Cut the Dek
Chapter One
Dek Fox and his partner Noah Stone had been tracking Jared Quinn for months as Jared tried to assume Josh's identity and sneak his way into Dek’s newfound christian life after his life working as a spy for The Legacy had ceased months earlier. Franklin Fairchild, his adopted father and current boss, had been a bit miffed when one of his trusted agents was found to be untoward.
“Still at it, is he?” Franklin asked, peering over Dek’s shoulder into his monitor.
“He’s after her and I can’t figure out why. What does the enemy know that we don’t?” Dek removed his fingers from the keyboard and sat back not in distress but in concern for Faith aka Tori Waters. “As soon as Noah hit town, her life was targeted. She’s been outed in every sense of the word. Even Harry was going to get into the action before we sat him down and showed him the evidence.”
“She uses unconventional ways to connect with God,” Franklin admitted. “That triggers a lot of people to do things they think are right but might hurt her in the process. Jared dismisses his own failings and points them all to her and then takes drastic action on her life.”
“They have to have some sort of device to taunt her. She is getting messages from them without her actually talking to any of them.” Franklin showed Dek a message from Sabrina. “Jared has cloned your phone and has been trying to get to her through your connection with Faith aka Tori.”
“I don’t like this. It’s way too personal. He has to have some sort of foretelling tech that is making him focus on her. She is not the type of person to be a spy or a huge concern to anyone. The gal is practically a saint.”
***
Tori Waters sat in Carillon Park during her lunch hour and watched the influx of people going into Bells Bakeshop. She had been peeking in the windows for awhile waiting for the grand opening and today was the day. She had her camera at the ready since the Beacon’s Light needed a few photos for their online blog. It had been something she’d been managing for awhile. Just small articles about what was happening in town ever since the big paper folded at the end of the year. Pete Trainer had taken over the Beacon and made it into a real big seller which made Tori happy she was able to better take care of Henry, Cassie and Jeremy. Having a full time job really gave her a lot of comfort and a newfound purpose that he life actually had some sort of meaning.
Dek approached from the south of the park and sat across from her on the table. “They are having a special soup and I ordered some muffins to eat as a dessert,” he said. “That sound good?”
Tori smiled. She was getting used to calling herself Tori again. It was like she spent two years hiding from her true self and now she had found her real life with Dek just waiting for her to accept it. “Sounds great. I’m starved.”
Dek reached for her hand and squeezed it. It made her feel so loved when he looked at her like that and showed her affection. How lucky was that she had found such a faithful man to notice her worth?
When the food came, their server was a cute gal from Cassie’s school. Cassie had grown into quite a lovely woman and her husband, Jeremy so doted on her. She smiled at Dek and handed him an envelope. “Some guy asked me to give this to you,” she said handing it over.
The server walked away as Dek opened it to find two playing cards. One was a two of hearts with the word soulmate written on it and the other was as two of clubs with new road opens written in a familiar script he’d come to recognize as Jared Quinn's mark.
“Playing cards?” Tori asked. “That’s odd.”
“You’re right. It is.” Dek took a photo of it with his phone and set it to Echo and Franklin. They would definitely want to see this new strange evidence from the crafty Jared.
Echo came back with a quick message. “You might want to keep an eagle eye on Tori. I think that was a threat to your happiness with her. Jared is not happy she chose you.”
