Roxanne's Redemption (11 page)

Roxanne shook her head
.
N
ow was not the time for such frightening thoughts. She swung her legs over the side of the bed,
and
stretched
as
she stood
.

Roxanne pulled into the parking
lot two hours later.
She got
out of the car and lock
ed
it
after she picked up her handbag from the passenger seat.
She pressed
the elevator button and waited; when it arrived
s
he
stepped inside and pressed the number for her floor.
It didn't take long for it to reach her destination.

She returned the nods and murmured good morning to her colleagues
as she passed.
She
was almost to her office when someone
commented that
they were
never
going to
forget
As
hley. Roxanne wondered what the person meant and even though she desperately wanted to know what happened to the other woman, she wouldn’t get herself involve
d
by asking
.
She
entered her office and closed the door behind her. The minute she put up her bag she turned on the computer and
began
work
ing
.

* * * *

Sebastian stepped out of the shower just as the phone rang. He wondered who was calling him
,
then
thought about the people who
c
ould be calling him and decided it was probably
Nick.
Maybe
it was Detective Williams wanting to know if Ashley left any
more message
s
.
It could be
Joshua,
call
ing to know if he was going to renege on his word
about tonight
.

He
answered without verifying who the caller was
and regretted
it
the minute he heard the voice.

“Hello.”

“You're mine
,
Sebastian.
Nothing
will ever change that.”

“Why are you doing this?”

There was a pause. “I saw you first and
I always get what I want.
”

He counted to ten slowly
so he wouldn’t shout at her and demand she cut the crap
when he finally answered
. “I was never yours
,
Ashley
,
and every
time
you ask
ed
me out
I
always
declined
.
I'm sorry if I hurt you
.
P
lease stop what you're doing
and I’ll explain to the police
that it was a mistake.”

She shrieked before she
replied
in a fanatical voice, “You're mine
,
Sebastian Ferguson
,
and I will have you even if I have to kill
her
to get you.”

“Ash—” Sebastian began and stopped when he heard the dial tone
.
H
e h
u
ng up then dialed Detective Williams
’
number and told him about the call he just got from Ashley.

“Mr. Ferguson
,
”
the detective began.

“Please
,
call me Sebastian.”

“Al
l
right, Sebastian
,
I need you to warn
your friend Roxanne
and
,
if
Ashley
call
s
again
,
don't
answer the phone or try to reason with her
.
It
will never work
.
In
the meantime I’ll
make calls
to see what we’re dealing with.”

“
Thank you
, bye,” Sebastian said.

“
No problem
.”

Sebastian h
u
ng up the phone
and
went back
to his bedroom
.
H
e dropped his towel from his waist and
began
dressing.
Once he was finished,
he
grabbed his jacket from the bed
,
his keys from the end table
and
he was out of his room and out the front door
.

He got in his car
,
backed out of the driveway and drove off. It took him
half an hour
to get to Ferguson Graphics.
When
h
e
pulled into the parking lot
,
once he collected his things
,
Sebastian headed
for the building
.

What have I gotten her involved in?
h
e
asked himself bleakly, when he saw Roxanne’s car.

If he’d known or thought that Ashley
could get
this dangerous he would
ha
ve fired her a long time ago instead of put
ting
up with her constant invitation
s
and flirting
.
But
never in his thirty-four years of life had he ever thought that he would have his own personal psycho stalker. What
would happen if Ashley wasn’t caught
?

* * * *

Roxanne was out of her office as the clock on the computer reached five-thirty. For the whole day
,
she
watched the door as she waited for Sebastian to check in on her
.
W
hen he
didn’t
,
her
mind kept returning to him, wondering where he was and what he was doing.

The doors opened when the elevator reached the lobby
.
Roxanne
waved at the security guard on duty, walked out the door
and
to her car in the parking
lot. Around
six forty-five,
she
pulled into her
garage and
swore when she saw the time.

She opened the front door
,
and
stepped inside the house when she heard the garage door close. She locked the door and ran upstairs
. In
her bedroom, she dropped her keys on the end table
as she began stripping out of her clothes on her way to the bathroom
.

A sigh of pleasure passed
through
her lips as the hot water cascade
d
down her back. As much as she wanted to stay under the water for an hour or so she couldn’t,
because
she was already r
unning late. She shaved then began
lather
ing
up;
a few minutes later she
rinsed off
and dried off before stepping out
.

In
her bedroom
, she
picked up the bottle of
scented lotion from the dresser,
and then
rubb
ed
it onto her skin.
She returned to the bathroom
to comb her hair
.
G
lanc
ing
at the
clock
,
she
cursed under her breath. It was seven-thirty and she wasn’t finish
ed
dressing
.

She
rushed to her bedroom
and
donned a
black
cross-front
strapless
dress
with black strappy sandals
.

She
wasn’t
going to
driv
e
tonight, so she called a cab
.
About
t
wenty
minutes later she heard
its horn outside
.
Roxanne
ran
downstairs
and
in
to the cab
.
A
fter
closing the door
, she
rattled off the address to the
cabbie
while he
backed
out of the driveway.

* * * *

The light on the answering machine was flashing when Sebastian got home
.
He
wondered
idly
if the message was from Ashley
or someone else
. He debated for a minute if he should listen or
just delete it
.

I won't know if I don't check,
he thought
before pressing the button
.

“It’s Nick.
I just call
ed
to
remind you to come tonight if you don't
want
to get
your
ass kick
ed
.” Sebastian scowled at the machine. He
hadn’t gone
last
Friday
and
he
paid
for it by
feeding
the
bottomless
well
s
they call
ed
stomach
s
,
when
they
’d
show
n
up at his house uninvited the
next
day
and he didn't complain
.
Yet
they
wouldn’t
let him forget
.

He
started stripping
off his clothes
on his way to
the bathroom
.
A
fter
dumping
them in the hamper
he
stepped under the hot spray. He was
supposed
to tell Roxanne today about
last night
, but he
’d
been
so busy he couldn’t even pick up the phone to call her. It was important so he was going over to her house tomorrow
to
tell her
.

Once
finish
ed,
he
shaved,
and then
went into his bedroom
to
g
et dress
ed.
Then
he
hurried downstairs to the garage
. He had a feeling that h
e was going to be the chauffeur
tonight
.
He
didn't want anyone throwing up in his Jaguar
—
it
had
smell
ed
like stale beer last time
—
so he took
the
Mercury Milan.
He didn't want this ca
r smelling like stale beer
either
,
but
better
this
than his Jaguar.

Chapter
Twelve

“Do you want me to wait, Miss?”
t
he
cabbie
asked
as he
parked in front
of Club Ace.
Roxanne shook her head as she p
aid him.
At the door she showed her ID to the bouncer
as
she stepped inside
.
The club wasn’t packed
, but
enough people
were
there
to make searching for
someone
difficult.