You Belong To Me (27 page)

“Mitch, this isn’t the work of a reporter, she said after swallowing down her drink. “Maybe he’s not dead Mitch, maybe he didn’t die tha
t night. I mean we were both unconscious when the paramedics came, what if he escaped? I must be going crazy!” Danielle let out a nervous chuckle.

“Danielle, you’re not going crazy and Ethan is dead, they took him away in a body bag.
  No, there’s got to be a reasonable explanation for this and when Mike gets here he’ll help us figure it out.”

“Okay Mitch, let’s say that he is dead, then who the hell is doing this? This is not the work of some reporter trying to get a story; this seems way too personal for t
hat.” Danielle took another mouthful of her drink, this time the liquid began to soothe her nerves.

“Danielle, of course he’s dead okay? So let’s put that notion to rest right here and now. And yes it seems personal, but the idea of a reporter doing this t
o try and get a story seems way more plausible than anything else right now so let’s just wait for Mike to get here and see what he says. And once he’s gone, you’re coming back to my place tonight and I'm not taking no for an answer. I’ll carry you out of here kicking and screaming if I have to.” He threatened.

“I don’t know what’s going on here Danielle, but maybe you should take Mitch up on his offer and stay out at his place; at least for tonight anyway. I mean this is obviously more than some reporter looking for a scoop.” Mike had showed up at Danielle’s place not knowing what to expect. But the moment he saw the photographs and the newspaper clipping he knew that whoever was involved had it out for Danielle, had out for her in the worst way.

“Mike, I have no family and the only friends that knew that Ethan was stalking me are

Shayla and Jason.”

“Okay, what about your co-workers, surely the Johnson’s would have informed them that he wasn’t allowed in the store or anywhere near you.
Is it possible that one of your co-workers was actually a friend of Ethan’s? I mean you certainly don’t know all of them?” Mike questioned.

Danielle had to take a minute and think, think about her co-workers and who, if anyone would be dumb enough to befr
iend Ethan Tillitson, he had always appeared to be a loner.

“Mike I can’t think of anyone who was friendly towards Ethan, but then again I wasn’t out of the office much so that’s a question you would have to ask Joe and Vic.”

“I’ll do that Danielle; in the meantime I want you to be extra careful. Now I'm going to be honest with you right now. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t know who is behind all of this but whoever it is, is a sick individual. But I can tell you that I'm going to get my best guys on this and we’re gonna find this creep, whoever it is,” Mike promised.

“Oh just like you stopped Ethan before he kidnapped, and assaulted her Mike?” Mitch said with unwavering derision.

Danielle nodded her head in agreement. “Mike, I’ve heard those words come out of your mouth before and no offense, but they weren’t comforting then and they aren’t comforting now. I'm tired Mike, I'm tired of people thinking they can control my life, scare me, or try to intimidate me. Now I’ve been through enough, Mitch and I both have.

Now if you catch this bastard, that’ll be great, but in the meantime I'm through letting someone I don’t even know dictate to me how I'm gonna live my life. I wasted enough time and energy on Ethan; I'm not going to have a repeat of that
for this creep. Mitch and I are going to go on with our lives and that’s that.  So I suggest you catch them and catch them fast because if and when the time comes that they decide to make themselves known, I’ll be ready.”

Danielle spoke with such fierce d
etermination no one in the room doubted her words.

With nerves still bouncing, Danielle rose and began pacing the room. “You guys know what you’re doing so I suggest you go out and do it because Mitch and I are not giving in this madman,
now if you’ll excuse us Mike, I’ve got a weekend to enjoy with my boyfriend.”

Once Mike gathered the photographs and clippings, he said his goodbyes and went on his way.

“Well I bet he wasn’t expecting that,” Mitch smirked as he gathered her in his arms. “How’d you get to be such a bad-ass?”

“I am nothing of the kind Mitchell Conway, I'm just a woman tired of feeling like I'm being led on a leash is all,” she said kissing his neck. “Now help me pack my bag handsome.”

A weekend at Mitch’s was exactly what she needed and by the time he had brought her home, Danielle was feeling refreshed and at ease. The manila envelope and its contents were a thing of the past and she promised herself to stick by her declaration of no longer letting some disturbed stranger control her life. Over the weekend the two had decided that Mitch would spend the night at her place. She had convinced him while the two had breakfast at a local diner. Mitch was all too happy to oblige.

That night while in bed, Danielle couldn’t sleep. It
was the first time in a long time that sleep was hiding from her, and even with Mitch lying next to her she found it difficult to fall asleep. Not wanting to wake him, she decided to go downstairs and pour herself a glass of wine. Mitch stirred quietly in his sleep as she crept out of bed. 

After reaching into the cabinet for a wine glass, Danielle then turned around to face the kitchen window. She froze a minute before dropping the glass onto the kitchen floor.
  She didn’t have to yell for Mitch, he rushed down the stairs and was by her side in an instant. “Danielle what is it?” He asked panicked.

“I saw something in the window.” Without hesitation Mitch ran back upstairs to retrieve his .45.

“Mitch you can’t go out there, it could have been my imagination,” Danielle pleaded.

“Danielle, you don’t have an over active imagination these days,” he said.

Danielle shook her head at that, she made a mental note to thoroughly discuss that comment with him later. Right now someone was lurking outside her house.

Someone watched him from the woods. The night was cold, not bitter cold but cold enough that Mitch wished he threw on his jacket. Someone stood in the shadows watching him as he walked the perimeter of the large property, gun at the ready.
I could kill him right now
, the stranger thought.
I could kill him and leave him to bleed. Then I could get to Danielle, take her and kill her, just like Ethan asked me to do. But now is not the time, I must be patient; Ethan would like it very much if I'm patient. Yes it’s best if I wait, wait for the right moment and it could happen at any time.

“What is it? Did you see anyone?” Danielle asked optimistically.

“No babe, I didn’t,” he said rubbing the cold from his arms.

“I knew we shouldn’t have left Samson at your plac
e,” she frowned.

“I know baby, but I thought after breakfast that we were going back to my place, it was spur of the moment. I’ll get him first thing in the morning and drop him off here on my way to work, but for now babe, let’s try to get some sleep. I'm
sure that whoever or whatever it was is gone now.”

“I’d love to go upstairs with you, just as soon as you put that away,” Danielle motioned to the gun Mitch had not put down.

“Sorry baby.” He put the gun in his pocket and walked with her up the stairs.

As Halloween approached, Danielle found herself wrapped up in her work, and when she wasn’t working she was helping Shayla plan her spring wedding. She found that the more she kept herself occupied, the less she thought about whomever it was that was sending her flowers, photographs and newspaper clippings. Mike was trying diligently to find out who was behind it all but came up empty handed when he made contact with the reporter who had covered the story back when it had happened.

“Unfortu
nately, now it becomes a waiting game.” He told Mitch when he inquired about his findings. “Just make sure that you and Danielle continue to stay vigilant.”

“You don’t have to tell me Mike, this is something I am well aware of and believe me. We are as vig
ilant as we can be given the circumstances. I just wish she didn’t have to relive this.”

Mitch was frustrated, he thought that with Ethan dying that would be the end of things but it clearly wasn’t. Someone was out there watching and waiting, it was as if
Ethan had come back from the dead. Even though he knew that was impossible, he still kept an open mind in thinking that Ethan himself had planned all of this, had planned to torture Danielle from the grave.

“Mitch honey, it’s been months since you’ve talk
ed to your mother, don’t you think you ought to give her a call and talk to her?” Danielle asked one evening while they were carving pumpkins.

“I will Danielle, I will. It’s just
that things have been kind of hectic, between work and keeping an eye on things around here, I haven’t had time.” He too was keeping himself busy, not only because there was a deadline on the contracting job, but because he simply wasn’t ready to deal with his mother.  He hoped that she would come to her senses and apologize, but deep down he knew that he was going to have to make the first move. If nothing else, his mother was quite persevering.

“Well, you have to make the time babe. I don’t want your mom
thinking that I'm the reason why you’ve been avoiding her. Come on, talk to her, and make things right Mitch. Make things right before it’s too late, please? For me?” She asked with a hopeful grin.

Mitch let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, okay, for you I will. B
ut just remember Danielle, I'm not going to give into her and her asinine demands,” he informed her.

“Of course you aren’t honey, but that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to her and at least see where things stand between you two. You’ll feel a lot better once
you two have talked, trust me. As ruthless as the two of you left things, just remember, there’s a lot of good that has helped balance the scales so to speak so just remember that when you go talk to her,” she said while giving him a long and lengthy kiss.

Two days later Mitch paid his mother a visit. While the two sat and talked, Gail was overcome with joy at the thought of her son
 and his strong desire to reconcile with her. “Son, I'm so glad that you came here today, the moment you left after we had that awful fight I wanted to go after you and apologize but as usual my pride got in the way,” she said while taking his hand in hers. “Sweetheart, I am so sorry that I let things get out of hand, I didn’t realize it before but I certainly do now. Both your father and your sister have been talking some sense into me and I see now just how irrational I was being. Can you forgive me Mitchell?” His mother cried. “Let me rephrase that son, can you and Danielle forgive me?”

Mitch was glad to see that his mother had
finally come around, he wanted nothing more than for his entire family to see that Danielle was and always would be a very important part of his life. “Mom, there’s something that you should know.”

“What is it son?” Gail asked concerned.

“Mom, Danielle is the one who pushed me to come and talk to you. If it were up to me, I would have waited even longer, so you have her to thank. Just think about that before you go passing judgment on the woman I love,” he said very straight forwardly.

Gail shifted in her
chair. She was ashamed of her past actions, even more so now that her son called her on them. “Son, I am so very sorry that I let my grief over take me all of these years. I know that I’ve been too over protective of both you and your sister, but I want you to know that I'm done doing that. It’s never too late for a fresh start and I want that with the all of you, Danielle included. Please say that you’ll forgive me son.” Gail held her breath as if she were awaiting the results of a test she’d studied hard for.

Mitch let her suffer a little before responding. “Mom, you are forgiven,” he said with a smile.

“Oh Mitchell,” Gail hugged her son. “You have made me so happy, and I promise to stop interfering in your lives,” she said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Mom I said that I forgive you, but you still need to apologize to Danielle, and to be honest, I'm not sure if she’ll be as forgiving as me.”

Gail gently patted his hand. “Son, if you love her, then I love her. Nothing would please me more than to apologize to her, and if she is what you so ardently say she is, then I have no doubt that she will forgive me. Of this, I am sure son,” she said.

Mitch knew that his mother was right. “When are you planning on apologizing?”

“You let me worry about that son, and I promise, it’ll be soon, very soon.”

“Well don’t wait too long mom, the holidays are coming up and I want us to spend them together, as a family, all of us.”

“And we will son, we will,” his mother beamed.

 
 While Mitch was reconciling with his mother, Danielle had made plans to spend the evening with Shayla. Danielle knew that the bride to be had made great leaps and bounds in planning the wedding and wanted to see exactly what it was that she had done. Danielle couldn’t help but smile as she thought about what a great event planner Shayla was. Not only could she plan an event at the drop of a dime but she was damn good at it. Not once did any event turn out cheesy or tacky, they had all been very tasteful.

“So how do you think Mitch and his mother
are faring?” Shayla asked. The two of them were going through various bridal magazines and eating junk food.

“I hope that they are able to work through everything Shay, I really do. This whole ordeal has been eating Mitch up inside, I hope that his mom see
’s the affect its having on him and apologizes. I don’t want to be the reason he stops talking to his family you know?”

“You aren’t the reason Dee, his mother is and the sooner she realizes that the better off you’ll all be. Anyway, enough about Mitch’s mo
ther, what’s going on with this second stalker? Jason told me that the police are still pussy footing around.”

“There’s almost no point in it all,” Danielle said as she thumbed through a magazine. “The police aren’t ever going to catch whoever is doing thi
s and I'm getting sick and tired of waiting to see what will happen next.”

Danielle hated the fact that there was nothing she could do to help find the culprit.

“I swear Shay, it’s like Ethan has some kind of hold over me from the grave. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that he was still alive.”

“Danielle, don’t do that to yourself, now you and I both know that Ethan’s as dead can be and rightfully so. You sat there and watched him die.”

“I know I did Shay, but that still doesn’t explain what the hell has been going on these past few weeks now does it?”

“You're right Dee, it doesn’t, but look, the cops are trying to get a handle on it and soon they’ll have it all figured out and catch the asshole, whoever it is. Now what do you think of this?” Shayla a
sked while pointing to a gorgeous bridesmaid gown. She wanted to cheer Danielle up and the one way to do that was to take her mind off her troubles, even if only for a few short hours.

Even though the police had not been able to catch the person that was terrorizing her, Danielle did not want that to stop her from doing something fun with Mitch. The chamber of commerce was hosting the annual Halloween party and Danielle was excited about going.  She had already purchased costumes for both she and Mitch. They were going as characters from the phantom of the opera. Danielle was to be Christine Daaé and Mitch, the Phantom.

As the night of the party drew near, Mitch and Danielle couldn’t help but let their apprehension show as
any party scenario forced them to both think about what had happened back in July. “Honey are you sure you want to go to this party?” Mitch asked. “I’d be perfectly content with staying home and sitting in front  of the television cuddled up and watching a horror flick.”

Danielle looked at him appreciatively.
  “I know you would babe, but I want to go to this party and I want you to go with me. You and I both need to get out and have some fun. Besides, Shay and Jason will be there along with Vic and Joe, we all need this party Mitch. But thank you for thinking of me,” she said and wrapped her arms around him.  “That’s why I love you so very much.”

“Danielle, of course I'm going with you, I love you too. Now take me to bed,” he said seductively.

  With candles lit and while in bed, Mitch let out a long, masculine groan.  Hearing that always aroused her more, and spurred her to quicken her pace. He loved to watch as she rode him, the way her body glistened and the way her hair poured down off her shoulders so luxurious and soft. He was lost in the sight of her face and the pleasure that emulated from her as she lost herself within him.

 
 Danielle had always gave herself to him and no matter how many times, he always wanted more.  Mitch loved the way she seemed to envelop him, her arms and legs wrapped around him like a thirsty vine, edging towards its home.  She lowered her head so that her lips brushed against his. “I want to drive you insane with desire.” She let out a sensual moan. She slowed her pace then, torturing him, and her mouth found his once again as their kisses became deep and erotic.

 
 With his breath heaving and his hands gripping her hair, she rode him faster. Her body arched back and together they shuddered, that final explosion of pure desire colliding into pleasure. Danielle felt him explode inside of her, that wonderful burst of passion. She welcomed it, needed it, and desired it. “Danielle.” Mitch pulled her close to him  and together they floundered, body against body, trembling still as they held one another close.

“I could hold you like this all night,” he said, once he was able to murmur more than just her name. She loved leaving him speechless. “You won’t get any objections from me,” she said looking at him. She loved to look at him unde
r the soft glow of candlelight, she marveled at his rugged features.