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Abby took a step forward, cocking her head toward the hallway. “At least use the back door,” she cautioned.
Chapter 2
MY BRILLIANT DISGUISE may have earned me a good-natured reprimand, but it worked like a charm in terms of camouflaging me from the general public, albeit there were really only two people to avoid in the alley. One was on the phone and didn’t even notice me, and the other one was a six-year-old, busy on a quest to catch a stray cat. In any case, I still considered it an undercover success, and I hopped into the first cab I was able to hail down.
As the cabbie took me uptown, I just stared out the window at the ever-expanding crowd outside James’s building. Shit, there must be 1,000 of them out there, I thought. Some had come bearing tealights and photos for some sort of memorial or vigil, but most were armed with nothing but cameras and a distinct lack of human decency, screaming rude, intrusive, and random interrogations toward the door, trying anything and everything to get his attention. In that moment, I had no idea how he managed to slip away unnoticed, even by us. Unless he’s playing a bellhop too, I thought with a slight grin as the visual image hit my mind.
Less than ten minutes later, I arrived at my destination. The building looked exactly as I remembered it: too tall and narrow and embarrassingly run down. Nevertheless, all of those lackluster attributes made it the perfect place for an on-the-lam billionaire to lie low. It was the ideal hideout, and from there, one could gaze at the river and lick his wounds undetected, out of sight of all those nosy lenses and away from all those unrelenting questions.
The door was closed but unlocked, so I made my way inside. I took great care with each footfall as I eked my way up the stairs, searching for any sign that James was there or might have been there recently. I really wasn’t sure what I expected to find as evidence. A diamond cufflink in the lobby? An abandoned churro on one of the stairs? Mostly, I was just stalling, because it hadn’t even occurred to me up to that point that he might actually not want to see me, that the man might have just wanted to be alone.
Trying my very best to be as quiet as possible, I wedged my fingers in and ever-so-slowly nudged the hidden door ajar. After a quick trip through the dark, there I was, standing on the same rooftop where he’d taken me that first night, and sure enough,
I wasn’t alone.
As I predicted, James was perched near the edge of the roof, gazing out at the rippling river. For a second, I simply stared. I had never seen anyone so simultaneously beautiful and sad in my entire life; he was like the embodiment of some ancient classical music. The golden sun gleamed against his dark hair, its rays flickering and dancing in his eyes like renegade flames. His entire body was balanced precariously upon the narrow stone railing that preceded a mighty drop, but not for a single moment did I worry that he might fall. I was quickly coming to understand that James Cross didn’t do anything by accident, and it was even harder still to catch him by surprise.
“James...”
There was no reaction, except for an imperceptible hitch in his breath. His head turned slightly my way, but he didn’t answer me for a second. Finally, he asked, in a voice as quiet as the whisper of the flowing water below, “Are you alone?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s just me.”
He paused for another moment, then returned his gaze to the glowing skyline. “Good.”
At that point, I had no idea what to do or what to say. I truly couldn’t tell if he was happy to see me there or not, and I still wasn’t sure he’d even registered the news of his father’s death. Clueless as to how to proceed, I was about to pull out my phone and text Nick for reinforcement and advice, but James spoke once again, keeping his eyes fixed on the river.
“I went to see him, you know, just yesterday morning, while you and Madi were finding out the results of the competition. I wanted to tell him everything we’ve done these last few weeks, to let him know things are back on track, that everything...that everything’s going to be okay. I guess it was too...” His voice broke, and his chin fell against his chest, his lovely face tightening with an indescribable kind of pain. The next second, he was in my arms.
“Oh, honey...” I eased him down off the ledge, stroking the back of his head as he pressed his forehead into my shoulder, his body shaking with quiet, gentle sobs. “I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t know your father, so I’m not even sure what to say. I do know that anyone who meets you even once would have to love you, and I know he had to be proud of you. How precious you must have been to him. I am sure he was glad that if that was one of his last conversations, it was with you, with good news.”
It was completely humbling to see a grown man cry, especially a man as strong as he was. I held him for another minute or two, to give him a chance to get himself under control. When he pulled gently away, there were still tears on his face, but his sobbing had stopped.
“How did you know to come here?” he asked, staring down at me.
It was a damn good question and a valid one, but there was no simple answer. I had no idea what had inspired me to come, so I could only blame that damn persistent voice in my head.
“Lucky guess.” I swept his messy hair off his forehead and gave him a gentle smile. “Nick’s freaking out, looking for you.”
James sighed. “I imagine he’s halfway to Switzerland by now. It’ll give him an excuse to have a pint of that cider he loves so much.”
I shot him a strange look, but it was no stranger than the look he was giving me. Before I could ask about the inexplicable significance of Switzerland, he beat me to the punch.
“Why are you dressed like a sexy bellhop?”
My cheeks flushed as I glanced down at my strange attire. It seemed like such a good idea back at the penthouse, but now I was beginning to regret the frills. “Do I really need a reason?” I said.
He threw back his head and let loose with a burst of breathless laughter, the first real ray of light in an otherwise dark day. His eyes swept over me with a hint of that old twinkle before he opened his arms and pulled me tenderly into an embrace. “Thank you for coming,” he murmured, pressing his lips against my hair.
My eyes snapped shut as a warm smile seemed to light me up from the inside out. “In what world wouldn’t I be here, James? I’m always here for you.” I kissed the inside of his palm. “You know that.”
He paused to internalize that promise, then eased us toward topics of a lighter nature. “Well, thank you for the sexy bellhop, whatever the reason. Saves me from having to find another.”
I bit down on my lip, trying to suppress my laughter. “Whatever you need, sir.”
He gripped me tighter for a split second before letting go with a tired sigh. “Actually, as much as it kills me to say it, what I need is to call my brother.” He fished his phone out of his pocket and powered it on again. “For all I know, he hasn’t even heard...”
I waited patiently beside him, one arm still thrown around his waist, as he pressed a speed-dial button and waited for Robert to answer. Three rings later, he was about to hang up and try again when a young man’s voice came on the line, a voice that certainly wasn’t Robert’s.
