The Act of Falling
***
Tayla Alexandra
Copyright © 2019 by Tayla Alexandra
All rights reserved.
No part of this book series may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The Act of Falling is a work of fiction. All Characters and incidents are from the author’s imagination. Any similarities to real people, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
Cover design by Patricia Bell. Editing by Lisa Dahill DeBartolomao.
I’d like to thank Jesus who has given me the gift of gab. And thanks to my husband, Cliff, who listens to me ramble on about fictional characters night and day with a smile. There are so many people who have influenced my writing. Fellow authors like Paulyn Aneke, Carisa Wells, Dyanne Gordon Green, and Audrey Rich are invaluable to me. To my Editor, Lisa Dahill DeBartolomao who pours hours into checking my work.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
All Titles by Tayla Alexandra
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Chapter 1 — Bekah
Chapter 2 — Ezekiel
Chapter 3 — Bekah
Chapter 4 — Ezekiel
Chapter 5 — Bekah
Chapter 6 — Ezekiel
Chapter 7 — Bekah
Chapter 8 — Ezekiel
Chapter 9 — Bekah
Chapter 10 — Ezekiel
Chapter 11 — Bekah
Chapter 12 — Ezekiel
Chapter 13 — Bekah
Chapter 14 — Ezekiel
Chapter 15 — Bekah
Chapter 16 — Ezekiel
Chapter 17 — Bekah
Chapter 18 — Ezekiel
Chapter 19 — Bekah
Chapter 20 — Ezekiel
Chapter 21 — Bekah
Chapter 22 — Ezekiel
Chapter 23 — Bekah
Chapter 24 — Ezekiel
Chapter 25 ― Bekah
Chapter 26 — Ezekiel
Chapter 27 — Bekah
Chapter 28— Ezekiel
Chapter 29 — Bekah
Chapter 30 — Ezekiel
Chapter 31 — Bekah
Chapter 32 — Ezekiel
Epilogue — Garrett
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Her Sweet Billionaire Romance Series
Her Billionaire Dream
Her Billionaire Jackpot
Her Billionaire Wish
Her Billionaire Chauffeur
Her Billionaire Scoundrel
To Trust Again - A novella
Finding Trust Series
Finding Alissa
Loving Josie
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Reclaiming Bailey
Chasing Kennedy
A Billionaire’s Tale Romance Series
The Billionaire Recluse
The Cinderella Ball
Bucket List Billionaire Series
Beached with a Billionaire
Blushing Brides Series
The Cowboy’s Forbidden Bride
The Billionaire’s London Bride
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Chapter 1 — Bekah
Bekah Prescott had been sleeping soundly on the couch when the thunder of banging jerked her awake. She bolted to a sitting position and stilled. Another round of hammering ensued and Bekah swung her head toward the front door.
“What’s going on?” She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock. It was only six in the morning. “Blade!”
“Shhh!” Her boyfriend stumbled out of the bedroom, pulling on his shoes as he went. Rushing to the front window, he lifted a single blind and peeked outside. “It’s the police,” he mouthed as he pulled on his t-shirt.
“What? Blade, tell me you didn’t!” Bekah hissed.
“Didn’t what?” Blade snatched his wallet from the counter and shoved it into his pocket.
"Seriously! You did! I thought I told you―"
"Gotta go, babe!" Blade pulled his keys from his pocket and slipped out the back patio door. “Gotta dodge these losers.”
"Just great!" Bekah changed into her black mini-skirt and red midriff top from the night before and crept to the back window. Looking down into the parking lot, she closed her eyes as Blade leaped down from the two-story balcony, right into the hands of the police.
"On your knees! Put your hands in the air!"
Bekah covered her mouth as Blade did an insane kind of drop and roll then stood to run. He was crazy if he thought he could outrun five officers with guns pointed at him.
That was Blade. Lunatic all the way. He ran about two feet before raising his hands and dropping to his knees.
"On your stomach! Put your hands behind your back!"
Blade complied. One officer cuffed him as the others kept their guns pointed at him.
Bekah had seen enough. In a frenzy, she grabbed her purse, slipped on her red heels, and hurried to the front door. Peeking out the blinds, she searched for any sign of the law. There were a couple of police cars parked along the street, but they were each empty. Apparently, they were all out in the back, apprehending their suspect.
Luckily for her, she’d been too tired from her singing gig the night before to find a space in the overfilled parking lot in the back and had been only too happy to see a guy pulling out of a prime space right in front of her building. Slipping out the front door, Bekah strolled over to her little blue Nissan and opened the door. Blade had messed up again, and there was no way she was getting caught up in his stupid scam.
“I told you not to do it!” Bekah cried through gritted teeth as she slipped into the driver's seat. “I’m not going down for this!” She glanced back in her rear-view mirror as the officers dragged an irate Blade around the corner of the building, his wrists cuffed behind him, and led him to the back of a police vehicle.
“You’re on your own this time, Blade Callahan!” Bekah kicked off her heels and tossed them in the back seat. She placed the car in gear, and being careful to not bring attention to herself, she quietly drove away. There was no way she was going to stick around Long Beach and be questioned by the police. She didn’t even know the details. All she knew was that Blade had been talking for weeks about cheating some unsuspecting couple out of their retirement funds. Apparently, against her advice not to go through with it, he'd done it anyway.
Bekah slapped her steering wheel. Why had she always gotten herself caught up with the bad boys? She was twenty-five and still hadn’t learned her lesson. Just once she wanted to meet a good guy, and yet she’d been getting tangled up with trouble makers ever since she was fifteen. Who was she kidding? She enjoyed a man who was rough around the edges. She thrived on the excitement — the fun. But fun was getting her nowhere.
With nothing but the clothes on her back and her purse containing her driver's license, a stick of lipstick, a hairbrush, twenty-three dollars and some change, and a pack of gum, she headed onto the freeway. There was no way she was going back to the apartment to get her belongings. At least not right away. Chances were, the place would be still crawling with law enforcement for days as they searched for the money he scammed those poor souls out of. And if Blade had anything to do with it, he’d try to catch her up in his mess and take her down with him. No way. The best thing to do was to get out of town and lay low for a while.
The thought occurred to her to call her moth
er, but she quickly shot that idea down. Her mom would give her the usual lecture, advise her of what a loser she was, and after all of that, she’d tell her that she’d made her own bed. That was just the way Katherine worked. She’d never been there for her growing up, and Bekah had no inclination to start depending on the woman now.
Getting on State Route 55, she headed toward Riverside. Next, she took the 91 East and decided she would get as far away from Long Beach as possible. Maybe even Arizona would do. She’d never really traveled outside of California, and although Vegas was an excellent place to hustle for money, but Bekah was tired of the hustle. The idea of finding a nice, sleepy town in the middle of nowhere to try and start her life off fresh sounded appealing. If she never set foot in Long Beach again, it was just fine. At twenty-five, she needed to find some stability in her life and the fast-paced town was not the place to do it.
A couple of hours later, she was on the I10 nearing the California — Arizona border. Blythe was the last city before crossing into Arizona where the gas prices had to be cheaper than California. Everything was cheaper in Arizona. Her tank was dwindling quickly so she’d have to stop soon. It was the last of her money, and wherever the car took her from there, was where she would stop and figure out what to do next.
Deciding to cross the border first, Bekah pulled off the freeway into a small desert town just past the border - Quartzite, and she was right. Not only were the gas prices lower but the speed limit had raised from seventy to seventy-five. She was liking Arizona already.
Bekah pulled into the first gas station she could find. As soon as she opened her car door, a wave of heat hit her. It was as if she’d just opened the door to Hades.
“They don’t call it the desert for nothing.” Bekah jumped out, rushed into the gas station, grabbed a thirty-two-ounce Diet Dr. Pepper fountain drink with lots of ice, and gave the man the twenty for gas. Picking up a small bag of chips, she dug for the change at the bottom of her purse and paid for that, too. She was now officially broke, but with all the drama, she hadn’t eaten, and she was starving.
Bekah took her goodies, stepped out into the squelching heat, and headed back to her car. As she pumped her gas, sweat dripped down her face and neck. She hurriedly slipped back into her car, and as she turned it on, a blast of warm air hit her from the air conditioner. It didn’t take long before it was blowing cold again. At least she had that.
“What am I doing?” she grumbled. “How will I even find work without my belongings?” And of course, her guitar. Singing in night-clubs was the only way she knew to make money. She brought in pennies here and there but not nearly enough to pay the bills. That was why she’d moved in with Blade to begin with, and she hadn’t saved a dime. Her bank account was over-drafted, she had no money, no clothes, no nothing. How did she expect to survive on her own?
Yet she continued. There had to be something better out there, and she was determined to find it. If she had to beg, borrow, and steal, she’d find a way to survive.
Two hours later, gas tank running on fumes, it was time for her to stop and try her hand at the scam Blade had told her about. He'd bragged many times about how he'd traveled all the way from Michigan to California with not a dime in his pockets. It had worked for him, so maybe . . .
The next exit sign read — Sunshine, Arizona.
With a grumble, Bekah took the exit. Sunshine was right. It was so hot that even her air conditioner had given up trying.
Bekah drove down the main street through the small town. There wasn’t much to it. A couple of local stores, a gas station, and a restaurant here and there. Not one bar or nightclub was to be found, but that was not what she was looking for. She didn’t expect to stay in the town long, and if the plan worked, she’d be back on the road by morning.
As soon as she spotted what she was looking for, she pulled into the parking lot. The sign read ― Sunshine Community Church. Below it was another sign advertising a K-8 Christian school and a banner that said – Now Enrolling New Students.
Bekah glanced at the clock on her dash radio. It was just before noon. Looking down at her less than churchy attire, she groaned. She should have at least packed a change of clothes before leaving. It was too late for regrets. She’d have to go in there as is. In her unkempt condition, still garbed with the heavy makeup from her gig the night before that had seemed to be melting down her face, she sighed. She certainly looked destitute.
Pulling a fast food napkin from the glovebox, she wiped away some of the excess make-up. Not too much. She was going for the down-and-out look, not the I-just-crawled-out-of-bed look. She ran a brush through her short blue-black hair, admiring her new shaved on one side look. Blade had thought it was sassy, but he was the last person she needed to impress at the moment.
Bekah added some red lipstick to her chapped lips and glanced at herself in the mirror once more and couldn’t decide whether she wanted to take out the hoop ring from her nose before going inside. Churches weren’t supposed to judge. The hoop was staying.
With determination, she slipped on her red heels.
It was now or never. Bekah just hoped it would work.
Exiting her car, she yanked her skirt down as far as she could, covered the spider tattoo on her left shoulder blade with her top strap before she strolled inside.
This had to work.
Chapter 2 — Ezekiel
Ezekiel Gaines stood at the front of his fifth-grade class and wrote on the whiteboard while his students worked diligently on the math test he’d given them ten minutes prior.
“Time’s up in five minutes!” he called.
Soon it would be lunchtime and a much-needed hour and forty-five-minute break for him as the kids went directly to PE class after lunch. Of course, once they got back in, it would take another thirty minutes to get them settled down enough to concentrate on their work. Especially since it was much too hot to go outside for more than a couple of minutes. In the hotter months, most of their activity took place in the small gym at the back of the school, and much of the time they came back more wound up than they left.
This year had been exceptionally hard with Jackson Wilford in his class. The boy had been acting up from the moment he stepped into the fifth grade and had pulled yet another prank just that morning. Ezekiel had been patient with the boy being that he and his younger sister had lost their mother the year before. Times were rough around the Wilford household, and Jack was taking it hard. But somehow, Ezekiel had to get through to the kid. He just wasn’t sure how.
“Two minutes!” he called as the kids rushed to get their quizzes completed. "Don't forget to write your name. No name, no credit."
As the first student, Tia, brought her paper to the front of the room, Jack stuck his foot out, tripping her. With a yelp, Tia fell to the ground. Jack let out a snicker mixed with a fake apology.
“That’s it!” Ezekiel called. “Jack, go to the back of the room and wait for me. The rest of you can turn in your papers and head off to lunch.”
Jack sauntered to the back of the room, a snarky grin still plastered to his face. For the life of him, Ezekiel couldn’t seem to understand why the boy was creating such attention for himself.
Several of the girls helped Tia to her feet, and Ezekiel came around his desk to make sure she wasn't severely hurt before escorting Jack to the office.
“Are you okay, Tia?” he asked, examining her scraped knee. Her dress was ripped a little, but she would survive.
“Yes, Mr. Gaines.” Tia stood and turned around to give Jack the evil-eye.
He could hardly blame the girl. Still, he admonished her gently. “I’m sure Jack meant no harm, Tia. We’ll let the principal take care of the situation, okay?”
“Yes, Mr. Gaines,” Tia answered. and rubbing her knee, she carried her paper to his desk.
“Georgia, Martha, why don’t you two escort Tia to the nurse's office?” he called to Tia’s friends.
“I’m okay,” Tia said softly. “It’s not
bleeding.”
“Better have her take a look anyway.” His eyes stayed on Jack, who was trying hard not to grin at the girl’s suffering. The two girls walked next to Tia, each of them snubbing their noses at Jack as they passed. He almost felt sorrier for the boy than he did Tia. It seemed he was determined to make more enemies than friends this year.
As the kids crowded out of the room, Jack stood at the back, arms held firmly around his chest, his face set in a frown. Ezekiel stopped at Jack’s desk and picked up his math test. The entire thing was blank. Jack hadn’t even written in his name.
“And what is the meaning of this?” Ezekiel turned to Jack and held up the paper.
“Math sucks!” Jack grumbled.
“Tell it to the judge.” Ezekiel hid the smile that tried to play on his face. He liked Jack. He was a funny kid usually, but lately, his jokes had turned cruel and bordered on malicious behavior. As much as he wanted to give Jack another chance, Ezekiel couldn’t allow the boy any more leeway. “Come on. Let’s go see Pastor Gaines.”
Not that the church pastor, Ezekiel’s father, would be much of a threat. Since the cutbacks, his father had served the dual purpose of principal during the week and pastor on Sundays. Mostly it worked. The kids at the Christian private school were pretty well-behaved. Still, Ezekiel worried that too much pressure was being placed on his father, not to mention that each month they were struggling to keep the lights on in the building. His father wasn’t worried. He never worried. His standard phrase was — God will provide. And until now, God had.
On their way to the main church building, Jack stomped ahead. Garrett Perkins, the fourth-grade teacher, and Ezekiel’s good friend, came waltzing around the corner almost colliding into the boy.
“Woah, buddy,” Garrett called, weaving around Jack just in time. “What’s up with him? Looks like he just bit off the tail end of a rattlesnake.”
The Act of Falling Page 1