Deceived - The Complete Series (26 page)

“Great too. I feel so much better today, relaxed...normal, almost.”

He smiled. “That’s good. What time is your doctor’s appointment?”

“It’s at two. I’ll just take that as my lunch break. I’m hoping it won’t take more than an hour.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, I think I’ll be alright,” she said with a smile. She went over and put some bread in the toaster and then she asked him, “So the date was good?”

“Yeah, it was good. We just had dinner and saw a movie, but it was nice.” He got up and put his cup in the sink. “Do you want to ride in with me this morning?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. I really don’t mind taking you to the appointment either. It might be quicker than you taking a cab or the bus.”

“I just don’t want both of us being gone to piss Kim off. I’m walking a narrow line with her lately.”

He shrugged. “I’m not scared of Kim,” he said with a wink. “I’ll meet you in the lobby at one-thirty, that should give us enough time, right?”

“Okay, thank you, Thomas.”

He smiled again, “Not a problem,” he said. She was once again touched by his generosity and she wished that Steve and Joanne could see this side of him. They both finished their breakfast and headed into the office. Angela had a lot of work to do in order to get ready for another new presentation. This time she didn’t plan on letting the laptop or the power points out of her sight before the meeting on Wednesday. She worked straight through lunch and just after one she decided she had to bite the bullet and go in and talk to Kim. When she got to Kim’s office, the door was cracked open. She knocked and stuck her head in. To her surprise, Kim smiled brightly and said,

“Hi Angela! Come on in!” Angela let herself in and nervously approached the desk.

“Hey Kim, I’m sorry to ask you this, but I have a doctor’s appointment at two. I was going to just take it as my lunch break, but I might be back a little late depending on how long they take, so I wanted to let you know.”

“Sure, of course,” she said, “I hope everything is okay?” She sounded sincere and Angela was a little freaked out by how nice she was being. She told herself just to appreciate it and not fight it.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” she said, “I’ve just been feeling a little...off lately.”

“Well take your time,” she said. “We’ll be fine around here for an hour or two without you.”

“Thank you.” She left then before the good Kim vanished or morphed back into the monster that Angela had come to know. When she met Thomas in the lobby she said, “Did you tell Kim you were taking me to my appointment?”

“Yes, she told me to take my time. She’s in a really good mood today.”

“I know, it’s weird,” Angela said.

Thomas laughed. “Maybe she got some this weekend.”

“Maybe, I guess maybe that would solve a lot of our problems.”

Thomas drove her the six miles to the doctor’s office. When they got there she told him he didn’t have to wait, she could call when she was done. He wouldn’t think of leaving her, he said. He sat down and picked up a magazine and began reading up on home decorating. With a smile, Angela checked in.

She waited about twenty minutes before she was called back. The nurse took her vital signs and checked her height and weight and then she asked her questions about drugs and alcohol use. Angela told her that she drank occasionally, but no drug use and no smoking. She described her symptoms to her and the nurse asked her if she thought she might be pregnant.

“I don’t think so...I take my pills religiously, I’ve been on them for years.”

“Are you sexually active?” the nurse asked her.

“Yes.”

“Have you been checked for STD’s?”

“No.”

“Would you like to be?” Angela thought about that. She didn’t see the point. She trusted Steve implicitly. But, as long as she was here, she wanted to know for sure what was wrong with her.

“I guess we can check for it all,” she said.

The nurse made a notation on her chart and gave her a cup to use to pee in. When she brought the cup back out, she had Angela take a seat and she put a tourniquet on her to draw blood.

The nurse drew three tubes of blood from Angela’s arm, marked them with labels and put them aside. Then she showed her into a room to wait for the doctor. When he finally came in almost twenty minutes later he greeted her and the first question he asked her was, “You’re not using drugs, are you?”

She sighed. “No, why?”

“You have traces of GHB and Versed in your urine; do you know what that is?”

Her eyes widened, “The date rape drug?”

“Yes, that’s what GHB is called and Versed is a sedation drug. Have you been prescribed anything lately? For insomnia or anxiety?”

“No! I swear, I didn’t take anything.”

“Well, that’s the unfortunate case a lot of times where both is concerned. Sometimes you don’t take it, it’s given to you. Have you been in any bars alone lately, woken up feeling like you’ve had sex when you didn’t think you did, memory lapses, confusion?”

“Yes...I mean to the memory lapses and confusion and feeling like I had sex...but no to the being alone in bars. Not for a long time.”

“What about a partner who might just want to “spice things up?” She thought about Steve...that wasn’t even a consideration. She knew he would never do that. Then her mind went to Thomas and suddenly she felt sick.

“Would it be noticeable in wine or some other kind of beverage like tea or coffee?” she asked.

“No, not at all. That’s the unfortunate part.”

Angela was suddenly shaking all over. Her heart was racing. She was being drugged? By who? Thomas? “Miss Black are you in a safe place where you live? Are you in a safe relationship?” The doctor’s voice was fading as her racing thoughts took over. She started making a list in her head of all of the strange things...the missing underwear, the mood swings, the photographs, the way she’d been feeling and the constant dreams of having sex with Thomas...rough, and borderline non-consensual. That son of a bitch!

Angela muddled through the rest of her appointment. The final bombshell the doctor dropped on her was some elevated HCG levels which he said could indicate a “very early” pregnancy. He wanted her to come back in a month to have that rechecked. He also gave her a card for a detective if she decided to report the fact that someone might be drugging her. She left in a daze and when she came face to face with Thomas in the lobby, she made a snap decision. She wasn’t going to confront him with this and give him the chance to deny it. She was going to catch him in the act. The game just turned – that mother fucker was going to pay! She took a deep breath and smiled sweetly at him.

“How did it go?” he asked as he stood up.

“Good...I mean he didn’t find anything wrong, so that’s good. I’m still not sure what’s wrong with me.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Well that’s not good. Maybe it’s your diet. Have you thought about that? Maybe we should have more fruits and vegetables and organic foods in the house.”

“Maybe,” she said. “Can you do me a favor, Thomas?”

“Absolutely,” he said as he held the door open for her. She took a shaky breath of the fresh air.

“Can you drop me at the loft and tell Kim that I’m not feeling well. Tell her I’ll be in tomorrow.”

“Okay, sure. You want some company?”

“No...I really just want to veg out for a while.”

“Okay, no problem.”

Thomas dropped her off and she stood just inside the lobby until she saw him drive away. Then she made her way up to the loft. She was going to get the proof she needed that this son of a bitch was drugging her...and then he was going to pay.

Chapter 12

When Angela got up to the loft she locked the door behind her and then she dead bolted it. That would give her plenty of warning if Thomas showed up. She didn’t want him to catch her going through his things. If she found what she thought she might, there would be plenty of time for confrontation later. If she found what she was thinking she might, there would also be a legal confrontation. If he was drugging her and raping her...she shuddered to think it possible. Even Joanne and Steve who had both thought there was something off about him hadn’t gone there. She hoped...no, she prayed that she was wrong...but according to what she found out at the doctor’s office, she was afraid that she wasn’t.

She went straight into his bedroom. He was military neat; he even made his bed perfect before he left for work. Everything was lined up on his dressers and nightstands at perfect angles and even his curtains were opened just the same amount on each side. It was kind of creepy in and of itself. That much organization bordered on mental illness. She went over to his dresser first and slid open the top drawer. There was nothing there but neatly folded socks and underwear. She checked each successive drawer, slowly going through the contents to make sure she didn’t miss anything. She found that his t-shirts and jeans were perfectly creased and folded, but other than that further evidence of his O.C.D., the four drawers of the dresser were all clear of anything. She checked his nightstands next. They each had one little drawer at the top. There was a lamp on one and a clock radio on the other. They were completely devoid of dust. She found some lube and a vibrator which she thought was weird...a few condoms and some cards for escort services. She took them out, glanced at them, and then as she was about to toss those back in when one of the girls caught her eye. She pulled the card back out and looked more closely at it. The picture of the girl looked so much like her that at a distance they could be mistaken for twins...or in a photograph...she flipped the card over and saw the girls name had been scratched out with a black sharpie. A vein of terror ran through her and her blood ran cold when she saw what Thomas had written above it....Angela.

Shaking all over, she threw the card down on the bed. She had to run into the bathroom and splash cold water on her face. She looked up at herself in the mirror. Her skin was completely pale...she was feeling almost like she was in shock. This was unreal...Why? She dried her face and then braced herself against the counter for a bit until she felt steady enough to go on. Even her knees were weak. How could Thomas do that to her? What would his motive be for taking those lewd pictures and then making it look like it was her...and jeopardizing her job no less? Her stomach rolled again, but she ignored it. She didn’t have time to get sick. She moved to the other nightstand. She didn’t find anything significant there. She was about to check the closet when she noticed there were drawers underneath his bed. She moved the comforter which had almost completely covered them and she pulled one open. She gasped when she saw the handgun lying there on a velvet pad with two boxes of bullets sitting next to it. What the hell would Thomas need a gun for? She closed that drawer and checked the two others on that side nearest the door. There was nothing at all in either of them.

She moved to the other side of the bed then. One drawer was empty and the other was filled with hunting knives and pocket knives.
What the hell?
Her hands were shaking so hard now. She told herself she needed to try and calm down until she figured this out. She didn’t want to call the police or Steve yet. She needed proof and so far she didn’t have anything.

She closed the drawer and decided to look in the closet first. The police would need a warrant...she didn’t. She went inside and looked around. Again, everything was so neat and organized that it looked like no one lived here. She checked the shelves behind the clothes on one wall and found nothing. She turned and knocked over a walking stick that was propped up behind her. When she did that, the bricks in the wall to her right popped open and there was a tiny door behind it.

She reached for the handle and actually jumped when it turned. Pulling it open she looked into a dark tunnel. She reached up and pulled on the closet light and looked again. This must be the attic above the loft. You can see it from the building outside when you look up, but she’d never really thought anything of it. She reached for the string that dangled over her head and pulled it. A set of narrow stairs fell down at her feet. With legs that felt like they could barely hold her up, hands shaking so hard that she could barely hold on and a stomach that was rolling and on the verge of emptying right there, she made her way up the steps. It was dark at the top too and the only sound she could hear was her own breathing.

She popped her in and tried to look around in the dark when she heard a loud knock coming from the hallway.
Shit!
Suddenly Angela realized that she needed to get out of there. She’d left her phone downstairs on his bed. She started descending the stairs and it was when her foot hit the last one that the knocking became that much louder and that Thomas was trying to get into the loft.

C
hapter 1

Angela had just barely stuck her head up into the attic door when she heard the knock. Someone was at the front door.
Shit! What if it was Thomas?
She tried to tell herself that he wouldn’t be knocking, but she had no idea what he would or wouldn’t do anymore. She’ll have to see what’s in there later. So far all she’d gotten a glimpse of was a wall that looked like it was papered in photographs. She wasn’t able to see what any of the photos were of, but that would have to wait. She scrambled to get the door closed when she heard the knock again. Once the attic was secured, she closed the closet door and then did a quick glance around Thomas’ room to make sure nothing looked out of place. She left the door to the hallway open like she’d found it and she hurriedly made her way into the living room.

“Who is it?”

“Angela, it’s me, baby. Are you okay?”

She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Steve’s voice. At the same time she was reluctant to tell him about any of this. She wanted to know exactly what Thomas has been up to before she filled Steve in. If she told him what she’d found out today, he’d definitely go off on Thomas and reduce the chances of them finding out all of the facts.