Breathless, I stare at her in her lovely cream-colored suit and triple strand of pearls and don’t know whether to burst into tears or hysterical laughter. “Fine. It’s coming along fine. I’ll have it completed by tomorrow.”
“Good.” Her smile turns into a frown. “Are you all right? You look a little pale.”
I swallow and nod, desperately trying to pull myself together. “Yes. Just hungry. I have, um, what’s that low blood sugar thing?”
“Hypoglycemia.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
I can tell by her expression of doubt that she doesn’t believe me, but I don’t care. Without another word, I stumble past her, headed blindly into the cafeteria. I don’t bother trying to get any food down, I just navigate to an empty table, collapse into a chair, and stare at my hands when I flatten them on the tabletop.
They’re shaking hard.
I stay in the cafeteria until my shaking has stopped, and my pulse has settled. I know I won’t be able to concentrate on work, but I take the elevator back upstairs and sit at my desk looking busy for the benefit of the cubicle field visible through the glass walls of my office.
I shuffle paperwork, click around aimlessly on the computer, and smile as if I’m not having an existential crisis, and my boss/sex partner isn’t a man who makes other men disappear.
All very normal, nothing to see here.
At five o’clock on the nose, I leave the office and drive home to wait.
I know it’s not a question of if Cole will show up. It’s only a question of when.
Like a werewolf, he arrives at midnight with the full moon.
I’ve been pacing for hours. I’ve had three glasses of wine. I’ve resisted the urgent need to call Chelsea for assistance with my nervous breakdown, but I know this is something I have to handle alone.
Plus, she’ll probably advise me to find a new job ASA-fucking-P, and I don’t want to hear it.
I can’t deal with logic right now. That part of my brain expired with one simple question this afternoon.
“How’s your mother?”
So innocent, yet so not.
The master of mindfuckery strikes again.
I’m in the middle of pouring myself another glass of wine when I hear a floorboard creak. I look over and there he is, standing in my kitchen doorway like some sort of gorgeous, murderous ghost who appeared from thin air.
My heart starts to thud. My mouth goes dry. I slowly set the glass back down on the countertop and turn to him, trembling.
“It’s after midnight.”
“Yes. I apologize for the hour. I was delayed by work.”
I glance at his knuckles, but they’re not covered in blood. Licking my lips, I look into his eyes again.
“How did you get in? The front door is locked.”
“Was locked. And I’m going to install a deadbolt. That lock isn’t safe.”
My laugh is small and only slightly hysterical. “You picked it. Are you a professional burglar too?”
“Amateur.” From his back pocket, he pulls out a credit card and holds it up between two fingers. “Not very sophisticated, but it does the trick.”
“Evidently.”
He doesn’t move closer, he only watches me with smoldering intensity as he slips the credit card back into his pocket, and I try to calm down by gulping air.
“You’re hyperventilating.”
“Seems reasonable under the circumstances, don’t you think? I’m surprised I’m not bleeding from my eyes.”
“How much wine have you had?”
“Not nearly enough to help me cope with the fact that you made Bob disappear. I think I’ll need a few cases of wine before I can handle that.”
“You’re fine. It’s just fresh.”
“I’m going to sit at the kitchen table now. Don’t make any quick moves, or I might pass out from nerves.”
“No, stay where you are. I’ll come to you.”
He moves toward me slowly and with caution, like he’s approaching a wild animal who might bite.
Tonight is the first time I’ve seen him wearing anything but a suit. He’s in jeans, boots, and a T-shirt, all black. He looks ridiculously handsome. And normal, like he’s just an average guy, and not the morally gray vigilante billionaire unaliver-of-bad-guys he actually is.
I remember how I replied “All the most dangerous creatures do” when he remarked that Chelsea looked innocent the first night we met, and marvel that the universe so enjoys playing its little jokes on me.