But he’d been selfish, too. She wasn’t wrong. He’d been caught up in Jesse’s plans to schmooze investors and turn Soteria into something big, right out of the gate. Maybe if he’d been paying better attention, he would have realized that something was going on with her.
Because he knew. He knew what losing her mom had done to her. How abandoned she’d felt by her father afterward. She’d told him how she used to dream about her father choosing her over work, how she used to scan the hall during piano concerts and dance recitals in hopes that just once, he’d pick her instead of a meeting, or a business lunch or golf game. She’d trusted him with that knowledge, and then he’d acted just like the son of a bitch who’d raised her. Let her fly across the country without him. Abandoned her when she’d needed him the most.
Just like he was doing right now.
The realization hauled Wes up short. She’d trusted him again, and he was fucking it up. Walking away when what she needed was his understanding. The realization disgusted him, and he cursed himself silently as he turned around and started the long walk home.
He knew she wasn’t there the second that he opened the door. Not that he blamed her for leaving. God, he was such an asshole.
He considered going to find her right then, had his keys in his hand, but he stopped himself. Set them back down. Dismissed the idea as he pulled off his hoodie and draped it over the back of his desk chair. If she’d wanted to discuss things further tonight, she wouldn’t have left. They could both use some time to let what had just happened settle and get a couple hours of sleep.
Tomorrow, he’d go and get his wife.
“Viv? C’mon. Open up.”
Wes knocked again, ignoring the tingle at the base of his spine that was turning into a bad feeling about the fact that she hadn’t answered the door yet.
He punched the eight digits of her mom’s birthday into the security panel and burst inside. “Viv?”
He strode past the kitchen, through the living room, into the bedroom.
Empty.
Memories of the last time he’d come home to find her gone assailed him, twining the past and the present together in a way that constricted his breathing.
His heart started to thud against his ribcage with more force, but he swallowed the panic. He wasn’t going to lose her again. This was just a problem in need of a solution. He was good at finding solutions. She was somewhere, even if she wasn’t here, so all he had to do was—
The vibration of his phone in his pocket interrupted his train of thought, but any hope that it was her was dashed as he glanced at the screen.
“What the hell, man? I’ve been trying to get in touch since the charges were dropped.”
“I know.” Jesse’s voice was calm. Eerily so. “My lawyers advised I shouldn’t speak with you.”
Wes’s fingers tightened on his phone. He didn’t like the sound of that. “Your lawyers,” he repeated, matching Jesse’s composure. “Don’t you mean our lawyers? Because I’m pretty sure the esteemed law firm of Denisof Price Goldberg represents Soteria Security. Or at least that’s the way they made it sound when they told me to fuck off after I was put in handcuffs and hauled off to jail. But now that my legal woes are behind me, we’ve got some reinstatement paperwork to sign. Isn’t that right?”
The long silence on the other end of the line told Wes everything he needed to know, even before Jesse spoke again.
“This isn’t how I wanted this to go down. We’ve been partners, friends, for a long time. But Soteria is hemorrhaging clients since you went to prison. And I’ve been doing everything I can to keep us afloat!”
Not so calm anymore.
“You’re a goddamn liability.”
“The charges were dropped,” Wes countered.
“And then you turned around and married the goddamn enemy! How do you think that’s going to play in the media? That the second you’re cleared of wrongdoing, you hitch yourself to the FBI’s next target!”
“She didn’t do this.” Wes’s voice was flat and hard with conviction.
“Tell that to the video surveillance footage. I’ve got to go. I have a joint meeting with Max and Liam in a couple of hours, and I need to prepare. If I can keep them on board, then this media storm will stabilize, and I can finally implement my plan to take Soteria Security public by the end of the year.”
The announcement blindsided Wes.
“What the hell are you talking about? I thought we agreed no IPO. We always said Soteria could be more innovative, and do better work, without having to answer to shareholders!”
“We didn’t agree. You used your fifty-one percent share to cock-block me, and what I’ve wanted, for years. I’m the one who sacrificed for your genius. I’m the one who parceled out my shares to get new investors, to take Soteria to the money-making behemoth it’s become. Now that I have controlling interest, you honestly think I’m giving it back to you?”
Wes realized in that moment that his plan to preserve the business by signing his shares over to Jesse before he went to jail had turned out to be Soteria’s death knell instead.
“You’re freezing me out of my own goddamn company?”
“Don’t act all hurt. You brought this on yourself. For once in your life, you’re going to see what it’s like when everything doesn’t go your way. And Wes? Don’t call me again. From now on, any communication between us needs to go through my lawyers.”
Wes was still reeling from the precision of Jesse’s vindictive attack, the intensely personal nature of it, after he’d hung up the phone. Between the two of them, Jesse Hastings was the gregarious one, the figurehead who was out front, drumming up business and dealing with clients, while Wes preferred to stay
