He couldn't stand the thought of her shutting them out. He'd tried so hard to get behind her walls, but Belle, while friendly, could be shy and very private. After a year of working with her and watching her more closely than he should admit to, Tate still found her a mystery. Belle possessed layers and layers he might never delve. That realization choked him up.
He'd been her friend because the others hadn't been ready to be her lover. He'd gotten as close to her as she'd allowed. At this moment, that friendship didn't seem to be helping him.
"Doesn't she have a college friend who moved to Oklahoma City?" Kellan asked. "She mentioned something about being shocked that her very urbane friend had fallen in love with the Midwest."
Yes, but Belle wouldn't go there. She was hurt. She wasn't the sort who'd seek a shoulder to cry on. No, Belle suffered in silence. She would go deep into herself. For that, she would want privacy. If she'd taken off somewhere in the middle of the night and abandoned her job before a meeting, that meant Belle sought to start over.
God, she was leaving them and if he couldn't find her, he might never see her again. Every single second she was gone, she drifted further and further away. The longer they let her stew in her own anger, the less chance they'd have to get her back.
And that dude she called Sir? Tate had to believe that was some exaggeration on Kinley's part. The Belle he knew wouldn't turn to someone else now. She would mourn. She would shut down.
"Hey, didn't she have a cousin who married a guy from Houston?" Eric had pulled out his laptop and started browsing the firm's vacation calendar. "Yeah, here it is. She went to the wedding six months ago. Maybe we should contact her cousin."
Belle's family was few and far between, so she held every member dear, she'd explained to him once. Her father's death when she'd been so young had been a tragic blow. He remembered the moment she'd told him about that terrible winter vividly. The sun gleamed across her blue-black hair and illuminated the tear on her cheek she'd tried to hold back. She'd fingered the picture she kept framed of him on her desk, looking at it so wistfully. Right then, Tate had ached to tell her that he, Eric, and Kell would be her family. But she hadn't been ready to hear that any more than she'd been ready to know that he wanted to make a family with her.
Now, Tate paced the suite, trying to shove out the panic that threatened to scatter his logic. Belle liked to feel close to friends and family, but she wouldn't burden them with her troubles. So that ruled out New York or Chicago. She couldn't have driven there in ten hours or less anyway. So where would she go? What money did she have without a job? Sure, she had a little saved in her bank account, but nothing that would last long without a paycheck. She'd need a roof over her head.
Jangling the change in his pocket, Tate crossed to the other side of the room, turning all the possibilities over in his head. Somewhere in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana-
Tate's head snapped up. That was it. Her late grandmother had left her a house in the French Quarter. Belle hadn't known the woman, but when he'd looked over the will, she'd admitted that she wished she had. It was a free roof in a new town. Somewhere she could start over. According to the documents he'd seen, the house was older and needed both repairs and updating. Belle would probably love to get her hands on the place. She could throw herself into that project. It would take her mind off the fact that her heart had been ripped out by three dumbass men who couldn't get their act together.
"She's in New Orleans. Give me two minutes and I'll tell you where exactly." He needed his laptop. He'd scanned in the files she'd given him because he'd served as her lawyer in this matter.
Kellan moved in behind him and stared over his shoulder as he started hunting down the file. "Why do you think that?"
"Because her grandmother left her a house," he explained as he located the document on his hard drive that had been prepared by a Malcolm Gates, esquire. At the time, the man had advised Belle that the will would take a while to go through the probate system.
"How did I not hear about this?" Eric looked over his other shoulder.
"She needed someone to look at the will and the transfer documents. By the time she received them, her grandmother had already been buried. I think she was sad that she'd never get to know the woman. Apparently, she only met her grandmother once. I guess her father and his mother had a falling out and they never repaired it. When we talked about the house, Belle didn't know what to do. She wondered if she should donate the house to the city as a historical site because she didn't have the money to fix it."