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Riva shook her head. “Women like her…like her mother…they lie to trap men, Vaughn. She just wants your money.”
“What money? I don’t freaking have any!” Vaughn’s eyes were wide. “She knows that, and she loves me anyway. And I love her. We all fucking do. I know I’ve always been a disappointment to you—”
Riva grabbed his hand. “You weren’t! You aren’t!”
He stared at her hard, pulling his fingers from her grip. “I was. I was the son who loved a man instead of my wife. I was the son who lost his own business and then his father’s. I’m the one you never wanted here, embarrassing you in front of all your friends whose kids were walking in their parents’ footsteps.”
She shook her head, her eyes wet with tears. “I never…”
Except it was obvious she had. Maybe she was only just realizing it herself, but Vaughn had seen it all along. It was clear now why he’d stayed away for so many years.
He swallowed hard. “If you ever cared about me, even the tiniest bit, you’ll tell me where she is. Because if she’s in danger, Mom, it’s real. You don’t know the half of what is out there. What men like Harold Coker and Luca Guerra and Caleb Black are capable of.”
“He said he wouldn’t hurt her.”
I stiffened. “Who?”
Riva never looked at me, her gaze was fixed on her son. “Caleb.”
“Son of a bitch.” I pushed past them, no longer able to stand the sight of her.
Kian was hot on my heels.
“Where, Mom?” Vaughn shouted.
“A worksite…”
“Mine,” Kian spat out, voice clipped and tense. “Caleb owns it.”
I didn’t even have it in me to question him. It didn’t matter anymore anyway. All that mattered was getting to her.
Vaughn thundered down the steps behind us.
“Don’t go, Vaughn,” Riva called after him. “I won’t be here when you get back.”
He paused at the bottom of the stairs, while all three of us were shoving our feet in boots. “After you delivered the woman I love to Caleb Black, it’s probably better that you aren’t.”
Riva’s mouth dropped open. “Vaughn!”
He shook his head. “I mean it, Mom. Go. Run away from whatever the hell you’ve done, because if you’re still here when I get home, I’ll be calling the cops myself.”
If Riva said any more, I didn’t hear it. We were in Vaughn’s car, tires screeching out of the driveway, covering up the cries of Riva’s betrayal.
41
REBEL
“It’s pretty dark out there, boss.” Goon One, as I’d nicknamed him, let the curtain fall back into place. “I thought these guys were coming at four?”
Caleb folded his arms over his chest and glared daggers at his hired help. “They were.”
It was hours past that now. Bliss stared at me in panic.
I gave a tiny shake of my head, trying to tell her to stay calm.
I knew she was thinking about her baby. Because I was thinking about mine.
All I could think about was something I’d been taught a million years ago at school, when we’d been warned about stranger danger and personal safety.
