Authors: Jenna Payne
Furious and realizing that she’d been fooled, Rosie grabbed Annique’s wrist, trying to swing her towards the cliff’s edge and away from Connor. Connor reached out and grabbed Annique’s other arm, stopping the arc of her momentum and throwing Rosie off balance.
She stumbled, close to the edge that threatened to crumble beneath her. With Connor’s hand wrapped around Annique’s wrist, he tried to pull her to safety. Rosie was losing her grip, trying to right herself and regain her balance before she lost her footing.
Annique yanked her hand out of Connor’s grasp and reached for Rosie as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Rosie grab my hand!”
Rosie looked at her extended hand like it was a venomous snake, wasting precious seconds as her feet slid out from under her and she started sliding on her stomach over the edge. Annique dove for her, arms outstretched as Connor struggled to hold her.
“Rosie!”
Too late, Rosie reached for Annique’s hand, coming within inches of her outstretched fingers without making contact. She fell off the cliff, her body plummeting to the waves and the rocks below. With a sickening crunch, she hit the bare rocks a split second before the waves engulfed them.
When the waves rushed back out once more, Rosie was gone. And so was her body.
Connor pulled Annique into his arms, slowly pushing back from the edge until he could reach the safety rail and pull them both up. Police poured out of the trails, guns drawn and ready. Leah came stumbling up behind them, shouting that Connor was a good guy.
They lowered their weapons and Connor motioned with his head towards the cliffs. The lead officer nodded, radioing in to report a body in the water. Annique collapsed against Connor, sobbing while he held her. Leah ran to them, throwing her arms around her best friend and holding her tight. She told her over and over again that it wasn’t her fault. She had tried to save Rosie, but Rosie had refused to save herself.
Epilogue
Six weeks later, Annique and Connor made the hike up the trail to the cliffs, flowers and a tiny marker with the name “Rosie” engraved on a gold plate. Rosie had no surviving relatives, and no one to mourn her passing, or even notice the loss. Connor had been against it at first, but Annique insisted that Rosie deserved to have some memorial of her existence, and the marker would serve as a reminder to others of the dangers of the cliffs.
They reached the top and headed for the barrier, the police tape long since removed and the scene of Rosie’s death nothing more than a memory to those who had witnessed it. They placed the marker and set the flowers around it, saying a little prayer that Rosie would find peace in death.
In the six weeks since she fell, her body had not been recovered. For weeks after, Annique had nightmares that Rosie returned, waking up screaming and drenched in sweat while Connor tried to calm her. Eventually, the dreams had faded, and they’d both decided that they weren’t going to let Rosie’s memory control their lives. No one could have survived that fall and that was a fact. Annique had heard her hit the rocks and had seen the massive wave overtake her unmoving body before she was washed away into the sea. Rosie was gone, and they weren’t going to let the impossible fill them with doubt.
They had the rest of their lives to live. Together.
THE END
My doorbell rang at nine o’clock sharp. I was already starting to like this security guy. He sure was punctual. I hurried downstairs from the second floor family room and through the living room to the foyer. Before I opened the door I quickly checked outside through the peephole, just to be sure. The warped view displayed an intimidating-looking guy in a sharp black suit.
“Who is it?” I asked tentatively. Even though I was pretty sure I knew who it was, I could never be too careful.
“It’s Erik Holman, I’m with Holman Security, we spoke last night?” He looked up, directly into the peephole, as if he knew I had to be looking through it. I unlocked the door and opened it, welcoming him into the house.
“It’s nice to meet you mister Holman,” I said and shook his hand briefly. I shut the door behind him and then studied him a bit more closely since he was inside. He was really big, tall and muscular to match his impressive frame. The suit he wore fit him snugly and it was hard not to admire. Erik Holman was an attractive guy that was for sure, not just because he obviously spent time in the gym, but he had such classically handsome looks. He reminded me eerily of James Dean. He had the same silky, soft-looking brown hair, plump lips, and square jaw. His eyes were a mesmerizing shade of hazel-brown.
I realized belatedly that Erik had asked me something, so I pulled myself together. This guy was going to potentially work for me, and anyway with looks like his, he probably already had a girlfriend, or fiancée, or wife. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that?” I said. I looked at him expectantly as I tried to hide my chagrin for having stared at him like an idiot.
“I said it’s nice to meet you too, Miss King,” he said. Erik smiled at me almost knowingly and I wanted to groan in embarrassment – he knew I had been staring at him for his looks.
“So um…how about we have the interview in the kitchen?” I said lamely. I turned on my heel and led him through the living room and into the kitchen. He sat down at the eat-in table situated under the window that looked out over my back yard.
“You have a really nice home, Miss King. I can imagine you do quite well for yourself,” Erik observed as he studied the recently redone backyard. There was a deck with all the furniture one would need to entertain outside. Below the deck was a garden and path that led to the pool and patio.
“Thank you, I just had the house renovated. It’s a family home, my great grandparents bought the land and built a little shack on it really, then the house expanded through the years,” I told him. Erik smiled to himself before he turned his full attention towards me, looking at me expectantly. Right, I was supposed to be interviewing him.
“I’m sorry, I’ve never had to really…hire security before. I don’t know how this whole interviewing thing is supposed to go,” I admitted. Erik smiled kindly at me and my heart did a little hop skip and jump at how beautiful his smile was.
“It’s alright ma’am, take your time. You can ask me anything, or tell me about your situation and I’ll tell you how I’d plan to handle it,” he suggested. I breathed a little sigh of relief. He’d made things much easier for me.
“Okay…um, but before I start do you want anything? Maybe some coffee or water?” I needed some coffee at least, I hardly got through the morning hours without at least two cups.
“If you have it brewed already, I wouldn’t mind some coffee,” Erik said politely. I asked him how he liked his coffee and prepared us both a cup before I joined him at the kitchen table.
“So…I guess I’ll give you some background as to
why
I need security, after I ask a few questions,” I told him. I had his full attention as he looked at me expectantly. “How did you get into the security business?” I asked harmlessly enough.
“Well, I used to be a Navy SEAL. I served for the full six years. My father was a SEAL and he started the security business after he’d served his time for the Navy. Once my enlistment was up I decided to join his security firm and he made me a team leader. I have four guys who are also highly trained, all ex-military,” Erik’s response was perfect. I needed highly trained guys for what I was dealing with.
“So how long have you been working for your father as a team leader?” I asked as a follow up.
“It’s going on four years now, so there’s no shortage of experience with me and my team,” Erik said confidently. He took a sip of his coffee and I chewed my lip while thinking about how I would present my situation.
“So I…have this ex-boyfriend—he’s sort of…well he’s an arms dealer honestly. Of course I could never prove it. For one, because he’s very careful about what he does, and two because he would probably have me kidnapped and locked up in some tower in Guadeloupe.”
I studied Erik’s features as he digested this.
“He’d have you locked up, instead of killed?”
I nodded, Erik was smart to have picked up on that small detail.
“Yes, in his own twisted, demented way, he really does love me and thinks I’m the only girl for him. He’s
very
controlling and as you can guess, not even breaking up with him will get him to leave me alone,” I gripped my coffee mug tightly in my hands. Just talking about Christopher made me anxious, as if he might pop up out of the cabinets.
“Miss King, I can assure you, my team and I have a very high percentage of success with handling cases like yours. We can protect you from this creep,
and
get him behind bars,” Erik assured me. His gaze was steady and confident, I smiled at him in relief.
“You’ve got the job,” I said. Erik smiled and shook my hand to accept the job. I just really hoped he was as good as he said.
*****
“So I’ll just explain to you how the team operates before I call them over here. Your case is urgent, and I don’t want to leave you unprotected; anything could happen in a short amount of time. Especially with someone as unpredictable and volatile as you’ve described your ex to be,” Erik went into a sort of alpha mode, gone was the relaxed guy on a job interview, Erik was now a full blown ex-SEAL protector.
“Like I said, I have four men on my team, not including me. One is responsible for surveillance at any place you frequent for long periods of time. For instance, your home and your job. Anywhere Christopher could recognize as your routine stops during the bulk of the week. Another of my men is basically going to be your driver. You will never take a same route twice to get where you need to go, but don’t worry, you’ll always be on time. The two remaining men will be responsible for tracking Christopher, making sure he isn’t following you or preparing to act violently against you, while simultaneously getting all the evidence they need to put this guy away for good.” I took a deep breath when Erik paused to let this all sink in. His team sounded like a well oiled machine.
“I’ll be acting as your personal body guard; don’t worry I won’t be like an annoying tail. I’ll make sure you get to and from locations safely, then I’ll make sure the areas are safe for the duration of your visits. If there is a tense situation, or Christopher is proving bold, then I’ll have to stick to you like a second skin.” Erik explained everything calmly and gave me a moment to digest everything. We sat in comfortable silence while sipping our coffee.
“Okay, I’m very confident in you guys,” I said, and smiled at Erik. His lips quirked upward and he inclined his head towards me.
“I appreciate that, Miss King. So can you tell me what exactly made you feel you need protection?” Erik sat forward in his seat and I took a deep breath.
“Well, after we broke up last week...Christopher—he sent me these letters. They were love letters at first, then they became threatening. He threatened my life, swore to kidnap me when I least expected it. He wrote that he would…that he would ruin me for any other man. So that I’d only ever be his…” I trailed off as my mind flooded with the memories of reading those horrible letters, left taped to my door day after day.
When I had found out that Christopher was an arms dealer, I started to pull away from him. But that caused him to hold on to me even tighter. He had me constantly watched and followed by his men, he even had me witness one of his deals to see how ‘strong’ he was.
Christopher had beaten some man to a pulp over a discrepancy in payment. After that I left him for good and I’ve been terrified ever since. Today was the first day that there wasn’t letter on my door and I didn’t even want to think about what that could mean.
“I promise to protect you with everything I have, Miss King. You’re safe with us and soon you won’t have to give that Christopher creep a second thought,” said Erik, his eyes fixed on mine. I nodded and took a deep breath. I was confident Erik would protect me and knew I was safe with him.
Erik called his team over after we finished out coffee. I met John the surveillance guy, Paul the driver, and Nick and Stephan the guys who would watch Christopher and gather evidence on him. They were all physically intimidating and as I met each of them I began to feel more secure. I showed John to a spare room off of the stairs leading to the basement. There wasn’t much in it as I couldn’t think of what to do with the room. He set up all his surveillance stuff in there and wired the house.
It was happening. Erik and John would basically be living with me until Nick and Stephan could take care of the threat.
I had to answer a bunch of questions to give both Nick and Stephan the information they needed to get started. The rest of the morning went by in a whirlwind. Thank goodness it was a Sunday; if I had called Erik’s firm a day later I would have never been able to make the time for all of the preliminary stuff they had to do. My job was demanding and work never seemed to leave me with much spare time. I was a financial manager for Neil & Lowman, one of the most popular name brands in apparel and handbags, not to mention a Fortune 500 company. Managing the company’s finances with the rest of the financial team was no easy feat.
“We’re all set Miss King, your house is back to normal, mostly,” said Erik, sticking his head into my office. “John has moved on to the Neil & Lowman building so he could set up a system with the security there.”
*****
“Thanks Erik, I really do feel a bit better now that you guys are here and things are moving. Oh by the way, you can call me Tanya. Miss King is so formal,” I joked, and Erik smiled with a brief nod.
“Tanya is a pretty name. How long has your family lived in Savannah?” Erik sat down in one of the seats on the other side of my desk. This used to be my dad’s old office and I couldn’t bring myself to remodel this room when I’d done all the renovations. My parents had died shortly after returning from a missionary trip to Uganda. They caught malaria and weren’t able to get the necessary care to completely rid it from their systems.
“We’ve been in Savannah for just over one hundred years,” I said. “My great grandparents bought this land from the plantation owners they used to work for. The original owners went bankrupt and couldn’t keep up with the tax on their land, they had to sell off parts of it, so…here we are still. Well…here I am. My grandparents live in Boca and my parents passed away a few years ago…” I didn’t know why I was telling Erik so much; I guess I just felt that comfortable around him.
“This house certainly does have a lot of history then,” said Erik. “My own farm has been in the family for four generations. I have three other siblings though, so there’s always a ‘discussion’ as to who will get the house and the ranch after our parents,” Erik chuckled fondly as he thought about his own family.
As I studied Erik’s features again – just because he was so handsome, and why not? – I found myself imagining the type of woman he’d most likely marry. Probably some Georgia peach with curly blonde hair, a perfect heart-shaped face and soft white skin.
Then I wondered what Erik’s type was. I was told time and time again, how beautiful I was. I had my mom’s soft, feminine features. Almond shaped eyes, a small slope of a nose, plump lips soft chin and jaw line. I inherited my blue eyes and curly hair from my father. My hair was light brown; a mixture of my mother’s dark hair and father’s blonde. My skin was lighter than my mom’s dark chocolate colored skin. I was more of a caramel. My skin and eyes were tell-tale features that I was mixed.
My mom had often told me about how she and my father fell in love. My father was on his way to being district attorney and my mom was just starting off as a prosecuting attorney. They met while working on a case together and fell in love.
Of course my mom’s parents were skeptical at first of her wanting to marry a white man, but my dad was a great guy and anyone could see how much he loved my mom. I always hoped to find a love like theirs one day.
A subtle beeping alarm snapped me out of my reverie and Erik stood up with a sense of calm focus and control.
“It just means someone is on your porch,” he reassured me while pulling out a cellphone-sized monitor from his pocket. He glanced down at it and gestured for me to stay where I was before quickly walking from the room. He came back a short while later with a white envelope in his hand. My blood ran cold as I stared at it. It was another letter from Christopher.
“I’m guessing he has more to say. Do you want me to throw it away, or do you want to read it?” I held my hand out for Erik to pass me the envelope. I’d been holding a book. I sat the book on the table, and carefully opened the envelope to pull out the single page of stationary.