VICTOR
A mix of pride and final triumph filled Victor as he watched Dawn all but run away.
Yes, he had made an unnecessary enemy out of Kuang. Yes, the extraction process from their partnership would most likely bring consequences. Violent ones.
But he had finally won his ten-year war with Dawn. And he would win the upcoming one with Kuang. Of this, he was confident.
At least he felt confident for the first fifteen minutes after Dawn scurried away to the restroom, so obviously unable to withstand his latest bit of payback.
The ballroom filled up with more and more people, many of whom openly stared at him. But none of them were her. And eventually, her extended absence began to needle at him.
It was the Providence Town Hall all over again. She should've returned by now, but she hadn't.
Fortunately, Phantom was not here to judge him. So he surreptitiously checked the app he'd used to track her phone. If she had left the building, Victor made a dark plan to hunt her down and drag her back here. He would threaten her with whatever it took. This was his final revenge, and he was determined to see it through.
But apparently, there was no need to make such plans. According to the phone's app, she was still in the bathroom. Just a few hundred feet away from where Victor and her father sat now.
He glanced at Darrell Kingston. Dawn’s father was also on his phone, texting with his eyes intent on the screen.
Perhaps he thought if he ignored Victor long enough, he would simply go away. But there wasn't a chance in hell. He would stay here as Dawn's plus one, and he would clap loudest of all when Darrell received his award. He wouldn't leave this ceremony until a huge shadow had been cast over Darrell's so-called lifetime achievement.
But then, Dawn’s father surprised him by suddenly setting his phone aside and addressing Victor out loud. "You know, she told me that if her whole MFA degree weren't riding on her making that thesis presentation of hers, nothing would've made her miss my big night. But here she is. At my award ceremony, not getting the MFA she's been working on for seven years."
Darrell shook his head at Victor, as smug smirk forming on his lips for some reason. "Looks like you royally fucked my daughter."
"No, you are the one who did that," Victor answered, keeping his signs cold and precise. "The moment you decided to use her to take down Red Diamond."
Dawn's father made a considering sound in the back of his throat. "Maybe you're right about that."
He glanced in the direction of the event space's doors, then back at Victor. "So, you suckered my daughter into marriage. How did you pull that one off?”
Darrell answered his own question before Victor could. “I'm assuming you threatened me. Maybe Byron too. And her mom. You probably even threw in that best friend she had in college. Pretty much everybody and anybody she loves. Isn't that how that fucking monster who raised you taught you to operate?"
How dare he talk about his father. Victor had to fight within himself not to leap across the table and beat Darrell into a bloody pulp. Knowing Dawn's father, he would use it as an excuse to make yet another crime lord arrest at his own Lifetime Achievement award ceremony.
So instead of fighting with him, Victor informed her father, "Whatever she has lost, whatever punishment she has received for what she did, it is well deserved. You should count yourself fortunate that for some reason, she doesn't blame you for the heavy price she has had to pay for playing the part you assigned her."
Her father merely shrugged and smiled. "I suppose she's grateful to have a dad still. Unlike some people whose father rotted in jail because his son decided to think with his dick."
Darrell was good. Victor had to give him that. But he refused to let Dawn's father bait him into losing control of his emotions.
However, Darrell didn't need a response from Victor to keep going. "You know, Victor, my man, I'm glad you did this."
He moved into the chair that Dawn had abandoned and slapped Victor on the arm as if they were best friends. "I was worried when I figured out that you had her in your grips again nine years ago. And I felt some kind of guilty about not handling that myself. But I was too far undercover to risk coming up here to put a stop to whatever you had going on with her. From what I could tell, you were only visiting her once a year, but I worried that would be enough for you to get all the way inside her head again."
Victor inwardly frowned at this new information. He'd been watching Darrell for so long. It never occurred to him that Dawn's father was watching him back.
Darrell shook his head and let out a wry laugh. "Let me tell you, I'm still getting over what all I had to do in Japan to get her away from you. It was a hell of a time convincing her to go along with my plan after I arrested you. You should've heard the way she cried over you, boy. 'I love him. I don't care what his father did. That's not him!' She had lost her whole damn mind. She was ready to throw away her future, trying to protect you. If I hadn't talked some sense into her, doctored some of the tapes, and covered up that secret relationship she had going with you, she would've been rotting in jail along with the rest of Red Diamond. And I doubt your father would've cut a plea deal to make sure she didn't serve any time."
Victor stilled, every drop of blood in his body freezing over. Somehow he still managed to sign, "You're lying. She knew all along. She was playing your part all along."
"Believe me. I wish I was lying." Darrell sucked on his teeth and screwed up his face. "Half the reason I gave up undercover work and damn near retired my own ass was because I knew I'd have to do something to extract her from your grip again, especially after you pulled that stunt with Doll and made her part of your fan club. I'd figured I'd have to make you hurt me in some way. Rile you to the point that you wounded Dawn's poor old dad."
Darrell broke off from his hypothetical plan with a smirk. "But turns out I didn't have to do none of that shit. The thing is, I care about my daughter. I don't want to see her hurt. But obviously, you don't give a single fuck about her. All that hard work? Everything she had riding on her MFA presentation? Did you care? No! You burned her shit all the way to the ground."
Darrell shook his head at Victor. "She thought you were this loving hero beforehand. But you showed her who you really are and ended whatever spell you cast over her. She's never going to forgive you for this. You had her again, and you lost her without me having to do anything. So, seriously man, thanks for doing my job for me. Good looking out. Here, let me order you a drink. We'll make a toast."
With those words, Darrell raised his hand to flag down one of the cater waiters.
Victor wanted to argue, but an ugly feeling came over him. Darrell was a user. A master manipulator and liar. His so-called Lifetime Achievement record bore proof of that.
But Victor didn't think he was lying about this.
And suddenly, everything became clear. Dawn had been telling the truth when she claimed not to know anything about her father's plans. She hadn't been playing him for a fool again. She had meant what she said. Including the part where she claimed to have truly loved him back in Japan.
His anger…his revenge….she hadn’t deserved it. From the start. And certainly not for ten years.
He looked at the app again. She was still in the same place. But this time, that fact brought him no solace.
She was still in the same place…the location coordinates read exactly the same. As did the number of feet. That meant she hadn't moved even a tiny measure of distance in the entire time her father had been talking.
Victor abruptly stood and headed for the event space's doors.
"Hey, where you going, man? I thought we were going to have that drink!" Darrell called after him with a laugh.
The room blurred as Victor rushed to the women's restroom near the museum’s front doors.
As he did so, he remembered her sheepishly telling him how she had barged into the boys' locker room back in Japan.
"I had to go in there," she'd signed in her terrible mix of CSL and ASL. "I had to make sure my brother was all right."
There was no similar hesitation on Victor's part before he burst into the ladies' restroom.
He ignored the sounds of women crying out that he wasn't supposed to be in here as he followed the dot on his phone to the last stall and pushed open the door.
It was empty.
But the dot on his app clearly stated she was there.
Another terrible feeling came over him, and he looked toward the metal bin where women were expected to throw their period paraphernalia. He opened it up. It must have been cleaned out right before the event because there were no pads or tampons.
Only Dawn's iPhone X.
"Sir, you're not supposed to be in here!" voices called out behind him before he could fully process what had happened. "We're going to have to ask you to leave."
Victor's jaw tightened, but he let the security guards escort him out, not just from the restroom but the entire party.
Dawn's father was standing near the entrance as the guards directed him to leave. Of course.
"See you later, Vic," he called out with a mocking wave before making his way back into the party with a man Victor recognized as a Texas senator.
So no, this wasn't the Providence Town Hall all over again. This time Dawn had really left. Disappeared, without a trace.
Victor waited for her at the Providence house, but she never returned home. Nor did she come back to RhIDS to finish the rest of her semester. He had his men look everywhere for her, but, they couldn't find her.
Victor was losing his mind. Her father's words kept echoing through his head. "You had her again, and you lost her without me having to do anything."
Where was she? Was it somewhere safe? Kuang still hadn't made his move, but he would someday soon, and it killed Victor to know she was somewhere unprotected. Hiding from him.
On day four of the search, Phantom finally called him on FaceTime with a break in the case.
"I got a lead on where she is," he told Victor without saying hello.
"Where?" Victor demanded. Wherever it was, he had to go to her now. Do whatever it took to make this right.
"I'll tell you, but I'm warning you right now…" Phantom shook his head ruefully on the other side of the FaceTime call. "You're not going to like it."