Come To Me (Owned Book 3) (8 page)

Dom answered on the last ring. I should have cut Dom out of my life years ago, but the young marine in me still had ties to him. I would give him one more chance. Mistake number two.

“Tell me you’re someplace safe.”

“You told me END was the one who organized the hit,” I replied.

“They did,” he said quickly. Too quickly.

“Then why am I looking at intel that says GEM organized it? And why does it say eliminate target on sight?”

“I…” Dom trailed off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Who gave you that intel? It’s probably bad.” I wasn’t about to give up my source. Charlie had risked his ass sending me the information. It was clear Dom was just as sniveling and weaselly as he had been the first day I’d met him.

I guess I just never expected him to weasel on me. Mistake number fucking three. Remember how I said I hate odd numbers?

“That’s your explanation?”

“I…” The line went dead.

“Motherfucker.” I pushed away from the desk, preparing myself for what would come next.

I
punched in Grace’s number as I exited my office, mind running through everything I had to do.

“There may come a time when you’ve been compromised. Learn your ABCs. Assemble. Break. Clear out.”

“Vic?” Grace’s voice came through sleepy. “Why are you callin’ so early? Is everythin’ okay?” I hadn’t even looked at the clock yet, but that hardly mattered.

“You need to leave.”

“What do you mean I need to leave?”

“I mean you’re in danger. Get Eli and leave Santa Barbara.”

“What are you talkin’ ‘bout? You’re not makin’ any sense.”

“When you’ve been compromised, every tool, every resource you had is gone. If you’re smart, you’ve been assembling your own resources.”

“I’ve put a burner phone, instructions, and some cash in a PO box at the post office by your house.”
I had similar setups at multiple PO boxes, safety deposit boxes, and even buried beneath the earth, around Santa Barbara and the US. Assemble was the first thing you learned in training. Officially, learning your ABCs was never about being blacklisted. It was about if your real name got leaked to a competing company. I was lucky, though; I had a trainer who let me in on the secret early. Too bad that would eventually cost him his life.

“There will come a day when GEM will not be there to assist you and you will be hunted.”

“Why?” Some kid raised his hand, like we were in fucking school. The trainer only glared, but I realized then that we were all expendable.

I heard muffled voices and assumed Grace was talking to Eli. I took the time to grab a duffle bag from the hallway closet. The PO boxes didn’t have any clothes, after all. Bag in hand, I stood still. Our bedroom door was just a foot from me, closed even though no one slept inside.

I knocked, though I knew it was empty.

“What about Charlie?” Grace asked. For a few moments, I didn’t respond, instead staring at our empty bedroom. It was dark; I hadn’t bothered turning on the lights. The hardwood was cold against my feet. Despite the whirring in my head and hushed voices on the phone, this was silent. The bed was made; everything was clean. It reminded me of before Lenny had come into my life. She made everything messy, from my brain to my bathroom.

“What about him?” I sighed, heading over to the wardrobe. I stuffed in some thongs, but just as soon as they were in the bag, I took them out. Staring at what felt like a hundred different versions of underwear, I realized I had no idea what to pack. I dangled the stringy thong and Lenny’s body came to mind. She would look fucking great in the piece, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to pack what she needed. Things to last for a few weeks, until shit died down.

“Can’t he help?” Grace’s voice knocked the image out of my mind and I stuffed the stringy thong back into the dresser, grabbing a thicker, cotton looking thing.

“I get that you’re trying to help Grace, but you don’t have a clue what I’m up against.” I turned my assault to the wardrobe, grabbing sweaters, V-necks, and jeans.

“So let us help!” Grace yelled.

“At this point you’re a liability.” I looked into the duffle bag. I’d packed pajamas, underwear, and day clothes. What else did a woman need?

Tampons?

Did Lenny even use tampons? I remembered her saying something about a cup, but where the fuck did she keep that? The cupboards briefly flashed into my mind but just as quickly I brushed that awful image away. I did a three-sixty spin around the room, feeling fucking helpless.

Eli came on the phone. “What can I do?”

“Get my sister out of here. Follow the instructions and go to the address where no one can find you. Turn off your Wi-Fi and GPS. Only call if you’re thirty seconds from dead.”

“All right.”

“Wait!” Grace screamed, coming back on the phone. “What if I don’t see you again?”

“Then it was nice to know you, Grace.” I hung up and walked back to my lair, double checking I had everything I needed. As I was throwing another burner phone into my duffel, the photo Lissie had given me caught my eye. I wasn’t sure Alice would go after her and Zoe, but just in case, I didn’t want to leave them hanging. I fired off a quick text, giving them the location and info of another PO box. When that was done, I ran downstairs to get Lennox.

We probably only had a few hours left.

“W
hat do you mean I need to leave town?” Almost immediately after I sent the text, Zoe called. I supposed that was to be expected. Not many people would receive a text that told them to get the fuck out and accept it point blank.

“I’m sure Lenny’s said something about the kind of business I’m in. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to affect everyone.” I took a breath. I really was sorry. I used to be a loner, keeping to myself. There was a reason for that; so nothing like this would ever happen. “I don’t know how this will affect Moore Events,” I added. I’d effectively ruined five lives and a business in the span of an hour.

Is there something lower than a piece of shit?

“We have enough money saved that it’s no big deal,” Zoe interrupted. “As for Moore Events, you should know that it’s fine. I’m more concerned about Nox.” As I descended the stairs to wake Lenny, I thought about what Zoe said. I didn’t know anything about Moore Events. It was Lenny’s brainchild, her business, her creation. Between the fighting and GEM, we hadn’t discussed it at all. We only took breaks in our fighting to fuck.

“You know.” Lissie came on the line. “It might be good for her to take a break.”

“It’s a bit more than a break,” I said with a grimace.

“Well obviously,” Lissie said, voice light. I couldn’t help it, a smile came to my mouth. Even as I told them to pack up their life, their child, fucking everything, Lissie sounded fine. I knew her history with drugs, but even so, there was no taint on her. You could easily forget she wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

“What I mean to say is,” Lissie continued, “She dreams up extravagant parties from out of nowhere. And she’s been doing it every week for two years straight. Even if this is a forced break, at least it’s happening.” I stopped on the last step, taking in everything Lissie had just said. The amount of work Lenny had been doing…I had no idea.

Where had our relationship gone wrong?

It was like somewhere down the road we took a turn and instead of trying to find our way back, we kept going through the dark forest, kept driving in the mud, acting as if it was normal to be so blind and battered.

“Just get yourselves safe,” I said gruffly. “I’ll worry about Lenny.” Hanging up, I turned into the guest room we’d built just before Grace’s arrival, as if fate had known my sister would come. Now, however, it acted as a bulwark between us. Lenny had slept there the night before and it wasn’t the first time she’d done so the past few months.

I rapped lightly on the door. “Lenny, we have to go.” Me, I could sleep through anger. I could sleep through pretty much anything. Lenny couldn’t. She felt the pain too deeply and sleeping next to me when our hurt was still raw was next to impossible, like sleeping on the dagger that did the cutting.

“Lenny?” I pushed the door open, pale light streaming over the wood floor. “Lenny, I know you’re mad, but we really have to go.”

There’s a moment, I think, when you know. The moment you know comes before the moment you acknowledge it, which makes it that much more terrible. I felt it in my body, a hard lump in my gut. I knew it as I stood in the doorway, my lone shadow gaunt against the hardwood.

The sheets were wrinkled and flat against the mattress. The pillow stark white, noticeably lacking in red hair. It was empty. It was bereft. I felt it, I knew it, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it.

Those moments were only seconds, but those seconds stretched on and on, tearing away at every bit of me until I stepped forward to the bed. I pulled back the sheets, but in her place was only blood.

I
stay calm while the house is burning down. I’m relaxed while the flame is licking at my heel. I’m known for this. I’m regarded for this. My serenity is infamous. But it was as if the droplets of her blood were acid thrown on my face.

I felt the sound of my scream rip my throat apart. I only realized I’d fallen to my knees by the pressure on the caps. I fisted the sheets until my knuckles were white. I allowed myself that brief moment of utter despair, gave in to the scream that ricocheted in my skull, and then I stood. I ripped the sheets off the bed and walked out of the room without a second glance back.

There were questions that needed answering—like, how the fuck did they get into my house without triggering the alarms? How the fuck did they get her without a scream? These questions did a deadly tango in my mind, almost distracting me from the biggest, most important questions.

I wouldn’t question how to get her back, because I knew I would.

The biggest questions on my mind were who was going to pay, and how much blood would be shed. How much pain could I make them feel before they passed out and died? How many bones would break? Would they count the bones as I counted their sins?

All very important questions, but first, I had to find them.

Still carrying the sheets, I entered my lair. The first thing I did was check her GPS. Nothing came up. I tried to get the signal to ping back. Nothing. Not even a fucking blip. It was as if I was conducting a séance with my fucking computer. Like trying to contact the dead.

The minute that thought popped into my head, I threw everything on my desk to the floor. Pencils and shit scattered everywhere—except the sheets; I still held those.

“God fucking dammit.” I rubbed my temple, thinking back to training.
ABCs…
Nothing. Fuck. It was no use, I couldn’t think straight. Flashes of Lenny, tied up or abused, kept slamming into my head. The things they could do to her…

Well, I knew very well what they could do to her, because I’d done them to others.

I screamed and grabbed my computer by the monitor, ready to throw that off the desk too. I’d never felt so undone. So utterly fucking helpless. I gripped the computer until the screen went blank and then the blackness stared back at me, but in that blackness I could see my face reflected back.