Bennie and Adam Plan a Wedding

Chapter 4

Adam

We quickly dressed and raced to Dallas’s apartment as soon as Bennie told me what had happened. Travis and several other police officers were already there. Dallas saw me and I ran to him to make sure he was alright. He was visibly shaken but unharmed.

I asked, “what happened? Were you home when they broke in?”

He shook his head, “no, I caught up to Travis when I left the office and we went to grab dinner, I came home and found this.”

“Did they steal anything, or just mess things up, like the office?” I asked.

He said, “I don’t know, once I saw the door broken open, I just called Travis and waited outside until he showed up.”

Bennie got a weird look on his face, “oh shit, Heather!”

Before I could ask what he meant, he was on his phone, “Heather, don’t panic but I am coming to pick you up right now, you are going to stay with me and Adam tonight.”

He paused to listen to her respond, “I’ll tell you everything when I pick you up, just pack an overnight bag, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

I asked, “what’s going on?”

Bennie said, “until we know what is going on, I think Heather and Dallas should stay with us, they have all of our addresses, I don’t want them to be alone in case they keep doing this.”

Dallas looked panicked. I said, “yeah that’s probably a good idea.”

Travis had walked up to us as Bennie was talking, “Bennie’s right, I will send an extra patrol to watch Heather’s place as well as your house and Dallas’s apartment, but I doubt they will return the apartment again.”

I told Bennie, “Go get Heather, I’ll bring Dallas in his car when we are done here.”

Bennie gave Dallas a hug and headed out the door. Travis had Dallas do a quick walk through his apartment to see if he could tell if anything was missing.

Dallas said, “the only thing I notice is my personal laptop. It was sitting right there on my coffee table.”

Travis asked, “do you have anything on that laptop that someone may want?”

Dallas chuckled, “just my Amazon shopping history, emails with my family and access to a couple dating sites. Anything important is on my work laptop, that’s in my bag still in my car.”

Travis said, “ok, you guys can go, the guys from the lab won’t be here until morning, I talked to your landlord, he said he can lock off this floor so it will be secure until he can get the door fixed.

Dallas’s apartment was in a small three-story building, there were only six units, two on each floor. His was on the top floor and the other unit was currently vacant, so the stairwell door could easily be locked so the rest of the tenants could still get to their apartments.

Dallas was able to grab some clothes and toiletries and after he gave Travis a hug, he gave me the keys to his car, he was still too shaken to drive. We pulled into our driveway at the same time Bennie and Heather arrived. Heather looked just as worried as Dallas did, we went inside and tried our best to comfort them.

We had a guest room and a foldout couch in our home office, Dallas said Heather could have the bedroom, the foldout was fine for him. No one wanted to go to bed just yet, we were all still a little too worked up to sleep.

Trying to lighten the mood, Bennie asked, “so Dallas, you went to dinner with Travis?”

I appreciated the fact that Bennie used Dallas’s right name instead of another Texas city.

Dallas formed a slight smile, “yeah, he is a really nice guy.”

Heather asked, “does he have a straight brother, friend, anything?”

We all chuckled, Dallas said, “I’m sorry Heather, I’m not sure, I’ll ask him the next time we go out.”

Heather smiled, “thanks.”

Around 2am we all started to feel tired enough to get some sleep and headed to our rooms. The next morning Bennie and I tried to be quiet and let them sleep in a little. We decided to forgo our usual fooling around out of respect for our guests. Bennie padded out the kitchen to make some coffee and start breakfast. I got Heather and Dallas each a towel so they could shower, Heather used the guest bath and Dallas used ours. We were setting the plate of bacon and eggs on the table as they walked into the kitchen.

Dallas said, “wow, a full-service hotel, thanks guys.”

Heather smiled, “yes, thank you, but aren’t we going to be late to the office?”

I said, “don’t worry about that, we don’t have any clients today, it’s just going to be another day of sorting through papers. Besides if you’re with the boss, you’re not late.”

We finished eating and went to the office, we were still discussing who was targeting any of us. We got busy and by noon we just about had everything in the office back in order. We were all still concerned about being alone, so I suggested we all go out for lunch together, I didn’t get any argument.

When we got back to the office, Travis was waiting for us.

I said, “hi Travis, have you found anything?”

He shook his head, “not really, it’s looks like the same guy that hit the office, other than the laptop, nothing is missing, and it doesn’t look like he left any fingerprints either.”

Heather asked, “do you think they will try to get into my or Adam and Bennie’s place?”

He said, “I’m not sure, but we are keeping an eye on them.”

Bennie said, “you are welcome to stay at our place as long as you want, both of you.”

I added, “of course you are. I’m sure the police will have this figured very soon.”

Heather said, “thank you for the offer, but if it’s ok with you, I think I will go to stay with my parents. They live about an hour from here and they said they would feel better if I stayed with them.”

I nodded, “of course, at least until we know that we are all safe that’s a good idea, and don’t worry we will still pay you, there isn’t any reason for you to drive two hours each day. Just take your laptop and if we need you to do anything you can work remotely.”

She smiled, “thank you, I’ll call my mom and let her know.”

Travis asked all of us some more questions, we were still no closer to any answers by the time he left. Dallas followed him out the door and they talked for a few minutes. Heather packed her laptop and anything else she thought she might need for the next few days. Bennie took her to place and waited while she packed and took off to her parents’ house. We were all relieved she would be safe.

Dallas, Bennie and I tried to get back to work on the Bay City Industries project, we were scheduled to make our presentation to them next week.

Bennie sighed, “shit, it’s Thursday.”

Dallas squinted at Bennie, “did you figure that out all by yourself, Warren Buffet?”

I chuckled, well, I guess things were starting to get back to normal, Bennie ignored him, again just like normal.

I said, “yeah, it’s Thursday, so?”

He looked at me, “Thursday, remember your sister is coming over tonight.”

I sighed, “oh yeah, shit.”

Dallas asked, “so what’s the big deal?”

We explained about her trying to take over planning our wedding and he just laughed.

“I am going to out with Travis again, so just text me when it’s safe for me to come home.”

Bennie said, “coward, a good friend would stay and help us defeat the evil villain.”

Dallas chuckled, “sorry, but I have a better offer for the night, so you are on your own.”

We finished up for the day and headed home. We stopped and picked up some steaks and veggies to make a salad. Bennie wanted to grill. Once we were home Bennie went to the patio and started the grill while I cut up the veggies for the salad.

I answered the door when the bell rang, “hi sis, Dave, come on in, where are the kids?”

Claire said, “they are spending the night with Dave’s mom.”

Dave smiled, “good to see you, Adam.”

Bennie came inside, “hi Dave, nice to see you,” then turned to my sister, “Claire.” With just a bit of a sarcastic tone.

Claire coldly said, “Bennett.”

I asked, “does everybody want a glass of wine?”

Dave said, “sounds good.”

I handed out the glasses. Bennie picked up the plate of steaks, “Dave care to help me put these on the grill?”

Dave smiled, “sure.” They headed out the back door. I thought to myself, who’s the coward now?

Claire set the notebook she was carrying down on the table, “now Adam, I have done some checking, the Ambassador Room is open the week of the 19th and 28th. It holds about 300 people so we might have to trim the guest list a bit. I have talked to my minister, he is willing to do the ceremony. He said we could use the church, he has both those dates free, he is also willing to perform the ceremony at the Ambassador. Now about the caterer, what do you think about…”

I took a deep breath, “Claire, I have told you more than once, Bennie and I do not want all this foolishness. We were thinking of a simple ceremony in our backyard with just a few close friends, nothing more. You and Dave are our only family so at most we are talking about 10 to 20 people.”

She scoffed, “oh Adam, I have 50 or 60 of my friends on my guest list already, surely Bennie has other friends that he would like to invite, at least all the people at Harlow Industries.”

I stopped her again, “I have told you, Bennie really has nothing to do with Harlow Industries, in fact his mother has already expressed her displeasure with him marrying me and said she wants no part of it. We do not want to make this a spectacle, let us do this our way.”

She protested, “but what will I tell my friends, weddings are a good way to network and make connections, they won’t invite me to their events if I don’t invite them to mine.

Bennie and Dave walked in just in time to hear the last part of our conversation.

Bennie stared at Claire, “first of all, this isn’t “your” event to invite anyone to. This is Adam’s and my wedding, not yours, we couldn’t care less about your friends.”

Claire waved her hand, “what do men know about planning a wedding, you need me to make sure things are done properly. I will make sure…”

Dave interrupted, “Claire, they have made their wishes known, you need to let them do things the way they want, it is their wedding.”

Claire gave Dave the look of death, “oh, if I let these guys have their way, we will all be eating hot dogs and drinking beer in the back yard after some guy off the street pronounces them married.”

Bennie grinned, “sounds perfect, great, now that is all settled, I’ll get the steaks off the grill, and we can eat.”

Claire huffed, “it is not settled, I will get everything reserved and then we…”

“Claire, stop! If you don’t drop this right now, Bennie and I will just go to a Justice of the Peace without telling you and you will be stuck with the Ambassador Room filled with 300 people and a huge catering bill. Hell, we may just take a flight to Hawaii and get married on a beach, just the two of us.” I told her.

Bennie perked up, “Hawaii? hell yeah, I’m in.”

Claire started in again, Dave stopped her, “they have made their wishes known Claire, just drop it.”

She closed her notebook and started to pout and drink her wine. Bennie pulled the steaks off the grill, and we all sat down to eat. Claire hardly said two words the rest of the evening, Dave, Bennie, and I had a nice talk and enjoyed the quiet.

After they left, Bennie gave me a big kiss, “thank you, is it any wonder why I love you?”

I grinned, “you jumped right in there too, so thank you too.”

He gave me another kiss, “were you serious about Hawaii?”

I smiled, “I could be, we can do whatever you want.”

Bennie thought a minute, “hmm, I kind of like the hot dogs and beer in the back yard idea.”