Page 34 of Under His Embrace

Wes was previously a cop in two different small towns before he left and went to law school. Then he hopped around, apparently not worrying about his income since he came from generational wealth. With that long-standing wealth came powerful influence, and he shaped his career into that of a politician. While he didn’t officially run for any positions or roles, it looked like he was preparing to campaign one day.

What Romeo and I focused on was how to find himnow. Fortunately for us, he had an office in the city where he was supposed to meet with an up-and-coming entrepreneur from Canada. Unfortunately for him, we’d make sure he was dead andmissed that meeting. There wasn’t a single chance of his getting away with what he’d done, and I wasn’t in the mood to wait for the hackers to compile more details. The man deserved to die for ever raising his hand to her and causing her to live a life on the run, always hiding.

But Wes was not there.

A couple of soldiers came with us, and while Romeo and I waited for the men to capture him and take him right out of his office and bring him down to us, we stalled and watched the time pass in the alley.

“He’s not there,” Vic said. He leaned over to speak through the window. “Doesn’t look like he’s been there all day.”

“Dammit.” I pounded my fist on the steering wheel.

“Maybe we were too hasty to think we’d find him on the first try,” Romeo told me. “We only just started looking into this. I’m not saying the hackers screwed up, but maybe this fucker has had practice at covering up his whereabouts.”

I nodded, frustrated, but I agreed. I couldn’t let my impatience for justice get the better of me. This wasn’t only about Chloe. We had to also see through the shooting at the deli.

“Did the staff say anything?” Romeo asked.

“No,” Vic replied. “None of them said shit.”

The other soldier shrugged. “Want us to go back up there and force answers out of them?”

I shook my head.

“I left a couple of bugs in there. We can record what’s said,” Vic added.

“Good,” Romeo said, dismissing them.

I drove away from the area, annoyed but taking it in stride. This was only day one of looking into him. Not every hunt went quickly. These things could take time.

“The two men you and Liam shot at the motel showed up in the database,” Romeo said after reading through something that came in on his phone.

I glanced over, seeing that he was skimming through a text.

“The hackers got back with me. It looks like the two men who shot up the deli were just hired killers. No affiliation with any group, but one of them was previously wanted as an accomplice for murder in Tennessee.”

“But no connection to Wes?” I asked. “Or the Devil’s Brothers? Or Stefan?”

He shook his head. “No. Just a mention that he could’ve been a former soldier for the Domino Family.”

I huffed and shook my head. Sometimes, it seemed like we were pulled in so many different directions. Life would never be peaceful, but for fuck’s sake, it was too damn difficult to identify who shot up that deli now.

“As soon as we get a lead on Wes, we’ll go after him. We’ll look for him again because we won’t give up on this.” Romeo put his phone away, turning to glance at me. “We’ll get answers from him before we kill him.”

“Definitely,” I agreed.

“And with those answers,” he added, “you’ll know who is to blame for that attack.”

I furrowed my brow, not following why he’d state the obvious like that.

“And then you won’t need to keep Chloe under our protective custody.”

I heaved out a sigh. I didn’t want to think about that. “I’m not letting her out of our protective services until her ex is gone.”

“That’s valid. But after Wes is gone, will you be able to let go of her?”

I clenched my teeth, hating how good he was at putting me on the spot like that.

“You haven’t let go of her all those years you weren’t together.”

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