18. Chapter 16
NOAH
“ W hat did you do to Frankie?” Trent burst through the doors.
Noah’s eyebrows pulled together. “I drove her to work this morning. She gave me a little scare when she was at the bus stop and not in front of her apartment, but I was calm and gentle with her.”
“No, you must have said something to her!” he raised his voice.
“Poor girl is in the employees’ room with tears in her eyes, and doesn’t want to see anyone.
She panicked when she heard I was going to talk to you.
What the fuck did you do to her? I thought you wanted to be with her. Do you not anymore?”
Noah stood up and started walking toward the door. “I need to go make sure she’s okay.”
“No.” Trent stood his ground. “You aren’t going to talk to her today. She needs time to wrap her brain around everything and not panic when she hears your name. What did you do?”
Noah thought back to the drive. Nothing seemed different. He talked to her like he usually would—being caring and talking about work. What was wrong with that? He paced up and down his office, thinking through everything.
“Can you really not think about what you did?” Trent asked. “What were you guys talking about?”
“I talked to her about being safe, and that she could always text or call me to do it. That I’m always there for her. That I want to be needed by her, and then I talked about work and how she didn’t need to make up for the time today,” Noah explained and stopped in his tracks.
“Frankie is fragile, and you need to remember that,” Trent reminded him. “She probably was confused about why you were talking about wanting to be needed and then going to work.”
“Shit,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, shit. She is a good girl. If you are going to continue to play with her emotions, I’m going to take her away,” Trent threatened.
“Even if that means losing Monty?” Noah raised his eyebrow.
“Monty will understand what I’m doing. Don’t bring her into this. We are talking about Frankie, the girl you claimed but are making mistakes with.” He pointed a finger at Noah.
Noah sighed and plopped down in his chair. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just want to make sure that she is okay. I want to clear everything up so I don’t lose my chance with her.”
Trent stood in the same space, like he knew Noah was going to get up at any point and try to talk to Frankie.
“Give her some time to cool off and get her emotions in check. She was shaking all over, even her voice,” Trent said.
“I know you want to go and talk to her badly, I would if it were Monty, but give her some time. You don’t want to catch her when she isn’t fully composed and she says something she doesn’t mean. ”
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. This was going to kill him. He didn’t know if he could do it.
“Just give her time. I know I’ve said it a lot, but give her time to calm down and regain everything,” Trent suggested.
“Okay,” Noah finally said. “I’ll wait until later today or tomorrow.”
Even if it killed him. Noah didn’t want to talk to her. He didn’t want her to quit if he talked to her too soon.
“You said she was shaking?” Noah asked, looking up.
Trent nodded and stepped away from the door and further into the room.
“Yes, she was. Her hand was shaking really badly when she held it back for me to stop walking in. Then her voice shook, but I just thought it was because she was emotional, but she wrapped her arms around her waist. But those all could be because of emotions.”
“They could be, but it could also be something else,” Noah pointed out.
Frankie was hiding something from him, and he was going to figure out what it was.
“What makes you think that?” Trent asked, sitting down now.
“She lied to me when she was being interviewed.” Noah thought back.
“And you let her get away with it?” Trent looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
“For now. She needed the job, and I knew she didn’t want to talk about it yet, so I didn’t push. But I’m about to. I don’t know what she’s keeping from me, but I think it has to do with her health,” he explained.
Things just weren’t adding up.
“Well, living in that neighborhood probably doesn’t help. I don’t think she’s getting much sleep, so you can’t blame her there,” Trent replied. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep much if I lived there. Especially if I were a woman. That would be scary. When are you going to move her?”
Noah clenched his jaw. He wanted to get her out of there when he found out but he made that deal… that stupid deal.
“When something dangerous happens, but I’m about to ask a friend of mine to break into someone else’s apartment,” Noah grumbled.
Trent chuckled and shook his head. “If she finds out, she won’t be happy. I bet something will happen today or tomorrow. It’s bound to happen.”
It was, and he just hoped that when it did, it wasn’t anything related to Frankie. He wanted her safe, and knowing she was there wasn’t making him very confident.
“But I do have to say there is something off.” Trent looked to the wall. “I saw her taking pills yesterday in the middle of the day. I don’t know what they were, and she didn’t see me, but she was trying to keep them hidden.”
“Drugs?” Noah asked and then shook his head. “She doesn’t do drugs.”
How could Trent think Frankie could do drugs? She wasn’t the type of girl to do them.
“I didn’t say drugs, but pills. I saw the pill bottle, a prescription bottle. She could have something that she needs to take meds for. We don’t know anything,” Trent said.
“I know that.” He sighed. “I know she wouldn’t do drugs, and I wasn’t implying that you were.”
“But you kind of were.” Trent tilted his head and shrugged.
“But it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t going to say anything because it’s none of my business, well, I thought you might want to know.
Don’t do anything stupid, though. If you are going to ask her about it, just be blunt and don’t try to weasel it out of her or dig into her life.
She won’t like that if she finds out, and you will lose her. ”
“I’m not going to, and I’m insulted you think that.” Noah scoffed. “I hate it when people try to do that in my life, so I’m not going to do it in hers. I don’t want her to hate me.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” he mumbled.
Noah glared at Trent. “Do you need anything else?”
Trent chuckled and shook his head before standing. “If you need anything, let me know.”
Noah watched him leave before he pulled up the camera feed on his computer to try to find out where Frankie was. He didn’t do this often, but he needed to see with his own eyes that she was fine.
Okay…that was a lie. Noah found himself opening the club’s security cameras on his computer several times a day to check on her.
He wanted to make sure she was okay and didn’t need anything.
Some employees struggled because they didn’t want to ask for help or felt like they were bothering anyone, and he didn’t want Frankie, or really anyone, to believe that.
Frankie was cleaning some of the toys in the basket with a disinfectant wipe. She paused every couple of seconds to look and admire the toys before gently placing them back in. It was like she was worried she might hurt them.
Cute.
“Soon, tiny. Soon you’ll be able to play with those all you want,” he mumbled.