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“You left the door open. What’s wrong?”
At his accusation, she winced. She knew better. But at the moment, she hadn’t even thought of it. Which was just stupid because hergiftthis morning had proved that someone out there meant her harm.
In answer to his question, she pointed at the table where the carefully aligned box, envelope, and stack of papers were waiting. Something in her face must have told Rueben that now was not the time to ask her any questions so he stepped up to the table and picked up the papers first.
Alisha could feel the already tense room grow even more oppressive. Having Rueben here helped her fear and angst, but he obviously wasn’t happy with what he was seeing either.
“Alisha. What is this?”
She couldn’t answer. Hearing the rage in his voice drew her Little to the surface. Tears bubbled up and her lower lip wobbled.
Rueben’s anger evaporated like mist in the morning sun. The big man fell onto his knees in front of Alisha and enveloped her in his embrace, holding her, making it so she felt safe to finally let go.
“It’s okay,” he murmured. Her head was resting on his shoulder, and he stroked her hair with one hand as the other held her against him. “It’s okay, sweetness. I’ve got you. Daddy’s got you, babygirl.”
Huge sobs wracked her body as all of her fear made it to the surface. She was going to lose her men. Or her job. Even worse, she’d probably lose it all.
She was so lost in her fear and sorrow that she couldn’t put words to her feelings at all, but Rueben didn’t push. He just held her, not caring about the time passing on, and the fact that they were probably already late for their shift.
At some point he stood up and picked her up, cradling her against his big chest. He held her close even later as the crying slowed down to hiccups until there was nothing left inside her to let out. Her eyes slowly drifted shut and she nodded off, unaware of the mountain of a man getting up and taking her to her bed where he tucked her in before phoning their CO and calling in for a personal day for them both.
Chapter 10
Adam had a ridiculous headache building and was perilously close to flinging his laptop across the room. The conference call from hell wouldn’t end. As an independent broker, there were very few occasions on which he had to “people” like this, but a critical deal he had in the works meant he had to suck it up, smile big and let the assholes blabber away while he pretended to care about what they were saying.
Spoiler alert. He did not. All Adam cared about was the bottom line and how they could contribute to it. And unfortunately, they were well past discussing what that was, as the old baboons had moved on to their mistresses and their handicaps on the golf course.
Adam had nothing against the most boring sport in the world. Other than... you know, it was a snooze fest. But he did have a big problem with the fact that these men measured their success by the bra size of their latest flings instead of what was really important; the size of their portfolio. This was why Adam lived the life he did, and enjoyed the things he did. He just couldn’t keep up with their fake, fastidious lifestyles.
He looked at the time, counting down the hours until he would get to see Alisha and Rueben again. They had all been looking forward to this weekend. Adam more so than any of them, he believed. It was well past time he got his hands on Rueben’s never-ending chest and Alisha’s adorably curvy ass.
The gambit of ideas on how to get out of the rest of this conference call was making their way through his head when his phone rang with a call from Rueben.
“Yes!”
At the shocked looks from the old farts on his screen, Adam realized his exclamation of joy had been a verbal one. He held up his phone in apology. “Sorry, folks. I have to take this. Thank you so much for your time today. Jack, I’ve already sent you an email with those projections and I look forward to hearing from you about it soon.”
Adam didn’t say anything else, just closed his screen and swiped to accept the call at the same time.
“Rue!”
“Addy, can you come earlier?” Rueben asked, without a greeting. His voice was serious and had an undercurrent of something laced through it that Adam couldn’t quite place.
“Of course! I actually just finished the last of the things Ihadto do today. Anything else can be done from my phone. What’s wrong?”
“It’s Alisha. Something’s happened. She’s...” Rueben sighed, freaking Adam so much he sat up straight shoving the laptop away. “Physically she’s fine. But I... we need you here. At her place. I’ll send you the address. How soon can you be here?”
“I’m leaving now. My shit’s already in the car.” Adam responded, shoving his laptop in its bag and grabbing his car and room keys on the way out. “I’ll see you soon, Rue. Take care of our girl.”
“Bye, Addy. See you soon.”
Shortly after hanging up, a text came through on Adam’s phone with the location of Alisha’s house. He opened up the maps app on his phone and keyed in the address as he was climbing into his orange baby. It was close enough, but it was too far away to suit Adam so the second he pulled out onto the road he sped up, his foot heavy all the way there. He would deal with the tickets–and any other trouble he might get for it–when the time came.
Alisha’s house was exactly like her. Cute, orderly and with just enough character to draw your attention. It looked like a doll house with large pink shutters over the windows and flower boxes underneath the white-painted frames. Her lawn was meticulously well-kept, the edges trimmed perfectly. But in little corners underneath a large willow tree sat a family of garden gnomes that seemed to be in the middle of a tennis match.
He climbed out of the car, not grabbing any of his stuff, eager to get to Alisha and Rueben, but before he could even make it halfway up the walkway Rueben was coming out the door with a fierce look on his face.
“She’s still sleeping. She probably will be for a while if the crying jag she had before passing out is anything to go by,” Rueben answered before Adam could even ask after their girl.
