Distinctly Defiant

Chapter 16 ~ Search

Chapter 16 ~ Search

To his credit, Tobias reacted quickly and in a concerned matter. Although whether or not he was doing this to save Vivienne in particular or because of his interest in making money from this mission Everett didn't know.

Tobias opened the door further allowing Everett to walk in. Miles was sprawled on one of the beds, their bags covering every inch of the other one leaving nowhere to sit. Not that Everett would have been able to given the circumstances. He paced, restless and agitated.

"Do you have any leads?" Tobias asked, his gaze resting on his brother no doubt thinking the same things Everett was. It would be nice if Miles wasn't intoxicated to the point of passing out. That way he could actually prove to be useful at this point in time.

Everett shook his head. "I can't figure out who would try to take her. It wouldn't have been Griffin, that wouldn't help the mission to kidnap her once more. For the most part she trusts me. Her stuff is still in our room and if she would've left she would have taken her things. Her being gone wasn't her decision. Someone else took her." Everett scowled. "I should have walked her back, despite the fact that she didn't want me to. Then she'd at least be safe right now. Who knows where about she is now? Who knows who has her? Who knows if we'll be able to find her again?"

"Take a breath," Tobias instructed. "This isn't your fault. You can't beat yourself up about it. You're no good to her if you're focused on the guilt you feel. She needs you. Step up and find her. I'll help you find her."

Everett glanced at his slumbering brother. "What about Miles?"

Tobias shrugged. "What about him?" He cocked an eyebrow. "You want him to come along. Do you actually think he'll be any help? We'll waste more time trying to prevent him from falling off his horse while he's like this. I personally think that that time is better off spent searching for her. Not babysitting the drunk."

In spite of the turmoil of his dark feelings Everett felt a corner of his lips twitched upwards. But all hints of humor vanished as he thought more about the problem at hand.

"Let's go now. We can't waste time." The sooner they caught the trail of Vivienne's abductor(s) the sooner she was safe, back with him.

Yet a nagging voice questioned his statement. Safe? How safe is she being near someone who originally only sought her out with the sole purpose to play her and use her to make a profit at the end of the day?

He was less sure of his conflicting motivations. Up until now he had convinced himself that he was still in it for the money he stood to make at the end of this task. But now that Vivienne was missing he couldn't deny that he genuinely cared for her safety. And that realization put him in a difficult position. A position he had never imagined being in.

There was no good way to deal with the situation. He couldn't go along with the mission now. But he couldn't exactly tell Griffin and the group that he was backing out. They wouldn't understand it at all and instead would try to capture her again. This time there would be no escape for her. Either she shifted and died or stayed in human form and died. The end result stayed the same. There was no right answer or action to remedy this.

If he tried to legitimately save her Griffin and the group would find out. They would either harm him to in the interest of protecting their payout and/or tell her the truth about him. He couldn't bear to consider how she would react or what she would think of him when she found out. Their unlikely friendship would be broken beyond repair, nothing he could do or say would be able to fix it.

Either way the situation went it wouldn't turn out well for him. He almost wished that his group would have never caught on to Vivienne and what she was. Almost because then he never would have spent any time with her at all. He would have been the same driven, work-focused man that he had been before meeting her. She had changed him, as cliché as that was.