I pushed down the handle and opened the door a little before pausing, making sure there wasn’t a silent alarm that woke Roman, but when I didn’t hear footsteps hammering this way, I stepped inside, letting the light from the hall illuminate the space in front of me.
It took a minute for my eyes to adjust and to work out what I was looking at: a huge desk with three screens on it and then a wall of monitors… twelve of them, and stacks of what looked like computer towers. While I knew Roman was apparently in IT, this seemed excessive, and the hairs on the back of my neck prickled in agreement. There was way more to Roman Black than he was letting on.
Before my head could explode with questions and panic, the muffled beeping of my phone caught my attention. Worrying that Roman would wake from the sound, I quickly closed the door and relocked it before searching through my bag, where I’d tossed the phone before we went to bed last night.
A news alert illuminated the screen. I froze, my worries about who Roman really was now minute compared to what this news meant. The room spun, the air thinning as I sucked in shallow breaths while I tried to decide what I needed to do. And all I could think was one thing.
Run.
31
ROMAN
“Gone?”I said again.
“Gone,” Margo repeated for what must have been the tenth time.
I’d woken after an amazing couple of days with Hana with a smile, but it was short-lived as the space next to me in bed wasn’t only empty, it was cold. I knew instantly she’d left. “She can’t have gone?” I said. I’d rewound the cameras to track her movements after she left my place, and watched her walk back into her house in the early hours of this morning, and then she left for work as normal. The tracker showed her phone was here, so I’d stupidly presumed she was too. I should have learned my lesson when she vanished the other day, but I thought we’d crossed a line and something had shifted. I couldn’t believe I was so wrong.
I tapped my fingers on the counter of the diner while I stared at the older woman, as if my narrowed eyes would somehow change the information she was giving me.
“How many times, Roman? She came in, said she had a family emergency, and she’d be gone for a couple of weeks. Left me and Jay in charge until she got back.”
“And she didn’t tell you where she was going or why? Nothing else?” I tried to hide the panic from my voice.
She shook her head. “No, only that she’d be off-grid completely and we couldn’t contact her.”
Before I could ask her to repeat herself yet again and risk her wrath, a familiar face appeared next to the booth I was sitting in.
“Ah, young man. I employ someone who looks a lot like you, but he failed to show up for work this morning and missed an important meeting he was supposed to be presenting at.”
Thomas sat across from me, pushing up the sleeves of his grey cashmere jumper, showing off the tattoos I’d heard from the boys at work, adorned every inch of his body. Maybe we were more alike than I was willing to admit.
I glanced between Thomas and Margot.
“Coffee, please, Margot. And may I say, you’re looking particularly wonderful today. New haircut?” my boss said.
She tapped her fringe, her cheeks turning pink. “Mr Lanton, you smooth talker, you. I’ve not had a different hairstyle in all the time I’ve known you, and you’ve been around almost as long as me.”
He winked. “Yes, but I’m the one looking tired and old. You look fresh as a daisy.”
She let out a long, deep laugh before shaking her head. “Coffee coming up. Should I get one for Longing and Loveless, here?” She pointed at me, and I raised my eyebrows in reply to her cheap shot of an insult.
Thomas laughed as well. “Yes, please. I sense I’m going to have to listen to his woes for a while.”
And with that, Margot left us, and Thomas turned his attention to me, looking less than impressed. “Your excuse for missing work?”
“Hana’s gone.”
His dark brows furrowed. “Gone where?”
“Vanished.”
“Explain.”
“She,” I paused, not sure how I should explain the first part of the story or whether I wanted anyone knowing Hana and my business, but Thomas gave me a look that told me I had to spill everything.
“Hana stayed over.” Thomas’ lips quivered as if he were about to smile, but he soon schooled his expression back into the stony glare he was famous for. “When I got up this morning, she was gone. She left my place, went home, came here, and then… poof. Gone.”
