I quickened my steps and checked her favorite rooms. She wasn’t in the library, bedroom, or kitchen either, nor was she on the rooftop where she usually did yoga. I didn’t have any missed messages from her, and she didn’t pick up when I called.
“Stella?” I called out. My voice sounded calm despite my rising panic.
No answer.
She’s fine.
She probably stepped out for fresh air or a snack. If something was wrong, Brock would’ve contacted me.
Christ, why is it so fucking hot in here?
I pushed the sleeves of my shirt up. The air conditioning was on full blast, yet I was burning up.
I doubled back to the living room but saw something that gave me pause along the way.
My office door was open.
I always closed it before I left for work, and Stella never went in there except to take care of the plants. Even then, she closed the door on her way out.
I pulled my gun from my waistband and kept it in hand as I stepped into the office.
Cold foreboding splashed the back of my neck.
The first thing I noticed was the spill of papers on my desk, along with three plain but distinctive black binders.
The second thing I noticed was the note penned in her delicate, sprawling script.
We need to talk about the files, but I’m not ready. I’ll be back when I am.
I let out a string of curses.
I shouldn’t have left the files somewhere where she could stumble on them, but I’d wanted to keep them close and couldn’t bring myself to throw them out after all these years.
What if she saw them and thought…
“Stella!” This time, my panic was audible.
I knew she wasn’t there, but that didn’t stop my stomach from hollowing at the silence.
Goddammit, sweetheart, where the hell are you?
I held onto the hope that she’d stepped out to gather her thoughts and would be back that night until I reentered our bedroom and took closer stock of what was missing.
Her favorite clothes. Her toiletries. That fucking unicorn.
My blood roared in my ears.
Stella wasn’t gone for the afternoon.
Stella was gone, period.
After my initial bout of blind panic, I’d pulled myself together and called Brock. Unless Stella gave him the slip, which I doubted, he had to know where she was.
It took me less than a minute to get the location out of him. She was safe, and he’d simply thought she was visiting a friend.
I would’ve torn him a new one for such an idiotic assumption—who the fuck visited their friend with a fucking stuffed unicorn?—if I hadn’t been so focused on getting to Stella as soon as possible.
Of course, she had to choose the one place where I couldn’t easily waltz in and demand to see her.
“Volkov!” I banged on the door. “Open the fucking door!”
I’d been knocking and ringing the doorbell for the past five minutes, and I’d used up all my patience.
I’d done plenty of Alex’s unsavory tech work over the years. I had enough dirt on him to bury him alive, and if he didn’t answer within the next thirty seconds—
The door finally swung open.
Instead of Alex’s cold green eyes, I found myself staring at five feet five inches of thinly veiled suspicion.
“Oh. It’s you.” A frown marred Ava’s normally friendly face when she saw me. “You’re interrupting our lunch.”
“I want to talk to her.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
My back teeth clenched. “Stella.”
Ava’s hand tightened around the doorknob. She stood squarely in the entrance, barring me from entering. “She’s not here.”
“That’s fucking bullshit. I know she’s here.” I ditched the softer approach. “Step aside, Ava, or I’ll—”
“Careful how you finish that sentence, Harper.” Alex appeared beside his fiancée, his eyes like chips of jade-colored ice as they roved over my disheveled appearance.
Loosened tie, no jacket, hair rumpled from the number of times I’d raked my fingers through it in frustration.
It was the most unkempt I’d looked since I hit damn puberty, but I didn’t care.
I only cared about one thing, and that was seeing Stella.
My jaw flexed. “I’m not leaving until I see her.”
I glared at Alex, who stared back with a bored expression. He didn’t give two shits about other people’s drama unless it directly involved Ava, but he knew how stubborn I was.
I meant what I said. I’d camp out in the damn hallway until I could talk to Stella.
I just needed to explain.
She’ll understand. She had to.
Alex flicked a glance at Ava, who shook her head. “No way. You heard what he did! He—” She stopped, obviously realizing she messed up.
The confirmation that Stella was inside renewed my fire.
“Stella!” I shouted.
Desperation and something heavier, more foreign settled in my chest.
Fear.
Not fear that Stella was in physical danger, but fear that I might not see her and that I’d lose her forever.
“Just let me talk to you.” I didn’t even know if she could hear me, but I had to try. “I—”
“Go. Away.” Ava pushed against my chest. For someone so small, she was surprisingly strong. “She doesn’t want to see you.”
“Guys, it’s fine.”
We all froze at the sound of Stella’s voice.
My eyes searched over Alex’s shoulder until they found her.
She stood in the middle of the living room, her face pale. She didn’t look at me as she spoke to Ava. “Let him in.”
“But Stel, what if he—”
“I just want to get this over with,” Stella said. “He won’t do anything when you guys are right there.”
A lance of pain speared through my heart. “I would never hurt you.”
She didn’t acknowledge me.
Ava released the doorknob and stepped aside with obvious reluctance.
I immediately pushed past her and ignored her and Alex’s warning stares as I followed Stella deeper into the apartment.
She’d started walking before I fully entered, but I kept up with her easily until we reached what must’ve been her room.
Her overnight bag sat on the floor next to the unicorn, and her clothes covered the bed.
My stomach tightened at the sight.
They shouldn’t be here. She belonged with me, in my house, not in her friend’s fucking guest room.
Stella closed the door and finally faced me.
Now that I was closer, I could see the red rimming her eyes and coloring her nose. The thought that I was responsible for her tears made my heart ache in the most painful way.
“Stella…”
“Don’t.” She hugged her arms around her waist. “I just want to know one thing. Are you the stalker?” Her voice wavered on the last word.
I blanched. “No.”
I’d done plenty of morally questionable and downright awful things in my life, but I would never terrify her like that.
“Then why do you have those files on me?” Her chin wobbled. “We met last year, but those pictures are from years ago. The information on me, my friends, my family…what possible reason could you have to dig that deep?”