EMBRACE YOU Lone(liness Book Two)(14)

"That's where your prior arrangement with the barrister comes in. Marcus, you make them leave. You escort them out, all the while reminding them of their promise to you - that they will leave you alone. And, if they threaten to come after you for anything, any scoop, you tell them that you will complain to the barrister and magistrate if they don't stop."

"Okay, I think we need to talk about this. Right now, she's totally exhausted because the phone calls stop Lizzie from sleeping. Which disrupts her - and our - night time sleeping habits."

"Have you shut your phone off?"

"Yes. They can't get in through the gate."

"How do they keep Lizzie awake then?"

"They leave voice mails, and even though we have the volume turned way down, those calls are still loud - it travels upstairs!"

"Disconnect the house phone. We'll communicate with you via email or your cell phones. Have your families call only your cell phones or contact you via email. Just...disconnect that farkin' phone!" Tim says.

"Johanna, what do you think?" Marcus asks me.

"I...think I like the idea, but I need time to think it through first." While I feel more alert, my brain is still moving like stiff cement.

From that impromptu meeting, we practice. The tea and, as always, the music engage me fully. I wake up while we're working on our European concert play sets. Linny goes for take away meals. Tim and Laslow watch for him and, as he knocks at the studio's door, they let him in and quickly shut and bolt the door against the hordes of press camped outside.

"Argh, they're cockroaches! Johanna, we'll be more than happy to help you eliminate them - come up with a good come-on story and everything," says Linny.

I'm opening up my order and sniffing in the delicious scents.

"I'll think about it, Linny, but I need to think slowly. My brain is mush right now," I tell him.

"Damn them. They're keeping my favorite niece from her beauty sleep," he says.

"Thank you for that - by the way, she's your only niece. I will think about it because I want to see this nonsense ended."



At home that night, Marcus shuts off and unplugs both the house phone and voice messaging system. Carrying them to a closet in his office, he stashes them and dusts his hands off, muttering to himself.

"What was that, luv?" I ask him.

"I just said, 'good riddance to bad rubbish.' I'm hoping you and Lizzie will be able to sleep better tonight. Thankfully, they don't have our cell...oh, f*ck!"

I look up in fear, my eyes widening.

"What, Marcus? What?"

"You've heard of the tabloids and their misuse of celebrities' phone records, haven't you?"

"Who hasn't? Oh, my God! You're not thinking they could..."

"I am," Marcus says as he makes a beeline for his computer.

"What are you doing?"

He sighs. "I'm sorry to say this, but we're going to have to deactivate our phones and accounts temporarily. At least until the trials end. We'll still be able to communicate, but it's going to be online. I'm going to vastly increase our security - your accounts as well as mine. I'll do the same for the boys on their computers, as well as your family's and mine," Marcus says.

"How do you know they'll get to our phone accounts and records?" I ask. This is all moving much too fast for me!

"D'you remember that school girl that was murdered? The reporters found her phone records and hacked into her text messaging. It was unholy hell on earth for her parents. That's not happening in our case. I know what they're capable of - and I know how to deflect them," Marcus says with determination. "Bring your laptop to me, please. I'm setting you up with password protection so that, even if those sorry bastards get your laptop, they can't get to anything you've got logged on it."

"That's possible?" I ask, watching as Marcus brings up different security window and clicks on different options.

"Yes, and it's not hard. It's another password to remember..."

"Small price," I mutter. Leaning over, I press a kiss on my husband's bristly cheek.

After he's set our computers up, we send quick emails to our families, letting them know what we're doing. Ten minutes later, my dad responds.





To: JohannaH


From: GWilliams


Subject: Measures


Good! I wasn't sure this would apply to you or Marcus, but apparently, it does. I've talked to your mum and we're all okay with having our computer security increased. So is your sister. When can you come by?

My immediate response:





To: GWilliams


From: JohannaH


Subject: Re: Measures


Just spoke to Marcus. Tomorrow night, if that's okay with everyone. I'm totally exhausted tonight. We'll only be able to communicate via email. We're temporarily deactivating our cell phones; our house phone and voice mail system are both unplugged and stored away.

Marcus wants all of us to meet at your house tomorrow night, so you should all have your computers there. It looks easy, but I think I'll trust him to be the one to set up your security. We'll do the same for his family's computers. And, I hope we can sleep now!