Stranded (6 page)

“Yes I got spooked,” she said.

But once she heard herself say so, she was embarrassed.  She didn’t want to share with him why.  She couldn’t tell him she was afraid of vampires.

“What of?” he demanded. “Is someone bothering you?”

“No,” she laughed at his protectiveness.  s

“Okay, I was just calling to say hi,” he said. “Let you know I was thinking about you.  A
lot
.”

“Awe,” she said. 

That made everything all better.

“Now don’t take this the wrong way but I never been so glad your husband was an asshole in all my life,” he said.

“That has to be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she smiled into the phone.

“See you tonight then?” he said.

“I’ll cook you dinner,” she said.

Even though all was good, Naomi thought maybe an offer of dinner was a little over the top. So she amended her offer.

“You know if you want,” she said.

“Oh I want.  That would be lovely,” he said. “But we can keep it simple and maybe go to Mario’s.  And baby, don’t let the spooks get you.”

Now why did he have to go and say that? she thought as she hung up the phone. It was the dumbest thing to be afraid.  But there she was.  It was like a compulsive thought.  But she could not shake the feeling that she ought to stay upstairs.  Maybe she would move out after all.

Naomi did a major cleaning on the top two levels of the house.  The dorm room she didn’t mind.  She examined the space and thought that it might make a great room for her.  So spacious.  Great light.  She could leave the windows open safely. 

Naomi laid down squarely on the futon bed and gave it some thought.  A nice golden yellow on the walls would be awesome.  Maybe a real bed.  New carpet.  And walking up and down the straight-up-and-down stairs to her room everyday, her butt would become delectable.  It was a perfect plan.

She pulled the blanket up around her body when she heard the unmistakable noise of someone floors below her.  She sat upright.  The kids were in Charlottesville.  Her husband was in jail.  Maybe, just maybe it was Kay.  Maybe it was her imagination. 

She laid back down.  But she didn’t close her eyes.  Her body needed rest but her mind was not going to get any.  She rolled her cell phone in her palm, just in case she wanted to dial someone.  She eyeballed the fire ladder at the window.  She could climb down to safety if she needed because suddenly she didn’t have the nerve to go downstairs.  Naomi was trapped by fear on the top floor of her house.

She was gotten herself so worked up that she was going to climb down the ladder anyway.  She sat in her bed, scolding herself for being so damn silly when she heard the sound of someone walking up the stairs. 

She was tangled up between fear and doubting she really should be afraid that she hesitated too long.  Someone was definitely coming up the dorm room stairs.  Naomi could not move. Her husband had just approached someone to kill her.  She had an epiphany that he had succeeded in finding someone to do the job.

She was glued to the bed unable to move as she was now locked eyes with a skeletal hillbilly.  His gummy grin reminded her of bowling split.  No front teeth except his canines.  She was fitter than he was so Naomi was sure she could give him a run for his money. The once-spacious dorm room was suddenly closed in.  Naomi took off her shoes and tossed it at him.

He ducked and it missed.  She threw the second one at him.  She didn’t need it.  She was about to go out the window.  She was inching towards it.  She grabbed the little lamp on the night stand.  The problem with that was it had been plugged in. 

The outlet sparked and flamed, and a buzz traveled behind the wall throughout the wall.  The hillbilly stood there grinning like a zombie.  The room burst into flames. Naomi was surrounded.  A foe right before her and fire all around.  A whooshing swept through the air.  A winged beast fluttered from the rafters and menaced the hillbilly.  Naomi tossed the rope ladder out the window and shimmied down it just in the nick of time.

As she landed on the ground, feeling the cool grass beneath her bare feet, her head spun.  She had thought to grab her cell phone and called 911.  But her house – her home that had been in her family for generations was going up like a match stick.

Naomi had to roll away from the house.  She sank into a dream space. Everything was surreal.  She knew she dozing by a blazing fire but she calm. She wasn’t frightened.  She decided there on the soft grassy slope below her dorm room window, would be a great place to take a nap.

Her eyes remained closed as to incredibly powerful hands scooped her up.  Naomi was flying. She was secured against the rock-hard form of some winged beast.  She could hear the wings flapping.  They sounded like the beat of a drum.  The clouds against her face.  She drew in the humidity through her nostrils.  It was so soothing. Calming.

Naomi awoke to intense rapping on her front door. She lifted her head from the futon bed.  She was so ridiculous.  Her house was not burned to the ground.  There was no scary hillbilly zombie in there to kill her.  She checked her phone.  It was nearly eight p.m.  Dinner.  She was supposed to cook it for Foley.

She flew down the two flights of stairs to the front door.  She knew she looked like crap just waking from a nap and a nightmare but he on the other hand, was a sight for sore eyes.

“Hi there,” she said.

“Awe,” he said, reaching out to touch her face. “You were sleeping weren’t you?”

“Yes,” she laughed softly.

She pressed her hand to his.  His touch felt so warm, so good.  The heat traveled down her spine and was so comforting.

“I am so sorry,” she said.

“Baby you have a lot going on.  Why don’t we let’s go over to Mario’s?  I’ll buy you a beer.  We can eat a little pizza,” he said.

“Can we shoot some pool?” she asked excitedly.

“Do you play?” he said with glee.

“Yeah I do and I can never get anyone to play with me,” she said.

His eyes danced all over her.

“I find that so hard to believe,” he said.

She kissed him lazily. Her eyes were heavy with desire.  She stepped backwards as if to lure him in.

“Baby,” he said very sweetly. “I gotta be the craziest man in the world to put food before sex with you but I have not eaten all day. If I don’t get some food in me, I won’t have any calories to burn.”

“Oh my word,” she said. “We can’t have that.  I’ll go up and get my shoes.”

As Naomi made her way up on the dormer stairs something she saw made her stomach climb through her throat.  Footprints from a man’s shoes.  Either Daryl tracked something there before and she had not noticed it or she hadn’t been dreaming. It was too weird.  She was creeped out.  She grabbed her shoes and ran for her life back to Foley’s arms.

“What is it?” he demanded.

She wanted to keep going out the front door but he braced her still.

“What is it?” he asked again.

“I’ll tell you about it when we get to Mario’s,” she said.

“No now.  What just freaked you out?” he asked.

She took him by the hand and led him to the dormer stairs to show him the footprints.

“See,” she said.

“What these?” he asked. 

Foley was careful not to touch them. He flipped the light switch on to take a better look.

“So explain to me what I am looking at?” he asked.

“I had a dream someone came into the house while I was fixing to take a nap but then it was clearly a dream because it was so ridiculous.  And then I saw these,” she said.

Foley took hold of her.

“Baby you are not making any sense,” he said.

Naomi swallowed hard.

“I was up here cleaning and I thought I saw a guy come up here.  I can describe him to a [tea]  so that part was the realistic part.  Then then the house caught on fire. I jumped out the window and slept on the lawn.  So I know it was all a dream.  At least I thought it was.  This does not make sense,” she said.

“Let’s go on down stairs to the bottom floor where you were afraid to go,” he said.

“No it’s okay. Let’s go to dinner,” she said.

“I’m going to get John on the telephone,” he said.

He ignored her request to just go to dinner.  He took her by the hand and together they continued on to the bottom floor of the house.  That cold eery feeling returned to her.   She explained more about the man she dreamt she saw.

“Because it occurred to me if Daryl asked you to kill him and you said no.  Someone else might say yes,” she suggested.

Foley stopped in his tracks.

“Dayam,” he said. “You are right.  I’ll bet that sombitch did approach someone else. I should have taken the job.”

She gave him a playful slap.

“Hey,” she said.

“And then screw him over,” he finished his thought.

“I appreciate that,” she said with a slight smile.

“He isn’t going to stay out of jail forever you know,” Foley reminded her.  “We gotta come up with a Plan B.  Plus the fact that he pretty much has figured out that you and I have gotten together, might make things hairy for us.”

“Why is that?” asked Naomi.

He grinned.

“Well it does present a conflict of interest, now doesn’t it?” he said.  “It’s my word against his that he solicited us to kill you,” said Foley.  “We have no real proof.    Donny was there but still.  There might have been someone in the Waugh showroom who heard us.  Unless there’s audio on their surveillance, if they have that sort of thing.”

“Ah, and so because we’ve gotten together, it looks like sensational b.s. saying he’s propositioned you to do a hit,” she said.

“We could set it up,” he said wickedly.

Naomi whipped around to look him right in the eye.

“How so?” she asked.

“Well I was thinking, that you and I could stage a fight or a falling out of some kind,” he said, as he wrapped his arms around her.  “And me or a comrade, someone he might not even know to be connected to me, are going to play him to get him to repeat the offer.  But-”

“But what?” asked Naomi.

“You’re going to have to rile him,” said Foley.

“I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that already,” she said.

“It’s too late today but I think tomorrow you better go move all your money.  Make sure he can’t get to it,” said Foley.

“I can probably do that now,” she said.

He kissed her to stop her.

“Let’s go to dinner,” he said.  “But first let me check the house.”

He took her hand and together they inspected the bottom floor of her house which was essentially the family room.  It had a large bedroom, a laundry area and a private entrance.  Foley turned the knob.  It was unlocked.

“Hmm,” he said with a tone of disappointment.  “That’s not good.”

“That’s under Daryl’s watch.  He probably got tipsy and forgot,” she said.

“Does he do that a lot? Get tipsy?” asked Foley sternly.

Naomi shivered.  It turned her on that he was so protective.

“I don’t want to talk about it or  him. He’s in the past.  Just let me go run a comb through my hair,” she murmured.  “And let’s go have dinner.  I won’t be but a second.”

Naomi felt worlds better after spending a little time with Foley.  He grounded out all crazy thoughts of  zombie hillbillies.  Except for when she went to the master bedroom to change her shirt and dab on some make up.  There it was again.  That creepy sensation that she was being watched. 

She stepped up her pace, deciding just to tousle her hair with her hands and dab on some light lipstick.  She shut the medicine cabinet and nearly jumped back into the tub.  There filling the door frame, Foley was in the door way and she had not heard him come up.  He literally came out of no where.

“My God!’ she said, catching her breath with a laugh. “You scared the holy moly out of me.”

“I am so sorry,” he laughed softly as he drew her to him.  “When I said I was checking out the house, I meant the whole house.  “Didn’t know you were here.”

“Yeah, this is my room,” she said.  “At least this is where my stuff is.”

He tilted his head, studying her.

“You all don’t sleep together, do you?” he asked, a pleased look crossing his face.

“No,” she said. “We don’t.”

He squeezed her a little more firmly.

“Good,” he said. “I can’t say I am sorry.”

He took her face into his large powerful hands and brushed his soft warm lips to hers. Tendrils of electric arousal tingled through her body. They traveled straight down her spine.  So delicious.  She went limp in his arms.  His eyes gathered darkly as he eyeballed the bed.

“I would say yes to you just about anywhere,” she said with a smile. “But not in that bed.  Not without at least a change of sheets.  I think Daryl slept in my bed last night because I always make the bed and as you can see the bed’s not made.”