“Because the warehouse stays pretty warm, and they would melt out there. Then we would have to find a way to store them inside and we just don't have the room for that, nor does it look appealing to store boxes in the showroom.”
“Got it. Okay, I'm going back for a second load. I'll hold my breath this time,” he spoke with sarcasm.
After loading another three boxes, Trevor started inside the store when his phone vibrated with a call. He stood the hand truck upright and took his phone from his pocket and answered it.
“Hi Mother. What's up?”
“Trevor! Remember when we had that conversation about me feeling that things were going to take a turn for the worse in the near future? That you'd better be ever so watchful of your surroundings?” she checked his memory unnecessarily.
“Yes, what do you feel?”
“I feel that you are out of time, son. You'd better check with all of your resources and get ready,” she said.
No sooner than she said get ready, he was getting an email from the agent that was in charge of personally checking on Lori. It read:
Mr. Harrison,
I regret to inform you of a detrimental situation. Unfortunately, the institute dropped the ball again where Lori is concerned. She has escaped and apparently went missing sometime during the night. The last body check was at eleven last night. She could have been missing for almost twelve hours by now. A nurse's keys and car are missing and we've issued a BOLO with the Georgia State Patrol office.
It's a powder blue Volkswagen Beetle, with Georgia plates, BEEFN UP. You should do the same with Texas State Patrol.
Time is of the essence.
Agent D.Colley
Trevor cussed, loudly. It startled another employee that was in the warehouse in search of products for the shelves. Trevor pushed the boxes back inside the cooler and put in a call to his security team. They were still in place, but he wanted to alert them of the situation. He then called his mom back and told her of the email he'd just received.
“I knew it! I knew it! We're covered here, just do what you have to do, son,” she let him get to what he needed to do.
He rushed inside Symóne's studio, startling her. She looked at his panicked face and furrowed her brows.
“What's wrong Trevor?”
He stepped closer to her, biting his bottom lip. How do I tell her? He asked himself.
“Babe—?” he hesitated.
“What Trevor! Just tell me!” She knew something was wrong, and her gut feeling was screaming Lori.
“She's escaped. She's been on the run since approximately eleven p.m. last night. That means she's been driving for almost twelve hours, and it's approximately a sixteen hour drive. We may have a little longer, since she's more than likely doing all the driving. I assume she would need rest stops for food and fuel along the way,” he explained as truthfully as possible.
A wave of heat pulsed through Symóne's body. She felt dizzy, and had to take a seat in her chair and force slow deep breaths from her lungs in an attempt to not panic herself into a tantrum. Her words were careful, not wanting to throw salt in old wounds.
“This time…she'd better not walk away breathing,” she snarled through her teeth, her eyes fixed on Trevor's.
The look on Symóne's face was anger, hurt, impatience, and sadness. Trevor knew without a doubt if he couldn't bring this situation to an end permanently, there was going to be trouble in paradise.
He stepped closer to Symóne, squatting in front of the chair she sat in, taking her hands into his. He pulled them to his mouth and kissed them both before speaking.
“Symóne, love…”
“Don't Trevor.” She turned her head away.
“Babe, please,” he reached his right hand up to her face, using his fingers to cup her chin and turn her face to his. Her eyes were pooling with tears, about to flow over. Her chest rose with inhaled breaths, but shivered when she exhaled. When their eyes met, her eyes were pleading.
“I can't keep going through this,” she whispered.
“I know—”
“No. I mean it Trevor. You heard her that day at the hospital. In her words, It will never be over. She will try until she dies. I have reason to believe she wants it that way. It's either do or die, and what I want to know from you is…what matters to you most?” she took her hand from him and pushed her chair back and stood to her feet.
Symóne gathered her designs that she was working on earlier and stacked them on top of one another, then stuck them in a travel case. She then walked over to a shelving system and starting collecting an array of charcoal pencils and a box of colored pencils and stuck them in her tote. She was packing to work from home as she has done in the past on weekends, only this time, it was because she felt it would be safer for her employees if she wasn't there. When she was done packing and had started for the door, Trevor stopped her. He took the travel case and the tote from her hand and put the handles of both in one hand and held the door open for her.
“I choose you babe. Let's go home,” he told her.
Without looking up, she continued out of her studio and and through the store. Stopping at Faye, then calling Angela over for a quick meeting. She explained that she would be working from home for a few days. She asked Angela to please be sure that security was here before she opened the store, and for Faye to be sure she had security when she closed the store.
“Please call me and keep me informed of anything new, or any situations that I need to handle. Also, check with me before booking any meetings for any design projects.”
“What's going on Symóne?” asked Angela, seeing the stressed looks on hers and Trevor's faces.
“Nothing I can tell you about right now. Just do as I ask and look out for your safety and the safety of the other employees and customers.”
She flashed a glance at Faye, who gulped hard. She knew exactly what was going on, just by the warning Symóne gave, the looks on their faces, and her best friend packing her portable studio to spend time at home. She didn't say a word or give away that she knew anything more for Angela's sake, but assured Symóne that they would follow her instructions.
Symóne sighed, looking around her store, then continued out of the door and headed to her SUV to head home. Before Trevor let her get in, he searched her vehicle front to back, looked under it for any tracking devices, and made sure her GPS was in tact. He then helped her in, then asked her to wait for him to get in his car to follow her home. He'd done the same thing to his as he'd done with hers, then got in and pulled up behind her.
They headed home, and Trevor's phone chimed with another email. It was from the agent. He pressed a button that would allow the phone to hear his commands, then asked it to read the email to him. It read:
Mr. Harrison,
It appears that Lori used the nurses personal information in her car to go back to her house for a few things to travel with. Using the nurses keys, she entered her home, took a large travel bag and filled it with clothes and shoes. She also took a gun from under her mattress and found her stash of ammunition, two boxes, in her nightstand. Also, the nurse claims that her savings account containing a little over seventeen hundred dollars had been emptied, and we verified that there were several ATM withdrawals between one a.m. and nine a.m. this morning totaling that amount.
We've also done a supply check at the institute and found that three cases of pre-filled injections of tranquilizers are missing. Each case contains eight boxes of twelve injections. Lori is armed with two hundred and eighty-eight tranquilizers, a loaded gun, nine millimeter at that, and two extra boxes of bullets, along with cash for food and gas. She is well prepared to get the job done. One way or the other, she's not going down without a fight.
Get prepared Mr. Harrison. You have no margin for error in this situation.
Agent D. Colley
Trevor's jaw was clenching, his eyes set on the back of his pregnant wife's SUV. His thoughts were, Symóne was right. I should have
left her for dead with the snakes.
He knew he would have always felt guilty for that. But now, her intentions were to cause his wife harm. This, he knew for sure. This, he would grant his wife's wishes for. Lori would not get an opportunity to cause any more problems for him and Symóne. He'd shot and killed her stalker, it was time to put an end to Lori's reign of terror.
Symóne pulled into their driveway and Trevor followed. He'd seen the unmarked cars at both ends of their street, then parked inside the garage right next to Symóne.
He got out and rushed to get her supplies and took her hand and went inside. His mom had rushed to embrace them both and informed them that she had one of the agents take her to the grocery store to stock up on food, especially Symóne's favorites.
“Thanks Julia. I really appreciate you being here. Please, if we don't have to, let's not make this situation the topic of all our conversations. It makes me feel stressed, and the baby is my top priority right now,” Symóne explained, then headed down the hallway that led to her home studio/office.
She had plans that needed to be worked on, and designing was relaxing for her. Trevor and his mom looked after her as she disappeared through the doorway, then looked at each other.
“Where's Drew?” Trevor asked.
“Out back. He seems to be enjoying this Texas weather and I guess he wants privacy to talk to his girlfriend without his mother listening in,” she shook her head, a small smile forming on her face.
“Well, he's going to have to learn to talk on the inside. He can't stay out there. It's too…dangerous,” he started for the patio door, but the doorbell rang and he turned, meeting his mom on the way to answer the door.
He looked outside and saw another member of the Agency he used and opened the door.
“Sorry to disturb you Mr. Harrison, Sir. But I've been assigned post at your front entrance,” he stated.
“Good. If you see anything or anybody suspicious, notify us immediately,” said Trevor.
He closed the door and the man stood facing the road and watched as he was trained to do. Trevor peeked out the side windows and watched the man for a few minutes, then turned to head out back to retrieve his brother. He stepped out and didn't see Drew anywhere.
“Drew!” he called out.
“Yeah?” he heard a voice, but didn't see him.
“Where are you?”
Drew sat up from his makeshift lounge on the ground under the large shade tree. He waved at Trevor and then started to lay back down but was interrupted.
“You have to come inside Drew! Now!” Trevor demanded.
He dropped his head, then rolled over on his knees and got to his feet. He continued to talk on the phone, slow walking toward his brother. When he reached Trevor, he raised his shoulder, his free hand palmed upwards, wondering what was the problem.
“Can you call her back in a little bit? I need to talk to you,” Trevor told his brother.
“Okay,” he sighed. “Maddie…I have to call you back in a little while. I promise to, okay?” he checked, then ended the call after getting her approval.
“What's wrong Trev? Why can't I hang in the back yard? I'm not doing anything wrong?” he questioned his brother.
“Come inside. I'll explain,” he said.
Drew followed Trevor inside and watched as Trevor locked the doors, deadbolts and all, then led him to the great room.
“Okay Drew. There is a very dangerous person on the loose. They could be in the area and they are also armed with a gun. I don't want you outside at all until this person is caught. You are not allowed to answer the door either. Only Symóne, Mom, or I can answer the door. Do you understand?” Trevor spoke directly to him, face to face.
He nodded, then cocked his head to the side, a question rising in his mind. “Trevor?” he began.
“Yeah?” he stopped his exit to go check on Symóne.
“Madeline wants me to kiss her again,” his smile was enormous. Trevor almost chuckled at the expression Drew had on his face. He cleared his throat, and his mother walked away.
“Drew, I don't know that there is a problem with that. However, we do need to talk about this further—your relationship with Madeline. It will have to be a little later though because I have to check on Symóne. Anyway, you can't kiss her until you go back home, which isn't for a while, so we'll talk later, I promise,” said Trevor, as he turned to head down the hallway to Symóne's home studio.
Drew went to his mom, who had migrated to the kitchen to make everyone some lunch and sat to the bar counter and stared at her. She felt his eyes on her and turned to face him.
“Drew? What's wrong?” she asked.
“Trevor is stressed Mom.”
“Yes, son…he is.”
“Why?”
“He has a lot going on, and he's worried about his wife and baby.”
Drew paused, silence was in the air. “What's the address here?” he came out of the blue.
“Why?”
“Madeline wants to write me a letter while I'm here. She said she drew some pictures for me and wants to send them to me,” he said.
“Um…Drew, honey?” she got his attention as he began texting his girlfriend.
“Can't she just take a picture of the drawings with her phone and send them to you by text? That way she can hand them to you personally when we get back?” she suggested.
He looked down at his phone and continued to text, then pressed send and waited.
“I asked her,” he said simply. Then his phone chimed with a return message.
“She said yes. She will send them by phone,” he told his mom, then got up to go in the great room.
Julia sighed, then continued making lunch. Drew had obviously called Madeline back, because she heard him talking to someone. It wasn't until a few words caught her attention that she really tuned in.
She's really pretty. Her hair is blonde, and…some of it is orangey-red too. Yep. It's long, like down her back, but she keeps it up in a ponytail most of the time. Yep. Oh…and she has freckles. Yep. Blue, her eyes are blue.
Julia walked to the family room and saw that Drew was sprawled out on the sofa with his phone to his ear. She wondered why he was describing Symóne to his girlfriend.
Yep. She's going to have a baby. That's why Trevor says her stomach is so big. The baby is in there and it's growing bigger. Okay then, call me back.
Julia went to stand in front of Drew, full of questions.
“Drew? Who were you describing?”
“Mom…why are you listening to my phone call?”
“I wasn't at first, but I'm curious of why you were describing…it sounds like Symóne, to your girlfriend?”
He huffed a gush of wind, “Because she wants to draw a picture of her.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I don't know.”
Julia drew in a deep breath, then returned to the kitchen. Once lunch was ready, she told Drew to wash up and head to the table. Then she rounded the corner, headed to Symóne's home studio, announcing her approach. She'd learned from a past experience to make it known that she was coming their way, so that she wouldn't make the mistake of seeing her son's naked backside while he worked on his wife.
“Trevor? Symóne? Lunch is ready,” she called out just before she made it to the open door.
“He was sitting on the extra large comfy chair, with Symóne sitting across his lap, with her head resting against his. They both looked up at her face as it morphed from worry to a smile.
“Are you two hungry?” she asked.
“I am,” Symóne answered first. She moved to get up and Trevor helped her to her feet, then got to his, and they both followed his mom back to the kitchen.
“Hey Drew. I see you finally put your phone down long enough to interact with your family?” Trevor teased him.
“Madeline is drawing a picture for me. She's going to take a picture of it with her phone and send it to me when she's finished,” he explained.
> Trevor chuckled, then started on the tacos his mom had made for them. Symóne dug in, devouring three in no time. She picked up her glass of tea, then started on her fourth taco. This made Trevor smile, seeing her eating the way she normally does when she wasn't worried.
“So Symóne—” Julia started, but Trevor was getting a call. It was from the Texas State Patrol Office.
He got up from the table to take the call, and walked toward the great room.
“This is Trevor.”
“This is Amanda from the Texas State Patrol Office. I've been asked to call you to relay some information, can you talk? It's urgent,” she stated.
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“The powder blue Volkswagen Beetle has been found abandoned in Houston approximately fifteen minutes ago. It was empty with the exception of a few personal items belonging to the owner—in the glove box. It was found at a used car lot, and the owner says that a dark blue Ford Focus was missing along with the keys. He said that a woman had come in the powder blue Beetle and inquired about his selection and told him that she wanted a small, fuel efficient car, and she was paying with cash. He had taken her on a test drive of two vehicles and she seemed to like the last one—the Focus. He took her back to his office and had her fill out some paperwork, then left to check on another customer. When he came back to the office, she was gone and so were the keys. He rushed to the front and saw through the wall of windows that the dark blue Focus was pulling out of the lot and called the police. When he told them that she'd left a blue Volkswagen on his lot, they informed him that they were looking for her. That was fifteen, now eighteen minutes ago. She's either close or already in the area.” she finished.
Trevor was already walking toward the front door, looking out when he ended the call with the representative from TSP.
The Agents were still at their posts, and he went upstairs to retrieve his Glock, then stuck two additional clips in the side pockets of his cargo pants. He stuck the gun in the back band of his pants and rushed back downstairs.
“What is it Trevor?” Symóne demanded.
“She's probably near now. They found the car she took from the Institute, left where she stole another vehicle from a used car lot in Houston.”
Hostile Vengeance Page 12
