CHAPTER 40

She had vanished withouta trace. He had been looking for two weeks. Two weeks of him digging into her background, data searching, and employing questionable tracking tactics. And still nothing.

She had either assumed a different identity or had stopped using all electronic devices. Not even traffic and security cameras had caught her. He had gone to the extent of paying a hacker to get into the system and do a face search. Nothing. Not a single one of the innumerable security cameras that were everywhere in the country had caught her.

Which meant she had probably gone abroad. But even that didn’t add up. Because she would have shown up in the security footage of some airport, station, or road. She had not used credit to make any purchase. None of her devices had connected to a network, either.

Even her parbot seemed to have disappeared. He had been to her house twice more, and no one had answered the door. The idea that he had gone to her, and they were right now ensconced together in a cozy retreat, far from his reach, had his teeth gnashing with frustration.

When his communication device announced he had a call from an undisclosed source, he almost didn’t take it, but some instinct made him reconsider. His impulse paid off when Kalli’s image was displayed in front of him. So lifelike and vivid it seemed as if she were right here in his office with him. Oh, if only...

“Hello, Dariux,” she greeted him.

He scrambled to find his voice after the surprise. “Kalli, where the hell have you been?” Well, that had not come out right.

“That is none of your business,” she replied, understandably heckled by his tone.

“The hell it isn’t! I’ve been looking for you. I needed to talk to you, and you just disappeared.” What the hell was wrong with him? He didn’t want to fight. Why couldn’t he stop scolding her?

“Well, I’m sorry that I wasn’t at your beck and call, but you are not my master. I don’t need to answer to you.”

“The fuck you don’t. We need to talk.” Yes, they did. And he finally had her in front of him after two weeks of fruitless searching. But instead of inquiring about her wellbeing, he was getting into a fight with her. Idiot.

“Maybe now is not a good time. I see you are in a mood. Bye, Dariux. I’ll call some other ti—”

“No, wait.” Panic jolted him. He couldn’t let her disconnect. He still didn’t know where she was or how to find her. If he had to wait days on end for her to call again, he would go insane.

“Wait. I’m sorry, don’t go. I’m glad you called. You just caught me by surprise. I’ve been so frustrated... How are you?” That’s how he should have started this call.

“I’m all right. How are you?” she asked tentatively.

“Not as well as I could be. I miss you, sprite.”

Her eyes bore into his, and even through the call, he felt the connection. The vulnerability in her gaze, the incipient hope. God let him be worthy of fulfilling that hope.

She looked away. “I thought you were glad I was not a problem you had to deal with anymore.”

“You were never a problem. A pain in the arse, yes, sometimes,” he added with a lopsided smile that made her smile in return, as he intended. “But a good pain.”

“I overheard you say to Mr. Greer that you didn’t agree with my theories and that there was nothing personal between us.”

“I said that because I needed to throw him off the scent. Kalli, there’s stuff going on. They want to discredit your research. It goes against their interests, you see. They have a heavy investment in the production of parbots.”

“Yes, I know,” she snapped, and her lips pinched. “And if that is the case, you are helping them discredit my research, saying you have only the most basic knowledge of it and that you don’t agree with me.”

“You don’t understand. I have to tell you the full story,” he gritted.

“Then tell me. I’m all ears.”

“Not through a call. Let’s meet tomorrow—”

The door opening behind him interrupted his sentence. He didn’t need to look to know Elena had walked in. Of all the fucking bad timing.

“I’m going to bed, Dariux. Do you need anything?”

“No, I’m fine. Go to bed,” he bit off, trying to block her from view. But of course, Kalli saw and heard her. Fuck!

“That was not—”

“Don’t,” Kalli snapped. “Don’t you dare insult my intelligence by claiming it was not what it looked like.”

“Fine!” he shot back, his temper rising. “She is my parbot, yes. And I still have her. But I’m not fucking her. I haven’t touched her since we came back.”

“And you expect me to believe that?” She scoffed.

“Well, you should. Because it’s the fucking truth! And don’t play innocent with me. You have a parbot, too.”

He noted with satisfaction he had scored a point when her eyes widened in surprise. It egged him on. “Yes, I met Martin, your live-in parbot boyfriend. It never occurred to you to mention him while you were sleeping with me?”

“That was different! I intended to get rid of him when we returned. I wanted a relationship with you!” she protested, going red.

“Well, you didn’t get rid of him, did you?” Jealousy, resentment, and a sense of betrayal were awful emotions he never wanted to feel, but there was nothing he could do to hold back the tide.

“Because I haven’t been home! But you have been living with her.”

“It doesn’t matter. You lied by omission. You dared judge me because I had a parbot, while all along you, ‘Miss Defender of Human Relationships’, were fucking a parbot, too!” His voice rose with every word. He was angrier than he could remember being in a long time.

In a distant part of his mind, he knew he was making things worse. Perhaps ruining all his chances. But reason couldn’t hold him back.

Kalli gasped, and then her face shuttered. “I see it was a mistake calling you. Goodbye, Dariux.”

She disconnected before he could get another word in.

He frantically tried to call back, but she had blocked her number. He tried tracking the location of the server. But she was using a cloaking device to hide her location, too.

“Fuck!” he yelled as he threw the communication device against the wall.