Despising Chad for stealing her vibrant energy every time he was mentioned, I vowed to get it all back for her. Taking my phone out, I opened up the contact list. “If Batman can take down Superman, this dude can be taken down too. Give me your personal number and street address, Dr. Johnston.”
She snapped out of her depressive state, to grab her cellphone from her purse. “You might as well call me Cherise, Batman.”
I laughed at the reference and how fast Cherise used it on me. She rattled off her information. After logging it in, I called her phone. She tapped the accept icon, tapping again to hang up. I sent my address in a text to her. Three bubbles blinked on my screen as she typed back. Her address came through. I already knew that we lived ten blocks apart, and I could cover that commute in minutes on foot. It took even less time in my truck if I ran the traffic lights.
Shoving my phone back in my pocket, I stood up to go. My staying was a hazard for us both. Accepting my help had eradicated some of the distance I tried to put between us during today’s therapy. Cherise was a dream I couldn’t afford to indulge in if she didn’t want me too.
“You and Malaysia are welcomed to make my place your refuge if either of you have to get out of your home for any reason. I need to check out your building. Don’t leave without me or come here until we have your problem solved.” Or, I annihilated the problem. Didn’t matter to me.
Cradling her phone to her chest, her eyes glistened with gratitude. “Thank you, Tobin. It’s fine if I call you that, right?” It was cute she wanted permission to use my first name when I’d answer to anything for her. Not so cute that she may be about to cry. Tears would render me a fumbling fool before I could prove my value to her.
“I prefer Tobin. Batman will do in a pinch, but not ‘Hey you’. Everyone will think you’re talking to them.” And they’d be glad for it. She was too damn beautiful inside and out to not want to associate with her. Hence, the stalker.
Cherise giggled softly. “You’re a smarta
ss, too, I see.”
My heart tripped over a beat. Her giggle was everything. I didn’t know how much the lighthearted resonance from her would affect me. Without permission, my mind added her laugh to my mental collection box of her. My unattainable dreams were about to get a lot more graphic with a soundtrack. In the meantime, there was an inspection to complete. If I didn’t leave now, I wouldn’t.
Starting to the door, I looked back at her. “Smartass works too. Stay inside until I come back, please.” The mere thought of something happening to her dampened my mood. She’d improved it by simply breathing. I aimed to keep her breathing.
Requesting that she lock the front entrance behind me, I went outside. Getting inside was by far too effortless. I made a cerebral note to suggest a permanently locked door with buzzer for access and cameras monitoring the area. Walking along the sidewalk, the narrow parking lot spanned the building several acres long. Several trucks and cars of all colors were parked here and there. When the lot was filled to capacity, it’d be a security nightmare for one man.
Construction was taking place in more of the unoccupied blocks of commercial space than the other days. There were more cars in the lot to go with the influx. The noise levels were higher, would drown out a cry for help. An on-person alarm for Cherise was a necessity. At the other end of the building, I peeked around it at a short, side street. “That lane’s going to be a problem.” A short cement block wall bordered it, preventing defensive driving. The thick, tall trees and shrubbery atop it would be pitch black at night—ingredients of the perfect coverage for a prowler laying low.
“No parking in the back,” I noted to myself while strolling cautiously down the lane to the back of the building. The wall of woodland circled the property, unfortunately.
The backlot, narrower than the front, was for employees and employer’s parking. There was not a single pole for sufficient lighting at night. Closed in and exposed on both sides with nowhere to run for cover, the backside went beyond security nightmare. It was a night terror for the hunted. Cherise shouldn’t ever come back here. The black Mercedes Benz parked at her end of the building advocated that she already had. None of the rear entrances of the connected sections were wired for burglar alarms or cameras. The lane on the opposite side of the building didn’t give me the warm and fuzzies either.
Mercifully, Andre waited until almost the end of my assessment to call. There was one more place to survey. Accepting his summons, I slanted my head back to study the low, inexpensive tin roof of the building while simultaneously clapping the phone to my ear.
“What’s the verdict on your leave?” Cupping a hand around my forehead to buffer the sun, I expected him to say anything but what he did.
“Tobin, my man! I need an address to call home for the next month.”
I gave out my address for the second time in less than twenty minutes. “I’m surprised you even got the go-ahead to take off. I’m nearly pissing myself that you got it for a month. What did you have to do to make that happen? How many of the old, wrinkly wives did you have to knock off? I’m almost positive you did it happily.”
His hysterical merriment filled the line. “I knocked off none. I only reminded a couple of their husbands that I know where the bodies are, so to speak. That, I did do happily. They weren’t thrilled about giving me the time off, especially not right after losing you. Your team has done everything but go on strike at the base, and they won’t be back in commission anytime soon. One by one, they all ended up in the brig after giving the Sergeant Major hell for fucking over you. His office is in shambles thanks to all the lovely members, former and present ones, of First Battalion, Bravo Company.”
Unable to help it, I cracked my sides chuckling.
Andre laughed right along with me. “There will be no infiltration into Korea anytime soon. I swear you influenced those guys to go after Lindon hard, grinding the gears of the war he and cronies want to start, and I wouldn’t blame you. What are you doing now?”
“The guys and I have talked about everything but going after Lindon. Currently, I’m reconning the roof of Dr. Johnston’s office. A lot has happened since I last talked to you.”
Andre did the one thing he tried like hell to never do when not on duty, he got serious. “Who is the guy that finally came out of the woodwork to present himself to your doctor?”
The things I would do if she was more than my doctor. “It’s almost alarming how fast you deduce a situation down to its simplest forms sometimes without the facts. His name is Chad Lowell, and it’s equally alarming how he skirts around the law to harass her with gifts. She believes it’s a waste of time to bring the LIPD in on this after the cops failed to put a stop to him in California. I agree with her until we find out if he poisoned her receptionist or not with fettucine he brought himself, including an expensive bottle of wine and a note. She didn’t even read it, knew what it said because he writes the same thing every time. The guy is a hot ass, psychotic mess.”
“People aren’t that complicated, Tobin. We want something, we either have the balls to go after it, or we don’t. Stalkers have more balls than anyone should and not enough good sense to accept when they’re not wanted. It was a matter of time before he made himself known. If he’s skirting the law, then he probably hasn’t poisoned the food. It could have killed your doctor before he was ready. He’s definitely enjoying her panicking about it, though, and I’m sure she’s panicking.”
“Quietly, but yeah, she is, preferring to deal with Chad alone, so no one else gets caught in the crossfire.”
“Dealing with him alone is a bad choice. I assume she’s learned that wasn’t happening with you there.”
“Right. We’re waiting for her receptionist to give us the results from her urgent care visit.”
“The son of a bastard can laugh it up for now. We’ll find out how much he enjoys having two Marines on his ass later. What’s the roof looking like?”