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She closed her eyes to offer a prayer for a quick end to the increasingly hostile conversation. An end didn’t appear to be on the horizon. Tielle decided to fix her clothes, her movements gaining speed as the argument’s volume surged. Her fingers stilled on the waistband of her jeans when she heard a door boom shut. Scrambling off the bed, she stumbled from the room and sprinted for the front of the condo.
The living room appeared in a worse state than it had when she had first arrived. Tielle saw Leo standing in the middle of the overturned chairs.
Grae was gone.
Chapter 15
“What happened?” Tielle looked from Leo to the door and back again.
“Ever heard that line about shooting the messenger?” Leo asked. “Thankfully, Grae doesn’t subscribe to it. He’d rather shoot the topic of the message.”
“Where is he?”
“My guess is he’s gone to have a little heart-to-heart with his brother.”
Tielle accepted defeat for only a second before snapping her fingers. “I may be able to catch up—”
“Ti,” Leo said, getting between her and the front door, “let him go. You’ll just prolong the inevitable.”
“Are you serious?” She was, for a moment, speechless. “He’ll kill him.”
“I don’t think so. Grae didn’t get as far as he has by letting rage dictate his moves.”
“Leo, this isn’t business, it’s very personal, and it has been for years.” She stilled. “What’d you say to him?”
“Faro went to the press about this after all. I’ve been here every day hoping he’d open the door and talk to me about it. He finally did. Do I have you to thank for that?” He watched Tielle take a seat on the nearest sofa arm.
“Faro knows Grae’s been…absent going on two weeks. He’s demanding the top spot at Clegg and says he’s willing to take it to court,” Leo shared. “If he wins, and chances are pretty strong that he could, he’s already threatened to toss every one of us out on our asses.”
Tielle couldn’t stop herself from dwelling on the inevitable. If Grae was on the way to see his brother, he’d surely kill the man.
“I need to find him.” She shoved an overturned chair out of the way.
“Honey, haven’t you had enough of coming between those two?”
Tielle whirled around as though a physical force had directed her. “So you’re finally around to blaming me too, huh?”
“Honey, no.” Leo moved to draw her close and drop a kiss to her forehead. “You’re the last person who deserves any blame for the fallout between those two, and what good has it done you? Maybe it’s time to let the chips fall where they may. Only way there will be any progress, right?”
“Humph.” Tielle recalled saying something similar to Grae and shrugged. “Right.”
* * *
Tielle stepped out onto the porch clutching a hot ceramic mug between her hands. Inhaling, she smiled as serenity claimed her, which it had consistently and appreciatively done over the past three days.
It was hard not to feel secure. Especially then. She loved the retreat the closer the year churned toward its end. The parties had all cleared out, hopefully healed or, at the very least, no worse than they’d been before arriving.
She bowed her head, sipping at the soothing rose petal and chamomile blend inside the mug. She’d been on her own going on three days. Her live-in staff had all headed off to their well-deserved vacations or to visit with friends and family for the holidays. But for her skeleton security staff, she alone remained.
There was nothing unsettling about it. Turner Estates had been home to her in one manner or another pretty much her entire life. She inhaled again, finding rejuvenation in the crisp chill. Virtually no remnants remained of the snowfall three weeks prior. The lingering chill, however, warned that it would not be the last dusting of the season.
Sipping more deeply from the mug, Tielle looked toward the dirt road cutting into the hill. She’d come out to the main porch two minutes after the call from the security booth. She’d hoped the tea would perform its usual wonders at soothing frazzled nerves. Its potency hadn’t kicked in yet, and that didn’t surprise her.
