by Tania Cooper
Well, I guess it’s time to see the lights in Lexi’s eyes when Lane sets this all in her lap, although I know I’d rather be there than anywhere else right now.
“Lexi, uh, you got much planned for today?”
“No, why?”
“Well, I kinda booked you and the girls a day at ‘Euphoria and Beyond.’”
“You what? That place is impossible to get into! Julio and Zane are booked months in advance; you’re lucky to even get a five minute phone call let alone a day with them. Oh Lane, how?”
“I have my methods. Just enjoy it, baby, you deserve it. You better move it though, Zali and Mel will be there in twenty minutes.”
“Oh my God, Lane Anderson, you are the best! Twenty minutes, ha, then that gives me a few minutes to say thank you.”
Life is freaking awesome. The new project is kicking Alexis and Lane’s butt and despite working on side by side desks, they still work hard to find some quiet time for each other, whether it’s at lunchtime or when they get home late at night. Their friends have been missing them, because most weekends they have been taking work down to the beach house to relax away from the city’s stresses.
Lane has been hinting that my girl should just move in because they spend so much time at his apartment anyway, but she hasn’t wanted to put any extra strain on their relationship just yet. This weekend, I have a feeling she may just say yes. They spend every night in each other’s arms anyway, regardless of whose bed it is, but it would stop the stress of not having the right shoes we need, at the right apartment, for a particular outfit, when we’re rushing for work in the mornings.
“Thank fuck it’s Friday, Eight. I need a rest!”
“Poor baby. But I get it, this project is tiring and with having to visit all the branches of all the businesses that belong to this client, it has been putting our boy and girl behind slightly. But thank God they have agreed to no work this weekend at the beach house. I think it’s exactly what they both need. Not just them, but us too; I haven’t seen you much this week, babe, and I’m missing you badly.”
“Aww, I miss you too, babe, but you need to get Lane to shave first, above and below. He has really neglected his manscaping the past few weeks. Lucky his sexy as fuck aftershave smells so good, or he wouldn’t even be getting my girl’s yummy kisses.”
“What? Are you serious? I haven’t been in you in over three days. Who cares about a few spiky bits?”
“I care! I still have nightmares about my encounter with the porcupine. Alexis might not mind pash rash, but that’s not happening to my lips again. Do you hear me, Eight?”
“Yes, dear.”
The morning’s a busy rush as Lane and Alexis try to cram in as much as they can so they can enjoy a work free weekend. There are emails, phone calls, knocks on the door by their newly appointed assistants, much to the dismay of Vivian, whose nose is now out of joint because she’s not the number one go to anymore, and packages delivered from the printing company. It’s like Flinders Street Station in this office today.
They eat lunch on the run as they both head over to one of the client’s offices, then head back so Lane can get ready for his conference call with an overseas supplier they’re thinking of using. This call is long and still isn’t finished by the time they had planned to leave. Lane writes a quick note before gesturing for Lexi to come and take a look. It says “This call may still take another hour.” She writes then slips a note back to Lane while his call continues, letting him know she is going to ride a tram back to her place to pack a few extra things and will meet him back at his apartment.
She places a soft kiss to his hair, which needs a haircut soon, yep, manscaping is slipping, before she grabs her bag and laptop and heads out the door. She’s stopped looking for Mr. Stalker now, but every so often catches his stares out of the corner of her eye, like now, but she refuses to react. Instead she simply keeps walking past and along the banks of the Yarra River to her stop where a tram is waiting.
“Hey kitten. Got much planned for the weekend? My boy is going to a bucks’ party tonight at the Woolshed Pub. We could do with some entertainment like your sexy girl. They all have big bucks, so the tips should be worth your time.”
I think back to the outfit Alexis is wearing before answering this moron.
“Do I look like a hooker to you?”
“Umm, no, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a good time kind of girl.”
“Oh, I’m a good time kind of girl alright, but only for my boyfriend, dickhead.”
Some dicks are just delusional, seriously. We hop off at our stop and head over to our apartment. Once inside, my girl starts going through her room, making two piles on her bed. One, to take to the beach house, with a few extra things she’s planning on leaving there. And the other is things she plans on leaving at Lane’s. She should just pack it all with how bare her wardrobe looks right now.
As she’s going through the fridge, tossing any out of date products in the bin, there’s a loud knock on the door. She’s only been here about half an hour; Lane’s call must have finished up earlier than expected. She goes to the door with a goofy smile on her face, one she’s been wearing a lot lately, and without looking through the peephole she opens the door wide, ready to throw herself in her man’s arms.
What she wasn’t expecting was this stranger standing before her, a stranger she has been seeing for a few months at the front of her building, a stranger we refer to as Mr. Stalker. It takes my girl a few seconds to truly register who it is standing at her door, and she wonders how the hell he got into secured apartments without a personalized pin code. As soon as the initial shock starts to wear off she uses all her force to try and slam the door shut.
But it’s too late.
He shoves his entire body against the door, shoving it and my girl out of the way as he then reaches for Alexis’s shirt. He misses and she moves quickly, darting towards the kitchen where her mobile is ringing, dancing with vibrations on the marble surface. As she throws herself at the edge of the bench, reaching for her now silent phone, she feels Mr. Stalker grab a handful of her hair and yank back hard.
She screams as loud as she can, twisting in his grip to face him, trying to bring her knee up towards his groin. But he anticipates it, twisting out of her aim, still clutching tightly to a chunk of her hair, almost toppling them both over. Alexis tries to punch him, but he dodges her swing. She screams out for help while digging her nails into his arm, hopping to force his grip from her hair. He brings another hand up, trying to grab her shoulder, but this brings him closer, allowing her to bring her knee up hard and connect with his groin.
He doubles over, groaning in pain, and lets go of her hair as she screams again for help, seeing that her door is wide open. She reaches for her phone, grabs it tightly and runs around the other side of the kitchen island, making a dash towards the front door. Lexi doesn’t see him coming at her as he shoves a leg out and trips her up, sending her crashing to the floor with a hard thump, her left arm protesting in pain.
She pushes her hands under her and tries desperately to rise onto her hands and knees, trying quickly to gain her footing as he grabs the back of her slacks, trying to pull her back to him. Through it all he’s said nothing, no cursing, no hate filled words; he just grunts and growls like an animal. It makes this attack all the more frightening. She manages to rise despite his grip on her slacks. She turns again and this time her fist connects with his jaw.
His hand lets go of her slacks as he stands, momentarily stunned by my girl’s punch. She goes for the open doorway again, screaming for help as she lunges forwards. He reaches out, quickly grabbing her long trailing hair behind her, stopping her escape. But she is close enough to the small table to the left of the door. She reaches out to grab the large crystal vase she has sitting there and, after a prayer to God for help, she uses her whole body to swing around fast, aiming the solid piece of glass at his head.
It connects with a dull crunch.
&n
bsp; They both stumble to the floor, and he’s shaking his head, trying to get back on his feet as Lane suddenly comes through the doorway like a freight train and rams straight into Mr. Stalker, sending them both sliding across the floor. When they come to a stop Lane is on top of this creep and starts pummelling his face with his fists.
Lexi grabs her phone and dials for help, quickly explaining the situation before dropping the phone and rushing over to Lane.
“Lane, please! Stop! He’s not moving, baby, he’s not moving. You’ve stopped him, he can’t hurt me now!”
Lane looks up at my girl before staggering to his feet and grabbing Lexi, hugging her tight to him.
“Oh baby, are you okay? I was so freaking scared when I saw the smashed pin pad out front and came running up, but when I heard you scream, I don’t know, I just saw red! What did I do, I don’t remember anything after I saw you on the floor. Fuck baby, I’m so freaking sorry I wasn’t here, please tell me you’re okay.”
“Oh Lane. I thought it was you at the door and that your call must have finished early or something, so I didn’t check the peep hole like every other damned time and when I opened the door … I … I …” She sobs.
“It’s okay, baby, you’re safe now, I’ve got you and you are never leaving my sight again.”
As Alexis falls apart in Lane’s arms, sirens can be heard in the distance.
“Fuck baby! Fuck, fuck, fuck! I’m so sorry we weren’t here, so very fucking sorry. Are you okay baby? Did that fucker hurt you or my girl?”
“No Eight, he didn’t hurt us, just scared the living hell out of us. We still don’t know what he was after. He never spoke, he never uttered one single word. It was the creepiest feeling ever. But she fought back, babe, oh she fought so fucking hard. I’m so freaking proud of her right now. But she’s in shock and her body is staring to shake. She’ll not get over this easily, baby, and … neither will I.”
As both Alexis and I fall apart in our men’s embrace, the police come charging through the door and the next few hours are a horrible, stressful, long ordeal.
After hours of questioning the attacker, Alexis and Lane and even the head of security that takes care of their office building, the police finally have a few answers. They’re calling it a case of deep obsession. Mr. Stalker had been watching Alexis for a lot longer than she’d even realised. When she didn’t seem to notice him, he started waiting outside the front of her building, morning and night, watching her come and go. When she first smiled politely at him, he thought it was true love, but shortly after that she started to ignore him and that’s when his thoughts turned dark and violent.
Apparently he confessed to what looked like an attempted break in at their office and admitted it was to get her attention. He also later admitted to the attack down the laneway, saying he only wanted to talk to her. But it was when Lane and Alexis started walking hand in hand every day that he really stared to lose it. He admitted a few times to sneaking past security in their lobby and making his way up the stairwell in hopes of bumping into her, but he could never find her office.
When he did discover which company she worked for he started leaving messages, but by then, security got tougher and he couldn’t get into the building. One day he overheard Alexis’s boss giving her mobile number to an associate outside of the building and decided to unsettle her by constantly calling and not talking. When asked by the police why he was so obsessed with Alexis, he stated because she looked too good for him and he wanted to prove to her that she wasn’t. He was taken away for psychological testing and a date for a court case would be made soon.
Alexis is not handling the situation very well at the moment; her shaking is getting worse and Lane has been pleading with the officer in charge to please let him take her home. Finally at around midnight they are told they can leave, but the officer says he will need to speak with them sometime the next day. Lane arranges a time for him to stop by his apartment and quickly walks Lexi out of there and into a waiting cab to head back to his place.
On the way he sends off a quick joint text to their friends, letting them know what happened, but pleading with them to give Alexis until tomorrow afternoon before coming over to check on her. They arrive at Eureka Towers and Lane helps Alexis out of the cab. They walk through the lobby and past the night security officer before getting into the lift. Once in, my girl’s legs buckle and she falls into a wracking fit of sobbing.
Lane scoops her up into his arms and holds her tightly, rocking her, soothing her with words of love. When they reach their floor and head into their apartment, Lane heads straight for his bedroom, crawls onto the bed with Lexi still in his arms, and lies them both down, Alexis clawing to get closer to him as he drags her in and tucks her head under his chin. Both of them are in tears at the possibilities of what the night could have brought.
“Hot Lips, baby, are you doing okay?”
“I’m not sure, baby. I feel scared and saddened that something like that happened to my girl, happened to us, but I just knew that Alexis would be able to fight him off. I was confident that the arsehole wasn’t going to hurt her as badly as he may have intended to. I’m so freaking proud of her that it’s making it all not so bad. Is that confusing?”
“No my love, it’s not. Yes, it was a horrible thing to have happened, but you are right to be proud of our girl. She is a strong woman, a woman that will never be without Lane’s love, ever.”
“Oh baby. Don’t let go of us tonight, please.”
“I won’t baby. Not tonight, not tomorrow night, and not a single night after that. I’ll hold onto you forever.”
“I love you, Eight.”
“Love you too, baby.”
My boy can’t sleep. The thought of anything that resembles sleep makes his heart and stomach clench harder than a dying man’s hand. All he sees anytime he closes his eyes is that bastard, that bastard and his hands on our girl. I honestly cannot fathom how Lane didn’t crush the bloke’s skull; the shimmering madness that was in his eyes just crushed anything that even whispered mercy, yet, when Lexi called out, her voice sliced through everything as he heard his name slip across her lips, and he stopped near instantly. My boy’s hands still ache, the dull throb in his knuckles makes his arms shiver as they continue to swell.
The police did warn us that the fucker may try and press charges claiming assault, although the officers, even the station chief said they’d do everything they could to uh … politely dissuade him from trying. Although reading between the lines, the officer that took their statements, who was luckily a friend of Benji’s, hinted at the possibility of the complaint files going for a walk about.
Yet despite it all, Lane still can’t sleep. Our girl squirms in his arms, fearful whimpering and frantic twitching jerks rolling through her as he tries to softly soothe the nightmares away.
“Shh, I’m here baby, nothing is going to hurt you anymore, I promise, sleep baby, sleep.”
“Eight …”
“Yeah baby?”
“Lexi isn’t doing well. These nightmares are terrifying, he keeps grabbing her, over and over. It’s the silence, there’s no noise in them, even when she smashes the vase against his head, there’s just silence. I don’t like it, Eight, please baby, make it stop.”
“Damn it baby, fuck, I’m not letting you go, you know that. Just please, baby, try and relax, they’re only nightmares. That freak is behind bars now; with all that Lane and the others had on him and what he admitted to, he won’t be seeing the outside of a six by eight square for quite a while. You need to help Lexi relax, baby.”
“I’ve tried, but all it’s done is make the dreams worse. I tried relaxing hormones and all it did was make that fucker seem stronger. She is so scared right now.”
“Damn it baby, I love you, I just wish there was something I could do.”
“Try sending out a scent to her, see if that helps, please baby.”
“Okay, hold on.”
“No, no, don’t, no,
get away, leave me alone, no.”
“Lexi, baby, it’s just me, it’s Lane, come on baby, wake up.”
“Huh, no, no, Lane, help.”
“Lexi baby, I’m here, no one else, only me.”
“Lane, God, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Tomorrow’s a new day and the nightmares will be gone before you know it, and that is all it was, just a nightmare.”
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“Hey, come on, enough of that, just snuggle in tight, baby. I’m never leaving you, no matter what happens, you’re safe with me.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too Lexi, now relax, you’re safe with me.”
“Mmm, I know.”
On Monday, Lane is there, hovering and overly attentive, his mind racing as he second guesses everything he does. It would drive me nuts, but then again, I already have two of those so I guess this comes with the territory. Through it all, Lexi seems her bright bubbly self, but Hot Lips and I know the truth all too well, as does Lane. Just below the surface sits everything that psycho pried loose.
Lane’s phone buzzes in his pocket, my head vibrating. Any other time I would find it arousing but now, well, I don’t think a boner would help Lane’s situation, let alone Lexi’s.
“Baby, you sure you want to head back into work? Woody would be more than happy to let you have the time off for as long as you want or need it.”
“No Lane, no. I’m not letting that obsessed arsehole mess with my head or my life. I’m going into work no matter how hard it is.”
“Baby, I fucking love the no guts no glory attitude, but seriously, I have been in this sort of mindset and I just want you to be sure you’re ready. I’ll be by your side no matter what happens.”
“I know Lane, I know, I love you too and thank you, baby. I cannot tell you what it means to have you with me right now; I don’t think I would trust anyone else to be near me at the moment.”
“I know. Right, if we are going to do this baby, well, we need to go now. But, before we do this, I want you to know one thing, Lexi … you are the love of my life, and everything to me, so, no matter what happens today or any other, I’m going nowhere without you.”