Patrick Ch. 07

She acknowledged that she felt attracted to and protective of Patrick from almost the first time she saw him "and what is this mine and yours thing?" She asked herself. She wanted and needed some answers.

*******

Ethan called Eustace as Patrick drove.

"No, he's fine... no nothing happened, well something did happen but not that, see you in a few."

Eustace was waiting when they arrived.

"I'll leave you to talk." Ethan said, "I want to see what Katrina and Victoria bought."

Ethan nodded at Eustace and hurried off, he had missed his girls.

As soon as the door closed, Patrick turned to Eustace.

"She claimed me."

"Not possible." Eustace replied.

"Don't tell me it's not fucking possible! I was there!"

"Alright, calm down and tell me what happened." Eustace said.

Patrick told him about how they spent the evening at the batting cages and how easily they talked and acted around each other.

"We went to get something to eat and the waitress was flirting with me, apparently she didn't think that Kevyn and I were a couple which technically we weren't."

"Let me guess." Eustace interrupted, "Kevyn didn't like it."

"Not at all, but it was more than jealousy, there was an element of protection there too but anyway, I think that the waitress asked me if there was anything else I wanted and I heard Kevyn scream mine. It wasn't an audible scream but one a telepathic one."

"Then what happened?"

"She kind of freaked, she got up and went into the bathroom, and she was in there for so long that I sent the server in after her."

Eustace wasn't convinced.

"While she was gone, I wondered if I had to accept her like the human female mates have to accept us and I did it, I just said yes and Eustace, I swear to you that I could feel the dragon as you call it go back to sleep. When she came out, I made sure that she was alright, I took her hands and I said yours."

"And?"

"And what?" Patrick snapped, "We've accepted each other!"

"But she didn't know or understand what she did and she doesn't know about you and your past."

"That's true and I have to tell her but how do you explain the feeling that the dragon went back to sleep?" Patrick shot back.

"Maybe because it did but we have no way of knowing whether it's permanent...."

"Eustace, it is and to prove it, I'm going to do what Veronica wants me to do...."

"Patrick..."

"I want you, Ethan and Martin to be there in case I'm wrong but I don't think that I am."

"We need to have someone who looks like one of your victims and I'm not going to risk a human woman's safety to prove or disprove your point."

"Maybe we don't need to.... Just hear me out." Patrick said, "Do you remember what happened whenever we talked about that night? We had to stop and you would ask me about Kevyn or you have me call her."

Eustace understood what Patrick was proposing.

"And if we wake the dragon again, we either call or talk about Kevyn."

"Exactly." Patrick said.

"I don't know ...."

"Eustace, I want my life back, I don't want to teach online classes because I'm afraid that I'll run into a red-haired, -green-eyed woman who inadvertently says something to trigger the anger. I want to be able to tell Kevyn that there's no chance that I'll rape again, I want to start my life with her; please help me with this."

Eustace nodded and mentally crossed his fingers. Patrick had been so sure that finding Kevyn would permanently kill the rage and he had been wrong and he hoped for Patrick's sake that this time he was right.

"Alright Patrick but I still think that you should have someone with you for a while even if your theory holds out."

"Agreed, when can we do this?"

*******

Linda lay next to her now sleeping husband, she had hoped that it would be a quick romp but he had taken one of his little blue pills, which she didn't even know that he had a prescription for.

"I just got the prescription filled." he told her when she asked about it. "You're going to start acting like a real wife from now on, if you don't there's the door as I said."

Linda rolled over, looked at Carl and wondered why she couldn't be happy with someone like him, he was handsome and had treated both her and Melissa well but she just didn't want to be married to him, she wanted only what he could give her and he had cut that off except for the measly three grand a month.

She thought very briefly about murder but quickly abandoned the idea, she was no killer and given everything that Carl had done over the past couple of days she couldn't be sure that he hadn't changed his will. Linda crept out of bed, put on her house robe and went downstairs, she checked to see if Carl had locked his office door and wasn't surprised to find that he had.

She sat at her laptop and pulled up the information that she had saved on the Sinclaires. They weren't a very public family she read but they were very generous with their money giving to several charities including one that Carl was on the board of. She frowned and wondered why she hadn't known about Carl's connection to the Sinclaires, "my fault." she muttered as she realized that had she paid more attention and gone to the dinners and parties she would have known.

"Thank you darling." she murmured to Carl, he had just inadvertently given her a way to reach the Sinclaires. She looked at the list of committees to see if Ethan Sinclaire's wife was a member of any of them and found her on one; a committee that raised money for homes for emotionally disturbed children. She checked to see if there were others but that was the only one.

Linda looked up the charity and read up on it, the subcommittee met weekly while the main committee met once a month, there were no slots open on the committee itself but they were looking for volunteers to help with a fundraising event. While that was all interesting, it didn't get her close to Patrick Sinclaire; it only gave her a way in. Linda logged off of the laptop, leaned back in the chair to weigh her options.

******

Kevyn tossed and turned, when she finally drifted off to sleep she would wake up a few minutes later, look at the clock and then curse. She finally sat up and turned on the lights and then her laptop with the intent of studying until she fell asleep.

She remembered that she didn't know who was teaching the class or if syllabus had changed so she logged onto her school email account and was surprised to see two emails, one from Patrick and one from Melissa. She read the one from Patrick first.

"Kevyn,

I'm sure that you're still probably confused, upset and maybe even angry and for that I'm sorry. I have so much that I need to tell you and I promise you that I will. I have some things to work out first but I'll call you later this evening so that we can set up a time to talk.

Yours,

Patrick"

There it was again, that word "yours".

She looked at the timestamp of Melissa's email; it was dated for last night. She almost deleted it but her curiosity got the better of her.

"Kevyn,

I don't know why I'm sending this but I feel that I should. I know that you don't think much of me and I guess I can understand why. I just wanted to tell you that you were right about me being too young to play with the big boys and I wanted to thank you for being upfront with me to tell me that even though I didn't listen to you at the time. I also want to tell you this and once again I don't know why but watch out for my mom.

Melissa Hunter"

Kevyn reread the email several times and then sent a reply.

"Melissa,

Thank you for the e-mail and the warning about your mom, but what am I supposed to be watching out for?"

Kevyn"

She wasn't surprised when she got a message saying that it was undeliverable. Kevyn looked at the message again and wondered exactly what happened between Melissa and Patrick and what Melissa's mother had to do with anything other than raising her child to be nothing more than a highly paid hooker.

She found the information about who would be teaching Patrick's class and noted with relief that the order of the syllabus hadn't changed. She took note of the instructor's name, "Stuart Brinkman." she murmured and then read his bio that had no picture.

"Hello, I am pleased to be teaching you for the rest of the semester and unlike my predecessor I have an open door policy as well as an email and phone number that are listed in this email. I will be in the office tomorrow if you want to stop in and say hello, if not, then I will see you in class."

Something about the introduction bugged her, maybe it was the snide comment about Patrick she thought as she finished reading the bio. Class would be in a few more days and she would be back to work the day after that and hopefully there wouldn't be anymore screw ups.

She popped the disc that came with the book into the slot and waited for it to load, she was asleep before it finished loading.

*******

Melissa sent the email to Kevyn confused as to why she was doing but she knew that it was the right thing to do. As far as she knew her mother didn't know Kevyn other than by what she had been told but the need to send the email wouldn't go away until she did it. Then she sent one to Patrick, it consisted of the same warning that she had given Kevyn, she didn't understand it but she had the sense that somehow she had done something wrong and she needed to make amends somehow. He wasn't the man that she had tried to seduce for money, he was her instructor at school hence the confusion as to why she would be warning him about her mother. She sent the email, deleted her school account and put Patrick, Kevyn and her mother out of her mind as she packed up her laptop and left the hotel to head to Northern California.