“Yes,” he answered.
“Are you married?”
“No.” he answered cautiously, unsure of why she was asking.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” she pressed.
“No…” he was becoming uncomfortable with her questioning. She was known as the priceless jewel to the man paying his salary, yet she was seemingly taking a personal interest in him.
“Okay, so here it is Officer. My friend over there, is single too. I think that the two of you might hit it off. She's a fan of men in uniform, and I think that you think she's hot too. So…how about it?” she suggested, glaring right into his eyes, not allowing him to skip out on answering her.
“Oh,” he breathed. “Well, um…yes, I think she's hot, um…attractive, but this is a job for me. I'm not sure…” he was interrupted.
“Don't worry about that. Mr. Harrison will be okay with it, if you're sure you can handle someone like Faye,” she gave him a look that peeked his curiosity.
“Handle her?” he raised his brows with a smile. Seeing the expression on his face, but not able to hear what was being said, gave Faye a ray of hope.
“Yes. My friend is very energetic and a great person. She likes to have fun and will see to it that you have fun too. You look like you could use some fun Officer Rose,” she challenged him.
“You can call me Alex, and yes, I guess I could,” he smiled at Faye. She blushed and looked away.
“Okay then. The ball is in your court Alex,” she told him, then walked back over to Faye. She was taken aback at how suddenly Officer Rose was taking more notice of her now.
“What did you say to him?” Faye demanded.
“Well, since he's not married nor has a girlfriend, I told him that he looked like he could use some fun and you were just the person to show it to him,” she rattled off.
Faye looked at how the officer seemed to be contemplating his next move and started to say something. “I hope he's not a weirdo or some crazy nut job…oh shit, here he comes!” she grazed her tongue over her teeth, making sure not to have food stuck in them. Symóne giggled at how nervous Faye became all of a sudden.
“Excuse me, Faye?” he began. He seemed confident enough and his smile was winning points already. Not to mention, his uniform fit just snug enough to see what he was working with.
“Yes?” Faye responded, holding back a grin.
“I just wanted to officially introduce myself to you. My name is Alex Rose,” he held out his hand to her.
“I'm Faye. Nice to officially meet you Alex,” her smile broke through. His hand shake was firm, but gentle. She began to look him up and down. Stopping at his gun belt with all kinds of gadgets, including handcuffs, that she was already making plans for. He cleared his throat and she looked up at his face, hers full of guilt and he chuckled.
“I see you're going to be a trouble maker?” he smiled.
“Only if you promise to lock me up and throw away the key,” she said seriously.
Symóne gasped loudly. “Okay, I'm done! I'll be upstairs at my desk,” she stood to leave. “It was nice to meet you Alex, and Faye…” she couldn't finish her sentence. Symóne shook her head and rushed off to the elevator.
Faye's bashfulness left once she realized that Alex seemed pretty laid back. She exchanged numbers with him, but knew that she would have to wait a few days to hang out with him. He was on watch duty for her during the day, then worked the evening shift for the police department. They would take whatever opportunities they had while he watched over her, to get to know one another.
Chapter 10
After the lunch break, court was back in session. By now, Mr. Dennis and his attorney were sweating profusely. Trevor had already proven that his client's husband had been unfaithful to her on many occasions to a criminal degree, but also that he had lied about his assets in an attempt to keep her from asking for any of it. The judge was looking pretty disappointed at Mr. Dennis and his attorney, Gene Strozier, for attempting to fraud the court with false proof that he did not own some of the properties in question. He had purchased them under an alias and tried to deny them. By the time Trevor had traced them all back to him, Mr. Dennis was shocked and angry. He looked to be glaring at Miss Henry in a threatening manner, which really set Trevor off. He was about to blow the defense out of the water, and ruin Mr. Dennis' career and freedom. He asked for a short recess to meet with counsel.
The Judge granted him five minutes, giving the court a bathroom break. There were media crews there, inside and out, to give the many fans of both parties as much information as possible. Trevor met with Gene and pulled him to the side. He informed him that if his client didn't want to spend the next twenty years in prison, he'd better agree to the terms laid out for him and stop threatening and harassing his client. If all their terms were not agreed upon, he would pull out all the stops and Mr. Dennis would lose everything.
Mr. Strozier looked to be in thought. Apparently irritated by losing the case before it even got started, he tried to seem hesitant, but agreed and needed to talk to Mr. Dennis before court recommenced to get him on board. It became a heated argument and Trevor gave them both a look that meant he wasn't backing down.
Mr. Strozier leaned in close to Mr. Dennis, attempting to calm him and give him a heads up. “Sam, he knows about everything. Harrison is not lying about what he knows. He has facts and proof of e-ver-y-thing! Do you not understand that if you don't agree to their terms, including no longer causing problems for your soon to be ex-wife, he will turn you and all the evidence he has against you, in to the Feds? Not only will you serve a minimum of twenty years in prison, he will give Patricia everything! Seriously…do you understand that?” Gene growled in a whisper.
Mr. Dennis gritted his teeth and breathed heavily for a moment then snatched away from his attorney. “Fine! Let's just get this over with!” he glanced over at Patricia, who wore no emotion at all on her face, as Trevor had suggested.
Court reconvened and Trevor asked the Judge for permission to approach the bench for a side bar with Mr. Strozier. He allowed it and they spoke in hush tones, explaining the agreement they'd reached during the break.
“Are you sure you want to settle on this Mr. Harrison? You could do so much more damage in this case,” the Judge cautioned. He knew that Trevor had to have more on the defense to have gotten a settlement of this magnitude this quickly.
“Yes. I have my reasons,” he assured the Judge.
“And you Mr. Strozier?”
“Yes. We're sure Your Honor.”
They all were in agreement and the Judge set in motion the settlement, accompanied by his own words of caution to both parties. He explained that his ruling is final, and that any misconduct in direct response to this ruling will not be tolerated. He was very stern on high profile cases. His extra emphasis made Trevor smile.
“Miss Henry, retains sole custody of her three children by Mr. Dennis, and shall take possession of the family's home here in Austin, the home in Beverly Hills, California, the vacation home in the Caymen Islands, the home in Cancun Mexico, the Escalade, the Mercedes C-Class, and the Red F-150, along with the sum of eight hundred, fifty thousand dollars a month for child support and alimony, for a total of ten million, two hundred thousand dollars a year, until Miss Henry decides to re-marry and the children reach the age of eighteen, or twenty five if they attend college. Only then can you have this amount re-evaluated,” he stressed the word re-evaluated, being sure to emphasize that nothing will automatically change just because the children become of age, and Sam's head dropped. That amount would never hurt him, it's just the fact that he didn't want to give anything to his ex-wife, nor did he like to lose. The Judge looked right at Mr. Dennis with his final say. “You should count your blessings today Mr. Dennis. Things could have been so much worse for you. Court is adjourned,” he stood to leave and the crowd did the same.
Trevor turned to Patricia and reached out to shake her hand. She became emotional and thanked him o
ver and over again.
“Please continue with security until this all dies down Miss Henry. He'll eventually get over it now that it's all done, but right now, he's going to be sour and cranky,” Trevor warned her.
“I will. Thank you,” she smiled, then wanted to get to her children and share the good news with them. She left out, escorted by her personal security and was stopped by reporters to get her take on the case.
“I'm happy with the settlement. Mr. Harrison is an amazing attorney and I had complete faith in his abilities. I never worried, because he wouldn't let me. He's a smart, savvy attorney who knows his stuff,” she smiled and walked through the crowd. They then stopped Mr. Dennis and his attorney as well, but didn't get the response they were expecting.
“It is what it is,” Sam shrugged. “The settlement won't break me, and I'm happy about that,” he replied and continued out to his limousine.
Trevor collected his files and put them in his brief case and went out to his Range Rover and got in. He headed back to the office to put together the paperwork for Miss Henry's new assets, and to have some legal documents drawn up for her. When he arrived, he was greeted by applause from all of the employees at the firm.
“Congratulations Mr. Harrison, you did it again!” Gloria boasted.
Trevor smiled bashfully, “Thanks to all of you, who played very key roles in research and investigations. I only do as well as I do, because I have such a great team here at Harrison and Moore,” he shared the victory.
He checked his phone for any messages from Symóne, and there was only one.
Symóne- Call me when you're finished.
He did just that. “Hey there, how's your day going?” he asked.
“Slow. I'm ready to go home,” she whined. “I know you won your case, because it's already buzzing around the office. I'm so proud of you!” she chimed.
“Thank you,” he replied. “You only have forty-five more minutes until quitting time. Then I'll come and whisk you away,” he promised.
“Oh guess what?” she got his attention.
“What?” he asked slowly.
“Faye is digging on Officer Rose,” she sang.
“Alex?” he questioned.
“Yes, that would be him.”
“So your BFF is a cougar?” he chuckled.
“What do you mean?” she was curious.
“Alex is twenty-five years old. Fresh out of the military.”
“Oh God! Faye is going to flip, when she finds that out,” Symóne gulped. She had stuck her phone in her desk drawer and had her blue tooth in the ear that faced the wall of her cubicle. Hopefully, no one was paying attention to her conversation, and will hopefully assume she was helping a customer.
“Will she still see him if it goes that far?” Trevor asked.
“Hell yes! She'll teach him a trick or two. They were already hitting it off by the end of lunch,” she tried to talk quieter.
“Anyway, I'll see you in a little bit.”
Chapter 11
A couple of months later, things had died down. The text messages were only coming once weekly. The texter was being more careful, since he tried to be bold and actually show up in Trevor's building. They hadn't realized that he was the strange delivery guy who insisted on delivering the package himself, until security stopped him at the elevator and asked for his identification. He lied and said that he'd left his wallet in the car and after being forbidden to go upstairs, he said that he would go get it out of his vehicle. When he left, he never returned and that's when they realized that it was him.
They now had video footage of him, and realized that the woman fitting Faye's description had been all the way up to Trevor's floor, but that was as far as she made it this time. When Trevor looked at the footage, he could tell that the woman was not Faye, nor did he recognize the delivery man. He had to show it to Symóne to see if she recognized him. She didn't, so they were still at a loss. That was the last time in six weeks that there had been an incident.
“Good morning sleepy head,” he leaned over and kissed her face. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled.
“Good morning you insanely bubbly at zero thirty in the morning crazy man,” she giggled. Trevor loved waking up to Symóne every morning. His mom and brother were due in town today, and since it was Friday, he and Symóne took the day off to meet them at the airport. His brother hated flying, but his mom could not make that drive on her own, so she opted for the shortest trip to see her oldest son and her hopefully soon to be daughter-in-law.
“I can't help but to be happy with my life. I hope you don't have plans this morning, I want to take you out to breakfast,” Trevor checked.
“Mmm, sounds like a plan,” she got up to go freshen up in the bathroom. “Oh, I do have a delivery at the store first thing. Some of the furniture is coming in, and I want to be there to tell them where to set everything up,” she rambled.
“I'll go with you,” he suggested.
“That would be great, except…you have to check in with Vince this morning. Remember, you were supposed to meet a new client with him? Why don't we just meet at the restaurant around 10:30?” she suggested.
“Yeah, that's right. Okay babe, lets make it quick. That will only give us about two hours alone before Mom and Drew arrive and he occupies all of my time with his dragon and Call of Duty on the PlayStation,” he urged her.
She showered and dressed, then grabbed her placement plans and headed out to wait on the valet with her car. Once she was on her way, she worried what Trevor's mom would truly think of her once they met face to face. Her hair had grown a few inches and was no longer daringly edgy, but still short and slightly edgy. She had kept up the color, because she liked her hair dark, but was thinking of something a little less noticeable when her roots began to show.
Symóne arrived at her new six thousand square foot store, that was almost ready to open for business, with six employees to start off with. This morning the air was crisp and the windows were slightly fogged over. She opened the door and went inside, locking it behind herself. She headed back to her office/studio and unpacked more supplies and organized her color pencils until the delivery truck arrived. Twenty minutes later, she heard the truck backing up to the bay and went out to let up the door. The driver got out and checked over the packing slip with her and verified that he was at the right place, then called for the second guy to help unload and set up the furniture. They were done in thirty minutes and signed off on the delivery and left. Symóne let down the door and locked up, then called Trevor before she left the store.
“I'm done, how much longer will you be?” she asked.
“Two minutes. I'm signing papers now, then I'll be on my way.”
“Okay, see you in a few,” she chimed.
After locking up the store, Symóne got in her car and started toward the interstate. Her phone rang, but the number was unknown. She wasn't sure if it was one of the dealers or someone from marketing calling, so she answered.
At first, no one said anything. She said hello once more, then she heard her name.
“Symóne?” the voice sounded mechanical.
“This is she,” she answered.
“How have you been?” the caller asked.
“Who is this?” she demanded. The sound of the voice coming through raised a red flag with her.
“I just want to talk to you. Can you give me two minutes of your time?” he begged.
“No!” she realized who it was and immediately ended the call. He called right back, but she chose to ignore it. He continued to call over and over again until she became aggravated enough to answer.
“Do. Not. Call. me anymore. Leave me alone!” she screeched.
“You shouldn't be driving so fast on the interstate. It's not safe,” he chastened her.
Symóne gasped at the realization that he was near and looked around at the other vehicles, checking to see if she could see someone on their phone watching her. Most of the traffic was ind
eed riding along with her. However, everyone seemed to be in their own worlds, mostly listening to music while they drove.
“Where are you?” she sneered.
“Just keeping an eye on you. I knew that if I waited long enough, you would be alone and I could finally get a chance to talk to you,” he replied.
Symóne's heart began to pound. She only needed to get through three more miles to make it to Trevor. She hung up on the stalker to call Trevor to let him know about what was going on, but he didn't answer. She ended the call without leaving a message, but he was calling her right back. Just as she answered, a call was coming through which she ignored and began to tell Trevor her current situation. While she explained, a strange, static-type humming was coming through her phone, distorting her words.
“Hello? Symóne? What's wrong with your phone babe?” asked Trevor.
She answered him, however, he couldn't understand her words. She ended the call and tried again, when a car drove up beside her, keeping up with her speed. The car was a dark gray sedan with darkly tinted windows. She couldn't see inside, nor could she tell exactly what kind of car it was. Her phone rang again from the unknown number and she only looked at her phone and put it back down. The car next to her blew its horn menacingly, and her phone rang again.
Her hands trembling, she picked up. “Hello?”
“Don't you ever hang up on me again!” the caller scolded her.
Symóne did hang up, then tried to call Trevor again, but the car swerved into her lane, pushing her into the guard rail. Instinctively, she slammed on breaks and so did the car next to her. Now frightened and not wanting to give the stalker a chance to get to her, Symóne stomped her foot on the accelerator and tried to speed up to the exit ramp. She waited until the last minute to actually exit, hoping that he would keep going, but he slammed into her again. This time he used his car to push her down a steep embankment, causing her car to flip several times before landing against a utility pole. Other motorists were stopping to come to her aide, but none of them could get her out. She was unconscious and pinned inside, seemingly crushed.
Hostile Contact (The Hostile Series) Page 12