“Doesn’t matter. I’ll find something for you to keep you occupied until this thing blows over.”
Amy thought about it for a second. “I guess it’s better than nothing.”
“What do you mean better than nothing?” Nikki laughed. “There’s work to go around. Not as glamorous as Lot 28 restaurant, but you could learn to love it.”
“We’ll see.” Amy grinned.
“Okay, go get some rest. I’m going to finish some work I have.”
“Journalism work?”
“Yep,” Nikki replied and walked toward the door. “The one thing I know how to do best.”
She was almost in her room when she heard the bathroom door click as Amy entered it and locked it. She couldn’t imagine how she must feel to constantly be suffering abuse at the hands of ingrates. She was almost happy that Trish wasn’t around to know how much Amy had suffered growing up and how much it still followed her.
As soon as she got into her room, she pulled out her laptop and looked up the Tappers. Amy hadn’t been kidding—they were loaded and seemed to have a hand in every charitable donation and school funding in Seattle. They would be a tough crowd, but she reveled in a challenge.
She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and began surfing for information. She’d do her due diligence first, but the one thing she was sure of was that Jake Tapper had harassed her niece for the last time.
His family would pay, and she was the one who would bring them to their knees.
ChapterEighteen
The following morning, Nikki called Paul, and they met up along a trail by the seaside.
It was a beautiful morning, and the pinkish hues from the rising sun still colored the horizon. The trail was raised, so it was like being on a cliff, and Nikki and Paul sat on the bench overlooking one of Nature’s glorious wonders in the crashing waves.
“Why did you have us meet out here?” he asked.
“I don’t want Amy to know about this, but I think I should hire Greg to find out more about Jake,” Nikki began. “Last night, I tried to find dirt on them on the web, but there wasn’t as much as a dirty sock to be found.”
“I’m not surprised,” Paul replied. “There’s a lot you can hide under money.”
“What do you think about hiring Greg?” she asked anxiously.
“I’m all in,” he stated. “He needs to learn a lesson. I’ll call him for you and see how soon he can get started.”
“Thanks,” Nikki told him. “I just can’t believe all that she has been through. First with her abusive father and now with the boyfriend.”
“I’m glad Trish isn’t around.” Paul chuckled. “She would have gone loose on that poor boy.”
“Nothing poor about that boy, but I had the same idea last night—that she would be hurting so much to know about everything that Amy had to endure all those years that we weren’t in her life.”
“It’s good that she doesn’t, then,” Paul replied. “But let me get on this and get back to you.”
“Okay,” Nikki replied as they got up and left.
It didn’t take long for Greg to work his magic. The trio met a few days later at the same bench on the trail overlooking the sea.
“You’re not going to like this,” Greg began as he pulled out a file. “I wish I’d dug a little deeper the first time, but that boy has always been trouble.”
“What now?” Nikki asked as she took the reports from Greg, and she and Paul looked them over.
“He’s been in all sorts of trouble over his lifetime, and this isn’t the first time he has harassed a former girlfriend either.”
“Shocker,” Paul replied sarcastically.
“Yeah, shocker,” Greg agreed. “Anyway, he got a little too handsy before, and the young woman, Michelle Maddix, had to file a restraining order against him. Of course, he couldn’t keep away. He stalked her continuously and openly, a clear violation of the restraining order. He was arrested, but then he got off with a warning. A slap on the wrist really. Again, shocker,” Greg said and shook his head in disbelief. “You’d be surprised how common this kind of thing is.”
