AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fuck, that didn’t sound good.
“He’s not there,” Fabian said. “The place hasn’t been touched. Darion never showed up.”
“Tell them to wait. Not there, though. Have them stay in town until I tell them to leave. They can drive over every hour and see if he’s there.”
If things had gone to plan, Darion should have arrived at the house yesterday. I sat back in my chair, hoping I didn’t have to call my big sister and tell her that her only son wasn’t coming home—ever. If he hadn’t been so insistent on joining my team, he’d be safe at home or in a college dorm where he belonged.
Instead, he was tending bar, playing limo driver to the Calegaris, and getting himself into more trouble than I imagined a dumb kid like him could.
By midmorning, I was concerned enough to break the protocol we had established. The men had been to the house twice and there was still no sign of my nephew. I called Darion’s burner cell, and he didn’t answer.
“Give him four more hours. If he doesn’t show up at the house, get Will on the line.”
“Yes, sir.” Fabian answered with his usual lack of emotion.
“Don’t we have cameras there?” I struggled to believe that the house hadn’t made it to the modern era with the rest of my gadgetry.
“No. Part of the idea of it being a safe house. Safe from all prying eyes.”
He looked at me as if he were expecting more, but for the time being, I had nothing for him. But he knew me, and he knew...there was always more.
“Keep tabs on Lilly. Let me know the second you hear anything about Darion and... tell the chef to make her a proper lunch today. She wasn’t happy with sandwiches and salad yesterday.”
“Ooookay.” Fabian hesitated as I walked out of the room. “Is there anything specific she would like? Does she have a list of preferences or maybe I should have him make a menu? She can pick what she likes. I’m sure he’dlovethat.”
Fabian wasn’t usually so flippant about his job. The idea of a captive, who wasn’t really a captive, rubbed him the wrong way, just like his attitude was getting on my nerves.
“Stop the Jiminy Cricket act and shut the fuck up,” I growled over my shoulder. I knew what he was doing. His words were just more reminders of what a fool I was.
“Sure,” I heard him mutter as I walked out of the room. “I’m not sure what crickets have to do with anything, but whatever you say, boss.”
Lilly’s antics the rest of the afternoon helped keep me busy, not that I didn’t have enough to worry about but her impromptu attempts to leave the property were a distraction and mildly amusing—if I weren’t stinging from the realization that the attempts she made to get off the premises were really attempts to get away from me.
My pride took a hit that she was trying to escape. I told myself she had to save face. In her heart, she had to try, didn’t she?
Her second attempt of the day came right after lunch. After her small breakfast on the patio, Fabian informed me that she swam in the pool for a while, then holed up in her room for several more hours. Her lunch, which I was told was chicken alfredo and a salad, was delivered to her room. Shortly after that, around one p.m., Jared followed her with one of the drones as she walked to the end of the driveway and stopped a few feet away from the gatehouse.
That was when Fabian called me.
“No updates on your nephew, but I’m sending a link to your phone so you can see what your girlfriend is up to.”
What the fuck? I checked my phone and found the link he’d sent. “Got it. And she’s not my fucking girlfriend.”
He actually laughed. “No, I guess she’s not. Not if she’s trying this hard to get away from you. Just watch the video.”
I wiped my hand over my eyes with a dramatic sigh. What kind of pussy had she turned me into? Irritated, I tapped the link, and the footage played.
Lilly was outside the gatehouse again, but this time, no one approached her. Maybe she hadn’t learned her lesson and was there to bombard the place again, but her hands were empty, and she wasn’t surrounded by possible projectiles. She just stood there for a few minutes before she turned and started walking along the fence line, though she kept several feet between her and the fence.
The drone turned to follow her, keeping a healthy distance above Lilly as she started her walk.
“She’s trying to see how far the fence goes. Should I have Timmy stop her?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Let her follow it. She’ll get tired and give up.” The fence surrounded my entire acreage. She wouldn’t be able to walk a tenth of it in one day.
Fabian looked concerned for a good reason. “What if she touches it?”
I shrugged. “She’ll get a nasty little shock, but it won’t hurt her.”
