“I don’t remember...”
“You and Garrett had gone to a ballgame.”
That made sense.With his dad out of town, Nic would frequently use the club level tickets that hadn’t been given to clients and sneak off with Garrett for an afternoon at the ballpark.They made it to their seats only half the time, often diverting to a shadowed corner of the concourse to make out.They’d never appeared as more than friends in the seats, afraid some of the regulars around them might say something to Curtis.Which sounded like what Duncan had been doing too, only showing up to confront Victoria when Curtis was out.
“What happened?”Nic asked.
“He tried again to convince her to leave.Confessed he’d always been in love with her and proposed.”
Nic gasped.Until today, he’d never suspected that Victoria was at the center of the animosity between Duncan and Curtis.
“But he wasn’t the same Duncan Vaughn then,” Mary continued.“And she had Garrett to worry about.He was her whole world.”And he’d become Nic’s too.“She could take a chance on Duncan, who barely had a cent to his name, or she could provide a future for them with your father, who up until then had been nothing but good to her.”
“Was she in love with Duncan?”
“She was so upset after their fight that I thought maybe.I talked to her afterward and she swore she wasn’t.But he was her best friend; she didn’t have the heart to tell him that.”
“So he still thinks Dad stole her.”
All the pieces clicked into place.Everything was starting to make sense now.
Everything.
What Duncan had once told him Curtis had stolen.What Duncan had taken from Curtis.He’d set out to destroy Curtis the way he perceived Curtis had destroyed his life by cratering his chances with the woman he’d always loved.
“He’s the one your father was in debt to?”
“I can’t answer that.”Though he figured he’d done as much by his words.
“After Victoria disappeared,” Mary said, “Duncan confronted your father, demanding to know where she’d gone.He told Curtis one day he would pay for hurting her, for stealing her away from him.”
With his fortune, and now it looked like his life.Had he made Victoria and Garrett pay too?And if not then, would he now, thinking that removing Curtis would somehow impress her?
“Do you have any idea where Victoria and Garrett went?Did you ever hear from them?”
“Not a word.”
He needed to talk to Mel.Find and warn them.He’d never intended to contact Victoria and Garrett again, afraid he’d only bring them more pain than he already had.He didn’t want to disrupt their lives a second time.But he’d never forgive himself if he let any harm come to them because of Vaughn’s vendetta.
Mary covered his hand where it had fisted on his knee.“He’s a dangerous man now, Dominic.Everyone here knows that.Vengeance has fueled him for thirty years.”
Had it fueled the murder of his father too?Almost certainly.
“Dominic!”Cam’s shout rang up the stairs.In his agent voice, this late at night, it couldn’t be good news.
By Mary’s wide-eyed look, she sensed it too.
He patted her hand, then stood and crossed to the stairs.Cam was at the bottom, hands braced on the rails.
“What’s going on?”Nic asked.
“Moore just called.We know why Harris Kincaid missed his meeting this afternoon.He’s dead.”
Eight
In an eerie repeat of the morning, Cam navigated Nic’s truck down another winding, tree-lined street, dodging parked cars and emergency response vehicles.No press vans yet, but it was only a matter of time.As soon as they connected Harris Kincaid to Curtis Price, reporters were bound to start asking questions.Cam wanted answers before that happened.
Aidan’s Vanquish helped clear a path for them, the roar of the engine scattering cars and people.Cam pulled into a spot next to the coroner’s van and let the truck idle, staring at the spooky sight ahead.One town over from Cam and Nic’s place, Harris’s house looked about the same size and style but not nearly as well kept.The front lawn was overgrown, the box hedges dying, and in the harsh glare of headlights and emergency vehicle strobes, the peeling paint and rotting wood were apparent.Together with the crime scene spotlights inside, backlighting the huge front windows over which were hung lingering Halloween decorations, the place looked almost haunted.
