Page 66 of Vicarious

“Send her somewhere she can’t interfere with our lives and let her live out her days in peace.”

“What about Leon and Lady? I don’t think she’ll go quietly if we keep them from her.”

“We’ll work something out with that.”

Dele shrugs. “I’ll think about it.”

There’s nothing to think about. She’s going to marry me. What else would she do besides become my wife. All paths she could ever take will only ever lead back to me. I know it because I’ll make certain of it no matter what she does. She has no choice in the matter.

But I decide to humor her and play her game for right now.

As we leave Travis’s house and walk outside to where our ride is waiting, Dele suddenly asks, “Are you part of the mile high club?”

I know what she’s getting at as soon as the question leaves her lips and smirk before replying, “I am. Are you?”

She shakes her head and asks, “Wanna induct me?”

I’m about to eagerly agree to that when my phone goes off. And not just goes off, it’s the emergency ringer tone.

I groan, “What the fuck now?”

When I answer, it’s Eileen, and she wastes no time on greeting,“She’s gone.”

She doesn’t have to tell me who she is.

“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone?”

“She escaped.”

“How the fuck--?”

“It’s fucking Phae!”

That’s fair when it comes to Phae and simultaneously explains everything while at the same time explaining nothing at all.

“Shit,” I say as I drag Dele the rest of the way to our car and barely give her time to close the passenger door before I’m speeding off to my jet to get us back to New York.

“How did she escape the property? Did she take anything with her?” I ask.

“A car, some cash, some clothes, and that file along with all her research.”

I fully expected her to say that last part while sincerely hoping that she wouldn’t. I sincerely hoped that Phae would decide to walk away with her tail tucked between her legs and never show her face again or cause any trouble. Not that that would have stopped me from having to immediately track her down. It’s too risky to not know where Phae is and what she’s doing. But it might not have been as urgent or an inconvenience that I’m a three hour plane ride away.

“Get in contact with all connects we have with border control. We can’t let her escape the country,” I order. I can find her if she leaves the country, but it’ll be infinitely harder.

“Already did that.”

“Check the tracker in the car she took.”

“She was way ahead of us on that one. She disabled it.”

And that’s a trick she learned from me back when we were trying to maintain the pretense of a happy couple.

“There’s a tracker in the wedding ring I gave back to her. If she took it with her, we can find her.”

Dele turns to look at me. “The wedding ring? You put a tracker in it?”

“Why else do you think I gave it back to her?”

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