Star Struck(48)

“Hailey, there’s something I didn’t share with the cops.” Garrett pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.

She read it. Her mouth dropped open. “How did they know I was here?”

“That’s a good question. Few people knew of your whereabouts. I need to make some phone calls.”

“Why do I have a feeling there’s something you’re not telling me?” Hailey asked.

“Did you read the fine print at the bottom of the paper?” Garrett asked.

Hailey reviewed the paper more closely. Her eyes squinted as she read the caption at the bottom. “GT Securities?”

“Trevon probably did this to scare you because of catching you here yesterday. That’s another reason why I didn’t tell the cops about this.”

“He has lost his doggone mind. Wait until I get my hands on him.”

“Oh I got this. Believe that. I need to get you settled in at your office and then I’ll be confronting Trevon in person.”

Hailey couldn’t believe Trevon would stoop to doing something so low knowing how scared she was. While Garrett was making his phone calls, she sent a few text messages cussing Trevon out. He claimed to not know what she was talking about. It’s not like he would admit it anyway. She felt confident that Garrett would get to the bottom of the situation. For once she was going to trust someone else to handle her problems.

By the time Garrett was dressed, he found Hailey in the living room waiting on him. “I know it’s going to rain now. Hailey Barnes beat me getting dressed.”

For the first time since the rock incident, Hailey smiled.



~ 29 ~



Garrett didn’t smile when he entered the conference room. Trevon, and all of his employees that knew anything about Hailey’s case avoided eye contact. Caroline tried to give him a cup of coffee but he passed. “There appears to be a breach somewhere in the building,” Garrett said, looking around the room. He continued to say, “One of our clients was camped out at my place for safety reasons and guess what? I get this. He held up a copy of the note. “Written on our notepad paper.”

People started mumbling to one another. Trevon said, “I know you don’t think anyone of us had anything to do with it. She has a fan. The fan could have gotten the paper from anywhere. From the studio.”

Garrett hadn’t thought of that. Brenda had been working with Hailey there and could have left the notepad there. He made a mental note to get in touch with Brenda after this impromptu meeting. In fact, he decided not to wait. “Caroline, call Brenda on her cell phone.”

Brenda answered after a few rings. After checking on her father, Garrett apologized for calling under the circumstances. Brenda said, “I didn’t use any of our stationery at the studio. I never take a client’s file with me. I try to record everything in my brain.”

“Thanks. Keep us updated on your dad.”

He turned and looked at Trevon. “That throws that theory out the window. Anybody else have any more great ideas?”

Silence. Garrett didn’t want to believe any one of his employees would do something like that but he had to make sure. Hailey’s life may depend on it. They invaded not only her privacy but his by trespassing and destroying his property.

“I apologize if I offended anyone but we can not have people working for GT that can’t be trusted. I would appreciate it if you all would go over any visitors and identify any that may be of questionable character. That’s all.”

He stood and looked out the window as people filed out the room. Trevon approached him from behind. “You know you’re wrong for calling us all in here for this. Hailey got your nose wide open.”

“Look Trevon, I’m this close,” he held out his hands. “from punching you the hell out, so I would suggest that you get out of my face.”

“I’m the one who should have a beef with you.”

“You know what. Screw it. If you want to fight, come on.” Garrett unloosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves.

Caroline walked back into the conference room. “Everything okay in here?” She looked at Garrett and then back at Trevon.

Trevon backed back from Garrett and was the first to speak. “Everything’s fine. We’re just having a discussion about this weekend’s event.”

“I wanted to remind you I was supposed to leave early today but under the circumstances, if you need me to stay, I can,” Caroline said.

“No need to,” Garrett said.

“You sure?” she asked.

Trevon said, “One of the other ladies will have you covered. Don’t worry about things here.”