"She was having you followed. I pieced that little tidbit together from all the surveillance pictures I found in her house of you and Mrs. Thorpe. It looks like it went on for a few weeks at least."
Probably from the first day I broke things off with her, fuck. Why hadn't I thought of that? I should've known that would be her style. She'd been so convinced that there'd been someone else, I should've known she wouldn't just let things go.
"What else did you find?"
"Nothing much, except for these pictures." He dropped a Manila envelope on the desk between us.
Inside were pictures of me outside Ashley's school, the two of us shopping and coming and going from the building. One of the last of the bunch was an excellent shot and could very well be the reason Lynn Halston had lost her mind.
It was a shot of Ashley and I after we got married, the look on my face as I looked down at her. Anyone with eyes could see what was there. Hell I didn't know I was that fucking transparent, but it was all there captured on film. Love, lust, and complete adoration.
I separated that one from all the rest. I wasn't quite sure what direction I was going to take as yet, I just might need these as evidence; but I was sure I wanted to hold on to that particular photo, it captured the essence of what was in my heart for her.
"May I say something sir?"
"Sure, what's on your mind?"
"She's not going to stop, the shit I saw in her place, she's obsessed. If you don't want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, or cleaning your wife up after she's been attacked by this loon, you'd better act now."
"What did you see in her place?" He pulled a pen from his pocket, hit some keys on his MacBook and with the pen pointed at the screen showed me a slide show of what looked like the inside of Lynn's house.
For the next fifteen minutes I looked at image after image of what appeared to be a shrine to me. There were oversized pictures of me all over the walls in one room, some of just my eyes, me in all different poses. But that's not what scared me, no what made me cold were the pictures of Ashley with her face slashed, or her head removed, purely demented shit.
This shit was way out of control; this was about more than a woman scorned. This was a twisted fuck that had apparently gone off the deep end. I felt like running upstairs and scalding the fuck out of my dick because I'd had the bad sense to go there. Who or what the fuck was this bitch and how had she kept this side of her so well hidden for so long?
I had to put my own personal shit aside and focus on Blossom for now. I couldn't have so many of her enemies on the loose. She would never be safe with these fucks still alive or free.
I took some time to think of my next move, my enemies were piling up by the minute and having that many bodies on your tab will take time and planning. This was in no way an easy decision to make I have to carry this shit out with precision so that there's no way any of it would come back to me. I'd thought to torment her ass for a while for what she'd done, like a game of cat and mouse but she couldn't stay here in the city. Not so close to my wife.
"How can we get her out of the hospital undetected?"
"That's easy, we know the routine there already we just need someone to go in in the wee hours of the morning. That's when the nurses are having their down time; most of the patients are asleep so they're not as alert then. Moving her with her broken legs might pose a problem but it can be done. What did you have in mid sir?"
"I'm thinking Miss. Halston might be going for a long stretch in a secure mental hospital outside the country. One of those nice places that believe in shock treatment and solitary confinement; I'll make the arrangements, just fine tune the details from your end and I'll handle the rest."
"Damn boss that's cold, I would've just broken her neck, but this, this will be never ending torture for someone like her. How long do you plan on leaving her in this place?"
"How long did you say it would be before my wife was safe from her?"
"Uh, never."
I just gave him a look; that should be answer enough.
"Let me just say, I'm glad we're on the same side, your mind scares the shit outta me and I'm supposed to be the muscle in this outfit." I smiled that away.
"Now I just have to figure out what's the deal with the senator and the doc. So far I can't find anything that points to them being involved in anything shady."
"Well those drawings your wife did are spot on so we know it's those fuckers. You check their travel rosters?"
"That was going to be my next step. Also who is the senator's biggest opponent? I'm not much into politics those shysters make dirty business dealings look like child's play I have no stomach for that shit."
"I'll get you a list he's a politician I'm sure he has enemies coming out the woodwork."
"Good man, now let's deal with this psychotic bitch, I want her out of the country by the end of the week." I heard movement on the monitor, which meant she was stirring, time to go.
"My wife's waking up I gotta go. I'll handle my end before end of day. You think you can get something worked out by then?" We both headed out the office.
"It's just the logistics, we've got the manpower just let me tinker with it a little and I'll get back to you."
"Good enough."
I saw him out and went to the kitchen to get my baby a snack, she'll be hungry again by now, plus she needed to keep her strength up we had a baby to feed. Can't think about my kid right now or I'll say fuck it and go on a one-man killing spree.
As I put together a salad and some fruit for her I thought of ways to keep her safe. There was no doubt in my mind that the senator already knew I had her. Sanders would've had to tell him that his sick plans whatever they were were sidelined. They'd want to shut her up, they had no knowledge of the drawings I was sure, but they wouldn't take the chance of her someday recognizing one of them and spilling the beans. I have to think like a criminal, get into their heads so I could stay one step ahead.
If I couldn't figure this shit out the US senate would just be one man short in the not too distant future, as well as the medical community. It would only take an experienced pilot with a parachute to send a plane crashing into the Rockies, or maybe devil's tower.
Shit happens.
Chapter 19
She was awake when I got to the bedroom with her snack. She looked so small and lost it tore at my heart. I knew she was afraid and that more than anything else pissed me the fuck off. She shouldn't have to be afraid.
Her leg and arm will mend, but fear is something that lived inside and was hard to exorcise. She alone knows the terror that she felt at the hands of these people, not even my anger can negate that.
Looking at her brought me to a decision, something I thought I would never do now made perfect sense. I hope to God it was the right thing to do.
"Hey Blossom, after you've eaten, I'd like to talk over some things with you okay?" She nodded her head as she took her salad.
She still had that wary look in her eyes; she was too young for this shit. How had I forgotten that she was this young? She was still weeks away from her eighteenth birthday and I felt guilt pull at me.
I'd gotten a seventeen-year old girl pregnant. The fact that she was my wife didn't do much to alleviate the guilt, the fact that she wasn't the first eighteen year old to get pregnant nor even the fact that it was perfectly legal here didn't help much either. I still felt...wrong somehow, fuck. I watched her as she ate her salad making sure she was eating enough.
"I'm not being a very good wife am I?"
"What? What do you mean?" I took the empty salad plate from her and put it on the night table, passing her the cut up melon.
"Well, I'm supposed to be taking care of you and I haven't, I got sick and you have to take care of me..."
"Baby, first off you didn't just get sick you got hurt, but we'll come back to that later. It's my responsibility to take care of you as much as it's yours to take care of me, never think that way. Do you think I would let you do anything now while you're in this position?"
"But it's wrong...."
"No it's not; get that out of your head right now. I know you don't have a great example of what marriage should be but a real marriage is not about you taking care of our home or me. It's about us loving each other in all ways and taking care of each other. If I was hurt wouldn't you take care of me?"