6. Vince
6
VINCE
Axel and Dane were able to get me a photo of what she and her sister looked like, but it was from seven years ago at the trial, so I had no idea if they had dyed their hair or changed their looks in any way, not to mention they would be older now anyway and possibly look different. But what the photo alone gave me was that Catalina was beautiful. She had long, curly black hair, a few curves, and a beautiful heart-shaped face. I didn’t know what I ever pictured her looking like when we were exchanging letters because she never gave me anything to go on, but I never would have guessed she would be this pretty.
Her sister had a similar face but shorter hair, and was a bit more of a slender build. But she was only thirteen at the time of the photo, so she would likely look a little different now.
It took me a week to find them, which, on the one hand, was a good thing because it meant she was smart in covering their tracks. It was also a pain in my ass.
I sat in my rental SUV in the parking lot of their apartment building. I had a confirmed sighting of Valeria yesterday when she walked to the communal mail drop area to pick up a package. I saw which unit she went into but had yet to see Catalina .
Valeria had definitely changed. Her light brown hair was a shade lighter than in the photo I’d seen, and she was taller than I had imagined—maybe just a few inches shy of six feet. She still had a slender build, but her face had matured, the difference between a twenty-year-old and a thirteen-year-old was unmistakable.
She also dressed like a woman now, with a more polished look—a cardigan, jeans, and boots—compared to the Justin Bieber T -shirt and neon shorts she had worn in the photo Axel found.
My plan was to wait and confirm the identity of both sisters before I approached, but so far, Catalina hadn’t left their unit in twenty-four hours, and I was getting impatient.
I also noticed the neighbor across the street walk over to their door a few times and stick his ear to the door, as though he was trying to listen in. That pissed me right the hell off. I called in to check with Dane and have him run a background check on the guy to see if there was any connection to the gang-bangers from the robbery.
“As far as I can tell, the man was born and raised in Iowa and never left,” Dane said on the call. “ Works as a janitor at a local industrial complex and an occasional Uber driver. Based on his internet history, he watches a lot of video game tutorials on YouTube , is a regular to porn sites, and appears to have a foot fetish.”
“I did not need to know that,” I told him, frowning.
“I like to be thorough,” Dane responded. “ My guess, unless he’s hearing noises coming from their apartment, he’s listening in because he’s a creeper.”
That was my assumption too, and having Dane confirm it didn’t make me feel any better. It also meant I might have to speed up my approach and do it where the neighbor could see me.
I knew I had to play this carefully because these girls were still in hiding. even though the obvious threats against them were gone. That meant they were either still fearful on their own or the Marshals Service was directing them to be.
I ordered some pizzas to be delivered to them, but I would grab the driver when he got here and take it upstairs myself then show Catalina the letters from her that I had saved so she knew who I was and would hopefully trust that I wasn’t a threat to her and her sister. Assuming she even remembered the letters at all. Just because they had meant something to me didn’t mean they had to her. I also brought one more thing to help jog her memory in case the letters weren’t enough.
When the pizza man showed up, I paid him and grabbed the order before walking up the stairs. I had checked out the security of the building last night but was now scoping everything out more closely as I approached their door.
I took a deep breath and knocked. A few moments later, the door opened, though the chain was still attached. Good to know they used proper safety measures when answering the door to strangers.
I met Valeria’s eyes as she peeked her head around the door. She looked at me, then down at the pizzas, and her face instantly got irritated.
“We didn’t order any pizzas. They probably belong to the creep across the hall, and if that creep tries to tell you to leave them here because we’re sharing them, he’s a liar. Just leave them at his door,” she said quickly and then sighed and started to close the door, but I shot my hand out to stop her.
“We’ll circle back to that comment about the guy next door in a bit, but these pizzas aren’t from him. They’re from me,” I tried to explain. “ Is your sister home?”
I assumed I would have a better chance of explaining who I was to Catalina than I would her sister. I wasn’t even sure if Valeria knew about the letters.
Her eyes widened briefly when I spoke, but those eyes quickly shrank back and became full suspicion. “ Who are you?” she all but growled.
“An old friend of hers,” I said, trying not to give too much away.
“She doesn’t have any friends. Nice try,” she said, attempting to close the door again, but I stuck my foot out to stop her.
“Val, who is it?” I heard in the background, and it must have been Catalina .
“Some lying asshole, like the one across the hall. They’re probably in on this pizza scheme together,” Valeria said, aimed at the other voice in the background before turning her head back to me.
“Buddy, you got three seconds to move your hand and foot from the doorway, or I’m gonna slam this in your face and call the cops, comprende ?” she said, increasing her level of animosity and irritation at me.
“Look, Valeria , my name is Vince . Your sister used to write letters to me while I was overseas, and I finally tracked her down and would just like to talk to her,” I said, hoping to just put it all out there so she would understand.
The look on her face changed, full of apprehension, and I knew she’d picked up on my using her original name.
“What did you call me?” she asked in a whisper.
“Close the door but please give her this. I’ll wait right here,” I told her, handing her one of the letters her sister had written me that I’d brought.
She snatched the letter out of my hands and quickly closed the door. I heard her click multiple locks into place, and I wasn’t even offended because I was happy to know they were safe.
I stood there, waiting, hoping she would see the letter and come back to the door. I didn’t really have a backup plan yet, but I would make it work.
A few minutes later, the door locks clicked and the door opened, albeit still with the chain attached. A face peered through the side, and she was stunning. It was Catalina —but more gorgeous than my mind had assumed she would look after seven years, and I could only see her face. The rest of her was concealed behind the door.
“Who are you?” she asked, voice steady, but her eyes showed apprehension and a bit of fear.
I decided to give her everything so she wouldn’t be afraid.
“My name is Vince Fletcher , though you knew me as V ,” I started. “ We wrote letters to each other for several months during your senior year, and then right before graduation, you stopped.”
“Where did you get this?” she asked, holding up the letter.
She was paranoid that it wasn’t me. Maybe it was someone pretending to be me to get close to her. Go big or go home… Time to whip out the other surprise I brought.
“I kept all of those letters, and I also kept these,” I said, pointing to my feet where I pulled up my pant leg to reveal the Taylor Swift socks I was wearing, even though they were uncomfortable as hell since they had multiple holes and had shrunk a little in the wash.
She gasped and then looked back up at me, no longer with fear in her eyes, but with something else I couldn’t quite decipher.
“V? It’s really you? How did you find me?” she asked.
“Do you mind if I come in to explain everything?” I asked, hoping it would be easier to explain while not standing outside. “ Your sister mentioned a creepy neighbor, and I’d rather he not hear everything.”
She looked at me for a second, then closed the door. I froze, trying to think of what I’d said wrong, but then I heard the chain move, and the door reopened.
She opened the door slowly, with wariness and anxiety still in her eyes. “ You can come in.”
Relief washed through me as I stepped through the doorway, but that quickly changed when I saw her sister standing to the side, a gun in her hand. Even though she had the gun pointed at the ground, I paused my movements as I heard Catalina close the door and then the locks clicking into place behind me.
“Is it really him?” Valeria asked her sister, while keeping her eyes trained on me.
“I think so. Look at his socks,” Catalina said to Valeria .
I took that as my cue to lift my pant leg again, but I did it slowly with my eyes trained on Valeria just in case she decided to get trigger-happy.
Valeria looked down at my socks and her jaw dropped.
“Are those the Taylor Swift socks you got him as a gag gift?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Catalina said in return.
Valeria threw her head back, laughing but still kept the gun in her hand.
“Now that you know who I am, do you mind putting the gun away?” I asked Valeria with the nicest smile I could muster.
“Maybe,” she said, her voice full of attitude again and her brows raised.
“First…talk. How did you find us?” Catalina asked me with both fear and attitude in her voice.
I answered her, but kept my eyes trained on Valeria just in case she got a little fidgety with the gun. “ I found you because of the connection to the cat picture from our letters.”
I explained about how I had seen the cat logo on her website inadvertently because our receptionist was looking to possibly hire her. I told them how my colleagues had helped me start digging for more information about her company and logo.
“I never would have found you without the help of Axel and Diego since they are hacking geniuses,” I told her.
“Crap. I knew I shouldn’t have used that logo,” Catalina admonished herself.
“Not many people have the skills that we do, and since I’m guessing I’m the only outsider who even knew about the logo’s existence prior to you starting your company, I don’t think you need to worry about someone else finding you,” I said, trying to ease her concerns.
“I know that rationally, it’s just hard when you’ve been on the run for so long to not be worried,” Catalina said quietly, but defensively.
“I get that, and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team, and we can talk to the guys about covering your tracks even better to make sure no one else can find you like we did,” I explained, even though I already told Diego to put those steps in motion.
“Okay then,” Valeria said, sighing.
“So, it’s really you,” Catalina’s voice said softly as Valeria finally moved the gun to the side table next to her.
Thankful she put it down, I turned to face Catalina and momentarily blanked. I’d seen her face in the doorway, and she was definitely older than the picture I had seen, but she had grown up in those seven years. A lot. She not only had a gorgeous face, but her body had grown up in all the right places. She was stunning. Her hair was shorter now just above her shoulders but still curly, her eyes a beautiful dark chocolate brown, and the curves on her body were full and superior to anything I had ever seen on any other woman. And that was saying a lot given she was fully clothed in a loose-fitting, long-sleeved white t-shirt and jeans. Jeans that looked painted onto her body. She had what appeared to be tits and ass for days.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said, looking into her eyes and just taking in her beauty. Her eyes started to well up, but her face remained the same. I moved to set the pizzas down on a nearby table and pulled out the other letters from the side pocket of my cargo pants to show her.
“Hate to break this weird reunion, but I still have questions,” Valeria asserted. “ For one, how did you know my name?”
“I never told you her name in the letters or mine, at least not directly,” Catalina remarked with concern in her voice.
“No, you didn’t,” I told her, knowing that she only indirectly told me her name through the cat drawings, but I didn’t know that at the time. “ You mind if we sit down and have some pizza while I talk? It’s a long story, and I haven’t eaten since last night.”
She nodded at me, and they both grabbed some plates and drinks and we took a seat at their small kitchen table.
“Is that your black SUV in the parking lot by the tree?” Catalina questioned me, and I realized she was very observant.
“Yeah,” I told her. “ I was trying to be patient and wait until both of you could come out so I could verify your identities, but you never left the building.”
“I try not to if I can help it,” Catalina said. “ If it was this easy for you, why did it take you so long to find us?”
I decided to start from the beginning and explain everything. About how at first, I thought she’d ghosted me after my last letter, and I was admittedly a little peeved at the assumed brush-off, which garnered a chuckle from Valeria .
“First, I kind of like that a guy that looks like you thought you got the brush-off because I’m guessing you haven’t had many women do that to you,” Valeria said, all cheeky. “ Second , every time one of your letters came, she ran up to her room and locked the door, all excited to read them over and over again like a crazy person. So just FYI , she wouldn’t have brushed you off unless she had to.”
Knowing she liked the letters and that they meant as much to her as they did to me, gave me a sense of relief. I turned to look at her and saw her face turning pink with embarrassment. I went on to explain how Axel and Diego had connected them to WITSEC , and then I used my bounty hunting skills to narrow it down to the final location of their apartment complex.
“ You’re a bounty hunter? ” Valeria asked. “ That is so freaking cool! And badass!”
“Watch your mouth,” Catalina said to Valeria .
“Okay, Mom ,” Valeria said back while rolling her eyes.
“I know your names went from Catalina Emilia and Valeria Sophia Rivera to Catherine Emily and Valentina Sara Romano ,” I told them.
“They didn’t start that way, but since we kept slipping up and calling each other by our nicknames of Cat and Val so much, they chose to give us new ones again that would sound plausible if we slipped up,” Catalina said, which made sense.
“So please stop calling me Valeria and just call me Val . It’s easier,” Val told me.
“And also safer, so just call me Cat ,” Cat agreed.
I also told them I knew that their parents had died in a robbery and that they faked their deaths after shots were fired at the courthouse, but I wasn’t sure about the rest of it. Between the two of them, they went back and forth, filling in the gaps of what happened at the gas station, the funeral, the shooting at the courthouse, and their eventual placement into WITSEC .
“So you both really were shot?” I asked, trying to recap that part.
“We were both shot at , but neither of us was directly hit,” Valeria explained.
Even though I could see Cat was fine and alive in front of me, I still felt my chest pinch, hearing she’d been injured.
“When we were pushed to the ground for protection, I landed on my knee and my leg bent in a weird direction,” Cat explained. “ I broke several bones from my knee to my ankle. I do just fine with it now.”
I had to hold myself back from reaching out and grabbing her foot to check it out for myself.
“Don’t let her fool you,” Val interrupted. “ It bothers her sometimes when it’s cold out.”
“I can still run faster than you can,” Cat snapped back at her sister.
“The men in black kept moving us around every six to twelve months because they’d get a tip about something,” Val said, waving her hand around. “ Which is a pain in the ass when you’re in high school and just want to make friends and go to prom and dates and all the normal stuff.”
“Men in black?” I asked.
“It’s what Val called the Marshals , since every time they came to tell us we were moving again, they showed up in black suits,” Cat explained.
“Okay, but everything my group gathered about the robbery suspects and subsequent courthouse shooters shows they’re all now dead, so why keep moving?” I asked.
“Because my sister is paranoid,” Val mumbled.
“I’m not paranoid. I’m cautious,” Cat said defensively. “ You’re all the family I have left. I’m not losing you too.”
“Well, for once, I wouldn’t actually complain if you wanted to move again,” Val said dryly.
“Because the guy across the hall is bothering you,” I surmised.
Cat gave me a questioning look, and Val laughed.
“No, that’s not why, although I definitely wouldn’t miss seeing that creep’s face all the time,” Val said while shivering and making a grossed-out face. “ I’d be okay with moving because this place sucks. This is by far the most boring place we’ve ever lived, and the weather here sucks.”
“It’s not that bad, and the people here are very nice,” Cat defended.
“Well, since you never let us talk to anyone, that’s kind of a moot point,” Val snapped back.
I was getting the impression that Cat still had them living as though they were under full protection, even though they didn’t necessarily need to be.
“How do the Marshals and Feds feel about it? Do they mind if you stay put and start to live a normal life, or do they still think there’s a threat?”
“They told us we were free to live normal lives two years ago but to still stick with the new identities,” Val answered. “ Where do you live, Vince ?”
“Georgia, just north of Atlanta ,” I responded.
“Oooh, I could do Atlanta . It’s much warmer than here,” Val said.
“Val,” Cat all but growled.
The sisters stared each other down, and then Val started speaking in rapid-fire Spanish . I knew a few words and phrases but definitely couldn’t keep up with them. They kept going back and forth, hands waving around in the air and talking so quickly, and then they just stopped. Cat got up from her chair and began pacing in the living room.
That’s when I saw it.
It was currently tucked behind one of the living room chairs, but I saw the movement.
“Uh, what is that?” I asked slowly, my voice laced with a hint of concern.
“What is what?” Cat looked around, trying to figure out what I was talking about.
“The wrinkled, alien thing hiding behind your chair?” I noted.
“Oh!” Cat’s face changed from one of concern to one of happiness. Her smile made her look even more beautiful. “ That’s Harry , our cat.”
She leaned back behind the chair to pick him up and hold him in her arms.
“That doesn’t look like a cat,” I told her, noting it had no hair and looked like a large, bald, wrinkled rat.
“He’s a Sphinx cat, so he looks hairless, but he actually has peach fuzz all over his body,” Cat stated.
I blinked before replying. “ You named your hairless cat Harry ?”
“I picked the name,” Val retorted. “ Admit it…it’s a great name.”
She was grinning, so I knew she was half joking. I grinned back and watched as he cuddled into her as she petted him.
Val clapped her hands, breaking me of my thoughts on the weird-looking cat.
“I say we move to Atlanta ; Vince here has a private security business, so I’m sure he could help us find a nice secure place to live and could check it all out and make sure there are no boogeymen hiding in our closets, right Vince ?” Val said, smiling at me, and then turned back to her sister. “ I know you, Cat , and right now, you’re feeling antsy that Vince was able to find us because if he did it, someone else could, so let’s run with that fear and paranoia and move. I don’t want to live here, and now you’re scared too. Admit it.”
“Even if I wanted to, it takes time, and you know that,” Cat said back. “ We don’t have the resources the Marshals did, so I have to look up a safe place for us to live and scope everything out ahead of time.”
“Move in with me,” I said immediately and then wondered where the hell that had come from. Even though I was surprised I’d said it, the reality of it didn’t scare me or even make me the least bit uncomfortable.
“What?” Cat said and looked at me like I was an alien from outer space.
“You said you need time to scope a place out. You can both live with me temporarily— I have two extra bedrooms—until you can find a place you feel comfortable with. I can even help you look for places since I grew up there and know the area really well.”
The more I thought about this idea, the more I really liked it. Before I could press the issue more or hear the sisters’ reactions, there was a knock at the door.
“We seem to be really popular today,” Val said as she went to the door, then cursed as she looked out the peephole. “ It’s Creepy McCreeperson again.”
She turned back to her sister and rolled her eyes as Cat sighed and bowed her head.
“Let the Hulk here answer the door and tell him he’s your boyfriend. That might scare him away.” Val pointed at me but was talking to her sister.
“No, I’ll deal with him.” Cat sighed again but walked to the door.
“Whatever,” Val said but then turned to me. “ Get ready for the most awkward train wreck where our tone-deaf neighbor repeatedly asks Cat out. She’s told him ‘no’ at least six different ways, and yet he continues to ask like it’s not the most cringeworthy conversation ever.”
Cat opened the door with the chain still latched, and confirmed my earlier conclusion that I didn’t like this guy. Sure , I didn’t like him because any guy like that needed to take a hint, but also, I found that the thought of anyone asking Cat out made me irrationally angry. I knew I wasn’t her keeper, but I felt a strong sense of protection when it came to her and realized I wasn’t going to let this guy make her uncomfortable in any way. I got up from my seat slowly and made my way to the door.
“Steve.” Cat’s voice was full of impatience.
“Hey Catherine . I just wanted to check on you girls because I heard you yelling and a man’s voice, and I wanted to make sure you guys were okay,” the guy said, and I instantly liked him even less.
Cat and her sister may have raised their voices while they were speaking Spanish , but I never did, so the only way for him to have heard my voice was if he was pressed against the door like I saw him do earlier. She may not appreciate it, but I decided to intervene and shut this guy down once and for all.
I moved around to stand behind the door so I was hidden. I put my hand over Cat’s on the doorknob and pushed the door closed, unlatched the chain, and then opened the door again. As I opened it, I pressed the front of my body up against the back of Cat’s and put my left arm on the door handle, holding it in place.
“Can I help you?” I asked, but definitely not in a friendly voice.
“Who are you?” Steve questioned in return, trying to sound confident, though I could see some fear in his eyes.
I was a few inches over six feet, and this man was only an inch or two shorter than me, putting him close to six feet, but I easily had a good twenty extra pounds on him, and all of it muscle.
“None of your business. Why are you here?” I repeated as I slipped my right arm around Cat’s waist and pulled her back to be completely flush against my body.
I did it mostly for show, but damn, did she feel good up against me. I was going to have to stay focused on the creep in front of me instead of my dick, which was very much liking this close position with Cat .
“I’ve never seen you here before, and I visit them quite a lot,” the prick said, trying to imply that he knew them well and better than me.
Well, checkmate, dickhead.
“Guess we just haven’t met before, but I’m here now visiting my girlfriend and her sister, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to it.” I felt Cat stiffen slightly against me, but she didn’t say anything.
I kissed the top of Cat’s head, then put my chin on top of that spot while staring down Steve in a blatant show of possession. There was no way he wouldn’t get the signal that she was mine and only mine. And even though, again, it was meant for show, there was a part of me that actually liked the idea of her being mine.
“Thanks for stopping by to check on us, but we’re fine, Steve . Have a good day,” Cat said, and I took that as my cue to close the door.
The look in Steve’s eyes told me he was pissed but wouldn’t do anything about it. The door closed, and Cat clicked all the other locks in place. I let her go from in front of my body, and instantly my body felt bereft. My dick was also not pleased.
“You are such a badass. That was so cool,” Val said from the table with a huge smile on her face.
“Val!” Cat growled, then turned to me. “ You didn’t need to do that. I had it under control.”
She said that with her hands on her hips, full of attitude, and my dick perked back up instantly. She looked so sexy standing there full of sass, ready to argue with me. God , I wanted to kiss that smirk right off her face.
“Okay, I’m in,” Val said, and Cat and I both looked at her, slightly confused. “ I say we move in with the Hulk and have him help us find a place.”
“We can’t move in with him. We hardly know him!” Cat said in return.
“Two things,” Val started. “ If he was gonna kill us, which I’m sure he’s very capable of since he was in the military and also now works for a security and investigations place, he would have done it by now. Murderers for hire don’t usually drag these kinds of things out, at least not according to the crime podcasts I listen to. Second , when the Feds asked us to list what personal items we wanted from the house other than clothes and necessities, you told them you wanted three family photos and your letters from Vince . That’s it. Now , seven years later, that man in the letters tracked you down, which is not easy to do, wearing the ugly socks you gave him, cockblocks creepy Steve and, oh yeah, isn’t hard on the eyes Cat , if that isn’t a giant sign of fate, I don’t know what is. Fate already tells me to move away from this state every time I go outside, and now fate is telling you to do the same.”
“What’s wrong with outside? I think it’s pretty here,” I told her.
“We’ve only been here eight months, and the weather brought hail the size of small children, a tornado that ripped through the only good coffee shop in town, air that feels like hot gravy boiling my skin in the summer—oh, and how about the fact that it’s only mid- November , and it’s already stupid cold, and it snowed last week. Yeah , sis, signals from fate,” Val retorted.
She waved her hand at that last comment, then got up from her seat at the table and started to walk down the hallway.
“I’m gonna go start packing. You two discuss the details, but I’ll be ready to go in an hour, two tops,” Val said. “ You got any single friends, Vince ? Nah , don’t answer that. I want to be surprised.”
Val turned and walked away to what I assumed was her bedroom.
I turned to look at Cat and saw she was staring at me like she didn’t know what to do or say.
“I can’t believe you’re actually here,” Cat spoke almost wistfully. “ I kept all your letters, but I never thought I would have the chance to ever see you or even write to you again.”
She continued staring at me for a moment, as though she couldn’t believe I was in front of her. “ By the time the Marshals cleared us of any threat, I figured you were long since removed from the military and my letters would never get to you. Plus , I wasn’t sure you would even remember me since it had been so long.”
Remember her? God , if only she knew how much I thought about her and those letters. Given she didn’t really know me all that well yet, I decided to hold off on telling her so I didn’t scare her even more than she appeared to be.
“I’d love to catch up with you and hear more about how you’re doing, but can you give me a few minutes to talk to Val first?” she asked.
I nodded, and she told me to make myself at home, then turned to walk down the hallway and disappeared into the room at the end of the hallway.
Before coming here and seeing her in person, I knew that we’d shared a meaningful, albeit odd connection, and I was determined to keep her in my life as a friend. But now, standing in her living room, I realized I wanted more than friendship. If I had met her randomly in a bar or around town, I would have been drawn to her beauty alone and asked for her number. But knowing the deeper bond we’d built through our letters, I was all in. It took me long enough to find her— I wasn’t letting her slip away now.