Page 4 of Wicked Love
The drive home didn’t do anything to soothe my nerves, no matter how many slow, steady breaths I made myself take. In the back of my head, I kept seeing Logan yanking Maddie away from me. The three guys glaring at me likeI’dripped her father from her life. Maddie’s expression shifting as she realized that I hadn’t been completely above board with her on the subject of my business dealings—and how I’d first noticed her.
I couldn’t let my emotions cloud my judgment. I needed to consider every possibility until I’d gotten answers. Whoever had gotten to the guys had it in for my family, and stopping them before they did more damage of any kind had to be my first priority.
There was a small chance that Dad had done something in the past that I wasn’t aware of and that it was so long ago Lana wouldn’t have thought of the incident. After all, I’d have been only eleven when Maddie’s father had died. Faking illnesses wasn’t a technique I’d ever heard of our people using, but I couldn’t assume I knew everything.
I passed through the electric gate and parked in the five-car garage. Our big suburban house on the outskirts of the city was where I’d spent the majority of my life when we weren’t on the move handling business transactions and overseeing activities elsewhere. It was home, but it often didn’t feel like one these days. Because the moment I walked through the door into the expansive front hall, I sensed the gloom that had fallen over the place.
That, and the faint voices from a distant TV. I followed them to the family room and found Dad sitting back in his recliner, the remote on the arm next to his hand. Evening was falling outside, the sunlight dwindling, but he hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights. The TV’s glow cut starkly into the room. His gaze flicked to me and then back to the screen without so much as a hello, his expression slack.
I studied him for a moment, trying to imagine this shell of a man launching an attack on Maddie and her other boyfriends. It was hard to picture him summoning enough conviction to bother. Lately, he’d only given the most cursory attention to our basic dealings. Why would he go out of his way to stir up more trouble over a long-cold murder?
But I couldn’t ignore the possibility completely, not when everything about this scenario seemed ridiculous.
“Hey, Dad,” I said. “Any thoughts on dinner?”
His gaze returned to me, but I felt like he wasn’t totally seeing me. He waved his hand dismissively. “I’m sure whatever Emilio whips up will be fine.”
Fair enough. I inhaled deeply, steadying myself. “True. I’m looking forward to it. By the way, a name came up today as someone who might have interfered with our operations at some point—Evan Silver? Does that ring any bells?”
Dad frowned, but he looked more annoyed that I was making him think than concerned about a possible business problem. “I can’t think of anyone by that name. Did he work with one of the other families?”
The Devil’s Dozen families, he meant. I shook my head. “Not as far as I know. He was a doctor. A researcher at Southwestern Regional Memorial Hospital.” I’d looked up the one hospital in the area of Maddie’s hometown, based on what she’d told me before about her father’s work.
The air of confusion lingered around my dad. I could tell he had no idea what I was talking about, which relieved me even as his lack of investment niggled at me.
“None of that sounds at all familiar,” he said definitively. “If you find out he damaged our holdings in some way, I’m sure you know how to deal with that.” His attention slid back to the TV.
“I do. No need to worry about it.” Not that he looked like he was particularly worried anyway.
I stepped out of the room and hesitated in the hallway. The ache in my chest tightened.
Years ago, I’d have been able to turn to Dad for guidance. I could have laid the situation out, and he’d have considered it from every angle alongside me, suggesting strategies and avenues of inquiry. But even if I tried to tell him I needed help, he wouldn’t be able to offer much these days. He just didn’t care enough. He’d probably tell me I should be proving myself, not leaning on him.
All because of the choices I’d made trying to prove myself and protect the family before, which had shattered his faith in both me and himself in the process.
I swallowed hard and headed upstairs, but my own worries chased at my heels. Yes, someone clearly had it in for me and the Storm, but I’d handled vengeful assholes before. I wasn’t afraid of that.
Iwasafraid for Maddie. It didn’t matter what kind of hotshots her other guys believed they were. They couldn’t be prepared to tangle with the sorts of criminals who ran in my family’s circle, the few who were even aware of our level of society. Whoeverwasbehind the cover up and the murder was obviously dangerous. The threat the guys had decided I represented was still out there, unknown, maybe already planning another attack.
My hands closed into fists at my sides. I couldn’t stand back and watch someone hurt her. I needed to know what they’d uncovered so I could deal with itmyway.
But the guys were never going to be on board with that, not now. Our confrontation this afternoon had made that painfully clear. They’d never really trusted me in the first place, and whatever they’d heard had only confirmed their suspicions.
I had to get through to Maddie. I had to make her understand why I’d told the lies I had and that they had nothing to do with the threats she was facing now. That I could protect her from those threats. I didn’t want to lose another person because they didn’t understand why I’d done the things I’d done or how much they mattered to me.
But what the hell could I say to her that would convince her while the three of them had her ear and I’d been pushed aside?
I paced in my bedroom for several minutes before sitting down on the edge of the bed and getting out my phone again. If I couldn’t talk to my dad, there were other people who’d been a guiding force for me after he’d pulled away. Everyone in Paradise Bend had my back, but Rowan had taken me under his wing more than anyone from the start.
I hit his name in my contacts and tipped backward on the bed.
The phone had almost gone to voicemail when Rowan picked up, his familiar easygoing tenor sounding a little harried. “Beckett?”
A childish voice was chattering in the background on a rant about jellybeans. The corners of my mouth twitched upward. “Sorry if I’m interrupting something. Busy with the kids?”
He chuckled. “Always.” He paused and muttered something off the line, and a lower rumble of a voice I recognized as Kaige’s carried from farther away. The little girl squealed with laughter as he must have swooped in.
Rowan came back, a little more relaxed now. “The baby went down a few minutes ago, but Josey’ll do anything to delay bedtime. That’s four-year-olds for you. What’s up?”
