Saving Cassie (Fairfield Corners) (6 page)

“No way.  Not gonna happen.
 I am not going to have either of you neglecting your jobs because of me.  This
town needs you, not just me.  I have a gun and Don made sure I know how to use
it.  I can take care of myself!”

“Sure, whatever you say,
Cassie.  Logan, keep an eye on her.  I’m going in the office to call Don and
get the details.”  James goes into the office and closes the door.

Logan turns my head so I
am looking at him, “No wonder you acted like I was roadkill.  Good to know it
wasn’t me personally, just all men in general… I want you to come out to the
gun range tomorrow.  I know James will feel better about things if I make sure
you can shoot straight.”

“If it will get both of
you off my back”, I sighed.  “I’m a good shot; and don’t worry, I could
definitely shoot someone if they were coming after me.”

James walks out the
office, frowning at me.  Great, now he’s in over-protective big brother mode, I
can tell.  “Cassie, Matt was released from jail yesterday.  He insists it
wasn’t him, that it had to have been someone else.  Don read me Matt’s
statement at the trial.  He said he couldn’t have done it because he loves you
and could never hurt you.”

“Believe me, it was him,”
I state.  “It was like he turned into someone else, even his mannerisms
changed.  I swear his eye color changed too.”

“I believe you.  I just
want to keep you safe.  I want you to come to the gun range so I can see for
myself how well you handle this supposed gun that you have.”

Logan pipes up, “James, I
already convinced her to go to the range tomorrow.  You know I’m a certified
instructor, I’ll make sure she knows everything she needs.”

James looks at me and sees
that I’m still pale, “Cassie, I want you to go home and relax the rest of
today. Expect a visit from Marie; she’ll be concerned when I tell her about
this.  Now, I’ve got to get back to work.  Don is sending me the court records
and I want to review them.  Logan, make sure Cassie goes home and stays there!”

“Will do.”  He turns to me
and says, “Good thing I got that door fixed for you.  Let’s go Cassie,
sheriff’s orders…”

“Fine.  Just let me grab
my purse and my phone.”

“Do you feel well enough
to walk home?” he asks.  “I can get my cruiser…”

“No, then the whole town
will know something’s wrong.  I can walk.”

We walk the few blocks to
my house; looks like Dan already finished up for the day.  The front door is
closed and the rotten boards are fixed on the porch.  Hopefully, I can get Logan
to go away and leave me in peace…

“Thank you for walking me
home.  I’m sure you’re ready to get back to your day off.  I’ll be fine now.”

“No way, I want to at
least look under all the beds and in all the closets.  Humor me, remember, I’m
under sheriff’s orders.”

“Oh, alright.  Just make
it quick.  I don’t want the whole town gossiping about how you’re spending all
your free time at my house.”

Ten minutes later, Logan
is convinced that there are no serial killers hiding under my bed.  “Make sure
you keep this door locked… I’m sure James would lock you in a cell if he
thought it would keep you safe.”

“I’m sorry you got dragged
into my mess Logan.  I sure didn’t want James to find out this way.  I would
have told him eventually…”

“I certainly hope so.  You
know he loves you like a brother, don’t you?”

I smile half-heartedly, “Yeah,
I know.  Now, go and tell him you locked me up like a good little deputy.  Maybe
he’ll give you a raise.”

“I’m not doing this for
him,” he says matter-of-factly.  “You’ve gotten under my skin and I want to see
you safe.  Miss Cassie,” he says with that sexy southern boy drawl, “will you
go out with me Friday night?”

I’m just too tired to
fight about it.  Besides, who could refuse that grin?  “Oh OK, I’m sure you’d
keep bugging me if I didn’t agree.  So, yes, I will. Now, go away!”

“Sure Darlin’,” he says as
he puts his arm around me and proceeds to kiss my socks off.  I am so doomed.  I
swear, even my toes curled.

I sit on the couch and
replay that kiss in my mind over and over.  Get a grip, Cassie, it was just a
kiss.  I try to convince myself that it didn’t mean a thing. 

Marie calls and we talk
for about 30 minutes.  It’s mostly me telling her that I’m OK and she doesn’t
have to rush right over.  I finally convince her that I’m fine and that I will
tell her the whole story tomorrow.

I’m wide awake so I take a
sleeping pill and head upstairs when I start to get sleepy.  The sleeping pill
makes me groggy and I trip up the last few steps, almost falling.  When I get
to my bedroom I can’t believe my eyes.  Oh my god!  All of my clothes have been
pulled out of the closet and are strewn all about the room.  Someone was here!  Where’s
my phone?  Got to call James… so sleepy; the sleeping pill is working.  I’ll
just lie down for a few minutes then I will call James…

I don’t wake up until 7 am
the next morning.  I am in bed and my room is back to normal.  No clothes
strewn about, weird, must have imagined it.  I hate having to take those
sleeping pills, they do strange things to me sometimes.

I go downstairs to start
the coffee and notice that the front door is open again.  Great.  James is not
gonna like this.  I find my cell phone on the counter and dial Dan’s number.  “Hi
Dan, I hope I didn’t wake you.  When I woke up this morning the front door was
open again.  I thought you got that fixed yesterday.”  I listen to his reply,
“OK, I’ll start locking it since it doesn’t seem to want to stay closed
otherwise.  Thanks Dan, send me a bill.  Bye”

I feel like I’m losing my
mind.  Must be the stress of Gram’s death and the move back to a small town,
not to mention everything going on with the store being vandalized, Matt
getting out of jail, and having to tell James what happened with Matt.  Stress,
no stress here!  Then, add in one sexy deputy and stir it all up.  No wonder
I’m losing it.  Suddenly, there is a knock on the door.  Looks like Marie,
she’s gonna try to mother me like she does Olivia… good thing I love her like a
sister.

I unlock and open the
front door as Marie walks up.  She comes in and gives me a big bear hug without
saying a word.  How does she always know just what I need?  Must be that
mother-instinct thing… can’t figure out how she does it.  We walk into the
living room and sit on the couch.  “OK Cassie, spill it.  James said your store
was vandalized yesterday and while he was there you got a phone call from a
friend in New York City and proceeded to almost pass out at his feet.  He
didn’t have time to give me any details, so here I am.  I also wanted to make
sure you are OK here by yourself.  Now, start explaining!”

Between my fidgeting and
tears and Marie’s questions, it takes me almost an hour to explain everything
that happened.  “I was so embarrassed!  Almost passing out from some bad news
like some simpering woman who can’t handle life sure didn’t improve my image. 
Logan probably thinks I’m some ditzy airhead now.”

“Wow, Cassie, that’s quite
a story.  Why didn’t you tell us when it happened?” she asks with a frown.

“I didn’t want James to
have to rescue me again.  I thought I could handle it all on my own, guess that
wasn’t quite as true as I wanted it to be.”  After telling the story again, I
realized everything that had happened and completely lost it.  I think I sobbed
on Marie’s shoulder for at least an hour.  I must look great about now…red
nose, red eyes, must look like Medusa!

I’m glad I finally had to
tell James and Marie what happened.  I don’t have to carry around the guilt of
keeping it from them, and the terror I feel every time I think about it.  Maybe
the nightmares will go away now.  I’m hoping.

Marie went out to the
kitchen to make some tea.  Feels like someone is still in the room with me, the
floorboards creak as if someone is walking over by the front door and up the
stairs.  “Uh, Marie, can you come back in here?” I whisper so that only she can
hear me.

“Sure, Cassie,” Marie says
as she walks back into the living room drying her hands on a dishtowel, “what’s
up?”

“I think someone is
upstairs,” I whisper as a door slams somewhere upstairs.  “Did you hear that?  Where’s
your phone?  I think I left mine upstairs”.

Marie is dialing as I
slowly freak out, “James, get over to Cassie’s right now!  I think someone is
upstairs!”

She waits as James replies
“OK, we’ll be waiting for you on the front porch.”

Marie grabs my hand and
pulls me toward the front door.  “Come on Cassie.  Let’s go wait for James out
front.  He was at his office so he’ll be here in about two minutes.  Don’t
worry, he’ll catch whoever’s up there,” she says.  I don’t know if she’s trying
to reassure me or herself, though, I can’t tell.

We get out to the porch as
James comes driving up at what seems like 90 miles per hour.  He jumps out of
the car and makes his way towards the front door with his gun drawn.  I hardly
ever get to see James when he’s in full-on cop mode.  Wow, impressive!  He
whispers for us to go get in his cruiser and lock the doors and makes his way
through the front door.

Marie and I get in the
cruiser and lock all the doors.  We wait for James to come back out with
someone in handcuffs.  James finally comes back out the front door, alone.  As
he walks to the cruiser Logan pulls up in his Jeep.  Great, now I have to deal
with him again.

“Are you sure you heard
someone upstairs?” James asks.  “There was no one up there and all the windows
are locked from the inside.  Same thing on the first floor; the back screen
door was latched from the inside too.”

“We heard someone walking
around up there and then a door slammed.  There was someone up there, I could
feel it!” states Marie, giving her husband that “I dare you to contradict me”
look that some women just know how to do.

“I’m sure you did.  I’m
just trying to figure out how they got out without anyone seeing them.  Did
either of you see anything?”

“No,” I reply, “but there
was someone there.”

“What happened,” Logan
asks, “are you two OK?”

“They heard someone
upstairs but I didn’t find anything.  I don’t see how they got out without
anyone seeing them.  All the windows and doors were locked, good thing Cassie
hasn’t gotten used to small town life yet otherwise everything would have been
wide open.  Logan, I want you to stay here tonight and see if anyone returns.  Cassie,
you’re coming over to our house for the night.  I don’t like the way things are
happening around here.  It’s the only way I can be sure that you’re safe.”

“Wow, treat me like I’m
six years old why don’t you,” I say.  “I can take care of myself you know.  But
if you insist.”

“I’m sure you can, but
something weird is going on and it’s my job to keep you safe as a resident of
this town.  Not to mention that you’re my oldest and best friend.  I don’t know
what I would do if something happened to you.”

“Let me pack a bag, it’ll
take me about 10 minutes.”

“Logan, stay here with her
and make sure she makes it over to my house,” James commands, still in cop mode.

“Sure James, I’ll watch
out for her.”  Logan motions for me to walk in the front door, “C’mon Cassie,
let’s get your bag packed and get you next door.”  James and Marie get in his
cruiser and drive off towards the sheriff’s office.  Logan follows me into the
house and up the stairs.

“I feel like such a fool.  I
could’ve sworn there was someone up here,” I mumble.

“I believe you Cassie.  I’m
just trying to figure out how and why.  Maybe they’ll come back tonight so I
can catch them in the act.”

I pull a bag out of my
closet and start putting in clothes.  Now, where did my t-shirt and boxers go?  I
left them on the hook behind the door this morning.  Oh, there they are, on the
chair over in the corner.  Man, I must really be stressed, I keep putting
things in the wrong place and forgetting about it.  Why is my hairbrush on the
dresser?  It should be in the bathroom in the drawer with the hair dryer.  Then,
I notice the picture sitting on the nightstand.  It’s the one that was down on
the mantel earlier today.

“Logan, someone has been
moving things around.  This picture was downstairs earlier today and I know for
a fact that I did not put it up here.  It’s my favorite picture of Gram and it
is always on the mantel.  Someone must have moved it.”  It suddenly sinks in
that someone has been in my house, touching all my things.  I start to shiver.

“Hey, what’ wrong?  You’re
shivering.” and he puts his arms around me and just holds me.

“I just realized that my
home is not safe.  I grew up in this house, it’s always been my safe place, the
place I return to where everything is always OK.  That must sound silly to
you.”

“Not at all,” he replies.

I feel so safe wrapped in
his arms, as if nothing bad can harm me.  He looks down and me and kisses me on
the forehead.  “You really don’t realize how incredibly sexy you look right
now.  But, now is not the time for this.  I need to get you over to James’
house before he comes looking for you.”

“Can’t I just stay here
with you instead?” I ask.  “James is going to be like a mother hen all night.  He’s
gonna drive me and Marie nuts, I just know it.”  I move out of his arms,
turning so he can’t see my face.  Did I just say that out loud?  Did I mean it
like it sounded?  Argh!  I’m so confused!

Logan stares at my back
with a slight smile, realizing that I just admitted I would rather stay there
with him.  “Nope, as much as I would like that I’m under sheriff’s orders to
get you packed and out of here.  Now, get to it.”

“Oh, all right.  Sheesh.”

I finish packing and let
Logan know that I’m ready to go.  He’s looking out the window like he’s waiting
for something to happen, so intense, really making me want to stay.  Why does a
man being protective make me all mushy inside?  Heaven help me, I think I’m
falling for him.  We haven’t had more than a couple of kisses and I’m ready to
rip his clothes off.  He can keep the watch on, something so sexy about a man
wearing a big, masculine watch.

“Cassie, you ready?” he
asks.

“Hmmmm?”

“Cassie, I asked if you’re
ready to go.  I think the situation is getting to you.”

“Yes, let’s go.  Oh wait,
forgot something.”  I walk to the bathroom to get my sleeping pills.  It won’t
do to wake up screaming at James’ house.  The medicine cabinet door is wide
open, the mirror facing the wall.  “Logan, did you open the medicine cabinet in
here? I distinctly remember closing it after I grabbed my toothbrush.”

“No, I didn’t touch it.  The
only thing I moved in there was the shower curtain to check the bathtub.”

“Things are just getting
too weird around here, I must be losing my mind.  I swear I just closed this
five minutes ago.”  I reach up and close the cabinet door and scream. Written
on the mirror in what looks like blood is the phrase “Cassie must die!”

“Logan!” I scream and
things go grey around the edges.  Who could want me dead?  Why is this
happening to me?”  I back up…