Panic swelled in Hope’s chest. The sudden fear as everything clicked into place, as if the breadcrumbs that had been left in a path for her in the last week finally could be put together to make sense.
“I need to leave.”
“Sure.” Angelica nodded and stepped back.
Hope didn’t even wait. She walked directly out of the ballroom and straight to the parking lot. She got behind the wheel of her car and held her breath. Her phone was still silent.Rex hadn’t texted her all day. The drive home was excruciatingly long, especially with the traffic hindering her. But she had to know. She had to see for herself.
Hope’s hands trembled as she parked her car in the empty garage. She left the keys inside as she opened the door to the car, everything happening in slow motion. Her breath came in slow rasps, making white noise in her ears. Tears already stung her eyes, because she knew exactly what she was going to find without even having to see it for herself.
She skipped the empty living room and went straight for the bedroom. The blankets were undisturbed. But the top of Rex’s dresser was empty. No one else would have ever noticed a difference. Hope stepped over to it, brushing her fingers along the laminate before she pulled open the top drawer.
Empty.
Tears spilled down her cheeks, rushing over her face. She could barely breathe. Her lungs refused to expand like they should. Pain surged through her in an instant, and she didn’t need anyone to tell her.
She knew.
She opened every single drawer in Rex’s dresser and all of them were empty. The closet. Empty. The bathroom cabinet. Empty. Tears flowed down her face, and she lifted her hand to her mouth to bite her fist to keep the scream in.
Her emotions were all over the place. She should have expected this. She should have known it was coming. She should have seen it happening from a mile away. But he’d told her. He’d said she needed to choose, and she’d done it. She’d chosen him. She’d let Angelica go for the sake of her family, and now where was he?
Hope’s heart clenched hard. She stepped out of their room—no, her room. Fuck, it killed her to think of it like that. She stopped at Eva’s bedroom door. He wouldn’t, would he? Shepushed the door open, finding the bed messy and toys still strewn about the floor. Hope pried open the dresser, and it was empty.
“Oh, the bastard,” she whispered.
Walking back out to the living room, she stopped at the kitchen counter. There was a notebook set in the middle of it, completely cleaned off because she’d left it that way before she’d gone to the hotel that morning. Hope trembled as she reached forward and pulled the notebook closer to her. Her eyes were so watery that she could barely even read the words that Rex had scrawled across it.
I can’t do this anymore. I have Eva. She’s safe with me. Don’t come find us.
Chapter
Forty-Five
“Now, in season one we got to see the two of you cook together,” Heidi’s voice rang through Angelica’s ears, but then the question instantly disappeared from her head.
Angelica stood behind a makeshift kitchen counter on a morning show that she hadn’t really wanted to be on and stared at the ingredients in front of her. She wasn’t a chef. Why in the hell did Josef think this was a good idea? She tried to follow Hope’s instructions by adding the ingredients when she was supposed to, but she was sure she was failing miserably at the task.
“We did get to cook together.” Hope’s voice was bubbly as usual. “We had a situation in Seattle where all of the staff walked out of the kitchen, and Angelica was kind enough to step in during a pinch. We had an event that couldn’t be cancelled that night.” Hope laughed and so did Heidi.
Angelica tried to push past the fact that they weren’t laughing at her, even though it felt that way. Hope stepped next to her and put a hand on top of hers as she stirred the whisk into whatever concoction they were supposed to be making. She honestly had no idea what the end result was.
“We’re actually making that dish,” Hope said, her voice still light.
Angelica, however, was frozen in place. Because Hope was touching her, and the gentle correction of her touch was more physical connection than she’d had in a long time, and it sent shivers through her spine. She knew what Hope could do with her hands, and she did still want that—desperately.
“Roast duck with an apricot chutney.” Hope beamed.
Angelica glowered. Of course Hope would choosethatdish to make today. She hated filming in Seattle. And of all the hotels that they’d filmed in that was nearly the top of her list for the worst, with Las Vegas actually holding that spot. She clenched her jaw tightly as she sliced the apricots. At least she knew what she was making now.
“I imagine you both have seen your fair share of disasters in hotels recently. Can you tell us anything about this upcoming season that we might expect?” Heidi’s voice was light and curious just like Angelica would expect from any daytime talk show host. But it still grated on her nerves.
Actually, it was probably more the fact that she was here instead of at a hotel doing legitimate work that needed her attention. Filming the show? She could do that. Press? She hated it. Hands down hated it.
Angelica put down the knife so she didn’t cut herself. “We spend a lot of this season much like the last, traveling the country. We started in Houston and moved west after that.”
Hope stilled, staring at her briefly before going back to preparing the duck. At least she hadn’t asked or expected Angelica to do that portion of this meal. She did know better than that.
“We went to Houston, Kansas City, Tucson…” Hope trailed off.
