She waved to security when she walked in. She was an accountant. Yeah, mom, I can take care of myself. They actually paid good wages here. They could afford to. She knew, since she did the books. They actually hired several accountants. They were that vast.
“Dee. How are you?” Cheryl one of the secretaries called out to her.
She changed course to stop and talk for a minute. “Doing good, but as you can see, I am late.”
“Hun, you look like you slept in that outfit.”
“That’s because I did. See you later.”
Anyone who knew her knew she wasn’t the same anymore. There was a time when she wouldn’t have been caught in anything but the finest, sharpest clothes. Now she really didn’t care.
She still cared about herself, barely, but she didn’t care about the outer trappings of clothes and even hair. Her extensions were gone, nothing but tracks anyway.
She now wore her long, but way too fine hair straight. It was funny how different it made her look. She was still attractive, but not really cover girl model material anymore.
The smell of donuts stopped her march towards her desk. Her stomach rumbled. She had just eaten that pastry five hours ago. Her stomach protested and before that you ate three days ago.
Oops she had forgotten that. So much for sticking it to her mom. She went over and picked up a nice big fluffy donut and grabbed another cup of coffee. Coffee was appropriate at all times as far as she was concerned.
Finally, she was at her desk. Maybe her boss would not notice she was late. He would notice. The man noticed everything. Taking another bite of her donut she logged into her computer and hit the net.
She wanted to start by looking at the bank account. Although the money in there was not hers, now that Rena was tied to it by the owner, she wanted to make sure none of it was missing.
She had noticed a month ago that money seemed to be rerouted. Not only was she not a thief, she didn’t want one on her shift. She had gone and told Vance, who was head of the department.
Many times the brothers headed each department personally, but they had brought in managers not too long ago, because of things that had happened. She wasn’t sure that she trusted Vance. Then again she was justifiably paranoid. She did try and remember that.
She had informed Vance of the suspected missing funds. Fortunately it was not from the job sites she was responsible for.
She started with checking the balance. They had such a healthy bank account in this economy that hundreds of thousands of dollars could go missing with no one except the accountant, being any wiser.
She checked the beginning balance with the ending balance last night. She looked at every withdrawal and deposit. Money was still being directed elsewhere. There were two withdrawals that she couldn’t account for, again neither in her particular job sites.
Did she bring them to Vance’s attention again or leave well enough alone? The question became a moot point when Niko walked in.
Niko was one of Aran’s brothers, or at least they called themselves brothers. None of them looked alike. Maybe they had different mothers. They all shared a last name.
Ironically, it was Dare. Niko Dare. The man who haunted her dreams when the nightmares gave her a few minutes of peace. She had dreamed of him as she slept in SB’s earlier. He had stood over her and sang her to sleep in a language she had never heard before.
Chapter Two
Niko knew she was there. He always knew where she was. A bonding of sorts had occurred. It was not permanent, unless he wanted it to be. He would have time to decide that, but for now he was aware of her.
She may be going crazy, he had considered that possibility many times. If so, he was going with her. He waited for her at night, knowing she couldn’t sleep, knowing the dreams and the terrors she envisioned would drive her to leave her house.
Horror drove her, and she drove him. He waited by her door invisible, unseen to the world, but not to her.
Her physical eyes never saw him, but she knew he was there. She knew his M.O. She knew it was him and not some random stranger. At first she had freaked. He had thought she would have to be sedated. No, not his female. She had taken herself in hand.
She had forced herself to breathe slowly, calm down. That had been the first day, when she had constantly looked over her shoulder and questioned her sanity.
They were past the first day now. She looked for him, expected him to be there. She walked the night street with a bolder step than before. She knew nothing would dare touch her.
He allowed his lips to twitch. He wanted to protect her. The twitch became a cynical smile as he thought of all the other things he wanted to do to her. None of them had anything to do with protection.
The feel of her eyes on him had his heart racing. Well, it would be racing if he were human. Since he was other he was able to control the beat, even under extreme distress. He qualified this as extreme distress.