Love Imagines (Sully Point, Book 6) (12 page)

It was time to hunt down Maelynne.

* * * *

Ben was drinking a cup of coffee and eating
unbelievably luscious coconut donuts when there was a knock at the door of his
cabin. His hand jerked and he spilled a bit of coffee, accompanied by his
swears.

"Coming!" he yelled.

He sopped up the coffee with a kitchen towel,
tossed it in the sink, and answered the door. Two men stood on the porch, both
wearing black sunglasses and windbreakers of black as well.

"Sam Carter sent us," the first one said. "May we
come in?"

"Uh, well, let's see...do you have any
identification?" Ben asked.

The second man gave him a tight smile. "It's right to be careful like that."

Both men showed driver's licenses and private
detective licenses. Then the first man handed Ben a business card with a number
on it and the name Security Unlimited.

"You can call there to verify we work for them.
And you can call Sam and tell him that Kevin and Leo are in town. We guarded
him a few years back."

"If you'll excuse me a minute," Ben said, taking
the card with him and shutting the door.

He called Sam, who verified it was the same guys
he'd known, after Ben described them. Then he called the company to verify
these were the guards. He felt funny asking for all this corroboration, but he
knew he had to be careful. Nothing said Suzanne might not hire people to get to
him.

After the calls, he let the two guys into the
house. Leo seemed to be the one in charge, and Kevin was the one who'd smiled
at him. He offered them coffee, which they accepted. They all sat at the
kitchen table.

"Here's what will be happening," Leo said. "We're
going to be with you wherever you go today. There will be a total of six guys
working with you and six with Rose Carter. We go with you but we try and stay
in the background. We will especially be keeping an eye out for Suzanne
Hardtman. We have her picture."

He pulled out a photo of Suzanne and handed it to
Ben.

"Has she changed much since this photo was taken?"
Leo asked.

"No, this looks recent. She still has the short
haircut, still looks like this."

"We'll be watching for her."

"What happens if she comes up to me?"

"You say what you need to say to her, while we
move up closer to you. We don't want to be obvious yet, but at some point we
will probably have to let her know we are guarding you. She's done nothing
objectionable so far, but with stalkers, it's usually just a matter of time."

"You've heard about Ed Carter working on this?"

"The ex-homicide detective, yes, Sam told us. It
will be a big help to have his experience. All set then? Any other questions?"

"No, I'm set."

Kevin pointed to the box on the table. "Are those
donuts from the Bakery?"

"Kev..." Leo said.

Ben laughed. "Help yourselves and please, finish
them off. I can't afford to eat more than one and still stay in shape. I need
to finish getting ready for the day. I'll be back in a few."

He turned back to look and smiled when he saw them
both taking a donut from the box.

* * * *

Rose had looked in the Bakery for Maelynne, and
was headed to Deb's Deli, when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Rose, where the hell are you?"

"Sam? What's wrong?"

"You didn't answer the door when the security
guards showed up. They called me to see if I wanted them to break down the
door."

"Damn, I totally forgot, Sam. I had something I
needed to do and I just left the apartment without thinking of those guys.
Should I go meet up with them?"

"Yes! Call me once you get there safely. No, wait,
just stay on the phone."

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" she asked,
turning around and walking back toward her apartment.

"No, I don't. I remember what Patrice turned out
to be like and I don't want anything happening to you."

"Okay, I promise to stick with the guards. I'm still getting
used to all this."

"Yeah, I know."

"There they are, one at the door and one at the
bottom of the stairs."

"Stay safe, Rosie, please."

"I will Sam. Talk to you later."

She put the phone away and introduced herself to
both men and invited them into the apartment. The men introduced themselves as
Mel and Owen. Mel had a crew-cut and the look of an ex-military man. Owen had
light brown hair and a non-descript face. Both men gave off an air of confidence in their abilities.

"Here's what you need to know," Owen said. "You go
anywhere, from now on, we go with you. We can stand a bit back from you at this
point, meaning we'll try to blend in and stay discreet. If things escalate,
expect for us to become more obvious about guarding you."

"Did you finish your errand this morning?" Mel
asked.

"No, I didn't get the chance to find the person
I'm looking for. Actually, maybe I should run my idea by you guys first," Rose
said.

She went on to explain the plan of a planted rumor
about not dating Ben. Mel and Owen exchanged glances and shrugged.

"Might should run it by Ed first," Owen said. "It could lead to trouble if Suzanne ever figures out it's a lie."

"I suppose she would be more apt to react if she
found out it wasn't true. I'll call Dad, and see what he has to say."

Her father, after hearing the idea, flatly vetoed
it. Even though he didn't want Rose in danger, he clearly thought starting a
rumor that was a complete lie wasn't the answer. She ended the call and turned
to the bodyguards.

"Well, guys, what's next?"

"One of us will be stationed in the parking lot,
out of sight. The other will stay up here—and that would be Mel today. I'll
take the outside duty. Just go on with your day, and if you need to be
somewhere, we'll go with you."

"Okay. I guess I'll read for a while," Rose said.
She curled up on the sofa with a book. Mel took a seat near the door and front
window, while Owen left for the parking lot.

Within fifteen minutes Rose was utterly bored.
About the time she was thinking of leaving the apartment, Maggie appeared on
her doorstep with Beth, to visit.

"Thanks you guys, for coming. I didn't know what
to do with my day."

Maggie laughed. "We have an ulterior motive."

"That's right," Beth said. "We heard through the
family grapevine that Dad found Ben, here in the apartment, when he arrived this morning.
We want to hear everything!"

Mel cleared his throat. "Ladies, I'll just stand
guard from outside on the stairs, if you're comfortable with that."

Rose grinned at him. "Thanks for giving us some
privacy, Mel. See you later."

After he shut the front door behind him, the three
sisters looked at each other and burst out laughing. Maggie brought out a bag
of goodies from the Bakery and they moved into the yellow kitchen to sit at the
glossy orange table.

"Mmm, hand me one of those apple muffins, Maggie.
Spill, Rose. Tell us all about last night." Beth asked.

"Beth!" Rose said. "We had a good time last night.
A great time. Maybe the best-time-ever kind of a time."

"Wow, Rose, seriously? Was this your first time
together?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, but I'm not going into details. Let's just
say...it was wonderful."

"You look relaxed for the first time since you got
here," Beth commented.

"We were up until four..."

"I think I'm jealous," Maggie said. When the
others looked at her in surprise she laughed. "Not of the man you're with, but
of your ability to stay awake so late. Since I've been pregnant I crash by ten
at night and don't wake up until seven. It's crazy."

Rose leaned over and patted her on the belly.
"You're doing hard work, you know, being pregnant. You're growing a human in
there! Your body needs every bit of that sleep to prepare for the next day, to
recoup its energy. I'm just glad you're sleeping so well. That's fantastic."

"Thanks, Doc. I guess you're right."

Beth looked at Rose keenly. "So, what about the
doctoring business? What's really going on?"

Rose looked from one to the other and realized
they were concerned, not just curious. She sighed and clasped her hands in
front of her on the table.

"I'm not going back. The hospital doesn't want me
to return."

"No! What happened?" Maggie asked.

"Rose...what will you do?" asked Beth.

"There are options. I'm giving myself some time to
think about what I really want to do in medicine. I realize now that I had
become completely burned out. I stayed working in Trauma for too long. I went
from one crisis to another to another...it was never-ending. I didn't have any
down time. When I went home it was to grab a few hours of sleep passed out in
exhaustion. I didn't have any friends except at work, and I didn't do anything
fun. My whole life revolved around work. I'm starting to see that it was no way
to live, that I wasn't really living at all."

"Oh, Rose, I'm so sorry you had it that rough,"
Maggie said. "You stay here in Sully Point as long as you need, to figure
things out. There's no rush at all. The apartment is paid for, you'd have no
expenses. Well, except for food. But we could help out with that, couldn't we
Beth?"

"Of course we could," Beth said quickly.

Rose smiled at them and got tears in her eyes. "You
guys are terrific. I think I can afford to buy food, however. I never spent any
money while I was being a workaholic. I have money in the bank. Besides,
Maggie, you already bought me a whole new wardrobe."

"I like spending money on other people," Maggie said
with a grin.

"How does Eric feel about that?" Beth asked.

"Eric could care less about the money. We have
investments that make more and more money. Eric says money is there to be
used."

"He sounds like an admirable guy," Rose said. "I'm
looking forward to getting to know him better. Listen, maybe you guys can help
Ben and me out. You know about the security guards, obviously. Ben and I need
reasons to be at the same place at the same time. Like the family barbecue
coming up. When is it?"

"Saturday," Beth said.

"Actually, it's your help I need the most, Beth.
We need to come up with a disguise for me for when I go over to Ben's place,
just in case she's watching."

"Sure, I'll bring you a dark wig from the
Playhouse. It reminds me of when you used to play dress-up in Mom's studio.
Here you are, first, pretending to be a model and now needing to pretend to be
someone else. Don't worry. I'll get you fixed up."

"Thanks."

"Do you really think things are going to get
dangerous?" Maggie asked.

"I hope not, but there's no way to know," Rose
replied. "Anyway, what should I bring to the cook-out?"

"Uh, you still don't cook, do you?" Maggie said,
clearly trying to sound diplomatic.

"Well...no, not really. But I'm a fiend at chopping
up lettuce for salad."

"Okay. Let's call Sam and see if they need salad,"
Beth said as she pulled out her cell phone.

Sam transferred them to Anna, who told them to
call Frank because he was organizing the food. Beth hung up with them and
called Frank, who was delighted that someone wanted to bring salad.

"What do you think I should put in it besides
lettuce and tomato?"

Maggie shrugged. "Whatever fresh veggies sound
appealing. No meats though. Just veggies. And don't put any dressing on it.
I'll let Frank know he needs to mix up a batch of his special salad
vinaigrette."

"I'll bring over my huge plastic bowl that has a
lid for you to use," Beth said. "I haven't known what to do with that giant
thing."

"Beth...I gave that to you," Maggie said, looking
hurt.

"Oh my gosh, Mags, I'm sorry," Beth said at once.

"Just kidding you. I gave you all the flameless
candles...and the set of baking dishes...and, well, I don't remember."

Rose smiled at them. It had been too long since
she'd seen them kidding around. Impulsively, she said, "Let's have dinner, as three
couples, nobody else. I want to get to know Eric and William and I want you all
to get to know Ben."

"What about Sam and Anna?" Maggie asked.

"Oh, wow, I forgot about them. I think because we
just had dinner with them last night. They've had more chances to get to know
Ben."

"That's okay then, if they had you over last
night. Do you want to go out somewhere for dinner?" Beth asked.

"I would, but we don't want Suzanne to see us
together. And we have no idea where she'll be tonight."

"I know what to do. Everyone should come to my
house," Maggie said. "I'll get Eric to make his lasagna. It's awesome."

"Eric can cook?" Rose asked.

"Only a few dishes, but he does those few really
well. I'll make a Waldorf salad and garlic bread. I know you always loved Waldorf salad when Mom made it,
Rose. Maybe I'll make a chocolate cake, too," Maggie said.

"Are you still eating chocolate like it's going to
disappear tomorrow?" Beth asked.

Maggie laughed. "No, that seems to have passed.
But I do still love a rich, moist chocolate cake. Anna has been teaching me her cake-making
secrets."

"We'd better call the guys and make sure they
don't make any other plans," Beth said.

The three women got out their phones. Rose went
into the bedroom while Beth landed in the living room and Maggie stayed in the
kitchen. Rose felt anxious to hear Ben's voice.

"Hi, Rose," he said.

"Hi, yourself," she replied.

"What's up? You caught me right before we do the
next run-through."

"You're at the Playhouse?"

"Yes. And no, there's been no sign of Suzanne."

"I like hearing that. I was calling to see if you wanted to have
dinner at Maggie and Eric's place tonight. William and Beth will be there, too.
There will be lasagna and chocolate cake. Around six o'clock."