they might stop her, or follow her and tell Max where she’d gone. Slipping out like this meant they wouldn’t know where she was going and she didn’t want to be followed. She had to get out. She had to leave and make sure he never found her. He was a liar and a cheat and she couldn’t trust him. Ever.
Shoving her suitcase into the back of her mini, she jumped into the driver’s seat and started the engine, grateful that it still worked after not being used for so long. Backing out of the garage, she hurried, seeing the body guards rushing after her. One was speaking into a walkie talkie so she knew she’d have to hurry. Stepping on the accelerator, she drove swiftly out of the parking garage, turning right, then left, and right again and again just like she’d seen the people on television do when they wanted to escape being followed. She would not be found!
After an hour of turns and side streets with her eyes on her rear view mirror, she felt it was finally safe to get out of the city without being followed. She turned right and was instantly on the highway, heading north. Where she would go, she had no idea, but she was determined to find a place to hide and work out the details, figure out what she was going to do and how she was going to do it. After she had a good, long cry, that is.
She drove for hours, not caring where she was headed, only stopping for gas once. She didn’t eat at all, too upset to even consider food. She didn’t really see the road or the beautiful scenery around her. All she saw were the words to the document that showed her what her life was really about. She was a pawn and she’d been had. There was no way she could get around that reality. All her love for Max, all the dreams and hopes for what their life would be like were shattered.
Chapter 15
Max walked through the penthouse, uncaring about anything but finding Clarissa and holding her in his arms. It had been a whole week and he wanted to make sure she was okay. The only way to do that was to feel her and hold her, kiss her and make love to her until neither of them could see straight anymore.
When he didn’t find her in her office, he looked in the bedroom, his smile turning wolfish at the anticipation of finding her in some sexy of state of dress. Or undress, he was sure would be just fine as well.
He loved the way she responded to him, no matter what pressing issue was coming up, she didn’t seem to be able to stop responding. Women in the past had been too careful of their makeup or their dress or hair, afraid of what they might look like when they went out in public. Not his Clarissa. She just wanted him. It was a secret thrill of his to know that he could have her whenever he wanted. He even tested the waters sometimes, just to make sure she was real and not a dream. So far, she’d never let him down.
The bedroom was empty and Max sighed in frustration. “Clarissa?” he finally called out.
Jimmy walked into he room and Max turned, instantly knowing that something was wrong by the tense look in Jimmy’s face. “What’s going on?” Max demanded.
“She’s gone,” Jimmy said plainly.
It was every wealthy man’s nightmare. His wife had been kidnapped? Impossible. He was jumping to conclusions, he told himself as his gut twisted and his heart ached with a pain he didn’t know was possible. “What the hell do you mean?” Nothing better have happened to Clarissa or many people were going to be in trouble.
Jimmy raised his hand to press the ear piece closer to his ear, hesitated a moment as he listened to whatever was being communicated and nodded, then looked back up at Max. “I have men trying to catch up with her but she packed up a suitcase and left the building. We weren’t aware of any plans for travel so, as you requested, we didn’t have someone stationed in the house. The elevator descending to the garage alerted us but we couldn’t get down there in time. She was already driving out before we could catch her.”
At least she was alone, he thought to himself. She hadn’t been taken away