Beauty Dates the Beast (25 page)

“All right. Five minutes. But no more.”

I nodded, headed for Giselle’s office, and knocked on her door.

No answer.

I cracked the door open and peeked in.

No one was there. That was odd. If Giselle wasn’t in, then who was running the office?

That did make bailing out of work a little easier, though. Flickers of guilt bothered me as I realized that no one would be in, but I couldn’t stick around and hope someone showed up. I went to the other side of Giselle’s desk and grabbed a piece of her stationery to leave her a note.

Giselle, family emergency has come up. Call me on my cell and I’ll explain.

I wrote down my cell number and signed the note, hoping that she’d understand. I studied the note for a moment, biting my lip. Oh, who was I kidding? She wouldn’t buy it. I drummed my fingers on the desk in frustration and accidentally hit her mouse.

The computer monitor blinked to life, and Giselle’s screen lit up.

I froze. Giselle would kill me if she knew I’d seen her screen—her desktop wallpaper was a rather incriminating picture of her and three sailors. Oh, my. How she could look at that every day and still get work done, I didn’t know.

Windows were flashing on her screen, and I clicked on one. A chat messenger—BigWilly69 (lovely man, I’m sure) was sending frantic messages.
R U STILL THERE? R U ALIVE? HELLO LOL.
All dated at 10:49 last night. Odd. I clicked on a few of the other messages and found the same thing, although one had sent a picture of his dick. Nice. I quickly clicked away.

Maybe she’d just forgotten to turn off her computer when she’d left the office?

A new message popped up.
Giselle, are you there
?

The screen name was Jason_ontheprowl.

Jason?

I hesitated a moment, then typed.
Hi, Jason, it’s Bathsheba. I’m borrowing Giselle’s computer.

A long moment passed. Then Jason’s response lit up on the screen.

Bathsheba
—a smiley face followed my name.
Are you okay? You left so fast last night. I was hoping we could talk. Tonight, maybe? Drinks at my place?

Ugh. He’d gone straight to Giselle to try and set up more dates?
Something has come up
, I typed.
Can we catch up next week?

Or never. Never would be a really good time to catch up.

Sure
, he typed, another smiley tagged on.
I’ll call you.

I good-bye’d, then logged out of chat. The calendar was underneath the chat box, and I took a look at it.

She’d booked three more dates for me today. Garth again, Jason in the evening, and some new guy named Ricardo in the afternoon. She’d thoughtfully tagged each appointment with the client’s profile ID, the sum he’d paid to date me, and an email address.

I fired off quick emails to the men explaining that I would be out of town, then deleted the incriminating evidence from Giselle’s Sent folder.

“Bathsheba?” Marie’s inquiring voice called out.

“In here,” I called back.

She stepped into Giselle’s office a moment later, thumbed a gesture behind her, and gave me a curious look. “I found a stray. Can we keep him?”

Behind her, Beau came out of the shadows and grinned at me. “It’s been ten minutes.” He lifted his head and sniffed the air once, then rubbed his nose. The scent of Old Spice must really bother him.

“I was just shutting down Giselle’s computer. Then I’m done.”

Marie was looking at Beau with a rather adoring look on her face. “Take your time. I can make some coffee if you’re going to be sticking around,” she said, and I realized she wasn’t talking to me. Irritation flashed.

Beau grinned, but his eyes were resting on me. “Thank you, but we need to get going.”

I nodded and moved around Giselle’s desk. My shoe slid across the tile, and I nearly face-planted on the floor, but Beau lunged past Marie and grabbed me. “Sorry,” I breathed, distracted by his proximity. “I slipped on something.”

I glanced down and saw dark smears on the tile, sticky and red.

Blood.

Beau’s face paled. “I didn’t smell it,” he murmured in surprise, even as he ushered me out of Giselle’s office and hurried through the main office.

“Where are you going?” Marie cried behind us. “What’s going on?”

“Bathsheba is in danger.” Beau didn’t break stride, urging me toward the door. “I’m sending someone over here to look after the office. I want you to come outside with us, understand?”

She gave him a frightened nod and glanced back at Giselle’s office, then followed us out.

I wasn’t moving fast enough for Beau. He swung me into his arms as if I weighed nothing and carried me out to the car. Ramsey had gotten us a rental car at some point last night, and Beau shoved me into its backseat. “Lie down and cover up with that coat until I tell you otherwise.”

I heard Marie slide into the front seat and lie down, her terrified breathing loud and raspy. For God’s sake. It wasn’t like snipers were going to be shooting from the rooftops or something. “Beau, are you sure—”

“Lie down,” he snarled, and I did. He shut the door after me, and I lay there, scarcely daring to breathe. Outside he paced back and forth, jingling the keys, ready to move.

It seemed like an eternally long time before I heard other voices, and I sat up to sneak a peek. The other Russell clan members had arrived. At the sight of them, Marie was let out of the car—I was given a firm glare and stayed put—and Beau
and his men investigated the building. One of them stood outside, protecting me as I lay in the back of the car, and then Beau reemerged. The men talked in low voices, but the body language was a bit more relaxed. Safe for now.

Beau opened my door and I slid out of the car. “Marie will be okay?”

“Yes. Two of the boys will stay with her.”

“How come you didn’t smell the blood?” I asked.

“There were too many other smells—the dust, the cologne, flowers. You.” He glanced over at me. “The Old Spice was bothering my nose, so I focused on the smell of you and nothing else.” He looked angry. “It was stupid of me.”

I sat in flattered silence as Beau got in, then pulled out onto the street. I had a million questions, but all I could think about was that pool of half-dried blood under Giselle’s chair.

We drove back to the hotel in silence. I was lost in thought, and Beau didn’t seem inclined to talk, either. The hotel was bustling this morning—people getting coffee before heading off to conferences or meetings, people with suitcases checking out. I shivered every time someone looked at me, then realized it was because I was wearing a dirty sweaterdress and no tights in winter.

My hand clenched tight in his, Beau led me back
through the maze of hotel rooms, his face bleak, his eyes slitted and cold. Determined. Angry. He paused in front of our door, sniffing the air, then pulled out the key-card.

“Beau,” I said, “I don’t have any clothes.” With the angry protective state he was in, I might not emerge for days.

He gave me a hard look. “You’re not going back home.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

He glanced at my dress. “Wash it in the sink.”

Typical male response. “Are you on drugs?” An elderly couple passed us in the hallway, staring. Maybe I’d been a little too loud. Oops. I leaned in, dropping my voice to a whisper. “I don’t have any panties.”

A slight smile lightened his expression. “Are you flirting with me?”

“No! I’m telling you I need some panties,” I whispered furiously. “We need to go to the store—”

“Too risky,” he interrupted.

The store? Risky? Was he mad? “Then you need to call Ramsey and tell
him
to bring me panties.”

He stared at me for a moment. “No.”

I blinked in surprise. “What do you mean, no? I need clothing.”

He pushed the door open and gestured for me
to go in. “Your life is in danger. You can go shopping later.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. The vein throbbing there was going to burst soon if I didn’t get to punch something. “You’re not listening to me,” I began.

“You’re not listening to me,” he said, putting his hand on the small of my back and basically shoving me forward.

I planted my feet, furious. “Beauregard Russell. If I have to stand in this hall all day arguing over panties to get some, then by God, that’s what I’m going to do.” I braced my feet against the door frame, glaring at him.

He tickled my sides and I collapsed in a fit of giggles. He grabbed me by the waist and carried me inside, dumped me on the bed, then crawled on top of me. A hint of a smile had returned to his stern face.

“Panties?” he asked.

“Panties,” I affirmed. “Jeans and a T-shirt would be appreciated, too.”

He leaned over and kissed me. “Your wish is my command. I’ll see what Ramsey can scrounge up.”

I had mental images of a bear scrounging for frilly underpants, and snorted. “Maybe Sara should help him.”

R
amsey knocked at our hotel door an hour later, bags in hand. Beau stepped outside to have a private conversation with his lieutenant, and I spent the next few minutes picking through the clothing and changing into jeans, a T-shirt with Beau’s business logo on it, and fresh panties. There was even a pair of Keds slides. Nice.

I tucked my cell phone into my back pocket and it immediately began to vibrate. Surprised, I pulled it out and stared at the screen.

It read
Gis-cell
. I flipped it open and answered warily. “Giselle, where are you—”

“Hello, Bathsheba.” The voice was overly sugary, smug. I didn’t recognize it, and it sure wasn’t Giselle. There was something about the tone that niggled at my memory. “Be very quiet and listen to what I say, or your sister Sara is going to die.”

I went cold, blackness crawling before my eyes.
The breath whooshed out of my lungs. How had they gotten Sara? Ramsey was keeping her safe … I glanced toward the hallway, where I’d just seen him, then swallowed. “Who is this?”

“This is Arabella. Remember me?”

“I remember you.” I looked at the door, but the men were still murmuring out there. I moved to the bathroom and shut the door behind me. “You have Sara?”

“I do,” she crowed. “And your boss, too, who happens to be in terrible pain at the moment. Want to talk to her?”

God, no.
But that wasn’t a good answer. “Yes.”

There was a bit of static, and then I heard a groan of pain, followed by a sob. Giselle?

The phone jerked away and I heard Arabella’s soft laugh. “Oops. Sounds like she can’t come to the phone right now. Too bad.”

“Let me talk to Sara.”

“She’s currently unconscious.”

My heart froze. “If you’ve hurt her—”

“I haven’t yet,” she interrupted. “At least not too much. I’m going to leave that for the wolf pack, since they’re so hot and bothered about finding her. Unless you and I want to work something out?”

Every ounce of my body wanted to fling the phone away. “Yes,” I gritted. “What do you want?”

“Good.” She sounded pleased. “If you want your sister to live, I need you to do a few things.”

I hesitated. Giselle gave a shout of pain in the background, and that decided me, even though I had an awful feeling in my stomach that this wasn’t going to turn out well. “I’m listening.”

“I want you to meet me,” she said calmly, as if she’d been discussing a dinner date. “Alone. I’m going to text you the address, and I want you to be there in a half hour. If I get one sniff of someone helping you or accompanying you, I’ll cut Sara’s throat. Understand?”

I swallowed. “I’ll come alone.” I didn’t know how I’d get away from Beau, but I wouldn’t let Sara down.

“Good.” She chuckled. “Be here in a half hour or I start cutting off fingers. And claws. Your little sister can’t afford to lose much more.”

She hung up.

I clenched my fists, trying to think. I couldn’t break down. I had to do something. Fast. If I told Beau, he’d stop me from going and Sara would die.

I needed a plan.

The room door shut and Beau called out, “Bathsheba?”

I smoothed my hands down my jeans, wiping away the clamminess. “Be out in just a minute.” I took that time to compose myself and then left
the bathroom, my face carefully blank. One wrong facial expression, and Beau would figure me out.

“If I get one sniff of someone helping you or accompanying you, I’ll cut Sara’s throat.”

So I had to get rid of Beau. I ignored the smile he was aiming in my direction and sat on the edge of the bed. “So what’s the plan?”

He came and sat next to me, his warm arm rubbing against mine. His arm slid around my waist and he pulled me closer. “What do you mean?”

I pried away from him and leapt off the bed. Time to play innocent, to get him off the trail. “I mean, what’s your plan to find out where Giselle is? What if the same people that are after me have her?”

He looked exasperated. “Giselle can take care of herself, and I don’t give a damn where she’s at. All I care about is keeping you safe.”

I nearly crumbled at that, but I decided to use it against him instead. “So you’re just going to leave her there, helpless? What if the wolves have her and are torturing her to find out where Sara is?”

He shook his head. “They wouldn’t torture one female to get another. And Giselle is anything but helpless.”

No, she wasn’t. If there was anyone that could turn a kidnapping into roses, it would be Giselle. But then I remembered the blood under
her desk. “We can’t just leave her with whoever has her, Beau. She’s my boss.” My voice rose an octave.

“Leave it alone, Bathsheba.”

“No. We need to help find her.”

He glared at me as I paced. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“No.”
I can’t
.

“Why are you so loyal to her? She’s used you over and over again.”

“She’s given me a job. A good-paying job,” I shot back. “She’s stood up for me. The least I can do is not leave her to the wolves.”