“My shoe? Do you have a foot fetish, Annie?”
“Please, Deidra, we just need to see your foot, okay?” Trudie asked.
“You too, please, Krystal,” Annie requested.
“Uh, sure. Okay.” Deidra sat down on the chair at the kitchen counter. “This is really weird,” she said as she pulled her tennis shoe off and then her sock.
“I find it a bit provocative,” Krystal stated lustfully.
“May I touch your foot, Deidra?” Trudie asked, holding her hand out.
Deidra shrugged and nodded.
Trudie inspected her foot, as she had done with Noella. A moment later, she shook her head. “It’s never been broken,” she said to Annie.
“I could have told you that,” Deidra complained as she put back on her sock.
“Here, touch mine, too, Trudie,” Krystal insisted, pulling off her sandal.
Trudie rubbed her foot and Krystal made moaning noises. “All right, silly. Your foot is perfect,” Trudie assured her.
“But of course,” Krystal bragged. “So, as much as I love playing footsy, what’s this all about?”
“Trudie broke the stalker’s foot, so as a precaution…” Annie explained.
“They’re checking everyone,” Noella volunteered. “Everyone except… Annie. The stalker came back right after you showed up. In fair play, I think I should inspect your foot, Annie.”
Jeff and Krystal laughed, Annabelle became indignant, and Deidra just looked confused, as Annie removed her boot and sock, and held her foot out.
“All right, but Trudie has to do it, not you.”
Trudie grinned and took Annie’s foot in her hands, caressing and massaging it. “Nope, no broken bones, but I’d better check one more time.”
Too late, Noella realized that she had just given Annie a gift.
That evening, after everyone had gone home, Trudie, Annie, and Annabelle sat at the dining room table, eating a wonderful meal that Annabelle had prepared. Trudie had volunteered to cook, but Annabelle wanted to pay her back for her kindness, and she felt that cooking was the least she could do. Annie set the table while Trudie poured the drinks. The conversation covered a wide scope of topics, from art, to Trudie’s new book, to the Air Force. As they put away the leftovers and hand washed the dishes, the topic of who sleeps where came up. Trudie insisted that Annabelle sleep in her room, Annie sleep in the guest room, and she would take the couch.
“I won’t hear of it,” Annabelle declared. “We’ve invaded your home and intruded on your privacy. The couch will be good enough for us.”
Trudie shook her head. “I assure you, most nights I sleep on the couch just so I can fall asleep under the stars.”
“Mom, you take the guest room,” Annie insisted. “I’ll be fine here on the couch. I’ve slept here before, you know.”
“Oh, that’s right. When Trudie was sick. Honey, you could sleep with me, I don’t take up much room.”
“Uh, no, Mom. I think you would be more comfortable without me in the way.”
“Yes, Annabelle, please take the guest room,” Trudie urged. And Annie can sleep with me.
“All right, if you insist. I am rather tired.”
“Are you feeling all right, Mom?” Annie asked concernedly.
“I’m fine, honey. It’s just been a stressful day for all of us, and we all could use a good night’s rest.”
“Oh, I agree with your mother, Annie.”
“Absolutely. You two turn in, I’ll finish up here. Mom, be sure to shut your door so that you don’t wake up with a cat on your face.”
Annabelle laughed. “Thanks for the tip, honey. I’m sure I won’t hear a thing tonight, as tired as I am,” Annabelle said with a whimsical look in her eye. “I’ll just freshen up in the bathroom and be off to bed then. Goodnight, girls.”
“Goodnight,” Annie and Trudie said in unison.
As soon as they heard the bathroom door shut, Annie and Trudie embraced in a kiss that had them competing against each other to see who could kiss the deepest.
“God, I want you so bad, Trudie. But I can’t. I’m sorry. It would just feel weird with my mother here.”
“I agree. I hate that I agree, but you’re right.”
“Just a few more days. We can hold off that long… can’t we?”
“I’m not making any promises,” Trudie teased.
“How about a good night kiss before you go?” Annie asked.
Trudie caressed Annie’s cheeks with her hands and looked at her lips a moment before she kissed them. Unlike the last kiss, this one was a slow burning, sensual kiss, titillating as it was tantalizing. Suggestive as it was seductive. Romantic as it was erotic.
Annabelle came out of the bathroom and into the guest bedroom, bringing the two women back from the point of no return.
Chapter Twenty-one
It had been a very restless night for two of the three women in Trudie’s apartment. Only Annie had a good night’s rest because she was catching up on the lack of sleep over the past few days.
Trudie’s night started out sleepless as she tossed and turned thinking of Annie just down the hallway. Sometime after midnight, she had to use the bathroom, and on her way back to her room, she decided to steal a glance at Annie. She tiptoed into the living room and looked down at Annie, sleeping soundly on the couch. One long, muscular leg had found its way out from under the blanket, and it took everything Trudie had, not to run her fingers up the smooth leg, across the strong thigh, and over the moist heat of her cleft.
Instead, she crawled in beside Annie and laid her head on her shoulder, and her hand across her stomach. Annie woke up, but she didn’t say anything. She kissed the top of Trudie’s head and wrapped her arm around her. Soon she was softly snoring again.
For the first time in three years, Trudie felt safe. Not only safe, but loved. For the first time in three years, Trudie slept like a baby without a care in the world.
“Good morning, princess,” Annie said. “Did you decide to wake up finally?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t want to wake up. I was having the most wonderful dream that we slept together on my couch, and…” Trudie propped herself up on an elbow and looked at Annie. “It wasn’t a dream. How wonderful.”
“Yeah, I thought I was dreaming, too, when I woke up and found you in my arms. And then, when I realized you were still asleep, I didn’t want to move in case it would break the spell.”
“All right, love birds,” Annabelle said from the kitchen counter. “Who wants breakfast?”
“Mom? Mom!” Annie craned her neck toward the kitchen. “How long have you been up?”
“I’m on my second cup of coffee, if that tells you anything,” Annabelle said jovially.
“I promise we didn’t do anything, Mrs. Nichols,” Trudie assured her.
Annabelle laughed. “Then why aren’t you calling me Annabelle like I asked you to?”
“Because I’m embarrassed and because I don’t want you to think less of me,” Trudie explained.
“Oh, honey. I was only playing with you,” Annabelle clarified. “There’s no reason to be embarrassed, and I could never think less of you for loving my daughter and wanting to be with her. Trust me, if I disapproved of you, I would have said something before Annie brought me here.”
“You are so kind, Annabelle.” Trudie’s eyes welled up. “As hard as it was yesterday, having you both here has just been so wonderful.”
Annie rubbed her thumb over Trudie’s wet cheek. “Aw, baby, don’t cry.”
Trudie smiled at her. “I never thought I could be this happy again, Annie. It’s a bit overwhelming.”
“Trudie.” Annabelle drew her attention, “when it’s good, let it overwhelm you. Absorb it into your heart so that later, you can remember how good it felt.”
“Gee, Mom, when did you get so philosophical?”
“When you said it would be all right to see Donny socially,” Annabelle replied. “I realized you were right, honey. Why sho
uld I deny myself another chance at happiness? Just as I don’t want Trudie to deny herself anymore.”
“Don’t worry about that, Annabelle. I tried, but Annie wouldn’t take no for an answer, thank God.”
Annie shook her head. “Yeah, well, you remember that when we’re old and gray and I have to have my way.”
“That sounds wonderful. Up until just now, I would not allow myself to dream the impossible.”
“Oh, it’s possible, baby,” Annie assured her. “We just have one little obstacle in our way that we have to take care of first.”
“The stalker,” Trudie said dejectedly.
“Nope, not that. Breakfast. I’m starving.”
Trudie swatted Annie’s arm, and Annie pushed her down on the couch and began tickling her until she squealed.
*
Where is she? Why can’t I see her, damn it? The stalker aggressively paced back and forth in front of the wall of photographs of Trudie. Then they pounded the keyboard in front of the computer, expecting to see Trudie’s desktop, agitated when they didn’t. Pacing again, they ended up in front of Annie’s pictures. The photo that had the knife run through it lay on the floor where it fell when the stalker pulled the weapon from the wall.
The knife had been a gift that the pursuer at first sneered at because they loathed cooking. Now, the knife had taken on a life of its own. An eight-inch chef’s knife, the blade forged in stainless steel, with a razor-sharp edge, now sat on a wooden, mahogany display stand on the stalkers desk. It still had a single, dark red, dried drop of Annie’s blood on the blade.
The pursuant suddenly stopped pacing. They picked up their phone, plugged in the voice changer, and tapped in a number. “I need you to work your magic again, no questions asked. I need a laptop with the same spyware that you used on the last laptop I bought, and I need it delivered to Trudie Youngblood… What? Yes of course, a thousand dollars upon delivery, plus costs… As fast as you can today… All right, another five-hundred, but get it there today!”
*
Late that afternoon, sitting around a square card table set up in the living room, Annie, Trudie, Annabelle and Donny were playing a game of gin rummy. Donny playfully accused Annie of dealing from the bottom of the deck. Annabelle backed him up on it.
“As a child, Annie would always cheat at card games,” she divulged.
“And not just card games, board games, too,” Donny added.
Unfazed by their teasing, Annie shook her head. “Uh, as I recall, Uncle Donny, you’re the one who taught me how to cheat. I learned by example.”
“Donny, you didn’t?” Annabelle asked, smacking him on the arm playfully.
Donny smiled at her. “I plead the fifth.”
Trudie looked around the table, a warm feeling of comfort in her heart. Please let this be forever.
A knock at the door ended their conversation. Lucy, who had been sleeping in her bed by the door, looked up, but didn’t suggest anything was wrong. Annie kept her hand on her gun, just the same.
“A package for you, Ms. Youngblood,” Javier said into the two-way microphone. “It’s a laptop.”
Annie bolted for the door. “Who delivered it?” she asked Javier.
“A kid, probably nineteen or twenty, with blond hair, wearing a windbreaker, and jeans, and on inline skates. He just left,” Javier reported without taking a breath.
“Roger that,” Annie said as she ran down the stairwell, three steps at a time.
Annie knew that if the kid was wearing skates she had mere seconds to close the distance before he disappeared around a corner. She didn’t think the stalker knew about Javier, and Annie was kicking herself for not instructing him to detain all deliverers. A rookie mistake that she would not soon repeat. Bursting out of the front door of the building, she did a quick 180 and spotted a kid skating down the sidewalk at a casual pace. He stopped at the crosswalk and waited for the light to change. Annie caught up to him and grabbed his arm roughly.
“Who sent you?” she demanded.
“Who are you? Let me go!” he shouted, fighting to break free.
Annie realized people were eyeing her suspiciously, and she changed her tone instantly. Digging into her jeans pocket, she pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and showed it to the kid. He calmed down immediately.
“I’ll give you this twenty if you tell me who sent you to deliver that package to number seven.”
“I don’t know who it was.”
“Then how did you get the package?”
He shrugged. “I got a phone call, the package was waiting for me at the usual place with my money and an address to deliver it to.”
Of course, a blind drop, damn it. “How did they contact you initially?”
“How else, the Internet,” he said, as if it should have been obvious.
Damn it! The Internet was a safe haven for criminals who wanted to protect their identity and location. There was even an app for that to block their IP address. “All right, here,” Annie started to hand him the twenty, then pulled it back again. “If you ever deliver anything to that address again, I’ll have you beaten up by that offensive lineman you just met. Got it?”
The boy nodded nervously, and Annie handed him the money. He skated away as fast as he could, almost knocking over several people in his haste.
Annie went back to the condo and as soon as she got off the elevator, she asked Javier to detain the delivery person from now on as well as check the packages. Javier accepted that Annie was his boss now, too, because she was much more demanding than the other woman, and seemed to know her stuff.
“Everything all right, Annie?” Trudie asked the second Annie walked through the door.
“Yes. I talked with the delivery kid and he was a dead end. He doesn’t know who requested the delivery; it was all very well-orchestrated.”
“Why did they send me a laptop?”
“My guess is that they bought our act about your computer not working, so they sent a replacement,” Annie theorized. “Was there a note or anything with it?”
“A note with the same old drivel,” Trudie replied, handing Annie the note. “It was laying on the keyboard when we opened it up.”
My darling, it appears your computer isn’t working. I miss you too much to wait on repairs, so here is a replacement. Come to me, my darling.
“By the way, Annie, don’t ever call me darling. I might inadvertently take a swing at you,” Trudie warned her seriously.
“I would completely understand, baby, but you are a darling, nonetheless.”
Trudie threw a fake punch that Annie caught in her hands, and kissed her small knuckles.
“So what’s next?” Donny asked.
“Next Trudie calls Hollywood and connects with that scriptwriter guy. Then I go see Trudie’s PCP, Dr. Bowman.”
“You really think you can get the doctor to take her shoe off?” Annabelle asked.
“She will if she wants to show her innocence,” Annie responded.
“Honey, she’s been my doctor since before I became famous. I doubt she’s my stalker.”
Annie shook her head. “I’ve done a lot of research on this, Trudie, and it’s rare for a celebrity like you to be stalked because you’re a personality with a large fan base. Eighty-five percent of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know. Also, over sixty percent are stalked by a former or current intimate partner.”
“Like Noella?”
“Exactly. I could tell she was in love with you, that’s why I was so sure she was your stalker. I’m glad she wasn’t.”
“Me, too,” Trudie agreed. “She’s been a good friend for many years.”
“What shocked me was when I read that over seven million people are victims of stalking yearly, just in the United States,” Annie concluded.
“My God, that’s a lot,” Annabelle exclaimed. “Why so many, do you think?”
Annie picked up the laptop. “Because the Internet has made it easy to hide behind a monitor to spy o
n people. Stalkers will use whatever method available to torment their victims.”
Trudie shivered at the thought of the peeping Tom watching her walk around without any clothes on. And when she had sex, right in front of the monitor. “Oh, God,” she exclaimed.
“Trudie, are you all right, honey?” Annabelle asked.
“Oh, um, yes, ma’am. Just having a painful flashback.”
Annie smiled knowingly and squeezed Trudie’s hand. “Don’t worry, that won’t happen again. And it goes without saying that you can’t use this laptop. Which brings us to the next suspect. Here, I’ve got a present for you,” Annie said, digging to the bottom of her jeans pocket and pulling out what looked like as USB flash drive.
“Thumb drive?” Trudie asked.
“Well, I can’t afford a ring right now, so this is the next best thing,” Annie said with a grin.
“You’d better be joking?” Trudie quipped.
“Of course I am. This isn’t a thumb drive; it’s a mobile hotspot. You can use it on my laptop to video chat with Hollywood or your parents. It’s not as powerful as your Wi-Fi, but it’ll get the job done, plus Davis gave it a unique name and password, and changed the encryption, disabling everything but the email and webcam. The webcam is how they hacked into your computer, so any use of this one must be brief, and the program shut down as soon as you’re finished. Also, disconnect the hotspot when you’re not using the laptop. Whew. That was a lot to take in. Any questions?”
“Did you understand anything you just said?” Donny asked cryptically.
Annie laughed. “No, not really. Just the part about making sure it’s offline when not in use.”
“Okay, let’s do this,” Trudie said, examining the stick.
Annie took her laptop and hooked everything up. Then she pulled up Skype and handed it to Trudie.
Trudie typed in the phone number and waited for Hollywood to answer. “Hi, Blake. Sorry to be calling unannounced but I’m having computer problems.”
“I understand, Trudie,” Blake replied. “We’re fine on this end right now. Everything is right on schedule, with no changes asked for.”
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