Stalker, Stalker

by Therese Sullivan

  ‘No, I’m coming with you. This is my problem and I want to see it through.’ He paled but then his tone softened as he saw the sense in what I was saying.

  ‘You’re right, I wasn’t thinking and followed my instinct. It’s been drummed into me from the time I was a child, I’m big so must protect those weaker than myself.’

  ‘I’m not weaker, though, Adam. I told you before, and I meant it. I could take you down with ease.’ He looked at me, trying to assess the truth of my statement. ‘Wanting to protect this “weaker” would be your downfall. Eliza is a small woman. Do you really think you’d be able to take her down if you had to? ’Cos I don’t. I think you’d hesitate and that could get one of us hurt.’

  Adam flushed slightly as he recognised the truth of what I said. ‘You’re right. I just wasn’t thinking clearly. I’ll stay focussed and do better this time.’

  ‘You need to keep your head in the game! No matter what!’ I waited for his agreement before continuing.

  ‘If I say hit the floor, or get out, you do EXACTLY what I say, WHEN I say! Okay?’ I glared at him, trying to stop my lips twitching at the look on his face.

  ‘Yes, ma’am. Message received and understood.’ He grinned at me.

  He was now in the right frame of mind. We could go.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  As we arrived back at the apartment building I laid a hand on Adam’s arm, to stop him.

  ‘When we go in, we’re not expecting to have company, and you’ve just received news you’re very happy about!

  ‘Don’t turn the lights on, just shut the door, make sure not to lock it, and let me push you against it while we kiss.’

  Adam nodded, but a slight look of apprehension flashed over his face.

  ‘Don’t worry, I don’t think you’ll have to suffer long, she’ll want to put a stop to it as quickly as she can.’ I grinned, deliberately misconstruing his concern. He laughed and with that, relaxed slightly. He saluted me.

  ‘I’m really glad you’re on my side,’ he grinned and took my hand, leading me to the elevator.

  As we got out of the elevator, we talked in excited voices about the future.

  As we got to the door and Adam inserted the key, he said loudly, ‘I love you so much. I’m glad I found you.’

  The words rang true because he meant them, but the message in his eyes, relayed a far different meaning to that of his tone. I smiled at him to let him know I had got the message.

  We got inside the door and as Adam turned from closing the door, I pounced on him. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. We kissed as he fell back against the door.

  As I thought, she didn’t let that state of affairs last for long. The lamp near the couch came on suddenly and we broke the kiss to look up, startled from our bliss by the intrusion.

  Adam loosened his arms and I let myself drop, turning so I was facing her. I placed myself carefully in front of Adam.

  Eliza was standing by the couch with a snarl on her face and a pregnancy test box in her hand.

  ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’ Her first words were directed at me, the anger clear in her voice. She didn’t move a muscle but there was threat apparent in every fibre of her being.

  Adam looked at her in apparent confusion. ‘What are you doing here? How did you get in?’ he demanded.

  ‘It’s not hard to get into these places, most people know very little about security.’ She smiled at Adam, showing her anger as not at him.

  ‘As to what I am doing here—oh, Adam, I will always be here for you. I came to save you from making a huge mistake.’ She smiled again and looked at Adam as if he should be grateful to her.

  ‘I told you I didn’t want to see you again and I meant it. If you just leave now we’ll say no more, otherwise I’m calling the police.’

  ‘Like you did before?’ She shook her head sadly. ‘Adam, Adam, do you really think they’ll stop me? Really, you should know better, my love.’ Her eyes started to glitter with anger. ‘You belong to me, and the sooner you realise that, the better it will be for everyone.’ Her tone was sharp, but her eyes pleaded for Adam to come to his senses.

  ‘I have spent a lifetime waiting for you to comprehend the strength of our connection. I know you feel it, you just don’t understand, yet, what you’re feeling. I can help you with that.’ Her anger back under control, she smiled again at Adam.

  ‘I certainly didn’t go to all this trouble for us to be together, to let this little whore trap you with her lies.’

  She focussed on me again. She knew I was all that was standing between her and her goal.

  I nudged Adam. The longer we could keep her talking the better. He got the message. He put his hand gently on my shoulder. ‘Why don’t you make us a coffee, Kate, my love? We can sit at the table and talk.’

  Eliza looked from him to me. ‘Coffee’s good, but we can sit in here.’ She wanted me busy, giving her a chance to bring Adam to his senses. I moved away from Adam to the kitchen and Adam moved to sit in the armchair facing the couch. Eliza sat right in the middle of the couch, facing him.

  He watched her waiting for her to settle then asked gently, ‘What do you mean about the trouble you’ve gone to for us to be together? We’d not met before you became my secretary. I’m sure I would’ve remembered meeting you.’ He gave her a gentle smile. ‘I would really like to understand what this is all about, because I can see it’s important to you.’

  He was saying all the right things, he could certainly hold his own.

  Then Trina spoke in my ear. ‘Just letting you know, my lovely, I’m in the bedroom. The door is slightly ajar, so I can keep an eye. Ronan and Mike are next door, ready if you need them. The tape is running. We’re all ready.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I murmured. It was comforting to know help was at hand if things went awry.

  ‘Oh, and apparently Jethro, Kim and Lucy are on the way. They’ve left Gabe with his minder, just to make sure.’

  I wasn’t surprised. Lucy would want to be here, and I knew Jethro would still be worried about me.

  Having made the coffee, I carried the tray through to the living area, placing it on the table. I handed Adam his coffee, and took mine, leaving Eliza to fetch and doctor her own cup. With coffee in hand, I perched on the arm of Adam’s chair, causing Eliza to glare at me, which I, of course, ignored.

  ‘You were going to explain, Eliza,’ Adam said softly, bringing Eliza’s gaze back to him. ‘I really would like to understand.’

  Eliza watched us both for a minute, deciding if Adam was sincere. From the smile she sent him, he passed the test. With a slight nod, she gave me an evil look then held up the test box. Her gaze then returned to Adam.

  ‘Do you know how easy these are to fake?’ she asked him. ‘She’s trying to trap you. Really, it’s the oldest trick in the book.’

  Her face was earnest as she tried to convince Adam.

  ‘She’s smart enough to understand our connection is real. She knows she needs to break it. So, she’s trying to tie you to her before you can come to your senses. You simply must free yourself from her before it’s too late!’ She looked desperately to Adam. She decided to focus her attention on him, I was simply an irritant she needed to remove.

  ‘She doesn’t love you like I do. She never could, she doesn’t know you like I do. I’ve spent years bringing us to this point. I can’t allow it all to be lost now.’ She was quiet, her gaze focussed on something only she could see.

  I placed my hand on Adam’s shoulder. It was best for now if I kept quiet. Adam got my meaning and softly prompted, ‘Tell me.’

  Eliza picked up her cup and watched Adam as she took a sip. Coming to a decision, she placed her cup carefully on the table. She sat back and folded her hands over the bag in her lap. Okay, she would tell him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  She ignored me and spoke only to Adam.

  ‘We actually first met when we were teenagers. You were a couple of
years ahead of me in high school.

  ‘You were always so sweet to me. You would smile into my eyes when our paths crossed. Although you never approached me, I would often catch you looking at me. I would glance up and see you watching me across the hall with a gentle smile on your face, so I knew the attraction was mutual.

  ‘You didn’t run around with the cheerleaders, like the other jocks. You focussed on your studies instead.

  ‘You were so friendly to everyone, but the smiles you saved especially for me were brilliant. I felt like the sun had come out each time you directed one of your genuine smiles in my direction.’ Eliza paused, a soft smile on her face at her reminiscences.

  ‘We were in a play together, in your senior year. I’ll never forget how magnificent you were.’ Her smile softened her face momentarily

  ‘I knew you were watching me, but I was too shy to approach you, then. It was only years later that I realised my mistake.’ A frown appeared, and I tensed, ready, but she shook her head and continued.

  ‘I dreamed of you often, trying to come up with a way to make you see I would welcome your approach. I was too young and foolish to realise the significance of our connection. I let things slip through my fingers. I won’t make the same mistake again.’

  She locked eyes with Adam, willing him understand the truth in what she was saying. To realise he had been subverting his true feelings all along.

  ‘You went off to college and I lost our connection. In the hustle and bustle, I let outside influences confuse me. I let our connection lapse.’ She paused and lifted her cup to her mouth again, but stopped short of taking a sip, and placed it back on the table as she continued.

  ‘I thought I’d found true love in college. Gary—’ She paused as a look of pain crossed her face. I felt a momentary pang of sympathy, until I remembered what had happened to him.

  ‘We talked a lot and shared our lives, doing everything together. We were together for two years, and I gave him my all. I made myself over as he wanted and focussed on supporting him in his dreams.

  ‘But it turned out to be a lie. His feelings weren’t real. He wasn’t committed to me like I was to him. He was just using me.’ She shook her head violently.

  ‘Then, when he didn’t need me any more, he discarded me. At first, I thought, he’s just got cold feet, so I tried to keep things normal, keeping our plans moving forward. But he was done with me, he had no further use and made this known in the cruellest way. He humiliated me in front of our friends. I didn’t let him see me cry though. I held my head high and moved on with my life. Everyone said I was so noble. They admired me.’ She had a small smile of satisfaction at the reaction of their friends to how well she dealt with the situation, but her face darkened again as she continued.

  ‘Then he betrayed me! Why did he have to do that? I had been good to him, but he moved on so quickly, like I’d meant nothing at all. He met the harlot. She was nothing like me! She enjoyed unladylike pursuits—made him go hiking and canoeing. She pulled him up, and belittled him in public, by disagreeing with him. She didn’t treat him at all well and the bastard loved her.

  ‘He told me he had known the minute he saw her. Told me she was his life, that he’d never been in love before. I asked him what he meant by that, hadn’t he loved me? He laughed and told me neither of us had been in love, it was simply an easy relationship to fill in time and one day I would realise he was right. Then he told me he had asked her to marry him. Said he wanted to tell me himself before I heard it from someone else. Said he felt he owed me that much. He owed me a lot more than that,’ she snarled.

  ‘I pointed out to him, they had only been going out for a short time. He replied, telling me, “When it’s right, it’s right!”

  ‘He gave her, after five minutes, what he had refused me after years. The betrayal crushed me, but he didn’t see that he’d done anything wrong. He just kept pointing out we weren’t meant to be together. I knew he had to pay for what he’d done, even as I wondered what I had ever seen in the snivelling little weasel. I just had to decide on the punishment. It had to be as great as his betrayal.’

  She stopped and brought her focus back to the present. She looked to Adam for the sympathy she was sure he would feel. He kept his face neutral and asked softly, ‘How did you punish him?’

  ‘Them!’

  Adam was confused. ‘Them?’

  ‘Them!’ she affirmed. ‘You know,’ she confided, ‘At first, I thought I would punish him by making him feel the pain I felt. Remove the love of his life and let him live with it. But when I started to think about it, I decided I didn’t want to see him ever again. Best to cut one’s losses, I feel.’ She was so calm and the fact I was pretty sure she was about to tell us she’d killed them. I was shaken by the lack of feeling, even knowing what I did. I was pulled from my thoughts as she continued, almost conversationally, ‘I’m a very good mechanic. People always underestimate pretty girls. They think we’re all stupid,’ she stated in a matter-of fact-tone.

  Adam said nothing, giving her the chance to elaborate. The less questions you ask, the more people tell you.

  ‘I fixed his brakes.’ She giggled at the memory. ‘No one ever suspected me. It was amazing. I could see his face. He was scared, he was going too fast to keep control. All I had to do was give him a little nudge. He saw me. He realised in the end it was all his own fault.’

  Eliza grinned, the memory obviously still one that gave her pleasure. ‘They never did make their camp site!’ she uttered with a giggle.

  I felt Adam stiffen and leaned into him slightly. He needed to stay calm and open, so she’d keep talking. The more we could get, the longer we could put her away for. He realised what I wanted and made the effort to relax.

  It was apparent to me that Eliza didn’t plan on me leaving here. She didn’t seem to care what I heard.

  She believed Adam would come around to her way of thinking, once he realised all she had suffered. He would see the sacrifices she had made, and that they were all for him. He would understand the necessity of all her sacrifices. He would agree with her that I was dangerous and had to be eliminated.

  We stayed silent and waited for her to continue. She looked down at her hands as she went on.

  ‘I was trying to work out where things went so badly wrong, you know. I’d been good. I had studied hard and was making something of myself. People admired me and wanted to be my friend.’ Her voice grew plaintive as she remembered her angst.

  ‘So why would my life not go smoothly? Didn’t I deserve to be happy, didn’t I deserve to have the life fated for me?’ She focussed intently on Adam again.

  ‘That’s when it came to me. I woke up as the realisation hit me, that the problem lay in the fact that Gary wasn’t my soulmate, he never had been. I had been blinded by need and seduced by the newness of it all. He had tricked me by pretending he was meant for me and used me to make his own life easier. Then, when he had taken all he could from me, he discarded me like so much trash. He had thought only of himself, not caring what harm he did along the way. He was cruel. He shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t deserve it.

  ‘As I realised this, I knew I’d done the right thing. He’d deserved everything he got. But I wondered now what was there for me. I wanted and deserved to be happy.’

  She slowly raised her face and smiled serenely at Adam. ‘Then I remembered you.’ Her joy was clear in her face. ‘Your memory came to me at my worst moment, during my worst pain. There you were, my saviour. I remembered your beautiful smile, and gentle manner, and it suddenly struck me. You and I were meant to be together. You were my soulmate. I just needed to find you and make things right. Then I would be happy. You were my missing piece!’

  Her expression turned dreamy as she studied Adam’s face, then hardened slightly as she made her next statement.

  ‘I soon realised there were obstacles, and I needed to clear them first. But that made sense too. After I had let Gary fool me, I had to earn the right t
o be with you. I had to show you I deserved my prize.’

  Her chest expanded, and she sat straighter.

  ‘I think I’ve proved myself now, don’t you? We just need to extricate you from the claws of this whore, and you’ll see what life with me will bring. I’m your other half, just as you are mine. Together we can achieve greatness.’ Her face hardened.

  ‘I won’t be denied any more.’ She went to stand.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Adam held up his hand. ‘No. Not yet. You haven’t told me why you deserve your future. How can you just expect me to take your word? You lost sight of it once, what’s to say that won’t happen again?’ Eliza went to speak, but he held up his hand, indicating he wasn’t finished. She closed her mouth and waited for him to continue.

  ‘You say you’ve proved yourself, but what exactly have you done? As far as I can see, all you’ve done is walk into my life and expect me to fall at your feet. Tell me how that is earning it?’

  I was impressed. Adam understood the need for information and he was playing her beautifully.

  ‘You need to tell me exactly why I should trust you now. What have you done to earn this chance?’

  Eliza said nothing, just studied Adam. For a moment I thought he’d gone a step too far. But then a smile dawned on her face. Adam was listening. He was open to her at last. She just needed to tell him all she had done. He would see then that she did deserve her chance. He would appreciate her efforts and they would finally be together.

  She leaned back into the couch again., still smiling. She threw me a smug look. She knew it wouldn’t be long and she’d be rid of me.

  She was still holding her handbag in a tight grip. I knew what that meant: I wondered if Adam had recognised the motion.

  She started to talk again. There was no emotion in her telling.

  ‘Once I started looking, it didn’t take me long to trace you. I found, to my dismay, that you had married. Initially I was angry, how could you do that to me? But when I thought about it I realised that I hadn’t been around and, being a man, you had sought comfort in a substitute. Besides, I had made a mistake, so I had to allow you one too.’