Protecting Melody

by Susan Stoker

  She’d told Tex every single thing she’d ever done in her life in the hopes that something would pan out and would make sense, but Melody knew that nothing she’d said had uncovered any leads. She now had absolutely no secrets from Tex. It was certainly one way to accelerate a relationship.

  Tex knew about the two suckers she’d shoplifted from the local gas station when she was seven. He knew about the three cigarettes she’d smoked at a party in high school and how she’d puked for two hours when she’d gotten home. He knew what Halloween costumes she’d worn for the last ten years, he knew the names of her contacts at her job, and even more intimate details about her relationships with the men she’d dated.

  The fact was, she had no idea what she’d been missing until Tex made love with her. Sometimes he let her lay there and allowed him do what he wanted to her, sometimes he made her do all the work, both on him and on herself. He worshiped her body and made her believe she was beautiful. She’d never thought she was ugly, but Tex had made her see she was beautiful no matter what her size was. He’d spent hours convincing her. She had no issues anymore walking around the house naked, sleeping naked, or even showering with Tex any chance she got. Basically, Tex had awakened her sensuous side and every time they made love, somehow Tex made her fall in love with him even more.

  So here she was, walking Baby and wondering what was next. What the hell could the stalker do next? Would he pop out of a bush with a gun? Would he get a sniper rifle and come after her from afar? A car crash? Tamper with her brakes? There were a million things Melody could think of, none of them good. Tex had let her go outside and walk Baby by herself with a promise she’d come right back inside and she’d never be out of sight of the window to her apartment. Even now Melody knew Tex was watching her from the kitchen. He’d been on the phone when she’d left, talking to someone named “Ghost” and trying to call in some marker or another to try to end the hell they’d been going through.

  Melody was so lost in her thoughts, and the routine of walking her dog, that she didn’t realize Baby was straining to get something in the grass. Melody had tried to train Baby to leave things alone when she was walking her, but as a hound, it was almost impossible.

  Melody pulled back on Baby’s leash just before she could snatch up whatever was in the grass. “Forget it, Baby, I feed you, you don’t need to eat random crap you find in the yard.” She shortened the leash by wrapping it around her hand and took a step closer to whatever it was, trying to see what the hell had Baby so worked up.

  She took one look and stepped back quickly. She stared in horror, not believing what she was seeing and spun around to run back upstairs. Baby ran after her as she jogged, thinking they were playing.

  “Tex! Tex!” Melody burst into the apartment and looked around.

  Tex met her at the door, obviously having seen her quick retreat from the dog walking area through the window. “What? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” He examined her from head to toe to try to see if she was hurt.

  “Outside . . . Baby . . .”

  “Slow down, Mel.” Tex took her by the shoulders and hauled her into his arms. He kept his eyes on her face, but ran his hands up and down her back, trying to soothe her. “Tell me what happened.”

  “I was walking Baby and not paying attention . . . she . . . she tried to get something in the grass. I pulled her away in time . . . I’m pretty sure . . . but Tex . . . it looked like a steak. An uneaten freaking steak. That cannot be a coincidence! Steaks don’t just appear in thin air. Not in the pet walking area.”

  Tex’s jaw ticked as he clenched it. “Okay, I’ll call the cops again. You stay up here with Baby. Do we need to take her to the vet? You’re sure she didn’t get any of it?”

  Melody sighed. She was so thankful Tex was here to take care of this for her, and that he was worried about her dog. “Yeah, I pulled her away as soon as I noticed her smelling near there. I think she’s fine. But what if there’s more?”

  “I’m going down. I’ll look around. Make sure so no one else’s dog eats anything.”

  They looked at each other, remembering the threat from that morning. The steak was most likely poisoned, and meant for Baby.

  “My God.” Melody’s words were whispered and tortured.

  Tex didn’t know anything he could say to make this any better. When he’d seen the stuffed dog with the noose around it tied to the bumper of his truck he’d been furious. This had gone on way too long. Mel wasn’t sleeping well. She’d had a nightmare last night and all he could do was hold her and let her cry when he’d shaken her awake.

  “I’ll be right back,” Tex told her gently.

  Melody just nodded. She felt Tex kiss the top of her head and she moved to the couch when he closed and locked the front door behind him. Baby crawled into Melody’s lap and rested her head on her shoulder. They stayed like that until Tex came back into the apartment an hour later.

  Tex took one look at the woman he loved sitting so still and sad on the couch and immediately went to join her. Sitting next to her, he enveloped her, and Baby into his arms, and the three of them sat there, soaking up as much love and compassion from each other as they could.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Two days later, Melody sat at the table typing what was being said at a luncheon for a company in Wyoming. It was an awards ceremony and they’d hired the closed caption company to translate for their three hearing-impaired employees. Melody had long ago learned not to really listen to the meaning of the words she heard, but only for the word itself. It made the work go faster and it was definitely less boring that way.

  She refused to let her stalker interfere with her job. It was the only normal thing she had in her life at the moment, and it actually helped her not think about how scared and pissed she was for a few hours each day.

  Tex had kissed her on the top of the head and told her he was going to take Baby for a walk and that he’d be back in a bit. After the cops had arrived and said the steak that was found in the yard downstairs had indeed been poisoned, Tex wouldn’t let Melody walk Baby by herself anymore. He took the dog to different areas in the neighborhood and made sure he kept her on a short leash, just in case anything else had been left around.

  As usual, Tex locked Melody into the apartment and warned her to be safe and not open the door to anyone, even someone she knew. Melody merely nodded, reassuring him she’d do as he said.

  Twenty minutes later, she typed quickly, smiling when she heard Tex’s key in the lock. She was thankful the ceremony she was translating for was almost over, Tex had promised they’d break in the kitchen counter after he got back from walking Baby. They hadn’t yet made love there, they kept getting distracted and even though they’d discussed it and teased each other, it hadn’t happened yet.

  Melody turned to throw a quick smile at Tex as he entered the apartment. She stumbled over the words she was typing as what she was seeing slowly sunk in. Tex entered the apartment first, followed by Diane. Diane was holding a gun against his side and she had Baby’s leash in her hand. She’d twisted it around her hand over and over until Baby’s front feet weren’t touching the ground and she was coughing against the pressure being put on her throat from the collar around her neck being pulled taut.

  Tex’s jaw was flexing and he was pissed. Melody had thought she’d seen Tex upset before, but it was nothing like what she was looking at right now. She was looking at Tex the killer, the Navy SEAL. It should’ve scared her, but instead it calmed her. He’d know what to do. The fact that he hadn’t already disarmed Diane said volumes about the threat he thought she posed.

  While Melody didn’t like what she was seeing, a part of her was relieved it was finally coming to an end. One way or another, this stalking shit was going to end. Here. Today.

  Melody’s fingers continued typing automatically until Diane barked out, “Stop fucking typing, bitch!”

  Melody lifted her hands off the keyboard immediately. She reached up and took the headph
ones out of her ears. She could hear the speaker continuing to talk, and she knew the people viewing the closed caption would be confused when the words coming across their apps didn’t match the ceremony and then just stopped in mid-phrase, but it was obvious Diane was deadly serious.

  “Go sit on the couch.” Diane gestured to the leather couch with her head, not taking the gun off of Tex. She turned to him now. “Don’t get any ideas soldier boy. Go sit at the table.”

  Melody’s mind raced. Diane was separating them, making sure Tex didn’t get close to her. Baby whined and Melody looked at her. She was standing on her hind feet trying to take the pressure off of her neck, but Diane wasn’t giving her any extra room to breathe.

  “Please, my dog. Diane, let her go.”

  “Shut up, Melody. I’ll do whatever the hell I want. I’ve been telling you for months what was coming, but you’re still acting all surprised. How fucking cute. It’s too bad you didn’t just let your precious Baby eat the meat and avoid this, but you didn’t, so fucking deal.”

  Melody inhaled. They’d thought her stalker was a guy. All along they’d been searching for a man. Melody had no idea if Tex had even thought it could’ve been a woman or not, Amy notwithstanding, but it was a moot point now.

  “Why, Diane? Why? I don’t even really know you. Why would you do this to me? I thought we were friends.”

  Ignoring her, Diane waved the gun at Tex again. “Take off your fake leg, asshole.”

  Tex didn’t move and Diane sneered at him. “Yeah, I know all about you, John.” Tex’s real name sounded obscene coming from Diane’s lips. She’d obviously done her research. Melody had no idea how she’d found out anything about Tex. That freaked her out more than anything else.

  “Take off the fucking leg or I’ll kill the dog right now.” She wrenched the leash she held in her hand and Melody flinched as Baby yelped in pain.

  Tex’s eyes didn’t leave Diane’s, but Melody could see that every muscle in his body was taut. He leaned over and lifted his pant leg until he could reach his prosthetic. “Let go of the dog.” Even his voice was low and tight, and incredibly controlled.

  He waited until Diane put some slack on the leash and Baby could be heard wheezing again, to pop off the suction on his leg.

  Melody had no idea what to do. She was completely out of her league. She remembered what seemed like a long time ago telling Tex that even without his leg he was just as lethal as any other SEAL. She hoped like hell he believed it now. All three of their lives were depending on it…on him.

  Once his leg was off, Diane ordered, “Scoot it over here to me.” Tex shoved it and it clattered toward Diane and came to rest about three feet in front of her. Moving the gun so it was now pointed at Melody, she walked to Tex’s leg and kicked it even further away from him, ensuring he couldn’t simply fall forward and grab it. “Now sit your ass back down.”

  Tex did as she asked. Melody knew as long as Diane had the gun pointed at her and had Baby’s leash pulled tight, Tex would bide his time.

  Diane walked to the couch and leaned over, keeping the gun trained on Melody the entire time. “Stand up.” Melody did and watched as Diane leaned over and shoved Baby’s leash under the leg of the couch, effectively trapping the dog on a very short lead. Melody didn’t like the awkward way Baby had to hold her head, but at least she was on all four legs and could breathe. Diane stood back up and gestured for Melody to sit back down.

  Melody tried again to engage Diane. “Why are you doing this? Please, talk to me.”

  Diane rolled her eyes. “Oh sure, now you want to talk to me. You never did before, did you? You and Amy, best friends, queens of the school. Talking in your little hashtag language. You thought you were so fucking funny. Well, you weren’t.”

  “This is because of high school?” Melody couldn’t believe it. She tried to keep her voice calm. “That was years ago!”

  “I don’t care!” Diane shrieked the words, obviously losing it. “I looked up to you. I wanted to be your friend, and you completely dissed me in front of the entire school! You made a fool out of me!”

  Trying to calm her down, Melody said in a low voice. “I’m sorry, Diane. Really, I’m so sorry.”

  “For what Melody? You have no idea do you? You’re just saying that. You don’t mean it. If you mean it, you tell me for what.”

  Thinking back to the conversation she’d had with Tex about how Diane had spent some time in at the mental hospital, Melody regretted not having him look into it more. She was obviously unstable and whatever had set her off had probably been festering for a while, but more importantly, Diane had decided to stalk her after having a mental break of some sort. That was the only logical explanation Melody could think of for why Diane was standing in her apartment ready to kill her for some imagined slight while they were in high school.

  Melody frantically tried to search her mind for anything that could’ve set Diane off. She honestly had no idea. “Diane, look. I know Amy and I were a little crazy back in high school. We should’ve been nicer to people, I know that, but whatever I did to you, I was young. I didn’t know any better.”

  Diane’s voice lost its shrill tone, but the flat even cadence was somehow more frightening. “I saw you and Amy joking in the cafeteria one day. You’d been nice to me. I dropped my books in the hall once and you helped me pick them up. I thought you were different from everyone else. I thought we were friends. I heard you and Amy talking in that fucking way you had. I walked up and tried to join in. I said, ‘Hashtag you look pretty today’ and you know what you said?” Diane waited and then laughed bitterly. “You have no idea do you? You ruined my life and you have no clue. You said loud enough for everyone to hear, ‘Hashtag Amy do you hear anything? Hashtag annoying underclassman alert.’ And everyone around you laughed hysterically. From that day on no one would talk to me. For two and a half years everyone remembered what queen Melody had said. You ruined my life.

  “So I decided to ruin yours in return. It took a while, but I did it. I followed you for years, Melody. I studied you. I had to wait until you got back from college, but once you did, I did what I could to learn everything about you. I wrote that letter to Robert. Now he hates you, as he should. I fucked with Amy. I saw my chance when you broke up with Lee. I got him. I won. He likes me, not you. You should hear him talk about what a lousy fuck you were.”

  Melody tried not to hyperventilate. Diane was crazy. She’d built up everything bad that had happened in high school and her life and blamed her. It made no sense. Knowing nothing she was saying was true, Melody tried to placate Diane. “I never slept with him.”

  “The hell you didn’t!” Diane’s voice was loud and shrill again. “He told me all about it. How you couldn’t take his cock down your throat like I can! How you didn’t like to take it up the ass, but I do that for him. Me! I do everything you wouldn’t and he loves me now. I used to think you were so smart. I have no idea why I was so jealous of you. God. It was so easy to make you run. All I had to do was threaten your precious dog.” Diane kicked at Baby, and the dog yelped as Diane’s foot made contact with her back leg.

  “Please, Diane. Not Baby. Please don’t. She didn’t do anything.” Melody could feel the tears on her cheeks, but couldn’t do anything about making them stop. Watching Baby do her best to escape the cruelty Diane inflicted on her was heart wrenching. Melody had rescued Baby from the shelter and a life where she was probably abused just like Diane was doing to her. She couldn’t bear it if they got out of this alive and Baby reverted back to her skittish demeanor.

  “Shut up,” Diane hissed. “Fuck. Still so damn stupid. It was so fucking easy to track you. You thought you were so smart hiding in Florida, then running to California. You think I wouldn’t figure out you’d have Amy helping you? The second she came into the bank with that Power of Attorney I knew. I kept my eye on her. After she’d take money out of your account, she’d put it the mail, in her own fucking mailbox. She’s as ‘hashtag stupid’ as y
ou.”

  Melody flinched, but Diane continued.

  “It was so damn easy to rattle you. I called in sick and flew across the country to leave you that note. I knew exactly where you were. You weren’t hiding. You’re a joke.”

  “So what now?” Tex’s voice was hard and flat from the corner of the room, effectively bringing Diane’s attention back to him.

  Diane whipped her head around to stare at him. “What now? Now she’s going to see what it’s like to feel humiliated. She’s going to regret dissing me that day. And when I’m done here, I’m going to do the same thing to Amy. She’s just as guilty as Melody.”

  “Amy’s gone. You can’t hurt her.”

  “Whatever, soldier boy. I found Melody, I can find Amy. But you know what? I think I’ll start with you instead.”

  “No! Diane!” Melody stood up at the couch and Diane immediately swung the gun her way.

  “Sit down, Mel,” Tex told her in a stern voice. “Diane—”

  “Aren’t you just the concerned boyfriend?” Diane interrupted Tex in a sing-song voice. “No, Melody, don’t sit. Go into your bedroom and find something to tie your boyfriend up with. I’ll give you twenty seconds. If you don’t find anything, I’m going to shoot him in the other leg.”

  “What?”

  “One. Two.”

  Melody whirled and ran down the hall to her room. Fuck. Diane was bat shit crazy and Melody had no idea what to do. She looked around frantically, hearing Diane counting from the other room. She whipped open her lingerie drawer and pulled out couple pairs of panty hose.

  “Eleven. Twelve.”

  Melody wrenched open the drawer next to the bed and pulled out the bondage ropes she’d bought recently. She’d meant to get them out and let Tex play with her, but it was too late now.

  “Fifteen. Sixteen.”