What he couldn’t figure out was why. Why sabotage the cameras? The obvious answer was to hide somebody getting inside, sneaking into the compound. If that were the case, it didn’t make sense. The compound was large by a normal person’s standards, but not so large an army of shifters wouldn’t be able to sniff out a stranger in their midst. Any stranger was bound to be noticed. Carter had men searching every building and outbuilding now. The house had already been searched. That had been his first priority when the news had broken.
If someone on the inside had sabotaged the cameras, hoping to hide a shifter eventually sneaking in? That didn’t make sense either. They couldn’t hope the act would go unnoticed very long.
And if his darkest, deepest suspicions of a double-crosser, a mole, a rat, a traitor were true?
Carter hated to even consider it, but the picture was growing clearer. Somebody had to have given his whereabouts to Nosizwe that day at his lawyer’s offices, and even when he’d gone out to Washington to visit Ellie. That same person could help explain the sabotage.
It was a lead he’d definitely pursue, but not tonight. He’d done what he could for tonight. He was still coming off the wound from Joab’s attack, and he was exhausted. The cut in his side ached. He’d expected to basically spend the day recovering. Instead, he’d been in the control room all this evening, and that didn’t include what work he’d done yesterday after his and Ellie’s argument. Too pent-up to stay in bed, he’d spent the better part of the day hitting up department after department, demanding answers. Right now, his eyes felt blurry and his head stuffed with cotton. He needed some sleep. Tomorrow, with a clear head and a fresh start, he’d be much better equipped to tackle the problem.
It wasn’t until he actually opened the door to his room, taking in the quiet, empty space, the perfectly made bed that all of the sudden looked lonely with no Ellie in it, that thoughts of her reentered his consciousness. Carter smothered a groan, shut the door. He hadn’t thought of her at all this evening. Truth be told, he’d deliberately kept busy to squash thoughts of her. Last night he’d been so bitter and even so tired that he’d faced an empty room with no regret. He’d heard from a couple of different people in the intervening hours that she had a room and was doing okay. As long as she stayed within the compound she would be fine. Carter hadn’t concerned himself. But tonight, seeing the bed and his empty room for the second night in a row made him recall waking up beside her before their argument. A hasty scan of his suite revealed that wouldn’t be the case now; she was definitely absent. She was doing a good job of avoiding him, but she was still his responsibility, no matter what.
Sinking to the edge of the bed, he typed out a text to Martina, who ran the housekeeping staff, asking her what room Ellie had been put in. Maybe, now that they’d both had time to cool off, it was time to consider talking to her. In retrospect, he had been harsh. Sure, some of the stuff she’d said was stupid, but she wasn’t trying to be offensive. She still didn’t get it, still didn’t understand his world or his place in it, despite her association with it for the past few months. He really shouldn’t expect better from a human.
Within seconds, Martina had replied, letting him know Ellie was housed in a corner guest room on the third floor. He thanked her, put his phone down, and stood to strip off his shirt, get ready for bed. However, thoughts of Ellie and their row nagged at him as he brushed his teeth. Maybe it was memories of her using his shower, looking for a hair dryer, joking, laughing with him about it. Maybe it was memories of how she’d stuck her neck on the line for him, getting him safely out of the hospital and to a motel, gathering his belongings, dealing with the police, driving him to the air strip, refusing to leave him until she was sure he was safe back home in Fort Worth.
The mixture of guilt and self-justification he was feeling over their argument deepened instead of leaving as he got into bed. The ache in his side deepened, too. Carter couldn’t get comfortable. After a few minutes of tossing and turning he sat up and switched on the bedside lamp. His prescription bottles were close on the bedside table. He chose the lesser strength pain med and swallowed one tablet with no water. He wanted to take the edge off, not go comatose.
Even that didn’t assuage his mind over Ellie, though.
With a sigh, he finally stood up, grabbed a clean t-shirt and pair of sweats from his dresser and pulled them on. He partly felt like a fool, partly a martyr as he made his way upstairs to the guest room Martina had indicated. Was this what an actual marriage felt like? he wondered. Giving in when you really didn’t think you were wrong, but choosing to concede defeat in order to keep the peace and get some mental rest? Not to mention physical.
Why do people get married, anyway?
Sure hadn’t done much for him.
Standing outside Ellie’s door, Carter wrestled with himself a final time over whether he truly wanted to do this, if he truly owed it to himself or to her to try and make amends. Finally, with a sigh, he gave in and knocked on the door.
“Ellie?”
There was no response. Maybe she was asleep. He tried again, knocking a little louder this time.
“Ellie? It’s me, Carter.”
Nothing.
He debated turning around and walking off, leaving things as they lay until morning, but—what the heck, he was already here. Quietly, so as not awaken her if she was actually asleep, he turned the door handle. It wasn’t locked, so he let himself into her room.
“Ellie?”
All the lights were off, except for the lamp next to the bed. It provided enough luminescence for him to see the bedroom was empty.
“What th— Where is she?” he muttered.
The bathroom door was open and the lights were off. The bedroom curtains were closed. The bedding was rumpled. Looked like she’d settled down for the night, but, for some reason, wasn’t here anymore. Where could she have gone? Carter checked the watch on his wrist. And this late, too?
“Ellie?”
He called her name louder, loud enough to be heard anywhere in the suite, making certain before he did anything else.
Nothing. The space was dead quiet. So quiet it was almost…eerie.
A funny feeling gripped his gut, the same feeling he got when he knew instinctively that something was wrong.
He pulled his phone out of his sweats pocket, having stuck it in there before leaving his room. Force of habit. He never went anywhere without it, just in case. He pressed a button, heard the ring, then the “Hello?” on the other end.
“James? You seen Ellie?”
He jumped right in with no preliminaries.
“Ellie?”
James didn’t sound tired. He was a night owl. Stayed up till the wee hours every night, and got up at 5 AM the next day in spite of it all. Carter didn’t know how anyone functioned on such perpetually short hours of sleep. Must have something to do with his gremlin blood.
“Not since this afternoon. She looked me up in the control room. Needed a phone to call her parents. Wonder why she asked me instead of you?” It was a barb, but Carter didn’t get a chance to respond before James rattled on, adding, “Otherwise, saw her yesterday. She went out with me when I checked the sabotaged area.”
Carter felt heat rise.
“Why the hell would you take her out there?”