The Tycoon's Baby Revelation - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,15

her belongings and stomped out to her car. “Just six months!”

Josh muttered under his breath as he glared at the phone. “She should have left two hours ago!” he growled, prowling his office, glancing back at the phone every few steps. He wanted to call her, to make sure that she’d left and gotten home safely. But he resisted.

For ten minutes.

In the end, he couldn’t banish his concerns for her safety. Sloane Abbot, he was discovering, was a determined, stubborn woman, who wouldn’t stop when it was good for her simply because she was out to prove something to the world and to him.

He understood why, but she was in the building by herself after hours. That wasn’t safe!

With a muttered curse, Josh grabbed his keys and hurried out of his building, flinging himself into his car. He broke several speed records along the way to the office. Why he felt so protective of his new assistant, Josh didn’t bother to examine. He just needed to make sure that she’d made it home alive, safe and sound. Even her current car was a death trap, he thought and made a mental note to get a mechanic out there to look it over. It was most likely a candidate for the trash heap, but he doubted she would accept a new car from him. He could damn well afford it though, thinking that he just wanted to take care of his employees.

If he looked too closely at his inner thoughts and motivations, he would have understood that his protectiveness wouldn’t extend to the employees that he would eventually hire onto his staff. But there was no way he would examine why he felt so protective of Sloane. She was too young and too damn beautiful. Not that he’d paid attention to her appearance. Nope, he hadn’t noticed her dark, silky hair or the pale skin that needed significantly more food than she was eating in order to glow. Josh pushed the image of those huge, baby blue eyes out of his mind. He suspected that she wasn’t eating well, saving their meager food supplies for her younger sisters. With that in mind, he pressed a button on his steering wheel, activating his cell phone.

Wilma picked up on the first ring. “Hey there, honey. What’s going on?”

“Hey Wilma. I was wondering if you might have any leftovers from Jefferson’s dinner tonight?”

Wilma laughed, a full-bodied, throaty laugh that pulled a rueful smile from him. “I know where your mind is going and trust me, it’s already done, honey,” she assured Josh. “I’ll be making extra for a while, until those sweet girls get some color back into their cheeks. Especially Sloane. That girl is skinny to the point of being sickly.”

“I agree. And, since you brought up Sloane, any chance she’s at the house yet?”

“Let me check,” he heard her pressing buttons on the security panel. “Yeah, she’s pulling through the gate now. What are you doing working that poor girl so hard?”

“I told her to leave two hours ago,” he growled. “She’s stubborn, Wilma. She just…” he didn’t finish, not sure how to describe the woman-girl that he’d hired for no other reason than his gut told him that she’d be a good fit.

“Yeah, but she’s a good person,” Wilma replied, her voice softer, warmer now.

Josh didn’t reply, but nor did he alter his course, heading over to Jefferson’s estate even though Wilma had assured him that Sloane had arrived home safely. He still needed to see for himself, and didn’t question the reason. He just…needed to make sure she was safe.

He pulled through the gates of his friend’s estate and turned down the long, winding driveway, and breathed a bit more easily when he saw Sloane’s impressively rusty car parked next to the carriage house. And inside, she hadn’t pulled the curtains that Wilma had made for them yet, so he could see the three girls through the windows.

For a long moment, he watched as the girls hugged Sloane, then they worked together to heat up the dinner Wilma had brought them.

As he watched their interactions through the window, he found he could easily distinguish their individual personalities. Rayne frowned a lot, and there was an intensity in her eyes that was frightening in someone so young. He had no idea where her future might lead her, but Rayne would conquer whatever world she chose to enter.

Pepper, as the youngest, should be the most spoiled. But as the three of them