Protecting Melody (22 page)

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.
 

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 headphones 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.