Chapter 10 Epilogue - Paul
Chapter ten
Epilogue - Paul
"How can someone disappear into thin air? Explain it to me!" I shove a stack of papers from my desk to the floor, storming around my office as I listen to my head of security blather on about how the snow has made finding Skylar too difficult.
I'm still in my underwear, holding the note Skylar left on the table as I pace back and forth. Mark and Hunter fill the doorway of my office. Hunter glares at me, and Mark is trying to get me to calm down.
"We’ll find her, Paul." Mark walks into my office, his hands raised like he's approaching a rabid animal. He's not far off. Her scent is still on my fingers, and I'm practically foaming at the mouth since I woke up and found her gone.
"She was planning to leave anyway, Mark." I stare at him. "Why didn't she tell us?"
Mark sighs. "We didn’t know what her plan was. We kind of sprung a lot on her last night."
Hunter crosses his arms and glares at me. "Speaking of last night—what happened after we fell asleep? How did she end up with you? What did you do?"
I huff in irritation. "I'll call you back," I bark into the phone, hanging up without waiting for a response. I level Hunter with a glare that typically sends people running, but he simply squares up to me and glares right back. "Are you suggesting she left because of me?"
Hunter throws his arms out in exasperation. "You certainly didn’t make her feel welcome last night."
Mark gets between the two of us as I charge toward him. Hunter has about three inches on me, but I've got more muscle, and I'm not afraid to use it.
"Guys, this isn't helping us find her." Mark shoves us both back.
"What happened last night?" Hunter demands again, his furious eyes challenging me.
"She came out to look for her purse, and I was there. What difference does it make?"
Hunter refuses to back down, suspicion rolling off of him like an angry wave.
I give him a hard glare. "We fucked, okay? Is that what you want to hear?"
Hunter pulls back in surprise, and Mark turns to look at me.
"You fucked her?" Mark glances at Hunter. "I... thought you didn't want anything to do with this."
A hard, bitter laugh escapes. "Of course I do. For four fucking years. I just didn't want it to get..." I trail off.
"Out of your control," Mark finishes for me. "You wanted to control it, but we made it happen, and that pissed you off, so you almost blew it. Allegedly," he amends, holding up his hands in surrender when I whirl on him.
I sit on the couch in my office and hang my head as Hunter storms off.
Mark sighs and sits in the chair across from me.
"What do you want? A play-by-play, or just the general gist of it?"
"I'll take a play-by-play later when she's back here with us and we can join in the moment,” Mark replies. “For now, you can give me the gist."
"We... had sex. I'm in love with her, Mark, and—" I stop, not wanting to tell him anything more. "Look, it was between the two of us, so I don't want to share it. She wasn't mad at all."
"Okay, well, when you guys were done, where did she go?"
"We fell asleep on the couch."
Mark raises his eyebrows in surprise. "You cuddled?"
"Yeah, I cuddled." Another surge of rage flares up deep in my bones as I remember her soft curves plastered against me. The strawberry scent of her shampoo lulled me to sleep.
"And when I woke up, she was gone. Poof." I snap my fingers. "Leaving nothing but a note and heartbreak." I throw the paper on the floor and shake my head. "This is why I didn't want to do it, Mark."
He pulls a face and starts to protest, but I cut him off.
"She doesn't want forever, and we do. For four years, I’ve thought of no one but her. I’ve jacked off to her every night, every morning. I’ve fucking pined for her."
"We all have," Mark reminds me.
"You offered her one night, and you think she's going to fall in love with us?" I raise my hands, unfamiliar with the despair coursing through my body. "I don't know what to do."
"You feel helpless. We all do. But, Paul, we're going to find her."
I shake my head, refusing to listen to him. I can't remember the last time I felt this defeated.
"Look, if we can't find her, no one can. And that's simply unacceptable."
Suddenly, Mark is speaking my language. It is unacceptable. We’re one of the best tech companies—nay, the best tech company—in the city. We, of all people, have the resources to find her.
Hunter chooses that moment to storm through the door. He sits behind my desk, his laptop in his hand. "I'm tired of messing around with your private investigators. They know how to find credit reports, but they don't know how to find a woman who disappeared into thin air."
"What are you going to do?" I ask, the adrenaline of hope coursing through my body and tempering my rage.
"Well, tracking her for four years like psychopaths can only be to our advantage," Hunter opines wryly.
He clicks away on his computer, stopping for a moment to toss me his phone.
"Call HR. Ask for a complete file on Skylar Miller.
We want everything. Find out who she named as her beneficiary on her life insurance policy. "
It’s a smart move. And something that would have occurred to me if I had my head in the game. As a company, we offer a free life insurance policy to all employees, so she certainly would have named someone.
"I should have thought of that," I admit.
Hunter grunts at me. "It's why I get paid the big bucks."
"Where's the note again? Maybe we missed something," Mark suggests.
I scoop it off the floor and hand it to him.
Mark reads it out loud. “Guys, I can never, ever thank you enough for making all my fantasies come true. I had a family emergency, and I have to go, but I’ll live on these memories for the rest of my life. Thank you. XOXO. Skylar.”
"The little minx," Hunter says, a grin on his face despite his concentration.
“I’ll x her o’s,” Mark grits out.
I laugh reluctantly. Mark is unflappable. He never gets upset. But right now, he’s furious. He looks like a man who would like to punish someone. He looks like a man in love. And I have a sinking suspicion he’s a reflection of all of us.
“How much longer do you need, Hunter?” I ask.
He doesn't take his eyes off the screen. "As long as it takes."
"All right, you keep working. Mark, order some coffee." I stand and head to my bedroom to get some pants.
"Where are you going?" Mark yells after me.
"It's Christmas Eve. HR is home for the day, so I'm going down to the office to pull the files myself."
One of the many benefits of having an experienced assistant is that Debbie also loves to make duplicate paper copies of almost everything. We've had to buy her additional filing cabinets to hold all the paperwork she accumulates and refuses to get rid of.
It was my New Year's resolution for the office to convince her to scan the documents onto an external drive. But now, I'm letting Debbie keep her filing system for as long as her blessed heart wants because it's the reason we’ll be able to find our girl.
An hour later, Hunter storms into Debbie's office as I'm knee-deep in files. Mark hustles after him, his cellphone to his ear as he barks orders to get the jet ready. Hunter's face is triumphant as he holds a small piece of paper above his head.
"She got a call sometime during the night. They left her a voicemail. I can't access it, but I was able to track down the phone."
"Good job. Who is it registered to?" I stand, holding two files I thought might be helpful.
I shove the remaining folders back into the cabinet, knowing Debbie will yell at me for my lack of organization but not caring at this moment.
She gets an excellent bonus for tolerating my insolent ass each year. I'll double it after we find Skylar.
"It's a payphone."
I raise my eyebrows in surprise. "Payphones still exist? Where?"
Hunter chuckles. "A tiny little town outside of West Virginia."
"Damn it!" Mark yells, looking like he’s about to throw his phone, then thinks better of it. "The weather is too rough to travel tonight. They said they can get us to West Virginia by tomorrow or the day after Christmas at the latest."
I clench my jaw. Control what we can. "Fine," I grit out. "Last night she mentioned a friend. Holly, right? Can we get hold of her and see if she knows anything?"
"I called her hours ago, but her voicemail was full. I sent a text, but I haven't heard anything back yet," Mark says, checking his phone again.
"Okay, while we wait for her, Skylar listed a guy named Reid Orrington as her beneficiary."
"Her brother?" Hunter asks.
I shake my head doubtfully. "I don't know. Different last names."
"Since we can't leave tonight, I'm going to spend Christmas Eve at my mom's house." Hunter salutes us. "I'll keep digging and find out more about this town with the payphone."
"All right, let's go talk to the brother," Mark says, antsy to get moving and do something.
I feel the same way.
"She'll be ours by New Year's, fellas." Hunter's expression holds a determination that resonates with all of us.
We're going to find you, Skylar. And when we do, you are ours.
Ours to fuck.
Ours to own.
Ours to worship.
***
The Ours to Worship Duet concludes in Book 2, Out with a Bang, with no cheating and a guaranteed HEA.