My life was carefully planned out before she came along and turned it upside down. Because of her, I got fucked over on everything I’d been promised. In less than two months, she managed to shatter everything I’d worked my entire life for. And, for what? I ended up seriously injured, got fucked over by the team I was supposed to sign with, and didn’t even get the girl. I. Didn’t. Even. Get. The. Girl. And she didn’t just run. No, Lyla James can’t do anything half-assed. She had to go and change her fucking identity, making it impossible to find her. Who changes their identity? Someone running from someone.Obviously.I need to know who it is and when I find out, I’m going to make them pay triple — once for what they did to her, once for making her run from me, and once for fucking me over.
But first, I’m going to make her pay. For three years, I’ve pictured her leading a boring life somewhere in her baggy clothes with a permanent scowl on her face, so when I saw the picture of her a few days ago, I went from very upset to fucking livid. On Marissa’s birthday, I watched Prescott’s IG extra closely, the way I do every year. For the past two years, he’s posted little things — drinks, dinner, but nothing that exposes where he is or who he’s with. This year, when I was refreshing my feed every couple of seconds, like I was in the queue for fucking concert tickets, he finally made the post I’d been waiting for.
At two in the morning, he shared a picture in his close friends’ group. I clicked it quickly, just in case he’d made a mistake. The punch in the gut was immediate. My hands shook, as I paused the picture and screenshotted it. While my finger was on the screen, holding the image steady, I stared at Lyla Motherfucking James. Alive and well, wearing a sexy-as-fuck outfit in the arms of another man. AND SHE WAS LAUGHING. She was fucking LAUGHING. The next post was a video that I’m sure he didn’t mean to upload, since it didn’t actually show anything.
But I heard her voice as she told some asshole named Wade that, “he smelled like an ashtray but smelled good underneath it.” She’d said it in her sarcastic as fuck tone. He laughed loudly and told her she was funny, and I wanted to reach into the phone and strangle him. I’d called my brother in the middle of the night, because even though I was a master screenshotter, up until now, I hadn’t had to save a video from someone’s story. Liam talked through it and I kinda wish he hadn’t. I’ve listened to it more times than I can count, and each time I get more heated than the last. Just thinking about it now makes my pressure go up. My fists pound my desk once.
“Lach!”
“What?”
“You need to calm the fuck down,” he says slowly, as if he’s afraid I’ll lash out at him.
I pull the file closer. “What about the guy she was with?”
“What about him?” Liam takes a seat across from me.
“Who is he?”
“You can barely see his face and we only have one name to go by. We don’t even know if it’s his first or last.”
I close my eyes and take three deep breaths to control my temper. These days, it doesn’t take much to set me off. I’m a ticking time bomb waiting for someone to push me just enough to make me explode. I lost count of how many times I’d ended up in the sin bin these last three seasons. I pinch the bridge of my nose and focus on breathing. When I’m calm enough, I look at my brother again.
“Isn’t that what we do here?” I ask. “Don’t we have every single piece of equipment to find people? Don’t we have facial recognition programs and shit?”
“Well, yeah, but it’s a partial face at best,” he says. “We can probably do it, but it’ll take a little longer.”
I sit with that for a moment. I don’t have a little longer, and it doesn’t really matter who the guy is. If he’s a boyfriend, she’ll have to break up with him. If he’s a friend, fuck, it’s not like I can tell her who she can and can’t be friends with. I’m notthatmuch of an asshole. I’m so annoyed at myself for caring about this shit. Right now, she’s a means to an end. Getting her will kill two birds with one stone — I’ll get what I need from her and make her suffer for leaving me. I’m not sure what’ll happen after that, but I know nothing will match how much she made me suffer. Besides, when it comes to the two of us, she’s arguably the biggest asshole. Not arguably. She is. The wall that she puts up as a defense mechanism might as well be a superpower.
I take a breath and open the folder.
Delilah Duke Guzman.Oh-ho-ho. No, she did not. I sit back in my chair with a grin on my face. I was not expecting that shit. This officially just got better. I read through the file. She works at a sports center and just finished med school. According to this, once she’s done with a two-year residency, she’ll officially be a doctor.Impressive.I probably should have told her to explore other options, since this career means she’ll have to deal with people one-on-one every day, and she’s not the best at that. Whatever, not my problem. When she’s not working there, she’s coaching and training with soccer players. I flip the page and find an envelope that contains pictures. I look through each one, feigning disinterest even though I’m starving for more. She’s with Marissa in the first picture. In another, she’s talking to a guy that might be the Wade character. It’s another partial shot. This motherfucker doesn’t know how lucky he is. I set the picture aside anyway. In the others, she’s doing drills with some teenagers and coaching little kids. The next picture captivates me. She’s crouching down talking to a little blonde girl.
It’s the little girl who gets Lyla’s smile.My smile. My heart sinks. Jesus Christ, is this really what my life has come to? I’m one of the most eligible bachelors — I've been ranked number one by the gossip magazines. Even if I hadn’t been, I know my worth. Getting women has never been a problem. But instead of focusing on them, I’m brooding over this picture. I’ve taken ownership of a smile, and now I’m jealous of a fucking child for taking it. I look through the rest of the pictures and pay attention to her face in those. They’re all polite smiles. I don’t know if it’s a polite happy smile or just polite. I’ll have to see it in person. I should be content with the fact that she’s no longer scowling at everyone, but that just triggers other points of anger inside me. We found her, though. We finally found her. That, I am happy about. I feel my brother’s eyes on me, as I take in the information. He’s been wary to look for her from the beginning. I’m starting to think he’s afraid of what I’ll do when I find her. He’s right to be. I’m not entirely sure how this will go down when we’re finally standing face to face. I would never physically harm her, so there’s no worries on that front. There are other ways to hurt her that don’t include touching her. I guess we’ll just have to see how I feel when I see her.
Delilah Duke Guzman. I shake my head and smile again. I can’t remember the last time I genuinely smiled.Delilah Duke Guzman.If she wants, she can keep the first name. I’ll probably never call her that, so it won’t matter. Duke is permanent. I need to get the James back in there.
“Lach?” Liam says across from me. I’m still smiling and the look of horror on his face makes me smile more.
“Where the fuck is Rhodes?” I slide the partial-face picture across the desk and tap it. “Also, use this one.”
* * *
I knock on my father’s door and wait until he invites me in. He grins when I step into the office and stands to give me a hug. It’s still weird as fuck seeing Henry all the time. It’s weirder that after ignoring me for over twenty years, he’s totally flipped and now wants us to get togetherall the fucking time.I’m convinced that the brain tumor made him grow a heart. We have weekly dinners at their house, sometimes with guests, and other times, just the four of us. I try to go when time allows, but only because I would have visited my mother on those short breaks anyway. The whole thing is weird as fuck, but he’s trying really hard, so I’m trying as well. Mom keeps saying that she wants him to retire so they can travel all the time, but he’s not ready. In the meantime, he’s agreed to go on a few trips a year and wants us to learn everything, so he won’t worry while he’s gone and when the time comes, he can retire. I doubt he’ll ever truly retire. Henry lives for this shit. If it weren’t for Mom, he’d probably sleep here. He tries to give me a full-on hug, but I pat him on the back twice and move away quickly to the chair across from him. I’m not a hugger and even if I was, I wouldn’t hughim. I’m not there yet. I’m doing much better, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get to the genuinely full-on hugging stage.
“So.” He slaps a hand on his desk as he takes a seat. “What are we discussing today?”
“The acquisitions team wants to reach out to the FBI about the new drones,” I say, “They think they’d benefit from them.”
He gives a nod. “What do you think?”
“It doesn’t really matter what I think,” I say. I’ve already told him that I hate working with the government in any capacity. If they were doing legit let’s-keep-the-peace shit with this tech, I’d be fine, but who knows what the hell they’re using this for. Instead of saying all of that for the tenth time, I say, “If the money is right and they sign a long contract, we can’t turn them down. Especially since another company is probably on our heels producing them as well.”
He nods. “What did you tell the team?”
“To draw up a proposal and email it to us.”
“Good.”
