They drove by Quirky Café and Walker noticed Sam who looked like he was talking on his phone, acting
like any other ordinary pedestrian, but as soon as the van drove by, Walker knew that Sam hadn’t just gotten the license plate number. He’d taken a picture of the driver.
Hopefully, it would give them some new information.
A moment later, Walker’s phone rang. “Got it?” he asked, even though he knew Sam was probably already calling in the number.
“Yep.
I’ve sent it to Dave Jupers over at the station. He’s running the number. I also sent you a picture of the guy. Call me later tonight once you get home and let me know if this is who you’re trying to locate. We’ll take it from there.”
“Thanks Sam,” he said and hung up.
Amy was watching him with huge, worried eyes. “Time to make him disappear,” Walker said with grim determination. He pulled into a gas station but didn’t stop at any of the gas pumps, pulling directly through the parking lot and back out through the other entrance. He carefully pulled into traffic just in time. Amy glanced behind her and noticed the grey van trying to get through the gas station, but whoever was driving got stopped by someone trying to pull away from the pumps and couldn’t follow.
Walker didn’t stop there. Amy was more than a little impressed when Walker turned right and left, pulling through several more parking lots before coming out in a strange area. She’d never been to this part of Chicago before and it suddenly occurred to her how
routine her day really was. “Where are we?” she asked, looking at the lovely houses that were spaced far apart with beautiful yards and enormous trees that, even in the dimmer light of the early evening, seemed to be on fire with the changing leaves.
“We’re in one of the nicer neighborhoods close to the financial district. I don’t know what it’s called exactly, but we’re about five blocks from the interstate.” About two minutes later, Walker slipped into the rush hour traffic of the interstate and they were once again heading to his house.
“Did you lose him?” she asked, but the look he gave her told her she shouldn’t have asked. “Okay, so someone was following us. Maybe it was someone trying to get to you and wasn’t my guy at all.”
He pulled his cell phone off of his belt and handed it to her. “Sam shot a picture of the guy. My password is XFWT894RT.”
Amy had to concentrate hard to put all those random numbers and letters into his cell phone. “Good grief!” she said when his e-mail finally came up. “Why not your birthday or your mother’s maiden name?” she suggested as an easier password to remember.
Walker’s only response was a rude snort. “I’m going to change your passwords when we get home.”
She shifted in her chair. “You don’t know my passwords. I didn’t use either of those.”
He rolled his eyes. “Lilly’s birthday backwards, right?”
Amy’s mouth dropped. “How did you…” She turned to face forward again. “Fine. I’ll change it to something else.”
“Your computer passwords as well,” he commanded.
She twitched her lips back and forth, furious that he’d guessed her password so easily. “My laptop password is different.”
Walker wanted to laugh because she looked so cute. “Lilly’s birthday backwards, her initials and an exclamation point.”
Amy gritted her teeth with frustration. “Asteriks,” she corrected.
“You would have fooled me there,” he teased.
She threw up her hands. “Fine! I’ll change all my passwords. My laptop, banking, everything. I promise!”
“Good. Now look at the e-mail. There should be a picture from Sam in my inbox.”
Amy looked down and pressed a couple of buttons. “Got it.”
“Open that up and take a look at the picture.”
Amy did as he instructed and, when the picture came up, she gasped. “That’s him!” She looked at Walker. “How long has he been following us?”
“A few blocks after we picked up Lilly.”
Amy absorbed that slowly. “Do you think he knows where Lilly is during the day?” she asked.
Walker considered that possibility. “I don’t know. But we’ve got a picture of him and we have his license plate
number. I don’t think he knows who I am.” He thought for several moments. “And I don’t think that he knows where Lilly is during the day or he probably would have been parked closer. He might be narrowing down the area though, getting closer and closer. He probably knows the roads you take at night and has followed you several times.”
She understood what he was telling her. “He knows where I live!” she gasped.
“He might. We don’t know that for sure.”
She looked back at him, wondering if he was telling her the truth or just trying to reassure him. Amy decided that she had to trust him. She didn’t really have an alternative at this point. “Okay. So what do I do?”
“Just keep on doing what you did today. Don’t be alone. I’ll drive you and pick you up. I’ll get Sam’s truck tomorrow when I pick you up so the guy won’t know which truck to follow and I’ll be with you tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll figure out something new for the weekend.” He took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Trust me, Amy.”
She hesitated for only a moment,
then nodded her head. “I trust you,” she replied.
A few moments later, Lilly decided to make her frustration at being in her car seat understood. It started off as mild squawking but as they drove slowly down the highway, Lilly decided that she was being ignored. By the time they pulled into Walker’s garage, she was screaming and her face was red with anger.
“Come on, my little love,” Amy said, taking her out of her car seat, leaving the diaper bag for now. “I know, that was too long for you, wasn’t it?” she soothed, bouncing Lilly on her hip gently as she stepped into Walker’s house.
He looked around, trying to figure out what to do with all of Lilly’s stuff. “The house isn’t very safe for her, but I’ll get that fixed.” He set everything down on the kitchen table and looked around. “I’ll get a blanket so she can play on the floor.”
Amy continued to soothe Lilly who was quickly calming down, more interested in her new surroundings than in being angry. And she wasn’t sure what to think about this new environment, her eyes wide and not too thrilled.
“Will this work?” he asked, bringing out a soft blanket, spreading it out on the floor. He then tossed the sofa cushions around it, forming a make-shift playpen so she couldn’t hurt herself on the hardwood floors.
Amy tried not to laugh at how nervous he seemed but Walker was just too large and she’d never seen him look so anxious. “I think it looks perfect,” she replied, hugging Lilly so the girl knew that she was still safe.
“Do you have food for her?”
“Yes, I always have extra jars in her diaper bag. And toys. So we’re all set.”
Walker looked at Amy and something inside of him shifted. He took the little girl and placed her in the middle of the blanket, then pulled out the toys from the bag. Lilly was immediately happy to start chewing on her familiar toys and looked around, enjoying her blanket and the new space finally.
Amy glanced nervously at Walker and could see his intent in his eyes. Backing up, she started to shake her head. “Don’t even try it,” he told her with that quirk on his lips. “You and I have been thinking about doing this ever since we saw each other this morning.” And with that, he kissed her.
Every memory of their time together disappeared as his mouth covered hers, his lips teased and cajoled until she shuddered with the impact, opening her mouth to deepen the kiss. He was wrong. She hadn’t been craving this since this morning. She’d been craving this for the past twelve months. Every time she’d close her eyes at night, she’d think of their time together. Every time she picked up Lilly or saw her sweet smiles, her happy laughter,
Amy was reminded of how she was created.
But those memories paled in comparison to the reality. Her arms curled up around his neck while his tongue danced, his body hardened against her and she felt like the world was spinning. There was no Lilly or hurt and resentment. There was only this moment, his hands on her body, sliding underneath her pink sweater. There wasn’t anything other than the intense, mind blowing need that roared to life
, and blew up between both of them.
She a
rched into his hand as he cupped her breast, whimpered when his thumb found her nipple and almost melted into the floor when his mouth moved from hers to her ear and her neck. She’d always been a sucker when he kissed her neck and today was no exception.
The happy scream and clapping caught both of them off guard. Walker looked up, confused and concerned. Amy’s mind was still trying to figure out what had just happened. Then the noise came again and Amy gasped, pulling out of his arms to take several steps away. Looking at Lilly, she realized that her daughter was perfectly safe and happy, just making her usual noises when she played. The sofa cushions were still surrounding her and she was gumming
her toys but she didn’t like not being the center of attention.
And Amy didn’t like losing control!
She took several deep breaths, trying to get her mind and body back under control. This was crazy! How could they lose control so completely every time they touched?
Shaking her head, she walked over and picked up Lilly, using her as a buffer against Walker. Not that she thought he would touch her again. But she might just
jump him. Holding Lilly meant her hands weren’t free to do as she so desperately wanted.
“Sorry,” Walker grumbled, rubbing his face with his hand. “That got out of control.”
Amy smiled weakly and turned away. Walker watched her snuggle with Lilly and couldn’t believe he was actually jealous of his infant daughter. But it was true. He wanted Amy to curl up with him, to kiss his cheek and his neck. Hell, he’d like her to kiss just about every inch of him.
With a heavy sigh, he picked up his keys again. “Lock the door behind me. And don’t go out anywhere. If something comes up and you need to go out, call me. I’ll come get you.”
She nodded her head, remembering that less than a half hour ago, he’d caught someone following them. “I promise, we’re not going out anywhere.”
“The remote for the television is…”
“We don’t watch television,” she said, shaking her head. “It slows down development in the muscles around the eye. Besides, I don’t want Lilly to rely on television for entertainment.”
Walker’s respect for her grew exponentially. “Don’t kids need to watch cartoons on Saturday morning?”
She laughed and shook her head, feeling better now that she was in her own area of expertise. “Actually, if you start off not letting them watch television, they don’t even miss it. I can quickly tell the kids in my class who don’t watch television or play non-stop video games. Their reading levels are significantly higher than the children who watch television.”
Walker nodded again, absorbing all of that. “I think I’ll stop by the store and get a baby book. I have a lot of catching up to do.”
Amy smiled at that. “I have several at my house. I’ll lend you any that you want.”
He took one more look, resisted the urge to go to her and kiss both of them,
then walked back out of the house. Amy shivered, but also walked over to the door and locked it. Then went around checking the other doors, a bit more creeped out by the stalker, now that she knew he was following her.
She found a stereo and,
although it took her several minutes because of the complexity, she finally was able to turn it on. When music was filling the space, she turned on several lights and closed the shutters, smiling that Walker chose shutters instead of curtains. Curtains were probably too girly for someone like him.
She and Lilly danced to the music, read books, played with toys and then ate dinner. Lilly didn’t like not being in her highchair, preferring to see her mother while she ate, but in the end, she was too hungry to protest very much and gobbled up her squash and bananas.
By the time she finished with dinner, Walker was back, looking grim.
“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately, holding Lilly close.
He sat down across from her at the table, looking directly into her eyes. “I went over to your school and fingerprinted your desk and several other areas. I then went to your house.” He paused, trying to figure out how to tell her this gently. But there really was no way to say it without upsetting her, so he just dove into the truth. “I fingerprinted your doorknobs, front and back doors, a few places in your room and kitchen.”
Amy bit her lip, knowing what he was about to tell her. “He was there, wasn’t he?” she said softly.
Walker just nodded, wishing he could fix this. He wanted to find the guy and bash his face with his fist, then handcuff the guy and punch him some more.
“I ran the fingerprints through the criminal databases but nothing came up. We’re expanding the search, thinking that he might
be in perhaps a government database.”
Lilly wiggled in her arms, reaching for Walker and Amy relinquished her hold. “What are the odds that he is in some other database?”