I sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of me, working up the courage to listen to Aidan’s voicemails. My hands were shaking, and I’d double-locked the doors. In the past twenty-four hours, this man I did not know well, with whom I’d shared a single night of passion, and who had a probation officer and a gun, had: been borderline violent at the beach, refused to leave my car, bashed his head bloody on my dashboard, followed me to the restaurant and posed as a waiter in front of my family, entered his number into my phone and done God knows what else while he had possession of it, called my phone a total of seventeen times, leaving three voicemails. The voicemails were likely to be threats. I dreaded hearing them. But I had to listen. If I didn’t know what I was facing, how could I protect myself?
The ticking of the clock on the wall was loud in the silence of the kitchen. I picked up my phone, feeling very alone. I’d love to talk to Lynn, who was coming back from Florida today, and get her advice. But Lynn told her husband Joe everything. And Jason and Joe were golfing buddies. Jason was already suspicious because of the repeat phone calls. If he thought about it for two seconds, he might connect Aidan♥ to the intrusive waiter at the restaurant last night. I couldn’t risk sharing this burden with my sister. I was too worried that telling her would lead to blowing my secret to my husband. I’d have to handle this alone.
The first voicemail had been left late last night. I squared my shoulders and pressed play.
“Hey, uh, Caroline,” Aidan said.
The sound of his voice had an oddly calming effect at first. I remembered his smile at the bar, his laid-back ways. This guy was chill, right? He wouldn’t hurt me.
“Sorry for getting into it with your husband last night,” he said. “I promised to protect you, and help you get your money back. So, I followed him, and the bastard got wise to it and slugged me. That’s why my head was cut up last night. Did he say anything to you? Give me a call. Also, uh, when can I see you?”
Aidan’s head was cut because he bashed it against my dashboard, not because Jason punched him. That couldn’t’ve happened. Jason would have said something. Wouldn’t he? What did Aidan mean, that he’d followed Jason? Followed him to the restaurant? I assumed Aidan had gotten to the restaurant by following me. This guy was out of touch with reality. I remembered crying to him in the shower about Jason taking my money. God help me if Aidan had taken it upon himself to go after my husband out of some misguided sense of chivalry. If that was true, I had to call off the dogs before Aidan did something crazy.
But there were two more voicemails still to listen to. I queued up the next one.
“Hey, we have things to discuss. I need to hear from you, Caroline. Don’t freeze me out, or I’m gonna get upset.”
And the third: “Why aren’t you returning my calls? I don’t like the way you’re treating me. I go out on a limb for you, and this is what I get. It’s not okay. I’ll be out on the water this morning with my brother. Then I’m coming to find you.”
I’m coming to find you. Oh, my God. I’d been warned. I should have listened to my mother’s nagging voice. I should have paid attention to the accumulated horror stories of forty-three years of life as a woman. Never trust a stranger. Never let a man you don’t know into your house, your car, your pants. I’d ignored them all, and picked Aidan up instead, for a night of wild sex. Now an obviously mentally unstable felon with a gun in his drawer was coming for me. It was no better than I deserved.
My only option was to appease him somehow.
I pulled up Aidan♥ in my contacts and pressed call. He answered before the first ring was even completed.
“Finally.”
“Did I catch you at a bad time? You sound out of breath,” I said.
“I went for a swim.”
“Oh.” I looked out the kitchen window at the gray sky. It was like fifty degrees outside. Didn’t really seem like the weather for that, but then he was an odd guy.
“I’m returning your call,” I said. “Your many calls.”
There was an awkward pause.
“What do you expect when you don’t call me back?” he said.
“How about, wait? Also, how did your number get in my phone?”
“I thought you’d want it.”
At least he admitted to messing with my phone, though he hardly sounded remorseful. I wanted to ask him what else he’d done with the phone while I was sleeping. But I was afraid of the answer.
“You shouldn’t mess with another person’s phone,” I said.
“Jeez. Sorry. Why didn’t you call?”
“My husband was here.”
“With you?”
“Yes, with me. What do you think?”
“You said you were getting a divorce.”
“I said I wasn’t sure.”
“That’s not what I heard, Caroline.”
I sighed. “Look. I need to ask you to back off and give me space to figure things out. Can you do that for me, Aidan?”
“Are you saying you might be getting a divorce?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Where are you now?”
“Why?” I asked, my heart skittering with alarm. I did not want him coming to this apartment.
“I want to see you. When can I see you?”
“Not today. I have a lot of things to do.”
“What about our agreement?”
Agreement? What the hell was he talking about? We’d never agreed to anything. The only thing I could think of was that conversation in the shower about Jason taking the money. He’d made noises about getting it back for me, which, naturally, I didn’t take seriously. He wasn’t a lawyer, after all. Hardly. If he had some crazy notion about that, I needed to disabuse him of it, fast.
“Look, I appreciate your concern. But my husband and I are working things out amicably, as far as the money is concerned. So, I won’t be needing any help.”
“I don’t buy that.”
“You don’t buy what?”
“You can’t trust him. He’s not reliable. He’s possibly even dangerous. I have some information to give you. Things you’re not aware of. When can I see you?”
“That’s not a good idea right now.”
“Then when?”
He’d nearly shouted into the phone. This guy’s temper was on a hair trigger. Did I need to get the police involved? But that would blow my secret, probably without doing much to protect me. I had to remember that Aidan’s brother was a cop. My father always said, cops stick together.
“When I get back out to the beach, I’ll give you a call,” I said, to put him off, and calm him down.
“When will that be?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll call you when I know.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that.”
If he’d been listening, he would’ve realized that I hadn’t actually committed to anything specific. But he seemed less agitated, so if he wanted to think I’d made him some kind of promise, then fine. I ought to get off the phone while I was ahead.
“Okay, talk soon,” I said cheerily, and hung up.
I immediately deleted Aidan’s number from my contacts and blocked it. That gave me more satisfaction than it should, given that I knew it was useless. Aidan was not the type of guy you could get rid of just by blocking his number.