Neal (Golden Streak Series)

Neal

Golden Streak Series

Book 3

By

Kathi S. Barton

World Castle Publishing, LLC

This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of
the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed
as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright
© Kathi S. Barton 2013

ISBN:
9781629890272

First
Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC November 5, 2013

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover:
Karen Fuller

Photos:
Dreamstime

Editor:
Eric Johnston

Chapter 1

Rayne put the tiny little plant in the
dirt and pushed the soil around it. She had to get this and the seven more pots
finished before she could leave and it was already seven o’clock. One of these
days she was going to be able to afford some real help, but until then she had
to do the work herself. She heard her mom coming toward her and smiled when she
smelled the food she’d brought with her.

“I knew I’d find you here. You should
have left here over an hour ago. So as soon as five-thirty came and went, I
gathered up your dinner…and here I am.” Her mom sat on the stack of bags of
soil and sighed. “If you’d let me help you, this would be much easier on you.”

“It would but you already work hard
enough.” She looked up at her mom as she took the sandwich from her. “How is it
you can look so fresh after eight hours inside of a tight building when I’ve
been outside most of the day and look like I’ve been run over? Twice.”

“Because, you have been outside all day
working. I love that look on you. And not to mention you’re not sleeping well. What’s
bothering you? Is it this new job you have?” She shook her head, then nodded. “Which
is it, Rayne? The job or not.”

“Not really the job. I can do that no
problem. It’s that Sindy, you remember her?” Her mom nodded. “Sindy recommended
me for this and I don’t want to disappoint her. She said these people are nice
and she trusts them.”

“And you don’t trust them because….” Rayne
looked at her. “Rayne, not all people are like the ones from where you worked.
Most of them are very nice once you get to know them. You just haven’t. Let
people get to know you, that is. I thought that once you got out into the
public and away from that place you’d start to realize that. I’m not wrong
about this. You have to learn to trust people again.”

She nodded. “I know you’re worried about
me, but I’m going to be all right.” She broke the little plant at the base, and
she stared at it. She heard her mother speak but not what she’d said until she
looked up at her.

“Fix it.” She shook her head. “You want
to, darling, I can feel it. Fix the poor plant and put it in the dirt so it can
grow. You didn’t break it, just injured it a little.”

She put it aside and reached for another
plant. She wouldn’t do it. Not again. Fixing things was what got her into
trouble the last time, and she knew that she would have nowhere else to go if
she was caught again. When her mom said she was going to look over the books
for her, she nodded. Rayne planted the next pot before she picked up the dinner
her mom had brought her.

There was a roast beef sandwich, chips,
and three bottles of water. She’d also packed her an apple, an orange, as well
as a banana. She probably knew that she’d skipped lunch too. Moaning as she bit
into the heavy sandwich, she felt her belly rumble for more. She was halfway
finished with the sandwich when she looked around. Picking up the little injured
plant, she closed her eyes and let her power drift over it.

Setting it back in the little container,
she finished her dinner and was picking up her second bottle of water when her
mom came out of the office. She glanced at the flower but said nothing about
it. Rayne was glad; she didn’t want to have to explain that the little thing
was calling to her. Calling to her as most of the greenery that she worked with
did.

“You’re about ten dollars short on your
checking account again. I covered it.” She started to protest, but her mom held
up her hand. “I covered it. Now hush. I’ve also called the Hogans as well as
the Sanders. Stupid jerks. They still haven’t paid you and they are now well
past due. I put the fear of me in them, and the Hogans said they’d mail you a
check tomorrow. I’m not holding my breath. Monday I’m going by there and
kicking their ass and taking back the planters they have. That Sanders person said
some very unprofessional things and I hung up. I think you need to hire
yourself a lawyer.”

Rayne snorted, and her mother laughed. “I
can’t afford to have a checking account. How on earth would I hire a lawyer?
Besides, they’ll just take more of the money I don’t have and I’ll still have
people who owe me. And you will not go by there and get the stuff. I’ll go. He
might sic some dogs on me, and you know how much I hate dogs.” Her mom laughed
as she’d intended for her to.

Rayne was on the fifth pot when her mom
left her. She said she had to go in early tomorrow and wanted to get to bed
early. Rayne kissed her on the cheek and told her she loved her before she sat
back down and continued with what she was doing.

It took her another three hours to
finish the planters and clean up the mess. She was spraying the last of the
dirt from the floor with the hose when she decided that she was going to make
this new job work if it was the last thing she did. Besides, there was the
money thing that she liked, too. Having it to pay bills and eat was something
she felt strongly about. Locking up, she went to her little apartment in the
back of the shop to rest up.

As soon as she entered her kitchen, she
saw the notes that she’d taken when she’d talked to Sindy. They were of what
the building that she said the Golden Towers wanted her to fix looked like. She’d
never been in the building before, but it sounded cold and sterile. She sat
down and started to sketch out some of the ideas she had.

There were five offices and the main
lobby she might get to do. Sindy had told her that she would be in competition
with three other florists to have the contract, and she was hoping that Rayne
would get the job. So was she, but she wasn’t holding out much hope. Two of the
other florists were high-end like the building sounded to be, and the other one
was “big box”—meaning they had really deep pockets. She did, too, she thought
with a laugh, but there wasn’t anything in them.

She was into the third drawing when her
phone rang. Wondering who was calling her this late, she nearly didn’t answer
it until she saw who it was. She smiled as she answered the phone.

“Hi, Sindy, I was just thinking about you.
Do you know if the building has direct or indirect lighting in the front of the
building?” There was a long pause, and she wondered if she had mistaken who
called her. Then Sindy spoke.

“I have no clue. Do you have any idea
what time it is?” She said she didn’t. “Then I’m glad I called you. You have
two hours to get to the Golden building or you’re going to be disqualified
before you get to wow them. Don’t you ever look at a clock?”

“No, I don’t.” But she did start
gathering up her notes to take with her, wondering why she was even bothering.
“And thank you for the call. I should have gone to bed instead of play with
these drawings.”

“You’ve been up all night again? Damn
it, Rayne, what am I going to do with you? Your mother will be pissed when she
finds out you’ve skipped sleeping again.” Rayne had a feeling her mom already
knew. “Get dressed and call me the moment you get there. I want to know what
you’re wearing, too.”

Rayne supposed her jeans and tee-shirt
that she’d worked in all night weren’t going to cut it and told her she’d let
her know. After hanging up, she went to her closet and looked at the collection
of brightly colored tee-shirts she had and the five or six…no, just five pairs
of jeans she had hanging next to them. Her last pair of pants was now in the
laundry, as she had taken them off when she’d run though the apartment half
naked.

Closing her eyes, she pulled the first
shirt off the hanger and went to the shower. She was in and out within ten
minutes. She never understood why some people would take an hour to get ready
to go somewhere when she could do it in fifteen minutes even if she had to
shave her legs. Laughing, she wondered what company would care if her legs were
smooth or not, picked up her files and her backpack with her laptop in it, and
went to wait for the bus.

She was ten minutes early. This was good,
she supposed, since the guard at the front desk had to make her a visitor’s
badge. He wanted more information than she’d had to give the bank when she’d
applied for her loan. Not to mention he checked her bag like she was taking out
trade secrets or something. Not that she had a clue what happened in this place,
but she let him do it, even joking about the candy bar he’d discovered on the
bottom.

“My lunch. Sometimes I forget to eat and
my mom is forever putting things in my pockets or in this case backpack in the
event I get hungry.” He grinned at her, then told her to have a seat. She went
to the seats he indicated and watched the two women who were obviously her
competition.

“This color on the walls is difficult to
work with,” the older woman said to the woman next to her scribbling notes.
“They’ll have to come up with a better color than brown to let me work in this
stifled area. And make sure you tell them that the desk is in the wrong place.”

Rayne looked at the desk and wondered
what the hell that had to do with putting plants and flowers in here. She
looked at the “stifling” walls and thought the tan was very nice and looked
very good against the slate-covered flooring. She watched for a few more
minutes as someone came out of the doors next to her. She watched as a
beautiful woman and a man led them out and to the desk.

More competition, she supposed. Rayne
leaned back on the couch, which she discovered was more comfortable than her
bed at home, and closed her eyes. She slipped away in seconds.

~~~

Brock looked at the girl and smiled. She
was really out. He looked up at Stan and he nodded. This was her. Brock reached
down and touched her arm to wake her and to tell her that she needed to get
going, that she’d missed her appointment, when he found himself on his back and
a hand wrapped around his throat. He had a feeling if he moved to push her off
him she’d hurt not just him but her as well. He waited for her to realize where
she was.

“I fell asleep.” He nodded and lifted
his hands up to show her he wasn’t going to hurt her. “Did I hurt you?”

“No. I’m fine. I’m sorry that I startled
you.” She nodded and slipped off him, and when she stood up, offered him her
hand. He took it even though he knew that he was much heavier than he looked
and more than likely she wouldn’t be able to lift him. But when he was suddenly
standing, he looked down at her. Damn, she was strong.

“I had this appointment with…I can’t
remember now what his name was. I guess I fuc…screwed that up by taking a nap
on the company furniture.” She went back to the couch she’d been resting on and
started gathering up her things. “I missed my bedtime last night because I’m a
dork.”

Brock liked her for some reason and
didn’t want her to leave without Bronwyn or Ryland at least getting to see her.
She put her backpack on her shoulder and looked at him. He had to shake the
feeling that she was as cute as she was pretty.
Weird combination
, he
thought, and laughed to himself.

“I can get my brother if you’ll wait
here.” She looked at the desk where Stan and a couple of other guards were
standing. They looked ready to do her harm but were waiting on him to give the
signal. “Will you? Wait, I mean? They’re not going to toss you out, I promise.”

She turned back to him and smiled. Christ,
he’d been wrong on both accounts, she was beautiful. “Nah. I should let these
men stand down or whatever they’re doing. I got some planters to steal back
anyway for nonpayment.”

She was walking to the desk when Bronwyn
came out of the elevator. Brock waved her over just as the woman handed Stan
her badge. She was nearly to the door when he caught up with her.

“This is my sister-in-law, Bronwyn
Golden. She and my brother are the ones doing the hiring for the lobby. I take
it that’s what you’re here for?” He smiled at her and she frowned. “Are you?”

“Yes.” She looked at him, then at Stan,
before she hiked her backpack higher up on her shoulder. “I knew the rules, Mr.
Golden, and one of them was to be on time. I screwed up. I don’t think it would
be fair to the others for me to have special treatment, because I fell asleep
instead of doing what I should have been doing last night. I messed up. No
harm, no foul.”

She nodded at Bronwyn and started for
the door. Bronwyn caught up with her this time and touched her arm. The woman
jerked from her so quickly that Bronwyn took a step back and Stan and his two men
forward. Something like a lightning strike arched between them.

“Christ.” Bronwyn reached for her again
when the girl backed up quickly. “I won’t hurt you. I just… I can’t believe
what I felt. Did that come from you?”

The younger woman looked at him, then at
the door, which was only about a foot away. She put her backpack in front of
her like a shield and backed to the door. Brock didn’t know what had happened,
but he was willing to bet that Bronwyn did.

“Miss, I’d like to speak to you. I need
to—” The woman shook her head at Bronwyn. “I swear to you that you’ll not be
treated anyway but with kindness and—”

“I have to go. I’m sorry to have wasted
your time but I really need to get going. And nothing happened. It was…static
electricity from the carpet.” She moved to the revolving door just as Stan came
to them. He handed Brock her badge she’d had on. She paled but kept moving.