Chapter 17
Chapter seventeen
Darwin breathed a sigh of relief when he knocked on the door of Khloe’s suite and Katrina opened it. After leaving the gun range, he’d stopped by his room to change into his suit for the wedding, and then rushed up here.
In the bedroom, he could hear Khloe and her mother talking about her veil, but their voices faded into the background as he gazed at Katrina.
He wasn’t sure how it was possible, but the lavender dress she wore managed to be sexy and demure at the same time.
Her make-up and half-up, half down hairstyle were fancier than she usually did them, too.
It was all he could do not to sweep her up in his arms and carry her up to his room.
If they didn’t have a wedding to attend and a dangerous arms dealer incoming, he would have done just that.
“You look...”
Beautiful.
Enchanting.
Stunning.
“Gorgeous.”
She smiled. “You, too.”
Then she launched herself into his arms, wrapping hers around him and hugging the stuffing out of him. He was hugging her just as tightly in return when her hand brushed the gun holstered under his jacket.
Katrina pulled away to search his face, her eyes worried. “Is everything okay? Kyla called and told me about Chapman.”
“I need to find your father and brother before it’s too late,” he said.
“I already talked to Dad and tried to get him to see how dangerous Chapman is, but he wouldn’t listen. He thinks he can talk his way out of everything, even when dealing with a cold-blooded killer.”
Darwin opened his mouth to tell Katrina about the Genesis drone being stolen, but her sister and mother chose that particular moment to walk out of the bedroom and into the living area, both of them already dressed for the wedding.
“Katrina?” Grace asked, fear in her voice. “Who is Chapman and how is your father involved with him?”
Darwin had assumed Katrina would have at least told her sister what was going on, but obviously not. Khloe looked as stunned as their mother.
Katrina looked at Darwin, asking with her eyes how much she could share.
“Tell them everything you think they need to know,” he said. “But make it quick. We don’t have a lot of time to mess around.”
She nodded, turning back to her mother and sister.
“Dad’s investment consortium provided funding to a Navy weapon project, but someone in the group got greedy and decided to offer the weapon to an international arms dealer.
The two men who were murdered in the vineyard?
That was him, sending a message to Dad.”
Grace shook her head even as her legs started giving out.
Katrina raced over to help Khloe guide their mother over to the couch, each of them taking a seat on either side of her.
Darwin stood off to the side while Katrina filled in all the blanks about what had been going on that week, making sure her mother knew how bad this whole mess was.
“As bad as all that sounds, the situation is actually worse now,” Darwin added.
“The reason that I was able to come back from the island so quickly is because the weapon was stolen last night. We have no idea where the hell it is, but with Chapman hanging around, it’s likely there’s something else he needs that Jameson has.
Which is why we need to find him before Chapman does. ”
“He had a meeting planned with Rhett in the conference room above the pressing shed,” Grace said, looking at Darwin in alarm.
“I don’t know what they were going to talk about, but I’ve been texting him for the past half hour, reminding him to come back to the resort to get changed for the wedding.
Unfortunately, he’s been ignoring me. Knowing my husband, he might have even turned off his phone. ”
Hopefully that was all it was.
“Okay, looks like I’m heading out to the pressing shed then,” Darwin said, already turning for the door of the suite, only to stop when both Katrina and Khloe moved to follow.
“Whoa. Hold on,” he said, holding up a hand in protest. “You two can’t possibly think you’re going with me. There’s no way to tell what kind of danger I could be walking into.”
“Which is why I’m not letting you go by yourself,” Katrina said firmly before turning to her sister.
“You, on the other hand, are getting married in less than an hour, so you’re staying here with Mom and the rest of the bridal party.
Darwin and I will get Dad to listen to reason and make sure he’s back in time to walk you down the aisle. ”
Khloe looked like she wanted to argue, but all it took was one glance at the ornate clock on the wall to tell her Katrina was right.
Not to mention the fact that Khloe was wearing a gown with an immense train that dragged the floor even after being pinned up.
There was no way she was running around in that.
“Okay,” Khloe slowly said. “But you have to promise to be careful and call the moment you get Dad and Rhett safely out of this mess.”
Katrina promised she would, though Darwin wasn’t sure it was going to be that easy. But if it got them moving, he was all for it. As it was, it might already be too late.
“Where’d you get the gun?” Katrina asked softly as she hurried down the hallway beside him, moving shockingly fast considering the dress and heels.
“I stopped by the shooting range and asked to borrow it,” Darwin said, slowing to hit the button for the elevator.
“Just like that?” she asked, clearly shocked. “Hey, can I borrow a gun from you for the wedding? I promise to bring it back.”
“Pretty much.” He flashed her a grin as they stepped into the elevator. “I don’t know why you’re surprised. I’m really very likable that way.”
Before Katrina could say anything, the sound of two people running down the hallway toward them distracted her. Darwin instinctively reached for the gun at his back, only to relax when he saw it was Asher and Upton, both of them dressed in their tuxes.
“Where are you two running off to in such a hurry?” Darwin asked, reaching out to keep the elevator doors from closing.
“I could ask the two of you the same thing,” Asher said, moving into the elevator and then making way for Upton, who couldn’t seem to figure out if he was happy to see Katrina or leery to be in the same elevator as Darwin.
“We’re heading down to the pressing shed,” Katrina announced, poking urgently at the button for the lobby. “Rhett and my father are supposed to be down there. They’re not answering their phones, and we’re worried something is wrong.”
“I guess we’re going to the same place then,” Asher said. “We expected Jameson to join us in my suite an hour ago to get ready for the wedding, but he’s been a no-show. We couldn’t reach him on the phone either, so we decided to go look for him.”
“Are you worried about your father because of that dead guy they found earlier?” Upton asked softly as the elevator door opened and they all stepped into the atrium.
Darwin and Katrina gave the two men a quick synopsis of what was happening with Chapman and the missing Genesis weapon.
Even without mentioning exactly what kind of weapon they were talking about, Asher and Upton both seemed to recognize the gravity of the situation because they started walking faster.
Katrina used the family name to get them onto the first golf cart they saw when they stepped outside. Darwin drove as fast as he could on the dark, curvy lanes through the vineyard, which wasn’t very fast. It was a golf cart, after all.
“Why would your father hold a meeting out here when there are plenty of conference rooms in the resort?” Upton wondered from the back seat of the cart.
“He probably didn’t want anyone overhearing anything,” Katrina said. “Which makes sense, considering they’re probably talking about stuff that could get them put in prison.”
“Is it really that bad?” Upton asked, his voice full of dismay. “Surely, your father wouldn’t be involved in something that could hurt the family, right?”
“He would, and he is,” Katrina said. “Not because he’s stupid, but because he simply can’t imagine a world where he’s not in control of the situation, and manipulate people and events to get exactly what he wants. The fact that this may be a lose-lose scenario has never entered his mind.”
That put a damper on any further conversation, and Darwin found his attention turning to the sky around them as he drove. He didn’t want to think they had anything to worry about, but the damn weapon was missing, after all.
“What are you looking for?” Katrina asked, leaning forward a little to track where he was looking. “I’m pretty sure Dad isn’t out there in the grape fields.”
Darwin didn’t answer right away, not sure he wanted to alarm anyone, especially Katrina.
“Okay. Now, you’re really starting to scare me, Darwin,” she said.
He glanced at her. “That weapon your father and brother were funding that went missing is an assassination drone, and while I don’t expect it to show up here, if it does, we’re totally screwed.”
Katrina’s eyes went wide, and she opened her mouth to say something, but that was the exact moment they arrived at the pressing shed, and sliding to a stop in front of the building was enough of a distraction to make her forget the question in the rush to get out of the cart and inside the building.
She led the way across the first floor and all its fancy winery equipment to the steps leading upstairs.
Darwin picked up the sound of murmured voices coming from above them when they were halfway up, and he quickly moved ahead of her to open the door of the second-floor conference room before she could, not sure what they were going to find.
The room was immense, with a huge table occupying the center of it, and a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the grape-covered trellises of the vineyard.
Jameson surged to his feet, almost knocking over his chair, glowering at Darwin. “What’s the meaning of this?”