Misguided Vows: Chapter 33

Thomas doesn’t look like he’s slept the entire week since I’ve been back in LA. The only time I excused myself from searching for his daughter’s killer was the time I spent with Alina. I don’t know why I craved her so much, but after seeing Thomas in that state, and his daughter… I just needed her. I even told her about my wife and I haven’t spoken about her for a long time.

Tracking the killers was slightly more difficult than I expected and took me almost a week. Thomas is a detective, so this was very much a targeted attack. When I traced it back, I realized she was purposefully wooed.

The message the killers sent was clear to Thomas. But he’s already gone off the deep end. I recognize it. It’s the same way I felt and looked after Hayley.

The group that targeted Thomas was small and foolishly living in Los Angeles, which made it that much easier to track them. I could’ve given him the location and then let him deal with them how he pleased. But I couldn’t let him do it alone. I don’t have loyalty to many, but because he was with me when I found Hayley, it’s the least I can do.

Thomas stares at his gun as I drive us to the garage where the biker gang hangs out. They’re known for drug trafficking but nothing of the same magnitude Crue Monti deals with in New York. Had they tried this in New York, he would’ve already dealt with them. But this was now a personal matter.

“Are you sure you can do this?” I ask, noticing how white my knuckles are from gripping the steering wheel.

He’s head rolls to the side to face me. “I had to take my baby girl home in a tarp to my wife only days ago. This is all I have to do.”

I get it. “I’m just reminding you that after this, if you’re caught, they’ll take your badge.”

“They did nothing for me,” he says quietly, and again I understand. It takes me back to seven years ago. But now all I can think about is returning to a certain little brunette who, right about now, is probably fluttering about her night with the Ricci sisters. And for some reason, that makes me a little jealous. It also makes me self-loath myself because I shouldn’t be thinking of any other woman with remnant feelings for my wife. She is and always will be my wife. I’d never taken a woman seriously since, hell, I didn’t want anyone to take me seriously altogether. But Alina is all I can think about, and it stabs at me, and I’m unable to break through the betrayal I feel like I’m committing toward Hayley. I can’t entirely understand it. I’ve slept with plenty… but something felt different, and I didn’t want to dig any further, too scared of the answers I might face. Or with the realization that the harder I thought about it, the more pain it brought up with memories of Hayley.

I pull over across the street from the garage. It looks like a full house tonight, which we anticipated. We’d already been there that morning and had also set off a small fire in one of their clubs in the city.

I don’t want to draw attention to ourselves so close to a busy area, so we set up a small arson attempt, anticipating they’d have a meeting about it.

Unfortunately for them, while they had their attention on the club, we rigged a few bombs under their vehicles and around the garage, which is attached to a fuel station on a very quiet highway.

“They set the perfect scene, really,” I say because it’s too easy. No cameras, and for the few strays that do make it out, we’ll be waiting for them.

I hand over a controller to Thomas and we step out of the car. Two men sitting out front on their bikes, smoking. They notice our arrival as we cross the street.

“There should be about twelve members inside,” I murmur as another two walk outside. “Make that ten.”

The bikers snicker and sneer as we approach. One of the men addresses Thomas. “You have a lot of balls coming here yourself. Didn’t even bother hiding your face,”

I look at Thomas, who has tears in his eyes, rage fueling him. One of them laughs as he points a gun in Thomas’s direction. “Thank you for making it easy for us to tie up some loose ends.”

For a moment, I consider that Thomas isn’t going to hit the button. Maybe he’s reconsidering this “hero” notion. But then I see the twist of rage roll through him.

“You stole my daughter from me.”

The man pointing the gun raises his eyebrows. “Oh, so you found her body. You should’ve been there to hear her scream and cry. Pappa,” he says theatrically. “Papp—”

Boom!

Thomas presses the button, and the entire garage explodes. Then, there’s a second wave as it hits the fuel tank. I turn my face away as hot wind pushes against my hair. Men go flying and screaming. The four bikers who were guarding the front are trying to stand, staggering from how disoriented they are.

Thomas hands me his gun and the controller before he storms over to one of the bikers, who is attempting to roll out the flames on his back. He picks him up and begins hitting him. It’s the same man who antagonized him only moments before.

He turns into a madman. Hit after hit after hit. Another man approaches them, but I take the easy shot and shoot him in the head.

Thomas is now kicking in the man’s head, tears streaming down his face as I take this moment to mourn for him because there’s grief in this moment. Realizing no matter what, nothing will bring her back.

No matter how clever, rewarded, or strong in his role and talent, none of it means shit when it comes to looking after his family. I know that feeling too well.

It draws me back to my own darkness and need for escape.

A certain brunette comes to mind.

I sigh, exhausted. I convince myself it’s just sex, but she’s left an impression on me.

I pull out my phone and hit dial on the number from which I’ve purposefully ignored multiple calls.

“Mr. Percy,” I say with no emotion in my voice. “Your deadline is up.”

“I still have two days to get the money to you! I have it! I can get it!”

“No. You’ve run out of time. Our business is done.”

“Is this how you conduct business!” he screams, and it’s his own problem of not realizing how small of a fish he really is in the grand scheme of things. The only reason I took his job was because I was curious about her.

“I suggest you stop trying to find your ex, Alina Harper, Mr. Percy. I’ll leave it in good faith that you understand that is a threat. Never call this number again.”

I hang up.

At the start, Alina was only ever a job, but curiosity turned into something else entirely—a personal obsession.

Thomas is still on his rampage, his knuckles bloody, and no one else moving. I’ll make sure to clean up any ounce of evidence. This man doesn’t deserve to be behind bars. He’s already imprisoned from his loss.

I look down at my phone and at the live footage of Alina getting ready in a shimmery gold top and tight jeans. I bugged her apartment while she was out working. There is no space that I can’t get into. She might’ve thought I had no idea where she was staying, but I knew the moment Honey handed her the keys. Considering she’s still under the assumption Dawson and Honey paid for her hotel, it made it all the easier for me to slip through the cracks.

When Mr. Percy phoned me about his ex, who’d stolen something from him, I didn’t care. That’s until my sister suggested hiring the very same brunette. At first, I thought Alina had somehow made a targeted attack against my sister. But as I studied her, I realized she was a woman running away from her past and starting afresh.

My curiosity continued as I returned her to US soil—as promised to Mr. Percy. But besides him not gathering the money, there was a part of me that wasn’t done with her yet.

That curiosity turned into obsession, and now I’m not so sure I’ll be able to get her out of my system at all. All of the photos, keeping her close by purchasing her flights and hotels, arriving at her work… it all started as a job. Now, I couldn’t imagine myself dealing with her in any other way.

She’s the first target I haven’t taken out or handed over in all these years.

A smirk touches my lips at the thought of what I’ll do with her when I return to New York. I’ll devote myself to her. But I’ll distract myself in the meantime. Try to drown out the resurfacing feelings brought on by Thomas’s mourning–the ones that make me think of Hayley.

I have two women on my mind. My dead wife and the woman I was meant to hand over to another man. And I have no idea how to decipher the rolling emotions either evoke.

I don’t know why, but it’s her legs. I need to be buried between them tonight for me to make sense of anything. And yet nothing at all.