Chapter Fifteen #3
Bryce leaving her. Or she’d dumped the kids on her mum to follow him and found
out being on tour with a shitty band roaming Europe in an old bus wasn’t all
the fun she thought it would be.
He looked to Vivian’s father. “I don’t suppose you could
fuck with my brother.”
Alex put a hand to his chest. “It would be our greatest
pleasure.”
“And you need to seriously fuck with that prick Tarquin, but
you can’t let Vivian know,” he said.
“Oh, I’m working with Clive on that project,” Cooper
promised. “We know everything. Again, she didn’t do anything wrong.”
“If you come up with a plan to kill him, let me know. I
would love to help.” He closed the file. “My nephews are safe?”
Alex looked more serious now. “They’re safe and well cared
for. I talked to her mum, who had no idea this was going on before Andrea
abandoned her children. She wants you to know you can come see them anytime and
if you have questions, you can call her. She said you’re still their family and
she appreciates everything you’ve done.”
He put a hand on the file and felt something lift. Vivian’s
family didn’t hate him. They weren’t trying to show him what his place was.
They were offering him one at a table where the chair didn’t matter. It only
mattered that you were sitting in it.
“Lemon mint?” Taggart held out the open tin. “They’re Irish.
I love them.”
Mal took one and sighed at the delicious tartness. Outside
the conference room, Vivian punched Andrea in the tit. “She’s a hell of a
woman, sir. I’m proud to have her watch my back. I need you to understand that
I intend to marry your daughter, Mr. McKay.”
“Alex, please,” he returned. “The fact that you watched her
take another woman down and still want to marry her means you’ll fit right in.
Sosa, do not stab her.” The whole room went silent, everything stopping like it
was frozen in place. Sosa did have a knife in her hand. A wicked-looking
stiletto.
Mal set down the folder and pointed Sosa’s way. “Do not stab
her. Let Vivian do it.”
Andrea screamed and managed to run toward the stairs.
“But stabbing her would be fun,” Sosa said with a pout. “She
is terrible person. I’m allowed to stab terrible people.”
“No, you’re not,” Ariel said with an exasperated sigh.
Sosa turned to Charlotte with tears in her eyes. “They never
let me have any fun.”
Charlotte opened her arms and started consoling Sosa in
Russian.
Such a wild family he was going to be a part of. He was done
pretending. Done playing. Vivian’s hair was out of its elegant bun, her eyes a
bit wild, and she’d kicked her shoes off at some point. Or she’d used them as
weapons. He could believe either. She was disheveled and there was blood on her
shirt, but it didn’t seem to be hers. He strode to her and put his hands on
either side of her face, staring down into those eyes he loved so much.
“I love you, Vivian McKay,” he said with a solemnity worthy
of the moment.
She gazed back up at him. “I love you, too, Malcolm Mays.”
Ian snorted but then Charlotte hissed, and that seemed to be
a whole language between them. He ignored it all.
It was time to kiss his future wife.
* * * *
Two days later, Vivian settled in beside her
boyfriend. They’d had a lovely dinner with her parents and brother, and
everyone was getting along beautifully. They’d even called Hunter and he’d had
a nice chat with Mal and promised to come out to London soon. Now they were
sitting in the bar in The Garden, which was dark tonight, but the bar was
always there. They might not get to play this week. There were several parties
to attend surrounding the wedding and she had to pretend to love Oliver, who
was still fighting with his sister.
Archie had shown up and sat watching them all with an air of
amusement as his siblings squabbled. He’d been filled in on everything that had
happened in the last couple of days. “Poor Mum. She’s going to have to slum it
at the country house with all that peace and quiet. She might actually get
something done.”
Oliver took a long drink of whiskey and sighed. “See, this
is the good stuff. I can’t believe my father left me with that swill. His own
son. And now Mum has abandoned me, too.”
“You’re the one who drove Mum right out of London,” Sami was
saying as she poured a glass of rich red wine.
“I didn’t,” Oliver replied with a frown. “She fled the city
so she could find some quiet from your screeching.”
Penny had left for the country house earlier this evening.
She’d said she needed the quiet in order to focus on the code. She was getting
close. She had a time of the meeting but not the place yet. Once they had that
they would hope for CCTV cams around the place the would-be kidnappers had met
the person who hired them. Her team wanted a face for the person who hired the
kidnappers. That might tell them who the target really was.
The door from the lobby opened and Kala Taggart walked
through, still in her dark, fitted suit from her latest shift of playing the
bodyguard, her pink hair in a high ponytail. She walked right up to Cooper
after hanging her bag up and sat down on his lap.
“The fact that I didn’t stab that woman today proves my
maturity,” Kala announced.
Her twin was in PJs and had been texting her husband all
night, according to Sami. “Really? I thought she was fun. Like awful, but fun
in a reality TV way. I got to watch. It was like a super-evil version of Real
Housewives. I made sure Lou watched, too.”
Kala frowned. “I miss Lou. I hate that she and Tris couldn’t
come because they’re working on technical thingees.”
“It’s called figuring out what Gabby stole from MDWM,” her
husband corrected.
“Same thing,” Kala replied.
Mal had a beer in one hand, the other sitting on her thigh
like he couldn’t stop touching her.
Love. He’d said the words. And then he’d apparently called
William to give him the news since she’d gotten a lovely bouquet delivered
right before the end of business.
I’m so happy for you, Vivi. Congratulations. He’s a good
one.
Even thinking about it made tears spring to her eyes. Her
dating life hadn’t all been tragedy. She’d found some friends, learned a lot,
and every step brought her to Mal.
“I agree with Kala,” Mal said. “That woman is awful. I don’t
know why someone hasn’t murdered her, but then her soon-to-be husband is every
bit as bad. He’s being the pickiest groom. He thinks he’s smarter than anyone
in the room. I have to work around him. He understands nothing about security
nor technology. We’ve got the pre-wedding party at the estate, and he’s already
texted me fifteen times with complaints. He wants to know why Kara wasn’t
assigned to him.”
Her poor Dom. She cuddled closer and took the glass Sami
gave her.
“Because I would kill him if he touched either Kara,” Cooper
returned. “I promised Ben I would do the whole ‘don’t touch my woman’ thing for
him.”
Kenzie got teary. “He’s always watching out for me. I love
him so much.”
A light groan went through the room, but Vivian thought it
was sweet.
“Well, Luce and I spent the last few hours out at the
estate,” Sami said as she sat down with her own glass. “Their entire staff
hates them. Seriously, if there’s another French Revolution and it occurs here,
those two will be the first to go.”
Vivian was interested in the fact that they talked to the
staff. “Which estate were you at? Edward’s?”
She shook her head. “They’re doing this party at the
Tottenham estate just outside of London. The place itself is beautiful, though
Lucy pointed out every way they could make the place more earth friendly. I
don’t think they care about the earth. They’ve got surprisingly good security there.
I sent Ollie the guest list. Kit Lowe is definitely going to be there.”
“So the staff you talked to have been around Tatiana for a
long time?” Vivian asked.
“I don’t know how she keeps them,” Kala said with a sigh,
resting her head on Cooper’s shoulder. “They’re not allowed to look her in the
eyes and haven’t been since she was a child.”
“She had severe trauma from the kidnapping,” Sami explained.
“From the stories I heard today, Tatiana claimed one of the staff members at
the time aided in her being taken, but she couldn’t remember which one. So they
fired them all and brought in a whole new staff who weren’t allowed to
challenge her on anything. It’s probably why she’s such a monster.”
“According to Eddie, her parents were so horrified by what
happened to her that they gave in to her every demand,” Oliver added. “They
said she changed and they just wanted their little girl back. They were willing
to do anything. I’m afraid they created Tatiana the Terrible, as some in our
circles call her.”
Something about the whole incident didn’t add up in Vivian’s
head. She knew people dealt with trauma differently. Even children, but for
someone who claimed she wasn’t harmed physically, it seemed like an extreme
reaction.
“Did anyone get her medical reports?” Vivian asked.
“What have you figured out, love?” Mal’s hand squeezed her
thigh.
“I don’t know, but I have this feeling,” she replied.
Archie sat forward. “You need to follow your instincts.
What’s bugging you?”
“It’s something about the reaction.” Vivian wouldn’t mind
talking this through with Archie. He was one of Scotland Yard’s most requested
profilers. He was young, but he’d already worked several major cases.
Kala sat up, looking interested again. “Do we think she’s
evil? Because we could take her out and call it a day.”
Archie ignored Kala like he was completely used to sarcasm
as a way of life. He looked to his sister. “They fired everyone? No one is
there who remembers what she was like as a child? Did she have a nanny?”
“They fired her because Tatiana cried whenever she got
close,” Sami replied. “Lucy is writing up the report now. I don’t see what this
has to do with anything.”
“It’s another clue,” Vivian explained. “I’m not saying that
becoming a cold, self-centered person can’t be the outcome of a confluence of
events. The kidnapping. Living in an upper-class society. Her parents hovering
over her.”