by Leger, Lori
“Mona would have loaded my ass with buckshot if I’d done that. Can I give these to her?”
“Sure, maybe you’ll have better luck than Dave.” After he left she locked the door behind him. As added protection, she wedged a dining room chair under the handle, and then did the same to the kitchen door. Carrie placed fingertips to her throbbing temples. “Maybe I should move to Kenton,” she murmured.
***
He watched the Chief leaving her house from behind the massive oak in front of the shop across the street. Excitement at the thought of her being in that house, alone all night long, made him hard, and anxious to have her. His mouth twisted in distaste as Rob flagged down the cruiser. Damn that guy, and damn these holidays. Christmas Eve was not conducive to his plans for her. Soon, he’d have her all to himself. No protection from Gardiner’s finest and no kids.
***
Ten minutes later, Carrie crawled into bed with the phone. She cringed when Sam answered on the first ring, his voice tight with worry.
“I thought you’d never call,” he said. “I’ve been making up all kinds of scenarios in my head.”
“Sorry, but I had a visitor…two actually. Dave broke in to leave the roses, and then Rob came over to discuss it. Long story short, he doesn’t think Dave had anything to do with the calls, and no, he has no idea who it could be. I still think Dave’s behind them, somehow.”
“Damn it all, Carrie! I’m tempted to go pick your ass up and lock you in my bedroom where I can keep an eye on you.”
Her nails clicked in an impatient rhythm on the handset. “You and what army?” She heard Sam’s frustrated groan and took pity on him. “For what it’s worth, I believe more than ever that Dave’s behind this.”
“And if it is, you really don’t think he’s dangerous?”
“Nope. Just a giant pain in my ass.” She frowned when Sam let loose with a string of expletives. “And here I thought you were a gentleman.”
“Sorry, babe, but I cuss when I’m feeling helpless, and right now I feel like a castrated bull in a pasture full of heifers.”She heard a loud beep from the handset. “Aw hell, somebody’s calling. It’s probably Mom checking up to see how our date went.”
“I’ll let you go then. I just wanted to make sure you made it home safely. G’night, Carrie.”
“Night Sam.” She pressed the star to speak to the other caller. “Hello?” She heard breathing and for a moment, forgot that she wasn’t supposed to be afraid. Then she thought of Dave, sitting at home gloating about how he could still control her.
“You can stop now. I know Dave put you up to this, numb nuts. The only thing you’ll get for your trouble is time in prison.”
“I’ll get time all right, but not in prison. Time alone with you, Carrie,” he whispered. “Time to do one of two things…Make you mine, or make you dead.”
Any quick comeback she had planned died at her vocal chords as she froze with the phone to her ear.
“But not until we have some fun first.”
“Fun?” she said, making her way to the front door. She flashed the porch light on and off several times. “Fun for you or for me?”
“Both of us, if you’re as smart as I think you are.”
Carrie opened the door wide and held her finger up to her lips to alert the officer, then pointed at the phone. “I’m smart enough to recognize that Dave put you up to this. Just admit it.”
“Dave’s a fool!” he said, in a sudden burst of anger. “And so are you if you think that guy can help you if I decide to get at you tonight.”
Carrie froze as the officer stepped over the threshold. “What guy?” she said.
“That cop you just let inside your house.”
Her breath released in a rush. “He’s out there,” she whispered, clamping her hand over the mouthpiece. “He’s watching us now.”
The cop nodded and went back onto the porch, closing the door behind him. Carrie pulled aside the curtain, chills passing over her as he drew his gun and brought the radio to his mouth.
“Why’d you have to go and do that? It was just getting interesting,” the caller said.
“Do what?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from quavering.
“We’ll save the rest for a later date. Sweet dreams Carrie.”
***
Carrie fell, exhausted, into the bed an hour later. The last officer had just cleared out, leaving one parked out front, and another circling the block with a searchlight. She clutched the phone tightly to her chest, fighting the urge to call Sam. A strong, independent woman should be able to take a night alone, without calling a man to talk her through it. She’d spoken to no one but cops for the last hour, not even a family member. Did she still believe the caller was someone Dave had enlisted? As certain as she’d been earlier, she had to admit the chance of that being true receded every second.
Only once did she buckle and dial Sam’s number, but hung up before it rang. The last thing he needed was her waking his butt up at nearly two in the morning.
The other thing he didn’t need was a girlfriend with a psycho after her, whether he was hired by her crazy ex or not. It was the not that worried her. The local news was full of reports about that girl in Lafayette. She’d given a surprisingly detailed description of a man she’d never seen. About six foot tall, muscular, straight hair, short—military style cut, fanatically clean because he shaved and showered every day of the three days he kept her hostage, and his voice…deep, but unnatural, like he was trying to mask the sound of his real voice. Funny, but the first time her caller spoke, she’d thought the same thing.
That’s great, Carrie…that’s just what you need is to imagine reasons why your psycho and hers are one and the same.
After a fitful hour of worrying how to keep her kids as far away from this as possible, she tossed and turned for another hour. Still jumping at every creak the house made, she finally dozed off still clutching the phone in her hands.
CHAPTER 12
Carrie took another sip of coffee and held the phone away from her ear as Sam let loose with another OSHA Orange streak of cussing. When he seemed to ease off she brought the phone closer. “Got it out of your system yet?” Silence greeted her for several seconds as she pictured him pacing the floor.
“I just wish you’d called me,” he said. “The thought of you, lying there alone in that house, scared, and not wanting to bother me…It tears me up, Carrie.”
“No sense keeping you awake, as well,” she said. “Besides, I had some thinking to do. The only way I can think of keeping my kids safe from all this, is to separate myself from them, just until this is all over with. Maybe I should take that place in Kenton.”
“Are you serious, Carrie?”
“I feel like I’m being backed into a corner by doing it, but yeah, I thought about this for a long time when I couldn’t sleep last night. It might be the best way to keep my family safe, but what about you and Nick?”
“What about us?”
“What if my moving there puts you and Nick in danger?”
“Don’t worry about that, Carrie. That guy will never follow you to Kenton.”
Carrie rubbed her burning eyes with one hand. “God, Sam. You don’t know how much I’m hoping you’re right about this.”
“I am, you’ll see. So, does this mean I can give Len a call about the house? When would you want to come see the place and talk to him?”
She inhaled and held the breath, hoping to slow down the frantic beating of her heart. “You think tonight is too soon?”
“I could call him for you.”
“I’d rather speak to him myself if you don’t mind. I need to stand on my own two feet, not lean on you. Just give me his number and I’ll call you back.”
Ten minutes later, an anxious sounding Sam answered the phone on the first ring.
“I’ll be there around six tonight,” she said.
“Good. It’ll be fine over here, Carrie, you’ll see.”
&nbs
p; “I don’t know, Sam. I shouldn’t be laying all my troubles on your doorstep.”
“I’m asking you to, damn it. If there’s anything at all I can do to make this easier on you, I want to,” Sam said to her.
She closed her eyes and remembered how good it felt to be wrapped in his arms. “You’ve already made it easy.” Her lips pursed as she added in a soft whisper. “Maybe too easy.”
“What was that?”
“I said it won’t be too easy—to tell the kids, I mean,” she covered. “I need to get to Mom’s, Sam. My family should start rolling in soon.”
Once their call ended, Carrie dialed her mother in law’s number. The unmistakable cigarette-cough on the other end of the line that gave Dave’s mom away. “Hey Ruby, it’s me.”
“Hey, darlin’. Am I going to get to see you for Christmas?”
“I don’t know, Rube. I guess that depends on your son.”
Once she explained the circumstances, her motherin-law’s fury was obvious. “Wait until I get my hands on that boy of mine.”
“I didn’t tell you to get him in trouble. I just didn’t want you to think I was avoiding you.”
“Now, you know me better than that. You know you’ll always be my daughter-in-law, whether you’re divorced from my foolish son, or not.”
Carrie squeezed her eyes shut against the tears caused by Ruby’s heartfelt confession. “You know how much I love you, right?”
Ruby was quiet for a moment. “No more than I love you, darlin’. I know you gave it everything you had.”
Carrie sniffed and cleared her throat. “Are my kids still there?”
“They left about five minutes ago. They should be getting to your mom’s soon.”
“Good. Did, uh, did Darlene and Jerry make it in, yet?”
“Yep, they got here about thirty minutes ago and she wants to talk to you.”
Carrie drummed her nails on the handset while she heard the phone shuffling from one set of hands to another.
The voice of her old friend—sharp with East Texas twang, and demanding—made her jump.
“Where the hell are you?”
“I’m at Christie’s, but I’ll be leaving to go to my mom’s soon. Is Jerry hunting, yet?” She heard Darlene snort over the phone.
“After all these years, you know better than to ask that. I had to drive this morning so he could make sure he didn’t need to stop for more damn shells on the way over here. I told him we could fill up the freezer with chicken, pork, and beef with the money he throws away hunting ducks and geese every year.”
Carrie cut in with a reply honed from years of practice. “Yeah, yeah…thrill of the hunt, sound of the birds flying over—”
“The excitement he gets when the birds respond to his calls and fly right over the duck blind—”
“—showering them with duck doo,” Carrie added her perfectly harmonized voice to her soul sister’s finale. They’d all had to suffer through years of the Jeansonne men’s infamous excuses for spending too much money for a handful of birds every year.
The two women erupted into laughter, but Darlene made a quick recovery. “Just like every year, there’s not a man around, and us gals are working our butts off to get dinner ready. So, what’d Dave do that has Ruby so pissed at him?”
As she described the incidents to her friend, she could sense Darlene waiting patiently to add something.
“That crazy son of a bitch,” Darlene said with a voice full of venom. “He’s with a different woman every week and has the nerve to pull that crap.”
“I know. That’s why this is all so frustrating.” Carrie sensed her friend’s wind-up for the next question and steeled herself.
“Now, Missy, where were you when he broke into Christie’s? Your ex said something about you being all ‘dolled-up, and probably for another man,’” she said, using her ‘Dave voice’ she’d perfected over the years.
“I was on a date with a co-worker, friend of mine.”
“Really…” The tone of Darlene’s voice lowered noticeably. “Who’s the lucky guy and what’s he like?”
“Sam Langley, and he’s settled, dependable, trustworthy.”
“Hmmm. Maybe he’ll bore you.”
“If boredom means being able to relax and let down my guard, then bring it on. Besides…” she paused, wondering how much to say.
“Okay, that sounded too promising not to tell me what you’re thinking,” Darlene teased. “Start with the obvious—what he looks like—then work your way up to how you feel when you’re with him.”
Carrie released a deep chuckle. “Oooh, I like the way you think, honey.” She settled back on the sofa. “Okay, he’s much taller than I am, kind of blonde, with light blue eyes. And funny…God, he makes me laugh.” She sighed deeply. “And Dar, when he wraps those long arms around me, I melt.”
“Oh wow. You really like this guy, don’t you?”
Carrie closed her eyes. “I do. But you know what’s even better?”
“Huh?”
“I’m just trying to catch up to how he feels about me.”
“So, you think this thing with Sam could be serious?”
“It’s way too soon to tell.”
“Okay, but you always said if you could do it over you’d have chosen someone tall. How tall is he?”
Carrie grinned at her. “Six two or three, and Dar? He wears a size thirteen shoe,” she added, grinning at her friend’s sharp intake of breath.
“Thirteen? I wonder if it’s true what they say—”
“I have no idea,” she whispered into the phone. “But I’ll let you know as soon as I do.” The two women burst into laughter.
“Oh, God, I miss you, girl. But it was bound to happen. Sooner or later, we all knew someone would come along and show some appreciation for what Dave took for granted all those years. You took that crap a lot longer than I would have.”
“When you don’t think you deserve better, you settle for less. Now I know differently. I need to go now, hon. My kids are bound to be at Mom’s by now.”
“Okay, but I want regular updates on this Sam thing, you hear?”
Carrie promised, ended the call, and locked up before leaving. She hadn’t mentioned the possibility of moving, just in case Dave was involved. She realized it would only be a matter of time before the caller tracked her down, but if she could have a week, even, of no calls, it would be worth it.
Five minutes later, she pulled up beside Grant’s black Ford pick-up parked in her mother’s driveway. Her son straightened, loaded down with an armload of wrapped Christmas gifts. She watched his mouth twist and tighten when he caught sight of the huge crack in the windshield of her sedan. She got out of the car and gave her son a kiss on the cheek. “Merry Christmas Eve, Baby Boy.”
“You too, Mom.” He stared down at her windshield and gave his head a slow shake. “That looks about ten times worse than what Dad described.”
Carrie shrugged, but kept her silence.
“That’s not right, Mom.”
She opened the gift-filled trunk of her car. “I know, son, but let’s not talk about this now. Are your sisters inside?”
Grant gave a snort. “Yeah, it only took `em two hours to get ready.”
Carrie placed her hand on his shoulder and laughed. “You’d understand if you were a woman.”
Gretchen bounded out of her Maw Maw Elaine’s house, as excited as a young puppy. “Mom! It’s Christmas Eve!”
Carrie gave her daughter a big hug. “I know, sweetie.”
Lauren rushed out next. “Merry Christmas Eve, Mama,” she said, returning her mother’s hug.
“You too, sweet girl.”
The twins turned toward the windshield and asked in perfect unison. “What happened to the window?”
The last thing Carrie wanted to do was ruin their holidays. “It was nothing. Come on, grab some things and let’s go on inside to help Maw Maw get lunch ready.”
Grant spoke up. “Mom, you may as
well get it over with.” He turned to his sisters. “Dad broke it.”
“Why?” Gretchen asked.
Carrie’s head fell back on her shoulders. “I don’t know why, honey. He was angry.”
“What does he have to be mad about?” Gretchen demanded. “You’re the one who should be mad. He gets to stay in our house.”
Lauren’s voice shook with anger. “He did that, knowing we have to ride in this car, too.”
Carrie grabbed an armload of gifts. “He wasn’t thinking straight at the time,” she answered. “Here, bring these inside.”
She watched her daughters disappear into her mom’s house and turned her gaze up at her son. “Listen Grant, I want to talk to you about something, without the girls around.” She rested her hips against the opened trunk. “I went on a date last night. My first, since your dad and I split up.”
Grant gave his head a quick nod. “Okay.”
“Does that upset you?”
“Why should it upset me? Dad’s been going out.”
Carrie looped her arm through her son’s. “I know, but I worry about you three, and what y’all think of me.”
“Mom, I want you to be happy.” He turned to survey the gifts in Carrie’s trunk. So, who’s this guy you’re dating, and where’s he live?”
“One date, so far, and he lives in Kenton. He’s a good man, Grant, one of my co-workers, and I like him a lot.”
Grant nodded and grabbed an armload of gifts. “I don’t have a problem with you dating again, but, he’d better be good to you.” He balanced the armful of gifts and shrugged down at his mother. “I think Gretchen will be okay with it, too.” Then he made a face. “Lauren is the only one still in denial. I swear, Mom, all along she expected you and dad to get back together, even though Gretchen and I tried to tell her it was over.”
Carrie nodded. “I know, and it worries me that she’s so upset after all this time.”
“You want me to talk to her first?”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll do it, as soon as we unload this car. But first, I have to tell you about the threatening calls I’ve been getting.”
“Is that still the guy that calls at two in the morning and doesn’t say anything?”