“Nope,” she said. “Isabelle was in the outer office. She brought this for you, but she left because she could see you’re busy.”
Busy. Wes’s brain raced, going back over everything that had been said in the last few minutes. Had Isabelle heard it? Was that why she left? Damn it. He jumped up from behind his desk and hit the door at a dead run. “I’ll be back.”
He didn’t bother with the elevator—it would have taken too long. Why the hell had she chosen today to surprise him? If she’d heard any of what was being said in his office, she had to be furious. But she’d calm down once he explained. He bolted down the stairs and hit the parking garage just as the elevator arrived and Isabelle stepped out. She took one look at him and her features iced over.
Explaining wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d hoped. “Belle—”
“Don’t.” She hurried past him. “I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
He took hold of her upper arm and didn’t let go when her gaze shifted meaningfully to his hand on her. The parking garage was cold, dark, and their voices were echoing through the structure. Overhead lights fought the darkness and squares of watery sunlight speared in through the entrance and exits.
“Damn it, you don’t understand.”
“I understand everything,” she countered, yanking her arm free. “Maverick messed up your plans.”
“Damn right he did.”
“And everything with me, with Caro, was all a lie. You used us to get that stupid merger that’s so important to you.”
Insulted, mostly because her accusation held a hell of a lot of truth, Wes swallowed his own a
nger before speaking again. “That merger was important. Something I’ve been working toward for years. But I wasn’t using you. Either of you.”
“Sure.” She nodded sharply, her eyes narrowed on him. “I believe you.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” Helplessness rose up in him and nearly choked his air off. Wes hated this feeling and could honestly say that until he’d met Isabelle, he’d never really experienced it. “I don’t know what you heard—”
She sneered at him. “I heard all I needed to.”
He thought back fast, recalling what everyone was saying in the minutes before he’d found out she’d run off. Gritting his teeth at the memory, he said, “It was out of context.”
“Right.”
His anger burst free. “Are you going to listen to me about this or just keep agreeing with me to shut me up?”
“Which will get me out of here the fastest?” She folded her arms over her chest and tapped the toe of her shoe against the concrete in a staccato beat.
Irritating, fascinating, infuriating woman.
Scowling, he said, “Did it hurt that pictures of the three of us were in the news? No. But did I arrange it? No. I didn’t lie to you, Belle.”
“Really.” She tipped her head to one side. “Explain Caro’s bedroom.”
“What?”
“Murals on the wall. Rugs. Chairs. New bed. Toys.” She ticked them all off, then said, “You started preparing for our arrival long before you asked me to come to Texas. This was all a plan from the beginning.”
“Yeah,” he said, refusing to deny this much, at least. “When I found out I had a daughter—after her mother had lied to me about it for five years—I had a room set up for her. That makes me a bad guy?”
She shook her head. “You don’t get it. But then, you never did.” She started walking again.
“What the hell? You don’t finish an argument? You just walk off.”
“This argument is finished,” she called back, and the click of her heels on concrete sounded out like beats of a drum.
He let her go. No point chasing her down to keep arguing here. He’d give her time to calm down. Let her get back home, think everything through.
Wes listened to her car door slam and the engine fire up. “Once she settles a bit, it’ll be fine,” he told himself. “I’ll fix all of it tonight.”