No answer. None.
“Do you have the number for the neighbors?” Chalk asked.
“No, no. Chalk, hurry. I don’t even know what this is about.”
“Hang on baby, I’m on the way. Still there?” Chalk asked in a desperate tone.
The sound of a car door slamming shut came over the phone and I knew he was in the car on his way over.
The shaking of the doorknob stopped.
My mouth hung wide open in shock and terror. “It’s stopped. He’s stopped.”
“Okay. Stay on the phone. Stay with me,” Chalk commanded.
I watched the shadow of the feet as they moved away from the door. Someone was trying to deliberately employ scare tactics and it was working. My chest tightened up and I felt as if I couldn’t breathe. I had trouble swallowing.
After a couple of minutes, I gathered the last of my senses and went to the front door. I put my ear to it and listened. No sound. I waited to be sure. My heart kept pounding in my body as if it was my only functional organ. I knew it wasn’t, but it sure felt like it.
I wanted to open the door, but my fumbling hands wouldn’t let me. I turned and slumped down the door in distress. My knees were tucked against my chest as I cried into my hands. I wanted to leave the apartment immediately.
A flat hand against the door had me scrambling away from it with its thump.
“Lucy! Lucy! It’s Chalk. Open up. Come on, open up.”
“Oh, my god it’s you. Ok, ok.” I tried to get up, but my legs were like wobbly sticks and my head was spinning in orbit. Took me another minute, but I got up and opened the door. I felt exhausted from all the stress of the attempted break in or scare, whatever the perpetrator was trying to do. I wanted to fall back down.
“Lucy, are you okay? Come on, lean on me baby. Lean on me. Everything’s gonna be all right. Come on.”
Chalk’s face was like a light shining into my world. Now that he was here and I had support, I broke down into a weeping mess. “Chalk, he kept—he kept playing with the door. I thought he was going to break it down. I-I didn’t do enough. I didn’t—” Gasping for air, I tried to explain.
Chalk held me up, being the tower of strength he was. “Hey, it’s okay. I got you. It’s okay. I’m here now. Come on. I’m here,” he soothed in a light whisper. He held me quietly in the cavern of his muscular arms letting me cry.
“Thank you. I can’t stay here. I can’t be here. Chalk, who are these people?” I exclaimed.
His blue eyes sought out mine. “A person that has a walking target on his back. He will not be breathing anymore by the time I’m finished with him,” Chalk growled through gritted teeth. “I guess your move date has been pushed forward to now. This is it. You can’t be here. Whoever it is ? and I have a few suspects in mind ? knows where you live.”
The next day, I was moving. The lease had been broken due to the attempted break-in, a police report filed, and an unlikely ally had taken care of me – Angie Carmichael.
“You don’t have a lot of stuff, so I think you’ll be good. That’s the last of it right?” Angie offered her hand in order to help me move when she heard about the break in from Chalk. Hawk had just taken a few boxes out and all I had left was what we were about to grab.
At first, I wanted to tell her what Holbeck wharf pier to jump off of, but Angie was a straight up, no chaser kind of woman so I knew she meant it when she offered the help. “Thanks Angie. I’m surprised we can be civil to one another. I don’t know how that happened,” I admitted reluctantly.
Angie guffawed as she dropped off the last cardboard box inside the living room. Chalk was down at the club and my little munchkin was at school. “You’d be surprised how many enemies have turned out to be my friends. I’m glad you’re one of them. You helped me in the hospital when you could have gotten another nurse to do it. You’re a real one and my friends are real, top-notch women. We had our little misunderstanding, and it’s over now. You and Chalk belong together.” Angie winked and stuffed her hands in her back pockets.
“Aww, well damn Angie – you can be nice. Thank you for your help and yeah…I think we can be friends. Took us a while, but we’re here now. You really should not be lifting with that arm too much.” I scolded her. “How is it?”
Angie scoffed. “Yes, nurse. It’s fine now. Full movement, and don’t worry I will be back to being a bitch in no time.” She rotated her shoulder with a wink at me. “I’m just glad Rocky didn’t get to you too. If that’s who it was. Anyway, duty calls for me. Take care, Lucinda, and say hi to Chalk and Sarah for me.”
“Bye, Angie.” I grinned as I waved her off as she got in her car. I shook my head at the circumstances. Funny how we’d come full circle. I still had to pinch myself.
Two weeks at Chalk’s house showed me that we could be a family again. The routine was a little different, and I had to make some adjustments. But I felt happy to make them, considering my life was on the line. Not once while being here did I feel I was in danger. I saw him put the bulletproof vest on every day and attach the holster belt that no one else could see except for me. I watched as he loaded the bullets into his gun and slid the clip in. Scary. But I knew Chalk would protect our family at any cost.
It took a while for me to adjust as I settled back into normality. Chalk was due back any minute, I moved to the sink to grab a drink of water.
Chalk walked in. “Honey! I’m home,” he called out. Here he was…my light haired, tanned, two-day stubble man.
Damn, the man was hot. I flushed a bit and drank down the cool water. “Yep, and so are you. You were gone for a while, what was taking so long?” I wiped the excess water from the glass with my fingers. I looked a little closer at Chalk, and I could make out a line of sweat on his brow. His eyes were shifting around a little too much for my liking.