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“Okay. Good morning, Uncle Liam.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Boss ends the call.
Harley moves around, handing a drink to me while Boss and I sit around the bar feeling shocked. I came to find the love of my life and be whole again. I never imagined that I’d find family as well.
“I don’t know what to say to you. I can’t even begin to process this.” Boss stands and walks to the large front window of the bar. He seems frozen solid, except for the slight shake of his shoulders as he silently weeps. Fuck, I can’t fight my own tears. I stand up, walk up to him, and hug my uncle. I never had a real family and here is my uncle, a man everyone around here looks up to, and he’s already trying to get me answers in a flash.
“I’m so sorry, Dylan.”
“So am I. So am I.” We pull apart a moment later, but I have to ask, “Who is she?”
“Give me a minute. I need to make a call.” I nod.
He pulls out a burner cell phone and then dials a number.
“Hello. This is Liam Rhoades. It’s been a long time. Don’t worry about how I got this number, just know I have a question for you, and I need an honest answer because I will get it one way or another and if I go the hard way, your life will be hell.” He paces. “Did the baby really die?” He runs his fingers through his hair and snarls, “You’re a fucking cunt. I hope you know that.”
Boss ends the call and then tosses the phone into a glass of water on the bar. He walks up to me and whispers, “Veronica Blake.” I’ve met her and so has Harley.
Instantly the two times we have crossed paths run through my mind, and rage fills my veins. “I will handle her myself. I know her. God, I know that fucking bitch.”
“Dylan, can we forget about her for now?” he says, trying to get me to calm down. That selfish bitch turned me into a neurotic freak who sent the woman I loved away out of fear.
“I think you two need some time to talk and to spend time learning about each other,” Esperanza says.
“I agree,” Harley says. “Come on, Esperanza. Let’s go chit chat while they talk.” I want her to stay, but there are things I don’t want her to hear.
“She was at the gala just last week with Harley and me,” I say when they leave the room.
“Did she say anything to you?”
“No, but she recognized something in me. It’s the second time we’ve crossed paths at social events, and it’s no doubt she was looking at a ghost from her past both times. She flinched and tried to hide it, but I ignored it. I assumed I was sneering at her or something.”
“Well, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. Right now, I’m boiling with rage. It makes everything I’ve known a lie and my life a lie.”
“I looked you up, and you’re extremely successful, Dylan. So whatever you’ve become, you used that focus to become the man you are.”
“She almost cost me Harley. Harley almost died because I pushed her away, and that’s not something I can accept.”
“You’re going to have to move past it. We all have flaws. Hell, I’m in my late forties finding love for the first time. I wish I’d met the love of my life when I was your age because there would be nothing I wouldn’t do to make her happy.”
“And keep her safe?”
“Yes, so speaking of that. What do you want to do about her kidnappers?”
“That’s another problem. One of my own was involved along with her cousin. I’m not sure which one of my employees, but I’m pretty sure it’s my head of security.”
“Why is it always our most trusted?”
“Same thing happen to you?”
“No, to Esperanza’s son. It nearly got him killed, and the bastard came here to finish the job and paid the price. We’re good at what we do.” He winks at me, and I don’t doubt it.
“Is there any way to get the footage from the night Harley was in town for the bachelorette party?”
“Yes. It will take a bit, but yes.”
