Page 54 of Under His Protection
“Don’t touch it,” Melissa says sharply. She darts into her closet and returns a moment later holding a pair of blue latex gloves. “Courtesy of my anatomy and physiology lab.” She pulls them on and bends down to pick up the magazine page.
She unfolds it fully. “This is so gross. Don’t touch any of it. The police will want to get prints and test the DNA.”
The page is torn from the kind of magazine I never knew existed. It’s a picture of a young woman with long dark hair, lying on a bed, naked and hog tied. There are ropes wrapped tightly around her body, including her breasts, and there’s a black ball gag in her mouth. Her expression is ecstatic, like she’s turned on.
Beneath the image, someone wrote a note in all caps.
I JERKED OFF LOOKING AT THIS PICTURE AND PRETENDING IT WAS YOU.
SHE LOOKS LIKE YOU, DON’T YOU THINK?
YOU’D LOOK SO PRETTY LIKE THIS.
“What the hell!” Melissa cries after she reads the note. “Who sent this?”
“I don’t know.” I meet her horrified gaze. “Someone’s been harassing me for days now. I think someone is stalking me.”
“Haley, you need to call campus police right now and report this.”
I feel like I’m in an alternate reality because things like this just shouldn’t happen to a person like me.Why me? It makes no sense. Why would anyone spend their time and energy harassingme?
I pull out my phone. My voice shakes as I say, “I’m calling Philip.”
Chapter 17 – Philip
I’ve only been home long enough to shower and change into shorts and a T-shirt when my phone rings. I grab it off my nightstand and glance at the screen. “Hey, babe! How’s it going?” When all I hear is her shaky breathing, my body goes on full alert. “Haley, what’s wrong?”
“Philip!” she gasps.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
I hear a sob. “Talk to me, Haley. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Her words are rushed and jumbled, and I have trouble making out what she’s saying. “Someone’s been leaving notes in my mailbox and in my room. And a rose I pricked my finger on, and a used condom. And some god-awful picture from a magazine of a naked woman hog-tied, who looks like me, and he said I’d look pretty like this.”
“Haley, sweetheart, slow down please. Take a deep breath and start at the beginning.”
“Someone’s stalking me, Philip. They’re leaving notes and other things. Tonight, Melissa and I went down to the community room to get some dinner, and when we returned to our room, she found an envelope, addressed to me, shoved under the door. Inside was a page from a magazine showing a woman, naked and tied up, with a ball gag in her mouth. And there was a used condom in the envelope. He says he jerked off looking at the woman in the picture, who looks like me.”
“What in the hell!”
“I don’t know what to do, Philip,” she says, her voice cracking with emotion.
Immediately, my brain goes into operational mode. “Haley, I’m on my way.” I run into my bedroom and quickly change into jeans and a T-shirt and shove my feet into a pair of sneakers. On my way out, I grab my wallet and keys. “Stay in your room. Is Melissa with you?” I’m already out my front door.
“Yes.”
“Good. Just stay there and lock your door. I’m getting into the elevator right now. Stay on the phone with me, okay?”
She sniffs. “Okay.” She’s quiet for a moment, and then she says, “Philip, I’m scared.”
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. “I know, baby. Just hang on. I’m coming.” As soon as the elevator doors open at the garage level, I race to my truck and hop in. “I’m in my truck now, on my way.”
Forget about speed limits. I arrive at the campus in record time, park outside the dorm building, and hurry inside. I grab the nearest elevator and hit the button for the third floor.
When I reach Haley’s room, I try the handle, but it’s locked. So I knock. “Haley, honey, it’s me. Open up.”
