Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 156145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Aaron frowned. “What are you talking about? She didn’t call here.” He would have heard the phone. She had texted yesterday, but it was so damn confrontational, he’d set his phone aside without responding. A plan. I just need a damn plan.
“No, she didn’t call the office. She called me.” Cameron leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees. “Seems she couldn’t get ahold of you, which is confusing as fuck to me because you’re sitting right here with two phones on your desk and yet it looks like you walked out of a fight and have been acting like an asshole ever since.” He gave Aaron a disgusted look. “She wanted to make sure you were okay. Didn’t say as much, but the relief and hurt practically radiated through the phone, and if leaving her hanging like that isn’t some bullshit, I don’t know what is.”
She’d called Cameron.
Horror flooded Aaron. He hadn’t responded to her text. Hadn’t called. Hadn’t done anything to let her know where he was or where his head was at. For her to call Cameron, she had to have been in a bad place, worried about him, and he hadn’t done a single thing to stop that. He’d let his own hurt get in the way of everything. He’d promised her that he would be in her corner no matter what, and the first time she got truly skittish on him, he acted like a dick and left her.
He shoved to his feet so fast, he tipped his chair over. “I’m an asshole.”
“Finally.” Cameron sat back. “Took you long enough to figure it out.”
He rushed out of the office, barely pausing long enough to grab his phone and his keys, and then took the stairs down to the street because he didn’t want to wait for the elevator. The trip to his penthouse took on a nightmarish quality. No matter how fast he moved, it wasn’t fast enough.
He should have taken a walk around the block and immediately come back after the fight.
Fuck, he shouldn’t have left in the first place.
It would have played on every single insecurity and fear Becka had. And then to leave her hanging...
He was well and truly an asshole.
Aaron raced through the doors of his building and took the elevator up to his floor. He burst through the door. “Becka? Becka, where are you?”
Silence greeted him.
I’m too late.
He closed the door behind him and stalked through the penthouse. The answers he sought lay in the spare bedroom. The closet doors hung open, all her clothing gone, along with her suitcases. Even knowing it was a lost cause, Aaron walked to the bedroom they’d begun sharing together and opened the door.
It looked exactly like it had when he’d left for work two days ago. A pair of Becka’s shoes had been tossed in the approximate direction of the closet. Her towel still lay in a pile on the dresser where she’d set it while she was getting dressed. There was even the slightest indent on the pillow she’d claimed as her own.
Aaron leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. It was worse seeing evidence of her here compared to the searing lack in the other room. It meant she hadn’t been able to force herself through the door. He’d hurt her that much.
Fuck.
He didn’t know how to make this right. There wasn’t a single plan that would work—he knew, because he’d labored over countless ones while he sat in his office and didn’t work. Becka was gone. He was to blame.
Each second ticked by, a reminder of the way he’d failed her. Aaron pushed off the wall and rushed back through the penthouse, looking for some indication of where she’d gone.
Nothing.
No note, no convenient piece of evidence that would lead him to her.
Think, damn it. You can’t go running down the street bellowing her name.
Even though that was exactly what he wanted to do.
Aaron dug his phone out of his pocket and called Lucy. It barely rang once before he hung up. What was he thinking? She might have told her sister she was pregnant, but showing up there would just reinforce her incorrect belief that she was somehow failing Lucy. Becka wouldn’t go to Lucy.
No, she’d go to Allie and Roman.
He started to call his friend, but Aaron paused. If there was one truth when it came to Roman, it was that the man loved Allie beyond all reasonable doubt. If Becka was there, he would stand sentry over her and Allie if it was what the women wanted. An admirable quality, but it would put them directly at odds, and Aaron couldn’t risk the possibility of being kept from her.
He couldn’t make this right if he couldn’t see her.
What do you think you’re going to do? That you’ll show up and she’ll be so relieved you decided to stop being a dick that she’ll fall at your feet in gratitude?