This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (story books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: Julie Steimle
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âNo kidding?â Hogan laughed, amused. He luckily did not catch the scandal attached to the story. Audry had caught it in time. All three of them had stalker exes after all. That was not scandalous. However, Daisyâs brief pregnancy was.
Audry nodded. âYeah. I met her once. A super jealous woman.â
Hogan nodded. Then he looked into the parking lot. âSpeaking of super jealous, there she is.â
Shuddering, Audry cringed. This was the part she hated about dating Hogan. Charlene Olson. Audry had first seen her three weeks ago. A face like Nefertiti, bronze skin and fashionable, she always kept her distance, but she glared like she would murder Audry if she saw her kissing Hogan. According to Hogan, when Charlene and Hogan had broken up it was because she was just too controlling. And the woman had a meltdown. Hogan had tried to get a court order taken out on her when she started to stalk his other girlfriends, ending those relationships, but he was not as successful as Audry had been in getting a court order against Harlin. The political climate at the time had become toxically femanazi, he said, claiming a woman could not possibly be a dangerous stalker⊠as if women were naturally saints and men were inherently devils. The very concept was sexist, but the powers that be were not able to see how. So they had to endure the predatory watching of Isis, Hoganâs most dangerous âgoddessâ.
âWhy didnât you vet her outââ Audry murmured.
âI was in love, or thought I was,â Hogan whispered back, trying not to look Charleneâs way.
There was another crowd in the parking lot, not far from Charlene. They were a group of men who had started a trashcan fire, and were drinking. They were the source of ruckus Audry had heard. Several of their group skirted around them, though one from her groupâa guy Audry knew as Jakeâshouted back something that upset those partiers.
âTheyâre gonna make a mess of the parking lot,â Jandra Washington muttered, climbing up the hill to her friendâs car.
âGlass on the tiresâŠâ her friend moaned. âAfter all that work.â
Bobo marched up right after them, watching intently. He glanced at Audry and nodded to Hogan. Then he walked toward the noisy group.
âWhatâs he gonna do?â Hogan asked.
âWe should call the police,â Audry said, feeling into her pocket for her phone. Then she realized that she had left it in the car to charge. She headed to her car.
âYou actually think the cops are going to come here for a few vandals?â Hogan shook his head.
Audry shrugged, fishing for her keys. âYou never know.â
Jandra huffed. âThe cops help nobody.â
Shooting her a dirty look, Audry said, âNot true. I know some very good police officers.â
But then they saw Bobo just talk to the drinking partiers. His soft voice barely carried. The sea was louder. Leaving her car, Audry inched in closer to hear, crossing the parking lot toward him.
ââŠhere. Now weâre all tired from cleaninâ up. If yaâll be so kind and take your party elsewhere. Weâd much appreciate it.â
One of the drinkers spat out a graphic expletive. It was socially approved expletive, though. Not one to make him look like a racist or anything, but a grotesque word describing an aggressive act of sex. Audry bristled, as she never saw any point for a respectable human being to talk like that, as it gave the wrong impression and painted an ugly mental picture.
Bobo remained sanguine. He merely sighed and repeated again, âYâall donâ seem to get it. Yâall are making a lotta noise, and causinâ damage to a place we jusâ cleaned up. Now Iâm askinâ you nicely before I am forced to call my good friend who is a police officerââ
One of the drunks swung the bottle in his hand down onto Boboâs head. The glass shattered. Bobo hunched from the blow. But the man who had swung it immediately began to bleed from his scalp. The blood came straight out of the crown of his head, almost exactly where he had struck Boboâs own skull. Everyone nearby from the beach rushed up to help Bobo.
And yet, Bobo stood upright, perfectly fineâwhile the trash fire party group crowded around their friend who was bleeding profusely, trying to staunch the blood with his hands. Another of the partiers shouted, âWhat the fâ!â and swung a punch at Bobo as if it were his fault their friend got hurt.
His fist met with Boboâs jaw. They saw Bobo wearily lean back as if he had merely been nudged. But the man who had punched him dropped right to the ground as if Bobo had returned the punch with equal force, though none of them saw Boboâs arms raise in self-defense. The manâs mouth was bleeding, jaw at a funny angle.
âIs his head made out of stone?â someone out of the dark surrounding that trash can fire shouted. âWhat happened to Sam?â
Two other men grabbed and pulled Bobo backâbut in that next second they jerked away from him as if their arms had been squeezed by some invisible force. Both of them yowled in excruciating pain. Bobo took another step back from them, sort of swaying there as though merely dazed.
Audry ran up to him. âAre you ok?â
âStay back,â Bobo said in a dry voice, extending a hand to block her. âI donâ want you to get hurt.â
Hogan jogged up to her side, pulling her away from the drunken partiers.
A weird feeling swept through her, one Audry could not explain. It was like bouncy, rubber kind of sensationâas if whatever she did toward Bobo might bounce back and hit her, like that childish chant I am rubber, you are glue, everything you say bounces off me and sticks to you.
The partiers retreated, running into their cars and drunkenly getting out of that parking lot with their bleeding men. Whatever kind of jujitsu Bobo must have done to defend himself, it was way too fast for any of them to see. Audry had not seen it. It was amazing.
âWhat are you?â Jandra asked, gazing at Bobo as if she had not been working near him all day. âDr. Strange?â
Bobo laughed, turning to look at her.
âYouâd be a brilliant bodyguard,â Audry said, impressed.
And Bobo smirked at her, nodding.
On the other side of the parking lot, Audry noticed Charlene slip off. She got the message also. Audry was protected.
Facing the Past
Chapter Four
The cleanup did not take as long as Audry had initially assumed. With the help of the Deacon Enterprisesâ trucks and the various clubs that came and wentâand there were manyâthey finished about four days along. The shoreline was beautiful and natural once more, and they were now working on the parking lots, making sure the workers themselves did not leave a mess.
During that last day, Audry had confessed to Hogan that Rick had sent Bobo to make sure she was safe, as Rick was still traumatized over the death of his friend in Germany and he was afraid for her. And since that revelation, Bobo was invited to work alongside them.
Hogan asked Bobo questions, mostly about Rick Deacon. Audry could tell Hogan was a little jealous, since clearly the woman he loved had history with a handsome multi-billionaire.
âSo⊠how did you meet him?â Hogan asked. âIs he your boss?â
Bobo chuckled, shaking his head. âNope. Not exactly. Rick is an old classmate. I met âim at Guilinger High.â
That impressed Hogan. He nodded to Audry. âI see. So, is that why you want to be his bodyguard?â
âHe needs a bodyguard,â Bobo said earnestly as they swept up broken glass and cigarette butts off the asphalt with an old battered straw broom into a rusty dustpan. He looked to Audry. âWe tried to tell âim he needed a bodyguard more than you did.â
âWe?â Audry wondered who had been talking about her. She was holding the bag for the garbage.
Nodding, Bobo said, âYeah. Matt and I. But all of his friends are worried about âim.â
That was true, and Audry nodded to herself, thinking on that. Rick had to be an emotional wreck with serious PTSD.
âSo, is he a good employer?â Hogan asked.
Laughing, Bobo answered, heaving up the metal dustpan into the bag, âUh, yeah. I guess. Iâm still on probation, really. Iâm trying to convince âim by taking care of her that Iâm good for âim. But I think he gets it all backwards, not caring about his own safety at all.â
That startled Audry. But it also sounded like Rick.
âNo,â Hogan laughed, shaking his head. âI mean does he pay you well? The benefits.â
Angling his head, Bobo shrugged. âI sâpose theyâre fine. But Iâd work for him for free.â
Hogan and Audry both stared. âYouâre kidding.â
Bobo smirked, amused at their response in unison. âNope. Rick was great friend in school. He cares about people. Watches out for âem. And me, man⊠He gave me a chance. No one wanted to get near me âsept him.â
Shivers ran down Audryâs arms.
âKids have always been scared of me growinâ up,â Bobo said shaking his head as his own memories passed through him. He looked sad and lonely again. âBut Rick, he always included me. He always treated me fair. Nobody else was like âim. Nobody.â
âReally?â Audry stared at him, taking in Bobo, his stature and all that. He wasnât scary at all. He wasnât even all that buff. Rather, he was lanky⊠kind of in the way Will Smith was, with stick out-ears to boot. It was cute. And being soft-spoken and dignified, one would not think of him in a negative way. He dressed neatly. His clothes were not rich, and his pants were hanging on his waist and not sagging down in the current trend. His hair was trim, and he had no piercings or tattoos. He was the stark opposite of a gangster rapperâalmost a Huxtable. Perhaps he had been more of a gangster type when he was a kid and reformed.
âYeah,â Bobo nodded. âThe guy is fearless.â He then stared off toward the sea as if thinking about that.
Audry was amazed. She never really thought of Rick as fearless. The wealthy heir was allergic to so muchâhoney, garlic, various plants, and even silver. And though he was not a vegan, he held to a strict diet. And he kept epinephrine pens on hand, just in case. But Audry could see Rick really did hate having bodyguards around him. She knew he would go out in public alone more often than not. Was that fearlessness? Or foolishness?
âCan I ask,â Bobo said to them both. âRumor has it among your friends that you two might get married.â
Both Hogan and Audry blushed. They exchanged furtive looks, grinning.
âIf thatâs happeninâ,â Bobo said, reading their looks, âWould you mind sendinâ Rick an invitation to the weddinâ? I think heâd appreciate itâŠ.â
Audryâs mouth opened in appalled shock.
âAnd heâd get yâall a really great gift.â
Hogan laughed, nodding. âOk. When that happens, weâll do that.â
Bobo nodded to him, smiling.
Audry could tell from this that Hogan no longer saw Bobo as a threat. It was kind of cute her boyfriend got jealous, yet at the same
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