Chapter Thirteen

As she bounded down the stairs, Vivienne silently prayed that Eva was able to text back.

Her shades were back on and so was her facemask.

In less than twenty minutes, she was at the office.

She noticed the looks her employees gave her, knowing fully well that it was because of her extremely casual dressing. She still had her running clothes on and a few customers whistled as she breezed past them.

The elevator ride to her office was a tense one as she checked her phone from time to time to see if Eva had texted her.

As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, she felt her phone buzz against the skin of her palm and she immediately turned it over, almost loosing it to a fall.

When she unlocked her phone, the text was from Eva. She closed her eyes and nearly cried in relief.

Jane.

BrownTophalter.

Vivienne understood immediately. Eva was putting on jean pants and a brown halter top. As she walked down the hallway, she sent a quick text to Marcus and dialled his number to be sure that he had seen it.

"Thanks, Vivienne," Marcus said from the other side of the phone. "Make sure to do what I asked you to do."

"Yes, Marcus. Thanks." And she hung up immediately. She was not looking at where she was going and when she bumped into a body, her phone fell to the floor but as she was about to stagger backwards, a firm grip around her slender waist held her in place.

It was Gavin. Vivienne moved away from him swiftly and this caused a frown to appear on his face.

Gavin bent to pick up her phone which was still on and as he was about to scroll through, Vivienne jumped towards him and tried to snatch her cellphone away from him.

Gavin was fast enough. He lifted his hands to the air and gave her a stern look. "What are you hiding from me? Have you forgotten that we both have access to each other's phone?"

"It's a lie. You changed your password last week but I didn't speak about it." Vivienne pointed out. "Give me back my phone, Gavin."

Gavin gave her no heed. He scrolled through her phone. Then he stopped and looked at her. "You told Marcus everything?"

"It's none of your business, Gavin." I spat out.

Vivienne couldn't read the expression on his face. Gavin had a way of concealing his emotions and that gave him much power over her. She was a hopeless romantic and very much readable. He used that against her sometimes.

"It is. Because I told you not to tell the authorities. Kidnappers don't like everyone knowing what's happening or she'll be killed!"

Vivienne matched his tone. "It's a total lie! They want something from me and they will not kill Eva. Think about it."

Gavin scoffed. "Don't be so sure, Vivienne."

She recoiled. He hadn't called her by her name in a long time and she wasn't used to it.

Gavin continued. "I told you to come to the office so we could sort out whatever is going on. If her abductors want a ransom, we can arrange money and give it to them. But you got so high-strung and went to report to your so-called police friend. What are the developments?"

"I can't speak to you about it." Vivienne sighed and tried to walk past him. He held her by the crook of her arm.

"He also told you not to trust me, right? I am automatically one of his suspects, yeah?" He asked.

When Vivienne didn't give him a reply, he chuckled. "I was right all along. Build distrust amongst people that care about you to get to you. Why have you decided to be gullible?"

Vivienne whipped her head to look at him with fire in her eyes. "You don't say that to me, okay?! It is normal to quickly report to the police when there's a case as such and all you is berate me because I chose the only option at the moment?"

"I explained the situation to you, gave you reasons why you shouldn't go to the police station and now, you're sending a text to someone in the hand of kidnappers? So smart of our dear Police Chief." Gavin chortled.

"Why are you so bothered about me reporting to the police? Or do you have a hand in whatever is going on right now? Because I see no reason why you're upset by something as little as this."

"Good of you to ask me that question." Gavin replied calmly. He was visibly angry and his hands shook as it came up to grab Vivienne by the cheek. "If I was part of this, you wouldn't have seen me here in your office. I would have not taken your calls, woman! Be wise for once! I asked you to come here to sort things out to me. You lost everything in Santa Monica and what you do is act stupidly and go against what I told you?"

Vivienne had never seen this side of him. She had never seen the controlling side of Gavin and it was beginning to become evident. She jerked away from his hold and staggered backwards. "I lost everything in Santa Monica because of you! Because of your nonchalance." Vivienne did not notice the murderous look that coated his eyes for a split second. "When I was about to get insurance papers for the company, you told me— you fucking told me that it wasn't important at the moment. You said we were going to do it some other time, Gavin! Don't come at me like it wasn't your fault."

"You own all these," Gavin gestured toward her company. "You own everything in it and suddenly because I am in your life, you loose track of what's going on, you loose control over everything? I thought you were the boss? What happened to you making decisions for yourself?"

His words went straight to Vivienne heart. It cut through her like a chainsaw. She blinked back tears and stepped backwards, not believing that such words were pouring out from a man she claimed to be in love with. A man she claimed to put her trust in.

It was happening all over again. Her lack of luck with men. It always happened, no matter how she tried to avoid it.

Gavin saw the hurt in her eyes and stepped forward. He made to engulf her in his arms and apologize but she avoided him and went straight to her office.

The door was about to swing closed but a hand came and stopped it.

A lot of things were happening at once. Her mind raced and her thoughts were disarrayed. Gavin was telling her this, Marcus was telling her that and her heart was telling her something else.

She didn't know who and what to believe. In times like these, she would have dialled Amelia's number and draw strength from her friend but right now, she didn't think that was the best option.

Vivienne had never felt so alone in her whole life. Gavin was berating her for being so stupid, Marcus talked about lines connecting and how it hit her boyfriend and best friend. Amelia, this morning had asked the guards watching over her to suddenly leave.

Then she felt an arm wrap around her. She recognized the scent immediately. It was Gavin and he pulled her close to him.

"It's going to be alright, sweets." He cooed. "I'm so sorry for reacting so rashly back there. I should have understood your predicament instead of projecting my own frustrations on you."

To that, she sobbed harder and turned to cling onto him.