“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere I can’t be tempted to do you physical harm. I don’t want to spend Christmas in jail.” She tugged the hat onto her head and fastened her coat. “Go and work. That’s what you care about, isn’t it?”
“It’s freezing and icy out there. You can’t go out.”
“I can look after myself.” She pulled on her gloves. “Don’t follow me.”
She stomped toward the door and slammed it behind her.
Lucas ran his hand over his face and swore softly.
Now what?
He returned to his study, hit a button on the keyboard to wake up the screen and once again scanned the section she’d read the night before. At the time he hadn’t been able to see why she was so upset, but now he realized that he was so involved in the story and his characters he hadn’t been able to read it the way she’d read it.
It was still in draft form of course, which meant that much of it would be edited later and cut or changed, but the way it stood he could see why she’d been upset.
Unfortunately for him, she’d read the passage where his heroine was cooking dinner for her latest victim.
Looking at it objectively, he could see how the words on the screen could have upset her.
Swearing under his breath, Lucas grabbed his own coat and took the elevator down to the ground floor.
Albert was behind the desk. He hadn’t even known his name was Albert until Eva had talked about him.
“If you’re looking for Eva, she left the building.”
One glance at Albert’s stony face told him that Eva’s inability to hide her feelings didn’t abandon her in moments of stress. “Did you see which direction she went in?”
Albert remained stone-faced. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
Which meant he knew, but he wasn’t telling.
“She’s upset,” Lucas said. “I want to talk to her.”
“Do you know who, or what, upset her?”
“I did.” Lucas knew he deserved the look Albert sent him. “Which is why I want to find her.”
“So you can upset her some more?”
“So I can try to fix it.” And it wasn’t until that moment he realized how badly he wanted to fix it. Yes, he was worried about her walking the icy streets on her own, but that wasn’t why he’d run out of his apartment.
“Eva is a very sensitive woman. She’s special.”
“I know.”
Albert paused, studying Lucas’s face as if looking for something. “She went to the park.”
“The park? You’re sure? She didn’t go shopping? It’s freezing out there and they’re promising more snow. Why would she go to the park?”
“She told me she was going to spend time with the only type of man who interested her.”
Lucas shook his head, confused. “Who?”
Albert gave him a pointed look. “A snowman.”
* * *