by Susan Stoker
“Mmm-hummm.”
Tex smiled and closed his eyes. The trust Mel put in him seemed to magically erase all the doubts he’d had about himself since he’d retired from the Navy. He knew she had no idea what she did for him, but Tex did. Holding her in his arms, knowing even half-asleep she worried about him and cared about him, was a feeling he’d never felt before in his life. He’d do anything to keep her safe. Absolutely anything. Protecting Melody, and Baby, was the only thing he’d be focused on for the foreseeable future. She was his future. Tex fell asleep holding Mel in his arms, excited about his future for the first time in a long time.
Chapter Nine
“Yes, it’s really me, Amy.” Melody reassured her friend for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“Are you back for good?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.” Melody didn’t want to lie to her friend. She knew she wouldn’t have been able to get away with prevaricating if she’d been standing in front of her friend. Amy knew her way too well and could take one look at her and know when she was lying or leaving something out. They’d known each other too long to get away with not being honest with one another.
“Are you there alone?”
“No, Tex is here with me.”
“Tex, huh?”
Melody could hear the teasing in Amy’s voice. “Yeah, Tex.” Looking over at Tex, Melody knew their conversation sounded like they were in junior high school, but she could only smile. Tex was sitting on the couch next to her petting Baby while she spoke to Amy. “And he’s sitting right here staring at me wondering what the hell we’re talking about.” She smiled and looked back down at her dog, sleeping so peacefully between them.
“I like him, Melody. I mean, I wasn’t sure when he first called me, but he brought you home, I think I might love him.”
“Me too.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Melody knew they were true. She looked back up at Tex in a panic, wondering if he’d overheard Amy’s words and understood what she’d said in response.
“Everything all right?” Tex whispered the words and leaned toward her, looking concerned.
Melody covered the mouthpiece and quickly told Tex, “Yeah, I’m good.”
Tex nodded and leaned back into the couch again and continued watching her and petting Baby.
“We need to talk, woman,” Amy said sternly.
“I know, I can’t wait to see you, Cindy, and Becky.”
“They can’t wait to see you either.”
“But I don’t want to put them in danger, Ames.”
Melody heard her friend sigh. “I know. Me either. Will you call me later so we can set up when we can get together? I really need to see you. I’ve missed you.”
“I will. I need to talk to Tex so we can figure out where we’re going from here.”
“Okay. I’m glad you’re back. I have a feeling Tex will figure this all out.”
“I hope so. Okay, Love you, Amy. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.” Melody clicked the phone off and sat back against the couch.
“You guys are really close.” Tex’s words were matter of fact.
“Yeah. One of the hardest things about leaving was not being able to talk to Amy. Yeah, I missed my parents, but it’s not the same as not being able to talk to my best friend.”
“You ready to talk this through so we can see if we can’t figure it out?”
“No, but yes.”
Tex chuckled and gave Baby one last pat on the head and stood up. He held out his hand to Mel. “Come on. Let’s sit at the table. I need to use my computer to see what I can find and to write everything down.”
Melody grasped Tex’s hand and let him lead her to her table. He pulled out the chair at the end of the table and when she was seated, took the chair next to her on the side of the table. He pulled over one of his laptops and fired it up.
“How about we start with how you were able to stay away and how you organized it all. Somehow this guy found you while you were in California, and we have to figure out how.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to talk about who I think it might be first?”
“Not really. We’ll get to a list of suspects in a bit. First, I just want you to talk. Tell me what you did while you were running. Don’t filter what you tell me, let me figure that out.”
What Tex said made sense. “Well, I left without really thinking everything through. I didn’t have enough money to run indefinitely, but I knew I shouldn’t use credit cards because they can be tracked somehow. I went to the bank and pulled a couple thousand dollars out of my account so I’d have the cash. I didn’t know how smart my stalker was, but I figured using my cell phone and credit cards could lead someone right to me if they knew computers.” She stopped when she saw Tex smirk at her.
“Yeah, like I have to tell you that.”
“Keep going.”
“I rented a car. I figured I’d use it until I decided where I was going and what I was going to do. So I’d been gone for about five days when I called Amy to help me. I knew I’d run out of cash eventually, so I filled out a Power of Attorney for her so she could go to the bank and pull money for me. She’d take out cash and mail it to me. I’d give her the address of a hotel, and then as soon as I got the letter with the cash in it, I’d switch hotels. I bought those throwaway phones that you can get at the store with the pre-set minutes. That way the stalker couldn’t track me down that way.
“My job is actually really easy to do from anywhere. I work with a system called CART. It stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation. Basically I listen in to an event via Skype and I type what I’m hearing. My typed words are then broadcast to anyone at the actual venue on an app. They can read the words as they watch. There’s a little time lag, but not too much. Since all I need is an Internet connection, that allowed me to keep working, even when I was on the run. I kept paying my rent in the hopes that I’d be able to come home eventually. Amy helped by picking up my mail and paying the bills that came through.”
“Sounds like you couldn’t have done this without Amy,” Tex noted with no inflection in his voice.
“Don’t,” Melody warned in a low voice.
“Don’t what?”
“Amy’s not involved in this.”
“I didn’t say she was.”
“Bullshit. I can tell what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that she knew exactly where I was. She had access to my apartment, but she wouldn’t do this to me.”
“I thought you weren’t going to think about it while you told me what you did, Mel?” When she seemed ready to lose it, Tex quickly tried to calm her down. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think she’s your stalker.”
“You don’t? Then why that look on your face?”
“Because as much as it sucks, we have to consider everyone, no matter how much it hurts. But remember, I met her Mel. She kept Baby for you. The stalker said he wanted to hurt Baby. Amy had the perfect opportunity to tell you that she ran away, got hit by a car, got sick . . . anything. But she didn’t.”
Melody looked down at Baby who was sleeping next to her chair. “Okay, sorry. I just . . . she’s my best friend. I trust her implicitly.”
Tex put his hand over Melody’s. “I know you do. I didn’t mean to imply she was involved, but that doesn’t mean someone else you thought you could trust isn’t involved or isn’t actually your stalker.”
Melody took a deep breath. “Okay, That makes sense. I just . . . I trust Amy as much as I trust you.”
Tex picked up Mel’s hand and kissed the palm, never losing eye contact. “Thank you for that. Continue?”
Melody curled her fingers in, as if holding in the kiss Tex had placed on her hand and did as he asked. “So yeah, I’d switch hotels every week or so. I’d rent a car when I needed to change cities, paying with cash, of course, then return the car once I was in a place where I could use public transportation. I would use the Internet in local
coffee shops or fast food restaurants.”
“Was the note you showed me in California the first one you’d received since you left Pennsylvania?”
Melody looked down at her hands. She’d been clenching them as she spoke. “No. I’d received one when I was in Florida. It said much the same thing as the one you saw.”
“So whoever this is, he somehow was able to track you to at least Florida and California. Okay, let’s talk about your life here.”
“Here?”
“Yeah, here in Pennsylvania. Did you date before you left?”
Melody fidgeted in her seat, then suddenly got up to go into the kitchen. “Can I get you anything? A coffee refill?” She turned around to see if Tex wanted anything and shrieked in surprise when he was standing right in front of her. Jesus, he could move quietly.
Tex hated putting Mel through his questions, but he had to find out as much as he could so they could catch this guy. He put his finger under her chin. “You know I’m not doing this to pry, don’t you Mel?”
She immediately dropped her head to his chest and sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s just . . . it’s hard. I don’t like to think that anyone I know would do this to me. It’s just so horrible and evil . . . and to think that someone I might have dated, or who I know, who I talked to every day and had no idea he wanted to hurt me and kill my dog and my friends and family, is stalking me? It sucks.”
“It does suck. I’m sorry.”
“I’m also embarrassed for you to hear about how boring my life was.”
“What?”
Melody lifted her head so she could see Tex. “Tex, you were a SEAL. You did exciting things all the time. You lived your life. Me? I’m boring as hell. I hung out in this small town. Excitement in my life was heading up to Pittsburgh to go shopping. It’s embarrassing.”
“Mel, it’s not embarrassing. Those exciting things you think I did? They sucked. Every last one of them. I killed people, I hunted people, I rescued people who’d been starved, beaten, or raped . . . hell sometimes all three. Sometimes we weren’t able to save them. We had to recover their bodies. There were times when I would’ve given anything for a so-called boring life as you call it.”
“Tex . . .”
“So anything you tell me isn’t embarrassing. One, it’s about you and I want to know everything about you, and two . . .” His voice dropped and his fingers clenched at her sides. “I like the thought of you living here, safe, without anything like the shit I’ve seen and experienced touching you. I yearn for you to be able to call going up to the city as exciting again. Help me figure this out so you can get back to that as soon as possible.”
“Okay. But I need to be doing something while I talk to you. This is stressing me out.”
Tex kissed her on the forehead and looked down at her. “No problem.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Kiss me on the forehead? I like it, but sometimes it makes me feel like I’m eight years old.”
“Because if I kiss you like I really wanted to, we wouldn’t make it out of your apartment today, or maybe not even tomorrow. And the sooner we can figure out who this asshole is in your life, the sooner I can take you to bed and not have to worry about who might be watching or waiting for us to make a mistake.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. I’m controlling myself here, Mel, but trust me when I say there’s nothing more I want than to take your mouth, to lift you up on this counter, which is at just the right height, and make you come on my mouth, and my dick, over and over again.”
Melody could just stare at Tex for a moment. She could feel herself grow slick at his words. Never before in her life had a guy talked to her like that, but with Tex, she liked it. No, she loved it. She could picture how they’d look, and it turned her on.
Tex leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead again. “God, if you could see the look on your face. I’m going to go back to the table and write down everything you tell me. You stay here and . . . do something. After we talk we’ll head out and make sure we’re seen around town. Then you can call Amy and arrange to meet her somewhere. Then we’ll come back here.”
“And after that?”
“We’ll see, Mel. I refuse to rush you.”
“I think I want to be rushed.”
“Fuck.” The word was low and heartfelt, but Tex let go of Melody and backed away to the table. Tex leaned down and ran his hand over Baby’s head before he sat back down. He put his hands on the keyboard and refused to look back up at Mel. He was holding on to his control by his fingernails. Knowing that apparently Mel wanted him as much as he wanted her? Torture. Pure torture.
“I didn’t date much, but I had the occasional date here and there. I went to high school in this town, so I know a lot of people. I shop here, I bank here. I dated here.”
“Give me the names, Mel.”
Melody fiddled with the cup of coffee she held in her hands. Her stomach was churning so she didn’t want to drink it. “Lee Davis. He was the last guy I dated. We were together for about three months.”
“Why’d you break up?”
“He was kinda a jerk.”
“In what way?” Tex’s voice was hard.
Melody looked up in surprise. “Just little things. He’d always make me pay when we went out to dinner, saying it was because I made more money than him. He’d flirt with the waitress in front of me. Many times he didn’t bother to call me back when I’d leave him a message . . . just in general he was a jerk.”
“Why’d you date him in the first place? I can’t imagine you’d put up with that.”
Melody smiled at Tex from across the kitchen. His earlier words still flitted through her brain. “I think I was lonely. But you’re right, as soon as he started doing those things, and stopped trying to impress me, I dumped him.”
“Was he upset about it?”
Melody put the cup on the counter and leaned back against it, putting her weight on her hands. “No. I saw him with Diane the next week.”
“Diane?”
“Yeah, she was two years behind me in school. She works at the bank.”
“All right, who else?”
“Are we going to do this for every man I’ve ever dated?”
“If we have to.”
“Damn. Okay. Let’s see. Adam Grant. We dated for two months. I wouldn’t sleep with him, so he dumped me. Jamie Wilde. We didn’t last beyond the first date. I left him at the table, he had the worst manners I’d ever seen. Burping, being crass, he even slapped the waitress on the butt as she walked away from the table. I told him I had to use the restroom and I left.”
Melody ignored Tex’s chuckle and continued, watching as Tex frantically typed on his keyboard as she talked.
“Chris Myles, M-y-l-e-s. He was my longest relationship. We were together for around seven months. We were practically living together. He’d spend the night at my place or I’d spend the night at his. We were going to move in together, and I knew he was planning on asking me to marry him, but at the last minute I couldn’t do it. I broke up with him.”
Melody took a deep breath, remembering the fight that had ensued the night she told Chris she thought they should break up.
“Was he mad?”
“Yeah. He was mad.” That was the understatement of the year.
“What about you? Were you okay?”
“Yeah. That was why I knew I had to break it off. The thought of not being with him didn’t devastate me. The thought of actually living with Chris and being with him day in and day out held no appeal to me. I liked him, but it seemed as if I felt of him more as a friend than anything else. He didn’t feel the same way.”
“Honestly, do you think it could be him?”
Melody turned toward Tex. His jaw was tight, but he’d kept his voice low and controlled. “I don’t know. Before today, I would’ve said no. But you said I had to suspect everyone, so I suppose, but it’d surprise me. He got marr
ied about a year and a half after we broke up. He lives in the area, but he’s got three kids and the last time I saw him, he seemed genuinely happy with his wife and his life.”
“All right. Anyone else?”
“I don’t like this, Tex. Hell, I like you. I don’t want to talk about past boyfriends with you. It doesn’t feel right.”
“I’m not liking it either, Mel. The thought of anyone’s hands on you, other than mine, makes me want to do something illegal. But if we can be us, if we can be together, we have to figure out who’s stalking you and stop it.”
“I know.” Mel closed her eyes and kept them closed as she finished reciting the names of the guys she dated. “Terry Neal, Larry Page, Don Ramper . . . I dated them in college. Robert Pletcher was my high school boyfriend. I don’t think I’ve talked to any of them in years. I can’t imagine any of them wanting to stalk me. Hell, they probably don’t even remember me.”
“They remember you, Mel. I can fucking promise you that. Change of plans. I’ve got all their names down and into my search program. In a few hours I’ll have their driving history, credit reports, arrest record, former addresses, current addresses, jobs, salaries, and everything else that might be relevant.”
Mel opened her eyes and looked at Tex. “That doesn’t sound legal.”
He didn’t look up, but continued fiddling with his computer. “It’s not, but I didn’t think you’d mind if it gives us more information than we have right now.”
“I don’t . . . but I don’t want you getting in trouble for helping me.”
Tex did look up at that. Without breaking eye contact with Mel, he shut his laptop and stood by the table. “As I said, change of plans. I consider myself a reasonable man, but I find after listening to you talk about other men who may or may not have touched you, had you, had what I want so badly I’m about to lose my mind, that I’m not so reasonable after all. I need you, Mel. I want you under me. I want to wipe away the memory of any other man who’s ever had what I want desperately. We need to get out of here and in public where I can’t bend you over the couch or drag you into your room and make love to you all afternoon.”