by Ace Gray
“That thing has been ringing off the hook. Not my place to say, but you need to deal with it." Luckily, she was talking over her shoulder, and unable to see how hard each step was for me. I managed to follow her to the kitchen. “How are you holding up? Anything I can do for you?"
“I’m really fucking sad. And I hate seeing Nick like this.”
“Language.” She turned and smiled as she patted my shoulder. I arched my eyebrow. “Sorry. Habit. I know, it sucks to see someone you care about in pain.”
I made a face and changed the subject. “Is Ari doing okay?”
“Gemma’s been taking good care of her. When Nick is feeling up to it you can all go hug it out or whatever. That's not what I want to talk about…" Her voice got serious and she arched her eyebrow.
"Laura I do not want to hear about Nick…”
"No. God, no.” She held up her hands in front of her chest as she interrupted. “Now I know Nicholas had good reason to act the way he did. He’s had good intentions from the start.”
She took a deep breath.
“But?” One was most certainly coming.
”Kate, I'm worried he's just like you. He's going to fall into that zombie-like depression you’re overly fond of. You have to stop indulging him and snap him out of it. I can't. Ari can't. None of us can. You have to keep him going the way I kept you going. Don't let him falter."
I took a deep breath. This was not at all what I expected.
"He's going to say fuck it all to hell, just like you, and he's going to sit in a ball in bed and count dots on the ceiling or whatever it is you do. Don't stay wrapped up in bed with him. I know you want to."
I didn’t meet her eyes, finding the grout in the tiled countertop fascinating instead. Silence hung heavy in the room while I started tracing the small tracks with my finger. My fingers ran right into a porcelain cup of coffee Laura slid in front of me. I smiled, still focused on the countertop.
"You're right. Of course you're right."
“I know. You just haven't been on this side of the issue before. I thought you might need a reality check before I left. Please don't think I'm slighting anyone’s grief."
I nodded, watching my dark red nails still run along the grout.
"And don't forget to take care of yourself either. You’re allowed to be sad but you better take care of that heart." She threw her arms around me.
"I love you, you know that right?” I asked where I was smooshed against her shoulder.
"Undoubtedly. I mean who couldn't?" She laughed lightly and the sound helped my shoulders release. “And I love you. You're my family and that means they are too."
She waved one hand around the kitchen and I knew that meant everyone in this giant house. Ringing interrupted our moment and I looked down to see an unknown number. That threw me, the stomach thing happened all over again.
“Answer it. You need to if he won't."
My brow creased but I answered with a clipped, "Yes?"
"Oh Kate, thank God." I recognized Julien’s voice on the other end, but something was off. Way off. "I didn't know how else to get in touch with him. I am so sorry to bother you,” he rattled into the receiver.
"Julien calm down. It's fine. What’s going on?"
"I need to speak to him."
"He's not going to take the call."
I tried to sound firm but I came across sad.
"It’s an emergency. I wouldn't be interrupting otherwise." Julien’s panic overwhelmed him again.
“Julien, I said calm down. Tell me what's going on. We’ll get it taken care of."
This was what Laura was talking about.
I started pacing. Laura arched an eyebrow at my shaky legs, then took my coffee away. She seamlessly poured a ton of vanilla soy and sugar in my cup while I was talking on the phone. I made a face but stayed focused on Julien.
“How much do you know about Victor Alexander?”
My heart dropped.
“A lot.” I took a deep breath. “I think anyway.”
“He was identified through facial recognition inside the Bryant Offices.”
His voice was speeding up and getting almost squeaky.
“Fuck.”
Laura mumbled, “Language” under her breath and into my coffee.
“The thing is we activated security sweeps to detain him but they can’t find him.”
Jaime and Colton came striding into the kitchen when I swore, both watching intently. I couldn’t help but notice that Jaime’s hand flinched toward his holster. It made me wonder what my face looked like.
“We’ve upped security but it’s not helping.”
“I need a brief emailed to me within fifteen minutes. Camera locations, actions taken following sightings, everything.”
I didn’t even hesitate as I ran for the stairs. Or as close to running as I could manage. "I'll be there shortly Julien. I want you and the head of security at Vesper's offices in one hour."
"You're going to get him to come and fix it?"
"I'm going to fucking fix it."
I clicked off my phone and yelled down the staircase.
“Jaime, be ready to leave in 15 minutes. We will take my car, and I don't want to hear any objections."
I busted in the door to find Nick curled just as Laura had predicted, in a ball in the corner of the bed, staring at the carpet, possibly even tracing patterns or counting stitches. My jacket and shoes laid haphazardly on the back of a chair behind him. I tiptoed toward them.
"Don't go."
I let out a deep sigh.
"I have to baby.” How did he know? “Come with me?”
I bent down and kissed the back of his shoulder. He let his head roll on the pillow.
"I'm not going to make you, Nick,” I continued. "But it’s serious or I wouldn't be leaving."
"Don't go."
His tone was heartbreaking; so much so that my heart really did thunder. Painfully so. My face contorted and I doubled over. Mercifully, I was hidden behind him.
“Bryant, Victor is sneaking into your building. You said he was tied to Christopher. Something has to be done."
I was trying desperately not to claw into my skin over my heart.
"Fuck the Venture Group. I don't give a shit about the damn thing,” he snarled.
“Look, Nick.” I forced a deep breath. “I’ll be damned if it's not standing there, the multi-billion dollar empire it’s supposed to be, when you're ready.”
He let those words hang in the air. He didn’t flinch. Hell, he didn’t even breathe.
"Please don't go. I'll beg."
That cut me deep. I had to double over again, and even reach out for a chair.
"I have to baby." I forced myself to stop shaking long enough to lean in and kiss his shoulder one more time.
"Kate, no.” A sob shook his body. "Please." His voice was so small and so scared.
Every fiber of my being protested, yearning to stay fixed to him like the stars to their inky, black sky. I had to make myself repeat every word Laura had said.
"I love you, Nicholas Bryant. I love you more than words can say. I am only a phone call away but I have to."
My knees buckled again while my fingers and toes went numb. I felt the tear run down my cheek as I dragged myself away. His soft snivels behind me mimicked mine.
I’m doing this for him, I’m doing this for him, I’m doing this for him...
I hated myself for leaving him. My heart was even more pissed about it than my mind. I had to occupy my fingers simply so they didn’t bruise the left side of my chest.
After a few miles and a few emails, I found it easier to focus. None of the messages erased my pain, or guilt—or sorrow for that matter—but they occupied enough of my mind that I couldn't drip tears over the distance rapidly growing between Nick and I.
One email in particular caught my eye. Personal condolences from District Attorney Hart. My insides lurched when I read the reminder that he was happy to help with anything.
An idea appeared, more desperate than fully formed. What I wanted more than anything was to see someone pay for what my family was going through. Victor would do just fine. If he lead us to Christopher, even better.
My fingers were flying across the keys before I gave it a second thought. DA Hart answered on the second ring. Jaime’s eyes widened as I explained the situation in very broad terms. Jaime’s slight twitches and infinitesimal scowls told me how compelled he was to shush me. But there was no way I was shutting up now; this was right. Even my heart mellowed moderately.
“I’m not sure about this Kate.” Jaime glowered out at the road when he spoke after I hung up.
“I am.” I made a point to look at him as directly as the passenger seat would allow. “We need help.”
“Jaime, I’d listen. She doesn’t admit to needing help very often.” I’d almost forgotten Laura was in the backseat. “Or perhaps, ever.”
I arched my eyebrow at her dig but she just scoffed. I think Jaime managed a tiny smile.
“These things tend to come with a price. I’m worried about what we’ll have to pay.”
If it hadn’t been for my gut feeling, I would have been too.
“I’m not.” At that, I bent back over my BlackBerry, working even more furiously with my phone than I had been before. “Besides Jaime, I’d pay any price for Nick.”
26.
Vesper’s conference room looked like a war council; Julien had done exactly as I’d asked. I settled into my skin as much as possible without Nick and was mid-sentence, briefing the team, when DA Hart arrived.
He was accompanied by a young man, my age, or slightly older, and built like a mack truck. I noticed his suit first—it was obviously expensive, not just because of the fabric but because of the way it was tailored to such an obscenely muscular frame. Most tongues would wag at a man like that.
But most women didn’t have Bryant. I wasn’t checking him out, I was scrutinizing him.
His eyes struck me next, pale green and downright luminescent. Unlike Nick’s they betrayed nothing; they were ruthless but hypnotic. So much so, I almost forgot to listen when DA Hart introduced his nephew, Brooklyn.
DA Hart asked me to continue but it was Brooklyn who listened intently as I did. His face crinkled and occasionally and he’d cock his head back and forth as if he was considering my words. Most of the time he’d arch a singular eyebrow and then return to his stone faced observation.
We were reviewing the security reports when Brooklyn interrupted. “Are we sure that the facial recognition component of Bryant’s software hasn’t been tampered with?”
“Diagnostics were run multiple times,” the Venture Group’s head of security spoke up.
“Then I’d wager this is a decoy.” Brooklyn’s haunting eyes leveled at me.
My stomach dropped and my heart hammered, not because of what he’d said, but because I knew, in the deepest crevices of my soul, without any shadow of doubt, it was true. I’d been pushing my intuition aside for too long. It had predicted Ally, Piper, Victor, Christopher, and Julia. But I hadn’t really listened. I wasn’t making the same mistake again.
“Decoy for what?”
“Therein lies the real question. If you know who is behind this, because I know Victor, and it’s sure as shit not him, we might be able to figure that out.” Brooklyn sat up, flippantly tossing papers on the table and narrowing his gaze at me.
For the first time since leaving the Winthrop house I faltered. I rubbed my heart and looked to Jaime. A whole conversation passed between us with that look. Wordlessly we agreed to accept help.
Brooklyn arched his eyebrow as he settled back into his chair, completely aware that something had passed between us. And, if I wasn’t mistaken, completely sure of the meaning.
Good God, he’s more smug than Nick.
My heart thudded at the thought of my fiancé, crumpled in bed, and my knees wavered in time with my heart.
Jaime noticed, he always noticed, and started barking out orders. The room slowly emptied, ants scurrying to tasks, while Brooklyn and DA Hart sat still watching the melee. When the tidal wave of activity subsided, only the four of us remained in the room wrapped in a thick blanket of silence.
“If you trust them Kate, I trust them, and they need to know.” Jaime nodded first at the DA then at Brooklyn.
“Philip do you trust this one?” I asked as I gestured to Brooklyn.
“With everything the Hart family is.” He nodded succinctly.
I sighed and plopped into the nearest chair. Relief rushed wildly through me at the thought of having help, of having someone to lean on. My hand was still fluttering at my chest as I swiveled toward the windows.
“I don’t know if it’s one or both of them.” I sounded tired, even to myself. “But Victor Alexander and Christopher Winthrop have been playing out this personal vendetta on a global stage for a while now.”
The leather beneath both men crinkled as they shifted in their seats behind me. If I had to guess, the names alone had captured their attention. It was just so much easier to speak staring at the skyline rather than Brooklyn’s piercing green eyes.
“Victor’s said he’s just a pawn in this and, for the most part, I believe him. But it didn’t start that way.” I bit my lip.
“How did it start?” Brooklyn’s voice was perfectly professional.
So I started at the beginning and unloaded everything. Family history, personal history, business history. All the things that Nick had worked so hard to keep secret laid bare for the DA and his nephew.
When I finished I took a deep breath. I felt lighter somehow but started worrying on my lip all the same.
“Tetrahexazine?” Brooklyn finally broke the silence. The word was so disorienting that I finally turned to look at him.
“Excuse me?”
“Was that what he slipped into your drink. Tetrahexazine.”
“I don’t know. They were only able to say it was amphetamine based and that I needed rest or to be observed.”
“That means the rumors are true.” Brooklyn scowled. “The military got the bright idea that, if they could induce a controlled heart attack and make a captive think he was dying, the torture process could be streamlined. The physical pain, the emotional terror, death looking directly in your face, but reversible if need be, and all without any proof of torture on an autopsy. Makes torturing civilians a very real plausibility. ”
I let out a heavy sigh. “So this…” I pointed to my chest then couldn’t help but rub on it. “...may actually kill me.”
“No, it will kill you. If left unchecked without an antidote you will have a massive heart attack. Effective torture has to have an incentive to end the torture.”
Brooklyn rubbed his temples as his eyes darted back and forth, but I still couldn’t read what was roving through his head.
“What if I just take heart medication? Something that helps prevent heart attacks?”
“As far as I know, this attacks your nervous system, sending new heartbeat patterns to your body. They get worse with stress. So something that prevents clogged arteries would be irrelevant.” He sighed. “Besides, the rumor is that it wipes out every medication in your system anyway. Just to be sure it’s effective.”
I sat wide eyed, my fingers tracing my heart. I wanted Nick here to deflect those words more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life.
“So you’re telling me I’m going to die, and stress is only going to kill me faster.” My hand pushed hard enough to bruise my ribs. I didn’t care. I just wanted to keep it in there. Jaime’s hand came to my shoulder while DA Hart’s face pinched toward Brooklyn.
Brooklyn cocked his head. “What? I’m just relaying information. I didn’t poison her.” Philip thwacked him on his shoulder. “Fine. I have an idea of where I can get my hands on some antidote but it’s black market shit. It’ll take some time.” He pursed his lips. “Until then, I’d suggest you go and lie down.”
“No.” I managed a full-blown Bryant growl for Brooklyn. “I will fix this.”
“Kate, that’s what I’m here for. I fix things. You got a dead stripper in a closet? A DEA shakedown for coke smuggling? Someone who needs to leave the country? Call me.”
“He’s really very good when he’s not being a cocky ass.” Philip rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t have brought him otherwise.”
“Well that’s lovely for Brooklyn, but I don’t give a shit if he’s a dealing-with-Christopher-Winthrop specialist. I’m fixing this because it is my life, my love, and my everything. Lying in bed, playing damsel-in-distress will just stress me out more.”
“That’s actually the truth.” Jaime’s hand hadn’t wavered from my shoulder.
“Stubborn?” Brooklyn arched an eyebrow.
“You have no idea,” Jaime smirked. “She’s always an asset though.”
“She’s sitting right fucking here. There’s no need to talk about me like I’m a God damn puppy,” I snapped.
“You, my friend, are no puppy. You’re a pit bull. Which I appreciate.” He smiled a positively boyish and mischievous grin. I couldn’t help that my smile turned up slightly to match.
Brooklyn took over after that. We’d all taken up tasks he doled out. Security panel reviews, frame by frame photo evaluations, identification of employees. In theory, I understood what we were looking for but nothing held my attention.
I had been trying to call Nick repeatedly and when that didn't work, I phoned Terrence. He informed me Nick wasn't taking calls. Instead he was smashing scotch glasses when anyone knocked on the door. Once when Terrence was checking again for me, likely dodging glass or crystal again, I started to scribble out a list of all the offenses, large and small, that had been leveled against Nick and I. I included everything from Ally to the poisoning. I aimlessly traced the letters over and over.
Every so often I’d scan the room and catch Brooklyn studying me. The fourth time it happened I snapped. “What Brooklyn?”
“What changed?”
“Excuse me?”
“This all started up four months ago. What happened four months ago?”
I bit my lip as I thought over the past few months.
