“The heck you aren’t. Emotional trauma matters. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
“She’s quite hurt,” Tolyan says. “She can’t stop worrying about me when she’s the one who got kidnapped.”
“Both of you, go home. Don’t come back for two weeks. No working from home, either.”
Two weeks?
“I mean it,” she adds firmly.
“But what about the auction? The to-do list to organize it is huge! I—”
“No arguing unless you want to be fired.”
I shut my mouth.
“Good. Now. Please do as I say. I just can’t…” She inhales deeply, clenching and unclenching her hands. Her eyelids flutter, and I see tears in her eyes. She’s worried about us. And she’s upset over what happened.
All my objections to our enforced leave vanish. “Okay, Elizabeth,” I say meekly. “Will do.”
“Good. Now, before you go, can I talk to you for a second, Angelika?”
I follow her into the office and shut the door behind me.
She walks to the couch and armchair, starts to sit, then stops. “Please take a seat,” she says, pacing.
What is going on? “I’m fine,” I say. Her nervous energy is making me jittery. I’ll bounce my heels the entire time if she forces me to sit.
“If you don’t feel well, you should sit.”
“I will.”
Elizabeth paces some more, then finally halts. “How’s he doing?”
Ah. “He says he’s fine, but I think he’s in pain. He won’t take the painkillers his doctor prescribed, though.”
“He’s never liked medication.”
“And he drinks vodka,” I add. I’ve been trying to get him to quit drinking while he’s injured—and failing. Maybe Elizabeth knows a way.
“As long as he isn’t drinking more than a bottle, it’s no big deal. His tolerance may be even higher than mine. It’s like water to him, and if he isn’t taking any drugs, it won’t matter.”
O-kay. Never mind.
“It isn’t like him to rush in like that…or get injured. I thought he had his gun with him,” Elizabeth says, rubbing her temple. “Otherwise, I would’ve held him here until Antoine could join him.”
“Antoine?”
“My husband’s security consultant.” She shoots me an apologetic look. “That probably isn’t what you want to hear, since you were desperate for somebody to come save you. But I didn’t want him hurt.”
“I’m with you on this.” I still can’t forget the terror that rushed through me when the trio pulled out their guns, and Tolyan threw the sole knife he had with him at one of them and fought the other two without any weapons.
“I texted Tolyan to take time off with you, but I don’t think he saw.”
“Even if he had, he would’ve ignored them.”
“Is he being difficult?”
“Very.” Then I remember what he said about getting stabbed to prove himself to me. “Is he often that reckless?”