“That bitch has got to be kidding me!” Kayla was furious as she paced the huge space her office provided. Enraged, she walked over to her table and pushed every single thing off it, the files and computer clattering to the floor. Still, she was no way better than the way she felt when she first got in. Rina was getting on her nerves, and if she didn’t do something about it now, Kayla wouldn’t feel good about herself.
“I should have killed her when I had the chance to,” she murmured, pushing a stray curl from her face. “Now, I have myself to blame for watching her attempt to get back at me.”
An eerie laugh escaped her lips as she dropped onto the light pink couch at the other end of her office, where she received guests. “Does Rina actually think she stands a chance against me? She’s got to be kidding me. She’s just a fly around me, and when I squash her this time, I will make sure she doesn’t have the energy or life force to get back at me.”
Ringing the only person that she allowed into her plans, her secretary, Manuel, he stalked in with a knowing look in his eyes. When Kayla had received the note, he had done damage control, taking it off he hands and sending it to the lab for prints. But it had come back empty. The stranger must have been putting on a pair of gloves.
“Still nothing?” Kayla barked without turning around. Manuel, with his dark soulless eyes and perfectly shaved black hair, walked briskly to the couch.
“Nothing, ma’am,” he responded. “Whoever it was, she must have been long gone by now. And you said you don’t remember how she looks?”
Kayla threw him a sharp look. “I had almost a hundred people gathered around me,” she snapped suddenly. “Do you think I would be looking at the faces of those losers? All I wanted was to avoid them stepping on my red bottoms. How was I supposed to know someone out there knew what I did and was going to threaten me with it?”
Taking a deep breath, she adjusted her creaseless outfit and took a deep breath. “I still don’t think that was a stranger. End the wild goose chase. It was Rina Powers. I’m certain of it. I was friends with her long enough to know that she wouldn’t share the story of how she had lost her child with a total stranger, or anyone for that matter. I can bet the person who dropped that note had no idea what was inside.”
Manuel nodded, his empty eyes working. “What is the next step? Do you want us to send her a warning?”
“No,” Kayla chuckled, feeling like her normal self once again. “She would be expecting that. And you said there is someone watching her cottage every night, right?”
He nodded. “They look like they are cops.”
“Rina Powers,” Kayla mused to herself. “What are you up to?” Then she turned to Manuel. “She can’t be working alone. When Finn left her, she had nothing to her name, and no one was on her side. I made sure of that. So, how then, did she manage to get the cops to guard her through the night? She definitely cannot afford the car that came to pick her up today, nor the one you tailed but couldn’t find. Did you track the plates the last time?”
“Yes,” Manuel nodded. “The car belonged to some woman called Susan Montgomery. I tried looking into her but found nothing. I don’t think she’s a real person.”
Kayla scoffed and got up. “Are you beginning to slack on your job, Manuel?”
“No, ma’am.” He looked away from her, out through the windows.
“So how then has it taken you over four days to find a woman named Susan Montgomery, and yet, you come up with nothing? Do you want me to replace you before you understand how important this is to me? Or has Rina Powers bought you over to her side?” Kayla had to take a deep breath when she was done talking. She had exerted so much energy.
“I will find her in no time, Ma’am!” Manuel bowed slightly.
“And while you are at it, run the plates of the sports car that got her today, and make sure I don’t see your face until you have something tangible for me. Not unless you’re ready to end up like her baby.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Manuel nodded curtly before walking to the door. There, he stopped and turned around. “Mr. Smith is at the reception. He will be coming in right now.”
Kayla walked to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. She was bent rummaging through its contents when Finn walked in with a spring in his steps. She had just helped him land a deal with a producer which set she was working, and he came to ask her if she was open to a celebratory dinner. If he had asked before Rina’s act that day, Kayla would have looked forward to it.
But right now, all she wanted to do was wipe that smirk off Rina’s face.
“Hey, babe,” Finn wrapped a hand around her waist and pulled her up against him. “You won’t believe what happened today.”
“You got the job, didn’t you?” Kayla was really not in the mood to beat around the bush. And besides, she knew there was no way he wasn’t going to get the deal after she had flung her father’s name around, as well as her perfect record in the industry, painting Finn as the heartbroken man who lost it all after his wife betrayed him.
“Are you fine?” Finn turned her around to face him. “You look upset.”
“I am upset,” she asserted. “And it’s because your lousy ex-wife wouldn’t stop messing with me.”
“What did Rina do?”
“Even hearing her name gets me upset!” Kayla screeched and returned to the fridge, grabbing her bottle of water and walking away from Finn.
“That bitch!” he cursed. “When would she learn her lesson?”