No More Running by Jayton Young Read Free Book Online

with Garret following me.  I made sure to lock my door this time.
    “So was that the friend you’re going to stay here for?” He asked casually, but I could tell he really wanted to know.
    “Yeah.”  I wanted to see if would just drop it, or whether he’d give in to ask.
    “Is he going to be calling you on my phone?”
    I was laughing in my head, but I kept a straight face as I answered.  “No, I told him I’d call him when I got home tonight.”
    We rode for another few minutes before he broke.  “So, are you going to tell me about him, or are you going to make me ask twenty questions and guess?”
    I giggled.  It was fun to tease him.  He was the type of man who had to be the first to know everything.  “His name is Dustin Stevens, but I call him Doc.  I’ve known him for about eight years now.  He has helped me out a lot, and He has always been there for me when I called, no matter what he was doing.  He’s an ER doctor.  That’s where I met him.” 
    I got to thinking about what he’s said earlier.  I hoped he didn’t think that I’d been hiding our friendship out of embarrassment.  I’d really gotten to know him over the years, and he was a good man.  A man anyone would be proud to be friends with.  It actually made me feel better that he’d stand with me against Chuck when he came.  And I did know he would be coming.  I was wondering about the hang ups.  It made even more nervous now that it was happening at home, too.  I looked over to Garret and told him about it.  He was silent, and he had a look on his face that I couldn’t decipher. 
    When we pulled up to the gym, we both got out and I started to head in, but Garret stopped me.
    “I would really like you to think about staying with one of us tonight.”  He said.  “If your ex has your phone number, he might know where you stay.  At least until I can pull your phone records and the ones from the past couple of days at the office and see if any numbers match up.  Even if they don’t, we should be able to at least see where the calls are coming from.  I’m going to call Margie and have her move in with me for a while.”
    “Oh my God!  She’s going to hate me!”  Tears welled in my eyes.  “This is exactly why I didn’t want to get close to anyone.  They always end up getting hurt or losing something important to them because of me.”  I couldn’t keep the tears back and started crying.
    Garret took me in his arms and held me while I cried.  “None of this is your fault, Dina.  The blame lies solely with that crazy SOB who is terrorizing you.”
    “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to cry.”  I said as I backed up trying to dry my eyes.  I hated that I always seemed so weak.  I had to toughen up some.  I’ve been surviving on my own for this long, just because I had friends didn’t mean I needed to burden them with the crap that always seems to happen to me.  “I’ll just move to a motel for a while.  There are a couple of them around here that don’t care about names, so Chuck shouldn’t be able to track me there.”
    “No, all of those would be in the bad parts of town; you don’t need to stay in a place like that.  It wouldn’t be any safer for you than staying in your apartment.”
    “If I move in with someone, that’s just going to transfer the problem to them, and I still won’t be safe.”  I thought about it for a moment.  “I’ll stay at my apartment for tonight and talk to Doc.  He’ll know what I should do.  He’s hasn’t steered me wrong yet.”
    It looked like he was going to argue, but he just shook his head, and put his hand on my back to lead me into the gym.  We made our way to the back, where a door led to another large room.  Garret left for the locker room to get changed, leaving me with Claire.
    “You don’t take these classes?”  I asked her.
    “Lord no, Di.  I’m a black belt in most forms of martial arts.  I’ve been taking lessons since I was