Shaking my head, I return downstairs and slip her phone into my pocket, needing something of hers on me.
I need her. I’m going out of my fucking mind. I’ve never felt this helpless, this goddamn scared in my life.
“No calls,” I tell Luke, who looks as grim as I feel. “I want you all to canvas the area. She can’t have gotten far.”
“Unless she jumped in a cab,” one of the men says, and I rub my hand over my mouth.
Christ.
Where the fuck did she go?
I feel like I’m about to lose control when the mechanism on the front door engages. The door opens, and Eloise steps inside.
She stumbles to a halt when she sees all of the men. Her eyes go wide as they search for me, and when she finds me, her shoulders sag in relief.
“Oh good, you’re okay,” she says.
I gnash my teeth together.
“Out!” I shout, my eyes pinned to hers as my men file out, with Luke being the last to leave. He pulls thedoor closed behind him, and it’s just Eloise and me, staring at each other.
“Have you lost your beautiful mind?” My hands fist at my sides. I want to rush to her, kiss the fuck out of her, and pull her to me.
I also want to spank her ass until it fucking glows.
“I had to go to the pharmacy,” she says, frowning as she swallows. She winces.
“What happened? If you’re hurt, you call me, and we take care of it.”
For the first time since she walked in, I notice the bag in her hands.
“Don’t go upstairs,” she says, shaking her head. “Just stay down here, okay?”
“Too late. Do you know how fucking terrified I was? What the fuck happened?”
“Stop yelling at me.”
“No!”
I stomp away from her and will my heart to calm the fuck down. She’s fine. She’s safe.
Her father doesn’t have her.
“I have to change my clothes,” she says. “I’m a mess. I wasn’t fast enough.”
“Fast enough for what, Eloise?”
She shakes her head and moves for the stairs, and I follow her. I want to touch her. I want to keep her right next to me every minute of every day to make sure she doesn’t slip away again.
“Rome, this is embarrassing. Let me be alone in here.”
“Absolutely fuckingnot.” I follow her in, and my gut roils at the sight of the blood on our bed. “What happened, baby? Why are you bleeding?”
“Because I’m a woman!” She spins and stares at me like I’m stupid. “You’ve fucked me bare like a rabbit, but there were no takers, and I started my period, and it fuckinghurts, Rome. I didn’t have even one tampon to my name, and I wasnotgoing to ask someone else to get them for me. I had to go to the pharmacy!”
Jesus. Christ.
“I was bleeding like a goddamn faucet, and I had to hurry. And I wasn’t fast enough not to ruin my underwear and these sweats, and I need to change because it’s gross, and then I’m going to order in food and change the bed so I can just lay there all day and wish I was dead. Okay?”
