Their Virgin Secretary (Masters of Ménage #6)(41)

Tate flushed.

Bingo. Even a lawyer had tells.

"Let's go pack up while Tate tells us everything he knows about our girl." Kellan gave Tate his best big-brother look. "I mean everything."



* * * *



Tate let the door to their suite shut behind him, wondering if he would get punched once he told Eric and Kell the truth. He was pretty sure they were about to ask him a bunch of questions he didn't really want to answer. But there would be no pleading the fifth.

Eric turned on him the minute the door shut. "Dude, you told me you'd stopped the stalker stuff."

He rolled his eyes. "You make it sound like I'm lurking outside her bedroom window, snapping pictures of her while she's undressing."

"You wanted to," Eric pointed out.

Of course. He wanted to even more now that he'd seen her naked. Still, even he knew there were boundaries that, once crossed, got a man slapped with a restraining order.

"But I didn't. So let's stop lecturing me and find Belle. I don't care what Kinley says. She shouldn't be out there alone. Anything could happen to her."

He hated not knowing where she was and if she was truly all right.

Kellan ran a hand through his hair, looking tired and wrung out, before he dropped onto the sofa. "We'll find her faster than Anthony Anders, even without Kinley's help, because you've obsessively memorized everything about her. Haven't you?"

Frustration welled. "I'm not stalking her. I only followed her home to make sure she was safe."

"Yeah," Eric drawled. "You keep telling yourself that, buddy. Let's dig through that treasure trove of trivia in your head about Belle and figure out where she's gone."

She was his whole world, so yeah, Eric's implication was a safe one. He didn't see why that made him a stalker. He'd followed her home at night because there had been a rash of rapes in her neighborhood. Imagining what could happen to her if he didn't see her in safely made him sick. He'd feel better after they installed a security system in her place. Or better yet, after they moved her into their house, into their bed.



       
         
       
        

And so what if he checked out her Facebook page more often than necessary? They were friends. She'd accepted his request, giving him permission to look at everything on her timeline.

"Think, Tate. If she's already reached her destination, then it's within a ten-hour drive from here. She's likely in Texas, Louisiana, maybe Oklahoma, or even as far as Kansas. Has she talked about having friends in any of those places?"

"She has Kinley here, but most of her friends are in New York or Chicago." Tate sighed, trying to get his brain to work. Usually he was perfectly clear, but now he understood why his father had warned him that emotion was deadly to logic. All Tate could think about now was the fact that Belle was alone and upset, that she probably hated him … and was planning to spend her life without him. That there was even a remote chance this guy she called Sir had already taken their place.

"I don't think Kinley has stashed her somewhere," Eric said. "I watched her face while Kellan questioned her. She lent Belle the car, but I don't think she helped our girl get to wherever she was going in any other way. They're in touch, but if Belle got a new phone before she headed out and gave Kinley the number, then I don't believe she's staying with or near Kinley. Belle wouldn't want to disrupt her friend's life that way."

"Since Kinley is a newlywed, Belle would refuse to be a hindrance or burden," Kell agreed.

Tate shook his head. Kell could say he wasn't interested in anything long term all he liked, but any man who'd studied a woman that closely was definitely interested, even if he was a completely damaged fuck-up and behaving like a pussy.

Hmm, maybe he hadn't completely forgiven Kellan for last night.

"Right," Tate agreed. "She doesn't have a ton of family. Her dad died when she was a kid. No brothers or sisters. Her mom lives too far away. She just lost a grandmother, but Belle didn't know the woman." In fact, she'd brought him a copy of her grandmother's will a few weeks back to look through.

"So she probably hasn't gone to family." Eric paced by the windows, staring out as if he hoped she would show up at any moment and open her arms to them.

Tate hoped she would too, but he knew better. What he didn't know? Where the hell she'd gone.

"Even if we find her, what are we going to say?" Tate asked. "We talked for hours last night about shit between us, but what could we say to persuade her to give us another chance? Belle can be stubborn."