Chapter 18

It took an act of God to get Anya to go with Lourdess and Divine to see Royelle. She knew I had something up my sleeve after asking for her car keys. I needed her to be out of the way to allow me to go back to her apartment alone. I had purposely left the tracker on her car, so I planned to drive it around to see if I could sniff Michael out of wherever stalkers rested.

While I sat on Anya’s couch, waiting for him to make a move, I ran his name through my database. Michael Heath had a battery charge from a few years ago that was dropped. There were also two breaking and entering charges in his juvenile file. Other than those, I found that he was allowed to resign from his previous employer in Ohio after being accused of sexual harassment. Two years before that, he was demoted from his position as a wellness coordinator at an assisted living facility before quitting. He popped up on the radar in Georgia where there was probably only a statewide background check before he was hired as my baby’s pestering boss. For hours, I combed through videos related to the dates she was able to verify that suspicious things had occurred.

I’d gotten a list of the locations Anya was in when her tires were flattened and the night that her keys went missing. She never mentioned that she had run into him that night at the bar, but on the grainy club surveillance video, I could see him standing next to her and her girl for about ten minutes before moving on. That was more than enough time to remove her house key from the ring. I already knew that he showed up the next day at the coffee shop.

Anya was so trusting that she probably never even noticed him putting the key back. The bastard was probably there making himself a copy of her key. His obsession with the woman I loved made me sick to my stomach. I understood his infatuation with her because I was crazy about her myself. Still, there was no way I would have gone to such lengths. What did he think he would accomplish when it was all said and done?

I was only able to access video from one of the locations where Anya had gotten a flat tire. Just as I suspected, I could see that low down snake prowling around her car. The only thing that surprised me was the night she said she ran out of gas when she was with her ex-husband. Her initial inkling was on point.

At one point, his truck was parked beside her car. I could see him squatting beside the car for over five minutes before standing, getting back in his car and parking on the other side of the parking lot. Then again on the day that I took her gas at the mall, there was that silver truck again parking beside her before leaving. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I wasn’t sure if I was more surprised that men actually did those types of things or that the woman I loved had two fucking stalkers.

Granted, her ex seemed to have eventually given up, but damn. He was spot on when he said this woman was a handful. It was a good thing that I had two empty hands readily prepared to take on whatever and whoever with her.

My eyebrows drew together when I heard the doorknob turn. I placed my laptop beside me on the couch as I waited for whoever was bad enough to walk through that door. Leaning forward, I picked my gun up from the table. I was prepared to shoot, but I also knew that Anya’s homegirl had a key to her place. I didn’t want to make the biggest mistake of my life, so I waited for the door to open.

A male figure appeared when the door cracked open, but he took off just as quick as he came into view. It was dark out, so he wasn’t as easy to identify. I stood and dashed through the door behind him. I could see him weaving through cars in the parking lot as I walked him down. I wasn’t about to chase his ass just for him to get away again. Firing a single shot in his direction I hit the side mirror of somebody’s car.

“You might want to stop right there. The next one is going to be in your ass, Mikey!” I bellowed. Instead of heeding my warning, he abandoned the idea of getting in his car and raced off into the night. Another shot rang out. This time, I shot at the ground next to him. “Stop playing with me. I want to kill you, but I know Anya wouldn’t like that. She didn’t say not to paralyze you though. Before I get sweaty out here chasing you, I’m shooting you in the back. You like walking. Don’t you, Mikey?”

That obviously did the trick. Holding up both hands, he stopped in his tracks and fell to his knees in the grass like he was under arrest. I cursed under my breath knowing that Anya would want to let the police handle him rather than letting me shoot him.

For months, this fool had been terrorizing my baby, and for what? Just because she wouldn’t sleep with him? If she would have fucked him, he would have really been crazy. I was a living witness to that testimony. When I finally made it next to him, I hit him with the butt of the gun, knocking him out cold.

“Stupid muthafucka!” I spat, kicking his limp body for good measure.