Chapter Five

 

Vincent Vanderwall

I hadn’t wanted to leave her. Moving away from her and out to the hall was one of the hardest things that I had ever done. I had danced around Edlyn for far too long, that much was clear. If I hadn’t been insistent on staying away from her until she was the age she is now she would never have been harmed, or at least that was what I thought. Edlyn never should have that haunted look in her eyes, and that killed me. If not for my hang ups she would have been mine the moment she turned eighteen.

Now, however, I regretted every decision that I had made in the last decade or more. I looked at Ivan, and we both took a deep breath. “I have to find out who hurt her and why.”

“I agree. I want to know as well.” Ivan’s accent was heavy and deep. I realized that Ivan might have cared for Edlyn more than just a small bit as he had said. I knew that tone because I had taken it more than once when talking about Edlyn. “When we find out who harmed her, I want to have first go at them.”

“No, defending her should be my duty. I failed her years ago, that much is obvious to me. Now, however, I won’t fail her again.” I wasn’t going to let this go. I was willing to share my woman with Ivan once, but had a feeling that the once was going to turn into a lot more. I could tell by Edlyn’s movements and expressions she felt a great deal more for Ivan than she let on, and Ivan most certainly felt a hell of a lot more for Edlyn than he allowed to show. I hadn’t gone into this thinking it would be a forever kind of thing, but now, however, I wondered just where this was going to end. “I would appreciate any help that you can give me in order to find out what exactly happened to Edlyn,” I finally said after my inner musings.

“Of course.” Ivan bowed his head and shrugged back into his suit jacket. “Where do you want me to start?”

I liked how Ivan moved in step with me and didn’t hesitate to help. “We start when she left the school that the girls all attended and go from there.” I knew that she had dropped out of the all-girls school when she was fifteen but never thought to ask Scarlett why. I never dreamed that anyone would ever hurt the sweetest, kindest, and gentlest soul that I had ever known. “Once we have found out what happened to her, we corner her and tell her what we’ve learned. We won’t let her get away from us.”

“She’s it for you, isn’t she?” Ivan asked while looking over at me. He must have seen the expression on my face that showed my determination. I wasn’t going to let Edlyn get away from me again, not now that I had her in my sights once more.

“She is. I know you feel some kind of way about her as well.” I wasn’t blind. I knew that Ivan was a man who wanted his freedom and didn’t want a woman to tie him down, but I also saw that she was something more than that. She was something different, and that scared the shit out of him. I knew that if we were going to give Edlyn everything, I was going to have to talk this idiot into seeing that she was going to be his forever, too. Poor bastard had no idea what was coming his way.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I saw it then. There it was, the denial that was in his eyes was more than for me; it was for himself as well. Ivan actually believed that he was going to be able to walk away from Edlyn. I knew better, and I thought that he was going to eventually work it out as well.

Well hell, I was going to have to work this shit out in my fucking head as well, too. Damn, this was not how I had planned on my life with Edlyn going. However, I knew how the woman felt about both of us and now knew how the second half of her fantasy life felt about her and knew I would have to make the idiot wake up and see the life that was open to him, too.

“Sure, you don’t,” I said instead of anything else. I turned and shook my head and then faced him once more. “I think you need to do a hell of a lot of soul-searching while you look into her past. For now, get the fuck out of here. We need to find out why she rabbited away from us and find out soon. I don’t plan on letting her go, and something tells me that you won’t let her go either. Think about it, Russian. Not even you and your frozen fucking heart would be able to let that woman go.”

“I don’t know what the fucking hell you’re talking about, GI Joe.” Ivan spoke snidely and turned to walk away, giving me the one finger salute, but I knew I had gotten to him by the slight warble in his tone and the way that his accent had gotten thicker as he had spoken to me.

No, I didn’t want to share the woman I loved, but I knew Edlyn. And from just those minutes that were shared with her between Ivan and myself, I knew how she felt for the Russian and knew it was as strong as she felt for me. I didn’t have to like it, just accept it and make it work, because if I wanted her, I had to accept him as well.