FOREVER MINE (9 page)

Brody sits in the living room watching Charlie go up the stairs to bed.  Licking his lips where he can still feel the lingering kiss. “It’s going to be a long night” he says to himself.  As long as she sleeps with clothes on he would be ok.  Better think about something else.

Getting up and going into the kitchen to put away the coffee cups, he turns and looks at the kitchen table.  He is glad Charlie wanted to eat outside; he felt mortified thinking about her sitting at his table with the events that took place there one day ago.  “I think I will replace it first chance I get.”

Upstairs, in bed, he is thinking about everything they talked about.  Can they really find out if Michael had something to do with other people getting hurt?  What if he is some kind of serial rapist?  Do they stand a chance against someone so sick?  He knows Charlie isn’t going to give up.  He could see it tonight in the stubborn set in her jaw right before she went up to bed.  Right before she kissed his lips.

I really need to stop thinking about that.  Smiling to himself he recalled touching her earlier.  He thought she would be weird around him.  She seemed fine.  Her soft skin, lush lips, and glassy eyes lulled him into a sweet, sound sleep.  His last thought was of them holding hands watching the sun set.

Michael woke up feeling refreshed.  He couldn’t remember sleeping so soundly.  As he stretches his arms above his head; he remembers what he did last night.  An ominous smile breaks across his face.  He hadn’t planned on going over there so soon, but an opportunity presented itself and he took it.  He is so glad he did.  Just thinking about how freaked out she must be this morning has him shuddering with excitement.

“I can’t wait to see her today.” He says out loud.  Jumping out of bed he goes to the window and lifts the binoculars to his eyes.  He sees police everywhere.  He continues to scan the faces in the apartment.  He can’t find Charlie anywhere.  He wants to see the fear in her eyes.  He wants to see the tears fall unrelentingly down her pale face.  See the loneliness in her body language, the slump of her shoulders.

Looking out the windows he can see none of that.  He feels robbed.  Where could she be?  He throws the binoculars across the room.  They hit the wall and put a hole in the sheetrock.   He is so crazy mad, he starts destroying anything in his way.  A few minutes later, he feels calmer.  Sometimes, destruction can be cleansing.  He takes a breath; and another.

He walks into is bathroom and showers.  After getting dressed he has a plan.  He feels much better now that he is doing something.  He will wait till after work tomorrow, and follow her to where ever she is now.  Smiling, he watches the Charlie’s apartment until the cops leave.  Tomorrow he will find her, and then he will start the next part of his plan.

Michael has decided that in order to blend he needs to work.  Five days a week he drives to the local home improvement store and works the morning shift.  He puts on non prescription glasses and changes his golden eye color with contacts, to a non-descript brown.  He acquired a fake stomach through a costume/prop website.  It gives him just the right amount of fat to hang slightly over his belt, without being too
fake
with the rest of his build.  He has been able to get close to Charlie while being incognito.  That’s how he knows it works well. 

Working gives him other advantages.  He has unlimited access to supplies he needs to complete his plan.  He has to be careful not to draw attention to himself though, so he usually does shipments.  When a new supply comes in he takes what he needs and never catalogs it so the store never knows they are short.  It is usually marked as an error on the part of the shipping company.  It works beautifully. 

Donning his disguise, he walks into work to start his shift.  He works 5 minutes away from the office Charlie works at.  He is done usually an hour before her.  It gives him plenty of time to watch her.  Today he hopes she is a mess.  That way when he follows her she won’t notice.

Michael has been waiting about 45 minutes when Charlie comes out of the building.  She looks around slowly, before she leaves the protection provided by the awning above the doors.  Walking quickly, she gets into her car about half a block away.  “I’m ready for you this time, Charlie.”  Michael says as he sits in his car waiting for her to pull into traffic.

Michael follows her at a safe distance.  She drives about 25-30 minutes outside of the city to a nice sized brick house.  When she pulls into the driveway, he drives past at a leisurely pace, not to draw attention to himself.  He pulls around the block and parks the car, grabs is binoculars, and walks back to the brick house. 

Michael stands on the street talking to
himself
, “I have never seen this place.  I’ve been keeping track of her for months.  How could I have missed it?”  Pretending to bird watch he looks towards the other end of the neighborhood and sees a truck round the corner.  This must be Brody’s house.  This is her safe house.

Smiling and whistling, Michael walks back to his car and waits.  He is very happy with the turn of events.  He hates that she is staying, and doing god only knows what, with Brody, but this makes it easy for him to work on them both.  All he needs now is patients.

Charlie wakes up to the blaring alarm.  Her head feels like there is a drummer boy in it playing “wipeout”.  Moaning she rolls out of bed and drags her sorry ass to the shower.  She washes her body and starts on her hair noticing Brody has stocked the bathroom with her strawberry shampoo and conditioner.  Smiling, she starts to feel better and better as she showers.  By the time she exits the bathroom she feels right as rain. 

She decides on a white skirt suit.  The light weight jacket has black trim on the lapels and around the edge of the ¾ sleeves that house two black buttons.  The white pencil skirt is straight to her knees with a slit up the back that could almost be inappropriate.  She finished it off with a pair of 3 inch black heels.

Pulling her curly hair up on her head in a nice twist, letting a few tendrils fall around her face, she is ready for her makeup.  Appling some liner and mascara to her lids and lashes and some gloss to her lips she heads out the door.  Careful at the top of the stairs she heads down to the mouth watering aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

Once in the kitchen she stops dead in her tracks when she sees Brody in his work suit.  She stops staring long enough to make sure her tongue isn’t literally hanging out of her mouth.  She takes in his tailored dark blue shirt. It hugs his wide shoulders, stretches across his impressive chest, and disappears into his slim washboard waist.  His grey pants drape his long lean legs in absolute perfection, accentuating his ass.  The tie he is wearing is just a tie, nothing that can compete with the rest of the outfit.  Except that it seems to be an arrow pointing to the secrets Brody hides in his pants. 

Blushing, because she has been caught looking at Brody’s crotch, Charlie finally looks up and says, “Wow, you clean up nice.”

“Thanks.  You look beautiful.” He sounds a little breathless.

“This old thing” she waves the complement away.  Absently, she runs her hands down her hips, over her thighs and back smoothing the material.

“Coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

Brody hands her a cup of mocha café cappuccino.  “Mmmm, this is a very nice surprise.”  She takes another sip.

“Yeah well, I am full of surprises.”  He turns his back to make a plain cup for himself.  “I was thinking I should take you to work and pick you up when you’re done.” Turning around he looks at her waiting for an answer.

“No, I appreciate the thought, but you cannot be with me 24/7.  I need to remember all the training I’ve had, I can’t be helpless anymore.  I promised myself when this day came, and I knew it would, that I wouldn’t let Michael take from me anymore.” 

“I’m not suggesting you hide, just be extra cautious.  I’m just talking about riding in together.”

I don’t know how to explain to Brody how important it is for me to not change my life too much.  “He has taken so much already, I have worked really hard getting to this point in my life.  Being independent does not translate into stupid.  I will still be careful.  I will take in my surroundings and listen to my instincts.  I won’t go anywhere unnecessary, alone.”

He walks over and takes my cup, and wraps me up in his arms, “Ok, I get it.  I’m sorry.  I’m just so scared I won’t be there when you need me.”  Breathing into the side of my neck, he says, “You have to stay safe.  I have big plans for you.”  Sighing he steps away from me.    Alright, I’m leaving; you call if you need me.  I will be home around 7pm.  I have to fix that virus in accounting; the one that was downloaded from the porn site.”  Shaking his head he kisses my forehead and walks out the door.

Big plans?
  I will have to ask what that means later.  Charlie cringes as she thinks about her day.  She has got to sit in meeting after meeting and take notes.  Her boss is great, but some of the other big wigs are dicks.  They assume because she is nice and good at being an executive assistant she must be brainless as well.  They didn’t know she has a degree in advertising.  The economy being as it is, no one is hiring.  Bills need to be paid so here she is.  She was one step away from Wal-Mart before Mrs. Smith called. 

With that last thought she leaves and locks up the house.  She can’t wait to come home later.  She gets in her car and starts the engine.  Under the passenger seat she pulls out a black lock box.  She enters a digital code, unlocks a pad lock, and then presses her palm to the designated place to unlock the gun she keeps for emergencies.

Charlie picks up her
Kel
-Tec PF-9; it fits in her hand perfectly.  Since it is a thin, freakishly thin, hand gun it is easy to conceal.  Today’s outfit is an exception.  The gun weighs in at 12.7 oz; loaded, has an overall length of 5.85”, and holds 7+1 bullets.  Statistically, it only takes 3 bullets to get out of trouble, but who’s taking a chance.  She puts gun in her purse and heads to work.

When Charlie walked into the kitchen this morning Brody almost died.  She looked great.  He expected her to be hung over.  If you looked close enough or if you knew the signs as well as he did, you could see the leftover effects of the wine. 
IF, you could look away from the way that skirt flowed over her hips and hugged her long toned legs.
  He couldn’t even think about the slit up the back.  He was sitting at a red light, thinking about that skirt around her waist and him in front of her on his knees…HONK!!  “Shit, snap out of it Brody”

At work he couldn’t concentrate any better.  He checked his phone all morning.  After lunch he worked on the problem over at accounting.  That didn’t take as long as he thought it would, he might get home at the same time as Charlie.  Smiling, he continues to work his way through the day.  Looking at the clock, he sees that it’s almost time for her to be done so he picks up the phone and calls.  She answers immediately.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be saving the accounting department from some naked humping?”

“What, no hello?  How was your day? No small talk? Just straight to the naked humping?
Perv
.”
  He says smiling like a fool.

“Hello, Brody.  How is your day going?  Did you fix your little problem with the naked
humpers
?”  She giggles.

“You’re awfully curious about that, is there something you want to talk about?  You know I won’t judge you if you want to watch porn tonight, that’s fine with me.” 

“No, I don’t want to watch porn.”  He can almost hear the pink creeping up her cheeks.  Charlie was always taught that anything sex related, besides straight sex, was bad, dirty.  It has taken a long time but she is starting to lighten up. 
Baby steps.
  Watching porn is something she wouldn’t do alone let alone with me. 

“Fine, I’ll just have to watch by myself.”

“I guess you will.  Now, what should I pickup for dinner, or do you want me to cook?”

Laughing, “You, cook?  Um, no thank you.  I will stop on my way since I will be later than you.”

“Alright, see you later gotta run.  Love ya!”

“You Too.”
  Feeling better than he has all day Brody hangs up the phone still laughing to
himself
.  He finishes up his work, closes up his computer and heads out the door. 

He stops at the Mexican place down the street and gets some; chicken tortilla soup, chicken tacos, beef tacos, beans and rice and some homemade hot sauce.  He gets back in the truck and heads home. 
Home.
  Where Charlie is at, waiting for him.  In a weird sick way he hopes his little fantasy can last a little longer.  Not that he wants Charlie in danger, but he does want her with him, at home.