“Taylor, you’re the most prettiest girl at school… Phantom Menace comes out next week. Do you want to go see it with me?”
Chloe smiled on hearing that. And listened to him keenly as he continued.
“Taylor, I know every guy already asked you, but I wonder if you’d go to the senior prom with me. Taylor…there’s and excellent band playing at the student union. You’d like them, they play that Aerosmith song that you like and they are off-the-hook amazing. We should go.”
He was literally telling her all the times that he wanted to ask her out, and it broke Chloe’s heart that he’d felt that way for so long and never did anything about it.
“Taylor, I noticed you looked really sad today. I heard you hadn’t seen your brother in a while and I can see that you’re really worried. I’m sure he’s fine wherever he is. Do you want to talk about it over coffee and a muffin? The bakery across the street does the most amazing muffins. That would cheer you up.” He released a breath and slumped his shoulders.
“Why didn’t you ever ask her out properly?” Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.
Wes shook his head. “Look at me, Chloe. I’m a total geek. And look at her. She’s…”
Taylor was incredibly beautiful. Even now with her cuts and bruises she still managed to look good.
“You aren’t a geek.”
“I am,” he insisted. “And I’m so not her type.”
“That is ridiculous.” Chloe shook her head at him.
“Chloe, please don’t insult me. Remember I’ve seen them. They’re all good looking, all hulky with muscles on muscles and tattoos. The kind that would look at me and want to squash me like a bug.”
“Wes, you’re very handsome and just as good looking.” He was, he just didn’t see himself that way. He was tall and had that marathon runner look, so he probably had just the right amount of muscle. She supposed he was the complete opposite of the hulky type Taylor tended to go for, but Wes could hold his own in the looks department. Plus he had those cute freckles on his nose to complement the look, which she thought made him look even more intellectual.
“You say that because you’re my friend,” he retorted.
“I’m not just saying that,” Chloe winced. “And you should have just asked her out. Even once. She always thought you were adorable.” Chloe had heard Taylor say that herself.
“Yes, like a teddy bear,” he grimaced.
Chloe actually laughed. “No, not like a teddy bear.”
“Chloe, it’s fine. I know truth when I see it. I’m just not the kind of guy she’d go for.” He looked back at Taylor, stared at her for a few seconds, then said, “How about dinner sometime? We can go wherever you want.”
And, to their greatest surprise, Taylor squeezed his hand and held onto it.
Chloe gasped, pulling in a sharp breath. “Taylor,” she cried.
Taylor looked like she was waking up. Chloe watched her lips move.
“Wesss,” Taylor said. She actually spoke.
“Taylor, yes, it’s Wes. Wake up.” Wes smiled down at her, still holding onto her hand.
“I’m going to get the doctor.” Chloe rushed outside to the nurse’s station and got one of the doctors to come in and look at Taylor.
This was it, Chloe was hoping Taylor would wake up and everything would be okay.
The doctor checked her over and looked at the monitor on the wall that beeped at the beat of Taylor’s heart.
“Is she going to wake up?” Chloe asked in a rushed voice,
“I don’t know yet.” He bent low and took Taylor’s other hand. “Taylor, can you hear me? Wake up, sweetheart.” But there was nothing.
It was as if nothing had happened before, as if they’d imagined it. The doctor looked back to Chloe and Wes and offered a supportive smile.
“It’s not uncommon for coma patients to talk or reach out. I know it’s difficult and you get your hopes up, but we still need to give her some time to wake up properly and go in and out of sleep like she would normally.”
“But that was a good sign though, right?” Chloe felt herself faltering again, the little trace of hope she had receded.
“It’s a good sign.” The doctor nodded. “Fingers crossed she’ll wake up soon.”
Chloe looked over at Wes. He gave her a reassuring nod and a warm smile, trying to look positive.
She appreciated his attempts, but just wished Taylor would indeed wake up.
Wade
Wade couldn’t even be happy that Taylor had made some improvement yesterday.
The happiness lasted for a few hours, but was quickly eradicated when he woke this morning and once again found another envelope waiting for him. This was on the floor by the front door. It seemed that the person had pushed it through from underneath the door.
The drawing today was just of Chloe, sitting around her desk in the Closet yesterday at Runway. That was the office she shared with the creative team.
He saw it as a message that it didn’t matter what precautions he took, this person could get to his loved ones and there would be nothing Wade could do to prevent them. The picture told him that the person could reach them anywhere. He didn’t know how he didn’t go insane from his worries.
It was hard enough to believe that some damn weirdo had not only come into his house but had gotten close enough to draw him and Chloe together. Today’s drawing just added to the torture.
He’d thought that he’d have some peace of mind when he got the new security system installed, but clearly it wouldn’t help. Yes, for the house itself, but what about everywhere else?
He got the new system because the old system clearly had faults. To begin with, the alarm didn’t even go off when the psycho walked into the house, and the CCTV didn’t record anything. He’d watched it, and admittedly didn’t know if it was his fault it didn’t record, but there was a recording from during the day right up until midnight when they’d drifted off to sleep, and then the recording picked up at six a.m. He was under the impression that the thing was set to record all the time, but maybe he was supposed to set it to do that manually. He wasn’t sure, and thought the thing was a write off just on account of the alarm not going off.
He’d looked at the CCTV earlier hoping the new system would do better than the old one, but it hadn’t recorded anything or anyone that looked suspicious. All he saw was the image of the porch and the palm trees that ran along the front path. That made him wonder if the cameras outside needed repositioning.
He hadn’t had the chance to check it out yet because Chloe woke up just after he watched the footage and was in the kitchen making breakfast. He knew he annoyed her yesterday with his checking and overprotection and didn’t want to make her feel worse. She also looked weaker than she did yesterday, and frail. He could tell that she was really worried about Taylor. Last night she cried when they got back. He did his best to comfort her, but it hadn’t worked. She’d cried herself to sleep.
All he could do in regards to Taylor was try to keep positive and give Chloe whatever strength she needed.
For everything else, Wade had to take action.
He couldn’t allow something bad to happen to Chloe just because she was associated with him. It would be like Merissa all over again. He hadn’t had the chance to talk to his mother because of what had happened to Taylor, but he’d speak to her today.
Honestly, he thought the situation had reached a point where the police needed to get involved, and the best action he could take was reporting what was happening and getting people who were trained in these matters to help them.
The drawing of Chloe at Runway opened up a number of questions and concerns. As far as he knew, only staff and family members were allowed in that part of the building, and from the angle she was drawn at the person had to have been in the room with her. So…was it someone at Runway, someone who worked with Chloe? Someone who could be in the same room as her, and be there long enough to draw a picture of her without looking suspicious
?
He was determined to get down to the bottom of it because he couldn’t sit down and wait for something worse than drawings to surface.
Wade went into the kitchen to join Chloe. He took both her hands into his and kissed them. “Are you alright, baby?”
“I’m trying,” she replied in a soft voice. Her eyes were still puffy and red from last night’s tears. He hated to see her so upset, and he hated that he couldn’t do or say anything to make her feel better.
“It’ll be okay,” he assured her. “Remember how we were saying how strong Taylor is. Her vitals were already better when we left yesterday, her blood pressure was normal, heart rate normal and everything was improving.”
All Taylor needed to do was wake up. That was the part he was focusing on. The improvement she made yesterday had made him more positive. He just wished he was there to see her and not that damn Wesley.
Wade didn’t even know why Wesley felt the need to be there. He wasn’t aware of Taylor even speaking to him. Wade was sure Wesley was just there under the pretense of offering his support, but was really there to make himself look good in Chloe’s eyes. Wade could see straight through that dependable best friend shit. Wesley wasn’t going to fool him.
“I’m just scared, Wade.” Chloe sighed.
He returned his attention to her. “Baby, no. Don’t be scared.” He pulled her into his arms so she could rest against him.
This morning when he found the drawing he wondered if he should just come clean about the psycho, but now he was glad he didn’t. He was still hoping the situation could be handled without her knowledge.
Wade took Chloe to work like he did yesterday, and while there he stopped by his mother’s office. He knew his mother would be there because he’d told her that she wasn’t doing Taylor any favors by attaching herself to the hospital and running herself into the ground with worry.
He reminded her that Taylor needed her strength and the only way to rejuvenate was to rest and carry on as normal as possible. That meant going to the one place that gave her the most strength. Runway.
As he entered he saw her sitting behind her desk going through some files. She lifted her head and acknowledged him with that gentle smile he loved.
“Hey.” Her voice sounded weak. “Are you okay?”
“No, not really, Mom,” he sighed.
“What’s happened?” Her face clouded with worry.
He sat in the chair opposite her. “I have to talk to you about something. Is Brian around?”
Brian hadn’t left his mother’s side and Wade wasn’t sure how much he knew about what was going on. He also had the impression that something had gone down with his father.
Wade knew he’d been to the hospital, but just not at the same times as everyone else, so no one saw him. They went during visiting hours and Wade guessed he must have been turning up outside of that time.
“He had a meeting with his real estate in town. Has something else happened?”
Wade took out the papers with the two drawings and handed them to her. Her hands stilled when she saw what was on the paper.
This wasn’t the way that he wanted to tell his mother he was with Chloe, but what was happening preceded any formalities.
“I’m seeing Chloe Matthews; she’s my girlfriend. This crazy person is targeting her because of me.”
His mother looked up at him with sad eyes. “Wade, I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what to do, Mom. If anything happens to her—”
“No, don’t even say it.” She pressed her lips together and raked her fingers through her hair. “You know what Chloe means to me, and I couldn’t be happier to hear that you’re with someone as amazing as her. Rest assured that I won’t let anything happen to her.”
He admired the determination in her voice. “Thank you. But, Mom, I really think we need to contact the police. It’s getting worse, out of hand. We should contact them before something worse happens.”
“Yes. I agree. Can we wait until we speak to Gilly’s friend?” He remembered her mentioning that Gilly had someone looking into their situation. Wade knew Gilly was this super genius and had his ways of doing things, and most likely had friends with a few tricks up their sleeves, but he was still inclined to speak to the police. “I had to cancel our meeting yesterday because we were at the hospital. I’ll try to arrange something for tomorrow.”
Tomorrow.
That was a long time to wait when you were going insane with worry.
He’d had two drawings in the last two days. Anything could happen by tomorrow.
But, perhaps he could employ a little more patience and wait. In the meantime he thought he could do a little investigation of his own. He wanted to check out the Closet and see how this person could have gotten the chance to draw Chloe.
He thought perhaps he could check it all out later, after they were done at the hospital.
“Okay. Have you had any more letters or drawings?”
She shook her head. “I feel like this person, whoever they are, is just taking turns with us.”
“Like a damn game. Mom, how the hell did this happen?”
“Your father has many enemies. Many.”
Although his father was the revered state’s attorney, Wade knew all too well that he’d made a lot of enemies over the years. When you had so many people against you it was hard to narrow the list down to who hated you the most. Wade didn’t really know any specifics, but he had the feeling that his father had done terrible things. He’d get ear of different things every now and again, especially if there was anything political going on: elections, rallies, fundraisers.
As revered and esteemed as he was, there were some people who argued that he was corrupt. Wade was persuaded to agree as he’d had evidence of his corruption at home. Who knew what he was like outside? Wade had also seen things that didn’t make sense. Like criminals—serious criminals—getting lesser sentences, getting parole early, and even being placed on house arrest.
What made these criminals special was that they were all rich. There was a definitive favor towards the more affluent lawbreakers as opposed to the poorer offenders.
“We need to be sure that we’re safe and that we do our best to protect each other,” he stated.
His mother nodded in full agreement. “Yes. There’s a lot going on.” A troubled look came into her eyes. “Wade…there are other things I have to tell you. But I can’t tell you now.” Her hands started shaking and he wondered what could cause that effect on her. What more was there, aside from what was going on.
“What is it, Mom? Tell me now.”
She shook her head and a tear ran down her cheek. “I can’t, my love. It’s too difficult. But I will tell you soon, very soon I hope. Just bear with me.”
“Okay.” He nodded. His situation with Merissa came to mind. He wanted to talk about that, and finally tell someone all that had happened to him. He couldn’t talk now but thought he could give her a heads up. “I…have something to tell you, too. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to talk about it.” He pressed his hand over his face and swallowed the despair in his throat.
Her green eyes filled with concern as she observed him and she reached across the desk to take his hand. “It sounds serious, son.”
“It is, Mom, it really is. I messed up badly and it’s something I can never, ever fix.” His voice broke.
“Wade, what is it?” She studied his face. Two deep lines of worry appeared between her eyes.
He shook his head. “I can’t talk about it. Not now. There really is too much going on. I… I have tried so hard not to become like Dad, but more and more I see him in myself.”
“No Wade. You aren’t him. You are nothing like him.”
He appreciated her saying that. “I’ll believe that more if I can stop this person from drawing pictures of my girl.”
“You love her,” she said with a heartwarming smile.
“Yes. And, I wish it
didn’t take me forever to realize it.”
“Don’t worry, Wade.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
The office door burst opened and they both turned to see Gilly coming in. He looked flustered.
“Regina, hi Wade,” Gilly acknowledged him, trying not to look too agitated. Wade gave him a curt nod. “I’m sorry to disturb you guys. Regina, I have to talk to you urgently.” He glanced at Wade and looked extremely uneasy.
“It’s okay Gilly, we can talk in front of Wade.”
Wade appreciated her trust, and also her ability to switch back to the woman in control. He straightened up in his chair, gearing himself up to hear what Gilly had to say.
Regina
Gilly had only ever looked this disturbed when the news he bore involved Ben.
Having Brian around gave Regina a newfound strength to deal with Ben. It was assurance, too, because she was no longer alone. She had someone who could fight for her. Someone who wasn’t afraid of Ben. And, while she knew that their defiance wouldn’t go unpunished, it felt good to stand up to him for once.
Taylor’s improvement yesterday was also feeding her with strength. She just had to keep it up.
“I know what Ben’s up to.” Gilly raised the folder he carried that was so full of documents he had to put a rubber band around it to keep the papers from falling out.
“Tell me.” She grimaced, straightening up. Wade leaned forward and rested his elbow on the edge of the desk.
“I’ll start with the biggest part of the news.” Gilly cleared his throat. “Ben’s going to run for governor. In the next election he’s going to run for governor of the state.”
Wade sat forward. “Him?”
“Yes. And this is where we fit in. To run for governor, you have to have credibility and have a good financial standing. That helps dramatically to get supporting votes and for the campaign in general. I had a hunch about something the other day and it checked out. I discovered that since last summer the share prices in all of Ben’s software companies have been falling, and Fast Tech is on the brink of going bust.”
Secrets and Lies Page 5