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“As you wish, ma’am,” Wallace said, making certain that he was only half a step away from her at all times as he escorted Marlowe toward the building’s entrance. Reaching it, he held the door open for her.
Bowie remained where he was until he saw Marlowe walk into the building. Then he gunned his engine and pulled away.
Hearing the sound the car made as it left, Marlowe muttered under her breath, “I knew that sports car could go faster.”
“Yes, ma’am, it really can,” Wallace agreed, following her inside the building.
Chapter 20
Pausing, Marlowe rotated her shoulders and then rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Her head was killing her and her vision was getting really blurry, making the words on her computer screen look as if they were shimmering and moving about as they went in and out of focus.
Marlowe sighed as she looked at her watch. She had been working on this new proposal and telling herself “five more minutes” now for the last hour and a half. Every time she thought she was finally finished, something else would occur to her and she would have to stop and rework what she had written previously to make it jibe with what she had put down a few minutes ago.
She hated to admit it, but maybe she was pushing herself too hard.
It was getting to the point that things were beginning to spin around in her head. Even Wallace had grown completely quiet. He had adjourned to the outer office, leaving her alone. He’d done it undoubtedly in hopes that it might just help usher her along and get her to finally finish what was ultimately going to be a rough draft of the report she was going to be finalizing tomorrow.
The report that she was going to present to the state energy commission.
Marlowe bit her lower lip. This had to be just right, and at the moment, no matter how much she reworked it, she really didn’t feel that it was.
Marlowe sighed again.
Where had all this insecurity come from, she asked herself. Ever since she’d gotten pregnant, it was as if up was down, down was up and everything felt as if it was skidding sideways. Her confidence had always been her best asset, and now...
Now she needed to straighten up and fly right, Marlowe sternly told herself.
And that, she realized, was not going to happen until she took control of herself, went home and got a decent night’s sleep.
Her days of running on fumes were definitely over. She hated to admit this, even to herself, but this, perforce, was going to be a brand-new chapter in her life.
“Okay, Wallace,” she announced, raising her voice so that it would carry into the next room, otherwise known as her administrative assistant’s office. Wallace would avail himself of that area whenever Karen had gone home and he felt that she needed a little space to finish up whatever she was working on. “Your wish has come true. We’re going home.”
While her bodyguard wasn’t exactly the most talkative man in the world—there were times when he was downright quiet, almost eerily so—he did always answer her when she addressed him. Even if he wasn’t in the room, he would come back in and then answer her because he didn’t believe in shouting.
But Wallace wasn’t answering her now. He wasn’t making a sound.
Had he fallen asleep? No, that didn’t seem possible, she thought. The man ran on batteries.
“Wallace, did you hear me?” she asked, raising her voice a little louder. “I said I’m packing it in and you can take me home now.”
Still no answer.
Curious now, she pushed her chair away from her desk. Maybe Wallace had gone to the men’s room, although in all their time together, she couldn’t recall the bodyguard having availed himself of that facility even once. It had gotten to the point where she had begun to think of the man as a human camel.
“Wallace, are you there?” she asked, an uneasiness beginning to spread through her. Why wasn’t he answering? If he had suddenly started to feel sick, wouldn’t he have said something to her? He usually checked in with her if he was going to do anything out of the ordinary.
Marlowe was fairly certain that Wallace wouldn’t have just gone off to get a breath of fresh air. The man was the most self-contained person she had ever met. He didn’t eat or drink on the job, and she was beginning to think that Wallace was the closest thing to a self-propelled robot she had ever encountered.
Growing a little concerned now, she called out, “Wallace, where are you?” as she walked out into Karen’s office.
Still there was no answer.
The outer office was fairly dark, and she didn’t see him.
Not at first.
