Part 10 (1/2)

”There is nothing in the world I wouldn't do to make her feel safe, Ally,” James said. ”I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I can't hurt her. I won't hurt her.”

”She's already hurt, James,” Ally said. ”You can't fix the physical stuff. Her body is doing that on its own. You can fix the emotional stuff and I recommend you do it quickly. She's ... unraveling.”

James sighed, moving around his desk and pausing next to Ally long enough to give her a brief hug. ”Thank you for telling me.”

”Of course I told you.”

”You could have done the girl-pact thing and kept it to yourself until it was too late to fix,” James said. ”You didn't do that.”

He moved toward the stairs.

”Um, I told her that I was talking to you about answering the office phones this week,” Ally said.

James paused. ”And?”

”Well, now I'm invoking the sibling-pact thing,” Ally said. ”Don't you dare rat me out.”

”She's going to know when I go up there to talk to her,” James pointed out.

”Not if you're smart about it.”

James chuckled, the sound foreign to his own ears. How long had it been since he laughed?

”Your secret is safe with me.”

”Good,” Ally said. ”Now, go and fix her. Oh, and if she wants to have s.e.x, just a tip, have s.e.x. Rejecting her is just ... mean.”

James shook his head as he tried to dislodge Ally's words from his brain. ”I'll see you Monday. Make sure the front door is locked on your way out.”

James jogged up the stairs, pausing in front of the apartment door to collect himself before pus.h.i.+ng inside. He had no idea how he was going to handle this. He just knew he needed to do it and he needed to do it now.

The living room was empty, so James headed toward the bedroom. She wasn't there but something about the stillness of the room bothered him. The only room he hadn't checked was the bathroom. He knocked on the door and waited a moment. When there was no sound from the other side, he opened the door and found the room empty.

Where was she?

James sucked in a breath as he took a closer look at the apartment. Her things were ... gone. The shark slippers that had been by the edge of the couch, the hoodie that had been draped over the armchair, and the black Converse that had been situated on the rug by the front door were all missing.

James' heart flopped painfully.

He strode back to the bedroom, really looking at it this time. The nightstand on his side of the bed was clear. Her antibiotics, the numbing agent, and the white gauze they all were gone. When he glanced at the nightstand on her side of the bed, he found that her cellphone was also absent.

She'd left. She'd left the apartment. She'd left their home. She'd left him. But how? She didn't have a car. She could've called a cab, but that didn't seem like something she would do. Who would she have called?

The answer hit him square in the chest. Heidi. She was the only person who would have dropped everything to help a despondent Mandy when she didn't feel like she could trust anyone else.

James fought to keep his breathing even, to not let the panic take him over. He'd screwed up again. He'd missed the signs. He was going to put one of those little chalkboards around her neck and make her write everything down on it from now on so he knew what was going on in that busy little mind of hers.

Think! Where would she go?

James was pocketing his keys and moving toward the door mere seconds after the answer hit him. She'd gone to her apartment. There was nowhere else she could go.

Ten.

”Are you on the lam or something?”

Heidi had picked Mandy up outside of Hardy Brothers Security, not once considering ignoring the request. She'd known the blonde clerk for four years but the haunted tone of her voice was something new.

When Heidi had pulled up outside of the building, she'd found Mandy waiting with two duffel bags in her hands and a morose expression on her face. Heidi had no idea what was wrong but it had to be big.

”Why would you think I'm on the lam?” Mandy asked.

”Because you told me to be quiet and not honk my horn,” Heidi said. ”I figured this was part of some covert mission. Isn't that what the Hardy brothers do?”

”I have no idea what the Hardy brothers do,” Mandy said, not bothering to hide the bitterness in her voice. ”They're not my concern anymore.”

”Not your concern? You and James are in love.”

”James and I aren't together.” Mandy's body was stiff, her voice stiffer. ”He wanted out.”

That didn't sound right to Heidi. She'd seen James and Mandy together. In fact, she'd been jealous of their relations.h.i.+p more times than she could count. She was embarra.s.sed by the internal admission, but it was the truth. James and Mandy had the kind of relations.h.i.+p that people dreamed about. Heidi knew she'd been dreaming about one just like it since she was a teenager. Something else had to be going on here.

”Does James know you two aren't together anymore?”

”I told you, he's the one who wanted out,” Mandy said.

”Then why did you sneak away?”

”Because I didn't want some big confrontation. I'm tired. I'm sore. I just want ... I just want a little peace. Is that too much to ask?”

”No, but ... .”

”But nothing,” Mandy said, her voice climbing an octave. ”James Hardy doesn't love me. He's trying to be nice and not hurt me, but that's not the type of relations.h.i.+p I want.”

”You're still recovering, though,” Heidi said. ”I don't think you should be running around town with a chip on your shoulder when you need to be taken care of.”

”I don't have a chip on my shoulder,” Mandy countered. ”And I'm not staying with a man simply because he's too scared to tell me the truth.”

Heidi pursed her lips, keeping her eyes trained on the freeway as she merged onto the exit ramp that led to Mandy's apartment. ”I don't want to argue with you,” she said. ”You look like you've been through enough for about three lifetimes. That being said, I can't help but wonder if you haven't lost your mind.”

”I'm perfectly sane.”

”Yeah, well, the James Hardy I've come to know is crazy about you,” Heidi said.

”He was crazy about me,” Mandy replied. ”Things change. He fell out of love with me. It happens. I'm not surprised, really. I always expected it.”

”You did not.”