Free RUIN - Part Two (The RUIN Series Book 2) by Deborah Bladon Page B

fingers on your desk, aren't you?"
    The rhythmic background noise stops. "It's a stressful day. I'm in the school on a Saturday grading papers when I should be out doing things for the wedding."
    "Focus on work today, Lex." I breathe deeply. "I'll be back tomorrow and we'll tackle all the wedding stuff as a team. You, me and Sadie."
    "Okay." I hear the trepidation in her tone. She's definitely not going to concentrate on anything but whether her special day will go off without a hitch.
    "I need to go. I'll call you as soon as I'm back in New York."
    "You better." She laughs as she ends the call.
     
    ***
     
    "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but you're mistaken." The burly man behind the desk doesn’t even look at me as he repeats the same phrase for the third time.
    "I don't think I am," I say even though I'm certain that he's right. I've been standing in the lobby of this hotel in Times Square for the past ten minutes. This is the third person I've asked about the medical conference that is supposed to be taking place here. Not one of them has any clue about what I'm talking about.
    His eyes dart over the counter to peer directly at me. "Let me make a few calls and I'll see if I can locate the right hotel for you."
    I nod. I should be more appreciative. I check the log of my text messages again comparing the name of the hotel Ben told me he'd be at to the name on the wall behind the check-in desk. They are definitely one in the same.
    I stare down at my phone when I feel it vibrate in my hand.
    "Hey, Noah," I say with ease. "How are you?"
    "Good." His voice is curt and restrained. "Have you talked to him yet?"
    I smile at how eager he is to smooth things over with Ben. It's been what I'd hoped for since I realized the struggle that the two of them have faced all these years. "I just landed an hour ago. I'm at the hotel he said the conference was at, but he's not here."
    "Maybe he's at his apartment."
    The fact that Ben told me he keeps an apartment in Boston completely slipped my mind. I'm certain that I can track him down there at some point today. "I should call him and tell him I'm here."
    "I've got the address if you want it."
    "Of course I want it."
     
    ***
     
    I feel like I'm chasing a phantom around the streets of Boston. After listening to the desk clerk back at the hotel tell me that he couldn’t find any details about a medical conference in the city, I'd left with the address Noah gave me for Ben's place.
    It was an upscale condo complex with a doorman who didn't know where to draw the line. The man was a flirt, and given his age, I'd guess that he had perfected the art of seduction during his very long tenure as the doorman of that building. It took more than forty-five minutes for me to get through a simple series of questions about whether Ben was actually in the building. The overly attentive doorman had spent more time asking me about my past boyfriends than he had telling me where Ben was. At the end of what felt like an awkward date in the lobby of the building, he confessed that Ben hadn't been to the apartment in weeks. He even showed me the stack of mail that he'd been collecting for him.
    I'm beginning to question whether I heard him correctly when he said he was coming to Boston. I pull my smartphone out of my purse and call his number. I mutter a curse word under my breath when it goes straight to voicemail. At this point, the excitement of surprising Ben has been replaced with frustration. I leave a short, curt message telling him it's important.
    I walk out onto the street, waving for a taxi. I debate sending Ben a text message. I'm not even sure what I'd say.
    Instead I slide into the backseat of the first taxi that stops, give the driver the address of where I used to live and stare at my phone, willing Ben to call me back.
     

Chapter 20
     
    "You owe me that money." I tap my hand against the doorjamb of what my old landlord calls his office. It's actually a small linen closet he has a wooden chair