22
She curls up on the wicker chair, her summer dress falling lazily over her bent knees as she sips at the coffee in her hands. Her eyes are still slightly swollen though they look clearer than they did last night, not so clouded with emotion.
I couldn’t expect her to understand, I couldn’t expect her to be able to process what she saw like the rest of us would. She’s been sheltered, kept in the dark and yet she’s been a valuable player her whole life. It seems cruel to keep someone like her in the shadows.
If not me, it would have been someone else. Up until now no one paid much attention to Valentine, he was useless, not really a threat, more a nuisance until he decided to attack. Now I realize he’s grown tired of being the little man in this world and is coming for the big guns. My city. Had he picked another city, another town, they would have picked apart his life too, found his weak spots and exploited them, who knows what could have happened to Wren then? There’s so many ways girls like her could go missing and not every time means death.
This organization, the Syndicate, they are backing him and not knowing who they are or where they have come from puts me on edge. Being blind in a game like this has deadly consequences.
Leaving Wren on the balcony I head back through to the kitchen but bypass it instead and go to my study, pulling my phone from my pocket.
My father has been out of the game for months now, he left me fully in charge though I know he still has his fingers in the pot. There’s no way in hell the old man would have just left. Even though his wife died and he was distraught, wrecked with grief, the city was his second love. Just like it was my grandfathers and his grandfathers. The Silver’s own this city and have done for a long time, it’s in our blood.
I dial my fathers number and settle down in the chair behind the desk, pulling up the camera feed, going to one in particular. It shows the back side of the house, positioned in a way that shows both the stretched lawn and the balcony where Wren sits. She’s made me wantmore.An obsession I can’t seem to shake, and I fear that if it is ever taken away, I’ll never be the same.
She’s as still as anything, the only giveaway that she’s even real is the gentle way the wind teases her hair and her arms gently cradling the cup, bringing it to her lips every few minutes for a sip of her coffee.
The phone rings three times before he picks up.
“Son,” he greets, his voice husky and rough from a lifetime of bad decisions.
“I need information.”
“Well hello to you too.”
“Hello,” I grunt, “good enough?”
Me and my father didn’t have a bad relationship, but it wasn’t one filled with love and compassion either. No, I was raised on brutality and hostility. My mother was the one who showed me compassion. She was the one who nursed me and cradled me when I was a child, giving me at least some semblance of a normal childhood. I respect my father. I value him. But there was no compassion. The relationship between him and I seemed more like a business transaction, there was always an ulterior motive behind everything and even now, as I phone him and hear his voice on the other end of the line, I don’t feel anything other than the need to find out more about this Syndicate. I didn’t care to find out how he was doing, where he was or even if I’d ever see him again.
He chuckles, the laugh turning to a harsh cough, “What information?”
My eyes stay trained on the girl who’s invaded my entire life. “The Syndicate. Who are they?”
“Where did you hear that name?”
“So you’ve heard of them?”
“Yes.”
“What do you know?”
The line goes silent for a long time, long enough for me to pull the phone from my ear to check the call is still connected, “Not on the phone. I’m back in the city in soon. We’ll meet to discuss it then.”
“When? I don’t have time for this,” I growl. “Where the fuck even are you?”
“That’s none of your business.” He huffs, “Soon, Lex. See you then.”
He hangs up. He doesn’t offer anything more or anything less. My hands curl around the phone as frustration and anger war with each other inside me. I was blind. I was fucking blind and I had no way of knowing shit. I had to hope Ainsley with her technical skills could get me something but I was losing patience.
There was no way in hell I was letting this shit go or stay in limbo for a damn week let alone an infinite amount of time. I needed to find who this fucking Syndicate was and end them. Now.
My eyes stray to Wren once again. One of my housekeepers has stepped out onto the balcony with her and is passing her a coffee. She smiles and takes it. As the house keeper turns back, her face lifts to the camera.
I don’t recognize her, and I know all my staff.
Fuck.
I bolt from the chair and sprint through the house, drawing my gun from the holster at my back, clicking off the safety. I spot her walking casually towards me, when she notices me there, she halts mid-step, eyes growing wide.