Chapter 24 #2
Pieces start to fall into place. “The flowers,” I say, looking at Victor directly now. “The sabotage to my car. She would have known my favorite flowers because Sampson always bought them for me. And the PI would have figured out what car I was driving.”
Victor nods. “That’s our working theory. Owen is building the case now. Tracking financial records, piecing together movements. The timing fits.”
My mind races back over the past months. Has she been watching me this whole time?
“We don’t understand her endgame yet,” Victor says, his thumb stroking my knuckles. “Whether she just wants to scare you or…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t need to.
“Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you suspected?” My voice is barely audible.
Victor releases my hand and stands, pacing to the door and back.
“At first, it was just a theory. Owen found a few little things like the suicide note when he was running keyword searches. But we had no connection to the stalking. Then we discovered the PI, but still no concrete evidence. Only theories.” He stops in front of me, hands shoved in his pockets.
“I wanted to be sure before I brought you news about Sampson. I didn’t want to reopen old wounds without cause. ”
“And when you were sure?” I press, needing to understand his reasoning.
“I was going to tell you today.” He meets my gaze directly. “When I got back last night, Owen had an update for me. He confirmed that Kara’s been renting a place three miles from the apartment you share with Sabrina. That was the final piece we needed.”
“Did you ever plan to tell me before you had absolute proof? If I had confronted you this morning and you didn’t have proof, would you have told me?”
Victor’s eyes don’t leave mine. “I was waiting until we had concrete evidence. But I wasn’t going to lie if you asked.
” He kneels in front of me, hands resting on my knees.
“I’m telling you now because you asked. Because you deserve to be informed.
And because you’re right. I was wrong to keep it from you, even temporarily. ”
The honesty in his admission softens some of my anger. Not all of it, the hurt of being kept in the dark still stings, but enough that I can see past it to the man in front of me. The man who made a mistake trying to shield me from pain.
“Sampson.” The name is strange on my tongue. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Victor says again, and I’m comforted by the sincerity.
“And Kara…” A chill runs through me at the idea of her in Vegas, planning, watching, waiting. “What do we do now?”
“We find her.” Victor’s voice hardens slightly. “We figure out exactly what her plan is. And we stop her before she can hurt you.”
The determination in his tone should be reassuring. Instead, it reminds me how dangerous this situation is. Not just for me, but for everyone around me.
“What if she hurts someone else trying to get to me?” My heart stutters as I say the next words. “What if she hurts Lili, or you, or anyone else at the club?”
“That’s not going to happen, Mariposa.” Victor’s hands tighten on my knees. “We have security in place. We know what we’re looking for now. She’s not getting close to any of us.”
I want to believe him. Need to believe him. But the weight of knowing someone I once loved is dead, that my name was among his final thoughts, that his wife now blames me enough to hunt me down, it’s too much to process all at once.
“Was she behind the bomb in Sabrina’s car, or was that Phineas?”
“We are working under the assumption that it was Kara. Whoever texted you called you Gracie. Phineas has no real reason to know your name.”
I blow out a long breath. “I need time,” I say. “To think about all this. To understand it.”
Victor nods. “Take whatever time you need. But Grace, look at me.”
I lift my eyes to meet his, and he brushes a wayward curl out of my face. “You’re not alone in this. Not for a second.”
I reach for his hand, needing his warmth. The solid strength of his fingers around mine grounds me, and I need that right now, because everything else is so unsteady beneath my feet.
“Is there anything else?” I ask, suddenly desperate to make sure he’s telling me everything. “Anything else I should be aware of about Sampson or Kara or… anything?”
Victor hesitates. Just a fraction of a second, but I catch it and my stomach drops again.
“What?” I demand. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
Victor takes a deep breath and meets my eyes. “There is one more thing. My father made an… insinuation. About you and Griffin Price.” He watches my face closely, gauging my reaction. “He suggested that the two of you had some kind of intimate relationship in the past.”
For a second, I’m too stunned to respond. Then indignation roils through me.
“What?” I stand up so quickly that Victor has to lean back to avoid my shoulder hitting him. “That’s absurd. That’s…” I shake my head, pulse pounding with rage. “I’ve never had any kind of relationship with Griffin Price. I didn’t even know who he was until he showed up at the club.”
Victor rises and puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “I didn’t believe him, Grace. But I needed to ask you about it.”
“Why would your father even suggest such a thing?” I demand, anger morphing into confusion. “How would he have private information about me or my past?”
“My father has resources. Eyes and ears everywhere.” Victor’s voice tightens with a bitterness reserved only for his family. “He likes having information no one else has. Especially about people close to me.”
I press my hands against my face, trying to make sense of this new complication. First Sampson’s suicide, then Kara hunting me, now this bizarre accusation about Griffin Price.
Victor pulls my hands down and squeezes them.
“The night Price was in the club. Lili said that you told her he looked familiar and was making you uncomfortable. Have you figured out why he looked familiar?”
I close my eyes trying to picture his face. There was something about him, but I couldn’t place it.
“There was definitely a familiarity about him. Not exactly like I knew who he was.” I sit back down on the edge of the bed, trying to remember more, but the memories are just blurred faces and vibes instead of specifics. “More like Deja vu.”
The night at the club replays in my mind. Griffin’s arrogant stance, the coldness in his eyes. The way he looked at me with a flash of something. Recognition? Interest? I’d written it off as the usual attention a newcomer gives the submissives at a BDSM club. But what if it was more?
Something about his eyes sparked a vague memory.
“Kara used to have a visitor,” I say slowly as the memory becomes clearer.
“This was maybe six months before I left. A man who would come by the house when Sampson was traveling for work. She always said he was a colleague from her department at the university but…”
Victor sits beside me but doesn’t touch me.
“I walked in on them once. In the den. The door was ajar, and I heard voices. Kara was laughing the way she only did when she was flirting. When I opened the door, they were standing close together. Too close for my comfort.”
The memory sharpens. Kara’s startled face, the man turning away quickly. Kara’s overly friendly explanation about discussing an issue with her research.
“I never knew his name. He left right after that, and I was never home when he visited again. But his build, his posture… it could have been Griffin.”
Victor’s expression is unreadable. “You think Kara was having an affair?”
“I was never sure. Things were already strained between the three of us by then.” I drag a hand through my hair, wayward curls falling into my face as I drag my hand away.
“Sampson was traveling a lot more. Kara was drinking too much. I was working extra shifts at my campus job and studying in the library to avoid coming home. We were falling apart before I left, and I wasn’t convinced they would make it past their next anniversary with the way they constantly fought. ”
“And you never mentioned the potential affair to Sampson?”
I shake my head. “What would I say? That I’m accusing his wife of cheating on both of us based on a laugh and a glimpse of a man I never officially met or saw clearly enough to recognize him again?
It would have destroyed what little was left of our relationship.
Kara was already convinced I wanted Sampson to leave her for me, and that’s just not the case.
” I press my fingers against my temples, fighting a growing headache.
“There was no proof. Just a nagging sense that something was off.”
Victor stands and moves the mini fridge in the corner of the suite. He takes out a bottle of water, uncaps it, and hands it to me without a word. I drink deeply, the cool liquid soothing my suddenly dry throat.
“So, if it was Griffin,” Victor says after a moment, “that creates a link between him and Kara. A connection that could explain why he’s been watching us.”
“But I can’t be certain it’s him,” I stress. “I never knew the man’s name, never even had a conversation with him. It’s just a possibility.”
Victor stands in front of me and cups my cheek. “Sweet butterfly. So terrified of getting someone in trouble. Even the assholes of the world. Don’t look so stressed. It’s something for Owen to investigate. A possible piece to the puzzle.”
A new thought strikes me. “Do you think Kara continued the affair and Sampson didn’t find out for years? Could that have been part of why he…” I can’t finish the sentence.
“Shhh.” Victor sits next to me and wraps an arm around my shoulders. “We don’t know anything yet.” His voice is gentle now, and I lean into him. “Owen will dig deeper. It’s what he does. If there’s a connection between Griffin Price and the Lindons, we’ll find it.
I shiver and scoot closer to Victor, suddenly cold. “It’s all connected somehow, isn’t it? Sampson’s death, Griffin, me being stalked, even Phineas is going to play into this somehow.”