Chapter Thirty-Eight

Where had Juliet gone off to, now? He was getting really angry with her. He was tired of her games.

Juliet made it tough on him last time, forcing him to use his cousin to get her address. Why she wanted to stay with that old lady, he would never know. He almost had her and then that old bitch came at him with a gun. He would've killed her when he broke into her house but then that over-muscled ape came charging in. He should have just killed him, too.

He knew Juliet wanted him to find the next clue at the old lady’s house, but he couldn’t find anything of hers anywhere. She was making it increasingly difficult on him and he was not happy. He had no idea where to find her now. Where could she be?

He spun around angrily. “Why would she be with that jerk, mother? What? No, she is not cheating on me. He’s probably a cousin or something.”

He inhaled deeply, not letting his mother’s barbs get to him. She was always harping on him about one thing or another. He learned to tune her out most of the time. Still, he couldn’t help but growl, “No, Mother, she's not having second thoughts or cold feet about the wedding. She loves me. We will be together forever.”

His mother drove him crazy sometimes, but she did have a point. “Fine, maybe I will watch his house, just in case.”

He slammed the vehicle in gear and pressed the accelerator. He'd traded his car in for a van, much to his mother's disapproval. It smelled and the seat wasn't comfortable, she complained. He didn't care. It sported the name of some repair company on the side. The paint was faded, but still readable. He could park it anywhere and people wouldn’t think anything of it being there.

He headed to the neighborhood where Juliet had been staying and pulled into one of the neighboring driveways. The couple who lived here worked until late, something he discovered during the time he spent watching Juliet. He pulled out his long-range binoculars and waited for his love to appear.

#

Some crazed and potentially murderous stalker had Jade feeling like a prisoner, first in Trudy’s house, now Logan’s. Logan wouldn’t let her stick her finger outside and feel the sun’s rays. He certainly wouldn’t let her swim. She knew it was for the best. His house had state of the art security even a stalker with unknown resources couldn’t penetrate.

She wanted to visit Ed in the hospital but that was deemed too dangerous in case the man was watching. Ed suffered a broken arm, two broken ribs, a punctured lung, a cracked femur and a severe concussion. But he was alive and mending, thank goodness.

Jade felt responsible for his injuries and insisted on paying his medical bills. Logan declined, of course. “That’s why we have insurance,” he told her. Ed and his young wife were expecting their first child so Jade settled on sending a huge basket filled with toys for the baby.

The worst thing of this whole mess was the icy distance Logan put between them. He made it clear that he didn’t want anything to do with her, his disdain evident. She didn’t think there was anything else she could do. She apologized, begged forgiveness, told him she loved him, all to no avail. There was only so much a woman could do…she was out of ideas.

Bella attended preschool like normal. Jade had the place to herself. Logan was supposed to be staying with her but Detective Hurley called and wanted him to come to the station to see if he could pick out the man he saw in Trudy’s house from a mug shot. He promised he would hurry back as quickly as possible.

The doorbell sounded and Jade jerked with alarm. Who would be visiting Logan this time of day? The bell dinged again. She made her way quietly to the front door and peered outside. A red BMW sat in the driveway and a perky blonde with ridiculously high heels and a skirt even more ridiculously short stood on the porch.

“Yoo-hoo, Logan, I’m back!”

Ding, dong.

She had orders to open the door to no one, but Jade was dying to find out who this woman was knocking on Logan’s door. She looked harmless enough. She punched numbers on the alarm panel to deactivate it and then cracked the door but left the safety chain on in case she needed to slam it quickly.

“May I help you?”

The woman’s cute features tightened into a scowl. “I’m here to see Logan. Are you the maid?”

Jade laughed. “No.”

Frown. “The cook?”

“Un-uh.”

A hrump. “The gardener, pool-cleaner, chauffeur?”

“No, no and no.”

“Sister, cousin, aunt?”

“Sorry.”

The blonde fisted her hands on her hips. “Then who are you?”

“Who are you?”

Venom shot from her baby blue eyes. “I’m Logan’s girlfriend, Charlotte.”

Ah, Charlotte. Jade hid a smile. This was the woman he slept with once and never called again.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one with a stalker.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte, Logan's never mentioned you to me,” she lied.

“And just who are you?” she said, her voice rising in anger.

“Logan and I live together.”

Charlotte backed up a step and her hand fluttered to her chest. “What? No, he wouldn’t…I’ve only been gone a few months.”

“`Fraid so.”

The woman tried to push on the door. Good thing Jade kept the chain hooked. “I don’t believe you. I want to speak to Logan. Logan,” she called out, jamming a foot in the crack.

Jade struggled to knock her foot loose and shut the door. “He’s not here and if you don’t leave this minute, I’m calling the police.”

The woman pushed out her lower lip. “But…he slept with me.”

Now there was a visual Jade would rather not have floating around in her brain. Logan with any other woman was painful to think about but to have actual proof standing before her was agonizing.

“I’m going to talk to you woman to woman, Charlotte, okay?” Charlotte’s eyes rounded and she nodded. “Just because a man sleeps with a woman, doesn’t mean anything—at least to the man. While the woman might fancy herself in love, the man is just excited he got lucky. I’m afraid that’s what happened in your case. I understand how you could've fallen for Logan,” boy, could she understand, “but he doesn’t feel the same way about you.”

Charlotte’s blue eyes swam with tears.

“Haven’t you been dumped before?”

Blonds curls tossed from side to side.

“Never?”

Another negative.

This called for drastic measures.

Jade slid the chain off the safety hook and held the door open, inviting Charlotte in for a cup of coffee. Initially leery, Charlotte finally relented and entered. Jade reset the alarm and guided her to the kitchen where they commiserated about the evilness of men. Jade told her all about her philandering ex, leaving out his real name. Charlotte agreed he sounded like scum.

After a while the girl left in a better mood, promising to forget about Logan. Jade figured he owed her big for that one. She took care of his stalker, hopefully he would return the favor.

She dumped the remains of her coffee in the sink and rinsed the cup. The phone rang and she waited for the machine to pick up.

“It’s Logan.”

She scrambled for the receiver. “Hi.”

“Everything okay there?”

She debated on whether to tell him about his visitor. She really wanted to, but he would no doubt yell at her for opening the door to a stranger. “Fine.”

“I’m going to be a little later than I hoped. I wanted to let you know that we can rule out the chauffeur as the suspected stalker.”

“Why, were you able to locate him?”

“Yeah,” Logan sighed. “Stanley Plant. He'd only been with Triple T for a short amount of time, pretty much right before your appearance on Frankly Speaking.”

Jade had a horrible feeling. “Had been?”

“His body surfaced two days ago in Marina del Rey, not far from where your agent and assistant were found.”

Jade closed her eyes. She felt sad for the man who had just been nice to her and instead, she suspected him of heinous crimes. He didn’t deserve to die.

“He had a bullet in his brain,” Logan added.

“That’s why the car crashed.”

“It gets better. The slug matches the one taken from Frank Talcott.”