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I am fuming! I continue to fume all the way home after this second all-nighter at the office.
Thunderation! Frickin’ flute! Sufferin’ succotash!
Couldn't the man just casually have told me,“Oh, by the way, My Lady Fair, I'm a multibillionaire from having founded and sold the company you are now working for?”
And I'm getting madder by the second as I realize why I have never been invited to his place.
Heavens to Murgatroyd! The man is a multibillionaire! He just doesn't want me to see his palatial home, with all his house staff that waits on him hand and foot.
Is he embarrassed to take me home?
Is he hiding some other woman there?
Who does he really live with?
If he hasn't even told me his real name, how do I know he doesn't have eight children by three wives—with each one getting millions in alimony from him?
Or maybe he gets a kick from slumming it with me …
And then I get depressed. I wait 28 years to fall for a man, and he's a liar.
OK, yeah, Jeepers, he’s a billionaire.
Maybe.
All right. But does he have to give all billionaires a bad name by lying to me about it, hiding his life from me?
As I reach my apartment building, I didn’t notice that a youngish man across the street who’d been pretending to use his phone now actually begin a real text. To Jared. Reporting in.
Chapter 27
Hendrik
Jaredgavemesomerelief this morning very early when he told me his man on the scene saw Beatrice get home safely. But why didn't she text me?
If she won't talk to me, I won't know what's going on, will I?
I'm working with Jared and one of his youngest “team” members, who has some good skills with numbers. Jared can tell I'm not myself I guess because he pulls me aside and asks with concern on his face, “Professor? You got some worries that the men and me … ahem … and I can help you with?”
I'm tempted to wave this off, but an idea comes to me. “Yes Jared, I'm concerned about my Lady Fair, about Beatrice. She has not been in touch with me for days now. I have no idea what could be wrong.”
“Say no more, Hendrik. We know where she lives, and the neighborhood is safe and all. But we have not been watching her own self. It didn’t seem we should with you not going over there lately, right? But I'm going to send some of the men over to keep an eye on her as well as her place. Do we know if she's still at work?”
“Jared, right now,” I replied with a two-armed shrug, “I don't even know if she's in town. I don't know if she's in the hospital. So no, I don't even know if she's working. All we both know is that she got in safely in the middle of the night last night. Is she still there? We don’t know, do we?”
I noticed Jared standing tall at the challenge. He always liked to do things for me, and I got it. “Professor, you are not to worry anymore about Miss Beatrice. We are on this! We got this!”
As Jared walked over to whisper to his young charge, and I saw the young man race out of the place, my thoughts turned to the last time I was with Beatrice.
“Horsefeathers! The boys will find out what’s going on.”
And I got a little smile on my face and a tiny bit of relief trying to list out all the cuss words Beatrice uses.
Chapter 28
Beatrice
ThereisnowayI can tell anyone in my family that I've been dating a secretive multi-billionaire. They'd laugh me out of the house. They'll tell me that I'm the one that's been keeping secrets.
