Found in You(92)

That was impossible. No one even knew I had the meeting that night except for David and Hudson. And last I checked, neither of them were women. “It wasn’t me. Are you sure?”

“Yep. I took the call myself.”

Either someone had canceled my meeting on Friday without my permission or I was seriously being pranked. Whichever it was, Bubbly Professional didn’t need to hang on the line while I figured it out. “My mistake. Thank you and please apologize to Mr. Trent for any inconvenience it may have caused him.”

“Honestly,” her voice lowered as if she were sharing a secret, “this worked out better for him. He would have had to miss out on a daddy daughter dance if you’d kept the Friday appointment, and Rachel’s the type of girl that doesn’t take disappointment well. So you kind of did him a favor by canceling.”

Ah, so it was probably Rachel Trent who canceled. I’d never been close to my father, but I could appreciate her wanting to be with her dad. I’d definitely done things equally as manipulative as a teen.

I thanked Bubbly Professional for the information, hung up the phone, and moved on to the other items on my day’s agenda.

It was nearly three when the bell rang at the service entrance. I checked the camera feed since we weren’t expecting any deliveries. It was Liesl.

“Be right there,” I told her through the intercom then ran down to let her in.

I opened the door and opened my arms for Liesl to give me a bear hug. She was one of the only people I allowed to touch me so intimately and only on my terms.

“What are you doing here so early?” I asked into her hair. “Do you work tonight?”

“Nope. Off tonight.” She let me go to give me a high five. “We could hang out later, if you want.”

“I do want. I have group at five-thirty. Maybe after that?”

“Groovy. I just had coffee with some friends next door. They want me to go to a concert with them so I came by to check out next week’s schedule. Is it up yet?”

“Yeah, I think I saw it. Come on up.”

We climbed the back stairs to the office. I found the schedule on David’s mess of a desk and turned around to hand it to her and jumped when I saw a figure in the doorway. Another half second and I realized it was Hudson. I’d almost forgotten he had his own set of keys.

“Hi! What are you doing here?” It was a nice surprise to see him unannounced in the middle of the day, though also odd.

His expression was even. “You need to come with me.”

“Why? What’s up?” I took a step toward him before I recognized the tension in his body, the firm set of his jaw, the light missing from his eyes. “Hey, are you mad at me?” He’d never truly been upset with me before. Not like this, where the anger rolled off him in waves so thick it was almost palpable.

“Get your things and come.” He spit out the words, as if it was difficult to speak civilly.

“That bossy thing is so hot.” Liesl didn’t even bother whispering.

Admittedly there were times I thought the bossy thing was definitely so hot. This was not one of them. His tone and body language scared me. I didn’t believe he’d ever hurt me—not physically, and not on purpose—but his agitated state suggested he didn’t have control of himself.

I crossed my hands over my chest defiantly. “Hudson, I’m not leaving just because you say so. I need more information.”

“Alayna, I’m not doing this here.” He was shaking. I’d never seen him so upset. “You will get your things and come. Now.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It wasn’t an invitation. It wasn’t even an order. It was fact. It was what I would do, as expected as my next breath.