The Enforcer (19 page)

Lacey and Zoe were sitting on the deck enjoying an after-dinner drink together. Lacey’s first day of work was great, and coming home to Zoe being there was even better. She’d forgotten how nice it was to have companionship after being alone for almost a year.

“This is the life, isn’t it? Are you glad you moved out here, Lacey?”

“Are you kidding? I love being here with you. I think this was the best decision you ever made me make in my entire life.” Lacey laughed when Zoe gave her an incredulous look.

“I am
not
that bad. All I did was ask you to move out here. Okay, maybe more than once.” Lacey tilted her head and raised her brows. “Oh fine, I bugged the shit out of you on a weekly basis for a year. But it worked!” Zoe held up her glass of wine and toasted. “To us, for being awesome and being together again. I love ya, Lace.”

They clinked glasses, and Lacey told her she loved her, too. Zoe was the one constant in her life, and Lacey was thankful for her every day. Lacey confided to Zoe that she was nervous about her date the next night.

“He’s sucking me in. I don’t know how I’m going to keep resisting these feelings I’m starting to have for him. Now, I’m telling you this as my friend, not my therapist.” Lacey could tell Zoe was biting her tongue. Rolling her eyes, Lacey pointed at her and said, “God Zoe, you’re head’s gonna explode. Go ahead, therapy me.”

“Okay, but remember you said I could. I honestly don’t think that this qualm you have about not dating guys who travel has all that much to do with Steven. I believe it comes from a fear of being alone. You are afraid of people leaving you, and why wouldn’t you be? First, I moved to San Diego, and then David was killed. After that, your parents moved back to Canada, and the very last person you had around you broke your heart. Jody represents something else that you could lose. It’s fear of being alone again that’s holding you back, not Steven’s cheating.” Zoe took a deep breath. “But you’re not alone now. We’re back together, and you’re so much closer to your parents out here. Just think about what I said, and see if there’s any truth to it. If not, then I’ll tell you I was wrong and back off. If I’m right, though, you need to find it inside yourself to take another chance at loving someone.”

After their little chat, Lacey went inside to get them both a refresher on their drinks. She noticed that she had a missed call. On her way back out to the deck, Lacey grabbed her phone.

Zoe saw the phone in Lacey’s hand. “Jody texting again?”

“Didn’t look yet.” Taking a look at her missed call, she sighed. “Nope, not Jody. It’s some idiot who obviously has the wrong number but keeps calling. They never leave a message and even when I pick up, they just hang up.”

“So call them back, and tell them to stop calling you,” Zoe stated, matter of factly.

“Damn! Why did I
not
think of that myself?”

Zoe snorted at her. “Okay, that was a stupid thing to say. So what happened when you called the number?”

“I didn’t call. I can’t. The number is ‘unavailable.’ It’s getting annoying too. I wonder if the phone company can block it for me, even though it comes up unavailable. I’ll have to call them.” Lacey hated dealing with stuff like that. Customer service centers rarely employed anyone she could actually understand anyway. It was almost not worth it, even if it meant she’d get the number blocked.

Steven could not fucking believe it. He’d been in London for a day, and the orchestra already wanted him to compose a new piece. They loved him. He knew they would of course, but as great as that was, he had a problem. He hadn’t composed an entire new piece since he was with Lacey.

He tried to start coming up with a melody – just a few notes to get him started in the right direction. The keys on the piano just stared at him. His hands rested there, but nothing came to him. Nothing. He drew a complete blank. After spending three hours sitting at the piano, Steven thought he knew what the problem was. Lacey was his muse! He needed to talk to her pronto.

Steven called Lacey’s cell phone, but as soon as it rang, he hung up. He doubted she’d talk to him over the phone. But he
had
to talk to her. It was still shocking to him that she turned him down. Well, he couldn’t think about that right now. He had two months before he was actually required to be in London. He went there so early to do some sightseeing and get the lay of the land.

Over the next couple of days, Steven called Lacey’s phone at least a dozen times. He’d hang up if she answered. Just hearing her voice allowed him to compose a bar or two. If he got her voice mail he got to hear her voice for longer than “hello?” But he needed more. He was going to call her right now and talk to her.

Steven could feel his adrenaline flowing at the thought of talking to Lacey again. He just couldn’t get that bitch out of his system. How dare she not come with him? After all they had been to each other. The phone rang.

“Hello?” Lacey sounded sleepy. Steven did the math and knew it was almost midnight in San Diego. “Hello? Look, please stop calling me. You obviously have the wrong number.”

Right before she could hang up, Steven said, “Wait! Don’t hang up, Babe. It’s me.”

Lacey wouldn’t have been more surprised if she looked out the window and saw it snowing. “Steven? You’re the one who’s been hanging up on me? Why are you calling? I told you to leave me alone.” Would he never go away?

“Come on Babe, you weren’t serious about that. Look, I’m sorry about the way we left things last time. I shouldn’t have stomped off like that. I should have stayed so we could work this out. I miss you Lacey.” Lacey
knew
that he was leaving something out. She just couldn’t imagine what he wanted from her.

“What happened to you Steven? Were you always like this, and I just didn’t notice? Tell me what I can say to you to make you leave me alone forever. How can I convince you that we will never be together again?” Lacey truly didn’t know what to do about him.

“You happened to me.
You
did.” His voice was rising, and she could tell he was getting angry. “You got me all fucked up in the head. You ruined me! I can’t write music, Lacey. I can’t write it without you. Damn it, you little bitch. YOU happened to me! Now you have to make it right.” He was screaming at that point, and Lacey had had enough.

“Steven, calm down. I think you need to seek help. You need some anger management or something. I’m hanging up now. Stop calling me.” Lacey hung up the call, but it rang again about a minute later. She shut her phone off and went back to sleep, thankful that Steven was in Europe.

Lacey got three more calls from Steven the next day, but she just ignored them. She had called the phone company but was told that they could not block an unavailable number, unless she was willing to block all calls that could come in as unavailable. Changing her number seemed to be her only avenue left. She was going to go into the store on her lunch break and do that, but it pissed her off that she had to be inconvenienced because of that bastard Steven.

“Do you even believe I have to do this, Zoe?” Zoe went along with her to keep her company while she waited for the customer service girl to assign Lacey a new cell phone number. “After all this time, he just won’t go away. What a pain in the ass.” Lacey’s phone rang in her hand. “Oh my God, it’s him again.”

Lacey told the sales girl to give her one minute before she changed the number. She wanted to tell Steven that this would be his last call to her. Lacey walked out of the store and answered the call. “Steven, this will be your last call. I’m at the phone store right now getting a new phone number.”

“You don’t have to do that anymore, Lacey. I’m coming home to you. Now, don’t argue. We’ll talk it all out when I get there. But then we’ll have to be back in London in two months. That will give you time to tie up any loose ends there, while you help me compose that new piece.”

Lacey’s face paled. Steven sounded so matter of fact. It was eerie. Who was this man? He sounded bat shit crazy. “Steven, we’ve talked about this a million times! I am not going anywhere with you. I’m with someone else. You have to move on.”

“Fuck him, and fuck you! I’m coming to get you and bring you back with me. And Lacey, if I can’t have you, he can’t either! I’ll make sure of it! I’ll see you on Saturday.” Steven hung up, and Lacey stood there staring at her phone in shock.

Lacey went back into the store where Zoe was looking at the latest phone models. “Was that your hottie?” When Zoe saw her face, she grabbed Lacey’s arms. “Lace, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“That was Steven. He’s coming here to get me. He wants me to go to London with him, and he said that if he couldn’t have me, then he’d make sure Jody couldn’t either. Zoe, he sounded crazy. What the hell happened to him?”

Zoe was as stunned as Lacey. She had always thought there was something off about Steven, but she thought maybe she was just protective of Lacey. Plus, he was an artist, and they tended to be a bit different – kind of like goalies. Oops, her mind was wandering. “Okay Lacey. I think it’s time that you went to talk to the police. I know he hasn’t actually done anything illegal yet, but he did threaten you. Let’s go down to the station tomorrow, and just talk to someone, okay?”

Lacey agreed with Zoe. She didn’t know what to do, so going to talk to the police seemed like a good start. One thing she did know was that she was not telling Jody about Steven on their date night. She’d tell him tomorrow. “Holy hell Zoe, Jody’s gonna flip. Don’t say anything to anyone; I’ll tell him tomorrow. I’m not going to let Steven ruin our first date.”

Lacey got her new phone number and sent a text to all of her contacts to let them know she had a new number. She’d tell Jody that she kept getting wrong number calls for now, and then tell him the truth later.