“I’m hoping she cleaned up her life and found some help.” Decker shrugged. “I told you about her, babe. She’s the one I was with for three years. The last two years, I was just there because I was an idiot, and it was easier not to make waves.”
“Lauren was cheating on him, for probably a good year then walked away without a blink of an eye. It’s okay, because Decker was about to end it anyway. She turned into a social ladder climber, had been fooling around with a high-powered corporate attorney. She thought he would marry her. They did their jet-set thing for a year. She started doing drugs with him and his friends. He dumped her for a hot model type who moved to Phoenix from New York. After she was dumped, Lauren tried to take up with Decker again, but he was definitely not interested. She was a druggie, became a stalker, and was a bigger psycho than she ever was before. We all sent her packing for good, after about four months of hell,” Brody provided with a grimace.
“He’s not exaggerating. It was hell. I talked her parents into putting her into rehab, finally, after we had gathered enough evidence on her for stalking and harassment to put her away. Hopefully, it helped.”
“If she’s doing surveillance, I think she’s in psycho mode, Deck.” Brody clapped him on the shoulder.
Decker grimaced.
The buzzer from the outside gate sounded.
Brody looked to Decker. “Who could that be?”
They heard footsteps coming toward them. Liam called out, “I checked the camera, psycho Lauren is at the gates!” He waited for them in the wide entry. “Do you want me to tell her you’re not here.”
“She knows I’m here or she wouldn’t have come to the gates, Liam. I’d rather get it done and over with now, so she doesn’t bother us all week long.” Decker shook his head in irritation.
“You two stay in the house with the girls,” Decker laced his fingers with Jade’s and gave them a squeeze. “I’ll be right back,” he said as he let go of her hand.
He didn’t want to leave her alone in the house after last night. He also knew Brody and Liam would want to go out there with him after what happened three years ago, but he needed them to stay with the women.
At the worst point of her psycho madness, Lauren had decided if the badly wounded Liam, who was occupying Decker’s time, was out of the way, Decker would take her back. She snuck in the house one day when Decker and Brody were working, and Liam’s nurse had taken off early. Brody came home and caught her trying to suffocate Liam, who was heavily medicated because of his injuries. Thankfully, he had enough strength to keep her from covering his face with the pillow. Brody contained her. Decker called his friend, Jackson, and Lauren’s parents. When they arrived at the house, he told them if they didn’t put their daughter into rehab, he was having her arrested. He assured them if he ever saw her near any of the Decker brothers’ properties again; he’d make sure she was brought to trial for attempted murder. That was the last time he had seen Lauren. Months after that, he suspected it was Lauren who made a string of unidentified phone calls over a period of several months. He hadn’t answered them; he eventually changed his phone number.
“You’re not going out there alone. I’m going with you. Brody will stay here with the ladies,” Liam informed him.
“You should stay here.” Decker looked to him.
“Nope. She tried to kill me. I’m going out there with you. I haven’t seen her since that day. I don’t want her starting this shit with you again. She put you through enough hell before. I’m going out there.” Liam’s deep blue eyes darkened with determination.
“I’ll stay with the girls.” Brody gave Liam a nod.
“All right, let’s go and get this over with. We have much better things to do with our time.” Decker rested his hand on Liam’s shoulder. Liam opened the door and led the way.
Brody remained standing in the doorway with one of the double doors open. “Just stand here behind me, okay.” He turned to the girls. “I want to keep a close eye on my brothers, just in case. I don’t trust that chick at all.”
“Sure,” Jade offered. “We’ll stay right here.”
“Michael!” Lauren Asherton peeked through the iron bars on the small window opening on one of the heavy gates.
Decker stopped walking halfway to the gate. He could feel Liam behind him.
“What do you want, Lauren?” he called out.
“Well, that is no way to greet an old friend.” Her eyes narrowed as she noticed the group of women talking with Brody in the entryway. She added in a louder tone, “An old fiancée.”
“We were never engaged,” Decker corrected in an irritated tone.
“Then almost fiancée. You look good, Michael. I came by because I want to talk to you.” She smiled brightly.
“Talk,” he grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“I would rather speak to you in private,” she purred.
“That’s not going to happen,” Liam growled.
“Come now, Michael. With everything there was between us, surely you wouldn’t mind talking with me privately.”
“I have no reason, whatsoever, to speak with you in private, Lauren. If that’s all you came for, we’re going to get back into the house. We’re here for some rest and recreation.”
“All of you?” Lauren laughed. She pointed to the open front door where Brody stood talking to a group of women.
“Of course,” Decker answered.
“I see,” Lauren frowned. “Well, Mommy and Daddy wanted me to extend an invitation for you, Michael, to the Country Club this evening. There is a big charity event tonight, with a wonderful band from Phoenix. Everyone who is anyone in Sedona will be there. If you didn’t bring something to wear, I could go with you into Flagstaff and help you find something…suitable.” She grimaced as her gaze scanned over his cut-off sweatpants and worn tee. She added, “They did say your brothers could come too.”
“Listen carefully, Lauren. I’m not interested in going anywhere with you. I’m here to spend time with my brothers and our friends. I am not interested in spending time with you at all. Go back to your parents’ house, get ready for your fancy party and stay away from us, please.”
“Michael. Think about your reputation. Cecily told me this new woman you’re seeing practices witchcraft and runs a shop for Satanists.” Lauren’s eyes narrowed and snapped with anger.
He walked several steps closer to the gate, a deep scowl darkening his features.
He pointed at her. “You want to play hardball, Lauren? I will.” Decker looked back when a hand touched his shoulder. It was Liam.
He let go an irritated sigh. “Things remain as they were three years ago. If you don’t leave us alone, I will see you go to court for the attempted murder of my brother. You leave me, my brothers, my girlfriend, and the other girls alone. You are not welcome here.”
“Liam is alive and well,” Lauren huffed. “Do you really want to be known as a person who associates with a witch?”
Lauren laughed and continued, “How can you even know this girl? Cecily said no one at the department even knew you were seeing her until just recently. She could be a psycho.”
“She’s not a psycho, we know how to spot one of those a mile away,” Liam spoke. “Thanks to you,” he mumbled. He gave the woman a bold, mocking grin.
Lauren fixed an icy glare on him then turned it on Decker.
“My relationship is no one’s concern but mine, Lauren, and it certainly is no business of yours.”
He shook his head. “You are acting like you’re on something again. If not, then you definitely need additional mental help. Go find what you need to get well and stay the hell away from us. Come near any one of us, and I will put you away this time. I’m dead serious about that! We, none of us, especially not me, want you around.”
“You’re such a fool. You don’t have any idea what you lost.” Lauren spat as her lips twisted into an angry frown.
“I lost nothing, Lauren. Good-bye.” Decker turned an
d walked back toward the house. To Jade.
Sam ran out onto the breezeway. Jade stepped out to collect her. Decker smiled at her, and walked toward her with purposeful strides. When she smiled back at him, it warmed him completely. Yeah, Jade Murphy was a keeper.
She waited for him. He reached out and took her hand, and walked into the house with her.
“Michael! I’m still talking to you!”
Liam stopped before he entered the house and turned around.
“You have one minute to get the hell out of here before I call the cops. We will insist on a drug test too. All of the evidence we have against you is on my computer. We can have you arrested in ten minutes flat. Don’t think I won’t do it, Lauren,” Liam’s voice boomed across the grounds.
“Go to hell!” she spat at Liam. “Damn you, Michael! You’ll regret this.” She turned, climbed into her sporty, little, black BMW, and peeled out, slinging gravel as she went off the road some when she turned the car around. The tires squealed as she hauled off down the road.
“It’s bad enough we have a demon to deal with. Now the psycho chick from hell is back.” Liam shook his head and shut the door.
Liam, Brody, and Decker told the story of Lauren Asherton over breakfast.
“That she would come back and try to get you back a year after she cheated on you then left you for another guy is pathetic,” Harper told Decker.
“She tried to kill you, Liam, because Decker spent his time taking care of you?” Erin shook her head. “Oh my God! She is sick and selfish. I can’t imagine anyone thinking along those lines, though I know there are people out there in the world who do. We’ve had a few psycho clients over the years, nothing quite like her, of course.”
“We had a nurse who came in to be with Liam during the hours Brody and I were both at work,” Decker began. “But that day, Sue, the nurse, had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment. Liam said he would be fine for an hour until Brody arrived home.”
“Back then, I just slept a lot. I was on pain meds and couldn’t do a lot of walking on my own.” Liam nodded. “I would have been fine had psycho not snuck in while the nurse was there. The nurse went to take her things to the car a few minutes before she left. She came back in to check on me, then left and locked the door.”
“And locked psycho in.” Brody shook his head.
“I woke up and she was spewing all sorts of crazy crap. She was holding a pillow and told me she was doing me a favor by putting me out of my misery that I was nothing but a burden on Decker and she was going to free him from it. Brody came in about the time she tried to cover my face with the pillow. I was able to keep the pillow inches from my face up until that point.”
“So?” Harper turned to Brody, “What did you do when you came in and found psycho trying to smother Liam?”
“My first instinct was to smash my fist into her face, but she was a girl, so I didn’t. Looking back now, I think I should have. I wrestled her down to the ground and pinned her arms behind her back. I kneeled on her to keep her down while Liam texted Decker.”
Brody took a deep breath. “He and Jackson were there within eight minutes. Decker had called her parents on the way to the house. We had her cuffed and sitting in a chair when they came in. Deck showed her father all we had on her, let him watch some of the many videos we had of her driving by and coming to the door and windows at three and four o’clock in the damn mornings, beating on the door, screaming for Decker, plus a whole lot more. He told her father either they found help for her, or he’d press charges and have her tried for attempted murder. Her father called a rehab place and pulled some strings to get her in immediately. Jackson drove her over in the patrol car and waited until she was admitted and taken away.”
“So who is this Cecily person she mentioned and how did she find out about me?” Jade asked.
“Cecily was a friend Lauren met when she was hanging out with the attorney she dumped me for, and one of the socialites he hung out with. She is a defense attorney, and comes to visit her clients in the jail sometimes. She’s uppity, and thinks she’s better than lowly police officers are. Apparently, someone in the department or at the jail talks to Cecily. Most of the guys know they are never to tell her anything about me,” Decker explained. “When Lauren was stalking me, the whole department was in the know and helped me avoid her and her friend, Cecily. Lauren was always turning up at the station back then.”
“Whoever it was, they probably saw me when I went into the station with you that day.” She shrugged. “It gives me a creepy feeling knowing your ex-girlfriend already knows who I am and what I do. Lucky me, I have a demon and Decker’s psycho ex girlfriend stalking me.” Jade rolled her eyes then laughed.
“She is creepy,” Liam said before shoveling a fork full of scrambled egg into his mouth. After he chewed he added, “We’re not going to put up with any stalking on her part. If we catch her once, she is done. She was duly warned today.”
Decker laid his hand on her thigh beneath the table. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to let her come anywhere near you. If she tries, I’ll have her locked up.”
“We’re not letting her get anywhere near you or Decker, Jade. You have my word on that,” Liam assured her.
“If there is a next time, she just might get my fist in her face,” Brody said with a nod.
Jade smiled at the brothers. “I’m not worried. I believe you guys.”
Liam gave her a big grin. Her boyfriend wasn’t the only Decker with a devastating smile. Both Liam and Brody had those sexy smiles too.
“Eat up everyone! Enough about Psycho Tw-” Brody cringed. “Oops! Sorry, I almost used our nickname for her, and it is too crude to say in the company of ladies. I’m changing the subject now. Psycho’s visit threw us off schedule a bit. We have Skype with our cousin in thirty minutes,” Brody reminded them after he turned to look at the large metal clock hanging high up on the wall.
Jade rose and took her plate toward the kitchen. “I’ll get started on the dishes.”
“I’m right behind you. I’ll help.” Decker followed her.
“What do you think Lauren thought of the three of us standing with Brody while you were talking with her?” Erin asked Decker when they sat down to await their Skype with Niall O’Flynn.
“Well, she already knew from her friend Cecily that I have a girlfriend, and it really doesn’t matter what she thinks. I just don’t care.”
“It’s sad that she can’t see the truth. Decker, you, couldn’t have been more direct with her today. It was necessary in this situation. You certainly handled her in the correct manner, but even then, I don’t think she comprehended it all,” Erin mused as she sat beside Liam. “She’s living in some kind of fantasy, I think. You could see it on her face when she left that she has no intention of giving you up yet.”
“It is sad.” Jade added, “But she can’t have my boyfriend. She’d better realize that and fast.” She held up her fist and grinned up at Decker.
“Your boyfriend doesn’t want her.” He laughed then smiled down at her. “He likes you.”
“Would anyone want her?” Harper made a face. “Does any guy go out looking for a psycho chick for a girlfriend? Oh, yeah, she’s definitely psycho; I think I’ll go out with her.”
Liam laughed.
“Lauren wasn’t psycho in the beginning. A little controlling and she didn’t like it much when things didn’t go her way. Then she got a new, high-powered job working in a law firm, as a secretary, mind you, and started hanging out with attorneys and socialites, and she changed. She started buying expensive clothes. She wanted me to change everything, the way I dressed, the friends I hung out with, what we did together. She wanted me to be a socialite, and that wasn’t for me at all. She started talking about us joining the Scottsdale Country Club, about getting married and buying a house in Scottsdale. The psycho started in earnest when I wouldn’t change, wouldn’t do what she wanted, and wouldn’t become the suave socialite she wanted me to
be. When she started wanting to get married, I already knew I did not want to marry her.”
Decker continued, “Everything went downhill from there. I was unhappy, she was unhappy. I knew it was over. It ended for good when I was working nights at one point. I took off early and thought I’d go by her place and surprise her. She had texted me earlier, complaining that she was tired of being alone at night, that I was the most horrible boyfriend in the world. I felt guilty because, I hadn’t been a good boyfriend to her for probably a good year, and I knew it. At the time, I didn’t realize that it was because I didn’t want to be her boyfriend. I had a key. I walked in to find she was not alone. She was completely unclothed, getting down and dirty with Tom the attorney, also butt naked, in the living room.” Decker laughed and shrugged.
He continued, “I was actually relieved it was over. I told her that was it. We were finished. I walked out, and never looked back. It was surprisingly easy to walk away from that situation. I didn’t hear from her for over a year until Tom cast her aside and she started calling and showing up. My brothers and I went through some serious, out of control, addict-fueled, psycho-induced hell and then we finally ended that. We are not going through it again, I guarantee you.” He took Jade’s hand in his.
“Some of the psycho was there even in the beginning, bro. You just couldn’t see it. She was jealous of me and Brody even then.” Liam laughed.
Decker shrugged. “I didn’t realize it back then. Maybe. I guess I can see it now. She didn’t like me hanging out with you guys.”
“You did anyway, at least when I was home on leave,” Liam said with a big grin.
“In answer to your earlier question, Harper, men definitely don’t go out looking for a psycho for a girlfriend. Guys look for smart, beautiful women who are good people on the inside. They look for a woman who won’t boss them around or try to change them into someone they are not. The real deal is hard to find. Sometimes a psycho will pretend she is everything a guy wants, and they fall for it until they figure it out,” Brody explained.
Decker's Fate (The Decker Brothers Trilogy Book 1) Page 28
