"Sir!" Bella came rushing in Adam's office, not bothering to knock.
Adam was already on his way out when he saw her. She looked like as if she had run a marathon before coming here.
"What is it?" Adam asked her, not paying her much of his attention.
"T-the public ele-vator has st-topped working." She replied in between her breaths.
"And why exactly are you telling me that?" Adam asked her with an amused expression. "I am sorry, but I am not sure whether I can fix it or not."
"No! Mr. Tay-Taylor is stuck inside it." She replied, still taking deep breaths.
"What is he doing in the public elevator?" He added, walking towards the door.
"I don't know. B-but." Bella replied as she followed him out, but her words trailed off in the end. She didn't know how to break the news to him.
"But he's not alone in there. Stella is trapped with him as well." She finally gathered the courage and spoke it in haste.
"What?" Adam stopped in his tracks. After a while he turned around to look at Bella. "She is in there? With him?" He looked at Bella with a shocked expression, his eyebrows raised up and his eyes popping out of their sockets.
Bella meekly nodded her head in a yes.
"And you didn't think to start with that." Adam almost yelled at her as he headed towards his private elevator with Bella in tow.
"Which floor?" He asked her as she followed him inside the elevator.
"22nd." Bella replied to him in a meek voice.
Adam hurriedly pressed the button to the 22nd floor.
From the 44th floor until the 22nd, Adam had his eyes fixed on the changing numbers. His eyebrows were furrowed, his jaws, clenched tightly and his custom made Italian leather boots were tapping against the floor. Even Bella could feel how tensed up he was.
As soon as the elevator reached its destination, Adam stepped out hurriedly, not waiting for the doors to be opened completely. Bella followed him out as well.
The public elevator was situated at a distance of ten feet or so from his own. He strode towards it hastily.
There were already a bunch of people standing close to it as three technicians were trying to get the doors opened.
"Move." Adam's strong voice resonated through the hallway, quieting the murmurs and whispers of people.
His staff members moved aside, getting out of his path.
"How long is it going to take?" He asked the technicians in a cold voice.
"We can't say exactly how long, but we are trying our best Sir." The head of the team replied to him politely.
"Well, then hurry up." His demanding voice made him shut his mouth.
With each passing second, the air grew chiller. The air surrounding Adam was freezing cold Adam's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. His eyes did not shift from the elevator, even for a single second.
By now, the entire floor was gathered in the hallway, whispering among themselves, speculating why the Boss was standing here himself.
Almost everyone of them thought that it must be because of Mr. Taylor and that he might be afraid of losing the contract.
But they didn't know how wrong they were. Adam couldn't give a single damn about that contract. He was here for his babygirl, his little elf.
Adam was growing impatient. He was about to shout on the technicians again, when the door finally opened.
He felt his soul leaving the body when his eyes met with her hazel ones.
Her face was pale, she was drenched in sweat and her breathing was irregular.
She was scared, she was scared for her life. He could see that in her eyes, and that was enough to shatter his heart. His little beasty was so fragile sometimes.
Stella's eyes met Adam as soon as the door opened but it took her a while to register that he was really there and she was not imagining things. She looked at him as if he was her life jacket, the only thing keeping her afloat in the vast ocean that trying to suck her into the abyss.
Not paying any attention to her surroundings or to the man standing next to her, Stella made her way towards Adam hurriedly and hugged him. She hugged him as if her life depended on it.
Adam was shocked for a while but he came out of his stupor as her sobbing made its way to his ears. He hugged her back with the same passion.
Stella had her arms wrapped around his broad muscular back as her face was buried in his chest.
All the staff members present there, were shocked to their cores when they saw what was happening. The first thing they expected their boss to do was apologize to Mr Taylor for the incident. But never in their minds it occurred for even once that a girl would come out of the elevator and hug their Boss. And not only that, their bug, scary, cold hearted Boss was hugging the petite girl back.
But what came next, shocked them more. They never thought that they would love long enough to see or hear what followed the hugging.
"Shhh!!! I am here sweetheart. You are okay, and in my arms." Adam spoke up in a soft voice as if he was cooing a crying child.