Page 23 of Sweet Dreams
"See that lifeguard truck up ahead? We'll run to that and get the lifeguard to help us. Just gotta make it to the truck, okay?" Brinleyencouraged.
We surged ahead and ran straight to the truck. I'd heard adrenalin could help in a fight-or-flight situation and I was happy to be prove that little factoid correct. I didn't think I'd ever run this fast on the treadmill at the gym. Maybe that could be the next hot fitness trend: hire a psycho to chase you till you either drop or burn off last night's cheeseburger. If the hot chocolate biz didn't last, maybe I'd explore thatone.
The lifeguard exited the truck as he saw us approaching. I'm sure the sheer terror on our faces gave us away as having an emergency. He was tall, good looking, and most importantly, he was a ripped, muscular guy. Forget life guard, he'd make a good body guard. Remember, it may be an emergency situation, but there's always time to appreciate a gorgeousmale.
"There's a guy in all black following us," Brinley quickly informed him. Thank God she was here. Bailey and I were still just trying to catch our breaths without topplingover.
"I see him. Get in the truck, ladies. I'll call it in. Esa, right?" the lifeguard asked me. I nodded yes, and he continued. "If you have a phone on you, you better call Ivan. He’ll want to know you'reokay."
He then wasted no time ushering us into the truck before grabbing his radio and alerting someone at Headquarters about the situation. The man in black stopped running when he saw us in the truck. He continued to approach the truck at a cautiouswalk.
"Sir, I need you to stay away from the truck," the lifeguard ordered the man. Brinley watched avidly out the back window, probably waiting to see if she needed to jump into the fray at somepoint.
With his hands out to the side in a gesture of peace, the man stopped about twenty feet away and hollered back, "I'm supposed to be following Esa Grant. I've been hired to shadow her and apprehend her stalker. I have my private detective license in my back pocket. I’ll get it and show you,okay?"
I whipped my head around and stared at him. What the hell wasthis?
I exited the truck to stand next to the life guard. "I didn't know I had a private detective on my case." I crossed my arms on my chest and squinted my eyes trying to get a good look at the guy'sface.
"You stay here. I'll go check out his license and verify he is who he says he is. Meantime, call Ivan." He gave me a pointed look before walking away to deal with the man inblack.
I whipped out my phone, saw five missed calls from Ivan, all from earlier today. I ignored the voicemails and called his cell phone. He answered on the first ring. "Esa? Youokay?"
"I think so. Bailey, Brinley, and I are on the beach. We were being followed by this guy, so we got ahold of one of your lifeguard buddies. But now the guy is saying he's my private detective. What the hell is he talking about?" I asked. I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. I mean, I had a bad feeling about this when I first spotted the guy at the beginning of our run, but now I had a different badfeeling.
"Yeah, that's what I was trying to call and tell you about this morning. My parents called me and said they went ahead and hired that detective last night. He’s supposed to be shadowing you as of today," Ivanexplained.
There was a long, silent pause as I digested what he said. I started to feel warm, like seeing a red haze, I was so warm. A weird buzzing noise filled my head and I couldn't process everything that was so very wrong with what hesaid.
"They WHAT?!" I yelled into thephone.
"Uh oh, that's not good. Esa, like, almost never yells at people," Bailey loud-whispered to Brinley from inside thetruck.
"Okay, where are you?" Ivandemanded.
"Um, lifeguard tower nine. Why?" I was trying to take deep breaths. I was trying to push down the volcano of pissed-off that was trying to erupt from mymouth.
"Stay there. Do not leave. You hear me? I'll be there in ten," Ivan said before hanging up. I stared at my phone as if it held all the answers to myproblems.
"Did he just hang up on ME? That's not how this works. I'm the one who's mad. If anyone gets to hang up, it's me. I'm calling him back..." I tried to redial Ivan's cell. Bailey jumped out of the truck and grabbed the phone out of my hands, which didn't help the volcano, let me tell you. If looks could kill, and allthat.
"Esa, honey, I think you need to focus on more important things right now. First, we're safe. That guy is here to protect you, not hurt you. I'm guessing Ivan's parents went ahead with their plan, which is actually a really kind and sweet thing. They want to protect you too," Bailey said while holding my handsstill.
"Yeah, but-" Iinterrupted.
"I know. They went about it all wrong. But taking it out on Ivan isn't going to help the situation. You need to calmly have a discussion with him and explain how you feel. You withme?"
I blew out a big breath. The red-hot, erupting volcano dissipated and left me with a smaller, simmering anger that burned in the pit of my stomach. I could deal with that. "Yeah, I'm withyou."
The lifeguard came walking back over to the truck with the man in black. The lifeguard radioed in that the situation was resolved. The detective was in his early forties, had salt and pepper hair cut short, and a lean physique that displayed he was capable of his job. He thrust his hand out toward me with a grim smile on his face. I shook it reluctantly while he introduced himself as John Ruston, a private detective hired to help catch mystalker.
"My apologies for scaring you, ma'am. Mitch assured me they'd let you know this morning that I'd be tailing you," Johnsaid.
"Yeah, I was quite busy at work this morning and didn't have my phone on me, so I must have missed their calls," I explained. I couldn't keep all of my irritation out of my voice. The guy had scared me and I wasn't ready to let it go quiteyet.
"My plan is to stay as far back as possible so we let the stalker do whatever he intends to do, but I'll be there to take him out before he does it. We want him caught which means making it look like you don't have protection. If you see me around, please don't make eye contact or otherwise acknowledge me. Here's my cell number," John said as he handed me his business card. "If you need me for anything, no matter what time, call me on thatnumber."
"Okay, thanks. I'll be in touch," I responded. "By the way, your black jeans on the beach kinda gave you away. We do this fairy regularly so maybe a change of clothes would be good?" I couldn't quite control the snarkiness in mytone.
