Henry showed up in the office doorway, saw what was happening, waved a greeting and disappeared-undoubtedly to raid the kitchen, Maguire assumed.
He couldn’t cut the video meeting short. It had taken hell times ten to put it together to begin with. The project mattered. It was one of his babies right now, in spite of the precarious economy.
But he was as distracted as a porcupine with an itch. He finally got all the business accomplished and severed the call. Two in the morning was a tough time to negotiate. He jogged toward the living room, hoping to hell Henry wasn’t already asleep.
He wasn’t. Looking, as always, impeccable in unwrinkled sweater and slacks, he had the television on in the kitchen, some war flick, a tidy sandwich in one hand and a beer stein in the other.
“All hell’s broken loose since you were gone,” Maguire said, and started the fill him in. Henry was due some R &R. Maguire had fires burning in Atlanta, Chicago, a sort-out with Jay in the middle, a stupid speech he’d somehow signed up for in D.C. Wednesday night. He was behind, of course, from having disappeared for the last two weeks.
“I need you home-”
“Which home, sir?”
“I’m going to base out of the Chicago condo for the next while. I need you to call, get things opened up, food, all that-”
“Yes, sir.”
“Would you mind contacting Billingham for me. He’ll be expecting a call, and I know I won’t get to it. Folder’s on the desk-”
“Yes, sir.”
“If he still has a question, contact me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did we get a new security set up for the Elkon system?” Maguire poked around in the fridge, saw beer, milk, finally pushed aside debris, found some fresh OJ.
“No. You put that on hold until next month.”
“Well, let’s push it up again. It’s been on my mind. There’s too much to protect to let that slide. Scare up the bids again, would you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, on Carolina. Let the weekend go, but check on her Monday.”
“No, sir.”
Maguire closed the fridge, turned around. “Beg your pardon?”
“I said no, sir. I’m not spying on Carolina.”
Maguire frowned. A headache had been playing slice-and-dice in his temples for three days. He was used to pressure. Used to having an impossibly heavy schedule. Used to finding discipline and endurance when there couldn’t be any left.
He just wasn’t used to pain having this fist-grip on his heart.
“I wasn’t asking you to spy on her, Henry. I was asking you to check in.”
Mild as milquetoast, Henry said again, “No.” And turned off the tube.
“You work for me, remember? I give the instructions. You say yes, and then follow through better than I would myself. That’s your job. And you’re great at it.”
“Yes, sir. Although you can outwork anyone I ever met.”
“Which is the point. I’m extremely busy. And it’s not as if I were asking you to do anything. I just need to know that Carolina’s all right.”
Henry stood up from the couch, dusted two crumbs from his trousers, took the sandwich plate to the kitchen and neatly slid it in the dishwasher. “I understand your concern, Mr. Cochran. That Carolina, she just isn’t of the me-me-me generation. I don’t doubt she can look after herself. I just think she could easily fall into her old ways.”
Maguire picked up that beat as if it had been on his mind. “Giving in to everybody. Riding herself ragged for everyone else. The calls will have restarted by now. Her family and friends and all will realize she’s back home. It’ll start up again. I think she’s stronger. I think she has good ideas on what to do. Stuff she can do. But I need to be sure.”
“Then call her yourself, sir.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Henry didn’t seem to hear. He aimed for the stairs, as if intending to crash for the night. “I keep remembering how she was when you first brought her here. Not hearing. Jumping at every shadow. I just think it’d be easy for her to get over her head again. I’m not all that positive you can teach a kitten to be tough.”
“Which is precisely why I want you to follow up and make sure she’s all right.”
“Well, I would, Mr. Cochran, because I’m not looking to get fired. I love my job. I can’t even imagine a job as good as this one. But she’s not my business, sir. She’s yours. If you don’t mind my saying, I almost didn’t recognize you when I walked in here. You obviously haven’t slept or showered or apparently eaten since I left. You look like hell, sir, and that’s putting it as politely as I can. I fully recognize that you’ve never appreciated advice-”
“Then it would probably be extremely wise for you to shut the h up, Henry.”
“But in my opinion, you don’t just need to call her. You need to find her. I have no idea what was wrong with the men in South Bend in the past, but they can’t all be shallow and blind. Someone is going to take a look and have the sense to realize that she’s absolutely one of a kind.”
Maguire’s eyes narrowed. “You think I don’t know that? But she’s not a keeper for me, Henry. I kidnapped her, remember? She didn’t ask me to be in her life.”
“So if she needs help now, you wouldn’t be there?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’d be there in two seconds.”
“Then call her yourself. To find out if she’s all right or not.” Henry’s voice rose a full decibel before he shut down and turned around, stiff-necked and red-cheeked. “I’m going to bed, sir.”
Maguire didn’t answer, just stared after Henry. He’d never heard Henry yell before. Henry didn’t even raise his voice for football games or tornados.
He could have fired him, of course, but Maguire couldn’t imagine doing that for a single indiscretion. It wasn’t as if Henry regularly-or ever-stepped out of line, or had given Maguire any reason to doubt his dedication.
Henry was loyal. Apparently he’d picked up some mighty loyalty to Carolina as well.
Henry just didn’t understand, Maguire thought glumly. Once he’d kidnapped Carolina, everything changed. He’d had good reasons to steal her off, but the “force” word was the bear. She’d been forced to be with him.
Now…it would have been easy, so easy to call her, fly to see her, tell her he’d fallen crazy in love with her, that nothing had been right since she left. It was the truth.
But it was also the truth that he couldn’t, ethically or morally, force Carolina to be with him again on any terms. To manipulate another situation would be the act of a control freak, not a lover. A bully, not a man hopelessly in love.
How could he ever know how she really felt if she’d never been free to make her own choices?
So he’d tied his own hands.
And it was killing him.
Chapter Eleven
Carolina parked in front of the old, redbrick house with a feeling of doom and gloom. Naturally, the wind was blowing up a tempest, shaking all the red-and-gold leaves, slapping her cheeks, sneaking down the neck of her old plaid jacket. She loved her parents, she reminded herself.
She was just looking forward to this particular visit on a par with, say, a double root canal.
She pulled a satchel, packages and bottle of wine from the backseat, then had to juggle them as she walked up the familiar brick path to the back door. “Mom! Dad!” she called out.
She’d spent a couple days feeling sorry for herself… and trying to face that she’d never likely see Maguire again. The woman he’d kidnapped wasn’t the kind of woman who belonged in his life. Things might have been different if they could have met like normal people. But they hadn’t.