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I stop short upon hearing the most random of phrases.
What the fuck?
Vaughn sighs heavily, scrubbing his palm up and down his face as the person on the other end continues speaking. After a long while, he straightens, resignation heavily painting his features as he stands to pace his office, something he does when he’s stressed but won’t admit it.
“I’ll be at work, Joseph. You’ll need to come here.”
More muted chatter before Vaughn hangs up his cell without another word.
“Everything okay?”
My hesitant question is answered with an utterly un-Vaughn-like shout.
“Fuck!”
He flops down into his desk chair, leaning back to expel a heavy breath. I take a seat opposite him, checking my watch surreptitiously and finding we have another couple of minutes before Gray is due to arrive.
“I’ve known you long enough now, Burton, to know you don’t lose your cool.Ever. So whatever that call was about, spit it out quickly so we can clear the air before Grayson gets here.”
Vaughn regards me with an unreadable look, weighing something up internally before softly asking, “Did I ever tell you how I could afford to buy Verity out of this place?”
I shake my head, keeping silent, knowing inherently that there are very few people to whom hehastold this story, and he continues.
“My mum died when I was twelve. We’d just moved to the States, and she was working diner shifts most nights while I was sleeping.”
He stops with a defensive tilt of his chin. “We werebroke. She couldn’t afford a sitter. It made sense, you understand?”
I open my mouth to answer, but he moves on without waiting for a response. “Anyway, one morning, on her way home from the graveyard shift, she was mugged by some junkie who pushed her out onto the road into heavy traffic. A cab hit her…”
He stops as his almost black eyes glaze over with memories of a time long past.
“There was no one to take me, and I’d have gone into the system had it not been for Julia, our neighbor—and the mother of the older boy who would become my best friend, Lorenzo.”
His face changes, brightening up in a way I’ve never before seen. “We had some good times when I moved into the Caputo’s apartment. I shared a room with Renzo even though he was three years my senior, and we dideverythingtogether.”
He looks at me pointedly. “And when I say everything, I meaneverything. We lost our virginity to the same girl at the same time, for fuck’s sake.” He huffs a dark laugh. “I was only fourteen, but we were inseparable.”
His brow creases as his gaze shifts away, a look I can only describe as haunted taking over his features.
“We developed an idea together – I was in his advanced physics class if you’d believe. I could have beenanything. Mum always said I could.”
His smile is sad, almost like he can’t believe it himself.
“Renzo’s brains and my drive saw it come to fruition. All of a sudden, companies were beating down Julia’s door, trying to buy the patent for our…no, forhiswork. And well, when the US government came knocking—”
“No way!”
He stops at my exclamation, nodding in resignation. “Yeah. We sold it. Made a small fortune, and Renzo continued to work with them developing new projects while I finished high school, much to my disgust. Motherfuckerlovedit, though.”
A broad smile lights his face. “But he loved nothing as much as he worshipped the girl next door, Sara Ricci. Christ, if she told him to jump off a skyscraper, he’d have asked which one.”
He snorts with a shake of his head. “And when she told him she was pregnant—despite the fact he hadn’t long turned twenty—he was over the moon. And it was because of that…because his dreams were coming true that he wanted to help me achieve mine.”
Silence fills the office, snaking its way around both of us like a serpent until I’m compelled to ask the inevitable question. “And what was your dream, Vaughn?”
He looks me square in the eye with no hint of an expression. “To dismantle everything my piece of shit father valued. Namely, this place. And so, Renzo gave me enough money so that I could approach Verity with more money than she could say no to, and the rest is history.”
My stomach sinks, having a decent idea of where this is headed, but asking regardless. “So, where is he now?”
