Moth to a Flame (20 page)

After I got dressed, I went back into the kitchen. “Smells delicious,” I praised.

He smiled as he made our plates. The table had been set with wine poured. “Linda’s salmon was always really good. I’ve only made it a few times for myself, but never for anyone else. Hopefully it turned out as good as she used to make it.” He carried our plates to the table and motioned for me to sit down.

After I took my place beside him, I bit into the baked salmon and moaned. Yes, it was very good. My man could cook. He grinned, probably knowing that it must be good by the way I was carrying on about it.

“So will you tell me what you’re going as at the Halloween party?”

I drained my wine. “Nope. You’ll have to be surprised. I’ve been planning my outfit for months. Now, I finally have someone to show it to. You better believe I am going to make it a surprise. And get your head out of the gutter. I am not going as anything sexy,” I laughed.

“You’ll be sexy no matter what,” he assured me.

“Suck up!” I teased. “Even though mine’s a surprise, you can tell me what you plan to be.”

“Oh no you don’t. If I have to be surprised on Friday, so do you.”

I tried not to drool as I imagined him as a sexy vampire or a hot, shirtless construction worker.

After dinner was cleaned up, we moved to the living room to watch a movie. Being a few days from Halloween, the channels were littered with scary movies. We settled on Scream with Neve Campbell. It was an oldie but goodie. Spooning on the couch, we watched the movie with his arm draped across my midsection.

Halfway through, I could hear the soft sounds of his breathing indicating he had fallen asleep.

No longer interested in the movie, I allowed myself to enjoy our closeness. I never imagined that I would be watching a movie with a man sleeping on me and not be freaked out. That incident had left me a total mess, but with Cale, it was so easy to forget. He was a healthy distraction and was healing me from my past torment.

My phone rang, successfully pulling me out of my daydream. I grabbed it off the table and answered it without thinking.

“Hello, Lia.” The voice was cold and familiar.

My entire body tensed up as I realized that it was Sam. “What the hell do you want from me, Sam? Or Jose? Or whoever the hell you are?” My voice had raised a few octaves in anger.

“Tsk, tsk. Lia, you should know the answer already. I want you. How many times do I have to tell you this? I’ve been a busy boy getting my special place all fixed up for you. You’re going to love it there. I miss your pretty face, you know.”

My body shivered at his words. “Please just leave me alone. I want to be with Cale, not you. Just move on, because things aren’t going to happen between us. You are stalking me, Sam, and you’re going to get caught,” I snapped at him, hoping to break through to him so he’d leave me alone.

“FUCK CALE!” he screamed into the phone, causing me to shriek in terror.

Before I could say anything else, Cale yanked the phone away from my ear. “Listen here, motherfucker. I am going to kill you if you even think about coming near Lia. Be ready because I am going to bash your fucking brains in!”

Sam must have hung up on Cale because he angrily tossed the phone to the other end of the couch.

I turned to face Cale on the couch and burst into tears. He wrapped his arms tight around me and let me cry into his chest. My now perfect life was being ruined by this psychopath. I finally cried myself to sleep in the safety of Cale’s arms.

I COULDN’T BELIEVE that fucker had had the audacity to call Lia last night. When I dropped her off at work this morning, she was still visibly upset by his call. Today, I was going to try to figure out more about this Sam guy since the police were limited on what they could do.

Figuring that the Jose Juarez alias was a good place to start, I began searching the Internet for any kind of information I could find. There was nothing on this guy either. Finally, I called the police nonemergency line to check their progress. Of course, they had nothing at the moment. They probably hadn’t even tried to look for him. This shit pissed me off.

I eventually decided to call my dad to see what he thought.

“Hey, son, I’m glad you called. How are you and Lia?”

“Dad, I need your help. Lia has this guy named Sam stalking her here in Jonestown. He tried to torch her fucking house! The major problem is that he uses an alias, Jose Juarez. I can’t find anything on the alias and I definitely can’t go on just a first name of Sam,” I quickly told him.

“I see,” he grumbled. Dad likes Lia so I know this is alarming news to him. “Let me check some connections and see if I can get anything for you. And, Cale, this guy seems like a real psycho. You’re going to need to keep your eyes peeled. Crazy people like that just don’t go away. Keep Lia safe,” he warned.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I pretty much have her under lock and key. I would die before I ever let anything ever happen to her.”

“I’ll let you know what I find out,” he assured me before we hung up.

After I picked Lia up from work, we swung by her house to grab more clothes and her costume for tomorrow. She had me laughing as she went to great lengths to hide her costume from me. Once we’d gathered everything she’d need, she locked up her front door.

Before I could stop myself, I asked her, “Why do you have three locks, Lia?”

She froze at my question. “Uh, Cale, I…” she stammered.

Realizing that, once again, she wasn’t going to tell me, I groaned, “Fuck it. Forget I asked.” Stalking to the truck, I got in and slammed the door behind me before waiting for her to get in.

She stood on the porch, staring at me in the truck.
Dammit.
I hadn’t meant to go off on her. It had just been a really bad day.

After getting back out of the truck, I walked back over to her. Taking her hand, I brought it to my lips. “I’m so sorry, Lia. It’s just that I get pissed at whatever it is you’re holding back because it’s keeping us apart when all I want is to be close to you. Don’t worry. I’m over it. Honestly.”

Her eyes were about to pool over with tears, but she just lifted her chin and blinked them back. “No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I can’t tell you. How can you even want to be with such a coward?” she burst out, clearly upset with herself.

“Come on.” I led her to the truck, both of her hands in mine. “You’re not a coward. You just aren’t ready. I promise I’ll still be here for you even if you never tell me.”

I opened the door and she climbed into the truck. “You are perfect, Cale,” she whispered.

Leaning toward her, I kissed her lips, lingering as I inhaled her feminine scent.

On the way to my house, I swung through a fast food restaurant and picked us up some burgers. Things were still kind of weird for us. Every time that shithead called, texted, or left her a note, she went into shutdown mode. Today, she seemed very somber even though we’d yet to hear from him.

After we got home and ate, she went up to shower while I did some work on my laptop. My phone rang while I was looking at pictures one of my subcontractors sent.

“Hey, Dad. What’s up?” I asked when I answered the phone.

“Son, I have a friend that’s good at digging for information. He has an address on a Jose Juarez in Jonestown. I’ll email you the address. Be careful,” he warned me.

“Thanks, Dad. This means a lot.” I hung up and ran my fingers through my hair.

Finally, we had a fucking lead.

When I went into my room to check on Lia, I found her in just an oversized T-shirt, rubbing lotion on her toned legs. She smiled at me when she caught me staring.

“Need any help?” I teased with one eyebrow cocked.

Pulling that shirt off over her head, revealing nothing underneath, she purred, “I sure as hell don’t want to do it by myself.” Her wink told me that we were done talking about lotion and had moved on to more interesting topics.

This girl is a damn minx.

THE NEXT DAY at work, I struggled to stay focused. I tried to remain upbeat as I heard Anj excitedly tell me about the Halloween party foods she’d made and what kinds of mixed drinks Deion was going to make. Anj and Deion always threw an awesome Halloween party. This year was the first time I was bringing a date. It would have been majorly exciting except for the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about Sam’s promise to come see me.

When the flower deliverywoman showed up while Anj was at lunch with a dozen red roses, my stomach turned at the sight of them. “Delivery for Lia Finch,” she chirped, setting them on my desk before she walked away, leaving me to stare at them in disgust.

Slowly, I opened the card, fearing the words I was about to read.