by K. C. Crowne
I didn’t care what I had to do; I would make damn sure she was safe.
I’d guard her with my life if I had to.
Chapter 19
Liz
For the first time in a while, David and I rode to work together. He had spent the night at our place for the first night in over a week. I didn’t ask him why he didn’t have Candice over. I was actually glad for the break from her and the time to spend with my brother. I’d actually missed hanging out with him.
It had been a while since he and I had had a movie night, so I was glad when he showed up with takeout, and the two of us were able to settle in and just talk for a while. I told him about going over to Nick’s place and talking about the wedding, and he gave me an update on his own relationship.
Things were going to be changing for us; we knew that. It didn’t matter if my marriage was fake and his relationship was real. We were growing up and our lives were moving in slightly different directions. At twenty-six and thirty, it was bound to happen.
But, for the night, we got to hang out and laugh, talking about how much our lives had changed already since we’d come to New York, and how much they were bound to change again as time went on. We both agreed that we were glad we had taken the risk and made the move, as hard as it had been in the beginning to leave home.
Of course, we both agreed Nick was the one who made the whole thing possible. If it weren’t for him paying for our apartment and offering us jobs, then we wouldn’t have had the chance to make the move in the first place.
As we walked through the door to work, however, I was surprised to find a bouquet of flowers on the front desk. Stephanie, our receptionist, motioned me over and handed them to me.
“What are these for?” I asked.
She shrugged. “They came in for you this morning.”
“What’s the note say?” David asked as he looked over my shoulder.
“Found you,” I read out loud. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Maybe Nick got them for you?” he suggested. “I mean, you are engaged after all.”
“But why wouldn’t he just give them to me, and why would he put that kind of a note on here?” I asked.
“There’s one good way to find out,” he said. He nodded toward the office, and I took the flowers with me to find Nick. It did seem strange that anyone else would want to give me flowers, but at the same time, it was even stranger that he would do it in this way. If if Nick were to give me flowers, then he would have just given them to me in person, or he would have had them sent to my house.
We talked about how we were going to stay professional at work, so it would make no sense for him to send me flowers there. But still, I didn’t know what to make of any of it, so I thought it best to ask.
“Hey,” I said as I walked in.
“Morning,” Nick replied. He looked surprised when he saw the flowers in my hand, and I nodded toward them.
“What are these?” I asked.
“Flowers?” he looked at me, but I gave him a look that told him I didn’t think it was funny.
“I thought we were going to be professional while we were here,” I said.
“I didn’t get them for you,” he told me. “You don’t know who they’re from?”
“There’s a note here that just says ‘found you,’” I told him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
I watched him as I spoke, and he got a strange look on his face.
“What?” I demanded. “You better start talking to me, or I’m going to get really pissed off here.”
“Remember the other day when I asked you about the guys that hit on you at the bar?” he asked.
I looked at him for a moment, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Yes, but what the hell does that have to do with these flowers?” I asked, my voice shaky.
“Listen, I don’t want you to worry about it. I’m going to find out what’s going on, and I’ve got a pretty damn good idea I know where to start,” he said. He rose from the chair and started pacing back and forth.
"Tell me what’s going on Nick,” I said again.
I could see him struggling with how much to tell me. His hesitation along with the concerned furrow of his brow was making goosebumps break out all over my skin. Finally, he cleared his throat and spoke.
“I got a strange phone call yesterday morning when you were in the shower,” he said at last.
“Who was it?” I demanded. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach, and it was only getting worse as he talked. I didn’t want to be part of something dangerous, and I had a sneaking suspicion I knew where this was going.
“The caller wouldn’t say who he was, just that he knew who you were, and I better keep an eye on you,” he said. “I have a feeling it was the same guy who gave you trouble at the club the other night.”
“What?” I nearly dropped the flowers as I fought to stay on my feet. My knees felt weak, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to faint. I was sick to my stomach, and I couldn’t believe he hadn’t said anything about the call to me, especially since I had asked him directly what was going on.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. “How could you keep that from me?”
“I didn’t want you to be worried,” he said with his hands held defensively. “I thought if you knew about it, you were going to have to look over your shoulder all the time, and for all I knew, it could have been a prank. I wanted to make sure it was something worth you knowing about before I told you.”
“You didn’t want me to worry? There’s some guy who gives you a threatening call about me, and you didn’t tell me because you didn’t want me to worry?” I shook my head in disbelief. “Of course, I’m going to be worried about this. I don’t want to be stalked!”
“We’re going to handle this,” he told me. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you Liz.”
“You could have handled it yesterday by telling me what happened,” I said with my head shaking. I felt betrayed. I knew he wanted to keep me from worrying, but this was the sort of thing that should be worried about. I didn’t deserve to walk around not knowing that I was in some sort of danger.
And, it certainly didn’t help that I didn’t even know the kind of danger I was in. Were these the kind of guys who would kidnap me for ransom knowing how wealthy my supposed fiancé was? The more I thought about it, the more worried I became.
There was a part of me that wanted to pack my bags and go home to Phoenix. I didn’t want to even think about what could happen, and I didn’t think Nick had the power to keep me safe at all times.
Sure, he could try, but there were still things that could go wrong, and I didn’t want to think about what would happen to me if they did.
“You could have told me more about the men you met at the club,” he said, infuriating me. “You could have called me when it happened, and I would at least know who we were dealing with long before this happened.”
“Well excuse me for wanting some space from you since you were so suffocating,” I nearly shouted at him. I didn’t care if anyone else in the office heard our conversation. I was pissed beyond belief he would let me stay in the dark about something that was potentially so dangerous to me.
I deserved to know the truth when it was about my safety; I didn’t care who he was or what he thought.
“Don’t blame me for the fact you went out with your friend and got yourself in this situation when you should have been with me!” he snapped.
“Excuse me? No matter what I was doing or where I was, I did not ask for that creep to hit on me. Way to blame the victim Nick. I expected better from you.” I shook my head. “I need to get back to work.”
“I told you we’re going to handle this,” he called after me, but I didn’t stop.
I didn’t want to talk to him about it any further, and I wasn’t going to sit and listen to him make promises that he had no idea if he could keep. He might want to keep me safe, but even the best intention
s could go wrong.
I threw the flowers in the garbage on my way to my desk. I didn’t want to even look at them. I was glad that my department was on the other end of the floor. It meant I wasn’t going to have to be near Nick all day. Right now, I didn’t want to talk to him at all.
There was even a part of me that was tempted to call off the entire thing. I’d agreed because I had wanted to help my friend and it had seemed like a simple enough way to do so. But I didn’t want to risk my own life to do it. He could find someone else to be married to for all I cared. I wanted to go home and forget about all of it.
I thought back to that night at the club with Cassie. I thought about the guy who’d accosted me and his arrogance. He’d been aggressive and entitled, thinking that I deserved to be bothered because I was a woman dressed up at a bar with her friend. I shuddered to think how far he might have gone right there in public if Cassie hadn’t have been with me to help me get rid of him.
The thought of them taking me away somewhere was terrifying, and I was sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to spread my personal drama around, but I knew I was going to have to tell my brother. The truth was I didn’t feel safe alone at the moment. Until the guy was caught, I didn’t think I’d be able to be by myself. I needed to find David.
Even if he was going over to see Candice, I was going to ask him to take me home first. I would only be safe when I was locked in my apartment or here at work. Until it was taken care of, I didn’t want to be on the street at all. And I didn’t want to ask Nick to fix it for me, either. I was still too pissed at him for not telling me of the possible danger sooner.
I tried to breathe as I reached my office. I forced myself to sit back and think, acting as normally as possible. I didn’t want anyone to know what was going on. I was already embroiled in too much gossip because of my surprise engagement to the boss; I didn’t need to add any more fodder to the rumor mill. Not to mention, I was starting to feel a little paranoid. How did the guy find Nick’s number? I didn’t know if there was someone in my midst that I couldn’t trust.
I simply had to get through the day, and tonight I could go home and lock the door. No one was going to hurt me. Nick said he would take care of it, and I knew he had the resources to do that. Besides, my brother wouldn’t let anything happen to me either. I was going to be protected; I was going to be safe.
I gave myself a pep talk as best as I could, but I knew I had to look like a nervous wreck. My thoughts were racing, and it was hard for me to concentrate on the work that was in front of me. I had to get through it, but I had no idea where even to start.
There was some lunatic out there threatening me. I’d never had to deal with anything like it before, and I wanted to lock myself away and hide.
Nick had promised me that he would find the guy and put a stop to it. But what if he found me first?
Would agreeing to help Nick cost me my life?
Chapter 20
Nick
I hung up the phone and scrubbed my hands over my face. I was frustrated more than I could say, and I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I had hit another dead end, and I was getting more pissed off as each day passed.
Things had taken such a turn, and I didn’t feel like we were any closer to catching this guy than we had been from the first day he called me. I had recently changed my number after getting too many calls to keep up with, and I knew I was going to have to tell Liz about it soon.
They were all much the same. He would call me and tell me something threatening, telling me that he knew what Liz was doing, asking how she liked the flowers or telling me it would be a bad idea to let her out of my sight.
Each call I received was a little more threatening than the last, and I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. There was a part of me that wanted to go to the cops, but I knew that they really couldn’t do anything about threatening phone calls. They’d tell me to change my number, which I did, and that they could only do something if there were an attack or physical threat.
I felt impotent. I also thought about going to the investors and asking them to let me out of the deal. If I could explain to them what was going on, maybe they would back off, and Liz and I could schedule a breakup in the press, and she would be free to live anonymously again.
But I knew that wouldn’t work either. If they found out the threat stemmed from an incident with Liz at a bar out without me, they would call it her screw up, and I’d be fried. They were old men, still accustomed to blaming the length of a woman’s skirt for the bad behavior of the male species. And, I was pretty sure they were hoping I’d fail so they could cut and run. No, I had to figure this out myself.
I hired a PI, and he was on the case. But he wasn’t able to trace any of the calls. Whoever it was on the other end of the line clearly knew what they were doing, and they knew how to stay hidden while still antagonizing me from afar. I was going to lose my shit if we didn’t make some headway soon.
When my phone rang again, I answered, relieved to know it was him and not another threat.
“How is it going?” I asked. “Any leads?”
“I’m working on that like I told you,” he said. “Any more phone calls.”
“Not since I changed my number. Figured since you couldn’t trace them on my old line anyway, what the hell, might as well switch it up,” I said, not trying to hide the irritation in my tone.
“You know I’m throwing everything I got at this, Nick,” he said.
“But you still haven’t found shit, have you?” I asked.
“Do you want me to start following her myself? I can do that,” he replied tartly.
“No, Greg, I don’t want you to start following my fiancé, I want you to figure out why she’s being stalked, and who’s doing it!” I snapped.
“Maybe you can be a little more helpful on that front,” he told me.
“How so?” I asked. I was willing to help him if I could, but I didn’t see there being much chance of me doing that. They weren’t targeting me; they were targeting her. They were just using me to do it.
They had to have gotten my phone number from somewhere, but with the internet, it was hard to pinpoint where that could have been. Even though I wasn’t listed, if you knew where to look, you could find out anything.
“Do they ask you for anything?” he asked. “If these are people looking for money or something, that could be a lead on my end.”
“They have just told me that they know where she is, and I better keep an eye on her,” I said, exasperated. “Don’t you think I would have told you if they were asking for money?”
“Well, that makes it a little harder Nick. If they aren't specific in their threats, there really isn’t anything you can do but keep an eye on her like he says to. Hire someone to follow her or do it yourself. I’ll keep digging and see what I can find, and if anything else happens, let me know immediately.” “Okay,” I said. I hung up the phone before he could continue. I didn’t want to hear excuses out of the guy, and I was pissed that I didn’t have any answers yet. What good was having all my money if I couldn’t use it to keep Liz safe?
I logged onto my email, trying to get my mind off the issue at hand. I still had to get some work done, or at the very least try to. I would be willing to spend all my time trying to find out who was targeting Liz, but that’s what I had hired Greg for. He had to get to the bottom of it, or he was going to have to deal with a very pissed off client.
And I was paying him well. He should be giving me more than he was now. I was done with dealing with bullshit from everyone, he included.
My heart suddenly stopped when I saw a string of emails. They were all coming from spam accounts; I could see that in an instant, but it was the contents of the emails that bothered me.
Email after email contained multiple pictures of Liz. Some of them were her in the car with her brother. Then there were others with her out to lunch with coworkers. I even saw one of her at the store.
My blood ra
n cold to know that this guy was clearly following her. He was getting close enough to her to get pictures, and that made him very dangerous. He was a bold motherfucker, and I wouldn’t put her at risk for one second longer. The first thing I did was call Greg.
“What have you got for me?” he asked.
“Emails, with pictures. And lots of them,” I told him.
“Forward them to me. I can trace the IP address, and that’s going to give us a hint as to who this guy is,” he said quickly.
“Alright, but you better not come up short on this one,” I warned him. “You have until the end of today to get something for me, or I’m going to fire you and bring on someone who can get this done.”
“I’m doing my best; I told you that,” he said, but I hung up.
With this new information, I knew I had to tell Liz. I didn’t want to tell her before, because I knew she was worried about the first phone call. But, with the actual pictures being taken of her out and about, I knew that I had to tell her the truth. There was no way she could go home and be safe when she was being stalked like this.
I didn’t know who this guy was, and I wasn’t going to risk him doing anything to her. I texted her, asking her to come to the office. When she arrived, I told her I wanted her to sit down so I could tell her something.
She listened in silence, letting me get it all out before she shook her head.
“You mean this guy is close enough to me that he is taking my photo?” she asked. Her face was white, and I nodded.
“I’ve got a PI on the case, and he’s going to find out who this guy is. He can trace the IP address that the pictures came from and get a lead as to how to find him.
She nodded, but her face was still ashen.
“I think you should come to stay with me for a while,” I told her. She looked at me like I was crazy, but I continued. “You aren’t going to be safe at home alone anymore. They know where you live, and if they are watching you, then they also know when you are there alone. Whenever your brother leaves, you are vulnerable. My building has a doorman and a strict policy on visitors. You’ve seen it yourself. No one is getting in there that isn’t supposed to.”