Chapter 34
Luke
“Mr. Simpson?” Margaret knocks on my door.
“Yes?”
“Ms. Telford has a delivery and you said—”
“Where is she?”
“In the conference room in a meeting.” A quick glance at the security monitors confirms that she’s exactly where Margaret said she would be. I immediately sigh in relief, fearing I had let my guard down in the last few weeks since we hadn’t heard from her stalker. “You had said that if anyone called or a delivery came for Ms. Telford that they should be screened.”
“Right, what’s the delivery?”
“Flowers, and the delivery guy insists that Ms. Telford is the only person who can sign for the delivery.”
“Show him to the holding office and let him know that Ms. Telford will be a few minutes as she’s in a meeting. Send me the name of the company and the guy’s name.”
“Yes, sir.”
L: Keep Emily in the meeting, don’t let her leave for any reason
A: What’s going on?
L: I don’t know. There’s a flower delivery here for her
A: I assume they’re not from you?
L: Fuck no, they’re not. She has flowers sitting at home waiting for her
A: I’ll keep her on the phone. If you need one of the guys, let me know. I’ll make an excuse and ask Cole to get something from my office.
L: I’ll be fine. Trust me if this is the bastard who was following her or if he knows who that fucker is, I won’t need any help.
A: Understood.
My computer dings with the information I requested from Margaret. A quick call to the florist confirms what I suspected; the bastard sitting in the holding office doesn’t work for them. The holding office is disguised as a normal office, but what only a few staff know, is that it’s completely wired for observation through our security system. I quickly flip one of the monitors to that feed and watch as the bastard paces the room. He was smart, I’ll give him that. He’s wearing a florist uniform and even gave Margaret a fake name in case we were onto him. Too bad we’re smarter. I make a quick call to my buddy at the local precinct who knows what we’ve been dealing with.
“Mr. Scott?” I enter the room.
“Yes? I mean…no, sorry you have the wrong person.” He’s flustered; I clearly caught him off guard using his real name.
“No, I don’t.”
“I’m Joshua Smith, from Downtown Florists with a delivery for Ms. Emily Telford. Is she available?”
“She’s not at the moment. But she said I could sign on her behalf—”
“No! I mean, I’m sorry, the person who ordered the flowers was quite insistent that only Ms. Telford be permitted to sign for the delivery.”
“Really? Because Downtown Florists has never heard of you and has no deliveries scheduled for this address today or in the near future.”
“I… I must have the wrong address—”
Before he even takes a step, I’m on him. Within minutes, he’s sitting on the chair with his wrists handcuffed to the back of it. In addition to the surveillance equipment, the room has several pieces of furniture with hooks installed for handcuffs.
“Now, let’s you and I get to know each other, Mr. Scott.”
I take a look at the man in front of me, who honestly I wouldn’t have been able to pick out of crowd otherwise. He’s…average looking, with no features that stand out. Average height, dark hair, dark eyes, and his signature baseball cap. Other than a tattoo peeking out from under his shirt, there’s not a damn thing that stands out about him. No wonder Emily said she didn’t recognize him.
“How do you know Ms. Telford?”
“I don’t…I’m just delivering flowers to her.”
“You’re lying and we both know it.”
“I’m not!”
“Look, I have an officer on his way to arrest you for stalking, harassment, assault—”
“Assault? I never laid a hand on her! I would never hurt Emily.”
“But you had no problem breaking into her hotel room, did you?”
“I…”
“We have that on video,” I lie. Emily actually doesn’t know about her room being broken into yet, with everything else going on, it wasn’t something she needed to worry about. I had Garrett go over and pack up her belongings and bring them to the office.
“I…”
“We also have you on camera following her to different stores, following her while she was driving, repeatedly calling her hotel room and hanging up.”
“I…it was the only way!”
“The only way for what?”
“To get her to notice me! She barely acknowledged that I existed before!”
“How did you first meet Emily?”
“We ran into one another at Starbucks. We ended up with each other’s drinks.”
“And?”
“I went back there every day, but it was nearly ten days later before she came back. She sat at the table, that time, reading a paper. I asked if I could sit with her, but she made some excuse and left in a hurry. She didn’t even remember me! I knew, though, I knew.”
“You knew what?”
“That she was it.”
“It?”
“The one.”
“The one?”
“Yeah,” he rolls his eyes at me like I just said the stupidest thing. “The one…the woman I’ll spend the rest of my life with.”
“Really?” This guy is even crazier than I thought.
“If I could just talk to her, I know she’d feel the same way.”
“That’s why you were following her?”
“Do you have any idea how hard she is to find? At first I thought Starbucks was my in, that she must go there every day, but that wasn’t the case. When she finally did come back, I followed her here, and then I found she was living at the hotel. That’s when I knew I had to help her.”
“To help her?”
“She doesn’t deserve to live in a hotel! She should have a place of her own, one where she doesn’t have to deal with people constantly being so close to her. She hates when people get too close to her.”
“She does?”
“Oh yes, she’s very skittish like that.”
“Yet, you followed her.”
“From a distance,” he stresses. “I never got too close to her.”
“You didn’t think she might get freaked out by you suddenly following her?”
“No! I figured this way she would get used to me, so when I did talk to her again she wouldn’t be so worried.”
“Did she see you?”
“Of course! I was in the store with her, the Starbucks, the hotel lobby a few times. We even shared an elevator once.”
Holy shit, he was close to her so many times. Part of me can’t believe she didn’t recognize him. He’s the type that blends into the crowd. I probably wouldn’t give him a second look—nothing about him stands out.
“Why not just go up to her and say something? Why follow her around, break into her hotel room, and even follow her to work?”
“Because I wanted her to be comfortable with me first! Weren’t you listening to anything I said?”
“And breaking into her hotel room? She wasn’t even there so what was the point?”
“I had to make sure she was okay. She disappeared after she stopped to get coffee a month ago! She hasn’t been back to the hotel, but what if she was in there and something was wrong? What if she was sick and had no one to call? What if—”
“Why not call the police? Or the hotel management staff and have them check on her? Why tear apart her room?”
“You tore apart my hotel room?!?!”
Fuck. Emily burst into the office with Margaret hot on her tail, obviously trying to stop her. I held my hand up to Margaret letting her know it was okay and then immediately positioned myself next to Emily. In theory, this bastard shouldn’t be able to get near her since he’s handcuffed to the chair but I don’t trust anyone when it comes to Emily.
“You’re here…” He stares.
“Yes, you fucking bastard, I’m here. This is where I work! The question is what are you doing here?”
“I was bringing you flowers.”
“Em… you don’t have to—”
“You’ve been following me, you broke into my hotel room and now you bring me flowers? What the hell?”
“I thought it was time.”
“Time for what?”
“Time for you to realize that we belong together.”
“Are you kidding me? You don’t know the first thing about me! We don’t fucking belong together!”
“We do! Just come with me, you’ll see!”
“Do I just attract all the crazy people?” she turns and asks me.
“Well, not everyone you attract is crazy.” I smirk, momentarily forgetting the bastard in the room with us when the look in her eyes softens.
“Maybe not everyone.” She leans in and kisses me softly. Rather than closing my eyes, I keep an eye on our little visitor, watching the anger rise in him.
“Get your hands off of her! She’s mine.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I growl. “Emily is mine.”
“Tell him that’s not true! Tell him that you’re with me!” he begs her.
“I don’t even know you! So no, I’m not with you. Luke has had my heart for more than a decade and that will never change.”
“But—”
“Mr. Simpson, the officers have arrived,” Margaret announces before stepping to the side to show our newest visitors in.
“Ms. Telford, I assume you’d like to press charges?” the officer asks.
“Yes,” she answers firmly.
“She will also be seeking a restraining order against Mr. Scott,” I add.
“We’ll have it noted in the paperwork.”
“You have everything you need?” I ask.
“Yes, your assistant was kind enough to provide me with digital copies of the recordings.”
“Recordings?” Jackson finally seems to be catching up with what’s going on.
“We’ll take it from here, Mr. Simpson. Thank you for your assistance. Ms. Telford. We’ll be in touch.”
Without a second glance, I lead Emily out of the now crowded room and down to my office. The moment the door closes I have her in my arms, the need to hold her completely overwhelming me.
“It’s over,” she sighs.
“Yes, it is.”
“What now?”
“Now we go home.”
The End