Another Move Forward

"Aaaaah! Aaaaah! I need a hero. I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night."

Wren opened her eyes and listened to Bonnie Tyler sing, "He's gotta be strong. And he's gotta be fast. And he's gotta be fresh from the fight," as she tried to remember where her cell phone was. 'Oh yeah charging in the kitchen.' She pushed the covers off her body and looked at the clock. 'Yuck, not even three hours of sleep. No one ever calls with good news at seven-thirty.'

She moved to get out of bed and fell with a loud thud onto the black and white rug next to her bed. It was a nice rug and very soft for falling, Wren discovered. She and Drev had purchased it at a Chinese New Year celebration. It was a large ying-yang with the characters of the Chinese Zodiac around the edge.
"God damn, son of a bitch." She kicked the offending sheet away from her feet and pushed herself up. She looked over at Drev; he slept soundly. "Fuck."

"And it's gotta be soon. And he's gotta be larger than life. Larger than life." She padded to the kitchen in her little black lace panties. Drev's influence made it possible for her to walk mostly naked through the house, and not remember she was naked. She made it to the kitchen only to stub her toe on the corner of the door way.

"Fuck!" She picked the phone up from where it was singing, vibrating, and flashing it's way around the counter.

"Yes. What? Hello?"

The Italian-accented tenor that filtered through her phone made her forget to be cross at the hour, and she smiled. "Wren? It's Paulie."

Wren turned around and levered herself up onto the counter. "Hey Paulie, what's up?" Over the last few months, he called to keep her updated on his progress regarding the finding of the guy that had terrorized her for over a year. So far he'd not found him, but it had been over four weeks since they'd last talked and she was anxious to know what he'd been doing.


"We found him!"

Wren sat up straight and smacked her head against the upper cabinet "Ow, shit!"

"You ok?"

"Fine. What did you say?"

"We found him. We have the guy."

"You're fucking kidding me Paulie! That's great! Give me the skinny." She reached down and pulled a note pad and pen out of the drawer below her.

"Ok, here's how it's going to go down. I've pulled in the Staties and they want to hook this shark tonight. I need you to arrive at the airport here by 7:30 with a good cover, and provide your own transportation. You got a good cover you can use Wren?"

"Yes, I do. The university has been near spastic trying to book Drev for their little student interview thing. They called just yesterday to see if we could come tomorrow, so I'm covered."

"Ok, then let me break the rest of this down for you. When you arrive at base camp around 8:00 you will be given some gear and escorted by a fine officer up to where we will be evacuating the occupants of the building."

"Whoa, you're evacuating the building? You think he's going to blow it up or something?"

"What we've been doing is pretending your sudden disappearance was due to kidnapping. Only me, you, your folks, boss, and the police know better. So we questioned this guy cause he fit the profile and he got kinda hostile on us. We know he owns at least one weapon - we found it when we searched his place."

Wren shook her head. Paulie managed to surprise her every time he called, but this... She shook her head again. "Ok, tell me the rest."

"I'll lay it out then I'll give you details when you get here."

"Ok"

"We've been watching this guy for the last three weeks and he never deviates from his schedule. We know that tonight he will arrive home at 8:00 PM; at which point he will shower. Meanwhile, we will be clearing out the two other apartments on his floor. He then makes himself dinner and eats while he looks through one of seven photo albums - no dear, you do not want to know what is in those albums.

"Then he washes his dishes and does about ten minutes of sit-ups and push-ups. At this time we will clear the floor below him. Since he's on the top floor of the building we don't have to worry about people above him. Then he settles down for a few hours watching videos of questionable content. We plan to knock on his door while his pants are still buttoned."

"Ew"

"I know. When we bring him out, we'll walk him by where you are standing so you can watch us put him in the cruiser. You'll be free to go back to base camp and Drev can take you some place quiet. You'll need to go into the station and answer some questions tomorrow, and file a formal complaint after you look over the evidence gathered. Ok, Wren?"

"Yeah, I'm ok. I've written everything down, but if I have any questions I'll call. I'm just glad it's over. I want to be able to stop driving twenty minutes to get my mail and I want to use my real name again."

"You can, very soon, sugar, very soon. Call me if you need me."

"Thanks Paulie, bye" The phone went dead in her hand. Paulie never said good bye. She flipped the little purple phone shut and put it back on the counter. What she wanted to do right that moment was crawl into bed and cry into Drev's shoulder and be cuddled. What she was going to do was make plans and book flights, hotels, and cars. She hopped down from the counter and rubbed absently at the back of her head. Picking up the cordless phone, she headed into the living room and powered up her lap top. Drev had bought it for her when she finally agreed to work for him. So far it was working well and she had zero overhead so her entire salary went into the bank.

She pulled up the calendar and her virtual little black book and looked up the number for the university. Twenty minutes later she had
> him booked for Behind the Studio Glass, a sort of talk show forum that the university recorded once a month and sent tapes to other music departments of other schools, giving the students an opportunity to get to know singers and song writers on a more personal level. She also book a private jet company for a 5:00 flight out of the Nachton International Airport for arrival in Michigan at 7:20, as well as a room booked at the plaza and limos to and from the air ports. She tore off her information sheet and quickly wrote Drev a very detailed note covering everything Paulie had said, the plans she'd made, and a request not to wake her until around 2:00 as she was setting her alarm.

She put the note on his lap top, and since Drev was sleeping soundly in her room, she went into his and pulled out his leather Armani overnight bag and packed some things for him quickly. Returning her own room, she quietly did the same for herself before crawling into bed beside Drev.

He instinctively turned over and spooned her body, his long arm snaking around her small hip and tucking his hand between her thighs to rest lightly on her pubic mound. It had taken some getting used to him wanting to sleep like that, but now she couldn't seem to get to sleep if he didn't. 'Weird.' She reached up and reset her alarm before falling back into a sound sleep, snuggled into the solid warmth of her roommate, lover, boss and friend.