Chapter 2
NOLAN
The look I give both of the men exiting the back of the van outside of Lex’s house a little over an hour after we left the city would kill both of them if it had a gun.
The fact that it’s met with Gio’s smirk only irritates me further.
I’m self-aware enough to know that my annoyance comes from the spike of jealousy eating at my insides.
I wanted to be with Juliet too, damn it.
I’d missed her as much as those two fuckers.
Lex is the last out of the back seat, lifting a still half-asleep Juliet out to Gio’s arms. Gio takes her, hefting her into a bridal hold while Juliet nuzzles against his throat and chest sleepily.
My hands clench into fists as the urge to rip her away to get her to myself nudges at me, but I resist. It’s clear that she’s exhausted, her hands practically hanging over Gio’s shoulders and neck limply as she snoozes.
How long has it been since she was able to sleep and feel safe at the same time?
Gio waits until Lex is out of the car before he starts up the path to the front door.
I watch them go with no small amount of relief and hope.
Idiots. We were such idiots to let her go.
Insecure jackasses. If I’d taken a single second to actually think about the words coming out of her mouth, I’d have realized the lies that they were.
Instead, we had let our own self-doubt make the decisions. Even if I’d never given voice to the thoughts, they had still been there, at the back of my mind.
When would she leave? Why would she even want to stay? So, when she’d said all that shit about being passed around by us, about others judging her, I’d believed it. It’s a concern after all. Three men and one woman? That’s not normal.
Now, I don’t give a fuck. We’ve never been normal. Her being ours is the least we deserve. There’s no getting away for any of us now.
As much as I want to follow after her and the guys, I turn my attention to the man still waiting.
Viks stands at the edge of the offshoot of the driveway that leads to Lex’s carriage house, glaring across the long, open space that disappears into the woods that surround the property. He can’t see the main house from here, but I know that’s what he’s glaring at. With a sigh, I approach.
The anger that radiates from him in waves is something I’d forgotten was a normal response to Lex’s living situation.
Neither of us say a word for a long moment. Not until well after the sound of the front door to the carriage house opening and closing echoes into the dark of the night. To my surprise, Viks is the first to break the silence.
“How long?” he demands, and I don’t have to ask to know what he means.
“Couple of years,” I admit. “But they’ve never been particularly close. His aunt isn’t…” I don’t know how to explain the woman. Gemma Stratton has always been a bit of an agoraphobe. I can’t even remember the last time I saw her outside of her house. “She’s a complicated woman,” I say.
Viks shifts on his feet and casts a look in my direction. The control he has over his own features despite the obvious strain of his muscles and the hard note of his voice is impressive. His face is relaxed, and only the dark glimmer of rage in his eyes reveals his true emotions.
“He’s over it,” I tell him. “He moved out here because he didn’t want to bother her.”
“Did she force the issue?” Viks asks.
“No.” What I don’t say is that Lex’s aunt Gemma would never have forced the issue because she hardly noticed he was there in the first place.
Whatever life insurance policy her husband had left behind when he passed years before was enough for her to buy her home and land outright and it’s enough for the woman to retire.
She spends her days holed up in the house that is the exact same as it was when he died and anyone who intrudes—whether that be the child that Lex was or even the mailman—are just passing ghosts to the woman.
To Lex, she’d been nothing more than an access code to freedom. In essence, he’d been emancipated the day he’d been removed from Sancho Medicci’s house. The government just didn’t know it.
“So, he’s had no one since my half-sister died,” Viks surmises.
Which reminds me… “Is Gemma not your sister too?” I ask, nudging my head towards the line of trees separating the front of the property from the back.
Viks shakes his head. “No.” That’s the only answer I get, the only one he seems willing to give for the moment as he turns away from the sight of darkness and forest and makes his way towards the carriage house.
I follow. Lights come on inside the small structure, illuminating the windows above the metal doors that were once useful as actual garage doors but have now been caulked and sealed to within an inch of their life to make the place actually livable year-round.
Viks stops at the door and instead of opening it, he knocks.
My lips curve upward as I push past him and open it, gesturing him inside.
Lex may be big, but Viks is bigger and he has to duck slightly to enter. I shut the door behind the two of us and head for the kitchen. A moment later, Gio wanders out of the back of the house, sliding an assessing glance to Viks before he speaks.
“Jules is out cold,” he says. “Lex will be back after he gets her settled.”
I nod and hold up a bottle of vodka in meaning. “Drink?” I offer. Gio shakes his head.
“I should say something about you boys getting your hands on alcohol at your age.” Despite his words, there’s clear amusement in Viks’ voice as he approaches, cutting through the living room towards us. “But I’m not surprised. I was young once, too.”
A snort leaves me as I tip the vodka and pour myself a few inches worth into a glass before setting it back on the counter and reaching for one of the flavor packets that Lex keeps hidden in the cupboard. “You act like you’re ancient,” I say. “What are you, thirty?”
At that, Viks shakes his head. “Try pushing fifty in a few years,” he replies.
My brows arch and I finish mixing my drink, turning to prop my back against the counter as I lift the glass to my lips. The now strawberry-flavored vodka burns over my tongue, but it eases the tightness of my muscles just as I’d hoped it would.
“You wear the age well, old man,” Gio says.
Viks nods his appreciation before his eyes land on the glass in my hand with curiosity. He holds a hand out. “May I?” he asks.
With a shrug, I hand it over and watch as he tips it back and takes a long swallow. It’s shit vodka, cheap as fuck, but he doesn’t even flinch as he hands the glass back.
“Not bad,” he informs me.
Before I can reply, Lex is striding back into the open concept living room with purpose. Standing in the center of the room, he settles his hands on his hips and gives the three of us all a dark look.
“So,” he demands. “What now?”
I arch a brow and glance between Viks and Gio, then slide my attention back to him. Gio frowns. “What now?” he asks. “Morpheus is dead, man. What else is there?”
“Someone killed him,” I say, tipping my glass back to my lips. “That could be what he’s referring to.”
Lex nods in my direction. “Yeah, just because he’s gone doesn’t mean our problems are over.”
“Why do you think that?” Viks asks, eyeing him in a way that makes me wish I could read minds.
“Too much shit has happened to Juliet in the last six months for it to be a coincidence,” Lex states.
“Juliet’s father was accused of fraud and embezzlement and thrown in jail.
Gio was attacked, then Juliet. She was kidnapped, almost killed, and then this shit.
Morpheus was responsible for a lot, I suspect, but I still haven’t been able to pinpoint where her mother is or if she is still even alive.
Allen Donovan is still in jail and his wife is MIA. ”
I straighten away from the counter and set my glass down. “Do you think she was there tonight?” I ask. “Juliet’s mother?”
Lex turns his gaze to me. “It’s a possibility.”
Gio curses and shoves a hand through his hair as he unbuttons the top of his dress shirt like the constricting fabric is strangling him. I understand the sensation. Right now, my own dress shirt feels like it’s choking the life out of me.
“We need to review the tapes,” I say. “Find out exactly what happened.”
“There’s something else that the three of you have yet to consider,” Viks says, his voice so low that I almost miss it, but thankfully, I don’t. Neither do the others.
Together, the three of us turn in his direction. “What’s that?” I demand.
“With Morpheus dead and childless, who is set to inherit the Donovan-Calloway industries?”
The insinuation of his question slams into me a split second later. “Holy fuck…”
He’s right.
There’s only one choice, one answer.
Morpheus Calloway didn’t just not have an heir; he had no family. Which leaves Juliet as the sole owner of the company that had practically ruined Silverwood.
Gio’s arm falls uselessly from his buttons. “Motherfucker…” The shock has hit him too.
I keep my focus fixed on the man in front of us. “What does that mean for her?” I demand, taking a step towards him. “They can’t expect her to run a damn company in a town that hates her guts even if they wanted her to. She’s not even out of high school yet.”
“There has to be a board of directors or something that will step in,” Lex states.
“It’s possible.” Viks’ agreement doesn’t ring confident, though.
Juliet can’t catch a fucking break, can she?
“Okay, slow down, let’s think about this,” I say, scrubbing a hand down the side of my face. Stubble pricks at my skin.
“Juliet is eighteen, so technically she’s an adult, but she’s still a student,” I point out.
“Morpheus just died—so there will be processes to go through before anything is revealed or decided. Namely, his funeral and will. I’m sure he had a lawyer for all this shit and it’ll have to go through a probate period.
They’ll have to contact her if she is, in fact, the only beneficiary. ”
Viks’ gaze remains on me, fixated and interested. I’m not entirely sure if it’s a good thing.
“We don’t want to freak her out after we just got her back,” Gio says.
“Right.” I point at him and then Lex. “It’s our job to take care of her right now. She’s probably still suffering some side effects from her time with him.”
At that, Lex pales. “She didn’t… You don’t think something would have happened while we were…” He doesn’t finish his statement, but I shake my head in response anyway.
“That’s for her to tell us,” I remind him. “No pushing.”
“She should likely be in therapy,” Viks muses. “But something tells me that’ll be like dragging a cat to a bath.”
I wince, hating it, but I agree with his guess. “She’s had some issues with the counselor at school,” I tell him. “She won’t be particularly interested in getting help and, hell, I don’t blame her. She needs time before she’s shoved into a room with a stranger and told to bare her fucking soul.”
“What are we going to do about the rest of it, though?” Gio demands. “Even if we put that to the side, Lex is right. If Juliet’s mom is responsible for Morpheus’ death then there’s a lot of shit we haven’t figured out yet.”
“Such as the ‘why’,” Lex states.
“Why?” Gio snaps to Lex. “Why the fuck does that matter?”
Lex glares back at him. “It matters, dipshit, because if we can figure out if it was her then the damn police can too—how do you think it’ll affect Juliet to have both of her parents in jail.”
“You don’t even know if it was Mrs. Donovan in the first place,” Gio bites back. “That’s your assumption—Morpheus was a rich prick, surely he’s got other enemies too.”
The two of them devolve into a pair of squabbling jackasses, sniping and biting at each other as my mind reels with various plans of action and the information cascading into my head.
Fuck. We’re not the damn cops. The only thing I should be concerned with is my boys, Juliet, and getting the fuck out of Silverwood.
Irritation gnaws an ugly hole in my gut.
Viks’ gaze is still hovering over me like he’s waiting for me to step up and make the right move, but I don’t know what that is.
The dull throb of a migraine begins to tighten in a band around my head. I press the flat of both palms to my temples as if that will assuage the ache. It doesn’t. Fuck. Fuck. Fucking fuck!
Then, it hits me. The answer to our immediate needs. It’s a simple plan, one that will at least give us time to figure out the rest.
I release a breath and slowly lower my arms back to my sides. “Shut up!” I bark out the command and both Gio and Lex fall silent. The corner of Viks’ lips twitches. Asshole. But a useful one, at least.
My attention resettles on the men I’d give my life for. Whether they realize it or not, we’re on a countdown now and we need to prepare for our exit sooner rather than later, and that means clearing up this mess in a way that leaves all of us free and clear—most importantly, Juliet.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I begin, praying to the universe that I’m making the right call.