Page 126 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

CALEB

C ockblocked again, this time by Mandy.

Not going lie, my dick is extremely frustrated. I have a case of blue balls like you would not believe. Everything hurts.

But when I saw Mandy's number on the display, I had to answer. I knew she wouldn't call unless it were important. And when I heard what she had to say…

Not telling Kiera was never an option. I’m done playing games. Relationships can't be built on lies and half-truths.

My mind spins. I take a second to digest everything Mandy told me, and then I turn to Kiera. “My team found out earlier this evening that your sister never made it to Cancun. She’s still in New York.” I take a deep breath. “We made contact.”

Kiera’s not a fool; she can tell from my voice that something's wrong. “And?” she asks hesitantly.

I hold her hand. “It's not good, Kiera.” I ignore my aching cock and gather my thoughts into coherence. “Most of my people work in IT. They sit behind desks, and they find information on people. That is my company's expertise. Fieldwork isn’t really our specialty. Brody and Adrian’s people are much better at it.” I’m aware I’m stalling.

“I have a very small set of operatives that do surveillance work in the field.”

She nods wordlessly.

“Four people have been taking turns to watch Bianca. It’s been a challenging assignment.

They can’t get into her building, not without arousing suspicion.

Conveniently for Martinez, a US Senator lives on the fortieth floor.

The security is very rigorous. Anyone who enters that building needs to be signed in and out.

There are Secret Service agents everywhere, trained to detect anything suspicious. ”

We should have had this conversation on Thursday. We hadn’t. Instead, we’d talked about the ghosts of our pasts, about Stephan and Lina, and how their deaths had influenced our lives. I’d told her—truthfully—that I was doing everything in my power to contact her sister, and we’d left it at that.

I guess that I’d been hoping for a happy ending.

From what Mandy told me, there are going to be no joyous family reunions in the near future.

“Bianca does not go out very much. She works out in her building’s gym. She doesn't appear to have many friends. No lunches with girlfriends, no happy hour cocktails. The only social gatherings she attends are with Martinez.”

Martinez keeps a constant watch on Bianca. She doesn’t have any friends. Two red flags.

Kiera hears what I’m not saying. “He’s abusing her?”

“We don’t know for sure. Yet. ” I exchange a look with Nolan. Once we found Bianca, identifying Martinez was easy. Getting him is now a matter of time—we’re just waiting until we find him alone. We won’t endanger Kiera’s sister.

He’s not going to be able to melt back into the shadows. Not this time.

“Tonight was one of those gatherings. A birthday party for one of Martinez’s associates, held in some nightclub in Hell’s Kitchen. Mandy, one of my operatives, was able to follow Bianca into the ladies’ room. Your sister was alone. Mandy handed over your note.”

Kiera's eyes are very wide in her face.

“What did your note to your sister say?” Nolan asks, sensing that I'm avoiding what comes next.

“You don't know?” She sounds surprised. “You didn't read it?”

I shake my head.

“Caleb wouldn’t invade your privacy,” Nolan says wryly. “He didn't even run a background check on you, even though he's been interested in you for months. You have no idea how rare that is.”

I give my friend a quelling look. “It was between you and your sister. I didn't see any reason to read it.”

“It wasn't anything personal,” she says. “All I said was that I thought she was dead—Miles Armstrong had been pretty persuasive—and that once I testified, I went into hiding.” She swallows. “I told her I had no idea that she was alive and that I was very sorry. I should have searched harder for her. And I gave her my phone number.” She looks up. “That was okay, wasn’t it?”

“It was fine.” There's no putting it off any longer. There's no getting around it. As much as Bianca’s words are going to break Kiera’s heart, I have to tell her. “Your sister took out her cigarette lighter, and she burnt your note. And…”

Kiera holds up her hand, outrage on her face. “She smokes now?”

“Really?” Nolan interjects in exasperation. “That's what you're going to focus on?”

Kiera gives me an abashed look. “Sorry. It’s just that she…” She shakes her head. “Never mind. This isn’t about Bianca’s smoking habit. She burned the note, and then what?”

“She told Mandy to tell you that she knows where you are, and she doesn’t care. As far as she’s concerned, she doesn’t have a sister. She doesn’t want to hear from you.”

Nolan stiffens imperceptibly. Shock flashes across Kiera's face. “She knows where I am?” Her voice is thin and shaky. “For how long? She knew I only live a few hours away from her, and she never once wanted to contact me?” My words fully sink in. Pain fills Kiera’s eyes and saturates her voice.

“As far as she’s concerned, she doesn’t have a sister? That’s what she said?”

Fuck.

Tears well in Kiera's eyes. I put my arm around Kiera’s shoulders, holding her as she cries. Nolan looks helpless, and then he pushes himself off the bed and pulls on his pants. He opens a dresser drawer and throws Kiera a T-shirt. “Come on,” he says. “Let’s go outside for a bit and get some air.”

Good idea. There are conversations that one can have when naked, but this isn't one of them. Kiera is justifiably upset, and as hard as I am trying to be a decent human being, I'm still sporting a semi. I get dressed too, and we head to the rooftop.

It's late. From this vantage point, the park is mostly dark, but the rest of the city is brightly lit. Manhattan never sleeps.

Kiera walks to the edge of the balcony and takes in the view. “This is incredible,” she says faintly.

“It really is,” Nolan agrees. “I don't appreciate it enough.”

She doesn’t respond. She stares into the distance. I want to jump in and offer words of comfort, but really, what could I say? This is a shitty, shitty situation.

“I don't know what I did wrong,” she says finally. “Yes, I told Bianca what to do. Someone had to. My mother was a terrible parent. I had to step up more often than I wanted to. Then Bianca got caught in Greg Dratch’s web. She started hanging out with him and his friends. The wrong crowd. I tried to keep her from him. She resented me for it. I thought she’d eventually realize I did it out of love.

” Her voice trails off. “Instead, she hates me.”

She sounds desperately sad.

Nolan joins her at the balcony edge. “We don't know that,” he says softly.

“Martinez is dangerous. We still don't know if Bianca is with him voluntarily, or if she's being pressured into a relationship. I don't want you to get your hopes up to have them dashed again. But it is possible that your sister has never tried to contact you because she’s protecting you against him.”

She doesn’t appear to hear him.

“We know who Martinez is now,” Nolan continues. “When we found your sister, that was the break we needed. When the time is right, we will make a move against him. It’s just a few more weeks, Kiera. And then, I promise you, you’ll be able to talk to your sister. We will get to the root of this.”

She’s still staring into space, still lost in her own private grief.

“It's so ironic,” she says softly. “My sister is in Manhattan, and so am I. She is less than half an hour away, and yet the distance between us seems as vast as it was when I thought she was dead.” She smiles ruefully, but her eyes are bleak.

“For eight years, I felt all alone in the world.

When I found out Bianca was alive, that changed. But now, it's just me again.”

I walk up to her and rest my hand in the small of her back. “You're only alone if you want to be. We're here for you.”

She doesn't say anything for a long time, and then she nods her head. “You're right,” she says. “I'm not alone. Thank you for everything you've done. That you’ve both done.”

“I don't see how we’ve made things better.”

She smiles at me. “You helped me when you didn't need to. It happens less often than you think.”

She puts her arms around both of us. “I could spend what’s left of the night fretting about Bianca, or I could spend it doing something else. I know what I'd rather do.” She gives us a hopeful look. “Want to go back to bed and finish what we started?”