Page 2 of Consume Me

“Not on the cars,” he clarified.

Belle, who’d been gazing into the fire, turned to stare at him. Her mouth fell open in horror as she processed what he was asking. “Tracking her?”

“No,” I said coldly. Even I wasn’t possessive enough to implant my wife with a tracking device. I tried to ignore the small part of me that wished I had when he suggested it a few weeks ago. “There is no way to track her.”

Not like that.

A sob spilled from Sarah, and she drew her knees up, hugging them. “This is all my fault.”

A good man might have comforted his sister, but I didn’t have time to deal with her emotional outbursts. Breaking down wasn’t going to get us anywhere. We needed a plan. We needed to consider all the possibilities. Tears and self-recrimination were obstacles we couldn’t afford. “You should go to bed.”

She wiped her face, shaking her head. “I should stay. Maybe I’ll remember something.”

I doubted that and from the looks on the others’ faces, they did as well. David put an arm around her shoulder. “Come on. I’ll take you back to your rooms.”

Sarah allowed him to help her up, but she stopped at the door. “Alex, can I stay in my old room—just tonight?”

Her fear splintered through me, creating a small crack in the determined veneer I clung to. Everyone was acting like we were planning funerals, not discussing strategy. I pushed it aside and nodded. “Of course.”

Before they were out the door, a familiar form met them. Brex paused with a grim expression, tipping his head in greeting as they passed. But when they were gone, he didn’t enter. Instead, he hung back, waiting for an invitation to cross the threshold into my private study. We stared at one another for a long moment. The usual smile was absent from his face and his eyes were shards of black coal.

“I called him,” Georgia explained. “We’re going to need his help.”

She’d called, and he’d come. I’d considered doing the same, but I held no delusions he would come when I called. But for her? Brex would come if Georgia asked, and I found myself glad that she had.

“My security credentials are still good,” he said. There was a question hidden in his words.

I trusted Brex. I’d hoped he would come back. I hadn’t expected it to be under these circumstances. “I’m glad you’re here.”

It wasn’t enough. Someday we needed to talk about why he’d left in the first place. I needed to explain why I’d kept my prior relationship with Georgia a secret. I needed to apologise. But true friends always showed up when needed no matter how much you hurt them.

Brex joined us in the office, refusing a seat in favour of leaning against the wall. Georgia took Sarah’s recently abandoned chair and drew a deep breath. Then to my surprise, she looked from Edward to Belle.

“We need to tell him. He needs to know,” she said, her voice low but firm. Belle’s mouth opened, but she didn’t speak as she looked imploringly at Georgia. Edward’s head dropped into his hands before he glanced up to meet their shared gaze.

I had no idea what these three could possibly need to tell me, but a chill ran up my spine like an icy finger. I waited for them to talk, dreading whatever was coming more with each passing second. Georgia was Clara’s bodyguard. Edward and Belle were her best friends. Clara shared a different relationship with them than with me. They shopped together and gossiped, and I’d never felt jealous of any of them until this moment. I fancied that my wife told me everything important. I’d never had reason to suspect otherwise until now.

“Tell me what?” I forced the question past my lips. A million possibilities tumbled through my mind. Perhaps I’d been wrong. Maybe she did intend to leave me. Is that why my brother had brought it up? Was there someone else? That possibility was laughable, but as the quiet strain between them continued, I was forced to realise that maybe I didn’t know my wife as well as I thought.

Georgia peered at Belle expectantly. “Tell him.”

“Me?” Belle’s hand reached for her husband’s and found it.

Jealousy crashed through me. She had someone to comfort her now as she faced something she didn’t want to confront. The first numb wave of panic replaced the blistering sensation as I realised that she knew something that Clara hadn’t told me.

“You know more than I do,” Georgia pressed, “and he needs to know as much as we can tell him.”

Belle’s eyes closed briefly and I recognised the gesture. She was drawing from some well deep inside her—a place that it seemed all women hid inside themselves—for strength. I’d seen Clara do the same on a number of occasions. Every time it had been right before she’d delivered words I didn’t want to hear.

I took a step toward the desk, gripping its edge to keep me upright.

“It’s about the baby,” Belle began and my fingers clutched the wood tighter. She seemed to notice and faltered. Her own knuckles had gone white as she held onto Smith.

“What about the baby?” I had to remind myself to breathe as I waited for her answer.

“There’s something wrong with the baby’s heart,” Edward said when it was obvious she couldn’t.

“What do you mean?” My words were strangled, hitching and hiccuping from me as I tried to process what they were saying.