Fixing Justice (43 page)

“What?” It was Drae’s turn to start bellowing.

“You heard me. Tori has left. No warning, no explanation, nothing - so I’ll ask again, what the fuck did you do to her?”

An instant replay of everything that happened yesterday unraveled in his mind. Victoria coming to talk to him, the crazy explosion that led to their wild lovemaking, the ugly argument that followed her throwing up in his bathroom and the God-awful gossip rag pictures that had fueled her anger. He knew she was hurt, mad, maybe even a tad jealous – none of those things made him feel very good about how he’d been behaving but he thought after a night to cool off, he’d have a chance to make things right between them. Apparently he was wrong.

Why would she leave, he wondered? It didn’t make sense. The hellcat he’d come to love wasn’t afraid of anything as far as he could tell. She’d stand her ground no matter what, even if just to be perverse. Then it hit him. She was carrying his child but didn’t think him man enough to accept the responsibility and especially didn’t understand yet how much he loved her. It had taken a long time to get there but he had. Only she didn’t know that.
Fuck me
, he thought.

“Let’s go,” Drae barked, grabbing the keys to his truck and sprinting past Alex for the door.

“Where exactly are we going?”

“Light a fire under Cam and have him meet us at her apartment. We do surveillance for Christ’s sake – hopefully she left some sort of clue,” he murmured, his thoughts careening all over the place.

Once in the truck, Drae floored it out of the drive and drove like a madman up to the main house while Alex tapped a text out to Cam. When he was finished he grumbled, “You gonna let me in on what’s going on?”

“Eventually.”

Less than two minutes later he brought the vehicle to a screeching halt outside the building where Victoria had been staying. Leaping from the cab, he took the steps two at a time after leaving the driver’s side door open with Alex still exiting the truck.

He didn’t bother to try knocking. She was already gone and had left the door unlocked so he simply shoved it open and dashed in. His heart sank as he took in the scene before him. Two large suitcases sat in the middle of the room with a garment bag draped over top. Next to that were three big boxes, neatly addressed and ready to be shipped along with two envelopes. One addressed to Alex and another for him. Ripping open his envelope, he found a single sheet of paper on which she’d scribbled,

Draegyn,

By now you’ve read the papers I left you.
Shit, he’d forgotten about them after reading that damn tabloid article.

I’m sorry to have messed up your perfect life.
Oh my fucking god.

Will be in touch once I’ve made some decisions.
This can’t be happening.

Some truces don’t always work out.
Is this what a heart attack feels like?

He dropped onto the sofa as the sheet of paper slipped from fingers too numb to feel anything. “I’d consider hitting you again,” Alex bit out, “But from your look, it seems like Tori landed a knock-out punch.”

He looked up into Alex’s scowling face but words didn’t find their way out of his mouth. Shaking his head in censure, Alex reached for the paper Drae had dropped and read the four short lines.

“What papers and what kind of decisions?”

Feeling vacant and hollow, Drae struggled to answer. “I forgot about the papers.” At Alex’s renewed scowl he let the rest pour out as Cam came pounding up the steps and into the apartment. “She came by to talk yesterday and we, uh….we got sidetracked.” He ignored the dark look of fury directed at him. “An argument broke out and we said some stupid shit.”

Cam added, “That was one seriously pissed off lady.”

“Yeah, well – she had good reason. Somehow she got hold of a gossip magazine that ran a story about me and Jessamyn Winters. All lies by the way,” he added quickly with a malevolent scowl of his own. “Anyway, the story did more than insinuate we were friends with benefits and, unfortunately, there were a few paparazzi shots that made it worse.”

Cam whistled and did a bit of tut-tutting while Alex dialed his rage back a notch and asked, “These papers. Are they about a divorce?”

“A
what
?” Cam wheezed, caught completely off-guard by what he was hearing.

“Probably,” Drae groaned, hanging his head in his hands. “Fuck.”

Alex took it from there. “For those of us just tuning in, Mr. I-Don’t-Ever-Want-to-Get-Married St. John and Miss I’ll-Kick-Your-Arrogant-Ass Bennett had themselves a drunken wedding ceremony while on a work assignment in Las Vegas.”

Cam whistled again as his eyebrows shot to the ceiling in surprise. “Explains the angry, pissed off thing.”

“Exactly,” Alex bit out.

Still trying to get up to speed, Cam asked Alex, “How do we go from drunken Vegas wedding to naughty actress and the paparazzi?”

“Well now, there’s the million dollar question but I suspect the two intersect in New York while he was doing a protection detail. Am I right?” Drae could only nod. Cameron chuckled, not that Drae could blame him. When he heard someone else explain it out loud, it did sound like the plot to a bad chick flick.

“Wow. I go away for a few weeks and all hell breaks loose. Whatsamatter Drae, you jealous of me and Lacey getting hitched?” he smirked. “Went about things the wrong way.”

“Bite me,” Drae snapped.

“So – let me guess,” Cam continued as he fixed Drae with a pitying look. “You freaked out, acted like a dick, said all the wrong things and basically made the lady feel like shit. Am I anywhere near the truth?” he asked looking back and forth between Drae and Alex.

“I’d say you hit the nail on the head,” Alex replied drily.

Gesturing with his head at the other envelope in Alex’s hand, Cam asked, “What’s that say?”

“Uh, well let’s see. It’s your basic thanks for everything resignation letter along with a bunch of please don’t be mad at me thrown in for good measure. She loved working for the agency, blah-blah-blah but this is also Drae’s home and she couldn’t stay with the way things are. Ship her stuff to her mother and give Carmen and Ria a hug good-bye. Reading between the lines there’s a shit-ton of hurt mixed with regret. Good going there, bro.”

Two pair of disappointed eyes turned on him. Drae stood, murmuring, “I gotta hit the head,” and staggered off to the bathroom. He didn’t really, but the way his chest tightened each time he realized she was gone, made him need a moment. It in no way helped his frame of mind when he shut the bathroom door only to be assailed by Victoria’s scent. It clung to everything in the small space. Perfume mixed with shampoo and bodywash made his senses reel. He leaned on the edge of the sink and held on fast, trying to calm his nerves.

That was when he saw it. A small white stick tossed in the trashcan and the remnants of a box looking like it had been hastily torn open and just as quickly discarded. He reached for the stick with badly trembling hands. There was no mistaking what he held – the two lines on the end of the stick labeled PREGNANT, stared back at him. All the oxygen got sucked out of his lungs, making his head spin uncomfortably.

Stumbling like a toddler just learning to walk, he lurched out of the bathroom and into living room, the pregnancy test still clutched in his hand. Alex and Cam both stopped talking and looked at him. He didn’t doubt for a second he was pale as a ghost. It was Alex, in his role as big daddy, who reacted to the sight of his pallor and the damning stick he held in his hand. This time when he punched him, Drae didn’t even try to defend himself from the hit. In his mind he deserved that and more.

Cam stepped in, being the biggest physically of the three, and managed to restrain Alex from beating him to a bloody pulp. There was a lot of yelling and swearing, none of it coming from Drae, followed by an angry sounding Alex leaving a message on the voicemail of Victoria’s mother asking her to call him back ASAP.

Drae never realized how shock could slow down the thought process until this moment. It was like trying to think in a thick, dense cloud that made everything feel like a slow-motion slog. He was going to be a father.
Jesus
. He and Victoria had made a baby together.
Keep breathing, just keep breathing.

Suddenly, his thoughts became crystal clear when he remembered her delicate body shaking uncontrollably as she heaved up her guts into the toilet. Thoughts of her paleness, the hollows he noticed in her cheeks, and the way she screamed at him afterwards kicked him harder in his conscience than any punch Alex could have thrown. The dots continued to connect in less than flattering ways for him. The childish way he’d reacted to their marriage, him running off to New York without a word, that damn tabloid story, and the way he couldn’t keep his hands off her, all without any words of feeling or commitment on his part attacked not just his already smarting conscience, but his heart as well. What the fuck had he done?

Cam finally broke through the fog. “Where do you want to start?” Leave it to the surveillance expert to get them back on track.

Alex answered first. “She left the truck at the market off the interstate. We should check that out first. Hopefully her mother will call me back, and maybe she’ll know more.” Looking at Drae who was walking in circles, he shook his head and scraped his hand back and forth through his hair. “Get the zombie an ice pack for his face.”

Alex stayed at the Villa while Cam drove Drae to where Victoria had left the truck. The ride was one of the most uncomfortable half hours of his life.

They didn’t have any trouble locating the vehicle. With the extra keys Cam remembered to grab, they checked the interior of the cab for clues but found nothing out of the ordinary. Frustrated, Drae was pacing and checking his phone praying that Victoria would reach out to him when he heard Cam shout, “Bingo!”

“What’d ya’ find?”

“Nothing yet buddy but take a look down the street.” Cam said pointing over Drae’s shoulder. Whipping around to follow Cam’s pointing he saw in an instant what his friend was referring to. A car rental place. Bingo, indeed.

The manager at the rental place was all kinds of understanding but there was only so much he could tell them. Yes, a Victoria Bennett had rented a car but beyond that the details got murky. She paid up front for a thirty-day period, unlimited mileage, add-on insurance. He would not however give up the credit card details and just before Drae reached over the counter to grab the guy by the neck and force the information from him, Cam stepped in and stopped him with a look.

Back in the parking lot, Cam reminded Drae in blunt and specific terms that finding people was what he did best, earning his friend a sheepish look and a grumpily muttered, “Understood.”

“You okay to drive?” Cam asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” he answered. “I’ll meet you back at the Villa.”

“What are you going to do, Drae? Don’t go off half-cocked. It won’t help.” Drae paused and looked at the sky shaking his head with hands pressed on his waist. He’d made so damn many mistakes. Luckily for him he had brothers, true brothers – not just the kind that come with matching DNA – who had his back.

“You don’t have to worry. I won’t do anything without you, but I want to stop at home and grab the papers she left. More clues, y’know?”

“Good thinking, buddy,” Cam replied. “Look Drae, if it helps any, I kinda know how you feel right now. I’m happy to pass my Ass-Clown of the Year trophy off to you. My lovely wife had to damn near rearrange my brain before the light made it through years of dark. Know what I mean?”

Drae snorted a laugh and gave him a
not surprised to hear it
look. “Shit. Men really are dumb as dirt where women are concerned, huh?”

Laughing heartily, Cam slapped him good-naturedly on the back. “Now
there’s
an understatement!” Drae climbed in the truck and thanked his good friend for being there.

Cam grinned. “I didn’t get to know your lady very well before the wedding, but she’s one smart cookie. And unless you ran over her dog and drove away laughing, I’m pretty damn sure you can fix this.”

Tori had been behind the wheel for way too long. It would take about eight hours to make it to the coast, and she’d had enough for one day. She had stopped for a pretend lunch that stayed in her stomach for less than an hour before reappearing in her latest bathroom drama. Was there anything worse than getting sick in a roadside rest stop? She didn’t think so.