I had my parents and Emily and Kat and the band, but Deck … he was part of me.
Deck was silent. I think he was contemplating what to tell me next, because I knew there was more. Suddenly, his weight left me and he was off the bed and walking to the bathroom. I sat up as I heard the taps turn on.
Connor had been his best friend, his brother. This wasn’t just me hurting, this was us hurting. I crawled to the side of the bed and got up, throwing on my panties and a t-shirt. Then I padded across the room to the bathroom and saw him looking in the mirror, his hands on the edge of the sink, his face dripping wet.
I walked up behind him, wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned into him. “We’ll find him.”
He stiffened. “No, Georgie. He doesn’t want to be found.”
“What?” I pulled away and he took the opportunity to walk back into the bedroom where he sat on the edge of the bed, putting his head in his hands. I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe. Then I waited for him to tell me. It was the longest wait ever and yet it was mere seconds.
Deck started talking and it was after he told me about Connor being taken by the people Kai worked for that I slid to the floor, curling my legs into me. He told me everything, how he and his men had been overseas because an acquaintance of theirs, a Navy Seal, told them they thought they saw Connor while they were on a mission.
Deck and his men had been searching for nearly a year until they found a guy who also said he knew of Connor. That was when the guy was delivered dead with the note taped to his chest written in his own blood.
I was shaking with disbelief. I couldn’t believe it was the same Connor I knew who wrote something like that, who threatened my life. Deck didn’t stop and give me time to breathe or take in what he was telling me. He kept pounding me with truths as he told me about Robbie.
I stopped shaking as my gaze darted to him. “He’s dead?”
Deck nodded. “Kai killed him the second he was released from jail.”
“But that was … seven years ago.”
Deck didn’t say anything. Fury erupted in my stomach like a volcano as I thought of all the times Kai told me he had a lead on Robbie, where he might be. Why? Why the hell would he do that? Why keep me thinking Robbie’s alive hurting other women?
“Bastard.” I darted to my feet and was out the bedroom door before Deck could stop me. I made it to the elevator and pressed the button before I realized I only had my panties and a t-shirt on. Deck stood at the front door with his hand outstretched.
When I didn’t move, he sighed and lowered it. “Babe, he did what I would’ve done. Should’ve done. Robbie never deserved to walk free and if Kai had let him, he would’ve hurt other women.”
“He used me all these years. Made me believe he was trying to find him,” I yelled.
Deck nodded. “Yeah. It’s who Kai is, baby. But I don’t think you finding Robbie is what you’ve been chasing after all these years.”
I sighed and looked at my feet. I really didn’t know what to think right now. Robbie was dead, and that was what I wanted. But there was no satisfaction knowing that. I’d thought I’d feel this immense relief … but there was nothing.
“You want to find yourself, Georgie? Get that part of you back that you lost? Then stop running from it. All Kai did was teach you how to survive. But, baby, now I get to teach you how to live.”
A tear slipped from my eye and slid down my cheek. “How do you always do that?”
“Do what?”
“Make me love you more.”
He grinned and then the elevator dinged.
“Babe, get your ass in here. I don’t want to have to beat some guy because he saw you half-naked.”
I smiled.
He scowled.
I quickly walked to him and he pulled me inside and shut the door. Then he picked me up and carried me out onto the terrace where he told me the rest of what Kai had revealed, while I curled up in his arms.
“WHAT WILL THEY do to London?”
We were in Deck’s black Audi on the way to the Unyielding Riot office where Vic, Tyler and Josh were digging up anything they could on every secret organization known throughout the world. Of course, the job wasn’t so easy. I’d tried calling Kai to try and get more information out of him, but he wasn’t picking up.
“Torture her until she breaks, most likely.”
I asked for it. Deck didn’t give bullshit or make things look prettier than they were. I was a little, okay, that was bullshit, I was a lot freaked out that I was under the thumb of some powerful secret organization I knew nothing about and neither did Deck. “Do you think Kai will try and get her out?” Shit, he was the one responsible for her being targeted. London had been through enough already.