Chapter 10 #2
“While no attempts have been made to injure your father, I thought it would be a good idea to bring in outside protection for him.” Thus, John Henry.
A guard he’d used for private security work in the past. “John Henry will stay close to your father. He’ll make sure that Sebastian is safe.
He’ll also keep an eye on everyone and report back to me.
Though, I’m sure the others will be cutting out of here as soon as the roads are passable.
” Dario had actually tried to hitch a ride on the chopper.
Victor had refused him that ride.
“Will my father be leaving when the roads are passable?” Her head had turned toward the house. A shiver skated over her.
It was damn cold out there. Another reason to move this scene along and get her sweet ass in the chopper.
It was cold and…I don’t like her being out in the open.
He moved his body a bit closer to her. The better to shield Melody.
“Your father doesn’t leave the estate. He hasn’t, not in months.
His nurse stays with him. His doctors come to check on him.
Hatterson is at his beck and call.” Her father’s condition was far worse than she realized.
She also didn’t know…
Months ago, before things had gotten so bad, her father had made a decision about his treatment. The end is coming. Time is short.
Not something Victor wanted to tell her right then.
“I’m staying here.” Her voice was definite. “You said the sheriff was going to search the property. I want to talk with him.”
The urge to carry her into the chopper was just growing stronger and stronger.
But he could try a bit of careful manipulation, first. After all, he did know her end game.
As for his own end game? Simple. It was her.
“You want answers about your disappearance. That means you need to come back to Richmond with me.” The estate was about fifty miles from the city, nestled off the back roads.
“You can talk to the lead detectives there. The one who ran the investigation into your disappearance.” A piss-poor investigation that had turned up jack shit.
“I thought the Feds handled missing persons’ cases,” Melody murmured.
Victor had gotten anyone he could to look into her disappearance, including plenty of FBI agents who’d worked off the books.
She’d never officially been declared as missing or as a kidnap victim, but that shit was changing.
She was taken away. Nearly killed. But he tried to keep his rage in check as he worked to convince her that she needed to get on the damn chopper.
“Once we’re in Richmond, you can go back to the last place where I saw you—the Mage Industries building.
Or you can go to your house. I have the keys.
I have the new security code.” Should he mention he’d bought the place?
Again, probably not something to tell her right then and there.
The rest of her family had wanted to sell her house.
Dario had made that request again and again.
He’d been making it when she reappeared the previous night.
After her disappearance, payments hadn’t been made on her home. She’d always wanted to own the place on her own, without her father’s money. She’d worked hard to get the home, and when she’d vanished and the house notes had come due…
I stepped in.
Something the others didn’t know. Dario probably thought Sebastian held the title to her place. Wrong.
“You really don’t remember anything?” Hunter asked.
Her head whipped toward him. Then back to Victor. “You told him?” she snapped.
Yeah, he had. “Guilty. But since Hunter has been helping me find you, he needed to know. He’s with the Ice Breakers.”
Her lashes flickered. Her stare cut from him.
“You’ve heard of them,” Victor noted.
Once more, her gaze darted his way. “I…considered contacting them when I read about some of their cases in the news. Thought they could help me.”
Hunter took a slow, gliding step toward her. “We can help you. Step one in that helping process is to get you on the chopper.” He shoved the handcuffs back into his pocket. “Willingly, ma’am.”
Aw, Hunter was being cute.
Willingly or not, her sweet ass is getting on the chopper. He was actually about to lift her up and carry—
“And what about John Henry?” Melody asked.
John Henry hadn’t spoken the whole time. Mostly because the big, blond guy basically never spoke. Chatter wasn’t his friend.
“Is he going to rush inside and tell everyone that I can’t remember a thing?” Melody wanted to know.
Hunter snorted out a laugh at her question.
She glowered at him. “I wasn’t making a joke.”
“I know,” Hunter assured her. “That’s what makes it funny. For future reference, John Henry never rushes to tell anyone anything.”
John Henry shook his head.
“John Henry doesn’t share secrets,” Victor informed her.
They had wasted enough time out there. She was cold and scared, and he was getting her away from that place.
Done. “But the truth is gonna come out, and it’s gonna come out fast. You can’t keep acting like you remember people when you don’t.
You’ll slip up. You probably already slipped up with Olivia, the same way you did with me. ”
She gasped. Looked insulted. “How did I slip up with you? What gave me away?”
Enough. Time to get airborne. He surged toward her.
He lowered his head near hers, because these words were for her alone.
“You forgot that I fucked you until you screamed,” he rasped against her ear.
“You forgot I was your lover. That you belonged to me.” And instead, she’d treated him like a stranger.
Her hands rose and pressed to his chest.
He eased back, just a little. Just enough so that he was staring down at her. For those watching—Hunter and John Henry who were right there and for the people spying from the house—it would look as if they were about to kiss.
He would love to kiss her.
Her lips pressed together, then she whispered, “Olivia said we weren’t engaged.”
“Olivia didn’t know about the engagement.”
Her gaze searched his. “You aren’t lying to me?”
His back teeth ground together. “No. And I’m not lying when I say…either get in the chopper willingly, or I will carry your ass onto the bird. One way or another, I’m getting you to safety.”
Pink stained her cheeks, and he didn’t think the pink came from the sting of cold in the air. “You’re a bossy bastard, aren’t you?”
Hunter snorted. “Maybe she’s starting to remember you!”
Such an ass.
“Victor…” Melody began, voice husky.
Every part of him tightened. Yearned. He’d missed hearing her say his name. He’d missed everything about her.
“You could try asking nicely,” she advised.
Sure. He could go that route. Why the hell not? “Melody, will you please get your gorgeous ass in the helicopter?”
She hesitated.
Shocker, asking nicely had clearly not been the way to go—
“If I do go with you, then you’ll take me to the scene of my abduction? You’ll take me to the detective? Take me wherever I want to go?”
“Yes.” He’d be with her every step of the way.
“Thank you for the kind invitation of the helicopter ride.” Very formal. Very…Melody-like, though she probably didn’t get that. “I find that I would like to take you up on that offer.” She turned and crept toward the chopper.
John Henry opened a door for her. As she climbed in, Victor extended his palm toward Hunter. He waited, with his palm open.
“Seriously?” Hunter asked.
Did it look like he was joking?
Hunter passed him the handcuffs. “You’re one crazy asshole. She’ll go ballistic if you cuff her.”
If she tried to leave him, he would be cuffing her. Until he found out what threat she faced, he could not let her go.
Who the hell am I lying to? No matter what, I don’t intend to let her go.
He reached for his backpack. Unzipped it and dropped the handcuffs inside.
They fell right next to the manila file, the file he’d taken from Sebastian’s safe before he went upstairs to tell Melody that her father wanted a meeting.
A quick scan had shown him that Melody’s fingerprints were in the file, but so was an entire sheriff’s report.
Pages and pages that he hadn’t read. Not yet.
But he would.
For now, he rezipped the backpack. He climbed into the chopper with her. Got a seat up front, the one vacated by John Henry. In moments, he, Hunter, and Melody were in the air. A sea of white waited below them as the chopper headed away from the mansion. Snow everywhere the eye could see.
The clear area where they’d landed gave way to trees. Thick brush. Too many places for someone to hide. The shooter didn’t just have to be someone inside the house, Victor understood that. The shooter could have been some asshole who’d followed Melody out to the estate.
And if that was the case, then maybe the SOB had gotten trapped while fleeing. Maybe they’d see a vehicle stalled somewhere along the way. Maybe they’d see…
A truck. Slammed into the side of an old cedar tree.
Well, sonofabitch.