Wolfe shook his head and turned to his desk.
It was barren. Empty. Soulless.
Just the way he liked it.
Should he even tell them?
Everything would be easier if people just acted on logic and facts. Not feelings.
It worked for him.
He sent off a text to Caleb and Aleki as he conducted a search for Genevieve. Several images of her popped up immediately. He hated the surge of lust he felt as he studied her, the way his body started to burn.
She didn’t deserve his interest. She wasn’t even worth a fuck.
Yeah, who you kidding?
The door to the office opened and Aleki walked in, bouncing a basketball. Caleb closed the door behind them.
“Wolfie, what’s up? I was off to go beat some princely butt,” Aleki said.
Wolfe raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t Tavi beat you last time?”
Aleki pointed a finger at him. “Fucker cheated. Don’t think I don’t know that he did.” Aleki jumped up on the corner of Wolfe’s desk.
“No, he outplayed you,” Wolfe countered. “And get off my damn desk. Jesus.”
Aleki grinned and jumped off. Wolfe reached into a drawer for a disinfectant wipe.
“What’s going on?” Caleb asked, glancing around the monitors on the wall. Aleki and Wolfe had set this entire system up themselves to help guard the huge palace and grounds.
“Something has come to my attention, I thought you might like to know.” He looked from Caleb to Aleki.
Caleb narrowed his gaze. “What is it? Never known you to be reluctant to talk about something.”
“Yeah, even when you really should be,” Aleki said. “Like that time you got food poisoning and—”
Caleb held up a hand. “Okay, I don’t think we need to relive that particular incident.”
“Not my fault you’re squeamish,” Wolfe commented.
“Dude, that sort of thing is not something you share with your friends,” Aleki complained. “What comes out of you is your own private business.”
“If I fell unconscious, I thought you might need to explain to the doctor what was going on.”
“Yeah, I’d have told him you were exploding out of both ends. No need for anything more—”
“Enough,” Caleb said in a louder voice. He gave them both a stern look. “Sometimes it feels like I’m a kindergarten teacher. Wolfe, what is going on?”
“It’s about Genevieve.”
Caleb immediately straightened, narrowing his gaze while Aleki froze. “Vivi? What about her?”
“Her husband was found dead this morning.”
“Dead? What? Murdered?” Aleki asked.
Wolfe shrugged. “Don’t know yet. Cops aren’t saying.”
Caleb frowned. “What about Vivi? Have they said anything about her?”
“Not a word.”
“Hell,” Caleb muttered.
“So why’d you tell us?” Aleki asked in a bored voice.
Yeah, he didn’t fool Wolfe. He could see the tense way Aleki held himself. He cared.
“Thought you’d be mad if I didn’t. It’s not like I care what happens to her. Not after what she did.”
Caleb frowned at him. “Wolfe, we were kids.”
“She abandoned Aleki.” Us. He couldn’t say it, but it’s what he was thinking.
Caleb shot a look at Aleki, as though expecting him to say something. But he was silent, staring at the screen.
“She didn’t abandon Aleki. She broke up with him. She was offered a place at Yale and we were going into BUD/s training. She didn’t think a relationship would work long distance.”
“It could have worked,” Wolfe stated stubbornly. “We would have made it work.”
“It was their relationship. We weren’t part of it.”
“Yes. We were. When she left him. She left all of us. Aleki was devastated. She was the love of his life.”
“She wasn’t the love of my life.” Aleki frowned.
“You said she was. You drank every night for three weeks. You hardly spoke for days. You didn’t even smile.”
Aleki shrugged.
“You’ve barely even looked at another woman since.”
“You can talk,” Aleki muttered darkly.
Wolfe shrugged. “I have little interest in women.”
If he needed release, he had a hand. A hand didn’t want to talk about his feelings. A hand didn’t require him to be there for it emotionally. A hand didn’t want cuddles.
He didn’t do cuddles.
All right. That wasn’t quite true. On occasion, he’d embraced Caleb’s close friend, Arianna. She was the only person he considered to be his family other than the two men in this room. But those embraces were brief. A greeting. A goodbye. They weren’t cuddling. They weren’t intimate. They weren’t about comfort or love or any of those softer emotions that made him feel ill.
“It was eight years ago. We were all young. We can’t hold a grudge against her after all this time,” Caleb said sensibly. “Right?”
He looked at Wolfe who stubbornly glared back. He didn’t see it that way at all. She was theirs. She left them. She shouldn’t just be forgiven.
“Her leaving affected you too,” Wolfe pointed out.
Caleb nodded. “She was my friend. Of course it did. I miss her. I loved her. But we can’t stay angry at her.”
“I never loved her.”
Caleb snorted. “Of course not. You don’t believe in love.”
No, love was something people said. But they had no concept of loyalty. Of sticking by family no matter what. Genevieve had said she loved Aleki.
Then she’d left.
“What are we going to do about this?” Caleb waved his hand at the screen.
Aleki raised his eyebrows. “We don’t do anything. Vivi doesn’t need us. She never did.”
“That’s not true,” Caleb insisted.
“How would you know?” Aleki asked him, crossing his arms over his chest.
Caleb sighed. “I talked to her a few times after the two of you broke up.”
“Why? Were you hoping to get in there? Her father would have approved of you dating her. White and rich. Not a poor, brown-skinned kid.”
“Shit, Aleki. That wasn’t it at all.” Caleb looked shocked at his words.
“Maybe she wouldn’t have left if we’d shared her back then,” Wolfe mused.
“What?” Aleki snapped.
“Then she’d have had Caleb to take home to her father for approval.”
Aleki groaned, running his hand over his face. “Wolfe, I wasn’t gonna be her dirty little secret. Hiding in the background, while Caleb was taken home to Daddy and paraded around.”
“Like I would want that anyway,” Caleb said.
“I don’t care about being the dirty secret. No woman who’ll take on all three of us will want to take me home to her parents. Or probably be seen with me in public. I’ve always known I’ll be in the background.”
Both men gaped at him.
“That’s not the way it will work when we find our woman,” Caleb told him.
“Why not?” Wolfe asked.
“Because you deserve better than that, Wolfie,” Aleki said with sad eyes. “You deserve a woman who wants all of you. Who is proud to be with you.”
“We’ll never find a woman like that.” He’d once thought Genevieve . . . but no.
“We will,” Caleb told him firmly. “We’re not settling for less. I could try to email her, but I’d rather call her. Aleki, could you find her phone number?”
Aleki shrugged. “If I wanted to.”
Caleb sighed. “Come on, guys. All I want to do is make sure she’s all right.”
“I have a basketball game to get to.” Aleki stood up and slammed his way out the door.
“Shit.” Caleb ran his hand over his face.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” Wolfe mused.
“No.” Caleb shook his head. “I’m going t
o email her. I need to make sure she’s all right.”
2
Where was he?
Vivi paced back and forth in the dark, underground parking lot.
William was dead.
Her breath grew choppy. It could have been a heart attack. But if it wasn’t a heart attack . . . well, she could be next.
Grasping hold of her locket, she breathed in and out slowly.
She’d had the taxi meet her a few blocks away from her house. Thankfully, the driver hadn’t paid her much attention. She’d need to take another taxi to the airport as soon as she’d done this.
Chewing on her lip, she paced back and forth. Damn it. He wasn’t going to show. Tears welled in her eyes as she searched through her handbag for her phone.
A car screeched around the corner, making her drop her bag in fright. Cursing, she stared at the dark car.
Her heart raced. Something was wrong.
Someone climbed out. They were dressed all in black and wore a balaclava over their face.
And they were holding a gun.
Run!
She left her bag and took off, darting around a car for cover. There was the sound of footsteps. They were following her.
The exit. She needed to make it to the exit. Ducking, she dove around another car and raced towards the door. She heard the car gunning it, speeding towards her. She weaved, not wanting to make herself an easy target. There was the sound of something smashing. A car alarm went off. Pain flared in her arm and she cried out, nearly falling.
Had they shot her?
“Hey! What the fuck is going on here? What are you doing? Oh, fuck! You’ve got a gun!”
She took the opportunity to dive through the door.
Sobbing, she could barely see as she tried to race up the stairs. She slipped, her ankle giving way beneath her. Sharp pain stabbed her, but she couldn’t afford to slow down.
No. No. No.
She forced herself to move past the pain as she heard the door open below her. She flew up the stairs and out into the street above. Thankfully, there were plenty of people up here. A few gave her weird looks. She knew she probably appeared to be half-crazed, tears racing down her face, heaving for breath, limping.
Pulling up the hoodie, she moved with the crowd, praying she was now safe from the shooter. As to what she was going to do now, she had no idea. She had no money. No phone. No flash drive.
She was alone and out of options.
3
“I’m going to San Francisco to find her.”
Aleki rubbed his hand over his face at Caleb’s words.
Fuck, he was tired. He’d barely slept these past three nights. Nightmares plagued him every time he closed his eyes. Vivi calling for him. Begging for his help.
But she didn’t need his help. Sure, her husband had died. However, she wasn’t alone. She had her father. She probably had lots of friends.
Eight years ago, she’d made it clear that she didn’t need him. So why would he fly halfway around the world to check on her now?
But Caleb couldn’t just let it go. He was protective. Almost as much as Wolfe. The difference was that Wolfe was protective of only a few people while Caleb would look out for the whole world if he could.
Aleki might be quick to smile, to laugh, but he didn’t have the heart that Caleb did. Or he would have been able to forgive and forget, right?
She’d walked away. She’d left him.
He didn’t owe her anything.
“Why? It’s been years since you’ve seen her. What makes you think she needs you?” he asked Caleb.
“Because my gut says something is wrong. She hasn’t been seen since his death was announced. She hasn’t replied to my emails.”
“She’s likely holed up somewhere,” Aleki told him. “You know what the press is like, she’ll be keeping a low profile.”
“She could be in trouble,” Caleb said.
“Or she could be fine,” Wolfe pointed out.
Caleb frowned. “I have a bad feeling. I’ve talked to Kassim, I’m taking their jet.”
“And who is going to do your job while you’re gone?” Aleki snapped.
Caleb pinned him with a look. “You know the two of you can keep things going here. Not to mention that you have Beta team to back you up.”
“You don’t want us to come?” Wolfe asked.
Caleb raised his eyebrows. “With how you both feel about Vivi, I figured you wouldn’t want to come.”
How he felt about her? How did he feel about her? That was the problem, wasn’t it? It might have been eight years, but it seemed that his heart didn’t understand time.
His body didn’t understand that he shouldn’t want her. Glancing away, Aleki closed his eyes and let out a breath.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go on your own,” Wolfe said. “What if something happens to you?”
“Nothing will happen to me,” Caleb reassured him.
Wolfe could worry himself into an ulcer if left unchecked. They’d gotten used to heading him off before he went on a protective bender.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll keep in contact every day. I’ll probably be gone four, maybe five, days at the most.”
“I don’t like it,” Wolfe said mulishly. “We do things together, remember?”
The three of them shared everything. A house. Finances. And when they found someone who fit them all, they planned to share their woman. It was an agreement they’d come to after coming to Escana and seeing how well it worked here.
Wolfe was right, they wouldn’t let Caleb go alone. They stuck together.
“What if she’s not in San Francisco?” he asked. “She could be anywhere.”
“Oh, she’s in San Francisco,” Wolfe said, his focus on his computer.
“How do you know that?” Aleki asked him.
“She still wears the locket you gave her for her twenty-first birthday.”
Why would she still be wearing that?
“She does? Wait. What does that have to do with anything? And how do you know she still wears it?” he asked.
“She’s wearing it in almost every photo I’ve seen of her,” Wolfe told them. “And I know where she is because I put a tracking device in it.”
“You did what? Why?” Aleki asked
Wolfe shrugged. “She was important to you. I turned it off after she left, wasn’t sure it would still work. Signal goes in and out. Can’t tell you anything more other than she’s in San Francisco. Hoping it will get better when we’re closer to her.”
Fuck it.
“Fine. When the fuck do we leave?” he snapped.
* * *
Keep moving, Vivi.
Get up, baby girl.
Don’t sit there, Genevieve. It’s filthy and you’ll get some nasty disease and die.
Her dry, cracked lips formed a smile at the last thought. That was exactly something Wolfe would say.
If only she had the energy to keep going. She hadn’t eaten in days. She’d found a dollar in her backpack, which she’d thankfully been wearing when that asshole chased and shot at her, and she’d used it to buy a chocolate bar. Best damn chocolate she’d ever eaten. But it was gone now too. She’d been getting water from public restrooms, but today when she’d tried to move, her legs just wouldn’t hold her.
She was not going to die in this alley. Alone. Filthy. Starving. A sob broke out of her mouth.
Stop it, Vivi. You can do this.
Baby, just hold on.
Do not cry. You don’t have the fluids to spare.
She huffed out a laugh. Even after eight years apart it was still the three of them that she thought of. Had she made no other friends? Did she have no one else she could rely on?
No.
There was Uncle Ben. But getting in touch with him meant risking that he’d tell her father where she was. Plus, she didn’t want to put him in any danger. Whoever shot her was likely still trying to find her.
She couldn’t figure ou
t how they’d known where she was. Where had William’s contact gotten to? Had that been the man who’d turned up while she was running? What had happened to him?
She was screwed.
So now she was hiding behind a dumpster in an alleyway. She had nothing. Her handbag was back in that basement where she’d dropped it. She’d thought about going back to see if it was still there, but she was worried that someone would be waiting for her.
She’d cleaned her injured arm as best she could. Thankfully, the bullet had just grazed her. The injury wasn’t pretty, and she figured it probably needed stitches.
Maybe she should have gone to the police. But how did she know who to trust? William had told her that her father had plenty of cops in his pocket. She didn’t know how, but she believed him.
She shivered. It was cold in the alley and yet her skin was coated in sweat. Her vision was blurry, her breathing labored.
Opening the backpack, she pulled out Piggles. The stuffed pig had seen better days, but she buried her face in the soft fluff. Piggles was the last thing her mama had given her. He’d always been her favorite toy. She started to sing. Making up silly rhymes was something she did when she was scared.
“Piggles, we’re on our own. Piggles, we’re all alone. Piggles, I’m scared, are you? Piggles, what are we going to do?”
Her arm had stopped throbbing. She wasn’t sure that was a good sign or if it was her body shutting down. It wasn’t like she was in the best health to begin with. Over the past couple of years, she’d lost so much weight that she barely recognized herself when she looked in the mirror.
She was a stranger.
The last time she’d taken a look at her ankle it was nearly three times its normal size. She’d had to remove her sneaker and then she’d been unable to put it back on. So now she had one sneaker on. She had her only spare T-shirt wrapped around her injured arm.
Resting her head back against the wall, she closed her eyes. Soon. Soon, it would be over. And she wouldn’t have to worry anymore.
Her only regret was not seeing them one last time. She just wanted to say she was sorry. Grabbing the locket out from under her shirt, she just held it. It was too dark back here to see the photo inside.
Ruled by her Daddies Page 2