Page 127 of Bound By Words

The truly paranoid part of me thought that someone had been in my apartment, but the door was locked when I got home, and other than my misplaced tablet, everything was where it was supposed to be, at least from what I remembered.

“Just be careful. We don’t know that it was him, but Charley remembered Terri saying she was receiving creepy messages from an unknown number a few months ago. It wasn’t the number you sent me, but I’m still worried.”

“While he’s a gigantic douche, I don’t think Trent wants to hurt anyone. He was trying to intimidate me. I just stood up to him.”

Tom sighed, shaking his head. “Alright, but don’t stay here by yourself, and please make sure that a security guard walks you out to your car if Sam isn’t here.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ve got my guard dogs, and honestly, Trent should be more scared of Kristine than Sam anyway. Go home to your wife. Or at least get a haircut or something. You look like a slob.”

“Oh, thanks,” he chuckled. “Way to make a man feel good about himself.”

“Yeah, we both know that’s not my style.” At least not with Tom. Part of the beauty of our friendship was that we didn’t placate each other. He looked exhausted, and I was sure his equally exhausted wife would appreciate him caring for himself without her reminding him.

“You still need to come to the house this weekend to see Porter.”

“I know,” I nodded, staring down at the folders on the corner of my desk. While I’d been anxious to meet him when he was born, I hated that the thought of holding a baby right now made me want to cry. Maybe if Nathan were here, I’d feel different, but I couldn’t dwell on the fact that I had no idea how we would make this relationship work long-term. “Just let me get settled back in, and I can drive out. Maybe Sunday?”

He nodded, seeing that I was still a little out of sorts. Tom wasn’t aware I could never have children, but he was there when I started bleeding in the office during my miscarriage. He saw the look of panic in my eyes as he helped me get to the hospital.

We had a big meeting with a prospective client that day, so he was unable to stay at the hospital with me, but he knew something had happened. But I hadn’t fully confided in anyone here or otherwise. Nathan was the only one besides Tyler who knew what had transpired. Kristine and Sam had relocated after Tyler was long gone, so I’d just pushed down the memories and moved on.

“Go home.” I gestured for him to leave, and he finally complied, letting me sink back into the backlog of work waiting for me.

My phone chimed with an alert hours later, and I blinked hard at my computer screen, finally noticing that it was much later than I’d thought. The end of the work day had passed without me noticing, and one glance out my office door showed that most of my colleagues had left for the day. No one usually stuck around after the workday ended, so the halls were eerily dark.

Sam and Kristine had told me they’d be here around 5:45, but by 6:20, I still hadn’t heard from them.

Unlocking my phone, I cursed at the line of missed calls highlighted in red in my call log. Kristine had been trying to get a hold of me all afternoon, but my phone had been in ‘do not disturb’ mode. Shit.

Pulling up the most recent voicemail, I looked at the text transcription, and my eyes widened. Scrolling down to the first message, I held my phone to my ear.

“Hey, Kell. I need you to answer your fricking text messages. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for the past hour and got no response. Nana fell getting out of Piet’s pool, and they transferred her to Boston for surgery.” She sighed loudly. “Sam and I were able to get tickets out on the last flights tonight, but we can’t meet you after work. I’ll keep trying, but please let me know you got this.”

Each message sounded a little more frustrated, and I felt like a shitty friend who hadn’t been paying any attention to my phone while I was wrapped up in my computer.

After listening to all of them, I tried to call her and Sam, but their phones went straight to voicemail. They were undoubtedly already at the airport, if not in the air.

The sea of cubicles in the main area of the office was empty, only the lights in the main hallways still on. I knew a cleaning crew would be through here in a few hours, but I was alone for now.

I tried to call Nathan, but he’d been busy getting caught up on his projects, and I didn’t want to disturb him. He’d also gotten a voicemail last night that the garage door of the workshop appeared damaged, and he needed to drive down to check that out sometime this week, too. I knew we’d said we would make time to talk to each other every day, but I could already feel our lives pulling us in separate directions.

When his phone went to voicemail, I left a message while packing my bag to go home. “Hey, it’s me. Kelly. It’s Kelly.” God, could you get more awkward? He knows it’s you. “I’m just leaving the office, but I wanted to let you know Sam and Kristine are headed your way. Nana is having emergency surgery, and I guess they’ll be there for a few days. Can you get me the number of a place where I can order flowers?”

Locking the door to my office, I tried to finish up before reaching the elevators. “I’ll try calling again once I get home, but I know you’re busy. I love you. Talk to you soon, stud. I miss you.”

The empty elevator stopped at my floor, and a frisson of unease swept through me as I boarded the car alone. There were guards at the security desk in the main office, so I knew not just anyone had access to the elevators, but I hated riding them alone.

I scrolled through my email as I leaned against the back wall, my heart jumping as the car stopped a few floors down. My pulse hammered as the doors opened, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed an older woman standing there with a file box. Someone else had been working late.

I returned my attention to my phone and didn’t look up as the car resumed its downward motion. Movement in my peripheral vision had me glancing up, noticing that the woman hadn’t boarded the elevator alone. A tall man in a pair of worn jeans and a hooded sweatshirt stood next to the control buttons, and his hands were shoved firmly in his pockets. It was weird that he was wearing his hood inside the building, but he was just standing there silently, so I tried to convince myself that I needed to stop being paranoid.

The elevator stopped several times, the stragglers in the building finally heading home for the day. It wasn’t packed shoulder to shoulder like it could be first thing in the morning, but the hooded man stepped directly in front of me as more people joined us.

Not wanting to be completely creepy, I stared at his shoes, trying to figure out why they looked familiar. It wasn’t like most people never wore tennis shoes to work, but these sneakers were black with black soles and red stitching along the sides. A vague memory of seeing them at the company picnic last year lingered at the edge of my consciousness, but I thought I must be losing it if I was obsessing over people’s footwear buying habits.

The elevator stopped at the main lobby, and most people exited the car, heading out onto the street. The guy in the hoodie stepped back, bumping against me as he moved over for people to get around him. He didn’t look back as I tried to avoid getting stepped on, my bag brushing against his arm as I tried to get out of the way. Dick.

There were three levels of underground parking, and unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything on the first two levels this morning. The hoodie guy and the woman with the file box remained with me on the elevator to the parking levels. She pressed the button for the first level, looking back at me. “What level are you on?”

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