Man of the House(126)

He headed down a different hallway and I went upstairs, walking back to our room.

Kaley was on my damn mind. Since we were back in safety, it was okay to indulge in a little fantasy. I wondered what she’d let me do to her tonight if I could get Alexei to fall asleep again. If it was half as hot as the night before, then turning down Rafa would be more than worth it.

I pushed open my door and headed inside. “Honey, I’m home,” I called out.

No response.

“Shit, you didn’t leave the room, did you?” I called out.

Still nothing.

Damn girl. I told her not to leave the room, but who knew what had happened while I’d been gone all day? She didn’t call, so I had to assume she was safe.

“I’m coming in,” I called out as I pushed into the bedroom.

It was totally empty. On the bed, there was a piece of paper folded in half. I walked over and snatched it up, reading.

Vince, I’m so sorry to do this. I know you won’t understand, but I had to leave. I had to go back. I hope you can forgive me one day. Love, Kaley.

I stared at the paper and read it over and over again. It just made no fucking sense.

Why would the girl leave? Hell, where would she even go?

She said she went back, which meant she went back to her fucking family, her piece of shit family, the fucking Russians. She ran away as soon as things were getting good, maybe a little dangerous, but fucking good.

I crumpled up the paper and threw it at the wall. I stormed out of the room, rage flowing through my veins. I kicked open the door and headed out into the hallway, walking fast.

I made it up to Lucas’s room in half a minute. I banged on it loudly and waited.

The door opened slowly. “Vince?”

It was Natalie, looking concerned. “Nat, I need to talk to Lucas.”

“He’s not here. Vince, our kids are inside. You can’t bang on the door like that.”

“Shit. Where is he?”

“At his father’s office.”

“Thanks.” I turned and quickly left, heading to Arturo’s.

Why were Lucas and Arturo meeting? Suddenly everything seemed like a conspiracy. Maybe they had something to do with Kaley leaving. Maybe they had somehow forced her to go back to the Russians. I knew Arturo and some of the other captains were cowards, but I didn’t think they were this bad. Things were just heating up, and they were already turning tail and running away. They’d forced her; it had to be that.

I made it to Arturo’s and knocked. After a second, the door opened a crack.

Lucas looked out at me. “Vince?”

“We need to talk.”

Lucas sighed. “Yeah, okay. Come in.”

I stepped inside. Arturo was sitting at his desk, smoking a cigar. A half-empty glass of whisky was sitting on the side table next to where Lucas was sitting. I stood in front of the two of them and crossed my arms.

“How’d you do it?” I asked them.

“Do what, Vincent?” Arturo replied.

“How did you force her to leave?”

Lucas raised his hands. “Vince—”

“No. Fuck that. I know you bastards have wanted her gone for a while. What’d you use to get her to leave?”

“Vincent,” Arturo said firmly, “we didn’t make the girl leave.”

I paused. “What?”

“Man, we were trying to keep her here,” Lucas said. “I honestly don’t know how she slipped away.”

“You really didn’t kick her out,” I said to him flatly.

“No, Vincent, we didn’t,” Arturo said. “Now calm yourself and speak plainly with us.”

I took a deep breath, gathering myself. I was ready to flip the fucking desk on top of Arturo, that old fuck, but I needed to get myself together and remember who I was dealing with.

“Okay,” I said. “Okay. So she left on her own.”

“She slipped out, but we haven’t figure out how yet,” Lucas said.

“The girl is an important symbol,” Arturo said. “We wanted to keep her. You know that.”

“Why would she go back to her family?” I asked.

“We were hoping you could tell us that. We only realized she was gone a half hour ago when her security card was found in a trash bin,” Lucas said.

“I don’t know why she’d go back to them,” I said. “I really don’t.”

“Think,” Arturo said. “She never mentioned leaving? Never had complaints?”

“She felt unsafe here, but that was reasonable,” I said. “I moved her into my room to try and help that.”

Lucas nodded. “What else?”

“She got a call this morning,” I said, remembering. “She seemed weird after that.”