Page 19 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity
“You got it, boss. It will take us a few to get ready.”
“Once you’re in the truck, call in and I’ll take control of the house. See you in two hours. You can get some sleep and then go over the dupe I made of her Facebook page.”
“You said we’d get to why he would put up videos that no one could watch,” Sky said, glancing between Reece and Mina.
“You can look at that page as well.” Mina nodded. “He’s started a page on Facebook calling for your arrest for all the gallery crimes.”
Reece paused what he was doing to tip his head at his boss. “The page is set up like a petition?”
“It’s more like a hate page,” Mina explained. “He’s posting pictures of the galleries after the crimes.”
“Listen,” Sky said with a shake of her head. “I’m not a big name in the art world. Literally no one outside of Duluth even knows who I am.”
“While that may be true, he’s working hard to change that,” Mina explained. “He’s hanging out all the dirty laundry he can find about you. Whether any of it is true or not isn’t what matters. What matters is convincing the public that it is.”
“Is he having any luck with that?” Reece asked, anger filling his veins until his blood boiled and his ears turned hot.
“Not that I can see. As I said, we’ll look at it when you get here. I can’t convince Facebook to shut it down becausehe set it up as a business page using your personal page to do it, so to them, it looks legit.”
“But it’s my page!” Sky exclaimed, and Reece could tell she was holding back tears of anger and anguish.
“It is, but he changed the name and deleted all of your postings, so it doesn’t look like it was ever your page.”
“I don’t understand how he could do that,” Sky said, her tone telling Reece she was hitting the end of her ability to reason. Since he still had to get her to safety, he glanced at Mina, who nodded in agreement.
“I’ll explain that on the way,” Reece said. “We need to get out before we can’t.”
“I thought you said everything is quiet,” Sky said, the words filled with nerves.
“It is,” Mina said patiently. “And we want to keep it that way, so it’s time to move. Will you be ready in ten?”
With a nod, Mina disconnected. Reece took Sky’s hand to calm her. “I got you. Secure Watch is behind us, so don’t be afraid.”
“Too late,” she whispered, her smile watery. “That ship sailed.”
“I’ve let you down once, Sky. It won’t happen again.”
Not wanting to see the look in her eyes, he pulled her into him, his hand cradling her head as he held her to his chest. When she let out a shuddering sigh of relief, he silently vowed to protect her for life. All he had to do was convince her that she didn’t need protection from him.
* * *
THE DARKNESS ENGULFED THEM, but Sky had never felt more exposed. With the blanket over her, just her nose and mouth stuck out. She couldn’t see where they were going and had to trust the man behind the wheel to get her to safety. Butthen, she did trust him, or she wouldn’t have called him, right? The truth came down to one thing, she realized. She trusted him with her life but not her heart. Call it a preemptive strike by not putting herself in the position to watch Reece walk away when he experienced how hard her life was. That would be easier than believing for a heartbeat that they could be more than old friends.
The way he’d held her earlier before they left the safe house told her that much. He was strong but gentle. Comforting but honest. He didn’t dismiss her fears by telling her everything would be okay—an empty promise in this situation. Everything might not be okay, but he would be there to make sure she was physically safe. She’d accepted that she might have to start over with her career even though the very idea made her sick. She had worked so hard for so long to prove herself as an artist, but now, one man was systematically dismantling her work. If even one gallery owner decided she was guilty, trial or no trial, she might as well hang up her easel and find a new career.
“Hanging in there?” Reece asked, his mouth covered with his arm as though he were coughing. He had told her he couldn’t talk to her, or it would be obvious he wasn’t alone.
“Yes, but it’s not easy in this position,” she admitted. “How much farther?”
“Ten,” he grunted as though coughing again.
Ten minutes or ten miles, she didn’t know, but she could hang on that long if it meant they’d get to safety. The last thing she wanted was Reece to get hurt in all this mess—bodily or professionally. In her opinion, it was above and beyond for Mina to bring them to Secure Watch, but maybethat was how they did business. Skylar knew she could never repay them, but she vowed to try.
“When this is over, I’m going to talk to my parents and the lawyer about getting an advance from my settlement to pay Secure Watch,” she said, knowing he couldn’t respond. “I can’t say I don’t have the money when I do.”
As expected, he said nothing but dropped his hand from the wheel and squeezed her shoulder, telling her without words that he had things to say about it. They rode in silence for what seemed like forever to her, his hand still on her and his breathing steady, though she knew he was wound tight and on watch for the slightest thing to be off. All she wanted to do was get to Secure Watch, find a comfortable position for the first time in days and fall asleep. Her body was starting to feel the effects of the last forty-eight hours. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to require more medical attention than they could give her.
“You will not take money from your settlement account to pay Secure Watch,” he said, his words clipped.
