Page 32

“Hey, this came for you last Friday, but you’d already headed out for the day,” Bobby, the mail room guy, announced, handing an envelope to Carys. “I thought I’d deliver it to you earlier than the normal mail since it’s marked private and personal.”

Carys stared at the envelope. This one was typed and, in the upper left hand corner, the return address was from “William Bescer, Esquire” along with a posh, Philadelphia address.

Carys didn’t have the stomach to open the envelope now.

Besides, this was a personal issue. She’d open it on her lunch break which was in… now!

Carys grabbed her tote bag and left the office, ignoring the group of co-workers who were gathered in the staff kitchen, reveling and laughing about the success of the morning’s meeting. Yeah, the campaign was going to be great. Unfortunately, she didn’t feel like celebrating.

Walking out of the building, Carys headed for the cozy, tree-lined, brick courtyard that had been created between this building and the next.

The two buildings were probably owned by the same management company because they were similar in style.

She sat down underneath one of the colorful trees, then pulled the letter out.

For several moments, Carys simply stared at the letter, wondering what the letter was about.

It had to be bad news. Nothing that came from a lawyer’s office was good news.

Her stomach tightened as she thought about Tanya.

The woman had been jogging by her apartment a few days ago.

And had Carys seen her other times? There had been a flash of a dark haired woman walking away from Carys’s building that had looked vaguely familiar.

Had that been Tanya? Had her former boss taken to stalking Carys to exact some sort of revenge plot?

Carys thought about tearing open the envelope and reading the message inside.

But something warned her that she wasn’t going to like what she found.

So instead, she stuffed it back into her bag and looked around.

She needed food. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday when she’d had the cappuccino while watching the boats on the river.

But now it was time for some real food. After the confrontation with Rafi, she was starving.

What was it about one’s temper that aroused an appetite?

Carys walked down the sidewalk to one of the downtown delis.

She was in the mood for a sandwich with cheese and some sort of bad-for-you, salt-laden meat that tasted wonderful but probably caused cancer.

Automatically, Carys reached into her tote bag for her phone, intending to call Andi and ask if she was in the mood for a deli sandwich as well.

But then she remembered that Andi had kissed Rafi on Saturday morning. Andi had been like a sister to Carys, but no more. Andi’s relationship to the cheating bastard meant that Carys would have to find a new best friend.

And that tore at her heart. Andi didn’t know that they were dating the same guy.

Andi wouldn’t know why Carys had ignored her friend’s calls and texts for the past two days.

So Carys pulled her phone out and pulled up the texting app.

She read through the last message from Andi, sniffing as tears threatened yet again.

No! There had to be some way that Carys could get over Rafi. Maybe eventually, she could handle seeing Andi and Rafi together. Or maybe…just maybe…Rafi would get tired of Andi and move on!

No, that was a terrible idea. Carys remembered how happy Andi had looked on Saturday. She’d been glowing as she’d leaned her head back to look up at Rafi. And he’d been happy as well. Damn it! This was all too much to handle!

She glanced into the window of the deli and…

froze. Quickly, she looked away, but Carys definitely recognized the man following her.

She’d only seen a quick glimpse of his reflection in the deli’s window, but she knew him.

Unfortunately, Carys couldn’t remember where she’d seen him before.

Had he been at the office? That would make sense since they were only two blocks from where she worked.

But Carys was relatively sure that he didn’t work for the same company.

Maybe he worked in one of the nearby offices?

Carys casually slipped into the deli, waiting to see what her “shadow” would do next. If the man strolled on by, Carys would laugh and tell herself that she was being paranoid. But if the man…oh no, he did ! The guy followed her into the deli, standing in line behind two other customers!

Okay, so he was following her. But why? Her thoughts flashed back to Beth’s minivan in the parking lot of her building, her father confronting her in front of her office, Tanya shoulder-checking her several days ago…and the letter from the law office! The mysterious letter in her bag.

Or…was this man the creep who had been breaking into her apartment and stealing random stuff?

Trying to appear normal, Carys stood in line, nibbling on her thumb as she tried to figure out a way to get away from the man.

But as she stood in line behind four other people, Carys turned slightly, using her peripheral vision to see if he was still there.

He was!

“Next!”

Carys jumped, looking around. The customers in front of her had already given the clerk their lunch orders and had moved down the counter.

It was her turn to order. Carys wasn’t sure what she wanted, so she ordered something simple.

“Just a ham and Swiss on pumpernickel,” she told the guy, not sure why she was whispering.

She checked over her shoulder at the man at the end of the line. He was trying to appear casual, but she caught him glancing at her.

“Damn it!” she whispered, moving down the counter. She paid for her sandwich, declined a soda, then took the bag handed to her.

“Bathrooms?” she asked, still whispering while trying to avoid looking at the man again.

“In the back, last door on your right,” a tired woman answered, then looked over Carys’s shoulder to the next customer.

Carys mumbled a thank you and turned down the hall.

Her nerves were rattling and her heart rate picked up.

If she kept this up, she was going to have a heart attack!

Carys crept down the hallway. There was a door with a red bar across it that announced that alarms would sound if she went through it.

Deciding that an alarm would give away her plan, she pushed through the “employees only” door and found herself in a storage room.

“Now what?” she whispered, looking around.

Before she could decide, a deli employee, hauling a bag of trash, rushed through the storage area.

He didn’t notice her, but Carys followed him.

Just as she’d hoped, he led her to the back door of the deli, which led to the alley.

No alarms went off and no one noticed her as she slipped past the guy.

While the deli employee hefted the trash bag into the dumpster, Carys ran down the alley.

Should she go back to the office? Maybe she could tell Rafi, ask him for help. No, that was a bad idea. But maybe she could speak to one of the guards? He had all of those bodyguards to protect him. Surely, one of them could give her advice. Or maybe she should just go to the police?

“And tell them what?” she muttered, ignoring startled glances as she hurried down the street.

But seriously, if she went to the police, they would laugh her out of the station.

The only thing she could tell the police is that someone might be following her and someone might be breaking into her apartment to steal random things like potholders or a single drinking glass or her toothbrush or… whatever!

Carys’s phone rang. Again. She pulled it out of her bag and nearly burst into tears when she saw Rafi’s number on the screen. Closing her eyes, she silenced her phone. She couldn’t talk to Rafi. Not now. Not when it felt as if her whole world was…what? Being stolen from her bit by bit?

A tear trailed down her cheek and she wiped it away. She was done crying! It was time to figure out what the hell was going on! The only problem was…how!