Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"I have preliminaries on Billy Rice when you're ready," Kira said on her way past my office door.

Aria set her laptop bag down on the floor behind my desk and giggled.

"Cock blocked again, Sailor."

She wasn't wrong. The tease had my dick hard from the moment she'd said she was up for a quicky and she kept it that way the entire drive to the office with her hand on my thigh and her knowing smirks.

I tagged her hand and yanked her to me. Her other hand came up, braced against my chest, and she leaned in for a kiss.

I obliged.

It took approximately two seconds before our next interruption.

"Aw, isn't that cute," Jonas cackled. "A mid-morning make-out session."

Aria growled into my mouth.

Fuck, she was cute.

"Would Zane be mad if I beat up one of his employees?" Aria asked against my lips.

I gave her a quick closed mouth kiss and muttered, "Nope."

We both turned to find the nosey bastard still standing in the doorway.

"Kira's got?—"

"Preliminaries on Billy Rice," Aria interrupted. "We know."

"Just making sure." Jonas grinned. "See you in there."

Aria tipped her head back and frowned.

"We should've stayed home."

Home.

I violently shoved the emotions that evoked out of my head. But I couldn't stop the sharp pain that scored through my heart.

"But since we didn't, we should see what Kira found," Aria carried on.

I suppressed the burn still blazing in my chest and we walked out of my office hand-in-hand.

I knew I should've let go but for the life of me I couldn't.

Coop and Jonas were already at the conference room table. Jonas to Kira's left, Coop to her right. All three stared at something on the screen.

"Whatcha got?" I asked.

Kira looked up and beamed a bright smile at Aria.

"I set you up with a password to log into our internet."

Christ .

"Thanks. I was gonna hot spot it."

Kira waved a hand and shook her head.

"No way, we got blazing fast service here."

I pulled out a chair for Aria. Unfortunately, that meant I had to let go of her hand. For some insane reason, I felt compelled to nab it again. It was like a compulsion—she was close and because she was, I needed to touch her.

My addiction was at an all-time high and not showing signs of stopping.

Not great news.

Since my concentration was on Aria, I'd lost focus on Kira so I was caught off-guard. Not that I would've been prepared for Kira's idea of a joke.

"Drifter Five for life," she chirped. "That's capital D for drifter, five spelled out, four is the number four. All one word, no spacing. Here, I wrote it down for you."

A piece of white copy paper sailed across the table, not making it to Aria. She reached out, slid the paper closer, and looked down at it.

Seeing it written was worse than hearing Kira say it.

Drifter Five.

For Life.

Fucking shit .

Why did that make my heart rate tick up?

"Thanks," Aria muttered, completely oblivious.

"What'd you find on Billy?" I swung back to why we were in this meeting.

"Nothing exciting," Kira announced. "William Preston Rice. Forty-five. Everything Brittney said checked out. But she left out the police being frequent visitors at the farm before Billy's parents split. No arrests for any of the Rices but lots of domestic disturbance calls. Billy now lives in Talbot county in a small town called Trappe. He has an LLC in his name—literally his name, Billy Rice, LLC. According to his articles of organization he's a caretaker."

"Like father like son," Jonas mumbled.

"Yep. Though he doesn't live on any of the properties. He's current on his mortgage and his truck payment. No kids, never been married, no record. I'm working on his credit cards and checking account now. I'll have those for you this afternoon."

No Tesla.

"Have you looked into Brittney's husband?" I asked.

Kira's eyes narrowed and I knew why. It was a stupid question, one she'd find offensive.

"Oh, darn, Smith, why didn't I think of that?" Kira scoffed. She turned her head to look at her husband. "It's like he doesn't know me."

"KK—"

"Apologize and I'll forgive you."

I heard Aria giggling next to me. And once again I was proved correct—the women bonded. This did not bode well for me.

"Sorry, Kid Genius. I'll rephrase, did you find anything interesting about Brittney's husband?"

"Nope. David Peterson, general manager of Carrington Cars. He's been with the company ten years…"

Kira was still prattling on, however I was no longer listening. My attention went to Aria. One hand trembled, holding her phone. Her other hand wrapped around my forearm. Face pale. Staring at her phone.

"Smith," she whispered.

I glanced at the screen and shot out of my chair.

"Kira, call nine-one-one! Someone's breaking into Aria's house?—"

"Her house or the Grasonville house?" she asked, already picking up the receiver of the landline phone.

"Grasonville. Jonas, Cooper, with me," I unnecessarily ordered.

Both men were on their feet. So was Aria. Her face was no longer pale—red creeped into her cheeks as anger set in.

"I'm coming with."

"You're staying here."

"It's my house, I'm coming with you," she asserted.

"I'm coming with, Smith."

I blinked in an attempt to stop the memory but it was too late.

"Rie it's not safe. Stay here."

"They'll be asleep and I need my clothes."

"Rie—"

"I'm coming with."

In my naiveté I gave in. I shouldn't've. We barely escaped her parents' house alive.

My shoulder lurched, accompanied by Jonas's clipped, "Smith!" which pulled me back to the room.

Aria's cheeks were no longer a shade above pink. Her face was sheet-white and her brown eyes warm with concern.

"Suit yourself," I rasped.

Before I could move, her hand was on my wrist, halting my exit.

"I'll stay here."

Her acquiescence made some of the tension bleed from my shoulders, but not nearly enough to extinguish the blistering anger of the past.

"Let's go." Jonas pounded my shoulder, propelling me forward.

Aria lost hold of my wrist and stepped to the side.

Cooper was already gone, leaving the ride down to reception alone with Jonas a silent one.

It wasn't until we were in an Escalade, him behind the wheel, did he lay into me.

Even knowing it was coming, every damn word out of his mouth pissed me right the fuck off.

"Coop told me what happened," he started.

Annoying but not surprising.

"And what did he tell you?"

"That you completely shut down and zoned out. If it was half as bad as what just happened that proves I'm fucking right. You need to deal with this."

He was wrong. I didn't need to deal with anything. I needed to get my shit together and stop thinking about the past. I had to do better at keeping the memories locked down.

"Valerie—"

"Do not say her fucking name," I seethed.

"Sorry, Five, but this shit has to end. You did nothing wrong. You fell in love with a girl and did everything you could to save her. Valerie going back is on her."

"Jonas—"

"You did not kill that girl. You did not kill her mother. Her father did. You did everything you could to save her from that. It was her choice to go back. Valerie went back knowing it was not safe. She made that decision. There wasn't anything you could've done to stop her."

My chest felt like it was caving in, making it hard to take a breath. That compounded with the cold sweat trickling down my neck made me want to crawl out of my skin.

"You don't?—"

"You're my brother, so I mean this with love and respect—shut the fuck up and listen to me, Smith. You pulled her out of that shithole. You were living your own nightmare and you still had it in you to get her out. You couldn't control the situation, no one could've. That was on Valerie and her mother. The mom stayed with a man who beat her and her daughter. I get people can't always leave, I get it's not easy. What you don't get is, you had no control over that."

Jesus fuck he had to stop.

"Jonas—"

"You had her free and clear of her father. She went back. Her choice, Smith. None of this shit is your fault."

I could take no more.

"I didn't try to stop her," I contradicted. "I made some half-assed attempt but I didn't try very hard. I could've but I didn't because I'm a selfish prick who was worn down by years and years of her shit piling on both of us. So don't tell me I loved her. If I'd loved her the right way she'd still be alive. If I loved her, I would've stopped her from going back. If I fucking loved her I would've gone with her. I let her leave me. I let her go back to that piece of shit and waste of space brother of hers on some misguided quest to save a brother who'd already turned into his father."

"Smith—"

"This conversation is over," I decreed.

"Fuck," Jonas grunted.

Fuck didn't begin to cover the shit that was clogging my brain.

Old memories mingled with new circumstances, reminding me I was a total asshole. Aria needed to run as far and as fast as she could away from me before I fucked up her life the way I had Rie's.

I didn't have it in me for the long haul.

I quit when shit got to be too much.

I made stupid decisions and they cost the people I love pain.