Page 64 of Vail

Me: Tell me. I’ll come right there.

He didn’t respond. I let a minute go by.

Me: Gil?

Nothing.

“God dammit!” I yelled and shoved the chair back. Luckily, Jordan jumped out of the way.

When I spun around, I saw Jordan beginning to pace while Oleander studied my phone.

“It’s like he’s talking in a riddle,” Oleander said. “Do you know where this restaurant is?”

“It’s in West Dremest. I thought the Dremests bought it though.”

Jordan lifted his phone. “Dexen, did your family buy a…”

I walked away from them. While Gil did bring that place up, I didn’t think it was where he wanted me to go. He was trying to prove he still cared by buying me gifts and doing what he thought I desired. That was how it worked when we were together. He’d hurt me then make up for it in various ways. Buying expensive gifts wasn’t uncommon, especially when our firm started doing well and money flowed.

“Dexen said it was his, but he didn’t sell it to Gil. Gil must have sent someone in his stead then had it signed over to him.”

I shook my head. “It would have been searched or appeared in records. Gil wanted me to know he bought it for me. He’s putting in place what he thinks I desire. A restaurant of my own is the first step. The next would be a new home, maybe?” Gil talked a lot about where we could retire. A place with a big porch we could sit on and watch the sun set. Where we could hear the birds chirp in the morning and the noise of the city didn’t drown out the sounds of nature.

“It’s a code,” Hartley muttered. “The numbers in the text. Two steps forward. Twenty-three back. Forty-seven years. Why phrase it like that if it didn’t mean something?”

28

HARTLEY

Two steps forward…

“So, if the restaurant was the first step,” I began. “A house would be the second. What if the house number is two-three-four-seven?”

Oleander immediately pulled out his phone and began searching. Jordan got on his, placing a call to Lawson, who could find anything online.

“It’s not going to be in Gil’s name,” Vail said. “It would be too obvious like the restaurant. The cops would have known and searched it already.” He began to pace on the opposite side of the room from Jordan. I could hear Reghan and Raiden in the other room talking, no doubt having heard our conversation.

“What if it’s in yours?” I asked Vail. “Could someone buy a house and put it in your name without you knowing?”

“It’s in Vail’s name,” Jordan said, pulling the phone from his ear. “Gil figured out a way around it. I don’t know the legality of it, but there’s a house in your name.”

“Where?” I asked.

“An hour west.”

“Where it’s more rural,” Vail murmured. “It makes perfect sense. We have to go there.” He started for the door but didn’t get very far before Jordan reached him and pulled him to a stop.”

“You’re not going anywhere. My men and I will.”

“No,” Vail stated firmly, drawing his wrist from Jordan’s hand. “It’s my fucking family in danger. They’re in this situation because of me. I might not have wanted you to hurt him in the past, but I do now. And I’ll be damned if I’m not there when it happens. I need to see the end of this.”

Jordan softened his tone. “He’ll have men with him, baby. It won’t be easy to walk up to the house.”

“No, but I’ll be able to. They won’t shoot me. And if you open fire on it, you could hit Cat, Ivy, or Carson.”

“He’s right,” Sheldon said, leaning against the doorway from the kitchen to the main living area. “We can’t go in there with our guns out, firing. Not when we don’t know where he’s holding them. They could be in front of the windows. We have no damn clue, and we don’t have time to scope the place out beforehand.”

“Lawson sent me the listing from when the house was on the market.”

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