Page 69 of Grant’s Heat

“Elijah just sent me a text that he’s downstairs. He’s going to drive me over to pick you up, okay?”

“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll see you later then. Bye.” She disconnected the call without an inquisitive word on how I knew her whereabouts. That alone was a great indicator of how strong the sedative was currently coursing through her system.

Reina was busy at her desk when I hustled past, but I paused long enough to let her know I’d be gone for a while. “I’m not really sure how long I’ll be, but I have my cell, and I’m taking my laptop in case I need to handle anything that can’t wait until I get back,” I explained, only slowing, not actually stopping, to rush out the words.

“Sounds like a plan,” my assistant said, jumping to her feet to scurry down the hall with me. She scanned my calendar on her smart pad as we walked. “You have a one thirty meeting with your interior designer, Amaya Perez. Do you want me to reschedule that or wait and see if you are back by then?”

“Will you just tell her I’ll be in touch to reschedule?” Impatiently, I pressed the down button on the elevator.

“No worries. I’ll email the board of directors’ agenda draft to you for approval before sending the final copy out to the members, so keep an eye out for that.”

I pressed the down arrow again.

Reina arched a brow toward me. “Last thing from me… I have the reports you wanted from HR that chart overtime hours versus job-site mishaps. Where do you want those?”

Finally the elevator arrived and the doors parted to let two people off. I slipped my large hand over the door sensor to hold the thing open while I gave one last instruction to my assistant. “Can you start entering the data into the spreadsheet we created last week? Maybe do a trial on a few lines to see if the formulas work the way we wanted before entering too much info? If we have to tweak the math, we can do that when I get back or tomorrow.”

“You got it.” Reina put her hand on the door to keep it ajar after I pressed the button to descend to the lobby and waited for me to meet her gaze. When I did, my aide said, “Take a deep breath, please. You’re not going to help anyone if you have a heart attack from all the stress before you get a chance to save the day.”

After giving the young woman a genuine smile, I took an obvious deep breath and said, “Thanks, Reina. You’re right. As always.”

She stepped back and let the elevator close, giving one last wave before being shut out completely. I made a mental note to give the girl something extra at Christmas this year. She’d certainly been going above and beyond lately.

Elijah sat idling in the loading zone out front of Shark Enterprises. I slid into the passenger seat, and he pulled into late-morning traffic. Luckily it was one of the lighter traffic times on the downtown streets, or I would’ve gone mad with impatience.

“So what the hell is going on? How did she end up at this facility? There’s no way she checked herself in here.” Elijah started with the questions as soon as he was safely within the flow of the other cars.

“Fucking Abbigail.”

“Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Not even close.”

“What was she thinking? Look at the web browser on my phone.” He gestured to his phone in the center console between us. “I have the facility’s website pulled up. I was checking it out while I was waiting for you to come down.”

“Nah, I’m not going to look. I’m already really pissed. If that woman was here in front of me, I’d be worried about what would come out of my mouth.”

“Can you put the address in the nav, though? I’m not familiar with that side of town.” Elijah handed me his phone anyway. Even though I just said I didn’t want to see the damn website, he was forcing me to look at it.

While I entered the information into his car’s directional assistant, I continued bitching. “You know, Abbi and Bas both have gone off the deep end with their meddling. They think they know what’s best for everyone and make decisions without thinking about the whole picture.”

“I hear you, man. We’ll get over there and sign her out. Try to take a couple of deep breaths, big guy. You look pale as a ghost.” My friend smacked my shoulder with brotherly concern.

“You’re the second person who’s said that. Breathe. Fuck! I’m breathing! I’m worried—no…freaking out is more like it. You haven’t seen Rio having a full panic attack like I have. It’s scary as shit.”

“Then maybe she’s in the right place. I mean, have you considered that? I know that’s not what you want to hear right now. But if she’s that unstable, are you equipped to deal with her?”

I stared out the window and watched the other cars driving by. Something about this scene seemed all too familiar. “I don’t fucking know, man,” I mumbled to my own reflection.

Elijah pressed a few buttons on the car’s display, and an overview of our route showed that we were only about three miles from our destination.

“Is this place in the Garment District? Seriously…”

“Well, the queen said she researched it and it was a very reputable establishment,” I said bitterly. “She doesn’t know a fraction of what Rio’s been going through or about Rio’s hobby, as she calls it. She doesn’t know her sister-in-law half as well as she thinks she does. She would’ve never thought cooping her up anywhere was a good idea if she did.”

“How did she sound when you talked to her? Was she tearing the place apart?”

“Not yet. Hopefully I can get her out of there before that starts. Whatever they have her hopped up on was pretty powerful stuff. She sounded like a five-year-old. But even that was unsettling.”