of dark curls and ringlets looping just below her shoulders. Her dark eyes shone brightly as she looked up. The child was adorable. “It’s very nice to meet you, Princess Aneka,” Janelle said as she continued into her kitchen. “Mrs. Ivers, I’m exhausted. Would you please just take Aneka to your house? We can straighten all this out tomorrow.”
“Perhaps you should speak with your father first. My guess is that he’s still at the office.”
“No, he never works this late,” Janelle said as she looked at her watch, realizing that it was still on Tanzania time.
“That was before.”
“What do you mean? Before what?”
“You need to talk to your father,” Mrs. Ivers reiterated.
Janelle shook her head with annoyance. All she wanted was to go to sleep, but that was clearly not going to happen anytime soon. “Fine.”
She dialed her father’s private office number, expecting no answer since the company should have been closed hours earlier. To her surprise someone picked up the phone.
“Truman Developers.”
Janelle frowned. It was a man’s voice, but not her father’s. The voice seemed familiar, but that was impossible. It couldn’t be. “Yes, I’d like to speak with Ben Truman, please.”
“He’s unavailable at the moment.”
“Just tell him it’s his daughter.”
“Janelle?” he said.
“Yes. Who is this?”
There was a short pause as the man’s voice softened. “I’m sorry. Your father’s unavailable. You might want to call back tomorrow morning.”
“No, I don’t want to call back tomorrow morning. I need to speak with him tonight, right now.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll tell him you called.”
“Fine,” she snapped. Annoyed, she disconnected the call and looked across the kitchen. “What’s going on, Mrs. Ivers?”
Mrs. Ivers shook her head. “Your father ran into some financial trouble a while back. He’s working on fixing it.”
“What do you mean ‘financial trouble’? What’s going on and who’s the man answering my father’s private line this late at night?”
“Go to the office, Janelle, and talk to your father. Here, take my car,” Mrs. Ivers said as she grabbed her purse and began digging for her keys. She found them and handed them to Janelle.
Two minutes later Janelle was out the door and headed to the Truman Building. The usual thirty-minute drive took less than twenty.
As soon as Janelle drove up to the building, she looked up, seeing that the lights in her father’s office were still on. She parked the car and hurried inside. The security guard she’d known for years greeted and welcomed her back. She signed in and took the elevator to the top floor.
Her thoughts raced as she hurried down the long hallway. Her father was unavailable and there was a strange man in his office. At this point she had no idea what to expect. She turned the corner and saw that her father’s office door was cracked open. She could see a light shining from inside. She knocked once but didn’t bother to wait for a reply, opening the door wider and peeking inside. “Dad...”
For the second time that night a shocking sight met her eyes.
When Janelle had called, Tyson Croft had held on to the receiver, forgetting all about hanging it up. As soon as he picked up and she had spoken, his heart had faltered. There was no need to ask who was calling. He had known it was her even before she had said who was speaking. The sound of her sultry voice was unmistakable. He closed his eyes as a slow, easy smile pulled wide across his lips.
“Janelle,” he had whispered softly and then shaken his head slowly. Hearing her voice again after two long years was like awakening from a long deep slumber. His body stirred just as it had done so many times before.
He remembered what it was like walking away from her years ago. It had nearly broken him, but he hadn’t had a choice at the time. Now he did have a choice. And nothing—and no one—was going to stand in his way this time.
“All righty, then. This ought to just about do it.”
Tyson quickly hung up the phone. Ben Truman bumped the office door wider as he walked through carrying another lidded cardboard box. Tyson nonchalantly cleared his throat and nodded, looking back at the computer monitor. He had no idea how long he’d been holding the phone receiver. Thoughts of Janelle had clouded his mind again. It had been happening more and more lately.
“There’re a couple more boxes in the storage room, but I doubt they have anything in them that will be useful. Was that my phone I heard ringing?” Ben asked.
“Uh, yes. It was Janelle.”
Ben frowned as he set the container down on the small conference table in the center of his office with the other boxes. “Janelle, huh? That’s surprising. I didn’t expect her call.”
“What do you mean?” Tyson asked, looking more interested.
“She usually calls me at home, and this isn’t her usual day. She calls on Sundays. I hope everything’s all right over there.”
Tyson instantly tensed. “I thought you said she’s safe where she is in Africa. Is there a possible problem where she’s assigned?”
“Well, for the time being, she is safe. But you know as well as I do that my daughter is a dedicated physician. Wherever they need her, she’ll go. She’s almost eight thousand miles away in an unstable region...” Ben said, then stopped, seeing the horrified look on Tyson’s face.
“But no, I’m sure she’s fine. As you well know, Janelle is a brilliant doctor and a very levelheaded woman. She’d never intentionally put herself in danger. She’s very capable and can certainly take care of herself, even in the middle of Africa. I’m sure she’s fine. I’m just surprised she called me here at the office. She knows I don’t work this late.”
“When is she coming back stateside?”
“In a couple more months. She said February or March.”
Tyson nodded, not feeling at all reassured. “Maybe you should call her back just to make sure everything’s okay,” he suggested eagerly, failing miserably to play down his uneasiness.
“Yeah, I think I will.” Ben nodded and pulled out his cell phone, only to see that the signal was gone and the phone was turned off. “Damn, no signal. I forgot to charge the battery this afternoon. No wonder she called me here.” He crossed the room to use the phone on the desk.
Tyson grabbed his cell phone off the desk, stood and quickly handed it to Ben. “Here, use my cell phone,” he offered. “It’s international.
