Painted On My Heart
Page 86
Five hours later, Arik was very aware of the time and tossed the briefing report on his desk. He dropped his feet to the floor as he reached over to shut the lid of his laptop. “Iris, have you heard from Kellus?” he called out, unrolling his sleeves.
“Nope.”
Something was definitely wrong. He wouldn’t have slept all day. Arik grabbed his cell, then his suit coat, and evaded everyone and everything to go straight to his car still parked on the landscaped area at the front entrance. He reached for the note under his windshield wiper, crumpling it in his fist. He was certain whatever it said was meant to be sarcastic. He dropped the paper on the ground as he reached for the door handle. His thoughts were turning darker by the second, and he carelessly tossed his jacket in the passenger seat.
He hadn’t anticipated the insane traffic when he’d decided to stay until five. As pretty as the new complex was, the ninety-minute traffic jam to drive the thirty miles to his penthouse had his attitude turning straight-up pissed off.
When he bypassed the parking garage and pulled to the front of his building, a valet ran toward him. He left the car running as he got out. “Keep her close. I have a feeling I’ll be right back.”
Once upstairs, he went through the entire house, looking for Kellus. He’d given instructions to everyone to allow Kellus access if he’d arrived first. Arik went for the phone. His leg bounced as he picked up the landline and called security. His head went to his hand, his forefinger and thumb digging in his eyes as he listened to the dreaded response: They hadn’t heard a word from Kellus.
Arik dropped to his ass on the side of the bed as the stark reality of what this meant laid heavily on his shoulders. Kellus had stood him up.
“Fuck.” Arik growled and abruptly stood, digging a finger in his tie to yank the knot free. He lifted his chin and pushed his fingers inside the tight collar to unbutton the small button at the top, ignoring his need to rip the handmade, stupidly expensive dress shirt from his body as he went for the closet.
“Dammit.” Arik flung the door open, letting it slam against the doorstop, then extended a hand as it came flying back at him. There was no way he’d imagined how good they were together. They’d broken through the barriers. Kellus was into him. This morning he’d had no doubt Kellus would be back here tonight to spend the evening and night with him again—he hadn’t made that up. Something had to be wrong.
With a renewed energy to discover what had happened, Arik changed into a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt before heading back to his car. Unfortunately, the drive to Kellus’s place took another solid hour, removing any doubt that Dallas officially had the worst traffic of any place he’d ever lived. At close to eight o’clock, Arik pulled into Kellus’s driveway, parking right behind his van. It didn’t look like the vehicle had moved all day. Arik went up to the side door closest to the van. He knocked several times with no answer before he walked around to the front door, where he banged again and pressed the doorbell several times. When Kellus didn’t answer, he tried the doorknob and found it unlocked. After a second of indecision, Arik pushed it open and called out, “Kellus, you here?”
The house was dark and silent. Arik stepped inside, reaching back, patting the wall until he found a light switch. He flipped it on and looked around. His heart sank at the destruction he saw.
“Kellus,” Arik called out several times as he went through the dwelling. He turned on the lights in every room, looking everywhere for Kellus, but instead, he found the entire home in the same state of disruption and his guy was nowhere to be seen. What did that mean?
Arik wound his way back through the house and found a door leading to the backyard. From this angle, he could see a light from under the studio door. Thank God. He heard the muted sounds of music playing inside the brick building. The closer he got, the louder the music. Arik found a door and knocked, but after a minute with no answer, he was certain he couldn’t be heard. When there was no pause between the songs, he tried the door.
Why were all these doors unlocked? That couldn’t be safe for a man who had a house that looked like that. Arik opened the door, stuck his head inside, and the concern faded when he saw Kellus bent over a worktable, safety goggles on, hair pulled back off his face, wearing only a low-slung pair of jeans and flip-flops, completely absorbed in the small pieces of glass in front of him. He was safe. A small part of him had feared the worst after walking through all that destruction.