Chapter 7
BEAU
I was going to throttle Seth when I saw him next. What was he thinking, speeding down the road with precious cargo in the passenger seat?
“Everything okay, Boss?”
Looking over toward Josh, I nodded. “Just dealing with bratty behavior is all.”
“What did Seth do this time?” Josh asked, chuckling. He knew exactly what kind of trouble his best friend could get into.
“Got an alert saying that he was speeding. Apparently, he decided that it was a great idea to show Rebekah how fast his car could go.”
All the guys listening to our conversation started laughing. Everyone knew that Seth loved his car and took any opportunity to show it off. It was only a matter of time before he did the same to Rebekah.
“That’s not surprising at all. How fast did he get up to this time?” Matt asked from across the room.
“One hundred and fifteen.” Matt let out a whistle at my reply. After Seth had gotten pulled over for the sixth time, I made it a rule that he had to share his location with me.
If I were going to have to pick him up from jail for reckless driving, I at least wanted a heads-up. So Seth helped set up the location tracker on my phone and fitted the device to the bottom of his car.
I received alerts every time he went above the speed limit, even just a little bit. I didn’t normally harp on how fast he drives; he was a grown man and could make his own decisions. He had my Little girl in the car, though, and I refused for any harm to come to her.
There was that thought again. Rebekah wasn’t my Little. Hell, I still didn’t know if she is a Little at all, but if she was, she wasn’t definitely not mine. I needed to stop thinking that way.
“Anyway, I talked to the sheriff this morning, and everything is good to go. They were able to arrest Stephanie’s stalker, and with all the information we provided, he will be in jail for a long time.”
“Does that mean we finally get to go home?” Eric asked.
Knowing that he hated being away from Sarah, I nodded.
I would send half of the team home while the others would stay here with me to finish tying up the rest of the loose ends.
It didn’t usually take long for cases to close once the perp had been caught, but I liked to stay around for a few extra days to make sure the locals didn’t need any more help.
“Eric, Matt, and Chase will head back to headquarters. Josh, Patrick, Zack, and I will be home in a few days after we finish up the paperwork.”
Eric, Matt, and Chase all smiled and left to pack up the gear we brought with us. They would leave this evening and make the eight-hour drive home tonight.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take us long to find the stalker when we arrived. Patrick had been protecting our client, Stephanie, for the past two weeks. When we had got the break in the case yesterday, the rest of the team made their way out to help finish everything up.
It had been a few hours since I got back to the house, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket and shot a text to Seth.
Beau: How are things going there today?
Seth: It’s been okay. Bex has been working diligently since she got here this morning. I had to come in several times and remind her to drink water.
Beau: Bex?
Seth: Bekah
Seth had already given her a nickname? Also, it seemed like she needed a keeper. I would have to remember to remind her to drink water and eat. Rolling my eyes at my thoughts again, I turned back to the conversation at hand.
Beau: Have you been drinking your water?
Seth: Yes, Sir.
Beau: And do you care to explain your behavior this afternoon?
Seth: No, Sir. I don’t believe I do.
I chuckled. The brat was being cheeky. Seth had never said outright that he was submissive, but there were signs. I would never call him out on it, but I knew that he did well with correction and direction.
If he wanted to share that part of himself with me one day, that was fine. If not, well, that was all right, too. No one on the team would judge him for whatever tastes he had in life.
After turning off my phone, I crawled into bed for the night. Half the team went home already, so it was a little quieter in the house right now. Now I just had to pretend like I was not counting down the days until I got home as well. For once, I had something to look forward to when I got there.
Slamming the door of my truck, I forced myself not to look toward Rebekah’s house.
It had been four days since the rest of the team left.
I stayed another two days and consulted on another case with the sheriff's office. I’d been home for a few days, but I had been doing everything in my power to ignore the urge to go and find her.
I found every excuse I could to work from home, but I was quickly running out of reasons not to go into the office, and the guys were starting to catch on to what I was doing.
“Hi, Beau!” a sweet voice said from across the driveway. Turning around, I came face-to-face with the woman who had taken up residence in my mind. Was she walking home this late in the evening alone?
“Little girl, what are you doing out so late?” I couldn’t fight the gruffness my tone held.
“Uh, yeah? I just got home from work.”
“And why in the hell are you walking instead of having one of the guys drive you home? While the neighborhood is relatively safe, you still shouldn’t be alone.”
Rebekah stared at me like I had three heads. “I always walk home. I don’t want to inconvenience any of the guys, so I always turn down their offers when they ask.”
I bit back my growl. Knowing my men, they had probably asked her many times to allow them to drive her home. None of them liked the idea of a woman walking around in the dark, let alone one who they knew and cared about. How I didn’t know she was walking home every day was beyond me.
“That stops now. From now on, I will pick you up and take you home every day.”
“Really, that’s not necessary. I am perfectly capable of walking. It’s good for me, the doctor said so.”
“Doctor? What doctor? Are you sick?”
The color drained from her face, but before I could push it, she changed the subject again. “That’s irrelevant right now. The point is, you don’t need to drive me around, Beau.”
“I know I don’t need to. I don’t do anything that I don’t want to, and I want to do this. So please, pity a man and let me drive you. For my own sanity.”
“Fine, but when I’m grumpy on the morning drive, you don’t get to say a word.”
I let out a chuckle. She could be grumpy all she wanted, as long as she was grumpy as the passenger in my truck. After grabbing my phone, I pulled up a new contact and handed it over.
“Here, put your number in.”
A blush bloomed across her cheeks as she looked at the phone in her hand. “I don’t have a phone.” I barely heard her whisper.
“Excuse me?”
Rebekah cleared her throat and squared her shoulders like she was fixing to go into battle. “I don’t have a phone yet. I’m working on it.”
That wouldn’t do. I needed to be able to make sure she was okay, and she needed a way to contact us if something was wrong. I’d be fixing that ASAP.
Grabbing my phone back when she held it out to me, I let out a grumble. “Okay, Little girl. Run along now, it’s getting dark. Make sure you lock your door when you get inside.”
I held back the grin at her eye roll as she marched across the street toward her house. My heart soared when she looked back my direction, giving me a wave, before heading inside and disappearing from my line of sight.
Once I’d gone inside, I grabbed a bottle of water and pulled my computer out of its bag.
Without thinking about it, I logged onto my account, quickly added a phone line for Rebekah, and purchased her a new phone, paying extra for shipping so it would be delivered to the office first thing in the morning.
My Little girl wouldn’t be without a phone if I had anything to say about it. I needed a way to make sure she was okay. The only challenge I knew I would have was getting her to accept it without a fuss. I looked forward to the sass she would throw my way, trying to argue her point.
The next morning, I dropped Rebekah’s new phone on Seth’s desk when it arrived. He would get it set up with everything she needed before I gave it to her. Tech was his area of expertise, and I trusted him to get everything sorted.
When I walked into my office, I paused. Did I walk into my office, because this looked nothing like it did when I left here over a week ago?
In the corner, sat two filing cabinets beside the one I already had.
There was a bookshelf on the other side of the room with binders stacked in it.
A couple of trays were arranged on my desk, and my computer screen sat on what looked like a mini table.
Rebekah had done a fantastic job getting things straightened up.
While everything looks fantastic, I couldn’t help but be slightly unsettled thinking about how none of my things were where they used to be.
Turning around, I found Rebekah standing at my office door with her hand raised, ready to knock.
“Good morning, Sir.”
God, I love the way she called me Sir, yet I knew hearing Daddy fall from her lips would be so much sweeter. “Good morning, Rebekah. I was just thinking about how good the office looks without all the papers being scattered all across it.”
She awarded me a showstopping smile, nodding in agreement. “Thank you, Sir. I’ve been working really hard to make sure everything had a place and the office was put back together before you returned. If you had seen the office a few days ago, you probably would have been terrified.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Want to show me where everything is so I don’t mess up your system?”
“Of course! Over there in those file cabinets are different case files, organized by date and in alphabetical order. The bookshelf holds manuals and important government documents that you are supposed to have on hand,” she said, walking toward my desk and dropping her bag on the floor beside it.
I followed her, pulled open one of the drawers on the cabinet, and raised my eyebrows, impressed.
“On your desk, there is the file tray with two different sections, one for documents you are done with and the other for papers you are still using. I put your monitor on a stand, so you have more room on the desk as well as somewhere to store extra pens and other things.” I turned to where she stood, pointing to the file tray she was talking about.
“Lastly, in one of the spare offices, I boxed up all the files that have been complete for three or more years and put them in there. That way, you can go back and reference any material if you need to.”
I was amazed at what she had accomplished.
“Rebekah, you did so well. The office hasn’t looked this great since the day that we moved in here.
I don’t know how you managed to do it all, but I’m so proud of you.
” I loved the blush she had when I praised her efforts.
“I had help with the last part. The rest of the guys had returned from the trip and refused to let me carry the boxes. So really, it was a group effort.”
“Don’t do that, Rebekah. Don’t belittle your hard work. You did all the hard parts; they just happened to lend the muscle at the end.”
There was a knock at my office door, and I tried to bite back the groan that escaped me.
There were days that I loved being the boss and others when I hated it.
Right now, I didn’t want anyone to interrupt the time I had with this captivating woman.
Especially since I had been denying myself for days.
“Boss, I have that package you dropped off,” Seth said, holding the box in his outstretched hand.
I grabbed the box and thanked him before turning back to Rebekah. “This is for you,” I informed her, settling in my chair before pulling out the phone to hand it over.
“Uh, no, it’s not.”