“I don’t think Kinley has stashed her somewhere,” Eric said. “I watched her face while Kellan questioned her. She lent Belle the car, but I don’t think she helped our girl get to wherever she was going in any other way. They’re in touch, but if Belle got a new phone before she headed out and gave Kinley the number, then I don’t believe she’s staying with or near Kinley. Belle wouldn’t want to disrupt her friend’s life that way.”
“Since Kinley is a newlywed, Belle would refuse to be a hindrance or burden,” Kell agreed.
Tate shook his head. Kell could say he wasn’t interested in anything long term all he liked, but any man who’d studied a woman that closely was definitely interested, even if he was a completely damaged fuck-up and behaving like a pussy.
Hmm, maybe he hadn’t completely forgiven Kellan for last night.
“Right,” Tate agreed. “She doesn’t have a ton of family. Her dad died when she was a kid. No brothers or sisters. Her mom lives too far away. She just lost a grandmother, but Belle didn’t know the woman.” In fact, she’d brought him a copy of her grandmother’s will a few weeks back to look through.
“So she probably hasn’t gone to family.” Eric paced by the windows, staring out as if he hoped she would show up at any moment and open her arms to them.
Tate hoped she would too, but he knew better. What he didn’t know? Where the hell she’d gone.
“Even if we find her, what are we going to say?” Tate asked. “We talked for hours last night about shit between us, but what could we say to persuade her to give us another chance? Belle can be stubborn.”
He couldn’t stand the thought of her shutting them out. He’d tried so hard to get behind her walls, but Belle, while friendly, could be shy and very private. After a year of working with her and watching her more closely than he should admit to, Tate still found her a mystery. Belle possessed layers and layers he might never delve. That realization choked him up.
He’d been her friend because the others hadn’t been ready to be her lover. He’d gotten as close to her as she’d allowed. At this moment, that friendship didn’t seem to be helping him.
“Doesn’t she have a college friend who moved to Oklahoma City?” Kellan asked. “She mentioned something about being shocked that her very urbane friend had fallen in love with the Midwest.”
Yes, but Belle wouldn’t go there. She was hurt. She wasn’t the sort who’d seek a shoulder to cry on. No, Belle suffered in silence. She would go deep into herself. For that, she would want privacy. If she’d taken off somewhere in the middle of the night and abandoned her job before a meeting, that meant Belle sought to start over.
God, she was leaving them and if he couldn’t find her, he might never see her again. Every single second she was gone, she drifted further and further away. The longer they let her stew in her own anger, the less chance they’d have to get her back.
And that dude she called Sir? Tate had to believe that was some exaggeration on Kinley’s part. The Belle he knew wouldn’t turn to someone else now. She would mourn. She would shut down.
“Hey, didn’t she have a cousin who married a guy from Houston?” Eric had pulled out his laptop and started browsing the firm’s vacation calendar. “Yeah, here it is. She went to the wedding six months ago. Maybe we should contact her cousin.”
Belle’s family was few and far between, so she held every member dear, she’d explained to him once. Her father’s death when she’d been so young had been a tragic blow. He remembered the moment she’d told him about that terrible winter vividly. The sun gleamed across her blue-black hair and illuminated the tear on her cheek she’d tried to hold back. She’d fingered the picture she kept framed of him on her desk, looking at it so wistfully. Right then, Tate had ached to tell her that he, Eric, and Kell would be her family. But she hadn’t been ready to hear that any more than she’d been ready to know that he wanted to make a family with her.
Now, Tate paced the suite, trying to shove out the panic that threatened to scatter his logic. Belle liked to feel close to friends and family, but she wouldn’t burden them with her troubles. So that ruled out New York or Chicago. She couldn’t have driven there in ten hours or less anyway. So where would she go? What money did she have without a job? Sure, she had a little saved in her bank account, but nothing that would last long without a paycheck. She’d need a roof over her head.
Jangling the change in his pocket, Tate crossed to the other side of the room, turning all the possibilities over in his head. Somewhere in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana—
Tate’s head snapped up. That was it. Her late grandmother had left her a house in the French Quarter. Belle hadn’t known the woman, but when he’d looked over the will, she’d admitted that she wished she had. It was a free roof in a new town. Somewhere she could start over. According to the documents he’d seen, the house was older and needed both repairs and updating. Belle would probably love to get her hands on the place. She could throw herself into that project. It would take her mind off the fact that her heart had been ripped out by three dumbass men who couldn’t get their act together.
“She’s in New Orleans. Give me two minutes and I’ll tell you where exactly.” He needed his laptop. He’d scanned in the files she’d given him because he’d served as her lawyer in this matter.