Beck
“Beck,” she heard someone call her name. It sounded like her sister and she didn’t want to have to wake up. “Beck, wake up,” Rainey insisted.
“Tell Mom that I’m sick and can’t go to school,” Beck grumbled. Her sister giggled and she rolled over to find her sitting on the edge of the sofa. She was in her sister’s family room and they were far from having to wake up to get dressed for high school.
“I was having the strangest dream,” she said.
“So I gathered,” Rainey teased. “Although I’d rather have a root canal than go back to high school,” she said. Beck had to admit that she felt the same way about going back in time to being that nerdy girl who was afraid of her own shadow.
“What’s up?” Beck asked. “Why are you still awake?”
“Because I’ve been talking to a couple of your friends and they were very insistent that I hear them out. Sleeping wasn’t an option for me once I answered my phone,” Rainey admitted.
“Shit,” Beck grumbled, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “You got a phone call from Knox?” she asked.
“Kind of,” Rainey said. “His head of security, Slater something or other, did most of the talking.”
“Why would Slater call you?” Beck wondered why Knox would call her, but she’d get to that. Him calling her sister to track her down made more sense than Slater calling Rainey.
“They seem to think that we’re in danger,” Rainey said.
“Danger from what?” Beck asked. “This is a ploy to get me to talk to Knox. He’s using you to get to me. He’s not the man I thought he was. Knox is exactly who Felicity warned me he was.”
“Ahh,” Rainey breathed. “Well, there’s a catch. You see, Felicity is the one we need to worry about, according to Slater. He sent me these.” Rainey held out her cell phone with pictures that Slater sent to her. Beck scrolled through them, studying the photos of Felicity sitting in her car.
“Wait—is she sitting in front of my apartment building?” Beck whispered. She quickly scrolled through the pictures again and gasped when she saw that she was correct.
“Yep,” Rainey said. “Slater said that this woman is unstable. She’s stalking your place, waiting for you to come home. He also said that he was able to find me online rather quickly and easily. He made the point of saying that if he had no trouble finding me, Felicity wouldn’t have any trouble either.”
“Shit,” Beck breathed. “I’m so sorry that I put you in the middle of this, Rainey. I put you and the kids at risk. If I knew that she was a crazy stalker, I would have never come here.”
“No,” Rainey said. “You would have gone back to your place and she would probably have you just where she wanted you. We have no idea what this woman is capable of yet, but according to Knox, she’s blackmailing him.”
“Blackmailing him?” Beck asked. “For what—money?”
“No, she wanted her job back—the one you now hold. When Knox told her that the position was already filled, she started acting a little crazy,” Rainey said.
Beck nodded, “Well, I don’t want to quit my job, I just got it.”
“Yeah, so, she went and got herself another job in the casino and said that if Knox didn’t want her going to HR and making bogus claims about their non-existent relationship, he’d let her have her new job.”
“Wait—if her claims were bogus, why not just tell HR that. Besides, he owns half of the casino, and can fire the entire HR department if he wanted to,” Beck said.
“Knox said that he can’t let her go to HR because if Felicity does that, they’ll look into her claims and figure out that you two are together. He said he made you a promise not to tell anyone at the casino about your relationship,” Rainy said.
Beck felt as if her heart did a little flip flop in her damn chest. What was it about that man that melted her defenses? Even when she was confused and not sure if she could even trust him, he went and said sweet things that had her questioning everything.
“It’s not a relationship,” she grumbled.
“That’s not what Knox said. He even called himself your ‘Boyfriend’,” she said. Beck rolled her eyes at her sister, causing her to giggle. “He said that you agreed to call it a relationship if he agreed to give you time before announcing said relationship to the staff at the casino.” Rainey kept using air quotes around words like, “Relationship” and “Boyfriend” and Beck grabbed her hands, stopping her before she could do it again.
“You’re enjoying this all way too much,” Beck griped.
“I am,” Rainey agreed. “And, I haven’t even gotten to the best part.”
Beck groaned, “Just get it all out so that I can go back to sleep, Sis,” she insisted.
“Fine,” Rainey agreed. “They are on their way here.”