CHAPTER SEVEN

When Jake got to the studio to pick her back up, Chloe was showered, dressed and ready to go.

“How did it go?” he asked her.

She smiled. “Good. I knocked Max on his ass!”

Jake grinned and gave her a high five. “That’s awesome. At least I’m not the only one you beat up recently.” They both laughed and he asked, “Are you hungry?”

“I am starving,” she said.

“Me too. I went to Derek’s office to sign those papers his staff was asking about and I honestly didn’t stop signing or reviewing things until I finally just told them I absolutely had to go.”

“Is his work getting way behind?”

“I think we took care of the pressing things today. Dad and I both have the power of attorney so they can scan or fax things to either of us if they need a signature. They’re just all so saddened and they seem kind of lost without him.”

“I know how they feel,” she said.

He nodded. “Me too. I need to go to the marina and check on the yacht. Do you want to just get something to eat on the pier?”

“That sounds good.”

Jake asked the driver to take them down to the marina. As soon as they turned into the parking lot, Chloe felt sad. She thought about the last time she and Derek had stayed on the boat together. It was the night that she had been sure Jesse was watching them. She’d had that feeling many times since. She had even begun to start trying to plan a way that she could be alone, just to get it over with. She didn’t want anyone else around when she took Jesse on. She couldn’t bear for anyone else to get hurt.

She and Jake went onto the boat and Jake went down into the engine room to check on things down there while Chloe cleaned the old things out of the refrigerator. She had the water on washing dishes when she heard a creak. It sounded like someone stepping on an old wood floor…or the wooden stairs that led down to the living quarters. She stopped and listened. She didn’t hear anything else, so she went back to her dishes. A few seconds passed and she heard it again. She turned off the water and said, “Jake?”

The creaking stopped and no one answered. Her heart began to pound relentlessly inside her chest and her breaths started coming faster. She could almost feel the adrenaline flooding her veins.

“Jake?” she called out again.

Silence.

Chloe dried her hands on the dish towel and took a step towards the stairs. She heard the creak again.

“Who’s there?”

Silence.

She closed the space between her and the foot of the stairs. They went halfway up and then there was a blind curve where you couldn’t see anything until you turned the corner. There was no one on the bottom half.

“Jake?”

This time she said it louder.

Still silence.

She reached out and took hold of the banister and pulled herself up onto the bottom step. That was when she heard the all-out pounding of footsteps running across the top of the yacht.

“Jake!” she yelled at the top of her lungs as she ran up. When she reached the top, she slammed into a wall. It was Jake. He had heard the commotion and heard her call out to him. He had come up to see what was going on and Chloe ran right into him.

“Did you see him?”

“Who? Was Jesse here?”

Chloe’s heart was slamming so hard against the wall of her chest that she felt like she was having a heart attack. She was trembling. “I didn’t see him. I heard someone on the stairs and when I started up, he took off.”

“Stay right here,” Jake told her.

“He’s gone, Jake. He accomplished what he wanted to do today.”

“What do you mean?”

“He only wanted to scare me. He accomplished that. It was always one of his favorite things to do. He takes a perverse pleasure in it. It pisses me off!” The fright turned into anger, just like that. “I worked so hard to be ready for him. I did everything I could think of to chase the fear away. I knocked you on your ass; I knocked Max on his ass! I’m ready, damn it! Why the hell does he still scare me?”

She was trembling and she felt the tears welling up again. One of them started to spill over and she swiped at it with the back of her hand. “Shit! Damn him! Damn him!” She broke down into sobs and Jake took her into his arms and just held her there while she cried. It was several minutes later before she was finally able to pull herself together. When she did, she was embarrassed. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping at her face once more.

“Don’t be sorry. He’s pure evil, Chloe. He scares me. It’s normal to be afraid of evil. We wouldn’t be normal if we weren’t. If I knew he was going to come at me face to face and fight me like a man, I wouldn’t have any qualms about it…and to tell you the truth, hand to hand - one on one; I firmly believe that you can take him too. But you’ve said it yourself a hundred times, that’s not how Jesse operates. Chloe just the fact that you stepped up on those stairs when you thought that he was there, scares me to death. You could have been hurt.”

“I’ve been hurt and now he’s hurting the people I care about. I just can’t run and hide anymore Jake.”

“Please Chloe; don’t do anything to put yourself in danger.”

“I won’t.”

“I’m serious. Imagine me having to tell my brother when he wakes up that something happened to you. Please don’t make me do that.”

“I won’t.” She was already trying to figure out in her head how to get enough time alone to lure him in.

This needed to end.

**

They finished their business on the boat, but they did it together, Jake didn’t leave her side. Then they walked down the dock until they got to the pier. They walked out almost to the end of it and they ordered a clam chowder bowl from one of the little food stands. They took them and sat on one of the benches about halfway out. Chloe was picking her bread bowl apart, tossing pieces out to the seagulls that gathered around them. After she hadn’t taken a single bite in fifteen minutes, Jake said,

“You know, if you starve yourself, your body starts burning muscle and all that work you’ve been doing will have been for nothing.”

She rolled her eyes at him and took a bite.

He laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” Chloe asked arching an eyebrow.

“You’re going to give my brother a run for his money.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re just something else,” he said, still being vague.

“Clarify,” she said.

“Let’s see. In the couple of weeks that I’ve known you, I have found you to be stubborn, obstinate, easily aggravated, overly…”

“Thanks, I think I get it.” She stopped him bluntly by putting the palm of her hand up towards his face.

He laughed again. “For the record, I can also see what my brother sees in you. I meant what I said before; I’m proud to count you like family.”

Chloe chuckled. “Thanks.”

“Don’t let the psychopath rule your life, okay?”

“I don’t intend to,” she said.

Before Jake could say anything else, they heard the voice.

“Well, I’ll be damned! Is that Jake Stark?”

The voice came out of nowhere and Chloe jumped up off the bench like a shot. It was the first time she had heard that taunting voice in over two years but there was no doubt; it was Jesse.

Jake recognized it as well, either that or Chloe’s face said it all. “Where are you, you cowardly little fuck?” Jake was looking down off the side of the pier. The beach was crowded and they were eight or nine feet off the ground.

“Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”

“He’s underneath us!” Chloe could see him standing underneath the pier smiling up at her. She wanted to jump up on the bench where he couldn’t see her. It freaked her out for him to be right below her. She didn’t want him to know she was scared though.

“Hey Jake, I’m real sorry to hear about your brother. That was a bad deal. I heard he was a vegetable?”

“You’re dead you little fuck!” Jake looked at Chloe.

She was already on her phone calling 911. He took off running towards the end of the pier. Chloe looked down as the voice on the line said, “911 operator, what is your emergency?”

“My ex-boyfriend is wanted for the assault and attempted murder of my best friend. He’s here on the beach.”

“What’s your name, ma’am?”

“Chloe Green.”

“I have to run Kelly! It was good seeing you. I’ll see you again real soon okay, babe?”

“Fuck you!”

“Ma’am? Are you safe ma’am?”

By the time Jake got down to the sand, Jesse had disappeared into the crowd on the beach. He was just gone, without a trace. Chloe told the operator she was fine and that Jesse took off on foot. Jake gave chase for a while, but ultimately, he completely vanished. They waited around and gave a statement to two seemingly disinterested policemen. The attack on Chantelle was in New York. The police in Rhode Island would rather not get involved if they didn’t have to.

When they finished up with the police, they both realized they had lost their appetites. They left and headed home. By the time they got back to New York, Chloe felt like her sanity was hanging by a thread. She collapsed into Derek’s bed, curled into a fetal position and cried a torrent of angry, frustrated tears. She vowed that this would be the last time. After they wake Derek up tomorrow and she knows that he’s going to be okay, she’s going back to Rhode Island and one way or the other she was going to finish this thing once and for all. She had cried too many tears for him. She wasn’t his victim any longer.