Page 14 of Promised Vows

Laughing, I stepped onto the elevator. “See you tomorrow, Anna.”

Chapter Six

ARI

Getting a text from Lucas that Franklin was back in town wasn’t expected. I’d rolled out of bed, gotten dressed, and called Lex on my way out the door of my tenth-story penthouse.

I had no idea what Lucas was going to do, but I was going to give him my opinion on it. It was my job to protect him. To be the voice of reason.

“This is Lex.”

“I need you to stay on Anna. I’m headed to the office. Franklin’s back in town, and I’m not sure what’s going on. Plus, Lorenzo Moretti is sniffing around her, and the reason is a mystery. He faked a meet-cute yesterday, and then last night, one of his guys dropped her on the curb.”

“Does she know that?”

“She knows about Lorenzo, not about the driver. I didn’t want to scare her.”

He grunted. “Maybe she needs to be scared. It’d make my job easier.”

“Maybe, but she’s dress shopping with Aunt Helen and our cousins later today. I want them to remain blissfully unaware that anything is going on. I suspect Thea is already with Lucas at the office.”

“All right. I’ll grab a few guys and stick with them.”

I reached the ground floor, stepped out into the garage, and crossed the small expanse to my DB9. Slipping inside, I said, “I’ve got a side project for you too.” I cranked the engine and waited for a beat. My next request was going to take him off guard. “I need information on Anna’s brother.”

Lex hemmed. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“No, but we’ve got a chessboard, pieces are moving, and we can’t play smart unless we know where everyone else’s pieces are sitting.”

“Do you have a suspicion?”

When I’d agreed to marry Anna, I’d done my research into her family, but there’d been a lot going on and plenty on my mind. Perhaps I’d missed something. “Maybe. Find out what you can on his father, Michael, too. He retired right as dad died, and then Jason took over. I… I want more information. Can you do that?” I would have done it myself, but my current focus was my big brother and this thing going on with Franklin. If he knew we were the ones hitting his business, there was a good chance this was all some big play to take us out.

He inhaled. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you later.”

I ended the call, and ten minutes later I was walking into Lucas’s office. As I expected, Thea was already there.

Crossing the room, I took a seat in the chair across from Lucas. “Fill me in?”

Thea launched into a recount of the events of the previous night. Franklin and Claire met? Lacing my fingers behind my head, I exhaled. “Call the wedding off, Lucas. She’s working with her father.”

“No, she isn’t,” Thea growled.

“You don’t know that,” I growled back.

Thea came out of her chair. “Yes, I do. I know what I saw in her eyes.”

I was fully aware of Thea’s history, and how Lucas found her. She’d been living on the streets, and a man had pulled her into an alleyway. Lucas had stepped in before anything could happen. Even with Thea’s experience, that didn’t mean she was an expert on Claire and her father. “You told Lucas about her old man being in the bathroom with her.”

I continued, “Why did Franklin return to Chicago early and not let Lucas know he was in town? If you had a daughter, would you let a man take her and keep her?”

“I’m not Franklin Benoit.” She held my gaze for a minute. “Something isn’t right,” she said through her teeth.

“Enough! I—” Lucas’s sentence died as his office door was thrown open.

Lucas and I came out of our seats.

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