Page 114 of Always Red (Chasing Red 2)

“I won’t.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

Caleb

“Of all days to finally come out of his cave, he picks today?” I griped.

Ben leaned back in his chair, propping his feet on top of the desk. We had just finished making our offer to Darcy’s people and were waiting to hear back from them. “Maybe he wants to give this to you as a birthday present,” he replied, toying with a Rubik’s Cube. “Shut up and sit your fat ass down. Darcy’s people are playing the game.”

Ben’s gray eyes gleamed with challenge. He loved this.

Mr. Darcy was a millionaire hermit who owned a big slice of land very close to the city. The land was prime real estate, and if we acquired it, it would be a huge investment for our company.

Everyone wanted a piece of it, but Mr. Darcy had made it very clear that he wasn’t selling. Lady Luck had her generous eye on Ben when Mr. Darcy stayed in one of our hotels. Ben opened the door to the possibility of Darcy selling property to us and initiated negotiations. Ben could be very convincing if he really wanted something. He was a shark in negotiations.

“You know,” Ben began, “I’m pretty good at getting a handle on people.”

I threw him a glance. He was looking at me with amusement as he placed the completed Rubik’s Cube on the desk. What a nerd. He rose and shrugged out of his gray tuxedo jacket before neatly placing it on a chair.

I briefly thought that he was going to get along well with Red. They were very similar in the tidiness department.

Since he mostly lived in hotels, Ben kept an office at my mother’s house at her insistence. It was spacious and luxurious with books lining the walls and a fireplace beneath a Van Gogh painting. The desk was antique, and two high-backed chairs were situated in front of it.

Ben sauntered to the bar to fix a drink. “Your Veronica strikes me as someone who can handle herself. Unless I’m wrong.”

He strolled toward me and handed me a glass. I took a sip and went back to gazing out the window. My heartbeat accelerated at the sight of my mom and Red talking.

“You’re not wrong,” I answered. “She’s the strongest person I know.”

“Then why are you standing there watching like someone’s going to abduct her?”

I snorted. “I’m not…” I paused, realizing that, yeah, I was.

Reluctantly, I pushed away from the window and leaned against the wall to look at Ben. “I just don’t want Beatrice-Rose to upset her.”

“You’re worried about Beatrice-Rose, but what about Mom? You know Mom’ll eat Veronica alive if she doesn’t like her.”

I frowned. “She’ll like Red. How can anyone not like her?”

Because he’d put the thought in my head, I went back to watching through the window again.

“Mom likes me, and she still scares the crap out of me,” Ben argued.

This was not helping.

“That’s true,” I conceded, taking a sip from the glass. “Still, I’m 100 percent sure Mom will like Red.”

I turned away from the window, confident in m

y girl’s feisty side. She could handle anything. I was sure of it.

It didn’t take long for Mr. Darcy’s people to phone back and accept our deal. Ben and I had made sure that they couldn’t refuse our offer.

Good. Now I could get back to my girl. I looked out the window again to where I’d last seen her, but she wasn’t there anymore. I scanned the garden and couldn’t find her. She must have come inside the house. I was in good spirits by the time I made it downstairs and more than looking forward to dancing with Red again. Maybe after that, we could sneak out of the party.

But she wasn’t inside the house. I went outside to the party, to the gardens, even back to my bedroom and balcony, but she was nowhere to be found. She wasn’t even answering her phone.

Where was she?

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