But she didn’t dare stay home. Her daughter’s abductor might want more information from the office. What would happen to Hallie if she wasn’t there to pass it on?
Woodenly, she rose and went through her usual morning motions—shower, makeup, clothes. She couldn’t stomach tea or food, so she grabbed a bottle of water, then climbed into her little sedan, trying not to look at the empty car seat in the rearview mirror that wrenched her heart.
Despite every muscle seeming to weigh a thousand pounds, she made it to the office on time. When she opened the door, she saw exactly what she’d been dreading.
Zy was waiting for her.
“Morning,” she murmured.
It hurt to look at him and know she was lying to him with every breath.
He came closer, gently cupping her shoulder. “You feeling any better this morning, baby?”
Normally, she loved when he called her baby. When he whispered the endearment in a slow caress, he made her feel special. When he growled it low and rough, he made her feel sexy. When he murmured it in that deep, tender tone, he nearly made her cry.
Tessa swallowed against the stupid urge to blurt everything. It might not help, but it definitely could cost Hallie her life. She couldn’t risk it. “No. Thank you, but I need to sit.”
She shook off his touch and walked to her chair, her laptop in its sleeve as she clutched it against her chest like a shield. When she sat, she could feel his eyes on her, along with the million questions he itched to ask.
Please don’t.
But she didn’t get that option. The bosses were all gone, and he was in charge. Whatever Zy said went.
“Do you need something?” she asked him in her most professional voice.
“Not right now, no. But I’d like to talk to you at lunch.”
That’s the time of day the kidnappers had contacted her yesterday. She couldn’t be gone if they wanted something. “I’m busy.”
Zy’s eyes could be warm blue velvet when they touched her with care. With her answer, they turned as cold as the Arctic Ocean. “It wasn’t a question and it’s not a date. Be in the conference room at noon.”
“Anything I need to be aware of this morning? Are Valeria and her son all right?”
“Why do you ask?”
Tessa shouldn’t be surprised. She’d been evasive and dismissive to Zy for twenty-four hours. She’d dodged him, his texts, his calls, and his affection. What else could she possibly expect? She’d do almost anything to make talking to him easy again, to have their camaraderie be as breezy as it had been before.
Almost anything…except sacrifice Hallie.
“She’s a mother worried about her safety and her child. I relate to her.”
“She’s someone we’ve been hired to protect, and that’s all you need to know.”
As Zy turned away, Tessa reared back. He wasn’t merely upset or angry; it was as if he’d turned off his human valve—at least around her. Across the office, he exchanged a fist bump and a joke with One-Mile. He got someone on the phone a few minutes later and seemed to have a perfectly cordial chat.
The second he hung up, he looked at her as if he could look through her.
Tessa jerked her gaze away and went back to clandestinely checking her phone. Still nothing new. She was getting antsy. When would she hear from the asshole who had taken her daughter? What if Hallie wasn’t okay?
God, she couldn’t think that or she’d lose her mind.
She did her best to pretend to work for the next few hours, copying, filing, answering a few calls, all of which she sent back to Zy.
Finally, at a few minutes before noon, he approached, stopping beside her. “Change of plans. Come with me.”
Alarm zipped through Tessa. “Where are we going?”
“Not your problem, but I can’t do this alone.”
“All right.” She didn’t have a choice. If the kidnapper contacted her, she’d just have to hope he understood. “Where are we going?”
“The baby store.”
Tessa’s heart stopped. She couldn’t have heard him right. Certainly he didn’t mean they’d be going someplace where she’d bought lots of Hallie’s favorite things and brought her along a million times, cooing how much she loved to shop with her favorite little girl. It would be torture. “The baby store?”
“Yeah, wherever you buy Hallie’s stuff. Valeria needs a few things. I have a list. I don’t know what half this shit means.”
“All right.”
It pained her to grab her phone and tuck the device away, then follow Zy outside.
He held out his palm. “Keys?”
“I’ll drive. It’s my car.”
“And it’s company business, so what I say goes. Keys,” Zy insisted.
With a sigh, she handed them over. He helped her into the passenger’s seat, hovering so close she could feel his body heat at her back and his warm breath caress her neck. She shivered as she sat and watched him come around to the side of the car before slipping into the driver’s seat.