AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Istop outside the lobby door and try to pull myself together. There are cameras inside. There are people watching me but I can’t stay outside in the cold and I don’t have a car. I swipe my card and enter the lobby, my knees wobbling as I walk. It’s a herculean effort to reach my office and the minute I’m inside, I shut the door, as if that offers privacy in this place, but it’s something. It’s all I have. I lean on the door, and the tears explode from me the second I draw another breath. The tears that I cried six years ago. The tears that I have cried randomly since my miscarriage, and I wanted to call Eric every one of those teary nights. I don’t know how long I cry now, but I just can’t seem to stop. It guts me, it cuts me, it tears me into pieces. He’s gone. Isaac told him and he’s gone. My phone rings and I reach into my pocket, praying it’s Eric but it’s my mother. I disconnect the line and try to call Eric. He doesn’t answer. I try again. And again. I cry some more.
Somehow, I’m on the floor, lying on my back, staring at the ceiling when I return to reality, tears sticky on my cheeks. Every part of me hurts. I should have told him last night. I should have told him six years ago. I roll to my side and hoist myself to my feet and I do what I have done every time I’ve tried to survive this. I go to my desk and try to work. I’ll find out what that damn sequence is. I’ll find answers and somehow that will make this better, somehow that will make Eric forgive me. No, he won’t forgive me. He believes Isaac. He thinks I fucked his brother.
I dial him again and when he doesn’t answer, I burst into my confession on his voicemail. “I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t want you to think I was playing you and then you got all that money and I was afraid you’d think it was about money. I can’t make you believe me, but you know—I’m pretty sure I’m in love with youso I just have to tell you.” The phone beeps and disconnects. I let out a sound of utter frustration. God. No. I need to say this.
I dial the phone again and when the machine answers I pick up where I left off. “I got pregnant the night we were together six years ago. I know you pulled out, but you were inside me and it happened. I wasn’t with anyone else. I didn’t think you’d believe me and what would forcing you to believe me, achieve? It was too late to change what happened. I lost the baby.” The machine beeps again and I redial, my hand shaking as I do. The machine beeps again and I launch into the rest of the story. “When I missed my period, I thought it was stress, but then one night I was working late and suddenly I was bleeding. Lots of blood and Isaac was here and I was bad. I was hemorrhaging and—I had to let him help me. I didn’t even know what was happening. I was scared and when I found out there was a baby—” The machine beeps.
I sob with the pain of doing it like this, with reliving this but I dial again. “Bottom line,” I say when I can speak again. “I hated so much that Isaac was the one who helped me. And I really wanted that baby, our baby, but now I’m damaged goods anyway. I don’t even know if I can have kids. They said—”
The machine beeps and tears stream down my cheeks. I can barely take this but I started down this path. I have to finish. I dial again and this time the call goes straight to voicemail. Eric turned off his phone. Obviously, he’s tired of me calling. I force the words out. I start talking again. “Eric,” I whisper. “I didn’t betray you like everyone else in this family. Have Blake hack my medical records. If I was with Isaac and he was the father, why would I fight the ER staff and insist that I couldn’t be pregnant? Why wouldn’t I put him down on the medical records? I just—I need you to know that I didn’t betray you. You matter to me. You’ve always mattered to me and I regret that I didn’t call you. I regret—”
The line beeps and I add, “So much,” even though he can’t hear me. My emotions overflow and I throw my phone, pain behind the force that smashes it against my door. My emotions are suffocating me. I can’t take it.
I stand up, not sure where I’m going, but I need to occupy my mind. I need to escape this feeling. I need to escape the pain. The sequence, I tell myself. Think about it. Think about the message. Figure out what it means. I start walking, exiting my office and walking toward the human resources office. I enter the dark office and search through files, looking for a clue. An hour later, I havenothing. I stand up again and walk toward the warehouse. That sequence has to relate to production in some way. I enter the warehouse that is now empty, as we don’t run winter night shifts.
I start walking the assembly lines, looking for that fourteen-digit sequence, checking every possible place: on the parts, on the vehicles, in the paperwork at each station. I’m at this for a good half hour when I decide the foreman’s office is where I need to be. I hurry that direction and I’m about to enter his office when the lights go out. I freeze in the utter, complete darkness, sucking in a breath, and willing myself to remain calm. It’s a power outage. Nothing more. I reach for my purse that’s not with me, but in my office, right along with my destroyed phone.
A sound, a tiny sound, jolts me. Someone is here. There is a whisper in the air. Someone is right beside me. I launch myself forward into a run, but it’s too late. Someone grabs me from behind.
Part Two: The Princess
Chapter forty-four
Harper
Darkness engulfs me inside the Kingston warehouse as I try to escape the hand on my mouth and the big body at my back, but then I hear a whispered, “Easy, sweetheart,” at my ear and everything familiar about this man washes over me with relief. It’s Eric. Oh God, it’s Eric. He came back. He’s here. He’s with me and I have never been so happy to feel someone this close as I am now.
“Shhhh,” he murmurs softly and then releases my mouth.
I rotate in his arms and hug him so tightly that it hurts, but somehow, it’s not tight enough.
He holds onto me, his hand flattening between my shoulder blades, but this is not just about affection. This is him holding me, keeping me still. This is him listening for movement and the necessity of my silence replaces my relief.
We aren’t alone.
This wasn’t a random power outage.
I stiffen and softly inhale a calming breath. Eric strokes my hair as if in approval and then kisses my temple before pulling me around and then in front of him. His hands go to my shoulders, and he starts walking us forward, and I have no sense of where we are in the Kingston warehouse, but somehow, he does. I sense this. I know this. I remind myself he’s not only a genius but an ex-Navy SEAL. About that moment is when he abruptly stops walking and we just stand there, and stand there, and I swear there is a whisper of movement somewhere nearby.
I don’t know where.
I just know it’s here. It’s close. Someone is definitely in here with us.
Just when I feel as if we will be frozen in place for eternity, Eric suddenly moves me forward but we only manage five fast steps before he stops us again. He reaches around me and my hands planton what I think is a door. He walks me inside, the blue light of an aquarium telling me this is the foreman’s office. Eric shuts us inside and leads me into a corner. For the first time since he arrived, I can see him, and even in the shadows, he’s beautiful and intense.
“You came back.”
“I should never have left,” he says, cupping my face. “And we have a lot to talk about when this is over.” He kisses me and then takes my hand and presses a gun into it. “Shoot first. Ask questions later.” He shrugs out of his jacket and tosses it. “Call 911, but don’t move. You could run right into a problem. I’ll be right back.” He starts to move away.
I catch his arm, my heart lurching as I plead, “Wait. Don’t go. Wait on the police. You could get hurt.”
“I won’t get hurt.” His hands settle on my shoulders and as if he knows I need to hear more, he repeats, “I’ll be back. Don’t move.” He starts to step away again, but suddenly halts, holding a finger to his lips to silence me. I nod and he turns toward the door, silently stepping into a spot that places him behind it as it opens. The next thing I know, Eric and some man in all black are exchanging punches. Eric throws him across the desk and I don’t even consider running. I hold the gun ready to shoot the minute I know Eric is safe, but he’s across the desk and on the guy so quickly I can’t fire. I also can’t call 911 because I don’t have my phone, and the only phone in the office is now on the floor somewhere, out of sight.
I hunt desperately for it, but what I find is Eric flying across the desk this time, landing at my feet. The man he’s fighting charges at him and I manage to retain a level head. I fire the gun, but I’m clearly out of practice. It pulls left and misses the man and before I can recover, he’s on top of Eric, both of them rolling as I hit the wall. I run for the desk, searching for the phone, but as sure as I’m hunting, suddenly the man Eric is fighting runs out the door.
“Harper!” Eric shouts, motioning me forward. “We need to get out of this office now!”
I run toward him and he grabs my hand and then I’m running again as he pulls me forward into the darkness. I have no idea how he sees where we’re going and my stomach is all over the place in anticipation of the phantom object we’re about to run into, but never do. Abruptly we halt and he presses me against a wall, his big body against mine and it’s sweet relief, like everything wrong is now right. I’ve found my shelter and that shelter is him.
