Her CEO Stalker and Her Second Chance Mate Chapter 81

Briar

I watched as the files downloaded, one after another; they all had strange names, and nothing seemed of note.

“What's going on?” Misty asked.

“I found a zip drive of his. When I escaped, I’m going to see what's on them.” Misty began typing on a keyboard on her end of the phone, and a moment later, the mouse control was taken from me as she clicked on one. My eyes scanned the contents, and my jaw dropped. Correspondence of blackmail and notations of several offshore accounts filled my screen. Companies he ‘worked with,’ names, and illegal dealings. Another click of the mouse and more of the same.

“What am I seeing, Ads?”

“A multitude of evidence of his misdealings with his company, he's blackmailing smaller ones for better deals, and all the money is being filtered through offshore accounts. I knew he was a dirty dealer, but this…is beyond unethical.”

“Just what we needed,” Misty said, and an email pulled up, dropping all the files into it before the mouse came back into my control.

“I may need you to explain some of this jargon, but it's going to incriminate him and put bees up his ass, so hopefully, he is forced to be sidetracked for a bit. Those flowers, he sent similar ones to five addresses, so he’s not entirely sure where you are just yet. The goal is to keep him busy… well, more busy than he's been kept. I’m sorry we missed the movements that got to your lawyer; he's too smart for his own good. It just means I need to think outside of the box.”

“Thank you, Misty, I never wanted to bring you into this.”

“You were by my side when I needed someone the most. It’s my turn.” My eyes closed, and I nodded. It was hard for me to accept the help, but I knew I needed it.

“Hey, Beck?”

“Yeah, little lady?”

“If all goes to shit, you take care of Misty and Cricket first,”

“Of course,” his gruff voice agreed. 

My eyes closed, as relief washed over me, I trusted Beck. He had gotten me out of the lowest point in my life. He would keep them safe, I was sure of it. I closed the laptop.

“Anything else, Misty?”

“No, I’ll run all this through my analytics tonight. I’ll call you tomorrow with any questions.”

“I don’t deserve you,” I told her.

“Shut up, Ads. Let me do what I do best.” I took a deep breath.

“I love you, make sure Cricket knows I love her, too.”

“She knows, but I’ll tell her again over breakfast.”

I let out a long sigh, aware of the eyes on me. 

“Try to get some rest, Ads.”

“I’ll try,” I promised weakly. “Thank you, both, for everything,” I let her and Beck know. Beck just grunted in acknowledgement.

“Night,” Misty said, and the line went dead.

I was aware of Mazzie glaring at Carter behind my back as I clicked the phone off, and Carter ignored her, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. Lana squeezed my hand before standing.

“You can take one of the guest rooms if you want, I know it's late,” Carter let them know, and they disappeared down the hall on the first floor, towards the two rooms there, whispering to each other.

Carter stood, pulling me up. I grabbed my bag after putting my laptop in and tucked the gun into the side pocket after putting on the safety.

“You're staying here till it's safe to go back home,” I nodded in defeat. He was right, it wasn’t safe. Leading me by the hand, he paused to check the door and grabbed a duffel bag. “I grabbed some of your stuff for now, we can go back and get whatever you need later.” I nodded again as he pulled me with him up the stairs. 

He paused at my room. “Do you want to stay here?” I shook my head no.

“I don’t want to be alone right now,” his response was to lead me to his room, where we dropped our bags. I pulled out the gun and the knife from my boot.

“I'll take the side by the door,” he said, and I deposited the weapons on the nightstand furthest from the door, near the window, and went back to dig out something to sleep in. Carter just handed me one of his shirts, and I took it, thankfully, tossing it on the bed and removing my clothes before shrugging it on. When we climbed into bed, he pulled me to him. 

“I’ve got you, try to get some rest.” I didn’t think sleep would find me, but the heat of his body seeped into mine as he kissed my shoulder. Here, at least, I was safe. Eventually, my eyes drooped, and sleep overcame me within the safety of his arms.

My dreams fluctuated from terror to sensual heat, faces altered, morphing between Creedon’s and Carter's features. Pain…terror…fear. Warmth…safety… the unknown. Heat seemed to blaze through me. I heard a sound and was startled awake. I pulled away from Carter’s embrace, disoriented. Tucker's eyes glowed in the darkness as they caught the light of the waxing moon through the window, as he sat on the nightstand watching me as my heart pounded like a hummingbird in my chest.

Carter shot up and jumped out of bed, ready to take something on. My hand against my rapidly beating heart, I reached past Tucker to the light and looked down at the floor as he hopped onto the bed and started kneading my lap. I glanced at the nightstand and then at the floor. Carter’s bike keys were on the floor. I sighed in relief and snuggled the cat. Rosie eyed me from the foot of the bed as if wondering what the fuss was about. Carter walked around the bed and picked up the keys, and put them in the drawer of the nightstand. The cool air in the room chilled my skin from the sweat induced by the lucid dreams, and I shivered.

“I suppose I can’t convince you to go back to sleep?” 

I shook my head no as I tossed the covers back. My head was pounding. 

Carter nodded. “I’ll go start the coffee.” I got up, carrying the cat with me, and I reached into my bag and grabbed my smokes and a lighter. Rosie hopped off the bed and followed us out.