Chapter 6
With Janet's list of what
she'd need in hand, Trevor entered the Valley Inn Lobby
and was ready to go straight to Suite 902--
but the sight of Axel at the front desk
stopped him cold.
He appeared to be
writing something, so he didn't see Trevor come in, OR dart
behind a pillar. Trevor's hands clenched into
fists at the sight of the lummox that
once treated his Janet so badly, but he managed
to calm down by the time Axel
finished writing. Only after he'd left the
building did Trevor come out of hiding and
catch the elevator to the 9th floor.
On his way back out
Trevor picked up her messages-- she'd called over earlier
and explained he would be getting them-- and
had the one from Axel opened
and read by the time he was back out to the
car. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," he
laughed, shaking his head.
Janet was sitting at the
computer, legal pads and address books strewn
everywhere, when Trevor returned. "Holy spreadsheets,
Bat girl... do you EVER stop
working?" he asked with a cackle.
"Did you just call
me 'Bat girl'?"
"Would you rather
be 'Batman'?"
"I'd rather be 'Robin'.
Isn't it obvious?" She smiled, still studying a tablet of writing in
front of her. "I'll have you know that this
is our guest list I'm working so hard on...
Tim called, and didn't seem to mind if I got
in and started using this-- oh, and he's
staying the night at Oyster's; I said it was
fine unless he heard otherwise..."
When she finally looked
up she noticed how large a suitcase Trevor had lugged
in. "Looks like my overnight bag has developed
a bit of a weight problem..."
"Well, I just thought
we might as well move some other things over here while
we're at it."
"Uh-huh..."
"And-- maybe you should
just hide out here until Hurricane Axel blows through
town."
But he was sounding
too suspicious. "Trevor, what happened?"
He took a seat on
the couch and pulled her down next to him. "He was over
there, Janet."
"What?" she cried,
dismayed. "He's a little quicker than I remembered. Did he see
you?"
"No." Trevor reached
into his coat pocket. "He was too busy writing this."
Looking like she was
about to swallow some foul tasting medicine, she took the
note from Trevor's fingers and began reading
out loud.
"'Jan Jan, you must
be doing even better than I thought if you can afford to live
in this fancy place...' 'afford' he spelled
with only one 'f'," she noted.
"Yeah, I caught that
too."
"'...You can run but
you can't hide... just because lover boy saved the day this
time doesn't mean I'm all done with you no
siree...I'll be showing you how wrong
you were to--'" she gasped, not believing
her eyes. "'-- to let me dump you!'
"I thought you'd get
a kick out of that," Trevor chucked, stroking her hair.
"'It won't be long
now, Jan Jan, I'll remind you what it's like to be with a man who
treats his woman right, don't worry your pretty
new head about a thing, I'll take
care of it. Later baby-- Axel.'" She took
a breath. "The run-on sentence king strikes
again."
"So, ready to let
me turn this over to Derek?"
She put her hands
over her ear. "No, come on, not the police..."
"Sweetheart, if he
was dumb enough to practically threaten you in writing, we've
gotta use it." Trevor reached up and pulled
her hands away. "Maybe you just
need a good night's sleep."
"I'll agree with you
on that. Time for us to go to bed--" she stopped herself, then
squeezed his hands and corrected, "That is,
for you to go to your room, and me to
go to mine."
"Awe, you're no fun,"
he complained, pinning her arms behind her with his own,
pulling her into a feisty kiss.
"Let me shut down
what I was doing on the computer," she giggled, wiggling
away from him momentarily.
As she gathered her
things, Trevor ambled closer. "Even Mo-Mo's got a better
handle on this e-mail stuff than I do," he
chuckled. "How embarrassing."
"Are you telling me
you're computer illiterate?"
"Nope, just call it...
web site weary."
"Well with me around,
you'll get the hang of it and start sending me love letters
down the information superhighway in no time."
"When you put it that
way-- I might just learn it tomorrow," he grinned, wrapping
around her from behind and nuzzling her neck.
"Trevor, we can't--"
"I know, I know."
But he was thinking otherwise, once he was alone in his room.
By 1:55 AM Janet's sleep
was more than restless-- it was frantic. Trevor was almost
asleep himself when her whimpers shook him
awake again. "Janet... wake up..."
he whispered, but she came awake with a terrible
jolt anyway.
"It's okay, sweetheart...
shh," he said softly, pulling her to his chest with ease once
she was awake enough to realize it was him.
"Trevor, he was after
me... the Valley Inn was empty except for Axel and me... I
stayed ahead of him at first, but I was running
through the halls, pounding on
doors, trying to get someone's attention,
but..." little by little the tension in her
body softened as the warmth of Trevor's body
started to soothe her. Raising her
head a little, she leaned into his shoulder
and steadied her trembling voice.
...But no one was there, and he kept gaining
on me, laughing and bellowing out
all the mean names he used to call me..."
"Shhh... it was just
a dream, Babe... you're okay now..."
"Mmmm...Trevor, I'm
so glad you're here..." Suddenly she jerked her head up to
look him in the eyes. "Wait a minute. WHY
are you here?"
He tried not to look
too guilty. "Don't say it like that-- I'm being a perfect
gentleman! And I've got your tears soaking
through my pajamas to prove it," he
laughed, tugging on his collar.
"And you just happened
to know you'd need to be on nightmare patrol?"
"Well I couldn't sleep,
thinking about you right downstairs, moonlight coming in
the window and kissing your face... what can
I say? I was-- jealous of the
moonlight." He brushed the remainder of her
tears away gently with his hand.
She smiled up at him.
"Nice sleep wear. This is a good look for you," she teased.
"Yeah, well... don't
tell Mo-Mo," he said with a wink. "Now, we've got to get you
back to sleep so you can be nice and alert
when we go talk to Derek tomorrow."
"Trevor, please--"
"This is no longer
open to discussion... we're getting married in just a few weeks. You
don't need to be worrying about anything else.
So we're gonna take that note
and get a restraining order going. The end."
Trevor slid down from where he'd
been sitting in the bed, wrapping his arms
around her. "Now, how are we going to
get you relaxed enough to catch your 40 winks...
hmmmm...."
He began to "think"
of ways, and she moaned softly when she felt his hand slide
down her nightgown, past her hips. "What about
Amanda?" she protested.
"She sleeps like a
rock after midnight... we'll hear her if she wakes up, I promise.
Okay?"
"Mmmm..." was her
only verbal response, but the way she reached behind his
head and coaxed Trevor's lips to her shoulder
was a much clearer answer.
He didn't spend the whole
night in there, of course. And Amanda was none the
wiser when she was up and running around in
the morning. The only thing she
noticed was that Trevor slept a little later
than usual. "Good morning,
sleepyhead," she sang as he stumbled down
the stairs.
"Have you eaten yet,
Mo-Mo?" he yawned.
"Yep. Mommy made me
some pancakes before she left."
"Before she left?"
Trevor snapped to his senses. He went to the front window and
sure enough, her car was gone. "Did she say
if she'd be back?"
"Nope. She just said
she's got a zillion things to do with Miss Keefer."
"And I suppose she--"
he went to the coffee table where he'd last seen the note
from Axel. "--Took the note," he sighed to
himself. "Damn."
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