Pinch Me [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations)

by Tymber Dalton

  He winced. “Sorry, sis. I’m not used to the fact that I’m going to be an uncle yet.” He drove. “Where to?”

  She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. “What time is it?”

  “Noon.”

  “Let’s go to Rob’s station.”

  “I need directions.”

  * * * *

  They found Rob at the station. He was happy to see them until he got a good look at Laura’s expression. “What’s wrong?”

  “We need to talk,” she said quietly.

  Rob looked at Bill. Bill shook his head. No help there.

  Rob took her hand. “Come on.”

  Bill followed them inside and sat in the lounge to watch TV. The captain let them use his office, where Rob sat her down.

  “Okay, tell me what’s wrong, baby girl. What did the doctor say?”

  Her tears finally broke through the shock and she sobbed, unable to speak.

  He put his arms around her, trying to soothe her. “Honey, please, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.” His imagination pictured the worse. Was it cancer? Was she dying?

  It took her several minutes to calm down enough to sniffle her answer against his shoulder, and he couldn’t understand what she said.

  “Sweetheart,” he whispered, “please. Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together. I love you. Tell me.”

  She sat up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Sir, I’m pregnant.”

  He stared at her, sure he misheard her. “You’re not sick?”

  She looked at him. “What?”

  “What did you say?” He must have misheard her, as upset as she was.

  “I’m pregnant, Sir,” she whispered. “About six weeks.”

  The words finally made it through to his brain and he felt his dread lift. He grabbed her hands. “We’re going to have a baby?”

  She nodded, and he grinned. “That’s fantastic!” He hugged her, “Jeez, I thought you were going to tell me you were dying! You scared the crap out of me! I should beat you on general principle just for that.”

  She finally laughed and managed to pull free. “No, Sir. Not dying.”

  “That’s great! A baby—” He processed the look on her face. “What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with it?”

  She shook her head. “No, Sir. Not that I know of.”

  Rob studied her and finally understood how upset she was. He lowered his voice and dropped into full-on Dom tone. “Baby girl, why do you look like you’ve received bad news?”

  She looked down at her lap. “Because we decided to wait, Sir.”

  “It’s okay.” He pulled her to him again. “It’ll be okay sweetheart. Don’t you still want to have a baby?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then tell me what’s wrong.”

  She shrugged. “I’m just… It was a shock, Sir. It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

  He kissed her. “Have you told anyone else yet?”

  “Bill was there when the doctor told me.” She barked out a laugh. “He mistook Bill for you and we had to explain he was my brother.”

  He caressed her cheek. “I love you so much. You have no idea.”

  She rested her head against him. “I don’t want to tell anyone else yet, Sir.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t mean not tell Shayla and our close friends, or Steve and Carol and Sarah. I just don’t want it to be public knowledge.”

  He studied her face. “Okay,” he agreed.

  * * * *

  Bill stood when they finally emerged from the office a few minutes later. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. Rob held her hand and walked them out to the car. He hugged her before opening the door for her. “Sweetheart, this is okay. This is good news.”

  She wished she felt the same. “I know.” She forced herself not to call him “Sir” in front of Bill.

  Rob held the door for her while she got in, and he leaned in and kissed her one last time. “Take it easy, all right? Don’t wear yourself out.” He closed the door and watched them pull out of the parking lot.

  “Where to, sis?”

  She sighed. “Let’s pull through somewhere, get something to eat, and take it to the shop.”

  There were no customers when they arrived at the shop. Steve put down the regulator he was working on when she walked in. “What’s wrong?”

  Bill laughed. “Who says anything’s wrong?”

  He frowned and pointed to Laura. “I’ve known this girl since she was a kid. What’s going on?”

  Laura shook her head. “Where’s Carol and Sarah?”

  “They’re out back. Why?”

  “I want to say this once and get it over with.” They took the food outside and found Carol and Sarah at the table.

  “Honey,” Carol said, “what’s wrong?”

  Bill shook his head. “Does everyone have this weird psychic stuff?”

  “About her, yes,” Sarah said. “What’s wrong?”

  Laura sat and started to unwrap her burger. “I’ve got something I need to tell you all. And you can’t tell anyone. It needs to be between just the three of you. Bill knows, obviously. And Rob.”

  “What is it?” Steve asked.

  She looked at him. “I’m pregnant.”

  Sarah grinned. “That’s great!” She studied Laura, her smile fading. “That’s not great? Why do you look upset?”

  Laura glared at her. “Psycho guy after me. Sort of preempts the baby buzz.”

  “Oh. Yeah.” She looked at the table. “You’re right.”

  Carol patted her arm. “This will be fine, honey. I’m sure. But why don’t you want anyone to know?”

  “What if it sets this psycho off?”

  “Oh.”

  They all fell silent. Steve finally spoke. “Well, you’re dry-docked for the duration. We’ll need to come up with a story for a while. But it’ll be awfully hard to hide a baby bump once you start to show.”

  “I already thought about it. We can tell people I’ve got a perforated eardrum. That’ll explain me being sick to my stomach, blame it on vertigo. That’ll get me through a few months. Hopefully this creep will be in custody by then.”

  “What about Cody? You don’t want to tell him or the others?” The boat captain was a friend, but she didn’t trust him or the others to keep her secret. They might likely reveal it accidentally, not intentionally.

  She shook her head. “Not yet. Not right now. The fewer people that know, the better.”

  * * * *

  The next email arrived one Wednesday afternoon after Bill had returned to Montana and while she was home alone. Rob was at work, just starting two days on duty.

  A little stork told me you and your man have been busy. The more, the merrier.

  Laura ran for the bathroom. She collapsed in front of the toilet, sick, sobbing. Twenty minutes later, she finally pulled herself together and called Det. Thomas. He wasn’t in, but she left a voice mail and he called her back a few minutes later.

  “He knows I’m pregnant. How can he know that?”

  Thomas was quiet for a long moment. “Maybe he’s someone close to you. We need to reinvestigate—”

  “No. You ruled out everyone around me the first time. We know it wasn’t Rob or Steve or Cody. It wasn’t any of my friends. It damn sure wasn’t my brother. This guy has got to be local.”

  Thomas went quiet again. “Laura, maybe it would be best if you left town for a while.”

  Rage washed through her. “No! I am not putting my life on hold again for this son of a bitch. He ran me off once, he’s not doing it again. I want him to come after me once and for all so I can put a fucking bullet in his head!”

  “You need to calm do—”

  “Calm down? How dare you! You’re not the one being stalked. You have no idea what I’m going through.”

  “No, you’re absolutely right, I don’t, but getting this upset isn’t good for you or the baby.”

  She fell
silent. He was right, of course, but she didn’t want to admit it.

  “Did you tell Rob yet?”

  “He’s at work. I don’t want to worry him.”

  “You need to call him.”

  “No. There’s nothing he can do.”

  “I’ll get Hutchinson working on the latest email. Call Rob.” He hung up.

  She stared at the phone, trembling. She wanted this over with, wanted the bastard out of their life.

  I can’t even enjoy my pregnancy in peace.

  Finally, she called him. She almost hoped it’d go to his voice mail, but he answered.

  “What’s up, baby girl?”

  She broke down crying and it took her several tries to get the story out. “Calm down,” he said. “I want you to pack. I’m going to call Sully.”

  When she tried to argue with him, he overruled her. “Stop,” he said, taking Dom tone with her. “Are you listening to me?”

  He didn’t raise his voice. In fact, he lowered it, forcing her to listen. “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good girl. Go pack. I’ll call Sully. Then call Seth and have him come get you and drive you up to Sully’s. You be ready to go when he gets there.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Did you hear me?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Are you going to obey me?”

  “Yes, Sir. But what about Doogie?” He weighed nearly a hundred pounds and still acted like a puppy.

  “Let me worry about Doogie. I will call you back in five minutes, and you’d better be getting packed.”

  She wanted to break down crying again and knew she wouldn’t—couldn’t—disappoint him. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good girl. Love you.”

  “Love you, too, Sir.”

  When he called her back five minutes later, she was already halfway packed and Sully had okayed her bringing Doogie with her to their house.

  Two hours later, Seth was pulling his truck into Sully, Mac, and Clarisse’s Tarpon Springs driveway.

  Clarisse hurried down the steps first and engulfed Laura in a tearful hug as soon as she stepped from the truck.

  “Hey, momma,” Clarisse said as she laid her hand on Laura’s tummy. “How you doing?”

  “I’ve had better days.”

  Mac had made his way downstairs, with Sully behind him.

  “Go on,” Seth said. “We’ve got your bags.” He grabbed Doogie’s leash as the dog tried to lunge out of the cab and head for the bushes. “And I’ll walk the moose.”

  “Thanks, Seth.”

  Clarisse hooked her arm through Laura’s as Mac and Sully walked over to her.

  “Hey, sweetie,” Sully said.

  “Hey.” She burst into tears as the three of them gathered around her in a hug.

  “It’s okay,” Clarisse softly said. A hard edge crept into her friend’s voice. “You have your gun, right?”

  Laura gave a tearful laugh. “Yeah. I’m afraid Sully and Sir would both spank me if I didn’t.”

  “Might make me go a little switchy myself,” Clarisse admitted. “You keep that on you, even here. Okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  Seth rejoined them, a more subdued Doogie now walking on a slack lead. “Who gets this guy?”

  Mac smiled and reached for the leash. “I think Bart’s going to have his paws full trying to dominate this guy.”

  “Oh, my god,” Laura said. “Please don’t let Doogie chew any butt plugs!”

  * * * *

  Laura stayed with her friends for a week, spending time at the local gun range with Sully and improving both her aim and her confidence with her gun. When no more emails from the stalker arrived, she begged Rob to let her come home.

  He finally relented and came to get her. He had three days off on rotation, and they spent it locked in the house, making love, curled in bed together, and watching TV.

  Rob didn’t want her to return to work, but finally gave in on that point, too. Laura tried to hide the worst of her morning sickness from everyone. It wasn’t easy. She had to stay home until well past noon every day, usually when her stomach decided to behave.

  As the weeks passed with no new emails from MedicineMan, there was still no sign of her missing journals. She’d scoured the laptop, Rob’s computer, her desktop, and even Rob’s personal laptop to no avail. They weren’t on the shop computer, they weren’t in Dropbox. Wherever she put them, they were well hid. Either she kept the file in some place she had yet to discover, or she’d deleted it by mistake.

  It didn’t seem plausible she’d stop journaling, but she finally had to let go of her need to find them. If she found them, she found them. It was consuming far too much of her energy.

  Her pregnancy was four months along now, and while still on edge, MedicineMan’s absence allowed her to resume some semblance of a normal routine. She was in the dive shop one Saturday afternoon when the boat returned from a dive.

  Don Kern was listed as one of the passengers.

  Shit. She hadn’t checked the manifest.

  When he spotted her he acted friendly but not creepy. Even better, he was holding a woman’s hand. “Laura, this is my girlfriend, Tammy.”

  Whew. Apparently he’d found a happier hunting ground than the staff at Lemon Bay Dive. “Nice to meet you,” Laura said with a genuine smile as she shook hands with the woman. “I hope we see a lot of you around here.”

  The woman beamed a radiant smile at Kern. “I hope so, too. This has been so much fun!”

  Laura wasn’t allowed to lift tanks. She couldn’t dive. She couldn’t work on regulators because of the risk of exposure to cleaning chemicals.

  She couldn’t do much, it felt like. In the office, she pulled her iPad from her purse. Rob and Steve both said she’d used it a lot…before. But she hadn’t found much use for it other than reading the older journal files Bill had loaded on it for her. She didn’t like browsing the Internet on it, no matter what Rob and Steve told her she’d done, because her laptop had a larger screen.

  Sarah was in the middle of doing a replenishment order on the office computer and Laura didn’t want to make her move. She sat at the other desk and, with the iPad and its little portable Bluetooth keyboard, she started working on her novel after using Dropbox to download the latest backup copy.

  Sarah stepped out of the office to check inventory levels on a couple of things for the order.

  Laura needed to look something up on the Internet, but still didn’t want to disturb Sarah’s order. She clicked on the pull-down of sites to find a quick link for Google and saw a list of other frequently visited websites.

  She froze as she studied it. One of the listed links was a site called www.classfriends.link.

  Why does that sound familiar?

  She closed her eyes, feeling dizzy, and grabbed at the edge of the desk to steady her. This was maybe the second time she used the Internet on the iPad since the attack.

  Since before.

  She figured out how to access the browser history. Sure enough, the last time she’d accessed that site was the day before the attack.

  Then she accidentally hit the Home button and the main screen appeared. One of those hunches hit her, the kind that recent experience told her was maybe more of a memory than a hunch. She swiped through the menu screens until she found what she was looking for.

  An icon for the Evernote app.

  With trembling fingers, she tapped it.

  No wonder she’d never found the journals. She didn’t find her journals on the computers because they weren’t on the computers—they were stored here, on her iPad, via Evernote. She could have accessed them from anywhere if she’d had it installed on the other computers.

  She closed her eyes and swore. The Evernote app had been on her phone, and early on she’d had Bill delete it and anything else she wasn’t sure how to use.

  Fuck. All this time there they were, waiting for her to find them.

&
nbsp; She immediately exported everything into a document and sent it to her iPad so she could read it. She scanned ahead to the days before the attack, and other than a notation about signing up for the Classfriends site, there was nothing that would help.

  Tear stung her eyes. She had been so sure, so certain that she’d find the answer there. Still nothing.

  The final entry was at 1:14 p.m. the afternoon of the attack.

  Doogie’s getting snipped. I get to bring him home tomorrow morning. Poor guy, but he needs it. We should be getting our wedding invitations from the printer any day now. I can’t wait! This is really happening. I’ve met Prince Charming. Well, my handsome Sir.

  He’s not an ugly toad, either.

  I think I’m looking forward to the collaring even more than I am our wedding. And it’s pointless to stay in the condo. I want to start moving all my stuff to the house. I’m going to surprise him with the news this weekend, over a candlelight dinner. I’ve got it all planned…

  The memory returned. Not of the attack, but of writing that entry. How happy she’d been, making her shopping list, even the music she wanted to play on the stereo. Remembering how deeply in love she felt that afternoon.

  And upset that, after all these months, there were still no more answers.

  Steve entered the office and found Laura sobbing over the iPad. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

  She pointed to the device. “I found the missing journals. They don’t tell me shit.”

  He turned her chair to face him. “Sweetheart, you knew it might not give you any information.”

  “I was so sure it would.” Steve held her, let her cry against him. Sarah heard the commotion and walked in, closed the office door behind her, and sat with them.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Steve told her. “Did it trigger any memories?” Sarah asked.

  Laura finally sat up and shook her head. “Not of the attack. I thought it would. I thought for sure it would answer everything and I would know who did this to me.”

  The weather radio alarm sounded, blasting its warning tone and startling them, announcing a marine thunderstorm warning.

  “Looks like the boat returned just in time,” Steve said. “We’ll have to cancel some charters this week if that latest tropical depression spins up our way.”