Chapter 5 Kane
Kane
Hands stuffed in my pockets, I stood in front of the fireplace, absently stroking my thumb over the tiny pregnancy test in my pocket.
The tiny positive pregnancy test.
While the flames danced over the crackling logs, the men seated behind me argued among themselves. I heard none of it, too lost in my own head and the nightmare of my own making. Vega didn’t simply leave us—she disappeared. There was no trace of her.
No credit card transactions, no flight itineraries, not even a glimpse of her on any of the cameras at the bus stations within a hundred-mile radius.
Nothing on the apartment building’s security feed or any of the surrounding CCTV footage.
Not even the doorbell camera from the neighbor across the hall could give us a time frame of when she’d left.
It was as if Vega had walked into her apartment after work, and then she and her most treasured belongings vanished into thin air. Or she’d discovered a mythical Narnia wardrobe.
She didn’t even show up for work when Thursday rolled around.
I checked with one of my contacts at the hospital and learned that Vega had given her notice, using her vacation and PTO to cover the time required by her contract.
If I’d worried someone had taken her against her will, that alone was proof to me she’d planned this.
No one had known she was even thinking about quitting, except for HR, who’d filed the paperwork with Vega’s distinctive signature, her V delicate and unmistakable. Her job was fast-paced, physically and mentally draining, but she loved the work.
Christ knew she wasn’t working there for the bare minimum pay well below what her certifications and brilliance deserved because she couldn’t find a better job. She did it because she was passionate about helping others, despite witnessing again and again how vile people could truly be.
Fuck, the woman I loved was missing, and I was internally spiraling while attempting to keep up appearances with my da, Aurelio, and motherfucking Cullum.
Ryder had basically gone catatonic since realizing Vega had left us.
He was an empty shell, not even a flicker of life behind his blue eyes.
At the moment, he was seated in the chair directly to my left, visible out of the corner of my eye.
Other than showering and dressing, he wasn’t participating in mundane everyday activities.
Eating and speaking seemed too much for the poor bastard.
He followed where I led, sat when I commanded it, closed his eyes when I told him to sleep.
His life-force, his reason for existence, was gone, making it impossible for him to function as a productive human.
For as long as I’d known him, Ryder had always been full of energy, life.
His distaste for his father was barely masked by his sardonic attitude toward Cullum.
Ryder didn’t fear his father, and that was what pissed Cullum off the most. Meanwhile, Ry’s open disrespect and insolence amused my da, who could hardly tolerate Cullum.
Without Vega, Ryder had shut down completely. Gone was the energetic man I’d bonded with. We were closer than best friends—brother-husbands, as Vega had once teasingly called us. Then she’d turned an adorable shade of pink and never said the word husband in front of us again.
She was right, though. We were brother-husbands.
I’d shared Vega with him for years, never once feeling jealous of him or his time with her.
If nothing else, I was thankful for him.
He’d brought her into my life. Meeting Vega had opened my heart for the first and only time.
Once this fucked-up mess was over, we would put a ring on her finger and dedicate the rest of our lives to making her happy.
If we ever found her.
No. I had to stop thinking like that or I’d go crazy. When. When we found her, I’d make it all up to her. She’d never doubt me. Us.
I wanted to hate Ryder, blame him for Vega leaving us. If we’d told her the plan from the beginning, things might have been different. Maybe she still would have been home where she belonged, tucked in bed, cozy and warm. Maybe she would have stayed.
But I couldn’t be upset with my best friend. I shared as much of the responsibility for keeping our girl in the dark as he did. Because if we had told her the plan, there would have been a very high probability of her kicking us out of her life then and there.
I couldn’t take that chance.
I pressed my thumb into the plastic stick in my pocket, reminding myself that there was more at stake than simply getting back the woman I loved.
A child was growing in Vega’s womb. Whether I was the biological father or not made no difference.
Our star was carrying our baby. And she was out there alone in the world, thinking fuck knew what about us.
From the first moment I’d set eyes on Vega, every instinct inside me had screamed to protect and possess. I couldn’t do either right then, and the helplessness of that realization was slowly killing me.
In the days since Vega had vanished, I’d spent millions for the top hackers in the world to trace her.
Men and women who were on international wanted lists, who even worked for the same governments they had once tried to infiltrate, masterminds of the dark web that were supposed to be able to crack anything, anywhere, under any pressure.
Yet so far, they had found nothing.
Fucking nothing.
Not even a glitch in the many camera feeds that should have caught her when she’d left or a single reliable facial recognition hit at any bus stop, airport, or ship port.
All the IT geniuses had their own conclusions. There was no way anyone could disappear like that unless they had help. They had found zero corruption in any of the security footage. According to them, there were only two people in the world capable of wiping anything so cleanly.
Ghost and Genie.
I didn’t know either of them personally.
Their reputations, however, had reached me over the years and seemed more mythical than actual.
Stories of Genie taking down corrupt politicians, entire governments in foreign countries.
Legends of Ghost pulling the plug on flesh-trade traffickers that had allegedly inspired an entire movie franchise—and not just because he had the brains to black out their systems. He was whispered to be a true assassin.
If the two ever teamed up, they could potentially run the entire world with a few clicks of a mouse.
How could anyone be that powerful with nothing more than internet access?
Yet the half dozen experts I’d entrusted to find Vega all said the same thing, with respect and fear in their voices. As if the two of them were literal deities.
I instructed my people to reach out, to offer whatever it would take for either of the famed hackers to help me find Vega. If one of them had assisted her in running, they could tell me where she was. Or at least confirm that she was safe.
So far, there’d been no response.
I pressed my thumb harder into the plastic, flashes of Vega flicking through my mind like a reel.
Her smile first thing in the morning. Those glowing hazel eyes when I was balls deep inside her and telling her she was my world.
How flushed her cheeks got when she was sandwiched between Ryder and me, attempting to hold back her release because she wanted us all to come at the same time…
My star with tears in her eyes, betrayal lining her beautiful face. Her hand on her belly. Vega, with a baby in her arms, refusing to let me hold her.
Fuck it.
A text alert had me extracting my phone from another pocket.
Unknown: Congrats on your recent nuptials.
The number wasn’t one that was saved in my contacts, but the digits were burned into my memory. Having that particular phone number was both a luxury and a burden. The person it belonged to was not someone anyone wanted to be connected with.
Her entire family was not something the Bianchi, O’Machain, and Brennan powers could compete with on their own. Our now-combined territories might stand a chance against that particular family and its worldwide reach, but I wasn’t stupid enough to make them our enemies.
Me: Your parents sent a present.
Unknown: A personal shopper sent your new wife a present. Probably a blender or some shit that your wife definitely won’t know how to use. My parents couldn’t care less. But also, really?!?!?! I knew you were “engaged” to Raffaella, but I didn’t think you were dumb enough to actually marry her.
Of course she was texting to bust my balls.
Me: Currently too busy to deal with your bullshit.
Unknown: Mmkay.
Unknown: Soooooo…
Fucking Christ.
Unknown: I heard you were calling in favors and remembered I owed you one. Do NOT waste it now, because I won’t help you.
With this particular psychopath—who had always been a friend, because fuck, no one wanted her as an enemy—I knew to pay attention to her words. She’d said won’t, not can’t. And she wouldn’t simply reach out for a random catch-up on how life was going. She didn’t do anything without a reason.
For a single moment, relief filled me. She knew Vega was okay. She had to. But that was short-lived when I considered the source.
Fuck!
Me: It wasn’t a small task when I helped you.
I hadn’t called it in because pulling her into my orbit wasn’t a smart move from any point of view.
She held power—not as much as other members of her family, but just the whisper of her name to certain people, and they would quake.
Which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Anyone close enough to know the real her was also aware that she was barely stable on a good day.
Some would consider us friends. Fuck knew, my da had hoped for more. When her father had firmly put Dónal in his place and told everyone within our circle that his children would only ever marry for love, Da had backed off. That was when he decided Raffaella would do just fine.
Yeah, I was still considering putting a few bullets in the bastard for no reason other than backing me into this corner. I missed Vega so fucking badly, and I couldn’t simply shut down like Ryder had. One of us had to keep our head on straight so we could get our star back.
Unknown: And that is why I’m telling you not to cash in now. It would be a stupid move when I refuse to even consider assisting you, given your current position.
Unknown: Ugh. I’m so disappointed in you. You had such a bright, beautiful star lighting up your world. Why would you throw that away for someone like Raffaella?
Me: You know why. I had no choice.
Unknown: There were plenty of other choices, dumbass. If you’d called in that favor before this, I would have happily helped. Honestly, I might have helped without the owed favor. Your pride got in your way, and now look at the mess you’re knee-deep in.
Maybe she could have, but I hadn’t considered it.
Because she was partially right, damn it.
My pride wouldn’t let me, though there was the whole unpredictable side of my old friend that had to be taken into account.
Raffaella was a much more predictable factor.
Marrying her and doing a cleanup from within once we took full control was the safer option.
But it had also lost me the only good thing in my world.
Unknown: Stop reaching out to the ghost and the genie. Neither will help you map this particular constellation.
Me: You’ve heard more than just about my wedding.
Unknown: Don’t act so surprised. I have eyes and ears everywhere.
Unknown: But seriously, don’t reach out to either of them again. Not even I can save you if you piss off the wrong person.
Unknown: Focus on getting that ring off your finger, and then maybe—big maybe—I’ll rethink that favor. Until then, that star of yours will shine bright from afar just fine.
Unknown: Ta-ta.
With an angry rumble that shut up the other men behind me, I grasped the first thing I touched.
A bottle of the whisky Cullum drank like water.
Ryder didn’t move, didn’t so much as flinch, as I threw it into the fire.
Glass shattered, the alcohol shooting the flames up like a pyre. Tension bled into the room.
Fuck it all.
Nothing mattered anymore. Not one goddamn thing, except Vega.
Chest heaving, I almost chucked my phone into the blaze when it went off again. I couldn’t deal with more of her bullshit. Every message had hit me dead center in one way or another. Outwardly, I was a seething beast, while internally, I couldn’t catch my goddamn breath.
Frustrated, I glanced down at the device in my hand.
An unknown number, but not one I recognized this time. I read the text, then read it again before shooting a glance at Ryder. Teeth grinding together, I sent a reply and then deleted both message threads.