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were so powerful that they almost overwhelmed me.  So much.
 Goodnight, baby.
 Goodnight. Sweet dreams
* * *
The next day at noon Mark sat in our living room listening while I laid out the whole story. I told
him about the notes, the suspects, and our efforts thus far to collect evidence. Then I laid out the plan.
Finally, I paused and Mark spoke up.
 So, let me get this straight. You met three obnoxious people at Braden s fundraiser, and when
you got a couple of anonymous notes saying that you should break up with him, or something bad
might happen, you assumed that one of those three wrote them.
 Because while each one of them had an interest in seeing us break up, nobody else did, and it
wasn t common knowledge that we were dating then.
 So, instead of just telling the cops, and letting them handle it, you decided instead to try to get
handwriting samples yourself, because you were worried that there would be a backlash if you said
you suspected one of these people.
 Right.
 And in pursuit of that evidence you convinced Fred and Ethel here to follow private citizens and
dig through garbage with you. He glanced at Jess and Cam like he wondered just what in the hell
was wrong with them.
 Well, yeah. You know I m mostly doing this because I don t want Braden or my parents to
worry anymore, right?
 Uh huh. And now you want me to wear a costume and go to an underground sex party with you
so that Jess can dominate some kinky politician into giving her a sample of his handwriting.
 It s for a good cause.
 And you think that one of my closest friends, who also happens to be your boyfriend, is going to
think that there s nothing wrong with this plan?
 I m not going there to have sex with anybody! I m not even going in. I think this guy will actually
do this if Jess even just orders him to. As soon as she gets the writing we re gone. I send it to my
expert, he either eliminates Cole or gives me ammunition to tell him to leave me the hell alone. This
is a way to possibly get someone to stop harassing me without dragging Braden or his family into it.
 Don t even try to make this sound reasonable, Gabrielle. I can t believe that you didn t tell
Braden about the first note.
 Mark, I don t want him to get himself into a difficult position. If I just had a little something to
back up my suspicions it would be a whole different story. Don t you understand? I m doing this
because I care about him. I don t want him worrying about me all the time and I want people to leave
us alone without getting him sued.
 What if we get this sample and it s not this guy. What then?
 I don t know. I m not sure I m up to digging through trash again. I think I ll just give it this one
try. He s the one who it would be most controversial to wrongly accuse anyway. If it isn t him I ll
just probably turn everything over to the cops and let them deal with it.
 And you re going to tell Braden about all of this?
 Yes  I will.
 I still don t think that he s going to be okay with you doing this.
 I can t just make Jess do this herself.
 Okay look, I ll go along with this under one condition. Even though you may be dressed up to
blend in you stay back unless absolutely necessary. I don t want you anywhere near this place unless
we have no other choice. We can stay in communication with each other by cell.
 Okay, it s a deal. We ll park a few blocks away and we ll stay in the car unless you need us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
That night at eight forty-five, we were all dressed in our best fantasy wear from Tony s. Jess and
Mark made quite a pair. She was wearing a skin-tight skirt that came down to her ankles but was slit
up the back almost to her bottom. She had on a high-necked old-fashioned-looking ruffled blouse like
a Victorian school teacher might wear, fishnets, boots with high heels, a black wig and a Mardi
Gras-type mask. She was carrying a ruler and she had some folded paper and a pen stuck into a
garter. Mark also wore a mask but his was plainer  sort of Lone Ranger-esque. He was dressed like
an English school boy in a striped tie, knee socks, matching shorts, blazer and cap. He looked like
that guy Angus Young from the band ACDC. Cam and I just looked kinky.
We arrived near the location of the party, an abandoned warehouse down by the docks. It was a
rough neighborhood, so I was armed with pepper spray. We took my car and parked it several blocks
away as we went over everything one last time.
 Okay, you guys have the code and we watched the video of Cole online a thousand times, so
hopefully you ll be able to recognize him, I said.
 I m going to walk up to him and tell him he s a bad boy and needs to be punished, Jess said.
 I ll stay near you the whole time, Mark assured her.
 I get him to write  I ve been a bad little boy because and then tell him to list the reasons.
 If he won t do it you tell him you ll spank him with your ruler, I added.
 We get the sample and we get the hell out of Dodge, Mark finished.
 We re here if you need us and we can come in to help you if necessary, Cam offered.
 We ll try to stay in touch by phone as much as possible, Jess said.
 Okay, team. I think it s go time. I just want to thank you all for doing this.
 Yeah, right, Lucy, Mark replied.  When Ricky finds out he s probably going to have my ass.
 I ll tell him I made you do it. Good luck. He sighed and rolled his eyes at me, then he and Jess
got out of the car and started walking in the direction of the warehouse as Cam and I sat nervously
waiting. Ten minutes later I had a call from Jess.
 We re in. There was no problem with the doorman and the code worked fine. Everyone is
standing around mingling right now and we think we ve spotted Cole. Oops, gotta go.
 They re in and they re mingling. They ve spotted him. We sat waiting for a couple of minutes
quietly and then Cam spoke up in a slightly hesitant voice.
 So Gabrielle, you and Braden are pretty serious now, huh?
 Yeah, we are. We re very happy together and very compatible.
 That s good. I want you to be happy. I m really sorry that I hurt you back in college.
 I know you are. It wasn t all your fault though. I had a big crush on you. I should have told you
that before we& beforehand. I should also have told you that I was a virgin.
 Yeah, that was the thing that freaked me out the most. I did really feel something for you  more
than friendship  but you were so nice and so sweet. I had just messed up my relationship with
Braden and I was pretty down on myself at the time. I didn t think I deserved somebody like you and
then when I realized what you had just given me, I didn t feel worthy, you know?
 So you re saying it wasn t just a casual hook up to you either?
 No, it wasn t but I couldn t really deal with my feelings at the time. When you didn t want to see
me anymore at all I was really depressed. I realized that I fucked up royally, yet again, and I didn t
want to make it worse, so I just left you alone.
 Cam. I never knew. I figured you didn t want to have to deal with me pining for you and I was
just so embarrassed.
 I wasn t a really great communicator.
 I know it s none of my business but why did you hook up with Marla when she was dating
Braden?
 Braden was sick of her and on the verge of breaking up with her. She knew that and she figured
if she made him jealous it might make a difference. I was out drinking with a bunch of my friends one
night and Marla started hitting on me. I knew Braden didn t have any feelings for her and I knew she
was just using me. I was pretty drunk and she convinced me to go off into a dark corner with her
while she applied her oral skills. I felt really shitty about it as soon as I sobered up the next day but [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]