The idea of having to be escorted to work was humiliating. Beth was as nosy as she was bossy, and the last thing she wanted to do was have to explain the situation to her.
They arrived at the office five minutes before eight o’clock and Anna noticed Beth’s car in the parking lot. It was never a good thing when she was the first one in the office. She hoped and prayed that she wasn’t the one responsible for Beth’s early morning.
Her bodyguard, Jarrod, opened her door and helped her from the backseat.
“I’ll need to check your office for unusual activity.”
Anna rolled her eyes.
“I know you may think this is uncalled for, but it is protocol. I’m just doing my job so you are safe enough to do yours.”
“I know, Jarrod. I’m sorry.”
He nodded in the direction of her building and she walked to it with him following close behind. Once they entered, she pointed to her office in the back corner and he hurried towards it. Anna was surprised to see that the office secretary hadn’t even arrived for the day yet. She continued to her office and stood in the doorway where she waited for Jarrod to finish.
“Does anything seem out of place to you?” he asked.
Anna glanced around the room. “My laptop is missing.”
“It’s not missing. I took it.”
Startled, Anna turned to find Beth standing at the end of the hall.
“Anna, who is that man and why is he searching through your things?”
Dread filled her and she stumbled to find the words to her answer. “He’s uhh, he’s my bodyguard. My boyfriend was in a car accident recently and foul play was suspected. He hired someone to look after me to be safe.”
Beth pursed her lips and squinted. “My office, twenty minutes.”
All it took was four words from the devil woman herself to make Anna tremble with fear.
“I’ll be out front, Anna. Holler if you need me.”
Jarrod walked away and Anna took a seat behind her desk where she spent the next twenty miserable minutes in agony. It had to be because of the password, she guessed. She knew she shouldn’t have texted Beth. Anna tried not to dwell on the impending scolding she was about to receive and instead thought of her night with Ben. She couldn’t believe he confessed his love to her. She hadn’t realized it was something she had been longing to hear until he said it. Anna glanced at the clock and realized that twenty minutes had gone by. Not wanting to prolong the inevitable, Anna sauntered to Beth’s office and knocked on the door frame.
Beth looked up and waved towards the chair. “Sit.”
“Look, Beth. If this is about the text I sent you yesterday regarding the password, I apologize.”
She raised her hand, stopping Anna from continuing. “This isn’t about the password. I was the one who changed it.”
Anna cocked her head to the side. “I’m sorry?”
“What didn’t you understand? I was unable to come to the office yesterday, so while you were taking a vacation day doing God knows what, I came in here and changed it. I couldn’t allow you to continue working on the Sanders project when you’re no longer employed here.”
Anna scratched her head. “What do you mean ‘I’m no longer employed here?’?”
“I mean, you’re fired.”
The room started to spin and all her dreams of opening her own design firm went up in smoke. “Beth, I don’t understand. Why?”
“Not that I have to explain myself to you, but it has been brought to my attention that your work ethic is lacking and your attitude hasn’t been the best.”
“My work ethic is lacking? My attitude? Why on earth would someone say something like that? I don’t even chat with the other employees here since I’m always on my computer in my office.”
“Well, maybe that’s the problem then. You don’t seem to be much of a team player.”
Anna still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Not a team player? She may not have been super social since starting the Sanders project, but prior to that, she always lent a helping hand to every person in the office when they needed it. Anna gave great advice on both professional and personal issues and even fixed the equipment in the office when something broke down.
“Beth, please tell me what I can do to change it. I can’t lose this job,” Anna begged. She wanted to plead her case, to tell Beth that she was a worthy employee, but she didn’t give her the opportunity.
Instead, Beth said, “I have made my decision. You have been terminated, effective immediately. Please leave your key on the desk and pack your things.” She tapped loudly on her keyboard and looked back up. “You are dismissed.”
Anna slowly rose from the chair and trudged down the hallway in a zombie-like state. She stopped in the doorway of her now old office and stared at its contents. The only items she wanted were the four binders filled with the projects she had completed, and the two frames containing pictures of her friends and family.
As she proceeded to exit the building, Beth stopped her at the front. “You can leave the binders. They are the firm’s property.”
Not wanting to be bullied by her anymore, Anna snapped. “Screw you, Beth. You aren’t my boss anymore so I don’t have to pretend I like you or walk on eggshells when you’re around.”
Anna reveled in the look of surprise and anger that etched into her previous employer’s face. “I beg your pardon?”
“These binders belong to me, not you! There was nothing in the contract I signed years ago that said I couldn’t keep my portfolio when I left here. It only stated that I couldn’t steal clients.” She pushed past the enraged woman and paused at the door. “So there!”
Anna flew past Jarrod and rushed to the car. Not wanting to give Beth the satisfaction, Anna waited until she climbed inside the car before letting out a scream. Jarrod was kind enough to read her body language and waited outside the car until she was done with her tantrum.
Eventually, he got behind the wheel and glanced in the rearview mirror. “Where to?”
Anna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “My house?” She needed to be surrounded by her things. And even though she knew it may not be safe, she needed to be in her own room.
But the comforting thought of her personal surroundings was squashed when Jarrod began shaking his head. “Anna, you know I can’t take you there.”
Shoulders sagging, Anna began to cry. Her life had completely been turned upside down in the blink of an eye and she no longer knew how to keep it together. She needed a friend.
“Take me to the Westin.”
“Right away, Miss.”
Anna tried to control the tears during the short trip to the hotel Karlie worked at, but she couldn’t stop replaying the scene in Beth’s office. She basically told her that she had an attitude and was a shitty employee, none of which were true. There was more to the story and Beth refused to divulge the truth. She hated her.
As soon as they pulled up to entrance of the lobby, Anna threw open the door and hurried inside. She was happy to see that Karlie was standing at the check-in desk and not wandering the hotel.
“I’m going on my break!” Karlie hollered over her shoulder when she spotted Anna. She waved her to the employee entrance and pulled her into the break room before Anna completely broke down again. Karlie, being the amazing person she is, waited patiently for Anna’s tears to stop flowing before speaking.
“What happened? Do I need to kill Ben?”
A small laugh escaped Anna’s swollen lips. “No, Ben is great.”
“Then what is it? I haven’t seen you cry this hard since Gary.”
Anna tried to take a deep breath, but it lodged in her throat as another sob threatened to spill forward.
“Beth fired me today!”
Karlie gasped. “That bitch!”
“I know! I was completely caught off guard.” Anna explained the details of their meeting, desperately trying to keep her emotions in check.
“So, now what?”
“Well, there’s more…”
“What could be worse than you getting fired?”
Anna closed her eyes and shook her head. “You’re not going to believe this.”
Karlie watched with wide eyes as Anna recounted the last couple days. The two of them hadn’t spoken since Ben’s accident and all the details that came with it. She hadn’t told her best friend that she was banned from her own home because of an open investigation over the recent events, and she hadn’t told her that Ben had proclaimed his love for her.
Anna didn’t realize she was staring at one spot on the wall the whole time she spoke until she finished and looked up at Karlie. The poor girl had a look of sheer terror and shock stamped into every inch of her face. She had suddenly gone pale and tears glinted in her eyes.
“Oh, Karlie, please don’t worry about it! Ben has everything under control.”
“I’m not sure what upsets me more. The fact that you are in the throes of danger, you’ve been fired from your job, or that you took it upon yourself to not tell me any of this as it was happening!”
Anna felt guilty the second she arrived at Karlie’s work. She just didn’t expect to feel completely ashamed for not confiding in her.
“No one hates me more than I hate myself right now.”
The fury left Karlie’s eyes and she softened. “I don’t hate you, Anna. I’m terrified for you.” It was the truth. Karlie rarely let her guard down or showed emotion, but fear was evident on her face. “Clearly it’s not safe enough for you to stay at Ben’s anymore. Why don’t you come stay with me?”
Anna shook her head. “It wasn’t safe before, but it definitely is now. His property is crawling with security. You can’t even enter it without having to show your ID or be questioned.”
“I’m feeling helpless here. What can I do to help?”
Anna placed a hand on her friends. “Just be there.”
“How would your man feel about me coming to stay with you guys at his house?”
It was a question she hadn’t expected to hear. “What do you mean?”
“Anna, you are my best friend. Someone is obviously trying to kill Ben and I refuse to stand aside and wait for the outcome. I want to be there for you.”
“That’s completely unnecessary, Karlie.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not. I need to be there for you.”
Her face held a silent plea. “He wouldn’t mind at all. I mean, he lives in a damn mansion with a gazillion rooms.”
Karlie finally smiled. “Good. Let me have a chat with my boss. Now that you are unemployed, I want to take some time off to help you figure your shit out.”
Anna shook her head. “Figure my shit out?”
Karlie winked. “Don’t fight it.” She quickly stood and disappeared through a door leading deeper into the employee section of the hotel.
Anna’s phone vibrated.
I hope you are well. I’ll be heading out for the game soon. I miss you already.
Unsure of her reasoning, Anna chose not to respond to Ben’s text. It wasn’t the time for her to tell him that she had just lost her job and that she felt like the world was crashing around her.
“Alright, it’s all settled. I’m off the next two weeks.”
“What?” Anna exclaimed. “You can’t take two weeks off!”
“Yes I can and already did. Now, let’s roll.”
Not wanting to argue, Anna stood and followed Karlie from the building. She found Jarrod parked just outside the lobby, standing next to the car.
“Hot damn. Look at that tasty piece of ass over there.” Karlie nodded towards Jarrod.
“That would be the body guard I was talking about.”
“Mmmm. Break me off a piece of that.”
It was hard for Anna not to laugh out loud. She walked over to Jarrod and introduced them to each other and then explained to him that she would be staying with them for a while. Jarrod didn’t even blink an eye. He accepted the explanation and waited for further instruction.
“We will follow her to her home so she can retrieve some things before we head back to Ben’s.” He nodded once and opened the door for Anna.
It wasn’t long before they were back to Ben’s house and Anna was surprised to find the security detail in a flurry.
“What’s going on?” Anna questioned.
“Let me check.”
Jarrod exited the vehicle and walked to Karlie’s car. She watched him say some things to her before walking away.
What the hell is going on?
It was a message she read on her phone from Karlie.
I don’t know. Something’s up. Usually the guards are just hanging around but they seem frantic.
She sent that last message just as Jarrod opened the door.
“Hurry inside, please. I will be in shortly to brief you.”
Anna waited for Karlie to join her and they did exactly as they were told. By this time, it was three o’clock in the afternoon. Anna opened a bottle of wine as she silently sung the lyrics to the song “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere.”
“This is exactly what the doctor ordered,” Karlie sighed with content as she took the first sip. Jarrod walked into the kitchen and the look on his face sent chills down her spine.
“A body was found just outside the entrance to the property. Female, naked and covered in blood. The list of injuries is unknown at this time.”
Anna and Karlie looked at each other, not sure what to say.
“Until further notice, no one leaves this house except for Ben.”
Anna wasn’t about to argue with that. She couldn’t help but wonder if the body was a warning like the dead squirrel found at her house, or if some psychopath killed a woman and just deposited it there without a care. Either way, Ben was not going to be happy.