“I just,” she paused and looked around but didn’t quite meet anyone’s eye. “I need a few minutes,” she said, slipping her hand from Ian’s and heading toward their bedroom.
Carly made to follow her but Drew’s hand tightened on hers and held her back. “Ian, why don’t I take care of slicing the steaks?” he asked.
Ian glanced around at everyone staring at him before meeting Drew’s gaze. “Thank you, that would be great,” he said, then followed Vivi out of the room.
“Brian, maybe you can help get everything else set out?” Drew suggested as he made his way toward the platter.
“Of course,” Brian responded. “Naomi, do you have Jeffery?”
Naomi cast a concerned look in the direction of Vivi and Ian’s bedroom, but she nodded and moved into the living room with the toddler to take a seat.
Following Drew into the kitchen, Carly watched him cut a few slices as she pondered what had happened.
“Did you know?” he asked.
“That Vic was gay? No,” she answered with a shake of her head. “He hid it well.”
“That must have been difficult for him,” he said, cutting another slice. “Was he as awful as he said?”
She popped a small scrap into her mouth and nodded. “Yes. He was terrible to Ian,” she said once she’d swallowed. “It was one of those things I never understood. He did dump a lot of work on me, but he was pleasant. I always knew that, if I needed him, he’d back me up. At first, he was a bit gruff with Marcus too, but since the accident, he’s been nothing but understanding about the time Marcus has needed to recover. Which is why it seemed so strange how awful he was to Ian.”
Drew finished slicing the first steak and moved it to the side as he started on the second. “Sometimes what motivates people, what drives them to act one way or another, is something the rest of us will never know.”
“And sometimes, we find out,” she finished his thought.
“Not that it excuses the behavior,” he added.
“But it does explain it,” she countered. She could only imagine the frustration and anger and pain Vic must have felt, struggling on his own. She agreed with Drew that Vic’s situation didn’t excuse his behavior, but she couldn’t help feeling some empathy for his struggle.
“Do you think Vivi and Ian will join us?” he asked.
“Eventually. It must have been a shock to her, but she’ll rally. At least for tonight. I imagine it will take her a little longer to fully process what’s happened.”
“Why’s that? I mean, I know she and Lucas are good friends—didn’t she know he was gay?”
Drew already felt like such a part of the community to Carly, it hadn’t dawned on her that he didn’t already know Vivi and Lucas’s story. As he finished with the second steak, she told him that Vivi’s brother, Jeffery DeMarco, and Lucas had been partners but, because Jeffery had been in the military when the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy was still in place, they’d had had to keep it fairly quiet. When Jeffery was killed, Lucas had relied heavily on Vivi, since she was one of the only people with whom he could mourn his loss openly. Naomi and Brian had known, as had Lucas’s parents, but he and Vivi had been the two who’d felt the loss most acutely.
“It must have been hard on Lucas, then—to fall in love with yet another man who felt he had to keep the relationship a secret,” Drew suggested.
So caught up in how Vic must be feeling, Carly hadn’t thought about the situation from Lucas’s point of view, but what Drew had said made sense. And it would explain the several instances when she’d seen Lucas storm out of the police station. He’d told her that he and Vic had argued over some police procedure or another. But after what Lucas had gone through losing Jeffery, she could understand why he’d feel conflicted about entering into another relationship that was essentially clandestine.
“How’s the steak coming?” Brian asked, halting further conversation.
“It’s ready,” Drew said, sliding the platter over to him.
Brian took it and placed it with the rest of the food that had been set out on the countertop. Then, slowly at first, the guests started approaching the buffet. As they settled themselves with food and drinks, conversation flowed again. No one had forgotten what had happened, but everyone seemed focused on bringing the conversation back to the gathering’s original purpose—to exchange updates on Repetto. When Vivi and Ian joined them a few minutes later, no one, including Jeffery, who toddled over to his dad with Rooster on his heels, skipped a beat.
The first topic—the bullet—was covered quickly. So far, it hadn’t yielded any additional leads, and Sam and Daniel were still trying to track down how the gun had moved from DC to LA, then to Washington State. They believed that, by tracking its movements, they would be able to identify who in DC had owned it at the time of the killings. Carly had been hoping for more information from them, but it was a tedious process and she was grateful they were sticking with it.
As for Jason Moran, Brian’s investigation into him had given them all some breathing room. Based on the utility readings on the boat where Moran was stashed—which were indicating that Moran’s computers were in passive mode rather than active—the twins had been able to confirm that Moran wasn’t actively seeking out people searching for information on the killings, but rather sitting back and keeping an eye on the traps, trip wires, and other monitors he had put in place. Which meant that, as long as they didn’t trigger any of his alarms, Naomi and Brian had more freedom to dig into things, like Sophia Davidson’s old e-mails and Repetto’s financials, which the twins agreed were now their priority.
After Carly provided both her mother’s business and her personal e-mail information to Naomi, Vivi spoke up for the first time. “This is all very interesting and important, but I have to say, I think what Drew found out from talking to Ken Weston is the most interesting of all.”
All eyes turned to Drew.
Carly knew he’d been to Ken Weston’s office and that the man himself hadn’t been there, but she was surprised to hear that Drew had caught up with Weston in the forty minutes between her last conversation with him and her arrival at Vivi and Ian’s.
Drew, who’d finished his meal, placed his empty plate on the coffee table and sat forward, propping his elbows on his thighs. Looking at her, he said, “He called me just before I got here,” which let her know that he hadn’t withheld anything. “And let’s just say I’m glad Marcus is on his way down to Florida tonight, because Ken did in fact load information onto a microchip for Sophia a few days before she was killed. He doesn’t know what the information was, but he did it.”
“He didn’t ask any questions of Sophia?” Vivi asked.
Drew smiled. “He had a bit of a crush on her. She was nearly old enough to be his mother, but apparently, age didn’t matter to him. He was young and wanted to impress her, so he was more interested in getting it done in a fast, flashy way than in asking what it was she wanted put on the chip or her reasons for doing it.”
“But this wasn’t in any of the reports,” Daniel said, setting his plate down and leaning back in his seat as he rolled his wineglass between his fingers. “Did he not talk to the FBI after she was killed?”
“He did,” Drew replied. “And though he didn’t remember the name of the agent he spoke to, the man he described sounded like Repetto.”
“So Repetto knew there was a chip, likely with information on it, but he didn’t know where it was,” Joe said.
“And because he didn’t know the horse world, he probably didn’t know it was common practice to chip horses,” Carly added.
“And since he didn’t know that, the most logical conclusion for him to have come to would have been that she gave it to you and Marcus when you left for LA,” Drew finished.
“Which would explain why he seems so hell bent on the idea that we have information. And why he’s coming after us after all these years.” Carly sat back in her chair and took a sip of wine before she spo
ke again. “But it’s been almost fifteen years, wouldn’t he think that if we had it we would have turned it over by now?”
“My guess is he thinks you have it, but that it’s incredibly easy to hide, especially given the size of the chip,” Vivi said, setting her own plate down as Jeffery crawled into her lap. “He probably thinks you don’t even know you have it. If Marguerite had told him where you were, or if he’d found out some other way, my guess is both you and Marcus would have experienced a series of serious break-ins by now.”
“Because he would have come looking for it,” Carly said quietly. She wondered what would have happened if Marguerite had given in and told Repetto where she and Marcus lived. Would he have let Marguerite live? Would the worst that would have happened been only break-ins?
“He would have killed her anyway,” Drew said from beside her.
She turned to find his watchful eyes on her.
“He couldn’t let her live after doing what he’d done to her, so she would have died either way,” he continued. “I have no doubt that she knew that, too. And I also have no doubt that she knew if he found you, he wouldn’t have stopped with break-ins. When he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he would have gotten desperate. Eventually, he would have come after you and Marcus. She knew that.”
The truth of his words settled in her mind, but all she could bring herself to do was nod. “What about Lorraine? You have people watching over her?” she asked, worried for Marguerite’s aunt.
“I do,” he replied. “It’s the same company Ty and Dani work for, but of course they aren’t on the job, since Dani couldn’t go incognito now if she tried.”
She smiled and nudged him. “Be nice. The poor woman is six-and-half-months pregnant with twins.”
“And she doesn’t let any of us forget it,” he said with his own answering smile.
“So, Marcus lands tonight?” Daniel asked.
“Yes,” Joe answered. “He does. He and Trudy have an appointment with the current owners of Seraphina tomorrow morning. With any luck, he’ll be back tomorrow night.”
“By tomorrow night, we could have all the information we need to bring Repetto in,” Drew said, rising from his seat and collecting dishes.
“Assuming the chip has the information and isn’t too degraded, it shouldn’t take too long to pull the data,” Brian said as he rose to help.
Drew held his hand out, reaching for Carly’s plate. As she handed it to him, she asked, “Does Marcus know any of this?”
“About Ken Weston and the chip? Yes,” he said, looking at his watch. “I e-mailed him the details. If he didn’t get it while in flight, he’ll have it when he lands in five minutes. “
Carly glanced outside. With all the people in the house, it was the only quiet place to talk. Her eyes darted back to Drew, who was watching her, though still collecting dishes. “Do you mind?” she asked with a gesture of her head to the darkness outside. He’d know what she was asking.
“Of course not,” he said, waving her out. “I’ll get these. Go call your brother.”
She smiled then leaned in and brushed a kiss across his cheek. It was the first public display of affection she’d shown him and, for a moment, Drew looked stunned. Which, combined with the excitement of what they might learn in the next twenty-four hours, made her laugh.
“It’s not a secret, you know,” she said as she started to move away.
“What’s not?” he asked, turning to watch her go, his hands loaded with plates.
“That you kind of like me,” she said, with a teasing grin.
Drew gave her a reproving look, one that looked more for show than anything else. “Yes, well, I should think it’s also no longer a secret that you feel the same way about me.”
She wondered how she could have ever thought him aloof and distant. When she looked at him now, she saw everything she needed to in his eyes: how much he cared—about her, about her brother, about doing the right thing. No, she’d been wrong about him. And she was very, very happy about that.
“I should think not.” She gave him a coy wink, then turned to go call her brother.
Chapter Twenty-One
Drew watched Carly walk away, a stupid grin tugging at his lips. He hadn’t ever seen that playful look in her eye. He knew it was mostly because they were close to getting some answers, close to bringing some closure to what had happened to her family fifteen years earlier. All the same, he liked it. He liked seeing her genuine smile, he liked seeing that extra little sway in her hips as she walked away, and he liked that she now seemed comfortable enough with him to show casual affection in front of her friends.
Suddenly reminded of the presence of those friends, he turned back to the room. Most of them were busy clearing dishes or wrapping up leftovers, though he didn’t miss the speculative look Vivi cast him. But then Ian came over and said something to her and she handed her husband the dish she’d been wrapping up, said something in return, and headed out the back door.
Vivi had participated in the conversation that evening, but he hadn’t missed the distant look in her eyes. He thought about what Carly had told him about Vivi’s brother and Lucas, and despite his understanding of just how much courage Vic had needed to do what he had done, and the fact that he wished nothing but the best for the two men, Drew also understood Vivi’s heartache.
He walked through the kitchen, placed the plates he’d been carrying on the counter, and continued outside to find Vivi sitting by the fire pit. The cold night air wrapped around them, but she hadn’t brought a jacket and sat hunched over her knees trying to stay warm. Thankfully, he’d grabbed one off a hook by the door on his way through the mud room so he draped it over her shoulders before taking a seat beside her. Looking back at the house for a moment, he saw Ian watching them through the window, but Vivi’s husband didn’t come out.
“Did you meet Dani Fuller during Garret and Kit’s party?” he asked.
She turned and gave him a questioning look, “Yes.”
“Her parents were killed when she was thirteen,” he said.
“There seems to be a lot of that around,” Vivi responded.
“She saw it happen,” he added.
He heard Vivi suck in a quick breath.
“They were shot, execution style, in their own home,” he added softly, thinking back to the couple he’d known since the day he’d been born. He leaned forward, continuing as he rested his forearms on his thighs and stared down at the slate patio stones. “Dani went into some kind of shock after that. For years,” he added. “She ate and functioned, but she didn’t really function, if you know what I mean?”
The question didn’t need an answer, but Vivi nodded.
“A few years after it happened, I couldn’t take it anymore. She and her sister had come to live with my parents, who were their guardians, and I watched her waste away. I was at college by then, but one day we went for a walk and I promised her that if she got healthy, I would do everything in my power to help her find the man who had killed her parents. She believed me, thank god, and that day, she told me what happened, everything she’d witnessed.”
“How could you promise such a thing?”
Drew lifted a shoulder. “The bravado of a twenty-year-old? I don’t know, but I knew I had to do something to get her back from wherever she’d gone. And it worked. I knew I was going into the CIA by that point, so she and I worked on getting her strong. I came home from school most weekends to check on her and eventually started to train her. She got stronger and followed me into the agency in the end.
“I brought her onto my team and we stayed together until the day she left. I supervised her training, her missions, her career. Everything about her.”
“That’s quite a commitment,” Vivi commented as she pulled the jacket tighter around herself.
Again, he shrugged. “By then it was second nature. I don’t think either of us thought about it much.” He paused and followed the line of one of the stones with his ga
ze before speaking again. “But then things changed. We finally got a lead on the man who’d killed her parents. Twenty years had passed and we finally had a lead.”
“What did you do?”
He looked up at the question and offered Vivi a small smile. “We followed it, of course,” he said, looking away. “And in doing so, Dani met Ty, her future husband.”
“But did you ever catch the man?”
“We did, but while we were doing that, Dani and Ty were falling in love.”
“And that was a bad thing?”
“Not for her, it wasn’t. But for me, it was,” he paused, thinking back on that time. “For me it was about as close to devastating as it could be. Of course, I didn’t recognize it at the time. At the time, I, well, I wasn’t very nice. To either of them,” he added. “I said some things, mostly to Dani, that I wish I hadn’t. But somehow I couldn’t stop myself.”
Vivi kicked at a pebble on the flagstone. “Why’s that?”
Drew rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “With the benefit of time and some very uncomfortable introspection, I came to realize that I needed Dani to rely on me as much as she had needed me to rely on. Only she was changing and I wasn’t. And I wasn’t ready for that, because if she didn’t need me anymore, I wasn’t sure what good I was to her or what kind of role I would play in her life.”
“You were afraid you’d have no role in her life,” Vivi clarified.
“That was part of it.”
“And you’re telling me this because you think I may be feeling the same way about Lucas?”
“That’s part of it,” he repeated. “But the other part of it was that, if I didn’t have her to focus my energies on, I knew I would have to start thinking about myself—what I wanted from my life, what I wanted from my career . . . It was much easier to ask her the hard questions than to ask myself.”
He paused, waiting for Vivi to respond.
After a few moments, she turned her head toward him and spoke. “You don’t think I’m over the loss of my brother, do you?”
An Inarticulate Sea Page 30