She shrugged while stabbing her fork into her mac and cheese, her hoarse voice barely audible over the bass of the music, which shook the floor of the house. “Just ’til about 3 am.”
“3 am?”
“You know I’m a night owl anyway.” Her left eye twitched involuntarily, one of the many hints her body often gave to her former drug dependency. “Sometimes it’s nice to hear all the young kids laughing, talking shit, while they’re leaving the club. Makes this quiet old house seem a little less lonely.”
“If they keep building all these clubs, coffee shops, and yoga studios around here this might not be your house for much longer. I heard there’s a Whole Foods coming up down the block. You’re about to be priced out.”
“Can’t price out an owner, babe. It’s ‘fuck you, pay me, or get the hell off my lawn’. Any day now some idiot’s gonna offer me ten times what I paid for this pile of shit and bricks, and I’m all for it.” Her hoarse laughter rang out. “Where the hell do I sign?”
He grinned.
Grace drank in the sight. “Love seeing you smile.”
He swatted away one of the insects that had entered through the open window before going back to his food.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that meeting you owe me.”
Linc groaned at the thought of the AA meeting he’d narrowly escaped weeks ago. “I’m not avoiding it. Just been swamped at work.”
“I heard.” She shifted. “The news is calling him The Shadow Rock Chopper.”
Linc stabbed his fork at himself. “I started that. Give me my credit, woman.”
“How’s it looking?”
“Stale. For a minute, though, I thought I had her.”
“Her? It’s a woman?”
“Think so. We’ve followed every lead, all the way down to a chipped piece of nail polish at the crime scene. Nothing. Every nail shop in town said the design is too popular to narrow down to any one client. Who knew cow-print was a thing? On top of that, there’s no way of knowing if the perp does her nails herself.”
“It’s so crazy that it’s a woman.”
“Maybe not. The nature of the crime is almost comical, so people can’t see it’s actually a crime of passion. Dark. Sexual. Personal. Todd and Eugene are animals. Whoever is doing this is probably a woman they’ve both hurt deeply, and we both know this island has no shortage of those.”
“I guess what goes around comes around, huh?” She leaned forward, her food forgotten again as she drank him in for a while. Her eyes fell to his wedding band. “You met any nice girls lately?”
He groaned.
“Well, I’m just making fuckin’ conversation.”
“You’re getting in my business.” He made a face. “Weren’t you the one who told me that starting a new relationship was a bad idea?”
“No, I said starting a new relationship in the first year of your twelve-step program was a bad idea. Your recovery is too vulnerable in the beginning to take on the stress of a relationship, but you’ve cleared that hurdle. You’ve been clean for over a year. ”
“So the clock starts now?” He chuckled. “I had no idea you were counting.”
“I just want you to be happy, Linc. It’s been five years, babe. You’re telling me there isn’t one girl on this entire island you aren’t even a little interested in?”
Linc laid his utensils down and set his elbows on the table.
He hesitated.
Grace’s mouth fell. Her eyes gleamed. “Wear a button-down shirt.”
He frowned across the table at her, freezing in the midst of picking up his soda glass.
She clasped her fingers together and set her chin on top of them. “Get out of that t-shirt and jeans for once and fix yourself up a little. There’s nothing sexier to a woman than a nice, crisp button-down shirt.”
“What woman, Mom? There is no woman.”
Grace gave him a look.
He rolled his eyes and went back to his food.
A suggestive smile crossed her face. “Make sure you iron it first though. Okay? It has to look sharp, not scrubby, otherwise you’ll kill her lady boner on sight.”
“Can we move on?” he begged.
Grace humphed, appeared to be in the midst of arguing, and then gave in, going back to her plate with a pout.
Linc moved his food to the edge of his mouth, his brows pulling. “And please don’t ever say the words lady boner again.”
Their soft laughter filled the small kitchen and floated all over the humble house, leaving a warmth only Linc could bring, one that would linger until he returned the following Sunday night and filled it with his aura again.
—
“I have never been so insulted in all my life,” Celeste cried, her pale skin humming under the moonlight spilling into the domed bay windows of the family study. She stood behind the desk with her willowy arms crossed tight. The room was flanked with bookcases floor to ceiling, filling it with the scent of old pages. A candle chandelier hung from the ceiling.
David and Pierce stood on either side of her. When Pierce set a comforting hand on her hip, Celeste huffed and stepped out of his reach, bumping David’s shoulder in the process, voice quaking as it rose. “Never, Gage. How dare you bring her into this house and allow her to speak to me that way.”
Gage stopped pacing in the middle of the study, the jacket of his suit open and his trembling hands on his hips. All he wanted to do was exit that study, grab Veda—who was still alone in the dining room—leave, and never return. But some part of him looked at his mother, and he couldn’t make himself go.
Celeste carried on. “That woman will never set foot in my home again for as long as I’m alive.”
“For God’s sakes, Mother, please don’t stand there and pretend you haven’t been sitting across that table provoking her all night. Of course she’s going to react, she’s a human being. You came in guns blazing. You were never going to accept her!”
“You lower your voice when you’re speaking to your mother,” David’s gray eyes went ablaze. He set a hand on Celeste’s waist, and she curled into him, hiding her face in his shoulder. “Just look at how much you’ve upset her. This is disgraceful.”
Gage pushed his hands into his hair. He turned to the door and ached to just leave, but instead, he turned back, just in time to see his grandfather circling the desk.
“Here’s how this is going to work, Gage,” Pierce said, keeping the tips of his fingers on the desk as he moved, the other hand in his slack pockets. His turquoise eyes lowered as he leaned on the front of the desk, crossing his legs at the ankles and clasping his fingers. “I believe your parents and I have been profoundly patient in the face of your utter defiance, but what I’ve witnessed here tonight is absolutely unacceptable.”
Gage’s eyes widened. He held his breath. He felt the weakness in his voice before he even spoke. “Grandfather…”
“Now I overlooked the fact that this… Veda is the sole reason that my company suffered a 500 million dollar loss in less than thirty days. But what I cannot overlook, and what I will not overlook, is your blatant impetuousness—not to mention your outrageous lack of sound judgment and good sense.”
Gage’s chest heaved. His eyes flew to his mother, peeking at him from where her face was half-hidden in his father’s shoulder.
“As chairman of the board, I’d have loved nothing more than to see my only grandson holding the title of President at Blackwater Cruises, and one day, perhaps even CEO, but I’ve worked too hard building this company to turn a blind eye any longer. If this…” Pierce motioned to the door, disgust curling his face. “This relationship doesn’t come to an immediate end—right now—you’ll not only be relieved of your duties as CEO at Blackwater Hospital, effective immediately, but every cent of your trust fund will be frozen first thing Monday morning.”
Gage exhaled sharply, never having grown used to his grandfather’s superb composure. Never once had his grandfather given Veda, or anyone else at the dining table a
moment earlier, any idea that he was irritated by her presence. Gage could hardly believe that he’d expected anything different. His eyes burned. He looked back to the door, then at his family, over and over, until they became blurry from the moisture filling his eyes. The last thing he saw was the rising of his grandfather’s stark white eyebrows as he waited for Gage’s response. For his surrender.
Gage took a deep, trembling breath. “To hell with all of you.”
The last thing he heard was Celeste’s sharp intake of breath and the click of her heels on the wood floors. “Darling, I beg of you!”
The click of her heels died down, however, as well as her tear-filled pleas, when Gage threw open the door of the study and marched out without looking back.
—
Still sitting on the edge of the desk, staring at the door Gage had just disappeared out of, Pierce Blackwater sighed. Celeste’s soft cries, muffled from where her head was once again buried in David’s chest, filled the air. Pierce tore his eyes from the door and looked down at the phone on the desk, hesitating only a moment before pressing his finger into the red button at the bottom of the phone.
Less than a minute later, the door to the study opened. A tall man with shaggy brown hair, curled at the ears, blue-grey eyes that were always wide open—making him look stunned—and a jawline that could cut glass, stepped inside.
His eyes were so light they nearly disappeared into the whites, and his pale pink lips nearly disappeared against his milky skin. His unique face often startled people, especially small children, most of whom were instantly fearful at the very sight of him.
Pierce shifted when their eyes met, as he always did, even though they’d known one another for years.
The man’s muscled arms showed through his suit jacket as he locked his hands in front of his body, nodding to Pierce to signal he’d arrived as quickly as he could.
“Jax,” Pierce said to the head of the family’s security team. “It seems we have a bit of a problem…” Pierce sighed when Celeste’s cries grew shrill.
Jax’s eyes, so clear they were almost demonic—leaping from his pale face at even that tiniest movement, shifted to Celeste. When he saw the state she was in, he pushed the bottom flap of his jacket open, revealing his gun holster.
“It’s nothing like that.” Pierce held out a hand. “Not yet.”
Jax released his gun while giving a sharp nod, waiting for more.
“For now, I just need you to trail someone.” Pierce lifted his chin in the air, face growing dark. “I need you to find out everything there is to know… about Veda Gabriella Vandyke.”
18
Veda stood on the curb outside the Blackwater mansion with her arms hugged around her body. A gust of wind blew by, laced with an extra chill from the cool ocean waters just beyond the high cliffs. Waves assaulted the black rocks at the bottom. The Blackwater cliff was the loudest on the island, not just because it was where the tide rose highest, but because the waterfalls that pounded down from the rocks joined with the boom of the crashing waves, mixing together to make an almost haunting sound, giving anyone standing too close a feeling of dread, like they could be swallowed up at any moment.
Veda felt insignificant, standing on the edge of that ebony cliff, reminded of how small she really was, in the grand scheme of things. She didn’t know what made her feel smaller, the massiveness of the cliff, the expansiveness of the ocean, or the white stone balcony on the second floor of that house. The balcony where she’d experienced the worst night of her life. Perhaps it was a combination of all three. Every second she stood on that curb she felt herself shrinking a little smaller until she was sure she’d be nothing but a tiny speck of dust on the edge of the sidewalk if her Uber didn’t get there soon.
Another nippy breeze zoomed by. Her knees shook, making the hem of her hunter green, knee-length cocktail dress flutter.
“Can’t believe I put on a fucking dress for this,” she grumbled, glaring expectantly down the quiet street, lined with mansions all the way down, rising into the night sky like a pop-up book, realizing that she’d fooled herself.
She would never belong here.
The door of the house opened behind her, and with a gasp, her eyes flew over her shoulder. Another gasp, from deeper this time, followed right on its heels at the sight of Gage stepping out of the tall, beveled glass doors of his family’s palatial home.
At the sight of her, he visibly exhaled, his eyes growing ripe with relief before he barreled down the steps as if he were following an invisible line that led straight to her.
“Jesus Christ, Veda…” He cupped her cheeks in his hands the moment he was close enough, pulling her in until the tip of her nose was brushing the buttons of his shirt. He pulled back with a sigh and looked down into her eyes. “When I walked into the dining room, and you weren’t there, my heart hit the floor.”
“I—I called an Uber.” Her stunned eyes danced across his face. “When you followed your mother out of the dining room, I thought…”
He leaned forward and sealed a passionate kiss on her lips, moaning at her immediate return of the affection and the soft sweep of her tongue. His own slipped from his lips and danced with hers.
Veda’s eyes remained closed when he pulled away. “Gage, I’d never ask you to choose me over them.”
“Good. Because I’d hate for you to waste your breath on such a ridiculous question with such an obvious answer. It’s not even a question, Veda.”
She lifted her eyes to his and felt them filling with tears. “I shouldn’t have attacked your mother that way. I lost my cool. Now she’ll never accept me. I’m so sorry.”
“They were never going to accept you.” He let his fingers disappear into her curls. “I knew that, deep down. I knew they’d be on the attack the moment they opened that door, and I still brought you here anyway. I lined you up at the back of the barn, knowing you’d be staring down the barrel of three guns. Knowing they would shoot to kill.” He made a disgusted sound at himself. “Veda, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I let my need for their approval force me into bringing you here. I’d thought I’d moved past the part of me that yearns for their acceptance. But I guess it’s more deeply ingrained in me than I thought.”
“Baby, they’re your parents.” She whispered her acceptance of his apology.
“God, they’re terrible people. How haven’t I seen it? All these years?”
Veda had half a mind to tell him he had no idea how terrible they actually were, at least according to the little evidence she’d gathered on their cruise business. Since she couldn’t say that, she repeated her earlier words, just to drive home that she didn’t blame him. “They’re your parents.”
“I’m sorry I put you in the line of fire, knowing they’d rather be dead than stop shooting. I’ll never ask you to do it again.”
“Gage, can this really work?” Her eyes burned the moment she asked the question. Clearly her body wasn’t ready to accept even the remotest possibility that it couldn’t. “I can’t ask you to choose me over your family.”
“You don’t have to because there’s no contest.” He stepped closer, tucking his nose next to hers.
Both their eyes fluttered shut.
His voice fell to a whisper. “Veda, it’s you and me. You are my life now. You’re a part of me. You’re in my guts. You’re all the way down to the marrow of my bones, baby…” His lips warmed her cheek.
Veda whimpered at their softness. Their everlasting light. Her heart swelled for more.
The softness of his lips and the warmth of his breath moved to her ear as he encircled her shoulders in the comfort of his arms, snuggling her close. “You’re my family now. We’ll have our own children and start our own bloodline. Our own legacy. To hell with them. We’ll prove how far the Blackwater name can really travel when there’s nothing but unconditional love to fill its sails. Not business arrangements, deviousness, control, or hatred.”
She slipped her arms inside his jacket a
nd encircled him in a tight hug, her breath warming his button-down shirt as she breathed him in.
A heavy swallow moved down his throat and into his chest, making her cheek rumble from where she’d pressed it into his pecs.
“I’ll probably lose my job,” he said.
She squeezed him harder, slamming her eyes shut.
“My trust fund. They’ll take everything. But we can still float. I still have my savings from my time as CEO.” Gage took a deep breath, voice laced with the slight distraction of his busy mind. “I’ll still have my home. It’s paid off. It’s in my name. It’s four bedrooms, so we could raise a family there, comfortably. Being on the unemployment line will give me ample time to start chasing my own dreams instead of my father’s.”
Veda pulled her head back and looked up at him with amazed eyes. “What are your dreams?”
He exhaled a breathy laugh. “I don’t know. I haven’t spent much time thinking about it. Too busy making sure all his came true. Hell, I didn’t even know I was capable of having dreams until I met you. Veda, I can’t wait to learn what they are, now that I know I can have them.” He squeezed her, shaking her playfully. “Now that I’ve already realized one of the biggest.”
“I can’t believe you.” She had half a mind to poke him.
Was he real?
Furthermore, if he was, could she really allow him to lose everything for her? Could she allow another person to suffer on her behalf? It was bad enough that she’d dragged Jake and Luke, two innocents, into her madness.
Could she really allow Gage to get dragged in, too?
She sputtered as she searched his eyes. Was it selfish to love him? Selfish to stay?
As she drank in his face, a face that never looked more angelic to her than it did right then, she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Luke’s words really had been right. Even though he hadn’t known he was speaking about her, the word he’d used had never left her mind. It had woken her in the middle of the night. The idea that maybe…
Maybe…
Maybe she really was a predator.
Tingle (Revenge Book 2) Page 17