The tinypositivepregnancy test.
While the flames danced over the crackling logs, the men seated behind me argued among themselves.I heard none of it, too lost in my own head and the nightmare of my own making.Vega didn’t simply leave us—she disappeared.There was no trace of her.
No credit card transactions, no flight itineraries, not even a glimpse of her on any of the cameras at the bus stations within a hundred-mile radius.Nothing on the apartment building’s security feed or any of the surrounding CCTV footage.Not even the doorbell camera from the neighbor across the hall could give us a time frame of when she’d left.
It was as if Vega had walked into her apartment after work, and then she and her most treasured belongings vanished into thin air.Or she’d discovered a mythical Narnia wardrobe.
She didn’t even show up for work when Thursday rolled around.I checked with one of my contacts at the hospital and learned that Vega had given her notice, using her vacation and PTO to cover the time required by her contract.If I’d worried someone had taken her against her will, that alone was proof to me she’d planned this.
No one had known she was even thinking about quitting, except for HR, who’d filed the paperwork with Vega’s distinctive signature, her V delicate and unmistakable.Her job was fast-paced, physically and mentally draining, but she loved the work.
Christ knew she wasn’t working there for the bare minimum pay well below what her certifications and brilliance deserved because she couldn’t find a better job.She did it because she was passionate about helping others, despite witnessing again and again how vile people could truly be.
Fuck, the woman I loved was missing, and I was internally spiraling while attempting to keep up appearances with my da, Aurelio, and motherfucking Cullum.Ryder had basically gone catatonic since realizing Vega had left us.He was an empty shell, not even a flicker of life behind his blue eyes.At the moment, he was seated in the chair directly to my left, visible out of the corner of my eye.
Other than showering and dressing, he wasn’t participating in mundane everyday activities.Eating and speaking seemed too much for the poor bastard.He followed where I led, sat when I commanded it, closed his eyes when I told him to sleep.His life-force, his reason for existence, was gone, making it impossible for him to function as a productive human.
For as long as I’d known him, Ryder had always been full of energy, life.His distaste for his father was barely masked by his sardonic attitude toward Cullum.Ryder didn’t fear his father, and that was what pissed Cullum off the most.Meanwhile, Ry’s open disrespect and insolence amused my da, who could hardly tolerate Cullum.
Without Vega, Ryder had shut down completely.Gone was the energetic man I’d bonded with.We were closer than best friends—brother-husbands, as Vega had once teasingly called us.Then she’d turned an adorable shade of pink and never said the word husband in front of us again.
She was right, though.We were brother-husbands.I’d shared Vega with him for years, never once feeling jealous of him or his time with her.If nothing else, I was thankful for him.He’d brought her into my life.Meeting Vega had opened my heart for the first and only time.Once this fucked-up mess was over, we would put a ring on her finger and dedicate the rest of our lives to making her happy.
If we ever found her.
No.I had to stop thinking like that or I’d go crazy.When.When we found her, I’d make it all up to her.She’d never doubt me.Us.
I wanted to hate Ryder, blame him for Vega leaving us.If we’d told her the plan from the beginning, things might have been different.Maybe she still would have been home where she belonged, tucked in bed, cozy and warm.Maybe she would have stayed.
But I couldn’t be upset with my best friend.I shared as much of the responsibility for keeping our girl in the dark as he did.Because if we had told her the plan, there would have been a very high probability of her kicking us out of her life then and there.
I couldn’t take that chance.
I pressed my thumb into the plastic stick in my pocket, reminding myself that there was more at stake than simply getting back the woman I loved.A child was growing in Vega’s womb.Whether I was the biological father or not made no difference.Our star was carryingourbaby.And she was out there alone in the world, thinking fuck knew what about us.
From the first moment I’d set eyes on Vega, every instinct inside me had screamed to protect and possess.I couldn’t do either right then, and the helplessness of that realization was slowly killing me.
In the days since Vega had vanished, I’d spent millions for the top hackers in the world to trace her.Men and women who were on international wanted lists, who even worked for the same governments they had once tried to infiltrate, masterminds of the dark web that were supposed to be able to crack anything, anywhere, under any pressure.
Yet so far, they had found nothing.
Fucking nothing.
Not even a glitch in the many camera feeds that should have caught her when she’d left or a single reliable facial recognition hit at any bus stop, airport, or ship port.
All the IT geniuses had their own conclusions.There was no way anyone could disappear like that unless they had help.They had found zero corruption in any of the security footage.According to them, there were only two people in the world capable of wiping anything so cleanly.
Ghost and Genie.
I didn’t know either of them personally.Their reputations, however, had reached me over the years and seemed more mythical than actual.Stories of Genie taking down corrupt politicians, entire governments in foreign countries.Legends of Ghost pulling the plug on flesh-trade traffickers that had allegedly inspired an entire movie franchise—and not just because he had the brains to black out their systems.He was whispered to be a true assassin.
If the two ever teamed up, they could potentially run the entire world with a few clicks of a mouse.
How could anyone be that powerful with nothing more than internet access?
Yet the half dozen experts I’d entrusted to find Vega all said the same thing, with respect and fear in their voices.As if the two of them were literal deities.
I instructed my people to reach out, to offer whatever it would take for either of the famed hackers to help me find Vega.If one of them had assisted her in running, they could tell me where she was.Or at least confirm that she was safe.
