Chewing on her lip, she paced back and forth. Damn it. He wasn’t going to show. Tears welled in her eyes as she searched through her handbag for her phone.
A car screeched around the corner, making her drop her bag in fright. Cursing, she stared at the dark car.
Her heart raced. Something was wrong.
Someone climbed out. They were dressed all in black and wore a balaclava over their face.
And they were holding a gun.
Run!
She left her bag and took off, darting around a car for cover. There was the sound of footsteps. They were following her.
The exit. She needed to make it to the exit. Ducking, she dove around another car and raced towards the door. She heard the car gunning it, speeding towards her. She weaved, not wanting to make herself an easy target. There was the sound of something smashing. A car alarm went off. Pain flared in her arm and she cried out, nearly falling.
Had they shot her?
“Hey! What the fuck is going on here? What are you doing? Oh, fuck! You’ve got a gun!”
She took the opportunity to dive through the door.
Sobbing, she could barely see as she tried to race up the stairs. She slipped, her ankle giving way beneath her. Sharp pain stabbed her, but she couldn’t afford to slow down.
No. No. No.
She forced herself to move past the pain as she heard the door open below her. She flew up the stairs and out into the street above. Thankfully, there were plenty of people up here. A few gave her weird looks. She knew she probably appeared to be half-crazed, tears racing down her face, heaving for breath, limping.
Pulling up the hoodie, she moved with the crowd, praying she was now safe from the shooter. As to what she was going to do now, she had no idea. She had no money. No phone. No flash drive.
She was alone and out of options.
3
“I’m going to San Francisco to find her.”
Aleki rubbed his hand over his face at Caleb’s words.
Fuck, he was tired. He’d barely slept these past three nights. Nightmares plagued him every time he closed his eyes. Vivi calling for him. Begging for his help.
But she didn’t need his help. Sure, her husband had died. However, she wasn’t alone. She had her father. She probably had lots of friends.
Eight years ago, she’d made it clear that she didn’t need him. So why would he fly halfway around the world to check on her now?
But Caleb couldn’t just let it go. He was protective. Almost as much as Wolfe. The difference was that Wolfe was protective of only a few people while Caleb would look out for the whole world if he could.
Aleki might be quick to smile, to laugh, but he didn’t have the heart that Caleb did. Or he would have been able to forgive and forget, right?
She’d walked away. She’d left him.
He didn’t owe her anything.
“Why? It’s been years since you’ve seen her. What makes you think she needs you?” he asked Caleb.
“Because my gut says something is wrong. She hasn’t been seen since his death was announced. She hasn’t replied to my emails.”
“She’s likely holed up somewhere,” Aleki told him. “You know what the press is like, she’ll be keeping a low profile.”
“She could be in trouble,” Caleb said.
“Or she could be fine,” Wolfe pointed out.
Caleb frowned. “I have a bad feeling. I’ve talked to Kassim, I’m taking their jet.”
“And who is going to do your job while you’re gone?” Aleki snapped.
Caleb pinned him with a look. “You know the two of you can keep things going here. Not to mention that you have Beta team to back you up.”
“You don’t want us to come?” Wolfe asked.
Caleb raised his eyebrows. “With how you both feel about Vivi, I figured you wouldn’t want to come.”
How he felt about her? How did he feel about her? That was the problem, wasn’t it? It might have been eight years, but it seemed that his heart didn’t understand time.
His body didn’t understand that he shouldn’t want her. Glancing away, Aleki closed his eyes and let out a breath.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go on your own,” Wolfe said. “What if something happens to you?”
“Nothing will happen to me,” Caleb reassured him.
Wolfe could worry himself into an ulcer if left unchecked. They’d gotten used to heading him off before he went on a protective bender.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll keep in contact every day. I’ll probably be gone four, maybe five, days at the most.”
“I don’t like it,” Wolfe said mulishly. “We do things together, remember?”
The three of them shared everything. A house. Finances. And when they found someone who fit them all, they planned to share their woman. It was an agreement they’d come to after coming to Escana and seeing how well it worked here.
Wolfe was right, they wouldn’t let Caleb go alone. They stuck together.
“What if she’s not in San Francisco?” he asked. “She could be anywhere.”
“Oh, she’s in San Francisco,” Wolfe said, his focus on his computer.
“How do you know that?” Aleki asked him.
“She still wears the locket you gave her for her twenty-first birthday.”
Why would she still be wearing that?
“She does? Wait. What does that have to do with anything? And how do you know she still wears it?” he asked.
“She’s wearing it in almost every photo I’ve seen of her,” Wolfe told them. “And I know where she is because I put a tracking device in it.”
“You did what? Why?” Aleki asked
Wolfe shrugged. “She was important to you. I turned it off after she left, wasn’t sure it would still work. Signal goes in and out. Can’t tell you anything more other than she’s in San Francisco. Hoping it will get better when we’re closer to her.”
Fuck it.
“Fine. When the fuck do we leave?” he snapped.
Keep moving, Vivi.
Get up, baby girl.
Don’t sit there, Genevieve. It’s filthy and you’ll get some nasty disease and die.
Her dry, cracked lips formed a smile at the last thought. That was exactly something Wolfe would say.
If only she had the energy to keep going. She hadn’t eaten in days. She’d found a dollar in her backpack, which she’d thankfully been wearing when that asshole chased and shot at her, and she’d used it to buy a chocolate bar. Best damn chocolate she’d ever eaten. But it was gone now too. She’d been getting water from public restrooms, but today when she’d tried to move, her legs just wouldn’t hold her.
She was not going to die in this alley. Alone. Filthy. Starving. A sob broke out of her mouth.
Stop it, Vivi. You can do this.
Baby, just hold on.
Do not cry. You don’t have the fluids to spare.
She huffed out a laugh. Even after eight years apart it was still the three of them that she thought of. Had she made no other friends? Did she have no one else she could rely on?
No.
There was Uncle Ben. But getting in touch with him meant risking that he’d tell her father where she was. Plus, she didn’t want to put him in any danger. Whoever shot her was likely still trying to find her.