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Chapter Nine
~ Rylan ~
I bolted from my office, my wool overcoat flying behind me as I tore across the floor, running for the elevator.
“Flo, cancel everything for today and tomorrow,” I yelled to my assistant. “Hand over anything that can’t wait to Kenton.”
I didn’t wait for her answer.
My heart pounded in my chest as I rushed to get to Holly. If anything happened to her, I’d never forgive myself. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t had a hand in her having troubles.
My chest constricted, my breathing arresting when I saw her vehicle barely visible ahead of me minutes later. The light blue sedan was slightly sideways on the shoulder, one tire appearing perilously close to the edge of the ditch, though it was hard to tell in the white out.
Throwing on my flashers, I pulled off close behind her. My dress shoes slipped on the pavement as I rushed toward her car door. Her tear-stained face shattered me as she looked up at me.
“Grab your things,” I said. She reached for the items on her passenger seat while I unfastened her belt. I pulled her from the frigid car, the lack of heat another stab in my chest.
She shook, clinging to me while I carried her to my truck, thinking of having her car crushed and destroyed at the first opportunity. It had officially become the enemy, and she was getting a new vehicle as soon as possible.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into my chest while she burrowed into me.
“Sorry? Why?”
“Dragging you out into this. It’s horrible.”
“I’d rather be with you here than anywhere else. I’ll always come for you. Always.”
I settled her into the passenger seat, just as I had many times before over the past few days. For the first time, she seemed dejected and utterly defeated. I lifted her icy chin in my warm fingers and brushed my lips over her equally chilled mouth.
“It’ll be okay,” I promised before going around to climb behind the wheel.
“Baby, where were you going?” I asked, turning the heat up to full then pulling out onto the road. I didn’t even think about where we were headed. I was taking her home, once and for all. Our home.
“My apartment,” she whispered, shaking her head. It seemed almost as if she were talking to herself. “Then my car broke down. I don’t have much money to fix it, my bills are going to start bouncing in my account. I’m going to lose my apartment, my stuff, because I won’t even be able to move anything. Then I’ll lose my business because I can’t run it without my things or a place…and my boss’s boss just fired me because he’s a predator and I won’t play his nasty games.”
I growled, fury working through me. Whoever he was, I’d bury him. Not that my woman needed to work—she didn’t and she wouldn’t be going back there. But that man didn’t deserve the position that gave him this power.
“Everything will be fine.” That was a promise I could keep.
“How? I don’t have a job. You don’t have a job…”
She cut off at my bark of laughter.
“Baby, do I look like I don’t have a job?”
Her eyes cut over to me and that astute gaze worked over my frame, seeing me for the first time today and taking in my thick wool overcoat, and bespoke navy winter-weight suit—one of the many custom-made for me that hung in my closet.
“No… I… I thought you just dressed up for the speed dates. Every time I’ve brought up work, you’ve—”
“Deflected,” I interrupted. “I know. Thing is, I have a job. I own my own business, in fact.”
“Oh…” she whispered, looking down at her mitten-covered hands.
“I’ll make sure everything’s okay,” I repeated.
“You can’t—”
“I can. This isn’t a conversation for in the truck, getting through this storm, but you are mine, Holly. Completely mine. That means I take care of you. And God damn it, someone should have been caring for you a long time ago. And even though it makes me a bastard, I’m kinda glad they weren’t because that means you were there waiting for me.”
