Chapter 30 Somebody's Watching Me

“What if?”
The thought swirled around in her head and as he walked out the door of the coffee shop. Anna hated to leave things this way but there was no other way to leave it. Yes, things had been hard with Melissa, May, and Isabel but she loved John too much to back down and walk away, no matter how many alternatives she might have.
“What was he thinking?” she thought to herself as threw out her coffee. “I couldn’t have made myself clearer.”
Anna walked out of the shop and slid inside her car with her emotions swirling. She watched the people walk by on the street, enjoying the autumn air, and wondered what it would be like to have an uncomplicated normal life for once.
She glanced back in her mirror and noticed a man from the coffee shop slide into the car behind her. He seemed to be looking at his phone but Anna remembered that he’d been at a table not too far away in the coffee shop. She wouldn’t have noticed him except the fact that he seemed to be closely following the conversation between Anthony and herself every time she looked his way. At the time she’d put it down to eavesdropping, now she wasn’t so sure.
“What are you waiting for?” she wondered as he continued to casually monitor the street. He looked up and saw her watching and got very interested in something on the seat beside him. Anna felt a shiver of fear run down her spine and she pulled out quickly into traffic.
The car followed as Anna turned onto Woodfin avenue and then onto Route 25 toward Lakeview Park. No matter how many times she switched lanes the red corolla followed. Anna’s heart raced as she tried again going down one of the side streets and then doubling back. She got back on route 25 and pushed the speed dial on her phone trying to reach John.
The phone rang with no answer and she didn’t bother to leave a voicemail. Cold sweat dripped down her spine as she pushed toward home and tried to call again. “Pick up please.” She thought frantically. Images from the night in her apartment floated in front of her like phantoms and she wanted to cry.
“Please, this can’t happen again, not when everything is starting to work out.” Fear trickled down her spine as she kept hitting redial. She quickly keyed her way into the Lakeview neighborhood and drove as quickly as the speed limit in the neighborhood would allow. Their house came into view as she sped down the circular driveway that hid it from the road. She jumped out and ran for the door.
“John! John!” she yelled as she flung the front door open “help me please, someone’s following me.”
John stepped out of the massive living room area and caught her in his arms as she ran. “Anna, what’s wrong, what are you talking about.”
Anna felt relief at having his arms around her. She panted and tried to get the story out but John led her into the living room forcing her to have a seat.
“A man in a red corolla followed me back.” She finally got out as John knelt in front of her.
“Are you sure he was following you? Maybe he lives in the neighborhood?”
Anna shook her head and took a deep breath “this car I would remember, it had a blue driver’s side door and sounds like the mufflers broken. I haven’t seen this one before.”
“It’s okay,” John said rubbing her hand “maybe he was just going the same way as you?”
“No, listen, I noticed him first outside the coffee shop downtown. I drove around in circles and he was there at every turn, he followed me to the gate of the neighborhood.”
“Did he get in?” John asked pulling out his phone.
“I don’t know, I keyed in my number and got here as soon as possible.”
John had a brief conversation with the guard at the gate and was told that the corolla had been turned away at the gate. John thanked the guard and sat down pulling Anna into his arms. John was unnerved at the idea of anyone following Anna. Unfortunately, he and Anna were high profile due to their success and it was not unheard of for people with money to be stalked.
“Are you okay? John asked rubbing her shoulders “what can I do?”
“Just hold me.”
“I’ve got you, I won’t let anything happen to you. The police have been called. They will be here soon to take your statement.”
“I was really scared.”
“Me too,” John admitted as he pulled her fully onto his lap “I wish I had been there, I knew I shouldn’t have let you go on those errands alone.”
“You can’t babysit me all the time, but it was scary.”
“I’m sorry you were scared,” John said as he placed a kiss on her forehead. He vowed to find out who this guy in the car was and why he was following Anna, he’d do anything to keep her safe.
John’s cell phone rang and he quickly sat Anna aside to look at it. Anna missed his warmth but knew he had to answer in case it was the police. John blinked at the text message from an unknown number before looking at Anna, his expression unreadable.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked reaching for him. John turned the phone toward her and showed her the text and the accompanying picture.
“I thought you might like to see this,” was written below a picture of Anna and Anthony kissing in the coffee shop. The light was good and the connection of their lips was clearly visible in the picture. John turned to Anna eyes wide.
“What the hell is this?”