Chapter 12
Cullan
I frown when I hear the strain in Elena’s voice. “Is everything okay?”
“Not really, Mr. Grant.” She sounds shaky. “I’m sorry I haven’t returned your calls.”
I called Elena twice and she didn’t pick up.
Twice.
I only call when I know she’s not busy. I have her schedule, thanks to the spyware on her phone, and I possess every email, text message, app interaction, and browser search she’s made.
I know that she watched three episodes of Bridgerton last night.
I know when her period is due. I know everything about her, but I don’t have her.
I had to take matters into my own hands.
I’m in my garage putting a tool back into the bed of my truck. The tracker on my phone chimed and told me that Elena reached home, so I thought I would try calling her again. “What’s happened?”
“I’m not really sure. I just got home, and my apartment is flooded.”
The apartment that’s just had a ridiculous rent increase by a sleazy landlord. Elena’s not safe or happy there.
“Oh, no. That’s terrible,” I say, admiring the wrench I’m holding. “I wonder how that happened.”
“My landlord isn’t answering his phone and neither is my roommate. I don’t know what to do.”
I close the truck bed and fasten it. “I’m coming over. Electricity’s more my wheelhouse than plumbing, but I’ll see what I can do. At least I can make sure that you’re safe until your landlord arrives.”
“Mr. Grant, you’re busy. You don’t have to do that.”
“Don’t go into the apartment. You might be electrocuted.” I hang up before she can argue with me.
Elena won’t be electrocuted. I tripped the fuse in her apartment before loosening the pipe under the sink, but she could still slip on the wet floor.
When I step out of the elevator carrying my toolbox, Elena is waiting in the corridor, her beautiful face tense and worried.
I go to her and put my hands on her shoulders. “Don’t worry. It will be all right.”
I was doing installation work today, so I’m wearing a shirt over a Henley with some jeans and steel-capped boots. My sleeves are pushed back past my elbows because it’s a warm day, and I smell faintly of sawdust.
She nods, and I go inside. It only takes me a moment to shut off the water to her apartment at the valve. The water gushing from beneath the sink slows to a trickle, and then stops. I gaze around slowly, taking in the water dripping down the walls. The wet sofa, and the waterlogged carpet.
I go back out to the corridor and place my toolbox down.
“It was a broken pipe,” I tell Elena. “I found the isolation valve and turned the water off. A plumber will be able to fix the pipe.” I press my lips together and frown.
“Thank you, Mr. Grant. What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, Elena. There’s water everywhere. The spray went all over the living room. The carpets in the bedrooms are soaked. I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to live here for a while.”
Elena looks devastated, and I put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She’s about to say something when the elevator opens, and a young woman I guess is Elena’s roommate Alexandra goes to the door to the apartment and grimaces.
“Well, shit.” She turns to Elena. “Are you okay?”
“Not really,” Elena says helplessly. “We can’t live here right now. Everything’s soaked.”
“What a dump. I guess I’m going to my mom’s, even though she’ll drive me crazy.” She looks apologetically at Elena. “Sorry, I wish there was room for you, too. ”
Elena rubs her forehead. “It’s fine. I’ll figure something out.”
“Elena’s going to stay with me,” I tell Alexandra.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elena’s head snap up.
Alexandra gives me a who the hell are you? look.
I smile at her. “I’m Leon’s father.”
The young woman brightens. “Oh! Great. You’re all sorted then, Elena. I’ll see you in a few days.” After she grabs a few things from the apartment, she calls the elevator, and waves goodbye to us.
Wet carpet squelches around Elena’s shoes. “You don’t have to offer to have me at your place, Mr. Grant. I don’t want to cause problems between you and Leon. I have two aunts. I can go to them.”
From what I can tell, Elena and her “aunts” are not close. I haven’t found any emails or texts between them. No birthday or Christmas photographs on her phone. Even if they were the most loving aunts in the world, I didn’t do this to watch her walk away from me now.
“I feel responsible for you, Elena. Leon is staying with his mother. You’ll come home with me, Rosie will give you a cuddle, and I’ll make us some dinner. Tomorrow we can figure everything out for you.”
“You’re being too kind to me, Mr. Grant.” She doesn’t say it in the flippant, oh, you’re too kind way that people do. She earnestly means it. I’m being too kind, and she thinks she doesn’t deserve it.
“There’s no such thing as too kind when it comes to you,” I say firmly. “Is there anything important inside I can get for you? Clothes, toiletries.”
“I still have some things at your house. I’ll be okay for a couple of days.”
“Then let’s go.”
Elena locks up the apartment. In the elevator, I reach for her hand and give her cold fingers a comforting squeeze. She looks at our joined fingers for a moment, and then smiles at me hesitantly.
“Thank you, Mr. Grant.”
“Don’t mention it. Tell me about your aunts. I’ve never heard you mention your family before.”
“It’s complicated. We’re not that close. I have no real family. Nowhere I really belong.”
The sadness in her eyes as she confesses that to me just about breaks my heart.
I turn Elena’s access to the baby monitor app off so she can get good rest. While I’m up with Rosie during the night, soothing her back to sleep, I checked the security feed on my phone. Elena was sleeping soundly.
Just after six in the morning, I’m in the nursery with a fractious toddler when Elena appears in the doorway, wrapped in a dressing gown. “Good morning, Mr. Grant.”
“Morning, Elena.” I pace up and down with the crying child in my arms, the picture of a stressed-out single father. “ You’re not going to believe this. My nanny just quit. No notice, and my schedule is packed this week.”
“Mrs. Kerr? But she seemed so reliable.”
“I know. The timing couldn’t be worse. One of my clients had a break-in yesterday and the burglars smashed up the system I installed last summer after her ex-husband threatened her life.
It’s completely useless, and she’s terrified to be in her home without a working security system.
I moved everything around so I could go to her first this morning, but now I’ll have to call her and tell her I can’t make it. ”
Elena looks stricken. “Don’t cancel. That poor woman needs your help. I’ll look after Rosie today. If you trust me to.”
“Trust you? Elena, of course I do, and you’d be the reason my client can sleep tonight. But I feel like I’m taking advantage of you being here, and I can’t do that. You’re probably working today.”
She’s not working today or tomorrow. I laid this plan out perfectly.
“It’s my day off. I want you to make that woman feel safe. It’s what you do best, Mr. Grant.”
I reach out and touch Elena’s cheek. “You’re the kindest person I know, Elena.”
She shakes her head. “I’m just glad you still trust me with your daughter.”
I press a kiss to my daughter’s head and wipe away her tears with the pad of my thumb. “Why on earth wouldn’t I? ”
“Many reasons, I guess.” She’s breathless and wary, and her eyes drop to the floor.
For one reason, and I know what that is. Because she offered herself to me for a kiss, and I didn’t take it. Now she’s worried I think she’s shameful. Chaotic. A slut. I’ve been cherishing that moment, but she’s been tearing herself apart over it.
“Elena, you’re the only person now who I trust around my daughter. I can’t tell you how much it will mean to me knowing you’re here with Rosie while I’m working today.”
“I’m so relieved to hear it,” she says, hope brightening her face.
The other night, I wanted more than anything to give her the kiss she was asking so sweetly for, but it wasn’t the right time.
Kissing her boyfriend’s father within an hour of finding out her boyfriend cheated on her?
She would have dismissed that later as a mistake, and it would have driven her even further away from me.
The next time I kiss Elena, it’s going to be perfect. She’ll feel no confusion. Only surrender.
“Layna’s going to look after you today,” I tell Rosie, who’s stopped crying and is hanging on to the neckline of my T-shirt.
“Lay-na,” Rosie repeats. Then she smiles and chants happily, “Lay-na, Lay-na, Layna.”
Elena smiles, a beautiful genuine smile. I love how much affection there is between Elena and my daughter.
“That’s right, baby girl. Are you excited?” I kiss Rosie’s curls and smile at Elena. Daddy sure is excited. Daddy’s nearly got Elena right where he wants her. There are just a few more pieces to slide into place, and then she’ll be all mine.
Breaking Elena and Leon up was easy. Having her move into my house was a simple task. Terminating her work at the diner and making her entirely dependent on me? A more challenging project.
The nuts and bolts of it are easy enough once I’ve gained access to Archer Dermott’s computer records and listened to his phone calls.
The difficulty is to execute the plan in such a way that doesn’t have Elena questioning why every aspect of her life has suddenly imploded in the space of a week.
I don’t want her to wonder if there’s someone behind the scenes pulling strings.
Monday and Tuesday she looks after Rosie, I pay her for her time, and shower her with praise and gratitude. It makes my blood heat seeing her cheeks turn pink from pleasure. It takes all my self-control not to cup the nape of her neck and draw her to me for a kiss.
Late on Wednesday, Elena goes to the diner, and I work from home. Before she heads off, I mention that I have applications from new nannies to look through.