by Maine, Miley
Shit. Why did I have to tell her that? It was a mistake, but I knew I wasn’t sorry for the way I felt or the fact that I’d expressed those feelings. I cared deeply about this woman. I loved her with all my heart and soul. I knew that as much as I knew anything. I knew it because I had not loved anyone in so long. I thought I never would find love again and that I was no longer even capable of it. A few months ago, I truly thought that I would spend my life alone with my money and fame. That was all I really had.
And that was a hollow existence.
But then this amazing woman walked into my life just out of the blue. And we hit it off. And things grew more intense. And we fell in love so fast. But now I was finding out this love was only one sided.
But she said she did care about me. Maybe she just wasn’t ready to say it, yet? I just needed to give her more time. But I was doing just that. I was trying to give her as much time as I could. At least I thought so, but I knew almost nothing about relationships. Maybe I was just doing everything wrong.
I poured the whiskey and took a deep drink. The sweet burn in my throat spread throughout my body and I felt the alcohol relaxing me. I grabbed my phone and texted Julie. “I’d like to see you tonight. Dinner at my place?”
I pressed send and then waited. Julie had not responded to my text all day long. I’d texted her that morning to see how things went with her friends. She did not respond back to me. I threw myself into the rest of my day and now that I finally had a chance to get back with her, I was getting a bit worried that she hadn’t responded.
I finished my drink and decided that I would swing by her department just to check on things. That way I could casually see her and make sure she seemed alright. Was she working too hard lately? Was that the sudden change? Or did she realize she was neglecting some other people in her life to hang out with me?
I was losing my mind by overthinking all of this. If Julie cared about me as she said she did then everything would be fine. I wasn’t sure why I was getting a little bit nervous about things. I hardly ever got nervous about anything. I often took insane business risks, and I took risks in my personal life as well. That was the rush I was always looking for.
But this was different. I was actually worried. I hated being worried. It was such an uncomfortable feeling and usually it was unwarranted. I was sure this would turn out to be silly as well.
I made my way down to marketing and the first person I ran into was Barb. I didn’t see Julie at her desk. As a matter of fact, her desk looked pretty bare and empty. There was nothing on it.
“Hey, funny seeing you down here,” Barb said. “What’s going on?”
“I just thought I’d see how things were coming. Is the team going to be ready for that presentation Friday?”
“Absolutely. We are all over that.”
“Hey, where is Julie?”
“Oh, I don’t know. She didn’t come in today. And I guess she took her stuff home over the weekend. Kind of weird.”
Yes, it was. Now I was getting very worried.
“Is there something I can answer for you?” Barb asked.
I let the question hang because I was already too far from her to turn around and give her an answer. I was gone. I was almost running towards the elevator to get out of the building and see if Julie was actually at home. Was she sick? Or did she just decide to blow off work today? That wasn’t like her. She loved what she did as much as I did. This was not an employee blowing off work when there was as big deadline looming. Julie was not that person.
I made it out of the building and got into my Jaguar that I kept at the office just in case I felt like driving myself around. I spun out of the parking garage quickly and slipped onto the main road. I felt like gunning the thing and running every red light until I got to Julie’s building and made sure that she was alright. I had to hold myself back. I was getting freaked out over nothing. She was probably hung over. Maybe she and her friends painted the town red last night and she just slept through her alarm. It wasn’t like her, but she was human, and she was able to be forgiven the occasional lapse in judgment. Hell, I had a bad lapse in judgment almost all the time.
Like when I’d told the love of my life that I loved her.
I gripped the wheel tightly and groaned at my egregious error. What had I been thinking?
I pulled up to Julie’s apartment building. I pressed her button for her to buzz me in. It took a moment, but eventually I got an answer. But I did not recognize the voice. It sounded like an older woman. “Hello?”
“Um, yes…I may have pressed the wrong button,” I said. “I’m looking for Julie Ashby’s apartment.”
“Oh, I’m sorry she doesn’t live here anymore,” the woman replied.
My heart sank. What in the hell was going on?
“What? She lived there just yesterday. I don’t understand.”
“I’m Mrs. Baggins, the landlady. I just happened to be in this apartment getting things in order for the new tenants to move in. I agree that Julie’s departure was quite fast. She just called me and told me she was leaving town. I’ll have to bill her for the remainder of her lease, but I couldn’t talk her out of it. She sounded in a big hurry. I don’t have any more news than that.”
“What? This doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so. I’m just happy I was able to find a new tenant so fast. Say, are you with that other guy who was looking for her early this morning?”
I didn’t speak. Another guy?
“What? No… someone else was here looking for her?”
“Yeah, some man. I didn’t get the name, but he said it was very urgent that he speak with her. I do hope Julie isn’t in some kind of trouble. I don’t suppose you’d be able to tell me if she was.”
“Trouble? Not that I know of. Thanks,” I said.
I hurried to the car and slipped behind the wheel. I flipped the ignition and the engine roared to life. I started to put the car in gear but then I realized I had no idea where I was going. Where was Julie? Where had she gone? None of this made any sense.
And who was that man looking for her? What had Julie gotten herself into? And why didn’t she come to me for help?
I thought a moment. I felt like my entire world was crumbling apart. This was madness. I missed Julie already and I wanted to hold her, to just make sure that she was ok. I had to find her.
Who would know where she’d gone? Who would have any idea where she might have taken off to? Her family. Her parents. I would go speak to them.
I pulled out my phone and did some digging. After a few searches I had their home address. I drove there as fast as I could.
Julie’s parents, Kevin and Tanya lived in a nice two-story home on the outskirts of the city in a very nice suburb. They were a bit surprised to see me, but they both recognized me the moment they saw me. They were nice enough to invite me in. I explained the situation to them and then the hesitation started. They both seemed as if they were trying to keep a big secret. They knew where their daughter was. I could feel it. And they were scared.
“We can’t say,” Tanya said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“What is? Please talk to me. I can help.”
“We know you mean well, and you seem like a nice man, but trust us when we tell you our daughter is safe now and we want to keep it that way.”
I sighed. “Listen. I care deeply for your daughter. She is very important to me. We’ve become much more than just friends. I doubt she told you, but we’ve been dating for a while. Things have become pretty serious and I love your daughter.”
Their eyes lit up as they looked at each other. She hadn’t told them anything.
Kevin cleared his throat and spoke up. “I’m not sure we can tell you anything. We promised her we wouldn’t say a word to anyone.”
I groaned silently. I was getting nowhere. “Listen. I have resources that a lot of people don’t have. I can make sure your daughter stays safe.
I can give her celebrity-like levels of protection. The sky is the limit. I can keep her safe and sound. But you have to talk to me. You have to tell me where she is. You have to tell me what is going on.”
Kevin looked at his wife and then nodded. She began to speak.
10
Julie
I closed the door to my new apartment and looked around. It was smaller than I was used to, but it was cozy. I could get used to it. I had no other option. I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be living there. Just long enough hopefully to establish a new life and then go from there.
I sat down the bag of groceries I was carrying on the kitchen counter and began to put things away. It was mostly easy convenience foods. When you were on the run it was difficult to eat healthy sometimes. I bought some pasta and some sauce, a frozen pizza, some cans of soup, bread, peanut butter, and some prepackaged cold cut meats. I put all of this away and poured myself a glass of water before I sat down on the couch to relax.
I had to start looking for a new job. That reality was now sinking in as I realized that I only had about three hundred dollars left of my savings, which I’d cleaned out a few days ago. I was lucky to get this apartment on such short notice with only a six-month lease. I would find something I could do for work until I got a job I really wanted.
I wanted to go back and work at Caplan. I wanted to be with Tony. I wanted my friends and family around me. I sighed. Tony…
I missed him so much. He was probably going crazy looking for me. I needed him so badly. Just thinking about him and his touch, the way he looked at me, the way he wanted me with just his gaze… I could not stop feeling those sensuous eyes on my body when I was with him.
That last night we were together, he told me he loved me. I wondered if he would bother looking for me. He probably thought I got freaked out when he said those words to me and that I’d left because of that. I hadn’t. That was so far from the truth.
I left because of what I’d been hiding from the past few years. I left from the thing that would never stop chasing me. The thing that Tony knew absolutely nothing about. I’d never even mentioned it. I wondered if he would still want me after that.
Somehow, Saul had found me. I didn’t know how, but I realized that he was there. He was after me. He’d gotten so close this time. How? He didn’t even know what state I was in. After he was locked up for trying to murder me, a charge his shyster lawyer talked down to assault with a deadly weapon, I’d fled. I’d fled away from my psychotic, abusive ex-husband. The gangster. The lowlife. He was evil as anyone could be.
And I’d missed all of this when I fell for him. He was so handsome and charming, so sweet when we were dating. I thought he was the one. He was the love of my life. He was everything to me, I thought. And then when we got married, it was like night and day. Suddenly, he changed. He became abusive. I tried to leave, but I quickly discovered how powerful he was and how much influence he actually had.
He would not let me go. He had a crazy hold on me. His minions tracked me down and then I was like a prisoner. I couldn’t go to the bathroom without a chaperone. I had to be there at his beck and call while he went out running this business of his and hurting so many people. He would often come home in a foul mood and he would take it out on me. I tried to get away so many times, but it never worked.
Finally, one night I decided to do something drastic after he attacked me with a kitchen knife for not cooking his meatloaf to perfection. He was drunk and I knew I could outmaneuver him. I waited until he lunged at me and I swung the cast iron skillet I was holding behind my back leaning against the stove. I swung it around my body and collided with the side of his face. He went down quickly.
His henchman was waiting outside the door and he came inside to see the ruckus after he heard Saul yell in pain. I slammed the skillet into the middle of his face. Then I grabbed his keys and stole his car. I was out of there within an hour.
I went to my parents’ house and I found a safe place to stay until the trial. I thought for sure he would get life behind bars, but he was smooth. He had friends everywhere and if they weren’t friends yet, they soon became so after he greased their pockets.
He was given a two-year sentence. And I knew he’d be out in a year on good behavior. I had to hide.
So, I fled across the country and set up a whole new identity. I didn’t have a choice. My family did the same thing, moving close by me. And for a few years, everything was fine. I’d moved on with my life. But now… now he’d found me. I knew I would have to keep running for a while.
How did he find me? How? I wish I knew. It might have been an accident.
I wanted to call Tony and tell him everything. But I couldn’t. I was afraid I might put him in danger somehow. But then again, being a billionaire did afford to offer someone a level of protection. I was more worried about what Tony might do to Saul if I told him. Tony would probably find him and kick him until every bone in his body was mush.
I felt so safe with Tony. I’d never had that with a man before. It was so wonderful to actually be with a real man. A real good man who loved me. And now I had thrown it away. I should have talked to him, told him what was going on. But I didn’t want him mixed up in all of this. It wasn’t fair to him.
No. I would figure this out on my own. Maybe in a few weeks I would tell Tony about things. Or not. I wasn’t sure.
I picked up my phone and called Lizzy. “Hey, what’s up? You aren’t returning text messages?”
“No,” I said.
“Ok, are you too good for us now since you got that rich billionaire boyfriend? I see how it is.”
“No, it’s not like that, but I do have to tell you something. It’s serious.”
“Does he snore? Does his feet smell? Is there something about him that is not perfect?”
“It’s about my ex-husband,” I said.
“What? Your what now?” Lizzy asked. She was already freaking out. I’d told her and Nellie nothing about Saul. When I finished telling her everything, she was in tears. “Sweetie, I’m so sorry. Are you ok? Is there anything I can do for you?”
“No. I’m fine. I just hope I can see you soon. I’m not sure how long I’ll have to run this time. I just wish there was a way to make Saul go away forever.”
“You could have him whacked. Just make it look like one of his gangster friends did it. That stuff happens all the time, right?”
“Yeah, I guess. But no. I’m not having him whacked. That would make me too much like him. I will never let myself get that way. I’m afraid I won’t be able to come back to being me, you know?”
“I can see that. But desperate times, right?”
“Right,” I replied. She did have a point. And I’d thought of it. Oh, I thought a lot about it. But it wasn’t me. I simply couldn’t bring myself to do something that horrible to anybody. I wondered how many people Saul had killed either directly or indirectly. The man was a predator. He was evil and should have been put down.
“How do you know he is looking for you, again?” Lizzy asked.
“The other morning. I stopped at my apartment on the way to work to change my clothes and pick up a few things. The landlady mentioned as I passed her in the hall that some guy came by looking for me. I knew that it was him. Just by the way she described him. I put the wheels in motion to get out of the apartment with my stuff, get a new place setup here, and to take the money out of my account. Then I packed my car and I split. I wish I could tell you where I am.”
“I don’t want to know. If I don’t know then I can never tell anyone.”
“That’s right,” I said. “That’s the way it should be.”
I finished the phone call and told my friend how much I loved her, and I would miss her. I would see her again sometime, though. I’d work that out. I wasn’t sure how yet. But I would make sure of it.
I pulled out a paperback romance and read for a while. It was fun to read stories that took you away from the complexities and fears o
f real life sometimes. I read for about two hours until I was tired enough to go to bed.
When I laid down on my bed alone in the new surroundings, I realized I felt very uneasy. I was not settled into this new world yet. I was not near anyone I cared about. And I might not be near anyone close for a long time, until my parents could make arrangements to move again, if they chose to. I hadn’t even got myself settled in this new place yet.
I closed my eyes and I prayed that this nightmare would soon be over. When would it be done with?
11
Tony
Saul Bannon. That was the man that I hated now more than anyone I've ever come across in my life. That was the man who was trying to hurt the love of my life. That man was a vial, dirtbag gangster who needed to be put in the ground already. And I was the man to do it. I would not rest until this man was found, until Julie was safe for good, and until I had her happy in my arms.
I sat there on the couch listening to the story that her parents told me. I didn’t want to believe any of it. All of it was so horrible. It pained me to listen. But I knew it was true. Every single word was true. And now this guy had found Julie again. I wanted to know how. I wanted to know why he wasn’t behind bars.
He was rich and powerful and had friends in the right places. Well, so did I. And I was going to find out where this guy was hanging out these days. I was prepared to do whatever I had to in order to protect Julie. She was being menaced by this prick and that made my blood boil.
Julie should have told me. She should have told me every single thing, but this guy had her under a spell of some sort and she was just too scared.
I wanted to crush his throat just for that reason.
Julie’s parents still claimed to not know where their daughter actually was. “We thought she was in Colorado Springs. That was where she said she would go next if she ever needed to, but now we don’t know. When we last talked to her on the phone, we said we’d visit her there soon and she said she wasn’t there. She didn’t even want us to know the location. She is such a wonderful girl.”
