Unnatural Relations (Lust and Lies Series, Book 1) (26 page)

Knowing that the more he knew, the safer he was, she held the note so they could read it together:

You still don't recognize a WOLF in sheep's clothing when you meet one, do you? Don't you think spending every minute of the weekend with HIM was too much? You must think of Matthew's feelings. If you are going to force our boy to spend time with a man, it should be someone who really loves him, like a father. Like ME! Call me TODAY. I'm looking forward to a long, REVEALING discussion.

As much as she wanted to rip the paper to shreds, she knew she had to turn it over to the police. This was the evidence she had been waiting for to prove that Russ hadn't changed. He had been spying on them all weekend and in his own twisted way, he still considered himself Matt's father.

For a brief moment, she considered rushing back inside, packing what they needed to survive and escaping before he progressed from the spying and letter-writing stage to another attempt at kidnapping. However, she had run numerous times before and it always turned out to be useless.

Even with all the precautions she had taken for the last move and the length of time that had passed, he had found them again.

But her circumstances were different now. This time, she had a female sympathizer in the local police department. This time, she had a male protector.

This time, she was going to stay and fight back.

Barbara turned on her heel and marched back inside. After calling her office to let them know she would be late, she unearthed her Russ Latham file. With the background information in hand, she knew there would be no problem in obtaining a restraining order. Determined to keep her courage up, she dropped Matt off at school and headed for the Stafford County Courthouse.

Filling out the affidavit for the order took relatively little time, and although she had a valid reason for it to be rushed through, it could as much as three days before it was put into effect. She was told that the judge would set a hearing to review the case in about one month after that and if she wished to keep the order in effect beyond that time, she would have to show up in court. She assured the clerk that if it became necessary, she would certainly make an appearance, though the last thing she wanted to do was face Russ in a courtroom again.

Regardless of how much Russ's note had upset her, she had trained herself over the years to keep doing what had to be done. A single, working mother had no time to fall apart.

Since she was late getting in to the bank, she told her supervisor she would work through lunch.

Though Tammy had told her that, as the receptionist for the insurance company, she wasn't permitted to take personal calls at the switchboard, Barbara thought a very brief one to let her know she wouldn't be meeting her for lunch couldn't get her into trouble. She looked up the number and dialed, expecting Tammy to answer, but the voice on the phone wasn't hers. "Hi. Is Tammy in today?"

"Tammy? What's the last name please?"

Barbara wondered how many Tammys there could be. "Garrett. She's the regular receptionist."

"I'm sorry. You must have the wrong number. I'm the receptionist. My name's Gloria."

Could she have been mistaken about Tammy's position? "I'm sure she said she worked at Statewide Insurance. Could she be at another number?"

"We have several branches. If you'll hold a moment, I'll look her up in our employee directory."

Barbara was bewildered. Tammy worked in that building, not at a branch office. It was a huge company, however, and this woman might not know everyone.

"I'm sorry, there is no employee of Statewide named Tammy Garrett."

"That's impossible," Barbara said, her annoyance with the woman's incompetence beginning to grow. "She's worked there for two years."

"Well, I've worked here for six, and I never heard of her," the receptionist snapped back. "Please excuse me now. I have other calls coming in."

Barbara stared at the telephone receiver as if it might explain what she'd just heard. Though she doubted it, there was a slim possibility that she had gotten the name of the company wrong; there were two other small insurance firms in the building. But she received the same responses when she called them—no one named Tammy Garrett worked there.

Not willing to believe that she had misunderstood the kind of company Tammy worked for, she called Tammy's cell.

"H'lo?" a sleepy male mumbled.

Assuming it was Michael, but not wanting to take the chance of saying the wrong name, she asked for Tammy and had to wait about ten seconds before she heard the girl's voice greet her. She sounded groggy also.

"It's Barbara. Are you sick?"

"Sort of. What's the matter?"

"Nothing. I'm just confused. I had something important to tell you, but when I called upstairs to Statewide Insurance, the operator said she never heard of you. Did I misunderstand where you worked?" It took so long for Tammy to respond, Barbara was beginning to wonder if she'd fallen back to sleep, when she suddenly exploded.

"That bitch! They all warned me, but I didn't believe she was that evil. Damn her!" She let out a frustrated cry. "I'm sorry, Barbara. I shouldn't take this out on you, but it just makes me so-o-o mad.

"See, there's this man, one of the vice presidents, who was talking to me about becoming his secretary. I knew it was only because he thought it was a way to get into my pants, but I figured I could handle him after I got the promotion. Did the woman you talked to tell you her name?"

Barbara thought for a moment. "I think she said it was Gloria."

"I knew it. That's the bitch. She's been having an affair with him forever and somebody told me yesterday she found out what he was up to. The personnel manager called me last night at home and told me I was fired... for socializing with the male clients too much."

"Now get this. When I go on breaks, guess who covers the switchboard? Yeah,
her.
I just can't believe she would tell you I never worked there. What nerve!"

"I'm so sorry, Tammy. What are you going to do?"

"Well, first off, after that call last night, Michael and I got very drunk, so I'm not going to be thinking about much of anything today. I might try to collect unemployment for a while. I wouldn't mind some time off."

Barbara listened to her complain a few more seconds, then had to hang up to take a call. Tammy's explanation should have cleared up her confusion, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right about the whole situation, as if Dani's smoke had just gotten thicker. Then again, Gloria
had
sounded somewhat bitchy by the end of their brief conversation.

Unable to give it more thought at the moment, Barbara convinced herself she had been looking over her shoulder for so long, she was probably being overly suspicious.

* * *

"Of all the fucking times for you to answer the goddamned phone! You're lucky she didn't recognize your voice. Don't you have any brains at all?"

"For God's sake, Tammy, turn down the volume a little. My head's about to explode!"

"Good! You deserve it after what you pulled last night. Falling in the door at two A.M., when you aren't supposed to come here at all, drunker than an old wino, then passing out without telling me a thing of what you've been up to for an entire fucking week!"

He groaned. "Couldn't this wait another hour or two... just till my head stops pounding?"

"No."

"Five minutes, then. Get me some coffee while I take a quick shower, and I swear I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

Tammy threw the covers away from her and grudgingly agreed to the temporary postponement.

Russ scanned her perfectly shaped, naked body as she padded out of the bedroom—a view that had given him great pleasure over the last year—yet he felt little interest at the moment. It could have been the hangover that curbed his appetite for her this morning, but that had never stopped the hunger before.

He wondered if it had anything to do with how many times he'd come with Betty Blubber-Butt, but usually one look at Tammy's incredible ass was enough to get him hard regardless of how much
exercise
he'd had recently with anyone else.

He got up and went into the shower before Tammy could return and start nagging at him again.

Although several aspirins and alternating hot and cold water eased his headache, the glare Tammy shot at him when he walked out of the bathroom kept him from relaxing completely. He wrapped a dry towel around his waist and flopped back down on the bed.

She allowed him one long swallow of lukewarm instant coffee before beginning the interrogation. "Well?"

He grimaced at the liquid she called coffee, but took another gulp before speaking. "So, who's
Michael?"

She clucked her tongue. "Lucky for you, I had already told Barbara all about my
boyfriend,
who, by the way, has been servicing me better than you have lately."

Rather than react to her complaint, he said, "Did she buy your story about being fired?"

"Of course. Lying on the spur of the moment is one of my greatest talents. Now I want some explanations or you're going to find out about my ability to torture the truth out of a man."

Since he already had firsthand experience with that ability, he wasted no more time, though he had no intention of telling her the whole truth. "I ran into an old high school buddy last night, and the drinking got a little out of hand. I apologize for coming here like I did, but nobody's following
me,
so I don't see what the big deal is."

"The
big deal
is that you've got to follow the plan, exactly the way I told you, for it to work."

"All I've done so far is exactly what you told me to do. I followed Barbara everywhere, without making contact. I have her complete routine nailed down and she's jumping at shadows."

Tammy wasn't impressed. "That was last week, stupid. And speaking of last week, after you fucked up getting her keys, I managed to take care of that chore myself." She smiled, recalling how easy it had been to get Barbara to hand the house key over to her along with plenty of time to get a copy made.

Russ considered slapping the smile off her face, but he wasn't up to dealing with the results of that action. "It took a lot longer than we figured to get that medical file for Decker." He gave her a rundown of the complications he'd run into, without getting specific about how he finally got his hands on the information. "He was happy, the Hamiltons should be satisfied, and I got enough cash to keep us going another month." Not wanting to give her a chance to demand more details about his trip, he asked, "How'd the week go for you?"

"I had no trouble keeping an eye on her and the kid's mad about me, so we'll have no problems there. By the time I'm finished working him, he'll probably help us get rid of her so that I can step in as his new mommy."

Russ narrowed his eyes. "I'm still waiting to hear how you figure on getting her out of the way after the wedding."

Arching one brow, Tammy scraped one long fingernail down his whiskered cheek. "What's the matter, sweetie? Those old possessive feelings about her coming back again?"

He smirked at her. "Don't be a bitch. I just can't see going through all the other stages in your plan if you haven't worked out the final one."

"Well, it just so happens, I got it all worked out while you were gone. I decided to follow up on the comment I heard about that clinic in West Virginia."

Russ gave her his whole attention. "Was it true? Can we use it?"

"I think so. The psychiatrist that owns it is Dr. Emmanuel Phillips. From what I could find out, he was once used on a regular basis by criminal defense attorneys who wanted to prove that their clients were innocent on the grounds of insanity. It was rumored that he'd give any opinion they wanted to hear for enough money. Though he was never formally accused of it, the rumors were bad enough to destroy his credibility with the judges."

"That's when he opened his very exclusive asylum in West Virginia. Mostly it's known for the rich clients who go there to dry out, but it has a section for mentally disturbed patients as well. The word is he helps his wealthy guests along with their drug habit instead of breaking them of it, and, for the right payment, he'll accept anyone as a patient, whether they want to be there or not."

Russ nodded approvingly. "Sounds like Dr. Phillips is just the solution we were looking for. Should I make an appointment with him?"

"I already did," she said, giving him a cocky grin. "I drove over to West Virginia and had a preliminary meeting with the good doctor. Told him about my poor sister-in-law, Barbara Latham, and her paranoid delusions of being stalked by her own husband. He was very sympathetic. Even gave me a supply of Xanax to feed her to keep her zonked enough not to argue about being committed. He assured me she wouldn't notice if I mixed it in with well-spiced foods."

"It's perfect," Russ said, his eyes gleaming with feral anticipation.

"Yes, I thought so, too. Now all you have to do is convince her to marry you and let you adopt Matthew. Are you sure you're going to be able to stick to the script? I mean it, Russ, you can't pull any of that shit on her like you used to."