Page 21 of Dirty Little Vow
“Don’t suck up, Gavin,” I snap. “I’m not in the mood.”
“I’m not sucking up. I’m letting you know where I’m coming from with you, because that’s clearly made you feel I wasn’t on your side. And I’m not suggesting Bella is dead. Yes, I’m repeating myself, but I need you to hear me. I think they want to scare you both. Think about it. They forced you to declare Bella’s importance to you in the meeting.”
“And if we break up,” I follow, “and I suddenly present someone else, it leaves room for the partners to challenge the validity of the relationship and my inheritance.”
“Yes. Exactly. Though from what I read, there’s no stipulation of love in the will.”
“Then you just destroyed your own theory.”
“No,” he argues. “I think a challenge is a challenge, and the right judge, or the wrong judge, depending on how you look at it, could allow your power to be questioned. You should have called me the minute you got called into that meeting. You used to trust me.”
He’s not wrong, but he’s not back inside my trust circle by a long shot. “Someone told the partners about the will.”
“And you think it was me? Seriously, Tyler? I could lose my law license for breaking attorney/client privilege. What we discuss has that attorney/client privilege. For all we know, your father had Withers deliver each partner the terms of your inheritance upon his death. He could have done the same with the Allen family. Was there a clear leader in the meeting?”
“The short guy with the fucked-up name.”
“Raiden?”
“Yeah. Him. There were two others, Jack and Terrance, who seemed to be with him. The rest of the partners were quick to want to stand with me, though loyalty can be deceptive.”
“Those three are the weakest partners we have. I’ve always thought they were weird picks on your father’s part. They’re slimy. I’d have Dash tell your people about them.”
Once again, he’s not wrong. I snag my phone and text both Dash and Dierk at the same time with the names and the details of my concerns. When I’m done, I set my phone on the table and glance up to find Dash walking toward the bathroom. That’s when my phone buzzes with a text message and my adrenaline surges. Logically, it’s Dierk replying to my message, but for reasons I cannot explain, I know it’s more. I know this message is about Bella.
Dread crawls through me, no, it slithers through me, a poisonous snake ready to strike.
I pick up my phone to find a text from an unknown caller. I suck in a thick breath when I open it to find a photo of Bella, anger etched on her beautiful face, alight in her eyes, as if she hates being used, and underneath the image, the message reads:She’s an intelligent, beautiful woman. You’re a lucky man, Tyler Hawk. That doesn’t have to change.
I don’t give my emotions time to consume me or evolve. I screenshot the message and send it to Dash and Dierk, with the number on the caller ID. I’m sure it’s a burner phone, but sometimes they can be traced to a purchase point where cameras exist.
“What just happened?” Gavin asks.
It’s as if he’s speaking inside a tunnel. His voice is distant, an echo in a far-off place as my mind chases something I cannot quite put my finger on. I reply to the message:What kind of game is this? What do you want?
More soon, is the reply.
Nothing more.
I try to dial the number and it goes straight to voicemail. I curse and stand up. Gavin stands with me, and asks again, “What just happened?”
I hand him my phone, barely seeing him. I’m replaying the exchange in my mind.She’s alive, I think. That is, if that picture was just taken. The message indicates she is.
“I know where this is,” Gavin announces. “I know the seat.”
I blink him into view. “What? What are you talking about?”
“It’s a bar a few blocks from here. Tyler, I know where this is.”
My scalp throbs with the insistence of the blood rushing through me. “Take me there. Now.”
Chapter Eighteen
Tyler
I’m at the door of Cupcakes and Books about to exit when Dash catches up to me. “Where are you going?”
“Check your messages,” I say, irritated at his question and the delay he’s causing. “We’re going to get Bella.”