Chapter Four

Erin I sat with my water and pizza and decided it was a wine night. I grabbed a bottle out of the refrigerator and wondered if I had any of that fudge left from last week. Chocolate might be needed too. There were so many things going through my mind, it was too bad I didn’t have any blueberry cheesecake.

Did I misunderstand him? No, Gage was interested in me as a girlfriend. I squealed my excitement into the quiet apartment. He was definitely all man when he found me in my stocking feet, grabbing my pizza alone. It was normal not to need an escort to answer the door to the pizza guy, right?

His reaction to what he thought was danger might be over the top to most women, but it fed a need I always knew I had but thought it might be a little too weird for most men. And even if it wasn’t, how was I ever going to approach a guy I liked and ask him to spank me? Hold me accountable while still allowing me to live my life? I’m not sure Gage will be able to do it either, but it’s worth a try. Whether Gage thought I would accept his spanking or not, he was determined to do it. And he didn’t mess around. It hurt like hell. I honestly felt like I wet myself it was so damn sexy. It was time to admit that I was desperately tired of being lonely.

His little girl conversation took me by surprise, and I needed to do some research about that subject. I rolled my eyes! I never did that. Not ever, but being with Gage made me feel so many different emotions. I could only attribute the change in behavior as his fault. Nevertheless, I had to acknowledge that I felt well cared for and safe. For the first time since I lost my family, I was more than content with the future, I was actually excited. So thrilled, in fact, that I didn’t register the noise at the door at first. As I finished my second piece of pizza, I walked to my desk out of habit. There sat the drive I left there before I went downstairs to pick up my fateful pizza.

I pushed all other thoughts from my mind because I had concerns outside of Gage taking a shine to me. Checking the clock, I saw it had been another hour so I called Joey and was dismayed when I couldn’t get him on the line. I left another message. Now I was officially worried.

As I sat at my desk and tried to follow Joey’s instructions, going over the details in my brain to make sure I did what he requested, I heard shuffling outside of my door. Sniffing. Someone’s dog? I turned back to the computer. Did anyone on this floor have a dog? I didn’t remember seeing one, but I didn’t know everyone. My worry and alarm rose, nonetheless.

Suddenly I heard all sorts of out-of-place sounds like scratching and rubbing against my door. This wasn’t a small apartment pup; it was a much larger dog. My hands were shaking, and my brain seemed to keep freezing mid-task. I wanted to call Gage. Where was his number? The sounds fell away, and I chastised myself for my over-active imagination. Besides, I told myself, Gage is in a meeting. His phone is likely off. I returned to my task.

I moved his file from the drive to my cloud then changed Joey’s file name to Christmas photos 2010 in my electronic cloud. A non-existent thing in my life, Christmas or family. I went online to a public domain image site, threw some fake photos in the folder, copied it back to the drive and called it good. Why I had the feeling I needed to hide the information, I didn’t really know, but I worried about the security. Probably due to the way Joey had acted this week and especially today. I never ignored my inner self, but it did seem over the top.

“Stop overreacting, Erin. You scare yourself more than the situation calls for. Joey fell asleep is all. Something you should do.” Self-talk was good, right?

The sounds had stopped, and I convinced myself there was nothing to worry about. I mean, this was a secure building. I took a shower and found my book. After worrying about him for several hours, I called Joey again. He didn’t answer. Unusual. He had said I was the only sexy thing in his life, and he would never allow my husky voice to go to voicemail, and he never had. Until now. Multiple times. My gut churned. I’m uneasy, but I tried to tell myself he was just overtired and was sleeping, but I wasn’t very successful.

Every hour for the next few hours, I left a message and finally put down my book to watch cop shows in between phone calls. I fell asleep but woke up at two a.m. with a start. Sometimes I would get what others called premonitions. I just called it logic that played out in my subconscious. I phoned again. Joey didn’t answer. I begin to pace like a caged animal.

Even if he’d taken an early evening nap, I reasoned, he would’ve been up by now. These were his most productive hours. I had to know. I started to dress in shorts when I was interrupted by a car alarm going off.

Since I started my period at sixteen years old, to the day, on a huge full moon, I noticed my senses and my intuition sharpened. Dramatically. I also learned never to ignore them. It had served me well over the years as I survived foster care. I was lucky, and they were all nice enough, but they were never my own families. And the other kids in the homes were not always kind.

The alarm was the impetus I needed to quit trying to puzzle things together so they made sense to me and check the cloud in hopes that Joey had logged in recently. I knew something was wrong. I left off dressing and grabbed my laptop. The car alarm stopped. I heard another sound outside. Looking out the corner window, I saw the shadow of someone, or something walk around the far end of the building.

I was too jumpy, but things didn’t feel right. Check on Joey in-person; my intuition was screaming. In the next breath, my first thought was to call Gage. Never discount a woman’s intuition. And since I had found mine was exceptionally accurate, I needed to call someone. Dread invaded my very being. I jogged out of my apartment in the direction of the exit with just my flannel nightie and panties surrounded by winterwear. There was a strong scent of wet dog. It made my nose wriggle and my stomach flip. Apprehension slithered up my spine, and that feeling of foreboding penetrated my bones that now ached.

I’d had this premonition before, and it never brought the promise of good.

I slowed my pace going downstairs because old Mister Morgan could hear everything and complained about it all. A four-a.m. walk down the stairs would be enough for the old coot to call the manager and blow things totally out of proportion. Gage would appease the older man, but then he would demand to know what was going on. The thought that I should call him ran past my worried brain again, but I pushed it away. I would call later.

I didn’t slow until I climbed into the car. As I settled in to turn on the ignition, I remembered the flash drive. I didn’t hide it. I had uploaded it to my cloud, but I was interrupted before I checked his files to see if there was any other work added recently. Maybe he left me a message. I needed to be certain before I came pounding on his door in the wee hours of the morning. What was wrong with me? I was usually more on top of things than this. My unfocused and chaotic brain made me feel desperate and I needed to gain more than a semblance of control.

Closing and locking the door to my car, which had become second nature after living in the city alone for so long, I quietly turned to retrace my steps when a chill shook my entire body. Alarm and fear settled in next to my anxiety and encircled me. Something at the end of the building moved. A shadow then it was gone. Was it the same something I had seen earlier? I moved cautiously toward the entrance, and it moved closer, always staying in the shadows.

Mentally deciding the best course of action, I knew the floodlights would come on if I could just get to the front of the building. I took a deep breath and ran faster than I had ever run before. The floodlights came on, and I practically fell on the buzzer. My hands were shaking too much to fumble with my keys. I punched in the code and waited while the door locks disengaged. I pushed the door open and stumbled inside.

When the door securely double-locked behind me, I realized I hadn’t taken a breath. Dragging in hard rasping gasps of air, I finally slowed my heart and breathing down enough to alleviate the dizziness. My nausea remained. I skipped the stairs and hit the elevator, all the time knowing I should call Gage but I didn’t want to hear him say whatever my imagination thought he’d say. Even I knew how lame it was that the same night he declared his interest, I called him for help. That screamed needy, crazy lady. Yeah, it wasn’t happening. And yet, I knew it was a mistake.

The wet dog scent was even stronger now. There must have been a dog on the floor. Why had I never known? I also hadn’t noticed the many creaks and groans the landing made until I tried to be silent. As careful as I was in my mind, it still sounded as though elephants were pounding the floorboards. Carefully unlocking the door without fumbling, I stumbled in, closed the door and slumped against it.

As I sat there for a few more moments, I contemplated what was outside that had scared me so much. It was after four in the morning. Probably nothing. I got up and grabbed the drive off the table. I wondered what I should do to hide it. I prayed Joey was okay because I couldn’t go back out there again.

My belly cramped when I saw the window was partially open. I made sure they were closed and locked every night. Last night was no different. I grabbed my cell from my pocket and started to look for Gage’s number. ‘Daddy Gage’ popped up on the screen, startling me. Maybe I’m not ready for this. I slid my phone into my back pocket. As I walked to the window, I could see the shade was partially caught in the rim of the windowsill. And the smell was most noticeable at the window.

Wet dog and something else I couldn’t identify, but it wasn’t pleasant. There was also mud on the sill and on the floor. I put my hand out to touch it. The fact that it was wet spooked me more than seeing the window open. Were those paws? Huge paws. I shivered with fear and wished I had paid more attention in my zoology and biology classes so I could tell what animal those prints belonged to. What was going on? Was someone in the apartment?

I debated closing the window. If I was going to report the break in, would they want things left as they were? Ultimately, the lowering temperatures inside and my illusion of safety won out and I gingerly closed it. I listened and didn’t hear any movement. Was I brave enough to check? I forced myself to take a cautious tour of the apartment, releasing the strongest fears with my relieved breath.

I wanted to throw up but gave myself a stern talking to as I looked around for something to put the drive into for safekeeping. I reached for a reusable grocery bag and dropped the flash drive inside. Then I carefully folded it and rolled it up, layering it, a bag within a bag, multiple times before I was satisfied. I don’t know why I was so worried about hiding it because Joey didn’t say I should, but something deep inside me pushed for it.

Finally placing the layered bags inside my biggest grocery bag, I felt some relief at the added safety of the item that had now taken up so much more significance than I could have ever believed. I figured it was as safe as it could be for now. No one would dig through a bunch of empty bags, and even if they did, they’d have to find the right one, unroll them all, look in the bottom, and if you were trying to locate something quickly, you wouldn’t bother going deep. See, those cop shows did pay off in more than fear. I still wanted to call Gage. I reminded myself that he’d made sure I had his number and made me promise to call him at any time if I needed help. Did this really qualify? Yes. I picked up my cell and punched up his name quickly, hitting dial before I changed my mind again.

The call went to voicemail and my overactive imagination took over. I spoke into the empty room.

“Of course, it did, Erin. He didn’t mean it. Besides, a hunk like that was surely filling his off hours with equally gorgeous women. He’s probably on a date. Or,” my calmer more reasonable side offered, “he’s asleep, and his phone isn’t near him.” Before I became too morose, I remembered it was nearing five a.m. in the morning. He could be in another meeting. He might be working out. He didn’t get those muscles out of a cereal box. Who knew that he wasn’t on some other call? He did run a security company. Maybe he started really early, so he was in the shower.

It didn’t matter. I could take care of myself. I hoped.

Remembering the password and files I had never accessed earlier; I felt an unexplained urgency as I grabbed the paper with Joey’s password from my purse and logged into his cloud. There it was. His file marked ‘final book’. That was an odd title for him to use since he typically said final in series or numbered it, but that’s not what he did here. He’d labeled it final book as though it was literally the last book and that scared me even more. I sent the file to an unused email of mine and then transferred it to my cloud. He had last accessed his file at five last night. I now had enough proof that something was wrong. Next, I dumped the copy from the email and cleaned the trail. Cop shows to the rescue again.

Another car alarm went off. Twice in an hour? Not likely an accident. Someone slammed open the locked hallway door at the very far end of the building or at least it sounded like it. Since I had pretty good hearing, often hearing what others couldn’t. That reminded me that I saw someone earlier. I was already freaked out so it wouldn’t take much to make me shiver.

“I’m beginning to be like old man Morgan—paranoid,” she spoke aloud.

Whoever it was didn’t think it necessary to be quiet going down the corridor. Probably someone was going to work or ice fishing or hunting or coming back from a late night with their significant other. I tried Gage again. Voicemail. I set my phone down on the counter to think.

I felt another tendril of panic when I couldn’t remember if I had locked the apartment door when I had raced back into the room. Rushing to check and finding all secure, I went to the side of the room and looked out the window. It was my car alarm that was going off. I tried to turn it off, but I figured I was too far to do it. This wasn’t a TV show. This was real. Someone wanted me to go outside, somehow knowing the distance was too far to turn off from my window. Likely the same person or thing that had climbed in my window and left large paw prints. There was that wet dog stink again.

Without thinking about anything else but finding someone to help me feel safe again, I grabbed my phone from the counter and dialed.

“911 what’s your emergency?”