“Of course not.” He puts his hand over mine on the table and gently squeezes it.
“What about you? You’re almost done with classes, right?” I ask.
“Yup,” he smiles. “I have a few more weeks to go and I will have finished my degree in accounting.”
“I thought you weren’t interested in going to college when we talked at the wedding?” I remember.
“I wasn’t.” He shrugs. “It was because of you that I decided to enroll.”
“Me?” I’m confused as to what I had to do with his decision.
“That night, your face lit up talking about college and your upcoming graduation,” he recalls. “I wondered if I would feel the same way if it were me who was graduating. I thought about it for a while, trying to figure out what type of degree I wanted to go for, and then I had to find a program that would work with my crazy schedule and different locations while in the Marines.”
“How did you decide on accounting?” I ask.
“I didn’t; it sort of found me. I took an aptitude test with someone who assists with soldiers transitioning back to civilian life. I scored pretty high in certain areas that apparently indicated that I would be good working with numbers.”
“But you went into personal security?” I point out the obvious.
“I did, but I know I won’t be able to do it forever.” His brown eyes turn serious. “At some point I could be injured or the physical demands will just become too much. I’m not naive enough to think I can do this forever, so I wanted something to fall back on. With my degree there’s a lot of possibilities for work, so I’m not stuck if one area doesn’t fit with me.”
“Wow, you’ve given this a lot of thought.”
“I didn’t know what I would be doing when I left the Marines, but when Cole suggested personal security it seemed like a good option, especially since I wasn’t finished with my degree yet. Plus, to be honest, I don’t think I could just sit behind a desk at a computer the way Mr. Meyer does all day. At some point, I’m sure I’ll welcome that type of a job, but for now, I like personal security. And I like that I fit at Dark Water Security. Alec and Luke are amazing bosses and everyone there has been welcoming.”
“You’re lucky you found such a great place to work.”
“What about you? Your degree is in teaching, right?” he asks the question I knew was coming but still hoped he would get too distracted to ask.
“I never graduated.”
“What? You were only a few classes away from graduating when we met at the wedding. What happened?”
“My dad—”
“Shit, Hope. I’m sorry, I should have—”
“No, it’s fine. I had to take time off because of my own injuries and then…my dad. By the time I was in a place to even think about returning, I had already missed the deadline to apply for financial aid for the next semester. But more than that, I no longer felt the desire to teach. It was like when everything happened, that died too.”
“Have you thought about going back to school? If not for teaching, maybe for something else?” he suggests.
“I have, but I don’t know what I want to do yet. I don’t want to be a personal housekeeper and cook forever, that’s for sure. After this experience, I don’t know that I want another live-in position—”
“I definitely don’t think I want that again,” he chuckles.
“I don’t know what I’ll do after the contract with Mr. Meyer is up. Depending on what’s going on at that time, I might go work for Abby.”
“In her catering business?” he clarifies.
“She offered to hire me when I first started working with the agency who placed me with Mr. Meyer, but she was just getting started and didn’t have enough business for both of us. She would have hired me anyway, but I couldn’t let her do that. Now, though, her business is really taking off, to the point where she does hire people to help her more often than not. And I really enjoy the cooking aspect of working for Mr. Meyer; trying new recipes and seeing how ingredients work together. I could just deal without knowing so much of his personal life.”
“No kidding,” he laughs I’m sure thinking of the countless scenes we have overheard. “That definitely wasn’t something I expected when I took this job. What did you do before you started with Mr. Meyer?”
“After my dad…died, I was in a very dark place. I moved into our house and pretty much shut everyone out. I didn’t talk to anyone, ignored everyone’s phone calls, and never looked at the mail. It wasn’t until the electricity was shut off at the house did I realize how bad I had let things get. I put a lot of the bills on my credit cards but since I wasn’t working I couldn’t pay anything. Eventually I found a job at a dive of a diner a couple miles from the house that I could at least walk to. The pay was horrible, the job sucked, but it was something so I could pay for food and electric. That’s where Abby eventually found me; she had her dad track me down through tax information or something.”
“You weren’t talking to her?” I can tell he’s surprised.
“No, I shut everyone out for a while,” I admit sadly remembering those dark days. “I wasn’t in a good place and couldn’t bear the thought of talking to anyone. Once she found me, she told the owner of the diner I was quitting and literally dragged me from that dump. We went straight to her new apartment; she arranged for someone to pack up my clothes at my dad’s and have them shipped so I didn’t have to go back there. When the bill collectors started calling me at her house, she helped me deal with them and get payment plans set up. Even though I kept telling the student loan people that I couldn’t pay my bills it wasn’t until Abby researched my options online did we learn about the different deferment plans that were available to me.”
“They should have suggested that to you from the beginning!” he exclaims angrily.
“They should have,” I agree. “But I also should have specifically asked if there were programs available to help someone in my situation. Abby is the one who got me the job with the temp agency that eventually placed me with Mr. Meyer.”
“She sounds like a wonderful person to have in your corner,” he smiles.
“She is,” I agree.
Chapter 20
Garrett
The week starts off with a call with Luke, my boss at Dark Water Security. We touch base fairly regularly, but after Meyer ditched me to go to his brother’s for the weekend I felt a need to talk to him rather than going through email and text.
“Did you explain to him why you needed to go with him?” Luke asks.
“YES! Multiple times, but he continued to shut me down. I explained the security risks of him going alone, but he blew me off,” I know Hope is still in the kitchen cleaning up for dinner, so thankfully I don’t need to worry about how loud I am. I can’t hide my frustration with Mr. Meyer.
“This week I recommend having another meeting with him. You mentioned that the hate mail has begun again; bring those out if need be. Emily’s working like hell to track down the source, but since they were sent through various post offices from all of the coast it’s hard to pinpoint where exactly they’re coming from. Remind him that someone is doing this to get his attention and I suspect at some point they’re going to get frustrated with the lack of response from the mail,” Luke suggests.
“Agreed.”
“If you’d like, I’d be more than happy to come to a meeting with the two of you—”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” I interrupt. “I don’t want it to look like I ran back to you and tattled.”
“It wouldn’t have to look like that, but I respect your opinion. Trust your gut on this one, Garrett. If something feels off, then you should be concerned. We’ll let this be a teaching lesson, but if he does it again I think we need to revisit the situation. I don’t want our name ruined because a client can’t follow the rules that we established from the beginning.”
“I’ll meet with him tomorrow when we’re at the office,” Garre
tt agrees.
“Emily has been making some progress with the car that rear ended you.”
“Oh?” I haven’t talked to her since the day after the accident when I gave her the same information I gave the police officer who was on the scene.
“We know the car was rental—”
“I wondered that.”
“It took some time, but we were able to get the rental company to give us the name of the person who rented the car. Emily is running a complete background check on the renter trying to figure out how they’re tied to Meyer. Right now there’s no obvious connection, which doesn’t make any sense.”
“There has to be something.” I shake my head in disbelief. “I don’t believe that it was just a hit and run.”
“Neither do we,” he confirms. “Let Emily work her magic a little longer, she’s been combing through his bank accounts for the last couple of days. There’s several cash deposits being made on a monthly basis but she hasn’t identified the source yet.”
“Anything in his background check that I need to be concerned about?” I ask.
“No, on the surface he looks pretty clean. No criminal record and the family isn’t in financial stress,” he explains.
“Let me know if she finds anything.”
“Will do. Keep me informed on the chat with Meyer this week.”
The chat with Mr. Meyer went about as good as I thought it would. He downplayed my concerns, despite me providing copies of the typed letters that were received at his office threatening him. Like in the past, he plays it off as a disgruntled competitor and doesn’t believe that anything will come from it. In the end I managed to convince him to agree to consider allowing me to accompany him on future trips to his brother’s house. However, I think he only did it to appease me and has no intention of letting me go with him. Though I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not, but for the entire week he keeps me appraised of schedule changes in advance and even provides me with the name of his new weekend guest.
Hope texted me earlier this afternoon to let me know that Suzanna arrived and was waiting in the guest room as Mr. Meyer instructed. All day he’s on edge, snapping at people even more than he usually does. By the time we leave the office, I’ve lost count of how people ran out of the building in tears today. He doesn’t seem to care that I guarantee most of those staff won’t be returning come Monday morning. As soon as we get back to the condo, he takes off upstairs to the guest room while I go in search of Hope.
“Any problems with Suzanna?” I ask as soon as I walk through the door separating the living spaces.
“No, she’s different than the others though…” Hope says before coming over to kiss me lightly on the lips. It’s been a week since she told me what happened that night, and a week since we decided to explore what this is between us. I’m still scared shitless I’m going to screw it up, but I love the little touches and kisses that happens so freely now between us when we’re off the clock. I also love going to bed with her every night and waking up with her in my arms.
“How so?” I grab a beer from the fridge and sit at the breakfast bar as she finishes preparing dinner. I’ve told her time and time again she doesn’t need to cook for me, but she says she enjoys cooking so who I am to complain. If it weren’t for her I’d be living off frozen pizza and sandwiches.
“She seemed really nervous to be here,” she says. “The last few girls were anything but nervous. She seems like she has no idea what she’s doing here or maybe she’s just not sure of her decision to even come here to begin with.”
“I don’t think she has any idea what she’s getting herself into.”
“Do you know anything about her?” she asks.
“I don’t know how they met,” I explain. “Emily, our computer expert, ran a simple background check on her when I finally got Mr. Meyer to give me her full name earlier today. She’s 29 years old, works as an auditor for the IRS, and has lived in Richmond most of her life.”
“I don’t think she will last very long,” she admits.
“Probably not.”
We chat about our day over dinner, like we usually do and then I clean up the kitchen from dinner while she changes out of her work uniform. By the time she comes out in fitted yoga pants and a pink shirt, I’m ready to suggest we just go straight to bed right now.
“Anything good on tonight?” she plops down on the couch and for a moment I have to remember what her question was because the only thing I can think about is the way her beautiful breasts bounced when she sat down.
“I’m not sure,” I manage to get out before joining her on the couch.
She doesn’t hesitate in moving closer to me when I sit down on the couch. I wrap my arm around her shoulders as she searches for something to watch on television. I love that we basically have the same taste in shows and movies. Though to be able to sit with her like this, I’d probably be willing to sit through anything she put on. Things have changed so much between us since I moved in here a couple of months ago.
“I think I’m going to head to bed,” she yawns halfway through the movie.
“I’ll pause it, we can finish it tomorrow night,” I suggest.
“You don’t need to—”
“I don’t mind,” I pull her closer to me and lean down kissing plump lips. “I like falling asleep with you.”
“Me too.”
I groan when her tongue slides across my lips, seeking entry which I immediately grant. My hands roam freely over her body, touching her in every way I can from this position. But it’s not enough. Leaning up, I urge her to her back and move over her, keeping my weight on my arms as to not crush her. As I lean down to kiss her—
“COUNT BITCH!!!!” we hear Mr. Meyer scream from the other side of our door.
“He has some timing I swear,” I hiss and move back to a seated position knowing that he just fucking killed the moment.
“One sir!” we hear Suzanna sob as something smacks against her skin.
“Sure didn’t take him long,” Hope shivers. “I’m going to have to disinfect the entire kitchen Monday morning.”
“You may want to disinfect any cooking utensils too; he might be using them with her,” I point out.
“UGH.” I can’t help but laugh at the disgusted look on her face.
“I don’t hear you!” Mr. Meyer hits her again.
“FOUR SIR!” she screams out.
“You’re fucking wet…are you going to try to tell me you don’t like this?” He hits her again, the sound echoing through our apartment.
“No sir…” she sobs.
“Tell me,” he commands.
“I’m…wet for you, sir,” she moans.
“I think I’m going to bed,” Hope says.
“Yeah me—”
“Suck me you dirty little whore,” Mr. Meyer screams. “Take it all, don’t fucking bite me either or you won’t be able to sit for a week!”
We silently head our separate ways to get ready for bed, before I meet Hope in her room. We never talked about it, but it just sort of happened that ever since the night I came in here when she was having a nightmare, that we sleep together every night. We also don’t talk about our nightmares and the fact that Hope hasn’t had once since that night. I haven’t had one either, but mine are far less frequent than hers are. I can go months without having a nightmare, whereas she seems to have them every night.
Chapter 21
Garrett
“I think I’m going to get out of the apartment for a little while,” Hope announces after we finish our breakfast.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “I think I’m just going to walk around for a while. There are so many stores near here that I haven’t been to yet.”
“Did you want some company?”
“Sure,” she says.
We throw on our shoes and light jackets since there’s a slight chill in the air and head out of the apartment, hand in han
d. We head to the farmer’s market that Hope says she visits at least two to three times a week and walk past all the different shops. I haven’t explored much of this area of town since I moved in with Mr. Meyer.
“Do you mind if we stop here?” I ask as we stop in front of a small boutique.
“Of course not,” she answers and we head into the shop.
“My mom fell in love with this one brand of soap, but the store she usually buys it from closed a couple of months ago. This is the only other store in Richmond that sells that particular scent of soap.” With my hand on her back I guide her over to a large case that is filled with various scents of handmade soaps. “Yup, here it is.”
Knowing how much my mother loves these soaps, I purchase one of every scent they have. Hope decides to get a few different soaps for her bathroom before we leave. After packing up our purchases we head back into the crowd walking around the shopping area. We check out a few other stores in the area before deciding to stop at a small café for lunch. We opt to sit outside at a small table rather than inside the crowded dining room.
“Have you always lived in Virginia?” Hope asks as we start eating our sandwiches.
“My parents moved here when I was a couple of years old, but it’s the only place I remember living,” I explain.
“Did you ever want to live somewhere else? When you came home after being in the military I mean?”
“No,” I answer without hesitation. “After being gone for the last four years, I knew I wanted to be close to my family. I don’t need to live in Richmond per se, but I want to be close enough to drive home if they need me or something happens. I can’t see myself moving to Texas or somewhere like that. Dark Water Security is just starting to expand their business, but what I appreciated when I interviewed with them is that they said they wanted to focus on the East Coast. Alec’s family is here, so for him this is home base. Luke...he doesn’t have any family other than Emily and she just moved from California to be with him—”
Garrett (Dark Water Security Book 2) Page 12
