Thirty minutes later, Brock heard the front door open. He knew it was Elle and breathed a sigh of relief. If he’d known his mother was returning today, he would have found a way to protect Elle. His mother was the most manipulative woman he’d ever met and he would have thrown her out of the house earlier except he’d never had a compelling reason. Until now.
He strode toward the foyer and met Elle just as she took her first step upstairs. “Elle,” he said.
She turned around. “Hi,” she said.
“I’m sorry you had to deal with my mother by yourself today,” he said.
She made a face. “It’s not as if she’s a mass murderer,” Elle said. “Although she clearly has issues.”
“That’s an understatement,” he muttered. “I’ll be moving her out as soon as possible.” Elle frowned.
“What?” he demanded.
“I hate to displace her,” Elle said. “Something about her seems so sad.”
Seeing the compassion on her face made something inside him twist and turn. Underneath it all, Elle had a good heart, but her sympathy for Carol was misplaced. “Giving Carol her own place isn’t displacing her. It’s not as if I’m kicking her out and telling her to live in a park.”
Elle bit her lip. “Are you sure it’s the most compassionate thing to do?”
“I’m sure it’s the right thing to do, for Carol and our marriage,” he said firmly.
Two days later, Carol was ensconced in a new home just a few streets over and all her things had been hauled away by a moving company. Unfortunately, she had taken very few of the furnishings from Brock’s home, which meant that Elle would need to sort out what should be discarded and what should be kept.
Elle turned to Anna. “What if I throw away something important, something that belonged to James?”
Anna pressed her lips together in sympathy. “I’ll help as best I can, but he did pass several years ago.”
Elle groaned. “I’ll run everything past you. If there are questions about something, we’ll put it in storage.”
Going through all the junk took over twelve hours a day for the next week. Elle fell into bed every night exhausted. When Brock awakened her one morning, she wasn’t sure which day of the week it was.
“This has got to stop,” he said. “It’s bad for your health. Bad for the baby.”
“It’s almost done. It’ll probably only take a couple more days” she said, still melting into the mattress.
She felt his sigh drift over her shoulders. “I still have a lot to do with Prentice, and we’re on the brink of another big deal, but I’d like to take you away,” he said, skimming his fingers through her hair.
“Really?” she said. “Where?”
“Somewhere quiet,” he said. “Somewhere away from here.”
“I tried to exorcise the demons in this house, but I’m not sure I did,” Elle said.
“Demons?” Brock echoed.
“Bad karma?” she said. “Bad memories? I’m not sure what it is, but I don’t want it contaminating our future,” she murmured.
He took her shoulders and turned her over to face him. He looked into her sleepy blue eyes and found himself craving more. “There’s no such thing as bad karma,” he told her. “I told you I would protect you.”
She let out a long sigh. “With our histories, it’s going to take more than one warrior to make our marriage work.”
He saw the steely determination in her gaze and felt a surge of something primitive inside him. He’d never met a woman like Elle, a woman who could match his passion and his strength. “You keep surprising me.”
“Is that a good thing?” she asked, her blue eyes dark and moody.
“I’ll let you know. In the meantime, pack a bag. You and I are getting out of here,” he said, making an instant decision. If Elle was going to rest, then he needed to take her away.
Within hours, Brock was driving toward the mountains. “I have a house a few hours from town. I go there as often as I can, which hasn’t been much lately.”
She sank into her leather seat and relaxed. “I’ve never heard about this place. You never went when I worked for you.”
“When you were working for me, I was spending every spare moment I could with you,” he said, taking a turn up a mountain road.
She rolled her head toward him. “It’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one who was half crazed,” she said.
He shot her a glance, then chuckled under his breath. “Half crazed is under estimating it by a long shot.”