A Safe Place To Fall (The Fall Book 1) (14 page)

Lana bit on her bottom lip as she nodded
her head. Going to a bar to watch Drew’s performance was
better than sitting around alone.

Mike’s was packed that night. Lana
sat as close to the stage as she could get ignoring Ricky's
relentless teasing. She couldn't help it. There were so many people
there. Shawn could be hidden anywhere watching and waiting to grab
her.

Why did she think it was a good idea
to come here again?

The band started in on a song about scars
and trying to fix someone. The lead singer Ryan was filled with so
much passion. He made the song his own. Buried emotions were
definitely coming out in the song.

Lana loved watching
Fallen
Angels
perform. She loved
seeing Drew in his element. Loved how he lost himself whenever he
got behind his drums. Each member of the band played their hearts
out on the stage.

“
Do I need to remind you how yummy
the singer is?” Ricky asked voice sounding dreamy.

Where Drew had long blonde hair, Ryan's
hair was short dark black and spiky. Tattoos traveled up both arms.
Lana had never gotten close enough to the guy to be able to say just
what decorated his arms. He seemed nice enough but he always kept
his distance. Maybe he sensed the turmoil that was constantly going
on in her mind.

“
I need a drink,” she
announced. “Come with me?”

Ricky shook his head. “I’ll
stay and keep our table.”

He had a point. If they both went to the
bar they were sure to lose their table. It was the best table in the
place, almost right against the stage. Soon she would be able to
smell Drew’s sweat. That’s how awesome the seats were.

“
OK, I’ll be back,” she
hollered pointing to the bar behind them.

His only response was an absent nod as he
continued to drool over Ryan.

Lana elbowed her way through the crowd
laughing to herself. That boy was too ridiculous. All this time she
thought she was hopeless. At least she wasn’t the one
constantly obsessing over men that she couldn't have.

“
Hey, sweet thing. Who let you out
of the house alone?”

Lana moved farther down the bar ignoring
the drunk older man. He seemed harmless enough; however, she wasn't
in the mood to deal with some drunk.

“
Leave her alone, Vance,”
demanded a too familiar voice.

Ice traveled through her veins. She knew
that voice too well. That voice had haunted her sleep for months.

Shawn.

Lana shook her head slowly as she backed
away from the bar. Would Drew be able to hear her if she screamed?
With the crowd gathered tonight he probably couldn’t even see
her. She needed to get to him before Shawn could get to her!

“
Lana,” Shawn shouted as he
came around the bar toward her. “Wait!”

“
No,” she cried. “Leave
me alone!”

She bumped back into a guy just as Shawn
shoved his way passed a couple dancing, if you could call it that.
It looked more like foreplay.

“
I need to talk to you,” he
told her.

“
I have nothing to say to you,”
she seethed. “Stop following me!”

The next thing she knew Shawn had her by
the wrist pulling her to a stop.

**************************

Lana felt good against him. All female
and soft. Before his arms could reach out and pull her to him, his
cousin pulled her away.

All hell broke loose as she struggled
against Shawn.

The music came to a stop just as the
crowd separated. Her lover was between her and the intruder within
minutes. A fist went flying the crack could be heard through the
sudden silence of the bar.

“
Lana, you have to believe me! I
was drunk that night,” his lame cousin cried around his hands
covering his bleeding nose.

“
I should kill you right here,
right now,” her lover shouted advancing again. “I
promise you, if you send one more text or come near her again I will
kill you!”

“
I don’t...” Shawn's
words were caught off by a fist to his face.

Suddenly the singer from the band wrapped
his arms around the drummer in a military hold pulling him away from
the other guy. “Simmer down, Hoss!”

The drummer struggled against the hold
trying to get back at the man hunkered on the wooden floor. “Let
me go! He’s stalking her!”

The man observing all of the action
slowly backed away.

Lana was crying in the arms of her new
best friend. There was no way to get to her now without causing a
scene.

*****************************************

Chapter 14

Drew sat in his dad’s office, at
the precinct leg, bouncing. The ass had actually pressed charges!
Shawn raped and stalked Lana; yet, it had been Drew who had ended up
behind bars.

His dad had bailed him out, but refused
to allow him to go home to Lana. He said something about Drew
needing to calm down before he faced her.

Bullshit!

Drew needed to get to Lana. Ricky taking
her back to their apartment and promised not to leave her. That
didn't make him feel any better. Shawn was still running around
free. Ricky would be no match against the guy.

“
Dad, I need to get to her,”
he tried again.

The older man sat behind his desk unfazed
by the urgency of the situation. “Do you honestly think you
did her any good tonight?”

“
He grabbed her dad!”
Impatience took hold. Drew darted from his chair, braced his hands
on his dad’s desk and leaned over into the older man's face.
“Her stalker grabbed her! Did you want me to just let him take
her out of the bar?”

“
We questioned him,” his dad
stated. “He doesn’t know anything about the messages,
the pictures, or the roses.”

“
And you believed him?”
Disgusted, Drew shoved away from the desk and paced the floor.
“You’re going to get her killed!”

“
I can’t arrest him without
proof.”

Drew let out a dry laugh. “What
more proof do you need? They are both from Charleston, where he
raped her. She runs here to escape him, and almost immediately
starts getting messages, and runs into him at a bar. That’s
not just a coincidence, Dad!”

“
He claims he didn’t even
know she was coming here,” his dad told him. “It happens
Drew. It’s a small world.”

Drew punched the filing cabinet and
opened the door to leave. The legal system was a joke. “I’m
not going to stand by and let him get away with this! If you won’t
do your job and stop him, then I will!”

“
Don’t do anything stupid,”
his dad shouted at him as the door slammed behind Drew.

*********************************

The window silently slid up. He quietly
climbed into the darkened room.

Lana slept peacefully in the bed; one
bare leg was peeking out from under the comforter. A hand lay open
on the pillow by her head.

Beautiful.

She was right there. All he had to do
was take her. She wouldn't know he was there, until he was in her.

No. He wouldn't do that. When he
finally take her she would be alert. He wanted her to feel every
touch and every kiss. One day he would possess her but it wasn't
going to be tonight.

Carefully, he slid the single rose into
her hand and closed her fist around it. He slowly bent his head and
gently kissed her tempting mouth.

“
Drew,” she moaned rolling
towards the empty side of the bed and reached out for someone who
wasn't there.

He turned and climbed back out the window
and closed it silently.

Lana never knew he was around.

*************************************

Drew let himself in Lana’s
apartment using the key Ricky left with Chris. Ricky was crashed in
his recliner with some random reality show playing on the television.
Apparently, he had chosen to camp outside of her room. Maybe the
guy had some worth after all.

It had been a long day. All he wanted
was to climb in bed and hold her close. Tiptoeing past the chair, he
walked into her bedroom.

He stripped down to his boxers, pulled
the covers back and slid in beside her. Something soft hit him in
the nose as he rolled to his side to wrap her in his arms. She was
holding something.

What the hell?

Drew turned the bedside lamp on, casting
a soft glow over her suddenly wide-eyed face. In her hand was a
single red rose.

His heart froze.

Slowly, her head turned to look at the
flower in her hand. A squeak escaped from her lips as she tossed the
rose to him.

Sleep tight
was
written across a lone ribbon hanging from the flower.

Drew roared with rage, “Ricky get
your ass in here!”

Lana whispered, “You didn’t
come in and kiss me?”

Tossing the flower aside for the moment,
Drew wrapped her shivering body in his arms.

Son of a bitch!

Ricky burst through the door. “What’s
wrong?”

“
Oh God, he was here,” her
voice filled with tears.

Ricky turned startled eyes to Lana.
“Here? In the apartment?”

“
In her bedroom,” Drew
clarified irritably. “How long have you been sleeping out
there?”

The other man’s face turned white.
“I came out to the chair around three.”

“
Oh God,” Lana moaned through
her hand, as she pulled away, and darted out the room.

Drew cursed, tossed the covers off of
himself, and ran after her.

***********************************

Lana made it to the bathroom just in time
to empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet. More retches
came with each thought of Shawn being in her room.

Running into him tonight had been bad
enough. Knowing he had been inside her room was ten times worse.

She would never sleep again.

Strong hands gently pulled her up from
the floor. Arms wrapped around her holding her close.

“
I’ll never leave your side
again,” Drew promised, pulling her even closer until there was
no more space between them. “I’m going to kill him.”

Her tears soaked his bare chest. “How
did I sleep through that? How could I not know someone had come into
my room?”

“
You were expecting me,” he
said. “Ricky was here. You thought you were safe.”

“
I’m never going to be safe
again,” she said. “Am I?”

“
He won’t get away with
this,” he promised. “Even if I have to take things into
my own hands.”

Lana shivered at the vengeance in Drew’s
voice. He had threatened to kill Shawn tonight. Now she realized
that it may not have been an empty threat. There was no doubt in her
mind he would kill for her.

Chapter
15

“
What do you mean you can’t
arrest him?” Drew gritted into his cell phone. “He was
in her bedroom while she was sleeping!”

Lana glanced up at him as she shoved
clothes into her overnight bag. There was no way that she could
sleep in her bedroom. If she ever slept in this room again it would
be a miracle. Going to Drew’s house seemed like the smartest
thing to do. Shawn would never think to look down the hall. That’s
what she chose to believe; Otherwise, she would go crazy.

“
I don’t give a shit what he
claims,” he said, pacing angrily from the window to the bed and
back again. “He was here!”

Lana found her favorite slippers and
tossed them in her bag. Her makeup was tossed into a small carry-on,
which she would add her bathroom supplies to later. The bag fell
from her hands when she heard Drew roar a string of curse words.

“
Of course there are no finger
prints.” Her rolled-up yoga mat went rolling into her closet
when he kicked it out of anger. “Do your job! Until you do,
I’m not letting her out of my sight.”

Drew had been on the phone screaming at
his dad for the last hour. His dad had refused to send an officer
this late at night to take an official statement or pictures of the
evidence. Apparently, they were being pulled in a million different
directions. Lana’s case was low on their priority list.

If Shawn was still just sending text
messages, she would've to agreed with the detective. Even keying her
car was low key compared to murders. Shawn coming into her room,
kissing her, while she slept crossed that line. How far would Shawn
have to go before the detective made Lana’s case more of a
priority? Kill her?

He kissed her! She had felt it, so
light, barely noticeable. Why had she not realized that it was not
Drew? Had she been lost in a dream world? She felt so stupid for
not knowing that her enemy had been close enough to touch her.