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As he asks the question, he blinks hard, groans, and then shakes his head. “No. Nope. This isn’t happening. It’s just… It’s not fucking happening.”
“What’s not happening?” Dad asks as he jogs up the few steps to my bungalow. “Did Mike speak to you about—” He cuts himself off when he sees Olivia standing behind me. Then he blinks a few times and groans too. “Oh fuck. That’s what’s not happening? Jesus. You’re treating her right, right? And you’re using condoms?”
Mike gags, shoving my father’s shoulder and scowling at him. “That’s your first fucking question?”
“Well, yeah. What did you want me to ask? If it’s true? Obviously, it’s fucking true. Look at them.” He peers over my shoulder into the room, and his nose wrinkles. “Fuck. Yeah, it’s definitely happening.”
“Can everyone just stop sayingfuckfor a minute?” Olivia snaps, coming up beside me and sliding her hand into mine. I appreciate the attempt at presenting a united front, but this is a shit show.
Mike snorts. “We’re not allowed to say it, but you’re doing it? Shit, Liv. When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“We were going to,” she explains. “Tonight, actually. It hasn’t been going on for a long time, and we had some stuff to work out, so we didn’t tell anyone because there was nothing to tell just yet.”
Dad glances between us, taking a deep breath before he fixes me with a look that means business. “You and I are going to talk about this in private, but first, we need to talk to Maxim, Emma, and Mason. They’re all on lockdown with you as of now.”
“Mason?” Olivia whispers, tensing beside me as she swings her gaze to her dad’s. “Why?”
He lets out a heavy sigh, scrolling through the phone again to show her a similar picture of her brother. “That’s why. It seems this guy is widening his net. We’ve asked them to meet us in the business center to discuss, but I needed to find out if you knew why he’s doing it first.”
I put my hands up. “You’ve got access to all my accounts. If you don’t believe me, go check. You’ve also got access to my phone. Everything. You can check it all. I haven’t been in contact with a single person outside of our group since this whole thing started.”
Olivia suddenly spins to face me, her eyes bigger than I’ve ever seen them as she stares up at me, her head slowly shaking. “That’s not true, Vincent. You have been in contact with one other person, remember? That day you went out, you said you made a friend. A guy friend. Who was he? Did you tell him anything that could’ve triggered this?”
Shock radiates all the way to my very soul, and I frown, my own head starting to shake. “Justin? No. No. There’s no way.”
“You made a fucking friend that day and you didn’t tell anyone about him?” Mike roars, and Dad has gone ghostly pale again. “Business center. Right now. Both of you. Let’s go.”
“Not for nothing, but your mothers are going to be ecstatic about this,” Dad jokes absently as Olivia and I leave the room hand in hand.
Mike cuts him a look. “Not now, Johno.”
He arches a brow and shrugs. “Why the hell not? I need something to distract myself from the fact that my son possibly befriended and got drunk with a psychopath who may or may not want to kill all my kids now. Besides, you know it’s true.”
Mike releases a deep breath before he chuckles. The sound isn’t exactly filled with humor, but he hasn’t killed me yet, so I’d take anything as a good sign.
“I hope you two are ready to tie the knot because he’s right. Once your mothers find out, they won’t stop until they’re officially family.”
“Let’s just get through this,” Olivia says darkly, clearly shaken to the core now that she knows her brother has gotten dragged into this.
Frankly, I feel the same way. “Let’s leave the wedding planning until tomorrow. Didn’t you hear? I possibly befriended and got drunk with a psychopath who wants to kill me, my family, the girl I’m in love with, and her brother. I’m not feeling mighty festive right now.”
Tightening my grip on Olivia’s hand, I send up a silent prayer that none of this is true.I mean, they’re wrong, right?There’s no wayhewastheguy. It just… it can’t be. Not even I’m that fucking stupid.
24
OLIVIA
Mom and Camille keep looking between me and Vincent, exchanging questioning glances with each other when they obviously notice how close we’re sitting to each other. My boyfriend has started looking like he’s seen a ghost since we left the bungalow, and he’s now just staring dead ahead, his jaw tight while we wait for the others to arrive.
Well, the cat’s out of the bag anyway. I’d have preferred to tell them the way we’d planned, but since that’s not an option anymore, I move my chair all the way up to his and put my hand on his leg. Almost as if he’s acting on autopilot, he puts his in it and folds his fingers around mine, sliding the arm closest to me around my shoulders and holding me close.
Camille looks confused for a moment, but then she starts smiling like a crazy person and nudging my mother, bending her head toward her friend’s and whispering furiously. Mom seems shell-shocked, but she nods along to whatever Camille’s saying, not quite at the point where she’s saying anything herself, though.
Maxim and Emma walk into the conference room wearing their swimsuits, and since they’re both still dripping, I’m assuming one of the members of the security team pulled them out of the sea or pool to attend this meeting. They both grin widely at us, and Emma shoots me a thumbs-up while Maxim just sighs as he sits down.
“Really? This is what we had to talk about so urgently?” he says. “We already knew about them, but if their relationship seriously warrants a meeting, can we make it a quick one? Emma’s got a video call with her mom soon, and I wasn’t done swimming.”
“You knew, and you didn’t tell us?” Jonathan asks, squeezing his eyes shut before shooting an apologetic smile at my dad. “I thought we raised them better than this, but at least they’ve both got awesome taste in women. Just like their dad.”
