by M. J. Perry
“If you tell me where she lives I’ll go ask her.”
“No. I mean we need to look into it without asking her. She could be lying to us.”
Jason knew she wouldn’t make up something so serious, well the old Grace wouldn’t have but he was still so pissed at her he found he couldn’t give her the benefit of the doubt.
“Why after all this time would she return and ask us for help with a made up problem? It makes little sense and I know Gracie wouldn’t do that.” Peter was sure she wouldn’t.
“The Grace we know is long gone. She changed the day she disappeared without even leaving a note. We need the facts first, and then we’ll decide what to do.”
“If she is telling the truth which I’m sure of then we’ll protect her and find the stalker.”
“Yes we will. Maybe then you’ll let go of the guilt you carry.” Jason said.
Peter grabbed his coat and pulled it on before he grabbed the car keys off the side. “I’m driving.”
“Sure lets go to the office then I’ll ring my contact at the police station to get the files on Grace if there is any.”
Peter shook his head. “Of course there are files Jason.”
****
Jason and Peter’s security office was just a couple of miles from home. Both of them have backgrounds in policing but had given it up when they’d found themselves sat behind desks doing paperwork instead of out arresting criminals. That’s when they decided to start their firm J.P. Security. They’d started out by being the occasion bodyguard and security when needed and they quickly became popular for being discreet. Now they have all sorts of cases from missing persons to burglaries, and they were busy enough to employ staff who they trusted and could count on.
When they got to the office Jason asked his source for all Grace’s files and they sat in stunned silence completely shocked at the extent of her problems. Not only had she been receiving love letters and chocolates she’d also had someone break into her home on a few occasions to leave underwear on her bed along with having rose petals thrown over the floor. This person had decorated her car with ribbon many times along with sending her flowers every Saturday. And all this had been going on for nearly two years.
“This is the reason she left us.”
“Yeah but I can’t understand why she didn’t come to us? We work in security for god sake.” Jason growled.
“There’s more to the story and we need to speak to her to find it out.”
“Fuck. She must be terrified. She’s put up with it for so long; it kills me she’s gone through it alone.”
Peter shrugged. He was so angry and confused. “The only way we will get answers is if we ask her ourselves.”
“She better tell us everything. I want no more fucking secrets.” Jason warned. He’d make sure he got the whole story from her and he wouldn’t let her get away this time. Grace had a lot to answer for.
Chapter Three
The knock on the door made Grace jump again. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting on the sofa staring into space but her body ached from being so tense. She groaned when she got up and made her way to the door. Looking through the peephole she wrung her hands when she saw Jason and Peter, she wasn’t sure she had the strength for more harsh words but they’d want to know why she’d left and she had to tell them, she owed them that much.
She opened all her locks and pulled the door open for them. Without saying a word to either of them she walked back to the sofa and sat down again. She missed the look that passed between them both when they caught sight of her pale, strained face because she was staring at her clenched hands.
Peter crouched in front of her and grabbed her cold hands in his. “What’s happened?” He asked her, his concern evident in his voice.
Wordlessly she pointed to the card still on the floor where she’d dropped it. Jason picked it up and when he saw the words he cursed. Peter squeezed her hands and got up to take the card from him so he could read it too, his jaw clenched before he turned to Grace.
“When did you get this baby?” He asked in a soft voice.
She looked at him with weary eyes. “They came just as I got home from your house. He saw me there; he must have seen me with you.”
Her sob escaped, and she looked away from them. She hated feeling weak but now things were worse because her sick stalker was threatening Jason again and she felt helpless. She wasn’t sure what to do.
“Gracie.” Jason called and when he had her attention, he carried on. “What does the card mean? What photograph?”
She sighed. “I’ll show you.”
She got up and walked to her spare room to get the box filled with all the gifts she’d ever got from her stalker. Everything except the flowers she received every Saturday. When she walked back into the room Peter stalked towards her and took the box from her arms.
“What’s this?” He gestured to the box he’d placed on her coffee table.
“My stalker box.”
“What?” Jason barked.
“Cards, love letters and photographs.” She explained.
She opened the top and dug to the bottom of the pile for the first photo she’d received and the only one burned into her brain. “Here.” She said and passed it to Jason’s waiting hand.
She heard his sharp intake of breath when he looked at the photo in his hand. It was a photograph of him with a red dot over his heart. It was freaky for him to see but he could see it scared Grace to death. He looked up quickly and caught her eyes.
“Is this the reason you left?”
“Yes.”
Peter looked over at the photo. “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” Jason agreed. He couldn’t have said it better himself.
“Grace. Look at me.” Peter demanded.
When she did, he moved to her and guided her into one of the kitchen chairs.
“We won’t let this happen. Jason won’t get hurt, neither will you Grace. We’ll find this guy and put him away.”
“How do you know that? I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened because of me. Oh god. What if he’s near, and he knows you’re with me?” Grace started to panic and Peter grabbed her face between his hands.
“Calm down.” He ordered. Her eyes were wild, and she looked like she was going to bolt right out the door.
“Grace. Nothing is going to happen to me.” Jason reassured her.
She shook her head and Peter let her face go. “You don’t know that. We don’t even know who this person is. He wants to hurt you because of me. I should leave again; maybe he’ll follow me and leave you alone.”
“You aren’t going anywhere.” Jason snapped. Both Grace and Peter looked at him surprised by the intensity in his voice. “You are not leaving. You will stay with us and we will keep you safe while we hunt this bastard.”
“But...” She started to object, but Jason didn’t let her finish.
“No.” He said firmly. Grace looked to Peter and the same determination was clear on his face, just like Jason’s. She knew she wouldn’t get any help there. She remembered what Jason had said to her this morning and got up to stand in front of him stiff and hurt.
“You believe me now when this morning you thought I’d just led on a determined admirer.” Jason nodded but said nothing.
She frowned. “Why?”
He sighed. “I did some checking.”
“You did some checking?”
“Yes.”
Grace flinched. “You wouldn’t take my word for it.” She stated. She wasn’t sure why she was so hurt because she’d already known this morning he didn’t believe her but hearing him say he checked up on her cut her deeply.
It was Jason’s turn to flinch. “Grace I’m sorry.”
She shook her head at his words. “Get out.” She whispered.
“No Grace. We need to sort this out.”
“I don’t want you here. Please leave.” She ordered on the verge of crying again.
“Ba
by, he’s right, we need to sort this out.” Peter gently ordered.
“Did you believe me?” She asked him. He didn’t answer, and she closed her eyes.
“We aren’t leaving you. You are going to sit down and tell us everything that’s happened. And that means before and after you left us.” Jason ordered.
“Fine,” She snapped. She would tell them and they could leave her like she wanted them to. And she wanted them to leave, didn’t she?
“Bring the box here; it’ll help with the explanations.” She said and sat on the sofa.
Peter went to get it while Jason sat next to her. He tried to take her hand, but she shook him off. He could understand her being hurt still but honestly what had she expected after what she’d done. If she’d told them what was going on at the time they could have caught the bastard and she’d be safe right now. They’d be married right now, maybe have a baby on the way. The ring he was going to ask her to marry him with was still in his night stand. She’s the one for him, that’s what pissed him off the most, knowing that she hadn’t believed in their love like he had. He’d been through hell not knowing where she was and again when he knew where she was but didn’t know if he could go and see her. He wasn’t a coward but the thought of going to see her and being rejected would have broken him so instead he kept an eye on her from a distance.
His pain is nothing compared to what she’s been through though, being close to her it’s easy to see the toll it’s taken on her, she’s thinner than she had been and she looked tired. She’d been dealing with this all alone. It proved how strong she was.
He wanted her back in his life and back in his bed but it would be on his terms this time. His heart couldn’t take any more pain. When he’d found out she’d gone his heart had felt like it had been ripped out of his chest. He would not go through that again. He’d changed in the time she’d been away, he’d become a cynical prick if he was honest but he couldn’t help it and Grace would have to deal with it. No more pussy footing around her.
Peter placed the box on the table and sat down and they both watched her make piles with all the things she had. “Here are the cards from the flowers I get every Saturday.” She pointed to a pile. “Love letters, underwear and the other cards.” Sitting back she watched the men pick up the things and look through them. She didn’t miss the fury in Jason’s eyes when he picked up the underwear and threw it back in the box out of sight.
She knew what they would see, the cards all start out nice and sweet but then over the months they became dirtier and then more threatening. They read like love poetry, psycho love poetry anyway. He wrote what he would do to Jason if she didn’t stop living with him, then he wrote what he would do to her, what he loved about her and he always finished with ‘you are mine’
“Oh baby.” Jason said softly as he took her hand. She let him this time; he seemed to need to touch her as much as she wanted him to.
“Why didn’t you tell us? We could have stopped him. How have you not gone crazy by now?” Peter asked.
“I did what he told me, I was scared. I expected him to stop, but he didn’t stop.”
“Why didn’t you come back?” Jason asked.
“I couldn’t, what if he did what he said he would? What if he hurt you?” The thought of Jason being dead nearly crushed her.
“Bullshit.” Jason snapped.
Grace gasped at him.
“You could have come home. You must have known that running away wouldn’t stop him.”
She shook her head. “I thought if I disappeared he wouldn’t be able to find me.”
Jason shook his head this time. “You should have stayed, we would have helped you.”
“I didn’t want to put you in danger. Now I can see it wasn’t the best idea but at the time I wasn’t thinking straight I was too scared of you getting hurt.”
“Yeah and you acted stupid.”
“I did not! I did what I thought was right.” Grace exclaimed.
“Yes, like I said stupid,”
“How dare you! What right have you got to say that? You weren’t in that position so you don’t know what you would have done.” She snapped.
“I wouldn’t have been a coward.”
Grace leant in close to Jason’s face. “I was not a coward.” She bit out through clenched teeth.
“Yes you were.”
“You bastard!” She lifted her hand up intending to smack his stupid face, but he gripped her wrist before she could make contact and dragged her into his lap.
“That wouldn’t be a good idea.” He informed her.
Grace tried to struggle out of his grip but his arms were too strong for her. She let her body go limp instead and looked into his face. He looked enraged but there was also something else in his eyes, something she couldn’t read.
They stared at each other in silence and then suddenly their lips met. She didn’t know who’d made the first move, and it didn’t matter. He wasn’t gentle; his lips bruised her soft ones, and he nipped sharply at her bottom lip making her gasp. He used that moment to slip his tongue inside her mouth causing her to groan softly, it was like they’d never been apart.
Jason heard her groan, and he pulled away to look at her, her eyes were dazed and he felt triumph that he could still do that to her, her breath was coming out in little pants of air just like his.
He pushed her off his lap carefully until she sat next to him and he adjusted his cock; he was so hard he worried he would bear the mark of his zipper for a long time. She still looked dazed and the temptation to kiss her again was strong, it was just like he remembered.
Grace lifted her fingers and pressed them to her still tingling lips. She felt like she was in shock. The kiss blew her wits straight out of her brain and she was struggling to find words.
“That shouldn’t have happened.” She whispered.
“Yes it should have and if I hadn’t pulled away when I did it would have gone much further than a kiss.”
Grace blushed. He was right, she couldn’t deny that. Her panties felt damp and her nipples were rock hard. No one had ever had this effect on her. Not that she’d been interested in finding out; she’d stayed away from all men, never letting her guard down enough to even be friends with them. After she started getting stalked, she didn’t know if they were her stalker or not and she didn’t take the chance to find out.
She’d forgotten about Peter, she looked around for him.
“He left when we started kissing. He knows what we used to be like; we could never keep our hands off each other.”
Grace swallowed. She couldn’t deny that either. They’d had an active sex life. Jason had been her first, and he’d taught her how to please them both and she’d been a willing student.
“We’ll pick this up later once we’ve made plans. We’ll have more time to enjoy it.”
She stiffened. Was that all he wanted, sex?
“And if I don’t agree?”
“You will. You’ve never been able to say no to me.” He smirked.
“I will this time; I’m not having sex with you.”
“You will and it won’t just be once. We’ll keep doing it until you remember you belong to me and then I’ll make sure you will never forget again.”
“What?” Grace gasped.
“You belong to me like I belong to you. You may have been gone a while, but that hasn’t changed.”
“I belong to you?” She whispered.
“Yes baby. Unless you’re going to tell me there is someone else?”
“Of course not,” She denied.
“Not for me either.”
“Have you…. I mean did you…” Grace trailed off. She wanted to know, but she didn’t think she had the right to ask him.
“No Grace, no one at all.”
That shocked her. Jason was a very sexual person, and he hasn’t slept with anyone since her? Could she believe it?
“Why?”
“Do you want the truth?”
&nb
sp; Grace nodded.
“At first I was too pissed off and hurt that you’d left. I threw myself into work and didn’t come up for air for a long time and when I decided it was time to move on, I found I couldn’t look at another woman without thinking of you. It pissed me off even more and I just stopped looking.”
“Oh.” She thought about how hurt and how worried he must have been and she felt so ashamed. Running away had been the wrong thing to do, but she wanted the chance to make amends. She didn’t have the nerve to ask Jason to forgive her, she didn’t deserve that right now, she wasn’t sure if she deserved it at all.
“What about you?”
That was simple to answer. “No man was you.”
“I’m really fucking glad. I think I knew you would come back, I nearly rushed over to you when you moved back but I couldn’t do it.”
“You knew I was back? What would you have done if I hadn’t come to you?”
Jason looked thoughtful. “I would have come eventually even if it was just to shout at you.”
“I wanted to come back so many times but I was scared of this person following me and carrying out his threat. I couldn’t risk it, I couldn’t risk you. I’m so sorry Jason, you’ll never know how much.” She hung her head. “I missed you every day, but I thought you would be safer away from me and that alone kept me sane.”
“Baby, if only you would have told us. I would never have let the bastard hurt you or terrorise you like he has.”
“I’m sorry.” Grace whispered again her voice trembling.
“We need to put it behind us now.”
She raised her eyebrows at his words. “Put it behind us?”
“I’m not saying I forgive you right now but I understand why you did it. We need to focus on the present and make sure you’re safe. No more going over the past.”
Grace nodded. She liked the sound of that.
“We need to talk about your stalker but we’ll do that tomorrow after you’ve eaten and slept, you look like you haven’t done either in a long time. You need to talk to Peter because he deserves an explanation as much as I did.”