Chapter 36
Beatrix
When I sitdown 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.”
“So maybe not a fan then?” Her confusion deepens and I’m glad I’m not alone.
“Maybe not. Cooper’s never thought it was a fan. He’s always thought it was me.”
“Does he know you’re talking to me?”
“Yes, he’s been telling me to talk to you the whole time. He basically insisted on it, and I finally agreed. I just hope I’m not adding more stress to you, Mads. I know it’s a lot to deal with with everything you have going on.”
“Bea. Please be serious. You’ve been helping with the stuff with Quentin and with my dad, and you’ve been amazing. If I’d known all this was going on—” She gives me a remorseful look. “I feel awful you didn’t think you could come to me.”
“No! I wanted you to be able to lean on me. I’m here for you. Helping you makes me feel better and helps me get my mind off things. We’re a team.”
“If we’re a team, you should have told me.” She gives me the eye.
“I know, I know. I should have. I’m sorry I didn’t. Like I said, it was the best of intentions.”
“All right, well, like we tell clients… no use in crying over the past. We just have to move forward from here. I’ll talk to Cooper. Meanwhile, give me everything you’ve got in writing. The timeline, copies of the photos, any suspicions, or gut feelings you have. Have you talked to the cops yet?”
“No. I briefly asked around about that, and they told me the cops were unlikely to do anything. With no name and no leads, they’d just file it away and move on. I didn’t want to bother. But Cooper has hired a private investigator in addition to the security team. He wants as many people as we can get looking into it.”
“What about your family, do they know? I feel like your dad would have opinions.”
“He does, and he did. He eased up a little after we hired the guy who used to work for him, but he’s still adamant about me moving home. I told him you and I just started planning to start our own PR firm. I’m not about to abandon you just because of this.”
“Well, first of all, I wouldn’t consider it you abandoning me if you had to do something for your safety, Bea. Your dad definitely has more protection and security than the average person does in their orbit, and unlike some fathers, he actually cares about you and Xander, even if he’s got a shitty way of showing it sometimes.”
“I know he cares, but he’s still insistent that he knows best when Xander and I are fully grown adults.”
“I get it.” Mads nods and smiles at me. “But let’s hope we can just get to the bottom of this between the security folks, the investigator, and me… I think we can figure out what’s going on and, hopefully, get the authorities to handle it from there.”
“Thank you. Truly. I’m so glad to have you in my life.” I reach over and squeeze her hand. It feels like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders just telling her.
“Likewise. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Especially in the last couple of months. You sticking with me while this was all falling apart. But I’m so excited about our PR firm and our plans. I think we’re going to break so much ground.”
“Toast?” I raise my water glass, and she laughs.
“Oh my god. You and your toasts lately.” She gives me a look but it crumbles into a smile and she raises her glass in response.
“There’s been a lot to celebrate!” I say defensively as I clink her glass. We down some water and then finish our orders, going back to discussing our PR and client agenda, and talking about all the holiday plans she has now that she’s moved in with Quentin.