“I have a few reasons I get up in the morning,” I said with a secret smile, “but one of my main ones is the prospect of new opportunities.” We talked for the next twenty minutes. Even when our food came, we continued our conversation.
We talked about everything from family to books we liked to read. I had told her about recently taking to writing again and she said she would love to read what I had so far. I was thrilled, of course.
“Kate here shows tremendous promise as an author. I have read some of what she has, and I have to say I can’t wait to read more,” Samantha chimed in with a wink. I couldn’t keep the smile from my face. “But, as much as I’d love to sit here and talk about Kate’s up-and-coming book debut, we’re here for you, Emily. We needed to go over some notes with you about your manuscripts and some editorial proposals as well as cover art.”
We spent the next hour going over everything for Emily’s books. She loved some of the suggestions I had made and the ideas that Samantha had for the cover.
When it was time for us to head back to the office, Emily slipped me her card. She told me to text her with any questions I had or to just get out and have some drinks together. I hugged her goodbye with the promise that I would see her again soon.
I hadn’t made a new friend since elementary school, and that was Jill. I made a mental note to tell her all about our meeting and make some plans to go out for a girls’ night with Emily.
It was just after two o’clock when we got back to the office. Samantha had gone over everything she needed me to do on the car ride back. Once I was at my desk, I settled in and got to work.
A couple of hours later, I popped my head into her office. “Hey Samantha, I’m all done. Is there anything else you have for me?” I asked.
She looked up at me over the rim of her glasses and smiled. “I’m pretty sure we’re at the point in our relationship where you can call me Sam, Kate.”
She chuckled as I blushed. “No, that was all I had for you to do. You only have about an hour left of the day. If you want, go ahead and work some more on that book of yours. You really need to set a word count goal for each day to stay on top of it.” She winked at me and went back to her work.
I walked back to my desk with a smile on my face. Opening my document, I got to work. An hour later, I was saving what I had written and emailing it to myself. I would work on it some more this weekend.
Sam came out of her office, shutting and locking the door behind her. “You did great work today. Take the weekend and relax. We’ll hit the ground running on Monday.” She smiled at me as she made her way to the front door.
I sat back in my chair with a sigh. I had a stupid grin on my face. Today had gone exactly like I hoped it would and I was ecstatic about it.
Remembering it was just going to be Reid and me this evening, I figured I should ask him what he wanted to do for supper tonight. I was feeling like sushi.
Pulling my phone from my bag and unlocking it, I realized that I never checked it earlier today when it buzzed me. There were three messages from a number I didn’t know. Bile rose in my throat as the images loaded.
Two images. One of me. I was smiling, sitting in the restaurant window with Sam. It had been taken outside looking in. Tears clouded my vision as I looked at the second image. It was of my car in the parking lot. My tires were slashed and in big bold red spray paint, the wordWHOREwas written down the side. The last was a text message that read,I’ll be seeing you soon.
Throwing my phone down onto my desk as if it burned me, I stood in a rush. I ran to the nearest window to see the parking lot.
Sure enough, my car was sitting there looking exactly like the picture. I looked around the office and realized I was the only one left here for the day. I sprinted to the front door and locked it. Running back to my desk I reached for my phone and dialed 911 with shaky fingers.
After the operator said they would send a unit my way and told me to stay locked inside the building, I called one of the two people in this world that made me feel safe. He picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, sweetheart, I was just thinking about you. Are you on your way home?” Heath asked with a sensual voice. I couldn’t hold the sob back as I tried to speak.
“C-can you come g-get me?” was all I managed.
Heath wasted no time as I heard him jump up from whatever he was doing and grab his keys. “Are you at work? What happened? I’m on my way. Stay on the phone with me and don’t you fucking move.”
All I could manage was a strangled whimper in return. The whole time I was on the phone with him, he was talking me down from my panic. He was afraid I would pass out before he could get there because I was on the verge of hyperventilating.
He must have hauled ass to get to me because in less time than it should have taken, I saw him whip into the parking lot. He’d gotten to me faster than the cops had. I watched as he jumped out of the vehicle and started to run to the doors, only to stumble when he saw my car. I watched his face go from worry to rage in two seconds flat.
He was banging on the door as I ran to let him in. As soon as he was through the doors, he locked them again and pulled me to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist, buried my face in his chest, and sobbed.
He rubbed my back methodically and tried to soothe me with soft words. I finally calmed down enough to pull away and look at him. He grabbed my face with both of his hands and regarded me seriously. “What happened, Kate?”
I handed him my phone so he could look at the texts I’d received. I watched his jaw clench and heard his breathing pick up. He was gripping my phone so hard that his knuckles were white. When he looked back down at me, he looked ready to murder someone. “Do you know who did this?” he asked between clenched teeth.
I had a pretty good guess, but I just shook my head no. He looked at me like he didn’t quite believe me, but he said nothing as he pulled me to him again.
Just being in his arms seemed to calm my nerves a bit. I felt myself start to breathe normally again, and my mind was starting to clear. Even though I was still in shock over the whole situation, having Heath here was a comfort.
I watched as he pulled his phone out and called Reid before I could tell him not to bother him at work. I stopped myself when he gave me a look that said not to even try his patience as he told Reid it was an emergency and he needed to get here as soon as he could. He shoved his phone back into his pocket before he gathered me back into his embrace.