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“And you’re alone? Why don’t you have anyone with you?”
“It was a last-minute thing. No one was available.”
“It’s Viv,” she heard Leo say to someone in the background. “We’re on our way. Can you wait inside? I don’t want you standing out in the open.”
“I…yeah. I’ll tell them my car won’t start and see if they’ll let me wait in the office.”
“Good. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
Viv was pushing through the school doors onto the sidewalk when they pulled up. Leo was out of the car first, but Aidan was on the right side and had his hands on Viv before her brother reached them. She looked a little shaken but not hurt, and he felt his heart rate finally slow.
“You’re together?" Her brow knitted in confusion.
“What happened?” Leo asked, ignoring her question.
“My car’s there.” She pointed to a row of shrubs. “Did you see it when you pulled in?”
“No,” Aidan said. “We came from the other direction.”
“I’ll pull the SUV around.”
Aidan nodded at Leo and reached for Viv’s hand to walk across the parking lot, looking over when she leaned away instead of against him. He was going to ask her if everything was okay, and then her car came into view.
“Son of a bitch,” he said, dropping her hand to inspect the damage. “Leo said you found a note.”
She held it out, crumpled in her fist, and he snatched it from her, biting off a curse at the scrawled message. When Leo pulled the SUV around to shield her car from the road, his eyes were almost black with rage. Aidan wordlessly held the note out to him.
“I’m going to kill this son of a bitch.”
“Get in line,” Aidan snapped.
“It’s still not enough, though, is it? To prove it was him? Papa still isn’t going to let you touch him,” Viv said in a tired voice.
Aidan wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her in closer, pressing a kiss against her temple as much to calm himself as to reassure her, puzzling at the way she stiffened. When he released her, she stepped away, and his jaw tightened.
“We can’t leave the car here. School will be getting out soon, and everyone in the neighborhood is going to see my car like this.” She gestured at the damage. “This’ll really set tongues wagging.”
“Papa won’t like that.”
Viv’s eyes were glued to the fractures that radiated from a small hole in the rear window of her car. “Doesn’t Zara’s uncle drive a tow truck?”
“Yeah,” Leo agreed. “I think you’re right. I’ll call him and make sure he knows to put a rush on it.”
Aidan watched her while they waited for the tow, while Zara’s uncle hooked up the car to the flatbed truck and hauled it away minutes before buses started pulling into the school for afternoon pickup. He studied her in the rearview mirror while Leo drove them back to his truck.
It had been an hour at least since they’d pulled up outside the school, and not once had she made eye contact with him. He couldn’t tell if it was because she was scared or pissed off, but the fact that she wouldn’t talk to him, wouldn’t let him touch her, was starting to irritate.
“What were you doing out on your own?" he said, his voice a little rougher than it should have been.
She didn’t deviate from staring out the window as the trees and houses whipped past.
“I had something I needed to take care of, and no one was available. I’m not a child, Callahan.”
He clenched the steering wheel until his fingers ached. “It’s not like you have a protective detail because no one trusts you. It’s for your safety, for Christ’s sake.”
“And that’s something you’re worried about today?”
