Chapter 139: Harp and Ley.

Roman

"I knew you boys would come crawling back to me."

Tatiana was draped across the red leather chair in the hotel room, one heel kicked up on the armrest and a glass of champagne in her hand. She had been gloating for ten minutes and wasn’t done.

"All that talk about being done with me," she purred, watching Gideon over the rim of her glass. "And here you are, in my suite, Giddy. You know how hard I had to work to get my hands on this, hmm?"

Gideon said nothing. He stood by the window with his arms folded and his face as hard as a slab of granite.

I was seething.

I couldn’t sit. We had left Vivi all alone back at the villa. Sure, she should have landed by now and been driven home, but I couldn’t fucking think. I paced back and forth with my hands flexing at my sides, and every few seconds I had to stop myself from putting a fist through the beige wallpaper.

She had lied to us the whole time. I could hardly believe it.

"Tatty," Kai drawled, despite the murderous look on his face. "You’ve had your victory lap. Get to the point before we do something you’ll have to forgive us for."

"You boys are unbearable," she huffed, pushing her tits up. She rolled her eyes, reached for her phone and dropped it onto the coffee table.

"Felix’s son was more than happy to send me this. He’s my dear little sleeper agent, and he’s been very helpful because he wants to fuck me so badly. Silly little boy thinks he can afford me."

Kai reached for the phone, and his whole body froze. His hazel eyes scanned down the page as if he couldn’t believe it.

Gideon moved, and in two long strides he was reading over Kai’s shoulder. My chest was already tightening before I knew what they were looking at.

"Don’t. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know what that is."

It’s not her. It’s not Vivi. My sweet, precious Vivi wouldn’t be that monster’s...

"She is NOT Harper Kingsley," I said, because I would not accept it. I would never accept it.

"Don’t you dare tell me that Vivi is that bastard’s daughter."

Kai burst into maniacal laughter, dropping the phone and pulling at his hair. "No fucking way. Get this. Harper Kingsley, Harpley. She took Harp and ley." He was laughing harder now, dragging both hands through his curls.

"She took the first half of her first name and the last half of her last name and mashed them into fucking Harpley. And we bought it, hook, line and sinker. Fucking ridiculous. The whole time she was sitting in our kitchen using a fake name she made up."

"Kai," I snapped. "It’s not funny."

"If I don’t laugh, I’ll break something." He jabbed a finger at the phone. "Roman. Look at the phone."

"I don’t want to look at the phone."

"Look at the bloody damn phone, Ro!" He stormed over and shoved it in my face.

Vivi stared back at me with her amber eyes, her long auburn hair pinned up as she stood next to the man I hated most in the world.

Harper Kingsley. Ivy Harpley.

"It makes sense," Gideon said, his voice cold as ever. "The ledger, the files copied from my laptop, the trackers in our cars. Whatever Milo leaked, Felix had a second pair of eyes inside our house, and they were hers."

"Milo knew," Kai chuckled darkly, still not letting go of his hair. "That’s what he kept trying to tell us. Such a smart little thing, isn’t she? She set him up to expose him before he exposed her. I don’t know if I’m pissed or impressed."

She could have told us. She was a spy? She was deceiving me all along? She was lying to my face, all along. She was... how could...

Vivi, how could you?

"Uh, Roman, you okay?" Tatiana asked in concern.

I could hardly hear her over the blood rushing madly to my head.

"Roman." Gideon’s voice cut through. "Sit down."

"I don’t want to sit down."

"You’re shaking."

"I know I’m shaking." I didn’t realize my feet were moving until Kai yelled behind me. I was halfway to the door.

"She’s at the estate, isn’t she?" I kept stalking toward it.

"The butler texted. She arrived at Winslow twenty minutes ago," Gideon informed me. "Roman, we have to calm down and decide how best to approach this."

"What’s there to talk about?" I demanded, yanking the door open. "I’ll go ask Vivi. She wouldn’t lie to me. Nah, she wouldn’t."

"Roman, wait," Kai said, storming after me.

"Calm down, okay? You’re getting that look..."

I shoved him away, smiling at him so widely that my cheeks hurt. "Oh, come on, Kai. I will go first. You and G keep talking about plans and shit, I don’t need that. I need to see her before the two of you get in there and start asking questions."

"You’ll do something you will regret, Ro. Calm down, now," Gideon cautioned.

"I’ll do something she will regret." I pulled the door open the rest of the way.

Kai barked a laugh behind me. "Yeah, that tracks. We should go with him so he doesn’t kill her."

"Wait, wait, what about me? You guys are seriously going to ignore me?" Tatiana shrieked.

I couldn’t have cared less. I left my brothers to handle her and got into the car.

The drive from the hotel to Winslow Estate usually takes forty minutes. I did it in twenty-two. I didn’t care how I drove. I cut lanes, ran a yellow light, and took the private road at lightning speed that scraped the undercarriage of the car.

The gate opened before my car reached it. I tore up the driveway and parked diagonally with the car half on gravel and half on grass, and I didn’t look back at it as I took the steps.

The front door was unlocked. The house was quiet except for a soft, rhythmic click, click, click from the living room.

Someone biting their nails. Ah, Vivi bites her nails when she’s nervous.

I moved down the hallway slowly, sucking in every bit of air while the picture of her and that beast kept floating in my mind.

I stopped in the doorway, and there she was, sitting on the edge of the couch. Her jeans hugged her pretty legs and her cream sweater was ruffled as she bounced her knee and glanced around warily.

She was so beautiful and oh, she was so dead.