Chapter Six
On Friday afternoon, the day before Halloween, Travis Walker strolled through Alluring Indulgence Resort, nodding at familiar faces, stopping to talk to a couple of their guests.
He usually enjoyed this part of his day, interacting with those who were sneaking in a long weekend, getting away from real life, and indulging in their desires for a little while. This was the place for them to do that, to let their inhibitions go while in a comfortable, discreet environment. Alluring Indulgence Resort was Travis’s brainchild, a place he’d designed and built from the ground up. It was a thriving business thanks to the dedication he and his brothers gave the place, one that on any given day he found himself proud to be a part of.
Unfortunately, these days he didn’t have much enthusiasm for the one place he loved almost as much as his family. In fact, he didn’t have enthusiasm for much of anything. Work kept him busy, but for the first time since he opened these doors six years ago, it didn’t make him happy. Nothing did.
Although it pissed him off, his thoughts drifted, the reason for his obsessive anger and his rabid fury taking over: the woman who had kidnapped his child.
It was this very place that had put Travis on Juliet Prince’s radar because it was here that she had been abandoned by her husband. Based on what Brantley Walker and Reese Tavoularis had uncovered during their search for Travis’s daughter, after a weekend here, Juliet’s husband had traded up, found someone who suited him better—younger, prettier, smarter, hornier, he didn’t know—and discarded what he no longer needed.
Somewhere in that woman’s warped and twisted mind, she’d conjured up the idea that Travis was responsible for the ruination of her marriage. Because of this place, where it all unraveled for her.
Sucked that it happened, but it damn sure didn’t excuse what Juliet Prince had done, the pain she’d caused, the terror she had inflicted. Nothing would.
That hadn’t been the point of this place. The interactions that went on here weren’t meant to be excuses to cheat, yet Travis knew that Juliet Prince wasn’t the only person who’d been discarded thanks to those indulgences. He wondered how many people blamed him personally for their ill-fated marriages. She had. Juliet Prince had held Travis personally responsible for her happily ever after going up in flames. The husband had taken their daughter from her, getting sole custody in the divorce. However, Travis suspected that had nothing to do with the new wife and everything to do with the crazy that was Juliet Prince.
Not that he particularly gave a shit about her happiness. In fact, he had to believe she deserved what came to her. Maybe not before, but certainly now. The bitch had traumatized his daughter. Kidnapped her, abandoned her. According to the details that were slowly coming out in therapy, those two days had been hell for Kate. Absolute hell.
But Juliet had also traumatized Kylie and Gage. Travis’s wife and husband had been fraught with terror and grief during the ordeal, and he hadn’t been able to do a damn thing about it. Something else he would never forgive her for.
Which was the reason Travis was hell-bent on ensuring Juliet Prince received payback.
At his hands.
If only he could find her.
The fact that he couldn’t spoke volumes. He wouldn’t deny he had more means than most. Money, power, reputation. He had it all and he’d worked damn hard to earn every bit of it. He had connections from the White House down to the criminal underworld, people who would do whatever he needed.
Yet he hadn’t utilized those connections, relying solely on his cousin Brantley because he knew, once the Navy SEAL set his mind to something, he would see it through. And Travis needed this kept on the down low. Finding her was a priority, but he didn’t need the world to know he had.
So why the fuck hadn’t Juliet Prince been found yet? She was one woman. Where the fuck was she?
As that question bounced around in his head, he fought the urge to return to his office, bury himself in his computer. He’d been looking high and low, running searches of his own in an attempt to nail her down. A couple of times he’d been close, but she had evaded him.
“Hey.”
Glancing over, Travis saw his husband strolling toward him, that worried expression firmly on Gage’s handsome face. It was the same look he’d seen every single day since Kate was returned.
“Yeah?”
“Think maybe we could head out early today? Take the kids to do somethin’?”
“You and Kylie should do that,” he told him, continuing to walk so he could greet the other guests who had ventured out of their rooms for the evening.
“We’d prefer if you came with us.”
“No can do.”
“Why?”
Travis came to an abrupt stop, turning to face his husband. “Because I have shit to do.”
“Do you? Or is that your excuse to ignore us?”
Frowning, Travis lowered his voice. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?”
Gage’s dark eyebrows lifted skeptically. “You’re gonna stand there and pretend you haven’t been so completely absorbed with finding that woman that you can’t spend an extra minute with us?”
