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“She probably went out the back door. It’s a shorter walk to her apartment that way.” She pointed toward the back of the building, but Math didn’t see a door in that direction.
The moment she said, ‘back door,’ he knew she was gone. Rushing out the door, he headed to her apartment. Had she accepted the other job? Was she already leaving? He was practically running when he made it down the street and bounded up the stairway.
He pounded on the door once and tried to walk in. But the door was locked; it didn’t budge. Pounding on it again, he yelled her name, but she didn’t answer. Swearing, he turned and went down the stairs into the morning sun. That’s when he saw her car was gone. Where the old red Chevrolet sat was an empty parking spot.
Now what?He thought. He couldn’t scour the countryside, looking for her. And what would he do when he found her? Chase her car around?
Math pulled out his phone to call Hue to see if he had seen her if he was on patrol. Instead, he saw he had a text from her. Not only had the one she said she sent earlier come through but also one that said:
Tess:She is mine. Forget I said anything.
As if that was going to be possible. The woman he was starting to fall in love with was carrying his baby. And he had messed up so bad that she was gone.
After checking with everyone in her book club that he knew, he climbed the steps and sat in front of her door. She would eventually come back and need to get into her house. He would be there when that happened.
CHAPTER24
A fightwith Mathias will not interfere with my job, she decided as she picked up the phone even as he was yelling at her.
Turning her back on Mathias, she answered the phone, “Tess Thorn, President.”
“Terezilya, it’s Ilya,” her sister said in Russian.
“What are you calling me at work for?” Tess was a bit angry at her sister. She turned just in time to see Mathias leaving her office.
“It’s Papa. I couldn’t get you to answer the other phone,” Ilya replied just as angrily.
“What about Papa?” Tess said, turning on her cell phone.
“Mama called the ambulance a few minutes ago. I don’t know much, but I think you have to come. Now.” Her sister sounded panicked.
“I will.” She hung up her phone and watched her cell phone show missed calls from Ilya, Tasha, and her brother, Mike.
Pain and anger at Mathias turned to worry and fright for her father in an instant. Clearing her desk, she put the files away and went down to Logan Tucker’s office; he was the vice president. After knocking on his door, she explained that she had a family emergency and was heading home. He was understanding and said for her to go and call when she knew anything.
Hurrying out of the bank, she went straight to her car. No need to pack; she could borrow everything she needed from her family when she got home.
Home. Would she make it in time to see her father one last time, or was she going to miss that? If she had just married and stayed there, she would have been there with him. Why had she always been so selfish?
Straight from the bank, she climbed into her sanctuary, the one place she was herself in the middle of a foreign land. Her car was her refuge now. It was the only thing that could take her home and the only place she felt at home. Familiar.
Tess called Ilya as she headed out of town to see if there was an update on her father’s condition. She hoped she hadn’t already lost her father.
“Terezilya, you are speaking in English again!” Ilya scolded her.
“Ilya, it is just as easy for you to translate it as it is for me to.”
“No, it is not. You know I don’t know all the words you do. And you hate when I ask what something means.”
“I do not.”
“You do. That’s why you need to speak Russian.”
“I am not going to keep speaking Russian just for you.”
“You can’t stop speaking the language of your birth, Terezilya.”
“You have no idea what I can and cannot do.”
