Page 1 of A Man of Prestige

Chapter1

Aiden

I see the car coming,and when Conner’s car pauses, I know. It’s his father. Why are both his father and mine here? There’s only one reason that I can think of and it’s sitting in my pocket right now.

Fuck. We have to get out of here right now. I keep running until I get to my car. Hopping in, I turn it on and head out the opposite direction of the Sterling property. It’s a longer route home, but I don’t want to be seen by either my father or his.

My phone rings.

“Are you out of there?” Conner asks.

“Yes, on my way back. I’ll see you at the apartment.” I hang up and drive back to the city. I borrowed a colleague’s car, so I drive to his home first. He’s an older doctor who has lived in Bethesda for almost all his life. His wife greets me and tries to get me to come in for coffee, but I let her know I have somewhere to be. I call a car and have it drop me off two blocks from Vivienne’s apartment.

By the time I arrive, Sebastian and Alexis are back here as well.

“Well, that was…” Vivienne muses as she makes us all coffee.

I set the vial down on the counter, and everyone freezes to look at it. Alexis slowly walks over and picks it up, holding it up to the light.

“It’s strange that such an innocent-looking little bit of liquid could cause so much destruction,” she muses as she sets it back down. Sebastian comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist, kissing the top of her head.

“We’re going to bring an end to all that destruction, little dove. I promise you that,” he assures her.

“The destruction is from the people that brought that vial here. That’s what we need to end, the people,” I declare as I look from Sebastian to Conner. I can see the agreement in their eyes.

We don’t need words to understand each other. These two know me better than anyone. We’ve been through hell and back again. And it looks like we’ll be visiting hell one last time.

I look over at Vivienne who has resumed pouring coffee into mugs. She sets them on the counter, her hand grazing Conner’s. Only he doesn’t pull away, he places his hand over hers and squeezes it.

I saw them in the car tonight. I didn’t mean to see them fucking, but I wasn’t exactly expecting to find them canoodling in the middle of a spy mission. I have no idea what is going on between those two, but if Conner is showing her affection in front of other humans, then it’s serious.

My heart momentarily turns to ice as I think of Ella. Estella Garcia. Conner and Sebastian used to call her the one that got away until my icy stares stopped them. Ella didn’t get away. She left willingly.

She intentionally signed up for a tour in Afghanistan. Who does that? She could have stayed here in D.C. Yet, after one explosive fight, she up and fucking left me. I got one note on my dresser as a goodbye. Of course, I tried to contact her, but she went zero dark thirty on my ass. When she finally resurfaced over two years later at a conference I was attending, I was more than a little shocked to see her. She greeted me coolly and let me know what she was doing at the Pentagon and that was it. Well, until a few weeks ago, when I reached out to her.

Ella is a changed woman. And it’s not just the top secret laboratory that she runs. It’s like the fun-loving woman I fell madly in love with all those years ago, just evaporated in smoke. She’s still as sexy and beautiful as she always was, but she’s changed.

Our split was so sudden, I think my head might still be spinning from it after all these years. We were fighting about something stupid. I had left a cup on the edge of a table. She made a big deal about it, and I said it didn’t matter. So what if a cup breaks? She noted that someone could get hurt. I think my response was a shrug. And she said, “You won’t think that if it’s your kid doing it someday.”

To which I responded, “That won’t happen because I’m never having children.”

I could see it in her eyes. We hadn’t really talked about kids until that moment. We were all lust and passion and fucking. Our eyes had met across a room at a summer clinic we both were attending while in med school, and that was it. I stumbled into her bed that night and we had been inseparable from that day on until that last night.

I was going to marry this woman. I was all ready to propose. I even had a ring. It had been my mother’s ring. And then, she up and fucking vanished as if the three years we spent together meant absolutely nothing. I tried to contact her, over and over. I even showed up at her sister’s dormitory one time, but she refused to see me or even talk to me. After three months of trying, her sister told me she’d taken a tour abroad and was gone. I later found out she was in Afghanistan. But even my few attempts at sending letters to her overseas went without a response.

I would never admit to these fuckers that there was a part of me that wanted to contact Ella when we needed her help. I want to finish it between us. I want to say all the words that were never said. I want answers. But the time isn’t right. So instead, our communications have been quick and professional.

Conner’s phone buzzes, interrupting my thoughts.

“Bryce?” he answers. It’s the man who runs the security company that we hired. One of the few without ties to TOD. I’m still a little suspect of the guy, but if Conner trusts him, then I trust him.

“Yes. We’re all here. Hold on,” he says as he places his phone down and puts it on speaker.

“Your fathers just left the loading dock office. I’ve rearranged my men and will be upping security measures at all your properties. I don’t know what you have planned, but you better be keeping me in the loop. I will debrief you all tomorrow with the latest tech we are adding to your security detail.” And just like that, he hangs up.

Sebastian narrows his eyes. “I’m not sure we should let Bryce know that our plan might end in the murder of our own fathers.”

Alexis’s eyes grow wide. “You’re going to kill them?” she whispers.

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