Page 135 of Veil of Lies

My life was with Stella. The only people I cared about were her, the guys, and my sisters. The rest of the world could go fuck itself up the ass with a giant spiky dildo.

Quinn hit dial on the number he’d found and placed his phone on the table between us all. It rang a couple of times before the man on the other end picked up.

“Who the fuck is this?”

“Hey Agent Norcross, it’s Quinn, Stella Cancello’s boyfriend. Well, one of them. The other two are with me, you’re on speakerphone.”

“How the fuck did you get hold of my personal cell? I gave Miss Cancello my work cell number. This one is for family and friends!” Wow, he sounded really pissed.

“That’s not important—”

“Listen here you little shit, don’t think you’re safe from being hauled in on a cybercrime charge!”

“Stella’s been kidnapped!” Quinn yelled at the phone, interrupting Norcross’s mini tirade.

Norcross went silent for a moment then exhaled loudly. “OK, tell me everything.”

Quinn gave him the gist of what had happened, leaving out the USB drive Stella had retrieved from the bank’s safe deposit box. That information was on a strictly need-to-know basis, and we didn’t know whether Agent Norcross could be trusted yet.

“OK, I’m not too far away so I’ll be there in a couple of hours. In the meantime, I’ll get the footage from the cams in the area.”

“Already on it,” Quinn said with a smirk.

“Jesus Christ, kid, do NOT tell me that. You do realize I can arrest you for this?”

“It wasn’t me. A friend happened to accidentally hack into the system.”

“Let me guess, that same friend has also sent you my cell number?”

“Maybe.”

There was a lot of colorful cursing unbecoming of a buttoned-down government agent before he huffed loudly. “If you have the cam footage I’ll not bother asking my guy to get it. We’ll talk more when I arrive, and for God’s sake, do not do any more illegal shit!”

Chapter 103

Harley

“Will you fucking take a break before you wear a hole in the carpet!” Quinn snapped in my direction before returning his gaze to his laptop screen.

I ignored him. Pacing up and down the room was the only thing keeping a lid on my emotions. Before Stella, I hadn’t been an emotional guy. If a girl cried, which they seem to do a lot in my presence - and not always for joy - it made me uncomfortable to the point of running away.

Quinn often told me puddles were deeper than me, which was a fucking insult, frankly. I had feelings. They were just well hidden.

Stella had cracked me wide open. All my emotions had bubbled to the surface like magma. Insatiable need, anxiety when she wasn’t around, delirious happiness when she blessed me with a smile, and love. Yes, love. Who’d have thought that I, the most infamous fuckboy at Ridgeview College, would finally fall in love? Well, not me.

To say I was blindsided by Stella would be an understatement. She’d blown my walls apart, burrowed her way into my heart, and ruined me for all other women. And she had no clue.

What hurt the most was I hadn’t had the courage to tell her how I felt. What if we never got her back? What if she was lying somewhere, being tortured by some unknown miscreant? I pictured her afraid, in some fetid dungeon, in pain, desperate for someone to rescue her, and panic hit me like a freight train.

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. Fuck, was I having a heart attack? Surely not. Would Stella cry at my funeral if I died? Maybe my dying was for the best. If anything happened to her, life wouldn’t be worth living anyway. I couldn’t go on without her.

Black spots floated in front of my eyes. The room faded away as my heart thundered behind my ribcage. Was this how it ended?

“Harley, calm down.” Brax grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. “Breathe for fuck’s sake!”

I realized I was hyperventilating and tried to focus on something solid. Brax helped ground me and the panic slowly receded.

“Here, drink this.” He shoved a small bottle of vodka from the minibar into my hand. I knocked it back in one gulp, relishing the way the liquor burned as it slid down my throat. He handed me a second one and I necked that too. The buzz of the alcohol took the edge of my emotions and I exhaled.

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