Chase (Lakefield Book 4)

by Jennifer Vester

  Disasters everywhere but no zombie apocalypse. There was also no mention on the front page about the hotel last week.

  I went to a search bar and typed in Brock’s name. There were two articles that were interesting from seven days ago.

  One had Brock’s company logo on it with him standing at a microphone with Angela.

  I growled audibly but kept reading.

  The article described the investigation into the security leaks. Maggie and Robert had been released from custody and cleared of suspicion. This didn’t surprise me too much since, at least in Maggie’s case, she seemed to be a little shady but not bright enough to pull something like that off. I didn’t know Robert and had no idea why he had also been taken in. It also listed two other people that had been released. Both of the names I recognized from the night of the party. They had been sitting at our table but I hadn’t conversed with them much.

  The next article had a statement from Brock and Aiden about the continued investigation. Colton Blackwell was quoted several times about the attempt on his life recently at the hotel and about having no involvement in corporate crime. It was fairly standard as far as statements went and there were no counter statements from Brock’s company.

  Nothing crazy for the most part.

  I typed in Colton Blackwell’s name. Tons of articles came up. Too many to read through. It was strange how I had never heard about him until Brock had mentioned him several days ago and now his name was all over the internet. I wasn’t necessarily hooked on news everyday but the likelihood of running across at least one article about him was probable and I hadn’t before. Now he seemed to be all over the place.

  I went to the search bar and typed in my full name.

  There was one article categorized under “Oddball News?” with the title of “Missing Heiress or Hoax?”

  I read through it slowly. There was a blurry picture of me from what looked like the hotel. I thought back to the camera that had swung my way when Mr. Blackwell had been giving his interview. The angle should have been very clear but the still picture was blurred. According to the article, due to technical difficulties during the interview the camera had malfunctioned but had captured a shot of a woman that resembled the missing heiress to the Wellington fortune.

  Heiress? I blinked a couple of times and ignored another beep from my phone.

  The article went on to state the time and circumstances around the disappearance. It had a picture of my parents in mugshots and stated that their bodies were recently discovered in their home five days ago. Both had been found shot in a suspected home robbery. No suspects.

  My father and mother were dead.

  I felt like I should be upset by the news. There should be some sliver of sadness somewhere in me but when I searched for it there was nothing. The article had just confirmed that they had been living and doing things in their lives without wondering too much where we were.

  The article had gone on to list their crimes, time served and recent business ventures. It also mentioned money that had been in a trust from a distant relative and had not been seized in the investigation four years ago.

  A woman claiming to be my paternal grandmother was seeking information and it listed a phone number.

  I frowned. My mother’s parents were dead, I knew that. But I had never met my other grandmother. When I was younger, I had been told that she was very ill once when I had asked about our family tree. The subject hadn’t come up again and I had never seen her. She was the mother of a son who was the worst parent in the world though so it didn’t matter either way. She couldn’t have been much of a parent to raise the son that she did.

  Oddball News. That described it accurately enough.

  I looked up her name in an internet search bar and started reading. She was a patron of the arts and outspoken community leader in St. Louis with ties to Habitat for Humanities and several world outreach programs. She had served on the city council and was a retired physician.

  There were no bad or scandalous articles about her. No nefarious ties to crime or corruption. Every article painted a perfect picture of a woman involved in programs to help people. It made absolutely no sense if I judged her against what I knew of my father.

  I sat back and grabbed my phone again. Two texts from Brock.

  Brock: I love you. I have for a while now.

  Brock: I promise I’ll tell you everything that’s happening later. Just need a little more time. Just keep an open mind with things.

  I set the phone down and hid my face in my hands. His words affected me and I felt them deeply. I didn’t think Brock of all people would say them lightly but, fuck, he had the worst possible timing.

  There were voices outside the room. Deep male voices that were arguing. Noah and Owen were probably pissed if they couldn’t find me. I heard a cell phone ring as they walked by the door and heard Noah pick up.

  “Brock, she’s not in the house,” I heard Owen say.

  I wrote down the number to call my grandmother’s hotline on the inside of my arm rather than the file folder. The folder was going to be so far up Brock’s ass by the time I finished with him that I wouldn’t want to retrieve it.

  My eyes narrowed at the door. Brock the asshole loved me. Impeccable timing. It was perfect for my life though. Oddball News. I should write a biography.

  I grabbed the folder, made my way over to the door and yanked it open.

  Noah and Owen swung their eyes to me and looked surprised. I dug the credit card out of my back pocket and tossed it on the ground.

  “Tell Perseus the game is up.”

  I walked out carrying my file, gave them both a look that halted any conversation and walked to Brock’s bedroom. Stuffing the file in a bag, I made sure my other paperwork was tucked inside. Drew and I were going to find a different life and I wasn’t sure what that looked like but we needed something away from here.

  My hands twitched as I zipped the bag up and I shook them out, trying to calm my nerves. I felt a heavy pressure in my chest that had seemed to develop in the last twenty minutes and had only gotten worse after Brock’s text.

  Love.

  When you lied to someone was it love? Had he pretended not to know about me just to get me to tell him things?

  A sob slipped out of my mouth and I covered it with one of my hands. Fresh tears hit my fingers and I squeezed my eyes shut. My parents were dead. Brock said he loved me.

  If he found that information a long time ago, he had already known the truth.

  To me it seemed like this had all been a game for him if that was true. The prize was getting me in bed and having me confess all my secrets. There was an element of extreme control in all of this that reeked of insensitivity. He found my information and wanted to what? Embarrass me? Interrogate me? Have fun making me bend to his curiosity?

  His responses to my confessions had seemed so genuine though.

  Angela? Had that been a lie too? The thought of it infuriated me.

  I wiped my tears and straightened my shoulders. I wasn’t jealous. Not one bit. My hand slid over my chest trying to ease the ache.

  I grabbed my bag and headed to the living room where I saw Noah and Owen pacing with concerned looks on their faces.

  “I want to go to Aiden and Liv’s house. I want to see my brother.”

  Noah and Owen exchanged a look.

  “If you don’t take me I’ll call the police.”

  Owen spoke first. “Andi, he loves you and even we can see it. Whatever he’s done, I’m positive he thought it was a way to protect you.”

  I huffed. “I appreciate that you feel that way about your brother. If it was my brother I would think the same thing but you don’t mess around in people’s heads like we’re all pawns on a chessboard. Even that goes too far. There was a line and he crossed it. I think he knew who I was from the beginning!”

  A tear slid down my face and I swiped it away with the back of my hand.

  “Your brother is a player a
nd had a clear end game to this all planned out. If he had told me that he loved me several days ago I would have believed him and told him the same thing. Instead, he locked me in the house and didn’t tell me a damn thing. Lies by omission hurt just the same as the blatant ones.”

  Noah growled. “I’m not sure what this is about but I’m fairly certain he found out about the same time as we did. I know for a fact that he didn’t know about the abuse, Andi. That was something that he absolutely wasn’t expecting because he was yelling about it on the phone after he heard it. The thing is, we’re dealing with this too. We’ve been worried for days about him because we saw something in the news about your parents. Did you read it?”

  I nodded.

  “I have no idea what he’s done but it doesn’t sit well with us either,” he said.

  I scrunched up my face. “Do you think he killed them?”

  Owen raised his hands. “We don’t know shit. All we know is that your face was on TV, then it wasn’t because of all the news lately. Then it ended up blurry. We know about as much as you do, but when my brother says he loves someone that isn’t normal for him and we don’t know how far he would go to express it. Hypothesizing about what he may or may not have done isn’t getting us anywhere.”

  Noah jumped in when I opened my mouth to retort. “All we know is that he said he loved you over the phone last night to both of us. He’s been acting like a man completely obsessed with your safety. He doesn’t tell us stuff like that. In fact, he doesn’t even tell us what he does half the time and I can’t remember the last time he’s even reached out to mom and apparently he called her yesterday.”

  “I’m leaving,” I said quietly. “I must love him back because otherwise this wouldn’t hurt as much as it does. He’s controlling and what he did was wrong if I’m right. The one thing you can’t control is people and the way they’re going to react. If he did shoot my parents, I don’t really care. I really don’t. That may make me sound like an awful person but I could forgive him for that. Convincing me that I could trust him is going way beyond that and I’m not sure I can forgive that. I don’t think I have it in me.”

  “Andi,” Owen said as he came over and laid a hand on my shoulder. “He’s on his way here, just hear him out.”

  I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed my grandmother’s hotline that I had written down on my arm.

  The phone gave me a prerecorded message then the voicemail.

  “Yes, this is Andromeda Renee Wellington. My parents are Claire and Roland Wellington. My brother’s name is Andrew Peter Wellington. I have a birthmark on my lower back in the shape of a heart and my social security number is—”

  Noah hissed and ran a hand through his hair.

  “— I’ll be at Aiden Latimer’s estate in Lakefield, Texas if you would be interested in meeting. Thank you.”

  I hung up and looked at Owen face. I caught the sadness in his eyes but he nodded in acceptance of what I had just done as if he knew it was the only option left to me.

  “Okay, I’ll take you over. Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I whispered. There was no turning back now.

  I turned to Noah as my phone beeped.

  “I know you don’t approve but if you truly think of me as a sister then you would do anything to help. I hate to say that because we’re not blood but think about it.”

  He gave me an annoyed look. “I’ll call Aiden.”

  I shrugged and pulled my phone out. Brock had texted.

  Brock: I love you. I love you. More than anything. Please believe me. I’m on my way, just hear me out.

  My gut clenched when I read it and fresh tears fell as I grabbed my bag and walked to the car, following Noah and Owen. Bags stowed and sitting in the backseat as we rolled out of the driveway I watched the scenery pass by. My cell was clutched in my hand.

  Noah called Aiden to let him know we were on our way.

  Good or bad I had just made a decision that would change my life. Again. Drew’s life as well and I hoped I had made the right choice for both of us.

  I looked at Brock’s last text again and sucked in a big shuddering breath. For all his faults and his idiotic mistakes, I still loved him. He needed to know what consequences looked like though. If I believed half of what the girls had told me about his shenanigans then he had yet to face the true meaning of what happened when you didn’t exercise restraint or give at least some respectful boundaries to the people’s lives you swore to protect.

  Both Noah and Owen’s phones rang several times. They didn’t answer. I knew that they would eventually but at least it wasn’t in front of me. I gave Brock an hour before he showed up at Aiden’s house. Less time if he was tracking us.

  I rubbed the arm that had been given the shot with the tracker. It was probably pointless to get it removed. He would probably find me regardless.

  We pulled up to Aiden’s house, buried in a sea of trees on his private property and I took a deep breath.

  It was now or never. I would plead my case with Aiden and see where things went.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Being surrounded by the three of the most dominant males I had ever come in contact with was nerve racking to say the least.

  The natural response I should have had was to turn right back around after seeing them in Aiden’s office. That would have been un-Andi though. Or perhaps I should have just kept my mouth shut, been brief and listened more during the first five minutes, but again, that would have been un-Andi. I was not un-Andi today. I was never going to be that person again, scared out of my mind and feeling helpless about what to do.

  It was a turning point in my mind. If I grew up at twelve, took a leap of faith and courage at eighteen, then twenty-two could be marked down on my life’s timeline as the age that I discovered that I wasn’t afraid anymore.

  Dominant males or not, I had a voice and a mind and if they didn’t want to hear either then they could leave. I wasn’t running.

  There were two folders laid out in front of Aiden. One was the folder that I had found in Brock’s study. The other was the folder containing my fake identity along with Drew’s documents.

  Holden was leaning up against the wall in the study and Logan was quietly listening from a chair beside me. Listening was not their inner strength or hidden superpower. I had to give them all the evil eye several times and threaten them with female retribution in the form of their wives.

  Eventually they listened. They listened to all of it. I felt like I had just been given truth serum and I couldn’t help but spew my entire life out on them. I told them absolutely everything. Logan remained quiet most of the time. As the husband of my best friend he was the one person who had come to know me more than the others. He was shocked though and it hurt to know that I had lied to him and Kate.

  Aiden had his arms crossed over his chest during most of the conversation. When I had started to describe my youth, his jaw had clenched and his head had shaken in disbelief.

  Holden had remained passive during most of the conversation but it wasn’t unusual. His face rarely gave away what he was thinking unless Julia was around. When I had finished with my story the only thing he had said was that he was happy my parents were dead otherwise he would have done it himself. Although a little scary, I felt like it was somewhat positive. Sort of.

  Then I started talking about Brock. A lot about Brock. Probably a little too much about Brock, although I left our liaisons between the sheets out of my tirade.

  There was some snickering at first, a snort from Holden and some chuckling all around. Then there was full out laughter when I got to the part about the last text he sent. Aiden looked like he was trying to catch his breath and Holden was doubled over. Logan had his head in his hand and just kept shaking his head.

  All three of them had looked at the files and hadn’t offered an opinion either way. They didn’t dismiss me or challenge what I said but instead took it in for what it was and accepted what I t
old them. I hadn’t seen disappointment or reproach from any of them.

  Aiden finally sighed after their laughing fit had quieted. “That’s a lot to take in, Andi. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Brock shortly. I can understand why you’re mad, but as a man once in love with a reluctant woman, I can also see why he thought it was necessary. It’s classic Brock in a way and yet it’s also something that I thought I would never see from him.”

  Holden cleared his throat and caught my attention. “Andi, as much as I would like to say give him hell, I’ve also been on the back end of this with Julia. If I had half the power in my hands as Brock does in one small portion of his brain I would have done the same thing. I’m not his biggest fan but I can’t imagine anyone else having my back as much as he does. I don’t want to get all stupid over this but I think the three of us would be in agreement that you’ve been quite a woman for a while now. Which means that I think you could hear him out and still make a rational decision. Poor Brock, it’s about time some little thing like you took him to task.”

  I smirked at him and he smirked back.

  Logan interrupted. “I’m not sure how I feel about it. In my case, the reason why Kate and I weren’t together was because of my screw up, as you know. It’s hard to admit you were wrong about something especially when you’ve been operating on the assumption that your behavior is perfectly okay. Had Kate not left I wouldn’t have learned that lesson. I believe you’re on the right track in thinking that he does need to be aware of consequences. Maybe following the path that you’re on right now will teach him something, maybe not. I hope it does though because I can see that he’s been, at the very least, interested in you for a long time now.”

  Aiden spoke, “I’ll talk to him when he comes in. I have some concerns about a few aspects of what’s happened over the last few days and he’s the only one that can answer my questions. We’ll be expecting your grandmother soon I’m sure.”

  Logan put a hand on my shoulder as he stood up. He bent down close to me and whispered, “I know a therapist if you ever want to consider some counseling. There is a lot of help out there from good people that you can talk with. Or I would be happy to listen confidentially. It’s important that you heal from it early rather than waiting. Think it over.”