The Syndicate’s Bride

25

Ryan

Having to deceive Vanessa made me seriously uneasy. When I saw how disappointed she had looked after the little argument between Owen and me, I had been so close to caving in and telling her everything. But I knew better, and that alone made me stop myself from doing something irreversible.

While waiting for Owen at the cabin, I decided to get some work done. Protecting Vanessa wasn’t a simple feat. Thanks to her father, she was everywhere on the Internet, her information on full display for both her enemies and well wishers alike. It made her too accessible, too exposed.

I needed to work on that.

I started with her data, burying every trace of her old life under layers of fabricated data, deep enough that even her father would be unable to pierce the fog.

It was a good thing I was a security nerd before a racer.

Next, using anonymous contacts, I began to keep an eye on her father's guards, watching closely their locations and movements through encrypted, waning channels. Thankfully, Owen had given me the tracker list of all the guards at the Logan estate, which made it easier to infiltrate the technology and keep an eye on them without raising alarm or suspicion.

Kyle, having gotten back to me after sending him on little errands earlier in the day, informed me of the successful decoys he had created on my orders. He bought three cabins not too far from the pack house and three others in secluded places to falsely lead her father’s men in order to buy us the time we needed to prepare for a surprise attack.

He also created fake car trails around the houses to give the image of recently lived in properties. That way, her attackers didn’t suspect the possibility of an empty house until after their attack.

All these done in such a short period of time, but you’d be surprised at just what a person can do with the right amount of money.

Owen arrived about two and a half hours later. We regarded each other with a nod as I pulled the door open to allow him entry.

“Vanessa is at the Manor,” he started as he dropped the black suit case in his hand onto my reading desk. “Though, I’m not sure how safe that is considering it’s crawling with Rossi’s spies.”

“it’s safe,” I said, “I already eliminated half of them and replaced them with my pack members.” It was the first measure I had taken for Vanessa’s safety, and now that I had done it, I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t done it sooner. Though I had to kill the servants and have my men bury them because having them report back to Rossi would have been a declaration of war.

War could come later, only Vanessa mattered now.

“You sure do move fast,” he muttered as he opened the suit case. A bunch of documents lay scattered in the case, making me raise a brow at him in question.

“Every illegal activity Mr. Logan has ever gotten his had on.”

My eyes widened in surprise. He really was going all out.

“Impressive, Knight,” I mused. “Didn’t think you had it in you.” As I went to collect the documents, he closed the suitcase shut, shooting me with a glare.

“What is it now?”

“This document here is a risk on my whole being,” he began, his expression dead serious. “I don’t mind leaking any information to you for Vanessa’s security but you also need to ensure you do not betray me, Winchester, if not, all of this will be for nothing.”

He had every right to feel the way he did. I knew better than to think it was so easy for him to have an ounce of trust in me just because we shared the same goal. It made sense he was still hesitant in certain aspects of our alliance. So was I.

“I didn’t peg you to be a drama queen, Owen.” I said dryly

“I’m serious, Winchester.”

“It is because Vanessa is involved that I am being cooperative with you,” I said, “I have my reservations about you too but I’ll be a fool to betray you, and so would you. I will not do anything I’m not supposed to. You have my word.” I finished, sincerely.

Finally satisfied, he opened the suit case and handed me a few of the documents and began explaining.

“Extortion, drug trafficking, arms dealing, bribery, unsolicited murder, forgery, corporate crime, you name it. Illegal activities are expected of him but you’d be surprised just how far it goes.”He explained. “Using the right bullets, we can disarm him.”

I shook my head. “Still, it won’t be that simple. Logan is a man of influence. Men of influence don’t just take the hit for their crimes. They either frame others or there’s a fake judgment passed in their favour and they end up running away to another country where they won’t be recognized.”

He was silent as if mulling over my words before eventually nodding in agreement. “What do you suggest?”

“We need to be patient,” I said. “evidence like this is only worthwhile when used properly. We’d need corroborators too, but we need to wait for the right time,” I nodded at him. “This is a good start.”

With a nod of his head in response, I took the documents and sat at my desk, skimming through the pages of crimes, the next always worse than the previous. Even if these documents were not attained for the purpose of Vanessa’s security, I would hope a man with this many sins would still be caught and made to suffer for all his crimes. They were just too much. He almost made my father look like a saint.

Almost.

“What about Vanessa?”

Peeling my eyes from the documents, I turned to him. “What about Vanessa?”

“The lies, Winchester. When she finds out, it’s only going to break her.”

I knew that much but there was nothing we could do about it. Telling her about these information will only expose her to further danger. I’d rather let her be misled than endangered.

“We do what we must, Owen.”

“Even if that means lying to her?”

It’s the only way, I reassured myself as my heart twisted with guilt. “Even if it means lying to her.”

Vanessa

Ryan and Owen never came home the previous night. After Owen had dropped me at the manor, he left almost immediately, saying there were some documents that needed handling before father’s return. I had let him go, but an uneasy feeling kept nagging at me, mainly because of the incident at the Logan estate.

When I tried to bring the issue up, he had smoothly avoided an answer, immediately changing the topic before he left the Manor altogether.

Ryan, on the other hand, was unreachable. After I had asked him to go home, a text came from him around an hour later telling me he wouldn’t be home and that I shouldn’t be worried, he just had business to attend to.

At the end of the day, the message did the exact opposite of what he intended it to do. I was so worried I stayed up all night thinking about the message and the possibility of his absence being some sort of anger towards me. And since I couldn’t reach his phone, I had no way to disprove my worry, so they only grew.

I tossed and turned the whole night, unable to keep my mind still, until the sun began to peer into our room, indicating the start of another day.

I laid in bed, staring at the smooth white ceiling until I finally rolled onto my feet around a few minutes after eight.

Deciding to at least freshen up, I headed for the bathroom, took a warm shower, which helped release some tension, before heading down for breakfast.

I walked down the hallway, absentmindedly responding to the servants’ greetings as I hoped to run into either Owen or Ryan, definitely not at the same time given how the men no longer disliked each other but hated themselves.

I was walking along the hall to the garden when I heard voices coming from Ryan’s study. Confused, I walked to the room, my ears perking up when I heard Ryan’s familiar warm tone. He did come home after all.

Relieved, yet a bit nervous, I walked to the study, almost pushing the door open but stopping when I heard a second voice, familiar and a bit agitated.

What is Owen doing in Ryan’s study?

There was no way in hell I could easily believe they had suddenly turned best of friends after what had happened the day before. The two barely even looked at each other when the three of us were together and now they were having conversations in Ryan’s study of all places?

A thought flashed in my mind, what if they’re fighting again? My face paled at the thought. If they were, I feared they wouldn’t leave each other unscathed this time.

Curious, yet worried, I leaned my body on the wall beside the door, careful not to get spotted as I stKavand my ears to listen in on their conversation.

“Her father’s men are already gaining on her,” Owen snapped, “You said so yourself just this morning. And you still think we should just sit around and wait for the worst to happen?”

“If we go in guns blazing now, then what?” Ryan reasoned. “That only puts Vanessa in the middle of a war. Where her protection is the primary consideration, war must be prevented at all cost.”

I froze. They were talking about me? And what's this about my father’s men and my protection. What the hell was going on?

It just didn’t make any sense. They had always been merely tolerant of each other and even that description was a stretch. I should have been happy that that wasn’t the case, that they were actually a lot more tolerant of each other than they let on, but the suddenness of that truth was something I wasn’t sure how to swallow.

I felt deceived.

From what I'd heard, there was an understanding of an alliance created by the men against my father and for my protection. That made my face heat. Just yesterday, I had lain awake sick and worried over their rivalry, and even before then, my worry was already evident.

Yet, they’d gone behind my back to form an alliance, keeping me in the dark, and leaving to worry, when in reality there was nothing to be worried about.

I exhaled deeply, hurt burning in my chest. There was no better word for it than betrayal. Maybe I could have expected it from Ryan, since I still wasn’t sure where we stood, but Owen? My eyes stung just thinking about his role in this.

But I wasn’t going to run away. I placed my hand on the door knob, twisted it and swung the door open.

I wanted answers.