Page 80 of Mine to Gain

“Oh shit,” she whispers as her hand goes to her mouth.

We were distracted, and the bubble bursts abruptly—the reality hits all over again. Our confessions that we love each other don’t change the fact that we’ve still got someone following us, photographing us, stalking us—stalking her.

A cold shiver of dread runs down my spine as I look at it. They want her, my girl, and it makes me sick. I can see the worry on her face, and I pull her close to me, wrapping my arms around her.

“They won’t get anywhere near you,” I say it firmly enough that we have to believe it.

“What about you?” She looks up at me. “Seems they don’t care for you much either.”

“You let me worry about that. The investigators from this morning are on it. I’ll give these to them when I meet with them tomorrow. You’ll get Madison on board. We’ll talk to the security team. By the time we’re done, they won’t be able to get anywhere near us.”

“Let’s hope.” She shakes her head at the note and surveys the rest of the photos. I can tell she’s getting stressed out all over again. I know I am, but it won’t help us tonight. Tonight, I just want to focus on the fact she’s here, and she’s safe with me.

I kiss the top of her head. “All right. There’s nothing else we can do about this tonight. For now, I just want to get you cleaned up and tucked in bed.”

I pick her up into my arms, and she drops the photo back to the desk, wrapping her arms around my neck as I carry her to the shower.

36

Beatrix

When I sit down with my bestie, she’s glowing despite all the ongoing trouble with her father and the stress it’s been causing—she finally has her man. Seeing them together makes my heart so full. Knowing that despite all the years and their family baggage, they’ve been able to make it work. It has me thinking it might be possible for Cooper and me too. If we can figure things out, and if I can get to the bottom of this stalker situation. Which starts with the investigators Cooper hired and by telling the best fixer I know.

“Marriage looks good on you.” I smile at her as I watch her sending a text that must be to Quentin.

“Thank you. It feels good. Just ten years in the making.” She laughs softly, and I grin.

“Better late than never. I also feel like I should be able to get a ‘told you so’ in here.”

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Fine. I guess that’s fair.”

We laugh for a few minutes, and she tells me more about how things are with her family and her post-married-life bliss before I break my own news to her.

“So. I have something I need to tell you. I’m hoping you’re not going to be mad at me. I kept it from you because you’ve had so much going on in your own life, and I didn’t want to add to your stress.”

“Okay…” Her face clouds with concern, and she looks me over carefully.

“I think I have a stalker. Or Cooper and I do? It’s hard to know for sure. It didn’t start until I was around him, so I’ve been thinking it might be a fan of his that thinks I’m his girlfriend. But now I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you think you have a stalker?” I can see my best friend going into business mode.

“It started a few months ago with pictures on social media of Cooper and me at the fair. Someone clearly following and watching us. Then it stopped for a bit until there were footprints outside his house a few nights after I swear I saw someone staring at me through my bedroom window. We installed cameras and got security—someone my father worked with and had on his team before he moved. He actually works with the stadium as well. I felt better after that, but we just got another round of photos. These ones were a lot more disturbing. They were sent to Cooper.”

“Disturbing how? How were they delivered? Any chance of prints on them?” Madison is hyper focused on the details as always. It’s almost like she’s taking mental notes and connecting dots for me already.

“Well… this is where I admit the next thing. I suppose you’ve already kind of guessed. Cooper and I have been sleeping together. Not in a relationship. Or, well, we are now, but we weren’t before. I went with him to his family’s lake house a few weeks back before the season started, and naturally, Rob lost his shit when he figured out what was happening. They had an argument, and I went out and tried to help break it up. The person who’s been watching us took photos of me and Rob. Ones that made it look like we were having some sort of lovers’ quarrel even though we weren’t. The stalker sent them to Cooper, and they got here on your wedding day. He didn’t tell me until that night because he didn’t want to ruin anything but…”

“Holy shit, Bea. I wish you’d told me sooner. This is crazy. They sent them to Cooper, so they’ve been watching you enough to suspect you’re in a relationship of some sort then?”

“Yes. I mean… we’ve tried to be discreet, but I guess if you were following me regularly and saw us enough, maybe you’d know?”

“I haven’t been around you that much, and I had my suspicions. So that doesn’t necessarily surprise me but that they would try to drive a wedge between you with those pictures… I see why you think it could be a crazy fan of his. Has he had that issue before?”

“He said he’s never had any fans who have harassed him at all. A few people here and there who message him too much or he sees regularly, but nothing that would make him think they’d be capable of this.”

“An ex of any kind or maybe a hookup he had that went wrong?”

“He says no to the hookups, and he’s never really dated seriously since I’ve known him. But maybe you should talk to him and see if he’d be more candid with you. I’m sure there are details he’d rather not share with me.” I try to put my PR hat on even though it’s my boyfriend we’re talking about because, at the end of the day, getting to the bottom of this is more important than him being worried about hurting me. “This last time though. There was a message scrawled on the back about me deserving better than a Rawlings brother.”

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