  Bruce cackled until he was coughing, then he started up again. “Is that your pretty little sister with Valerie? And your brother’s lovely wife-to-be? Her name escapes me… oh that’s right, Sarah. ”

  Alex’s heart thudded a little harder. He listened for background noise. It didn’t sound like he was in the restaurant. It was too quiet. Romero swung the door open. Alex brought a finger to his lips.

  “You must have a death wish, Bruce ‘cause I swear to God, you so much as—”

  “Does Valerie know you’re having her tailed? I’m getting pretty good at timing his piss breaks.”

  Romero stood next to Alex, hanging on every word. Alex motioned for him to get Hank on the phone. “What do you want, Bruce?”

  “Oh, I think you know what I want.”

  Angel walked into the office.

  “You’re fucking crazy.” Though his words were harsh, his voice remained calm. He’d die before letting this idiot know his mind games were working. “That’ll never happen, Bruce.”

  Alex had both Romero and Angel’s full attention now. He covered the receiver, “Ask Hank where the girls are exactly. This fucker is watching them.”

  Angel’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s Hank? What girls-”

  Both Romero and Alex shushed him.

  “Valerie,” Alex mouthed.

  Alex could almost pin-point the moment it hit his brother. His eyes opened wide. “She’s with Sarah and Sof.” He whispered.

  “And Izzy,” Romero added with a frown.

  Alex had missed most of Bruce’s crazy rant. None of it made sense anyway.

  “… mine!! She was meant for me, you ungrateful stupid bastard!”

  The blood scorched through Alex’s veins like fire. Bruce sounded like a raving mad man. “That’s where you’re wrong Bruce.” He said calmly. “Valerie’s always been mine.”

  Bruce cackled even louder this time. “Is that so? So, even when Luke was fucking her she was yours?”

  No way would Alex let this guy rile him. He took a long deep breath, glancing at Angel who was standing arms crossed waiting anxiously to hear the next words out of Alex’s mouth. “Listen here, Bruce—”

  “No you listen!” He was screaming now. “If you think you can stop me, you’re stupider than I thought. You keep trying, and I’ll make you sorry!” He stopped screaming and started laughing, this time in a low droll. “I didn’t realize you had such a pretty sister, Alex. And wouldn’t your brother be sorry if he had to cancel his wedding?” He paused for a moment then added, “Valerie looks beautiful tonight. I’ll be sure to tell her.”

  Alex’s calm vanished. He spoke through his gritted teeth careful not to let out the rage that built so quickly. “I’ll kill you.”

  The line clicked and the line went dead. “He hung up.” Alex slammed the receiver down.

  “What the hell is going on, Alex? Who’s watching them?” Angel looked as alarmed as Alex felt.

  He didn’t have time for long explanations. “Valerie has a stalker.”

  “What? Why didn’t you tell me?” Angel’s eye were ablaze. Alex couldn’t say he blamed him. Up until now he felt pretty safe with Hank watching them.

  He tried sounding confident. “Relax, I have someone on them. They’re being watched, but you can’t tell Sarah.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because Valerie doesn’t know.”

  Romero still spoke to Hank, filling him in on the phone call.

  “Tell him Bruce knows he’s watching Valerie.”

  The door flung open. Alex heard glass crash. The waitres’s frightened eyes met his. “They’re fighting!”

  Alex cursed under his breath and charged out of the office with Angel and Romero close behind. He turned to Romero who still held his phone to his ear. “Tell him not to take his eyes off of them for a second. I don’t care if he pisses his pants!” He’d reached his boiling point now. He turned back to Romero again. “Make sure you tell him I said that.”

  The fight was under control when they got there, but it left the entire bar area a mess. Romero’s guys escorted two big guys out. Sal held back a smaller guy with a bloody nose and a fat lip. Apparently, he wasn’t the trouble maker, but still yelled obscenities at the guys being escorted out.

  Alex had seen this a million times. The guy was obviously putting up a Mr. Tough Guy act for his startled girlfriend to make up for the fact he’d gotten his ass kicked. Well, he was in no mood for it. He had other customers to think of.

  Alex got right in little man’s face, still reeling from his conversation with Bruce. He spoke just loud enough for the guy to hear him. “Calm the fuck down, or I’ll throw you out there with those two and let you settle things on your own.”

  The guy stared at him but didn’t say a word. Alex took in the sight around him. It would be hours before they could get the place back in order. I’m getting real good at timing his piss breaks. Damn it, the wheels spun in his head.

  Sarah and Sofie met Isabel and Valerie at Isabel’s apartment earlier that evening. They’d all driven in one car to the restaurant and were supposed to head back to the apartment after dinner for drinks. Valerie told him they’d play it by ear. Depending
on how the night went, they’d either drive home tonight or spend the night if they didn’t feel well enough to drive. Alex’s money was on the latter. The wedding wasn’t until three in the afternoon tomorrow, so they’d have plenty of time to get home and get ready the next morning.

  Of course, Alex had offered to pick Valerie up but she said if the girls all stayed, she would too. If that was the case, Romero would have to put someone else on the nightshift, someone unfamiliar with the case. That didn’t sit well with Alex. He could only hope Valerie decided to go home tonight. The notion of not having her in his bed all night wasn’t a welcome one either. He’d made it a point several times to tell her that would never happen again. Here just two weeks into it, the possibility of it happening was already upon him.

  ***

  Valerie got the text on the way home from the restaurant. Alex explained briefly about the call from Bruce. He said he didn’t want to call her, because he didn’t want the girls overhearing and becoming alarmed. But he warned in all capital letters to stay in the apartment and lock all the doors and windows. Valerie understood completely about not wanting to alarm the girls, most specifically, Sarah. This was way too heavy to dump on her the night before her wedding.

  He didn’t tell her everything Bruce said but mentioned a lot of ranting and crazy talk. Valerie was surprised he didn’t tell her to just cut the night short and insist on picking her up that minute. But she supposed not wanting to alarm the girls had a lot to do with it.