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  "You're a cold bitch, Karen. How are you going to explain how those pictures got on your phone? It goes both ways, you know."

  Karen snorted, "You have no idea who I am, and what I can do. You'll get paid and then we’re done. Come down to the room first thing in the morning and I'll give you your thousand dollars."

  Karen picked up the two glasses off the coffee table and washed them in the little sink to get rid of any trace of the drug. Then she got out all the mini liquor bottles from the bar. To make it look like the glasses were used, she swished whiskey into them. She then opened each bottle and poured out the rest of the liquor. She arranged the empty bottles and the glasses on the coffee table.

  Joseph's phone vibrated again. Karen saw the voice mail icon light up and waited a beat. Then she retrieved the voice mail, smiling as she and listened to that woman's voice whining that she couldn't get in. She deleted the voice mail and then deleted the missed call from the phone’s memory. She sorted through his contacts, found Nina’s name, texted herself the number and then deleted the sent text. Now she would have both of their new numbers.

  It was three-thirty Sunday morning when the cab pulled up to the gate at the housing community where Joseph lived. The cab carried a very drunken Nina and Trish. The guard at the security hut was a man in his late twenties, completely bald, with a cultivated goatee beard. Nina leaned out the window to speak to him. She hadn’t seen him before. Apparently he worked the graveyard shift.

  "Hi," she called to the guard. "I live with Joseph Walker, Harvey knows me." Harvey, who was a congenial black man in his fifties, was the day shift guard. He always opened the gate and waved her in.

  This guard looked her over and consulted something on a list. "Your name?"

  "Nina Foster."

  "I don’t see you on my guest list. I’m sorry; I can’t let you through, ma’am."

  "What?" Nina fumbled for her phone. "Let me call Mr. Walker and he can straighten this out, okay?"

  "Ma’am, you could be calling anyone on the other end of that phone. I can call his house phone and get verification."

  "He’s not home," Nina said, thoroughly vexed.

  "I’m sorry, I just can’t let you through. Now if you’ll back up and turn around, you can try to see Mr. Walker another time when he’s home."

  Nina could have sworn she saw a guilty twitch in the guard’s eyes. The cabbie turned around and Nina told him to pull over outside the main entrance. She tried Joseph’s number and got his voice mail. "Joseph, the guard won’t let me through your gate. Please call me right away." Five minutes went by with no call from Joseph. What could he do anyway? The guard just said it could be anyone she called on the phone. She decided to call Laura.

  Laura answered on the second ring. "Nina! My lovely," she said, obviously still drunk. "What up? Are you home, already?"

  "No, we can’t get through the security gate."

  "What? There's no one manning the gate?"

  "Yes, but he won’t let me through, says I’m not on the guest list. Laura, do you think this is Karen? I had a feeling the guard was lying to me."

  "Aw, shit!" Laura swore. "That bitch! It could be. I wouldn’t put it past her. I’m going to rip her head off!"

  "But that would mean she knew that Joseph would be gone."

  "I think Joseph has had this gig lined up for months now. It’s no secret. Why don’t you come back here? I've got six bedrooms."

  "Alright, and thank you, Laura. I really appreciate it."

  "Just get your little ass back here. I’ll be waiting."

  Nina told the cab driver to go back to the house they had just left then turned to Trish. "Is she screwing everyone in this city? Is that how she gets people to do things? Is she following me? How did she know I’d be coming home this late?"

  Trish spoke for the first time, "It might not have been her, Nina. It might just be a stupid mistake. It’s three o’clock in the morning and we’ve been drinking. If I were that guard, I would think twice about letting us through too."

  "You think I’m being paranoid," Nina said. "Just imagining things, right?"

  "Hey! I’m on your side. But not everything that happens is because of Karen. You’re giving her too much power."

  "Laura seemed to think it was possible. Let me tell you something. That guard was conning us. I felt it. This isn’t a little bit of bad luck on the night I go out partying with you and Joseph is out of town. You think she isn't familiar with the guards here? It’s perfect. I can’t get into Joseph’s house. I know it’s her."

  Trish thought about that. "Okay, I see your point. It’s probably her. If it is her then this is getting a little ridiculous. It’s one thing to have a jealous ex-girlfriend making prank phone calls, but it’s another thing to have someone obviously stalking you. Is this woman going to harm you? How far will she go? I know you’re all madly in love with Joseph, but how well do you know him? What kind of person just stands by and lets this happen? And it really doesn’t say much for his taste in women. You’re a fish out of water here, Nina. There’s all this competition, backstabbing, and pretentiousness. The society here will eat you alive. Why don’t you come home with me for a little while? It’s Joseph’s turn to come to Seattle. If he wants you, he’ll come find you."

  "I don’t have any doubts about how Joseph feels about me," Nina said. "He’s going to see a lawyer to get a restraining order against her, so he is doing something about it. I’m not leaving. He’s got that show he’s working on and he won’t be able to come to Seattle."

  "A restraining order is just a piece of paper. It only really works after someone violates it. It’s not a guarantee to keep someone away. And what are you going to restrain her from? She works in the same business and might have a part in this important show Joseph is doing. Are you going to stay home and never leave the house? You’ll always be looking over your shoulder. She was here first and she’s here to stay. She wants you gone. Are you afraid if you leave he might go back to her? Is that it?"

  "No! What happened to the ‘stand up and fight back’ lecture you gave me a few days ago? You just said I give her too much power. If I went home she would win!"

  "Yes, but this is a woman who, by your own admission, seems to be screwing everyone in the city to get them to do things, and might be following you around. If she really did do this thing tonight then that’s some deep shit, man. You realize the thought process it takes to plan something like this? How could she know that you would be coming home tonight at three in morning without anyone that could get you through the gate? We’re getting into stalker territory here. I’m worried about you."

  "Trish, I have to believe that this thing will work itself out. Joseph will get the restraining order, people will be warned about her and sooner or later she’ll get tired and back off. I’m not going home now."

  Trish huffed and folded her arms across her chest. Neither spoke again until they got to Laura’s. Laura welcomed them and showed each of them to a bedroom with its own private bath.

  "This looks just wonderful Laura, thank you so much!" Trish turned to Nina; "I guess this means we won’t be able to go to the theme park tomorrow? Do we dare leave the house, or will something else happen?"

  "Trish," Nina began, but Trish had already closed the bedroom door.

  Laura hugged Nina to her. "I’m so sorry, Nina. You poor thing. I won’t allow this to go on. Just the other day I told Joseph to use Tom’s lawyer. If anyone can get a judge to sign off on something it’s him. We’ll take care of this. Did you call Joseph?"

  "I did but he was probably sleeping." Nina looked at her watch. "Actually he’ll be home in about five hours."

  "I’ll get you home whenever you want. What time do you want to leave?"

  "Probably about eleven, that should give him enough time to get home from the airport."

  "Okay, get some sleep and we’ll talk more later." Laura hugged her again and took off down the long hallway to the bedroom she shared with Tom.
/>   Joseph had a hard time coming fully awake. He finally opened his eyes, but they skittered around in his head unable to focus. He tried to lift his head off the pillow but it felt like it weighed fifty pounds. His tongue was pasty and he weakly ran it over his lips trying to get some moisture to them. His stomach cramped and a mouth-watering swell of nausea crept up his throat. The worst hangover of his entire life, he thought. Someone hit me over the head with a sledgehammer and put me out of my misery now. He turned his head on the pillow. "Nina?" Slowly, Joseph propped himself up on one elbow to get a look at the figure next to him under the blankets. How did she get here? For a split second he was happy. She’d come to Vegas after all! He groggily tried to focus his vision until he got a good look at the back of her head. When he saw that the woman had reddish blonde hair he bolted out of the bed as if he'd been zapped with a cattle prod.

  "Who are you?"

  The head turned and a sleepy Michelle said, "Well, lookie you!" She looked him up and down and then her eyes came to rest on his crotch.

  "What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in my room?" Dizzily, he picked his pants up and pulled them on.

  "Don't you remember? I came here last night to run lines. God, I got so drunk! How about a shower?" She threw the covers off and stretched languidly. "Or, why don't you just come back to bed and we can finish what we started."

  "What we started?" Joseph said.

  "I think we both had a little too much to drink, you were um, a little incapacitated."

  Vaguely, Joseph remembered letting her into his room. "You’ve got to be kidding me," he said incredulously. He stared at her, willing his memory to obey him.

  "No kidding. We did it for a while and then you lost it, poor guy. But that's okay! You can make it up to me right now." Michelle patted the bed beside her.

  "I don't believe you," Joseph said.

  "Well, why would I lie? I'm here, aren't I? We drank, we made out in the other room, and then we ended up in bed. I was on top. You must remember that! What's wrong with you?"

  "Holy shit! No, no, no," Joseph moaned, as pieces of the night flitted through the fog in his brain. "Get out!"

  "But," Michelle said.

  Joseph walked over to the bed and yanked her roughly by the arm. Michelle came flying forward, lost her balance and crashed against the armchair in the corner.

  "Get out!" Joseph shouted. "Now!" He picked up her clothes and threw them in her face.

  "It's not my fault you're such a drunk," Michelle cried, as she put on her clothes. "Thanks for nothing!" She ran from the room.

  Joseph heard the door slam as she left. He inspected the room and sure enough, there were little plastic bottles scattered all over the coffee table. How could he have done this? He picked up all the bottles and threw them in the trash. Then went to the bed thinking that he could get rid of the evidence by stripping off the covers. He stood with a handful of sheets and blankets, wondering what the hell he was doing. Was he going to do a load of laundry? Nina’s not going to see this. Nina’s in LA. She’s going to see me, though. How am I going to hide this from her? She’s going to take one look at my face and know. He glanced at the clock and his stomach rolled again when he saw that he had missed his flight to LA. He didn’t trust his voice to call Nina and let her know that he would be late, so he dropped the sheets on the floor and got into the shower. He scrubbed himself thoroughly to wash off any tell-tale residue of the night before, then he dressed and tossed his clothes into his overnight bag. He got his cell phone off the floor and saw the last text message from Nina, but no ensuing call. She must have crashed as soon as she got home, he thought gratefully.

  He left the room and stalked down the hall to the elevator. Once in the lobby, he headed toward the exit at a slower pace, cautiously surveying the premises for any sign of Michelle. Outside in front of the hotel there was a waiting taxi and he dove into it like a man on the run. "Get me to the airport, fast!" He barked to the driver. He hoped he would be on time for the next flight out. In the taxi, he silently rehearsed a story to tell Nina.

  NINE

  WHEN Nina and Trish arrived home Joseph enfolded her into his arms like a man who’d been gone for weeks instead of thirty-six hours. She noticed that he looked pale and had dark shadows under his eyes. "You look really tired, hon."

  "I am. I worked pretty hard to finish the scene so I could get home sooner."

  "I tried to call you about three o’clock in the morning, you must have fallen asleep." Then she explained why she and Trish had spent the night at Laura’s, and her suspicion that Karen had bribed the guard to refuse her entry through the gate.

  Joseph looked away. "I never got the call." He pulled out his phone and scanned his logs. "Nothing's here. Believe me, I would have called you right back."

  "Oh well." Nina was exhausted, too. She took off her shoes and lay down on the couch.

  Joseph sat at her feet. "I’ll arrange a meeting tomorrow with Tom’s lawyer and get a restraining order. I’ll also tell the security firm not to let her near the gate. And I’ll have a word with the guard on duty, because you’re on the guest list with full access anytime you want." His face betrayed his anger. "Maybe we should hire a bodyguard."

  "No, I really don’t want to walk around in public like that, Joseph. Please, don’t say anything to the guy at the gate either. It will get back to Karen. If she did do this, I don’t want her to know that it had any effect on us."

  She and Trish spent the entire day lounging around in the living room watching TV. Joseph sat with them and it seemed to Nina that he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. Not that she minded, but she doubted that Karen would be showing up at the door. What could she do to us here? She wondered at his clinginess. He seemed unusually subdued, as did Trish, and Nina hated the fact that they were worried about her. It made her feel like a child and besides, she would now be worried that they were worried and that just made things worse.

  She and Joseph headed to bed early and once in the bedroom he jumped on her before she was half out of her clothes. Like a man possessed, he took her hanging off the edge of the bed, without any foreplay whatsoever. Then he flipped her over and pushed her into a kneeling position, where he pounded into her from behind and seemed to lose control of himself as he thrust into her over and over. His hips slammed into her as he finally reached orgasm. "God," he panted. "I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?"

  "Uh, no honey. Geez is this what comes from two nights away from each other?"

  "I guess it's just stress." Joseph tucked her into bed and then snuggled up with her in the crook of one arm.

  "You know I love you, don’t you?" He said.

  "Well, yes. I love you, too," Nina smoothed his chest with her hand.

  "I just want you to know that. I don’t want all this shit with Karen to make you doubt me. I’m afraid of losing you."

  "I don’t doubt you, but you know, I’ve haven’t got much to go on. I mean, where do you want this to go? Do you want me to live here with you indefinitely? Have you lived with a girlfriend before?"

  "No. You’re my first." Joseph hugged her tight. "Maybe you should close up your apartment and move your stuff down here. Do you want to live here with me?"

  "Yeah, I suppose that’s how it’s going to be," Nina said.

  "You don’t sound too sure of yourself." Joseph propped himself up and looked down at her. "We can go to Seattle if that’s where you want to live."

  "Joseph, that’s crazy, you have a job here." Nina entwined her fingers through his hair. "It’s all good. I’m good here. If the show takes off, then what? You’ll go on hiatus eventually, right? We can go back and forth from Seattle and LA. I’m grateful that you’re willing to go to Seattle, but I wouldn’t be able to live with that because it would make you unhappy. Now that I know that you would do that for me it makes all this stuff with Karen seem insignificant. I’ll be fine. I’ll be wherever you are until the end. Whatever end that will be."

  Joseph ki
ssed her tenderly. "Okay, babe."

  Several hours later, Joseph opened his eyes to a raging hard on. He lay there in the dark trying to decide if he should wake Nina. Then she moved sleepily and draped herself across his body. Rubbing her cheek against his, she whispered, "Wakie, wakie." Her soft hair brushed along his chest as she lowered her head. Grasping his erection, she stroked it with both hands and whispered, "Beautiful." Taking it into her mouth she slowly allowed his full length to slide inside and hummed deep in her throat.

  Joseph tugged gently at her hair and she climbed on top of him. Positioning herself above him she permitted him to slip inside her. Leaning forward she propped herself up with one arm straight beside his head and started moving her hips in a measured pace. Joseph held onto her buttocks and helped her rhythm until she came, gasping, with her lips parted and her head thrown back.

  She slowly extricated him and lay on her side, bumping against him until he spooned her. Joseph stayed awake and listened to her breathing while she slept until the sun came up.

  "Trish. You’re going to miss your flight," Nina said. Gently, she tried to step out of her friends embrace. People at the airport swarmed around them with their kids and piles of luggage, all racing to get somewhere else.

  Trish let go of her reluctantly. "Don’t be mad at me, okay? If you want me to support you, I’ll support you. If you want me to encourage you to come home, I’ll do that too."

  "I want you to support me," Nina said.

  Trish hesitated, a pained expression on her face. "You could just come home for a visit though. Right?"

  "Of course! Trish, honey I’m not mad at you. I don’t ever want you to tell me anything but the truth, ever. Like you always do. Don’t ever pull any punches with me, okay? I love you. I’ll think about what you’ve said."

  Trish looked relieved. "Call me next week?"

  "As per usual, my friend," Nina replied. She watched while Trish went through the security and when she reached the other side of the screening gate, gave her one last little wave. Then she walked back through the terminal to the parking garage feeling foolishly conspicuous. She felt like she was being watched all the time now. She walked around her Jeep checking the tires just in case there was any vandalism. All the way home, she kept looking in the rearview mirror to see if anyone was following her. Joseph had asked to come with them, but Nina wanted to see her friend off alone. He was supervising her every move and Nina was feeling resentful. Her resentment was not towards Joseph, but toward the idea that she couldn’t walk around in public without fear of being sabotaged by anyone at any time. This restriction on her freedom gave her a new perspective on the things she took for granted before.