Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Kat

I come back into the room to find someone I don't know sitting in the armchair in the living room. Whit comes over to me and takes me by the hand. "Come here and sit kitty."

He sits beside Spade on the couch and doesn't leave any room for me. It doesn't take me long to figure out he plans for me to be in his lap. Once he has me where he wants me, he introduces me to the man.

"Kat, this is Detective Bartholomew. I ask him to look into some things for me and he's just told me…I was right to have called him."

I frown and look between the detective and Whit. What could he have had this man look into for him?

"As I was telling your fiancé…" I go stiff in Whit's arms but all he does is lean forward and drop a quick kiss on my shoulder, "when we looked into Mr. Anthony's past we found several things that were disturbing given this man had keys to women's apartments."

My stomach starts to flip as I realize who the detective is talking about and he goes on, "He's been arrested more than once on assault charges but all of them have either been dropped right before the trial or there wasn't enough evidence for a jury to convict him. He served a couple of months for indecent exposure but again things couldn't be proven that he did anything other than expose himself to the woman."

My palms turn sweaty as I guess at what is coming next. "Thanks to your fiancé realizing something was off we did a sweep of the apartments and found hidden cameras in several bedrooms and bathrooms."

"Oh my God!" I look quickly to Whit who rubs my back to comfort me.

"Not ours love."

"He had apparently been about to place cameras when you had Mr. Barlowe move in with you. Whit also told me he came in on you when he was sleeping in your room - a move that he has done before with at least one other woman. She's pressing charges now that we have someone other than her to say it happened to them."

"Wh..what did he do when he…?"

"He grabbed my ass and tried to kiss my chest. He might have been aiming for your lips since we are so different in size. Needless to say, I came out swinging. Especially knowing he thought I was you. It pissed me off badly."

"The tub incident was just like you suspected. He was trying to make a hole big enough he could run it up the drain."

"Oh my God! Whit…"

"He didn't get it done, baby. But it was one of the reasons he never rented the apartment under you and why you thought it was his apartment."

"And why I was having plumbing issues."

Whit gives me a nod. "He really should not have pissed me off or done shit that an engineer would recognize as having been tinkered with."

"So, he didn't…"

Whit shakes his head and presses a kiss on my lips as the detective verbally answers. "He didn't. The building was too old, and he caused the accident with his trying. I just wanted to come and tell you that he's been arrested and we're looking into other things he might have been responsible for. You won"t have to worry about him, but you might have to testify."

"Me." I swallow hard. I would do it if I had to.

"No, Mr. Barlowe."

"Gladly, detective. Just let me know what I can do for you and when to be there."

Spade sees the man out and Whit wraps me in his arms. "I can't believe this. I can't…thank you. Thank you for taking care of me."

"That's my job, kitty. I might not have understood it but something even from the start told me you were mine to take care of, mine to keep safe, mine to protect at all costs."

"I think…I knew too. I just…felt comfortable with you. More comfortable than any other person I've known." I lean forward, "Even more than Bea. But don't tell her I said that."

"I wouldn't dream of it, my sweet love. As long as you don't tell Spade I like to watch football with you more than him…but that probably has a lot to do with the kisses every time my team makes a touchdown. Never really did that with him."

I laugh and kiss him to seal the promise and then again because I like it. Somehow, I knew right from the start when I opened the door to find him on the other side instead of some girl named Whitney, that this man was destined to be my man. Somehow, I knew he would take care of me, protect me from all the crap going on in my life. Somehow, I just knew…He's Mine!