Page 48 of Treasured
She leaned forward. “Seriously?”
I opened one of my programs and typed in Wanda’s phone number to trace her. “Wanda and Arthur are my probabilities, so I want to see where they are and triangulate our position and my mom’s.”
She reached in her pocket and grabbed her phone. She handed it to me with a number showing, and a spark rushed in my veins. “Sure. Is there anything else I can do?”
I was a sucker. I ignored the sense and typed in Arthur’s phone number in my computer, too, and I tried to smile but failed. “I’m happy you’re here and safe.”
She walked around my desk, invading my space. “That’s it?”
I glanced up at her. I couldn’t have her. I would not push. She’d told me to leave her alone, so I held my hands on my lap and asked, “What else do you want me to say?”
She knelt down in front of me and said, “Nothing. It’s me that needs to apologize to you.”
I reached for her hand, and her big brown eyes still sent my pulse soaring. My lips tingled, but before I could say anything, my phone rang. I sat back and squeezed her hand. “Wait. I need to get this, but I want to hear you.”
“Okay,” she said, and she stood up and sashayed around the desk to sit.
My gaze followed her every move, but I answered. “Mark.”
“Look, Arthur isn’t home. The police didn’t find him to arrest him.”
I put him on speaker phone and then texted him the link of the program I started as I said, “His phone is pinging that he’s at a bar. I forwarded the trace I started.”
“Good,” he said, and I set up a second text message and included Jackson’s number. Mark’s phone beeped he had the message as he asked, “What about Wanda?”
I reported what my mapping software read, “She’s in California. Looks like she’s in a car near the airport.”
And then I texted that info I’d promised.
Mark said, “Her warrant took longer, and she was airborne, but it’s active now. Jackson put your mom under protection for the night until she’s caught.”
I tapped the desk, and I saw Mary scoot closer to me. “What else can I do?”
“Trust us,” he said, and I pressed my hand to my temples. “Keep tracking. And in the morning, all will be resolved.”
The morning was too far away. Part of me wished I’d flown my mom here, too, so everyone I cared about would be there. “It’s hard to sit on the sideline.”
“Work out your ass, Thunder Thighs, but stay home.”
“Fine,” I said and sat back in my chair. We then said goodbye and hung up.
Mary jumped out of her chair, returned to my side, and then sat on my desk as she asked, “Is your mom okay?”
Her legs that close to me sent the memory of claiming her as my own in that hotel bed through my mind, replaying in vivid color. I ignored that and said, “She’s all I have, and I’m worried, but Jackson is a professional.”
She lowered her head and said, “I get it.”
I scooted away, though I watched the dots of the phones move as I said, “Wanda knows I’m attached to you. She met your son, so I’ve put him in danger. You were right to pull the plug on us.”
She scooted closer to me and said, “I wasn’t.”
My breath caught in my throat. “What?”
She stood up, and our legs touched. “I was wrong. I was scared of how I started to feel about myself near you.”
I shook my head. We’d gone too fast, because suddenly I had found a woman and believed in instant love. “You were smart.”
“No.” She pressed her hand to her heart like she was pledging allegiance to the flag and then said, “I was denying my heart and maybe yours because I needed to be independent, and I was scared to feel more. I was never looking for love.”
