CHAPTER 45

Nikos knocked on Ash's door, having gained access to the building without her assistance. She hadn't been answering her apartment buzzer, either.

There was no answer to his knock. That did not surprise him, either, but he did not give up, knocking again. No sound came from the other side of the steel door.

The next time he knocked, he called her name. Then called out, "Ash, it is Nikos. I have news of your mother."

Still nothing.

He strode quickly to the apartment that housed her security detail and banged on the door.

A tall man in his fifties, but obviously fit, opened the door almost immediately. "Yes?"

"You know who I am."

"Yes, sir."

"Has Miss Hemsworth left her apartment this evening?"

"No, sir."

"Are you certain?"

"We have taken additional precautions since the slip she gave us last week, sir. There is no way she has left the building without us being aware."

Nikos nodded and turned, going back to Ash's door and pounding on it until he heard a voice from the other side.

"For goodness' sake, Nikos, one of my neighbors is going to protest the disturbance." Her words were muffled by the door, but the scolding tone was clear. "Go away."

He stared straight at the peephole, hoping she was looking through it. "No."

"I'm not letting you in!"

"Your mother is in trouble, Ash."

"Yes, she is." She sounded both angry and hurt.

Nikos grimaced, hating having to impart this news. She had been through enough today, but there was no help for it. "She is in the hospital as we speak."

Silence reigned on the other side of the door. Then his cell phone rang.

It was her. He flipped it open. "I am sorry,pethi mou ."

"What do you mean she's in the hospital?"

"Blade informed me that she was discovered collapsed on the floor of his office over two hours ago. She was rushed to a private hospital."

The phone went dead. Then the bolts snicked signaling she was unlocking the door and then it opened. She stood with her hand on the knob, her eyes a chilly blue, the green almost completely absent. They were also red and puffy. "This had better not be a trick."

"I would not make something like this up."

"So you say."

Nikos did not take umbrage. He was well aware he could not afford to in their current circumstance. He was firmly in the wrong and they both knew it. What he did not know was how to undo the damage of their earlier conversation. He thought she could forgive him for believing her unfaithful; the evidence had been overwhelming. But he did not think she would forgive the business agreement he had with her mother where she played a key role.

Nikos sighed. "As I said, Rachel was discovered collapsed on her office floor this afternoon. Her staff has been trying to reach you, but you are not answering your phone."

"I don't want to talk to her or you."

So, she had ignored caller identification that had indicated him, his company or her mother's company. "I understand."

"No, you don't." Her chin trembled. "You don't love me. You can't understand at all."

He did not know what to say to that. "I will take you to the hospital."

She shook her head, but he could see that her slim body trembled. "I can drive myself."

"You should not drive in your current state."

"What state is that, Nikos?" Anger leaked into her gaze. "Bleeding inside after finding out how thoroughly you and my mother deceived me?"

"I knew nothing of your sister's existence."

"But you knew about the business merger. You knew that you saw me as nothing more than a contract guarantee. You were set to use me until you got what you considered evidence that proved me unworthy of being your pawn."

"That is not the way it was." But he'd known she would see it that way. Women and men did not think the same. He and Ash seemed even further apart in the way they processed certain information than most. "I did not plan to use you. I wanted to share my life with you."