After I blinked the tears away, I focused on the image Lovelace found, shocked to see Olivia and me together, my arm hooked around her from the night I arrived home. We were on the blacktop at the Salvatore Estate, surrounded by The Devil’s Knights. Whoever had taken this picture shot it from above. A drone, if I had to guess. Only close friends and family were there that night.
“Lovelace, where is Mark Ruben right now?”
She was silent for a moment, then returned with bad news. “He’s out of the country. According to the flight manifest, he flew to Paris last week without a return flight booked.”
“Hack into Titan Tech’s servers. Find out where he’s staying in Paris and who he’s meeting with.”
I could have done it myself, but I had optimized Lovelace to think like me. Her typing skills didn’t limit her, which made her better than any hacker, including me.
“His schedule is blank,” Lovelace said a few minutes later. “I checked his assistant’s calendar, and it doesn’t show any upcoming appointments.”
“Where is he staying in Paris?”
“I don’t see his name on any reservation records in France. His flight landed at seven forty-five local time on the twelfth. Since then, he’s gone dark. No credit card transaction history. No flight records.”
If Mark is in bed with Pierre Moreau, the head of The Lucaya Group, then he wouldn’t resurface until he wanted to be found. Until then, I had to wait. Be patient.
Consumed by the information on my screen, I spent another hour poring over the deception of my competitor. It wasn’t until a beep sounded over the speakers that I snapped out of my trance. I expected it to be Lovelace. Instead, Olivia’s flowery voice filled the silent room.
“Drake, you’ve been down there for too long. You didn’t even come upstairs for dinner. Come to bed. Please.”
I hit the button on the desk beside me. “I’m working on a project. I’ll be up later. You should get some sleep.”
“Drake.” She sighed into the receiver. “I can’t keep doing this with you. I know you’re hurting. I know you hate yourself. But I don’t blame you. Tate wouldn’t want you to live like this. Please come to bed.”
The despair in her voice made my chest ache. I was doing what I knew best—locking myself away from the world, cutting off everyone I loved to protect myself from the pain. It was the only way for me to get through the worst time of my life.
But I loved her.
I made a promise.
She was right about Tate. He would have told me to take my head out of my ass and toughen up. If he were there, he would have said I was being selfish. And he would have been right.
“I’m coming up now,” I said, rising from the chair, my bones and joints aching, drained of energy.
Most nights,I dreamed of blood splattered across the limestone floor. I imagined rivers of it pouring out of the stone and flooding the cave through the crack in the ceiling. But then, Olivia would shake my arm. She’d kneel beside me and say my name until I opened my eyes.
“Drake,” she whispered in the darkness, putting a hand on my sweat-slick chest. “Wake up.”
I blinked a few times to clear my vision. My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of the ceiling. The shadows on the walls reminded me of the cave at night. Whenever I came to, those shadows haunted me. They served as a reminder that those men would return for me. I knew the fight was not over.
Blood demanded blood.
“Drake, you’re safe,” Olivia said as my body started shaking, still living in that horrible, dark place in my mind. “You’re home.”
I was only mildly aware of her presence. Her touch felt familiar but different. The nightmares started my first night back home, and when I finally snapped to the present, I wasn’t myself.
“Drake,” she whispered. “Please say something. Let me know you’re okay.”
After we confessed our love for each other, Olivia slowly started pulling away from me. Even if she meant those words, she said them in the heat of the moment. Confessed under duress.
“I’m okay,” I lied. “Just another nightmare.”
“You’re not fine. We’ve barely spoken more than a few words a day. Sometimes you zone out, like you’re mentally someplace else.” Olivia sucked in a deep breath. “Drake, I need you.”
“I need you, too.”
My ribs finally healed, so curling her curvy body into mine didn’t hurt like hell. I turned my girl onto her side and moved behind her. Wearing only boxer briefs and nothing else, I was all too aware of my cock rubbing her ass and the slight movements she made to get comfortable.
