Capturing Tess, page 1
CAPTURING TESS
ANNA STONE
© 2022 Anna Stone
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be replicated, reproduced, or redistributed in any form without the prior written consent of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue 1
Epilogue 2
Also by Anna Stone
About the Author
CHAPTER 1
The most beautiful woman Tess had ever seen just walked into Cherry’s Diner.
As she wiped down a table, the woman strode toward a booth in the corner and took a seat. What’s someone like her doing in a place like this? Cherry’s was a sketchy little diner in an even sketchier part of the city. And the food? In the four years since Tess started working here, it had only gotten worse.
But no one came to Cherry’s for the food. They came to Cherry’s because it was the only place in the neighborhood that was open past midnight. Or because they were lost.
Necessity, bordering on desperation. The only reason anyone set foot inside the diner. And that was the only reason anyone worked there, including Tess. After graduating from high school and getting kicked out of her foster home, she’d needed a job. Cherry’s had been the answer. Without money, an education, or any family, what else was she supposed to do with her life?
But the woman who just walked in? She was different from everyone else in the room. She didn’t seem desperate, although there was a chance she was lost. She looked completely out of place.
It wasn’t only her sophisticated manner that betrayed her. The clothes she wore were finely tailored, her knee-length black dress so snug on her hourglass figure that it had to have been made for her. Her heels were the same ink-black as her dress, as was the wide-brimmed hat she wore, despite the late hour. Her hair, a dark chestnut brown, flowed from underneath it, partially obscuring her face from view.
But a glimpse was enough for Tess to see how beautiful the woman was underneath. Beautiful. Elegant. Sexy as sin. The kind of woman Tess only dreamed about. With all the time she spent waiting tables, she daydreamed constantly. About escaping this place. About starting a new life, one that wasn’t a never-ending grind to pay her bills.
About someone sweeping her off her feet and taking her away from it all. Someone like the woman who had just walked in.
But she never allowed herself to indulge in those dreams. She was never going to escape her situation, not by her own power or anyone else’s. Life didn’t work that way. Not her life, anyway. Ever since her mom died when Tess was ten years old, she’d been left to struggle through everything on her own. That wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
“Are you okay? You’ve been wiping the same spot for like five minutes.”
Tess blinked. Ashley, one of her coworkers, was standing next to her, a stack of dirty plates balanced in her arms.
“Right.” Tess straightened up. “I was just distracted.”
“By that woman?” Ashely cocked her head toward the booth in the corner. “I don’t blame you. Even I think she’s hot, and I’m not into girls. I didn’t know anyone could look like that in real life. I hope I look that good when I’m her age.”
“Yeah.” Everything about the woman was so flawless that it was hard to tell how old she was, but she seemed to be in her thirties, forty tops. “What do you think she’s doing here?”
“Who knows? She’s in your section, but if you’d rather just stare at her all night, I’m happy to take her off your hands. I bet she gives good tips.”
“I got it.” Tess didn’t want to miss her chance to talk to the woman, even if it was just to take her order. “I need all the tips I can get.”
Ashley shifted the plates in her arms. “What do I keep telling you? You gotta smile more. And flirt a little.”
“You think she’s into women?” Tess could only hope.
“It doesn’t matter if she is or not. Men, women, they all like it when you flirt with them. People love attention, no matter who it’s from. It makes them feel big. Important. God knows anyone coming to a dump like this needs that.”
But that only worked for people who looked like Ashley. She was platinum-blonde and had the kind of figure men and women alike drooled over.
Tess? While she cleaned up well, she was no bombshell. Her hair was the plainest mousy brown imaginable, and her skin kept forgetting that puberty was long over. Occasionally, she got compliments on her eyes, which were a vivid shade of blue.
“Flirt a little,” she repeated. “I’ll try.”
“Well hurry up,” Ashley said. “If Cherry sees you standing around, she’ll dock your tips again.”
That was the last thing Tess needed right now. She barely made enough to cover her rent and bills as it was. The fact that her boss considered labor laws a suggestion didn’t help.
As Ashley headed toward the counter, Tess took a deep, steadying breath. Here goes nothing.
She strode over to the woman’s booth. “Hi there.”
The woman raised her head, giving Tess a clear view of her face. Dark eyes, sharp and piercing. Graceful cheekbones, crimson lips. Around her neck was a delicate string of pearls.
Were they real? Who would wear pearls to a place like this? It was like wearing a sign that said ‘rob me.’
But something told Tess that the kind of opportunistic thieves who roamed the streets in this part of the city wouldn’t dare approach this woman. She radiated a coldness that Tess could feel in the air around her.
And she wasn’t the only one. Even the other diners, the hardened regulars, barely looked in the woman’s direction. Were they intimidated by her?
Tess remembered herself. “What can I get for you?”
The woman didn’t answer her immediately. Instead, she looked Tess up and down, her penetrating gaze making Tess’s skin burn.
When she finally spoke, her voice was smooth and low, commanding enough to send a shiver through Tess’s body. “Coffee. Black.”
Somehow, Tess managed to keep her cool. “Anything to eat?”
The woman tilted her head slightly, her eyes still fixed on Tess. She hadn’t touched the menu in front of her. “What do you recommend?”
“I’d go with the waffles. Honestly, most of the food here is terrible, but the waffles are actually good.” Cherry would do more than dock Tess’s pay if she overheard that. But this woman seemed to have good taste. Tess couldn’t lie to her. And a part of Tess felt compelled to please her.
“Waffles it is.” The woman glanced at Tess’s name tag. “Thank you, Tess.”
Her cheeks grew hot. “I’ll be back right away with your coffee. Let me know if you need anything.”
She hurried back to the counter to put in the woman’s order before returning to pour her a cup of coffee, almost knocking over the pot in the process. And she nearly tripped over her feet as she walked away.
So much for Ashley’s advice. Tess could barely speak to the woman. Flirting was beyond her. Why was she so flustered? All because of a beautiful woman?
But Tess didn’t have the time to obsess over her. Because only a minute later, a large, rowdy group of men walked into the diner. Or rather, stumbled in. Chances were, they’d been kicked out of the bar across the road. Or the strip club nearby.
They made a beeline for Tess’s section, spreading themselves out across two tables.
“Not going to offer to take these guys off my hands?” she muttered as she passed Ashley.
“Nope. You’re on your own.”
Tess sighed. “It’s going to be one of those nights, isn’t it?”
Sure enough, within minutes she was so busy dealing with the group of drunk men that she didn’t get another chance to speak with the woman outside of serving up her waffles and topping up her coffee.
It wasn’t until an hour later, when the men had finished shoveling down their meals and were out the door, that she noticed the woman was gone. She’d left before Tess had even had a chance to give her the bill.
Tess frowned. Had the woman run off without paying? That seemed unlikely, given how rich she appeared to be. But it wouldn’t be the first time she’d gotten stiffed by a ‘wealthy’ customer.
She approached the table. The woman had polished her plate. And tucked underneath it was a handful of bills.
Tess lifted the plate. On top of the bills was a napkin, the words ‘Keep the change’ written on it. She picked up the money. They were fifty-dollar bills.
And there were five of them.
Holy…
She counted the notes again. $250. Were they counterfeit? They looked real. Maybe the woman had made a mistake. The meal was barely $20, after all.
Tess blinked. She was standing in the middle of the diner holding up $250 cash in full view of everyone! What the hell was she thinking?
She stuffed the money into her pocket. But it was too late.
“Shit!” Ashley sidled up beside her. “That’s a hell of a tip. What did you do to get that?”
Tess shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe it was a mistake.”
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, girl. That’s more than I’ve made this week.”
Tess glanced around. No one else had noticed anything. But her boss, Cherry, was behind the counter, talking to one of the other servers.
Everyone at Cherry’s, customers and workers alike, was like Tess. Desperate, broke, and struggling to make ends meet. If they found out Tess had gotten a $250 tip? They’d find a way to take it from her.
“Please don’t tell anyone about this, okay? I don’t want people to get jealous. And I don’t want Cherry to come up with an excuse to steal it from me.” She reached into her apron pocket where she kept her change. “Here, I’ll give you twenty dollars to keep quiet.”
Ashley snatched the bill from Tess’s hand. “It’s a deal. And just so you know, I wouldn’t have told anyone, anyway.”
But Tess wasn’t taking any chances. While she’d known Ashley for years, and even spent time with her outside of work on occasion, her coworker’s loyalty was to herself and herself alone. If the payout was high enough, she’d sell Tess out.
From behind the counter, Cherry barked at the two of them to get back to work. As Ashley hurried away, $20 richer, Tess cleared the corner booth.
Why did she leave me all that money? Tess had no way of finding out the answer. She didn’t even know the woman’s name. She couldn’t track her down to thank her, or ask her why she did it. Chances were, Tess would never see her again.
At least, not outside her fantasies. Because from the moment she’d walked through the door, the woman had set up camp in Tess’s mind. Beautiful. Elegant. Commanding. Sexy as sin. Everything Tess had ever dreamed of and more.
And she had swept in and out of Tess’s life like a cold winter breeze.
CHAPTER 2
It was 3 a.m. when Tess finished her shift. After saying goodbye to Ashley and the others, she left Cherry’s Diner and began the walk back to her apartment. At this time of night, the streets were deserted, save for the occasional cab looking for a late-night fare. Despite how much her feet hurt from standing for eight hours straight, she couldn’t justify the cost of a cab. And the walk was only half an hour.
But this wasn’t the safest part of town. A couple of years ago, she’d had her tips stolen while walking home from work one night. Since then, she’d carried a can of pepper spray with her in her jacket pocket. She hadn’t had to use it yet.
She glanced around. She didn’t usually have so much money on her. Maybe she should have sprung for a cab, just this once. But she was already halfway home, so there wasn’t any point.
Home. For Tess, home was something that had never been more than a vague concept. As a child, she and her mom had moved from town to town, city to city, one trailer or run-down apartment to another. Her dad had never been in the picture. Tess didn’t even know if he was alive or dead. Her mom had refused to speak of him, and she’d taken his identity to the grave when she died twelve years ago.
With no family to claim her, Tess had bounced between foster homes for almost a decade. The places she’d stayed in ranged from adequate to outright abusive. But even the best of them never felt like home. How could they, when they were always temporary?
The apartment she’d lived in for the past four years was an improvement. It was barely habitable, but it was hers. And that was more than the nothing she’d had most of her life.
She crossed the road. She was just a few minutes from her apartment building. But as she turned a corner into a quiet street, the sound of footsteps behind her reached her ears.
Her pulse sped up. Was someone following her?
She glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, there was a man several yards behind her, walking in her direction. He was dressed in all black and was twice her size. In the dimly lit street, she could barely make out his face. But she could make out a menacing glint in his eyes…
You’re imagining things. He’s not following you. But something about the man was setting off alarm bells in her head. And life had taught her that her instincts were rarely wrong.
She picked up the pace. Was the man a customer from the diner who had seen the tip she’d gotten and was determined to take it from her? Two hundred and fifty dollars might as well be a million to someone down on their luck. Tess would know.
Just stay calm. Try to lose him. Could she rush to her apartment and barricade herself inside? No, the last thing she wanted was to lead this stranger back to her home.
It would be safer to stay out on the street where there was more of a chance of someone driving by in case anything happened. The surrounding streets were deserted, but she could take a detour through a more populated area. Maybe that would be enough to make him give up and leave her alone.
But as she crossed the street, she noticed another man walking toward her from the opposite direction. He too was dressed in all black and looked about six and a half feet tall, twice her weight in muscle. The two men were together. They had to be.
And they were coming right for her.
Tess’s heart began to pound. What did they want from her? Her tips? Something else? No amount of money was worth getting hurt over, or worse. But it was better to avoid confrontation in the first place.
She turned quickly down an alleyway, a shortcut to the busy main street. If she was fast enough, she could lose the men in the alley.
Tess broke into a run. But she didn’t get more than halfway down the alleyway before she heard the heavy thump of boots behind her. And they were getting closer.
Shit! Still running as fast as she could, she reached into her jacket pocket, feeling around inside it…
There!
She pulled out the can of pepper spray and swiveled around to face her pursuer, pointing it at him with trembling hands. “Leave me alone!”
But the man didn’t stop. He continued to march toward her, a hand reaching into his jacket—
Tess pressed down hard, firing a stream of pepper spray at the man’s eyes until the can ran dry. He yelled out in agony, stumbling backward, his hands clawing at his face.
Now was her chance!
But before Tess could move, the second man appeared at the entrance to the alley and began running toward her. He was holding something in his hand, but from a distance, in the dim lighting, she couldn’t quite make out what it was…
Is that a gun?
Her pulse thundered in her ears, drowning out everything around her. A gun. A phone. It could have been anything. But she wasn’t going to wait and find out. These men weren’t kidding around.
She had to get away from them, now.
She flung the empty can at the man, then took off down the alley as fast as her legs could carry her. As she neared the end of it, she looked over her shoulder. The second man was still following her, and he was closing on her fast.
Finding a reservoir of strength she didn’t know she had, Tess began sprinting even faster. Her lungs burned, and her legs threatened to collapse, but the street was so close—
The screech of tires echoed through the air as her path was cut off by a large black car skidding across the end of the alley.
