Chapter 102 Chapter 4–Book 3

Warning: Language

Rachel woke to her alarm clock blaring. Her sister was pounding on her door, and all she wanted was to pull the covers back over her head. She slammed her hand on the alarm.

“Okay, I'm getting up.”

Her sister came into the room and landed on her bed. “Why were you late last night? I was getting worried, but then you finally pulled up, and I was able to fall asleep.”

Rachel wasn’t sure how to answer. She still hadn’t processed it herself.

“I had to work over. I didn’t know about it until almost the end of my shift. I didn’t call or text because I figured you'd be in bed already, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

Anna stared at Rachel with a knowing look. Anna could always smell a lie. Anna shrugged, though, and went on to other topics, for which Rachel was grateful.

After showering and getting ready, Rachel had her morning cup of coffee, something that turned her from an autopilot robot into a functioning human.

Today was Saturday, so that meant she only had her day job. She had grocery shopping to do, but that was all. She had the rest of the evening and night off.

She hated her day job. It was full of self-centered snobs that you had no choice but to be nice to and cater to their whims, all while keeping a happy attitude and a smile. They did tip pretty well, well, some of them. There was one woman who Rachel thought believed that the world should tip her for just existing.

Jessica Winchester was the spoiled rotten snob of the snob world. She was awful to everyone she considered beneath her.

And that is who she had to clean for today. If Rachel got lucky, Miss Jessica Winchester wouldn't be in when she had to clean. That could also be a problem, though, since one of Jessica’s favorite things to do was accuse the staff of stealing, so she could get them fired.

Anna was going over to the Johnsons, a family that lived in the next row over.

Putting the last of her coffee into her travel mug, she was off to work. She decided she would daydream about Mr. Archer, something to keep her mind from going homicidal on Miss Jessica.

As soon as she got in and had all the supplies on her cart, she knew it was going to be a shitty day. As she pushed her cart out of the elevator, she could hear the shrill sounds of a spoiled brat having a cow.

Archer and August were gathering all the information they could find on Rachel Stevens. There wasn’t much: her name, address, and the places where she worked. She had a younger sister named Anna. That was about all they could find. They found a bank account, but it was mostly empty, except for a few hundred dollars.

Archer was getting restless. He didn’t want to be inside looking up information. He wanted to go get her, drag her back to this apartment, and keep her there. Solis stepped in after hearing that thought.

“Whoa! Caveman, I don’t think that is the way you should approach our mate.”

Archer groaned in frustration.

August looked at him for a few minutes with nothing to say, then let out a sigh. “You are going to be completely useless if you don’t get out of here and go find her. So go, and don’t come back until you are satisfied she is safe, and I don’t mean drag her here by her hair, either.”

Archer didn’t need to be told twice. He grabbed his keys and was out the door, on his way to the Waldorf Hotel. He hoped she was working today; it would be a lot harder to explain things if he showed up at her home. Women usually don’t like strange men knowing where they live.

“Yeah, you are such a genius.”

“Shut up, Solis.”

Rachel was right; it was a shitty day. Not only was Jessica in a snit, she was in a royal one. Rachel didn’t hear the whole conversation, but it was about some well-to-do guy that stood her up. It sounded to Rachel like Jessica had followed this guy here and thought she was going to have him to herself. Instead, he ghosted her.

As soon as Rachel was ready to knock on the door, as usual, it flew open, and standing before Rachel was a very angry Jessica. She pointed at Rachel…

“YOU! You stole my necklace! It was worth more than you will ever make in your lifetime! Is that why you took it? I am going to get your manager up here right now!”

Rachel just stared at her, dumbfounded. She couldn’t possibly think she could accuse her of taking the necklace; she hadn’t even been in the room yet.

Still, she pulled her cart over to the end of the hall and waited for Nick, the manager, to come up and deal with this mess.

Nick came up, and Rachel could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t happy to be there. He went over to Jessica’s room and tapped on the door.

She answered in a fury, pointing at Rachel and saying that she was to be fired immediately, or she was never setting foot in this hotel ever again.

Nick looked over at Rachel with a knowing grimace.

After she was done screaming at Nick, she slammed the door in his face. Nick motioned for Rachel to follow him. She left the cart; someone would be along to take over.

They walked back to his office in silence. Rachel had planned on getting another job after Anna graduated, but she needed the income right now, and being fired wasn’t going to help with getting a new job.

They sat down, and he cleared his throat. “You are one of my best employees. I know there was no way that you could have stolen her necklace. I watched you get into the elevator, and knowing the schedule of how things are done, I know that you were just getting to her door when she had another one of her tantrums.”

“However, her father owns this hotel. I have no choice but to let you go. I will not fire you, though. I will simply state that you gave your two weeks’ notice, and that today was the last day.”

“I will make sure you are paid for the rest of today and your one-week vacation. I am sorry for this.”

“I have tried in the past to just reassign my workers, but she caught on to that and made it hell for them. I don’t want anyone else to have to deal with that.”

With that, Rachel walked out of the hotel in a daze. Well, she thought, isn't this an interesting development. I have been wanting a whole day off, and now I have one, thanks to that bitch.

Still, I am going to have to find a new job soon. Bills don’t pay themselves. She sat alone in her car, still in the hotel parking lot. She reached into her glove box and pulled out a snack-size Milky Way. It was her secret stash for really bad days. She looked in there and found only one more left. Well, she thought, that's telling.

She heard a knock at her window and looked to see Amy looking back at her. She pointed to the passenger side of the car, and Amy hopped inside. She emptied her pockets; they were full of the little chocolates that they left for guests. Rachel started to laugh.

“I heard what happened. That bitch! How does she get away with it? Just for one day, I would like the roles to be reversed, and she can have a say of shit all to herself, see how she likes it.”

“Are you going to be okay, Rachel?”

“I am going to be alright, Amy. Nick gave me vacation pay and today’s wages. He also put in my record that I was the one that was leaving and not being fired.”

“Good ole Nick. I wish he would grow a pair."

Rachel looked at Amy, and they both laughed. Amy had been Rachel’s friend since middle school. Amy knew everything that she had to go through. Amy was leaving in the fall for college, and they wouldn’t see each other much after that. So this was a special moment for them. Amy had to get back to work; she was taking Rachel’s place.

“Do you want me to short-sheet her bed or mess around with her makeup? I don’t mind getting fired.”

Rachel laughed again. She was going to miss Amy.

“No, you don’t have to stoop to her level. I will see you again soon. Now go play nice with the viper.”

With that, Amy left her alone in the car, feeling better about her situation than before.

Archer watched Rachel from his truck. She seemed upset, sitting alone in her car. Just as he was about to go see what was wrong, another woman came out and jumped into the car with her. They seemed friendly, and before long, Rachel was laughing and looking better than before. Whoever the woman was, she managed to help Rachel.

Archer watched as, after the woman left, Rachel pulled out of the parking lot and drove off to the downtown district.

“Stop being a creepy stalker and just go and talk to her already.”

“Shut up, Solis.”

Solis started laughing at that as Archer followed Rachel to her next destination.