Chapter 13 In the two days since I put my mouth on Liora's fantastic pussy, I've done my due diligence not to see her more than necessary. Which, in my case, isn't much. I can be an asshole, and no one blinks twice at it. The weird and reclusive CEO. The wild genius introvert who spends more time with his computers and drums than people. No one cares as long as I keep their systems safe and their paychecks coming. Not even Alesha, who likes to find me and chat my ear off and flirt in her veiled way for half an hour in the morning with little to nothing in return. But there's the flip side of the coin. The one where you're alone in a room surrounded by monitors or at your desk, and people stop trying to direct your actions or morals because they know better by this point. And you go unchecked. I tell myself on the occasions that I track her down in my building that I'm simply making sure she's here and she's safe and not actively, blatantly sabotaging me. After all, facial recognition didn't come up with anything, and as suspected, there's no Agent Vega in the FBI. When he left my building, he didn't get into a car as you'd expect. He got on the T and rode it who knows where. I lost him after a certain point on the city cameras. Which is calculated. It has to be. He knew I was going to track him, and he evaded me. So who is he working for? And why was he asking about Liora and my past relationship with her? Is Vega's showing up in my office about me? Or Liora? Is she in danger, or am I? Legit, none of it makes sense. I haven't had time to do more digging, but now I need to know who else he's involved with. And yes, I will dig. At this point, I believe I'm entitled. The guy showed up on my doorstep, but right now it's one blocked end after another. Which means someone is treating this like their Super Bowl and, no matter what, is determined to win at all costs. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ ƒind ηøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Liora: I'm done for the day. Do you need anything else? Yes. You. Me: Nope. See you tomorrow. I watch Liora leave from my phone, telling myself it's simple distrust and doing my due diligence. Maybe part of it is. I don't trust her. I follow after, but as she heads for the daycare and then the T, I force myself to get in my car and go home. And with that, I can't lie to myself. I'm not fucking stupid, and I'm not one to play games. She's corrupt. She's a liability. A massive one. And part of me can't help but think all of this, from the very start, was a setup. But... My mind drifts as I drive home. Our eyes met across the grassy embankment of the lake, and as always, with any time I looked at her, I felt that hiccup in my heart. She gave me a private smile, and I couldn't help but return it. Last night I kissed her for the first time. I also made her my girl. "What are you looking at, brother?" Cass asked, snapping me away from his sister. My gaze shot over to him at the speed of light. A guilty unease crept up my neck, and I attempted to rub it away. "Huh?" was my brilliant response. "You checking out that Megan girl?" "Huh? Oh. Um." I let it go from there. I didn't know who he was talking about. There was no one hitting my radar other than Liora. "Yeah," he agreed even though I hadn't said anything. "She's pretty hot." He jutted his chin over toward where Liora was, and I followed his gaze until I saw the blonde she was talking to. That must be Megan. "You should go for her." "Nah, I'm good. That's all you." He laughed and nudged me with his shoulder as he took a sip of his beer. It was hot as hell out here, and with my parents in Boston that weekend, we'd taken over our private part of our lake. "You still with that girl in Boston?" I made a noncommittal noise as I sipped my own beer. The truth was, there was no girl in Boston. The girl was Liora, and I'd had a thing for her for the last couple of months. I'd simply told him there was someone in Boston so he'd stop asking why I wasn't fooling around with anyone. I didn't want anyone but her. Other girls held no appeal. I wanted to tell him. I wanted him to know that my girl was his sister and that he didn't have to kill me because it wasn't just a hookup or a summer thing. I really, truly, genuinely liked her. A fucking lot. More than I'd ever liked any other girl. I realized it was complicated. But I'd be good to her. Even if I wasn't always known for being so with girls in the past. But Liora begged me not to tell him. In fact, she begged to keep us a secret from everyone. Her parents especially. I didn't fully understand it, but she was more adamant about keeping the secret than I was about telling it, so I told her I would. "You don't know how lucky you are, man." I turned away from watching Liora as she sipped on a lemonade wearing her cute hot-pink bikini top that matched her nails and toes and her cut-off jean shorts that showed off her long legs, back to my friend. "How's that?" He shrugged. "Just that you get to go to Boston. You get straight A's without even trying. I'll be here for life." My brows scrunched at the almost despondent way he said that. "But you'll work for your dad, right? You'll get to take over his company one day." He chugged down the last of his beer and chucked his empty bottle toward the trash, just missing it, but it was the heft of his throw and the slightly bitter line of his mouth that had me twisting to him. He was lucky it didn't break, or I'd be fucking pissed. "What? What am I missing?" He plastered on a smile as he went to the cooler for another beer. "Nothing. Yeah. I'll work for my dad. It'll be awesome. Just saying it must be nice to have Boston. College. Life outside of this small town." "You could come with me," I offered in that idealistic way teenagers do when they don't think things through and the world feels limitless. "If not MIT, then somewhere else. Boston is full of colleges." MIT was my endgame, and I was going to make damn sure I got in. Outside of Cass, who had been my best friend since we were in diapers, and now Liora, there was nothing holding me here. My best friends, who were my other family, were in Boston, and other than Mason, who would likely go to Alabama for school since that was where his father went for football, everyone else would likely stay local. But the thought of leaving Cass, of leaving Liora, didn't sit well with me. He didn't say anything, and I felt like shit for offering something I knew would likely never happen. "Whatever. I'll be back plenty. My parents are here, and you're my best friend. My brother. That shit is for life." He glanced at me over the end of the brown bottle he was tipping up to his lips. "For sure." He gave me a fist pound. "I'm just saying, sometimes I wish it could be different. That I could have your parents instead of mine and get out of this town. The same for Liora." I looked back at her and found she was heading our way. A stupid smile hit my lips before I could get it checked. "Hey," I said. She was with that Megan girl who immediately latched onto Cass. They started talking-flirting-and all mention of swapping families and life after graduation came to a halt as he engaged with the blonde. Good thing too, because I had my own. "Hi," she said in an almost shy whisper. I angled my body and stood close, reaching for her in a way where I could latch onto her pinky with mine. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to drape my arm around her shoulders and hold her against me. But I settled for her pinky and the fluttering high I got with it. "Having fun?" she asked. "I am now." "Do I get a beer?" I grinned. "Nope. You're fourteen." "So?" she cried indignantly. "You're only sixteen." I shrugged and looked around, and when I was positive Cass wasn't paying us any attention, I leaned into her ear. "I want you sober when I kiss you later, Angel." "Is that your plan?" she retorted, trying for sass, but the glaze to her eyes told me it was what she wanted too. "If you'll let me. Can you say you're sleeping at a friend's?" Her eyes narrowed, and I couldn't help my small chuckle. I squeezed her pinky. "It's not like that. I swear. I'll wait for that forever or until you promise you're ready, which I know you're not. I just want to spend time alone with you. Watch a movie together. Sleep next to you. Kiss you a lot. That's all." "That's not how you've done it before," she challenged. "You're different. You're the one I want for more than just the physical stuff." I stared deeply into the blue eyes I could get lost in and never wanted to be found and told her a truth I'd hardly begun to swallow for myself. "Liora, you're just the one I want." My mind clears as I pull into my driveway and park. For a moment, I simply sit here, staring at the unattached garage at the back of my driveway. I was only a teenager, but in thinking back on things now... there's a lot that I missed. A lot Cass never told me. I had tunnel vision. Liora, Liora, Liora. MIT too, but while I was in Lavender Lake, it was all her. There's been no point in my life when I've been able to hold back or resist her. It's as she said. I'm obsessed. Addicted. I always have been. I crave her. She's every good and bad thought I have, and with that, I'm in danger. I know it. It's not just my life on the line anymore. She's thrown my heart back into the game as well. And what happens if I allow myself to fall for her again? I'm a mess with it. I don't know which end is up. Instead of going inside, I turn in the opposite way and go for a run. My neighborhood is quiet, dark, and peaceful. A rare thing to find this close to the city and not one I take for granted. My feet pound the pavement while sweat drips down my forehead and neck. Something has been eating at me, and maybe that explains my preoccupation with her. I slip my AirPods into my ears and dial up my father. "Vander?" He picks up on the third ring, a little confused to be hearing from me on a work night. Usually we chat through encrypted texts, but this requires a phone call. "Hey, Dad. I need to ask you a few things." "Sure." I slow my run to a walk, but I don't turn back toward home. Not yet. "Do you remember my high school girlfriend, Liora James?" "You mean the girl you just hired to take over for Champagne?" I smirk. God, my mother loves to talk. "Yes. Tell me what you know about her father. About her family." "Honestly? Not a lot other than her father owns James Architecture and Engineering and the James Automotive Group." He clears his throat. "He's very successful at both, and I've never heard a bad word said about him. He's all smiles and waves whenever he's in town, though he never liked me much and, as I recall, never liked you a whole lot either. Have you checked into them? Into her?" I drag a hand up my face and through my damp hair. "Not really, no. My friends told me I can't dig too much into her." He chuckles. "How come?" "They told me it would be stalking, and I listened. They were right, and I was already..." I huff. "Too preoccupied. I'd already overstepped and taken liberties with her I shouldn't have. But on Monday a fake FBI agent showed up at my door asking about things he shouldn't know." "Explain that." "He called himself Agent Vincent Vega, which to anyone is almost nuts. It's an automatic, that's a fake-as-fuck name and get the fuck out of my office. But then he started asking questions and mentioning things about my past." He falls quiet. "What about your past?" "What I was arrested for. He brought it up and asked if I was still hacking." "That's not public information. We had your arrest wiped along with the accusations against you." I close my eyes. He's right. We did that. Shit. So how could he have known? "Liora was the reason he was there. I know it. He was dicking around, asking about me, and then he homed in on her and didn't stop. He asked if the reason I hired her is because she's my ex-girlfriend. How could he know that, Dad? How could this guy possibly know that? Or about my arrest?" "He's working with or for someone who does, or Liora is part of this." I rub my hand over my sweaty forehead. "No one knew except for my people." I stare down at the sidewalk, sweat dripping onto the concrete creating black dots. "I really don't want to think that about her." But it's difficult not to. "Then someone else knew. You just didn't know it." "Her father?" "Maybe. But what's the connection there, and why is it coming to you?" "I have no clue, Dad." I puff out a breath, watching the white plume of vapor dissipate into the cold night air. "I ran this guy's face through my database, and nothing came up. Nothing in the private or public sector. Liora is living in a shit neighborhood, dancing in a strip club, and telling me she has no one else in her life but herself. She's a single mother, and when I took her out on my bike the other day, she told me I couldn't kill her, otherwise her child would be in foster care. You mention her father, and she visibly shuts down. Now a fake FBI agent is at my office door, not so casually giving me a fake name to go with it, and mentioning her. I left Lavender Lake, but she had two years there after me. I know she graduated because that was on her background check, but it's as if she graduated and left without ever looking back." "She left two weeks before graduation," he says, and my feet freeze in the middle of the sidewalk. "What do you mean?" "She was working for your mom and texted one day thanking her for everything she did for her but said that she wasn't coming back. Naturally, this worried your mother, and she checked on her to make sure everything was okay, but Liora's phone was shut off. The story that passed through town was that the school granted her an early graduation, and she was staying with out-of-state relatives who needed her, and that was that. She hasn't been back to town since. It's why your mother was so surprised and happy to see her." I stare out into the dark night of my neighborhood, with cars passing and dogs barking, and I hear and see none of it. What happened to you, Liora, that made you run? "Why didn't anyone tell me?" He laughs humorlessly. "You had broken up two years before that and hadn't seen or talked to her since. And you never mentioned her. Never asked about her. We thought that was your way of saying you didn't want to know about her. Besides, what was there to tell? She graduated and was staying with family and moved on." Except I didn't move on. And now that she's back in my life... yeah, I'm not sure I ever moved on. She ended up in California, and she had no other family. An aunt somewhere, maybe, but I don't think they had much to do with her, and she wasn't in California, if memory serves. "Don't let Mom tell anyone she saw her. No one. And definitely don't let her spread it around that she's working for me." "I won't. I'll make sure of it, but your mother is no fool and knows how to keep her mouth shut." "What do I do?" "You dig around, Vander. You dig into her father and more into this fake FBI agent if you're not ready to dig into Liora. Find out their secrets and what they're after." "I will. I'm not sure I have a choice anymore." "Do you want me to look so you don't have to?" I do want him to. But I also don't. The only person I want looking into Liora is me. She's not mine. Not anymore, and she never will be again. But the possessive protectiveness I feel toward her tells me otherwise. I don't like it, but it is what it is. "Nah. I've got it." "You need to go slow, Vander. Slower than you are. You're talking about the FBI. Fake or otherwise, these people know things about you they shouldn't, and if they're watching you or looking into how you operate, you're taking risks and need to play this smart. More than that, you don't know this isn't a setup." "I know. I'll go slow. And I'll be careful." Because I won't risk my freedom. Not again. That week in a federal prison was enough to make me swear that, practically in blood. But what secrets is Liora hiding? And how does her father play into that? "There are a lot of ways this could go. A lot of paths it could lead." "Do you know what you're doing with this?" I rub my lips. "Not even a little. But I'm doing what I feel I have to."