CHAPTER
“Suzanne, may I borrow your car please?” I ask my assistant who is looking up at me confused.
“Umm, sure,” she replies and then adds half-jokingly. “Once you’re not about to use it to commit murder.”
Usually a fan of her wit, I can’t summon a laugh today. I’ve to meet Jess in the next twenty minutes and I have to get there before the bodyguard realizes I’ve tricked him in sending him to get me lunch. I don’t want him following me around and reporting my every move to Axel.
“Thanks.” I take the key from her and hurry from the office, walking across the street to the parking lot. I locate her blue Subaru and get inside, quickly backing out the lot and heading to Hudson’s Café to meet Jess.
I strum my finger on the steering wheel as I drive the ten minutes to the restaurant. When I enter the diner style restaurant, Jessica is seated at the horse-shoe shaped bar. She’s out of business attire because she is on summer holidays and is wearing a pair of tight high-waisted jeans and a cropped top. She looks amazing and when she turns to me, her eyes are sparkling. She has the same look on her face I do when I think about Axel.
“Well you’re glowing,” I say and slide onto the bar stool beside her.
She reached over to give me a hug. “Bah. You’re the one with the pregnancy glow. You’re absolutely radiant. You look amazing pregnant.”
I grimace. “I’m still at the good stage. Wait until I can’t see my feet for days and then we’ll get back to that.”
We break our conversation to take a look at the menu and order lunch. Although breakfast still remains a challenge for me and I often have to eat crackers and dry toast, by lunch my stomach is generally settled for me to have a large meal to make up for breakfast. I ordered chips and salsa, cheesy fries, a turkey bacon swiss sandwich and a glass of lemonade.
“What was it you wanted to tell me?” Jess asks as we munch on lunch.
“There’s someone who is stalking me,” I begin then go on to explain to her about ‘running’ into Jack the times I have and the threatening messages he sent to Axel. “I’m not sure if I should believe I’m in any real danger or if he’s just saying those things out of anger,” I end.
“Never take those things lightly even if he’s bluffing,” she advises me. “It always pays to be safe than sorry.”
“But if that’s true,” I argue. “He’s had so many opportunities to harm me and he never did.”
“Sounds like a psychopath if you ask me. What you need is to get yourself a gun.”
“But I don’t even know how to use one!”
“Then I’ll teach you but you need to protect yourself honey. It’s our Second Amendment right.”
“I don’t know Jess.”
“Guess what. We’ll go to the firing range and practice then when you feel comfortable, we can think about getting you a gun. How about that?”
“Hmm. Okay. Maybe. Let me think about it.”
The ringing of my cellphone interrupts our conversation and I know who it is before I even retrieve the phone from my bag.
“Hey Axel.”
I hold the phone away as a string of curses leave his lips. Jess cringes, able to hear him even though he isn’t on speaker.
“Why is he mad?” she whispers.
“I ditched the bodyguard,” I whisper back before bringing the phone back to my ear. “I’m at lunch with Jess, Axel.”
“Why the fuck did you go without the bodyguard?” he demands. “Dammit woman, do you know what I thought when Vinnie called that you weren’t at the office?”
“I just needed sometime alone with Jess without your man at my back,” I explain.
“Ever stop to think that he’s there for a reason.”
As if to remind me of that, I find myself staring into the steely gray eyes of Jake and his mocking smile. He’s sitting at the bar a few seats down and tips his drink in my direction.
“Oh God, he’s here,” I breathe into the phone before realizing I shouldn’t have said to Axel.
“What? Jack’s there?”
“Yes.”
“Dammit Joyce, where are you?”
“I think he’s leaving,” I respond, watching as Jake gets up, leaving a tip at the bar and sauntering out the restaurant like all is right with the world.
“Is he gone?” Axel asks.
“Yes, I think so.”
“Where the hell are you?” he demands. “This is exactly why I don’t want you going off on your own.”
“Hudson’s café,” I answer, feeling appropriately chided.
“I’m going to have the bodyguard come pick you up.”
“I’m with Jess, Axel. I can make my way back to the office.”
“It’s either that or I come pick you up and I’ll tell you Jess that right now I’m so angry with you, you’d do well to choose the bodyguard.”
“Okay,” I acquiesce. “But I drove my assistant’s car so he’ll have to drive behind me.”
“When I get home tonight, Joyce. You and I are going to have a serious talk.”
Uh oh. Another lecture I bet. He hangs up after telling me to call him immediately should Jack return.
“Why the hell would you object to a bodyguard following you with that nutcase around?” Jess asks once I’m off the phone.
“It’s uncomfortable,” I argue.
“Better uncomfortable than dead!”
I pale at Jess’ words, shaken. So she thinks Jack has the potential to harm me too.
“I’m so sorry,” she immediately apologizes. “I didn’t mean to say that. It’s just that Axel’s working so hard to protect you. You can be a little more accommodating.”
She stays with me until a scowling Vinnie walks into the restaurant. Feeling childish for what I’d done to him, I apologize knowing Axel probably chewed his head off about letting me out of his sight. I go without a word, asking Jess to call me when she gets home. It suddenly strikes me that Jack would have seen me with her and may target her as well.
The rest of the day went uneventful. At exactly five Vinnie comes knocking at my door and when I asked for half an hour more, he insists the ‘boss’ said we should leave at exactly five. Without an argument, I pack up and leave with him.
At home, I continue working on a project for work and that’s how Axel finds me, my feet tucked under my body on a couch in the living room, my computer in my lap. I bite my lip nervously, prepared for him to bellow at me but he simply shakes his head and walks out.
Axel has never walked out on an argument between us before so naturally I am alarmed. Instead of following him up the stairs, I go to the dining room and set our places at the table for us to have the dinner the Mrs. Johnson had prepared for us before leaving.
Just as usual as every other day, he returns several minutes later, changed out of his jacket suit. He’s wearing sweats and a T-shirt. He still doesn’t say a word to me as I share us a plate of the double bean and roasted pepper chili over rice and cornbread. We eat in silence until I get tired of it and try to make conversation.
“How was work?”
“Fine.”
“And the Rosario contract?”
“Okay.”
“How is everything coming with the new hotel?”
“Great.”
His one word response causes tears to spring up in my eyes. A lump forming in the back of my throat, I try to continue the dinner in silence but it’s more than I can bear. I push my chair back and get up to take my plate to the kitchen. He makes no move to acknowledge me leaving him.
In the kitchen, the tears trickle down my cheeks. Okay, may I had been thoughtless in leaving the office today with the bodyguard. He doesn’t have to shut me out like this. I’d have preferred him ranting and railing at me but this quietly seething Axel isn’t someone I know how to read.
I’m handwashing the utensils I’d used for dinner when he walks into the kitchen. He stops beside me and leans against the counter, observing me but I can’t look at him. I don’t want him to see the tears shining in my eyes.
“Joyce,” he starts but stops.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. It won’t happen again.”
“Somehow, I don’t believe that,” he says on a sigh. “You’re the most stubborn, hard-headed female I’ve ever met and that scares the crap out of me. Why won’t you let me take care of you?”
“I’m used to taking care of myself,” I answer softly.
“And that’s fine just work with me on that, not against me.”
“I just needed some time away from all the craziness going on. Sometimes I wish…”
“Sometimes you wish what Joyce?”
“Sometimes I wish I had my old life back,” I reply.
“You mean you wish you’d never met me.”
“No!” I protest and spin away from the sink to face him. “I’d never think that. Axel, I love you. Without you, there wouldn’t be an us. Nor this baby. I’m grateful to have you in my life. It’s just that all this is so complicated. I didn’t have all these problems when I was poor.”
“Well, soon we’ll not have to worry about Jack Petersen.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jack called me up yesterday. He wants us to talk. To make peace between us.”