When they didn't immediately go to the room that he was staying in, Vivica should've known better. She should have walked away right then, stopped trying to be nice. She was trying to be pleasant, even though George himself was not pleasant. Vivica was trying really hard because of Shane. While he may not care for his dad in some sense, Vivica knew that there was a strong father-son bond that she didn’t want to get in the middle of. What she wanted was for him to leave her alone.
George was about to take her outside and she asked him where they were going. Vivica didn’t want to go anywhere with him.
“Don't you trust me?”
Vivica thought that it was a funny question to ask. She would have liked to have answered yes, but that would have been a lie.
“I can't say that I know you enough to trust you. I trust that you don't care one way or another what happens to me, so it’s kind of hard to trust you in any meaningful way.”
She thought that it was going to make him upset, but he just started laughing like it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.
“Well, I will give it to you, Vivica. At least you aren’t one of the dumb ones and I might even sense some humor in you. Good that you’re not so bland.”
She tried to resist saying something smart. It was practically coming from all sides, but Vivica knew that she had to fight it. Vivica kept telling herself that she would be out of there soon enough. She just had to get away from George and back to Shane. She didn’t want to cause more trouble, so Vivica was still trying to be nice about it and let it end without a huge issue.
George turned around all of a sudden and said that he was sorry. It didn’t sound real, just words, and there was that sinking feeling in her stomach again.
“Sorry for what?”
He didn’t answer, but Vivica saw something in his hand right before he hit her in the head with it. She remembered thinking that she really shouldn’t have gone with him. Of all the things that she would have imagined happening, Vivica didn’t think he would actually attack her. She was wrong though. It appeared that he would and did.
Chapter 24
Shane
“Dammit, Vivica!”
That was the first thing that Shane thought when he realized that she was gone again. It was rather funny to him, how quickly she could run away from him. They had a decent night, not like the one before, but that was because of the argument he had with his dad. His father was pushing Shane to get back into the clan, and Shane had to believe that it was something underhanded that he was wanted for.
When he’d gotten back to the bedroom, he hadn’t been in the mood. Vivica had been, but he was so frustrated that he had forced himself to lay down and go to sleep. He couldn’t deal with all of it, but now, Shane woke up alone in the bed. He didn’t know where Vivica was and he wanted to think that she was somewhere in the house, but he knew she wasn’t. He couldn’t feel her presence anymore and that saddened him more than he wanted to admit. It was hard for Shane to see all of it happening. He was trying his best to stay calm, but that felt impossible. It all felt impossible.
Maria was close by and must have heard Shane, because she popped her head into the room and asked him if he needed anything.
“Maria, no, thanks, I’m good.”
“You don’t look ‘good’, Mr. Shane.”
Shane sighed. He wasn’t good at all.
“You didn’t happen to see Vivica take off last night, did you?”
Maria shook her head and said that she hadn’t. “No, but I saw your father leave out of here late last night, and he looked like he was in a hurry.”
“Is he here now?”
She agreed that he wasn’t, and Shane didn’t want to go there, but his mind went there. It had to. Was his father to blame for Vivica’s disappearance, or was he just grasping at straws because he hated the idea of it being because of him? Again. He had put a lot on her after all.
“Tell me that you saw them together?”
“I didn’t see them together, Shane, but I did hear talking in the kitchen.”
“What did it sound like?”
Maria shrugged and wanted to know what was going on. Shane assured her that it was nothing that she had to worry about, but he couldn’t say the same for himself. It was not at all what he’d wanted, and the more Shane thought about it, the more he was convinced that his father had betrayed him again. Shane had to wonder how many more times he could take it. How many more times was he going to be able to handle his father going against him? It was too much. This time he had gone too far. This time, he was messing with Shane’s mate and his child. There was no way that he was going to be able to let his dad walk away unscathed from that.
“If you see her or she comes back here for any reason, I want you to call me, okay, Maria?”
Maria agreed, even though she didn’t know what was going on. She’d worked for Shane for a long time, but Shane never asked such things of her, or he hadn’t in the past. It was always the way of things. He was always trying to keep her calm. She’d seen a few too many things but had never said a word. Shane knew that he could trust her, even if that wasn’t something he could say about many people, ninety-nine percent of people really.
