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“It was a while ago. She all of a sudden lost a lot of weight and she was walking around with a lot of back pain. When she got so weak she didn’t want to do anything, your father finally panicked and took her to the hospital. It was too late for them to do anything.”
An emptiness pervaded Teigen’s body. She couldn’t cry, or rage, or even form a cogent thought. She was just numb. Staring out the window for hours, she watched the car eat up the road to her former home with no emotion.
Bobby didn’t try to invade her thoughts till he stopped for gas. “Do you need to go? I’m not stopping again. We have about three more hours to get home.”
Home. She wasn’t going home. She was leaving home, going to a place in her past filled with unhappiness and pain. What was she doing?
“I’ll be right back.” She got out of the car, not even conscious of where they were. She made her way to the bathroom in the nondescript rest stop, took care of business, and traipsed back to the car.
Bobby was waiting impatiently. “Took you long enough.” He motioned to a bag between the seats. “I bought some water and snacks if you want some.”
She wanted nothing. She felt nothing, not even hunger. She wasn’t sure how long since she had her last meal, but she knew they’d been on the road for a while.
As Bobby pulled out of the rest stop, he turned to her. “At least drink some water. You can’t not have anything the whole trip.”
A niggle of irritation passed through her, quickly enough that she didn’t even bother to respond to him before she settled back into her lethargy.
“Fine. You wanna ignore me, I don’t give a fuck. You’ll change your tune when we get home.”
Whatever.She leaned back and closed her eyes as a pervasive weariness engulfed her. She’d deal with it all once she got there.
* * *
Ellison
Ellison was in such a good mood the whole morning, he didn’t even realize how fast time had flown till his assistant Lena came into his office. “Would you like me to order lunch or are you going out?”
“I’ll have a meatball sub from Gino’s. For some reason I’m ravenous.”
“Sure, boss.”
As Lena left to make the call, he realized he could pinpoint exactly the reason. His appetite for Teigen was raging, his desire to be with her powerful. He had to at least hear her voice.
He could barely contain his disappointment when the call went to voicemail. He felt like a teenage boy calling a girl for the first time, agitated that she didn’t answer, wondering if she didn’t answer on purpose when she saw who it was. It was all he could do to keep himself from redialing her number over and over again till she answered.
He forced himself to turn his attention back to the plans he was constructing for his new project. He plowed into the sandwich when it arrived, barely aware of eating it when it was finished.
By the time the day was over, a feeling of unease descended upon him. Why hadn’t she called back? He knew she had to finish her article to make her deadline. Maybe she didn’t want to interrupt her train of thought as she wrote…or maybe she was having regrets over their evening together. They’d gone so far beyond anything she’d done before, were her doubts coming back to prevent her from wanting to see him again?
Yesterday had been intense. They’d played in so many new ways, but he would have sworn she’d been pleased with the way she’d responded. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy everything. Her silence was mystifying.
The only thing to do was to find her and make sure she was all right. He called her office and was told she’d left early. She hadn’t said anything to him about going home early.
Then he tried her cell phone. No answer.Fuck!
Leaving the office a little earlier than he normally did, he made his way to her house. Her car was still in the driveway so she had to be home. Shewasavoiding him! He marched over and banged on the door. “Teigen, please, I need to speak with you!”
Nothing. He didn’t even hear her walking around inside. What the hell was she doing, hiding from him?
Dismissing the fact that he was being stalkerish—she could be in trouble emotionally if not physically—he made his way around the perimeter of the building till he could look into her bedroom window.
What he saw was confounding. Clothes strewn across her bed, drawers half-open with garments falling over the edge, and a backpack on the floor. Clearly, she was gone, and she’d been in a hurry when she left. Where the hell was she, and who did she leave with?
Thoughts swirled in Ellison’s mind. It didn’t make sense. Yes, she was having difficulty dealing with her sexuality, but she’d seemed to be coping with it. He’d thought she was thriving. And she had a good job that she loved. Even if last night had been difficult for her to reconcile, why would she abandon her work just when she was ready to make a big splash with her article?
Now he was really starting to worry. He got back in his car and made his way to Black Light. It was the Tuesday night that had the educational classes, so he would probably be able to talk to Spencer there. He knew it was against policy, but if he could convince Spencer to give him Maria’s number, she might know where Teigen was.
It was pretty quiet when he went through the psychic shop to the entrance. On Tuesdays when there was no play, they only got the people interested in the class of the evening. Luis assured him Spencer was there, so he went down. Danny greeted him with a broad smile when he arrived at Security.
