Chapter 27 Flynn
FLYNN
Kaia leans over the toilet and hurls her guts up over and over, choking on tears that rise from her distress. “Fuck,” she gasps as she leans back. “I’m so fucking disgusted.”
“You did good,” I say softly, trying to soothe her. “You did really well.”
“The shit I had to say? I had to smile while my own brother talked about putting a baby in me for the good of the fucking family—.” She wretches and throws up once more, gagging and heaving through her tears.
“I’m sorry.” The words don’t feel like enough. “You did incredible.” After rubbing her back, I leave the bathroom to give her privacy and head down the hall to one of the art rooms.
Inside, Frank stands admiring one of the pieces on the wall, and he glances over his shoulder as I enter. “How is she?”
“Rough.”
“Did she get anything?”
“We’ll find out. What’s this?”
“One of the new pieces from your auction back in the winter.”
“It took this long to get here?”
“Mhm. Pretty good though.”
“Yeah.” It’s hard to focus on art when my thoughts tumble together about Kaia and Eva. “Is there more?”
“Three crates.”
Frank and I spend the next couple of hours going through the crates from the black market auction while Kaia takes time to recoup after her time with her brother.
Most of the art from the auction will be adjusted and sold at a higher price while the more beautiful pieces will be stored here as my team works on sending exact copies out into the world to end up on the walls of people with more money than art sense.
By the time we’re finished, I’m calmer but all that anxiety floods back when Kaia walks into my office where Frank and I share a victory Scotch. Her eyes are red from crying and she’s still sniffling, but she gives me a weak smile.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, immediately pouring her a drink.
As she accepts it, she shrugs. “Is the life of a criminal always this hard?”
Frank and I exchange a glance. “I think your family is a special case.”
She lifts the glass to her lips and takes a deep drink, then winces as it burns down her throat. “He told me where Eva is.”
My stomach plummets out of my ass. “Is she alive?”
Kaia nods. “I believe so. He stashed her in the old excavation tunnels under my uncle’s Manor.
Vic also never told uncle where she was because he, on some level, doesn’t fully trust him.
But it’s not his main home. Uncle has a second one on the outskirts of New York.
It’s heavily guarded with high walls, armored guards and intense security.
I used to visit there because Aunt Kara…
” Her voice catches in her throat and she drinks once more.
“She used to prefer staying there because it was far from the inner city. Do you know it?”
Frank’s already at my computer and his hands fly over the keys, then he nods. “We scouted it from afar but never saw any movement. Antov was only spotted at his city manor where we believe he’s been staying since our attack on your family home.”
“He’s clever,” Kaia replies. “But no one is getting into that home without a fight.”
“If…if he doesn’t know Eva is down there…” I can’t say it.
The very prospect of my daughter starving to death because I’ve been too slow is far too much pain to bear, but the unspoken words reach everyone anyway.
“Vic says one of his men knows she’s down there and she’s important. They should be caring for her.”
“If he’s telling the truth,” I mutter. “He could be lying. He could have seen right through your lies and is playing you for a fool, playing us all for a fool.” I can’t put it past him. A twisted man like that is equally dangerous when he tells the truth.
“How did he tell you all of this?” Frank asks as he rises from my computer.
Kaia’s face twists. “I told him I’d come up here and kill Flynn, then we’d kill his daughters and the Yudkins would be on top. Made him think it was mostly his idea because Flynn’s an idiot.”
Frank’s brow twitches and he glances at me. “If Vic thinks winning is guaranteed, there could be truth to these words.”
“I can’t afford to wait any longer,” I say tightly. “Angie’s suffered enough and Eva…if there’s even a slight chance she’s there then I have to—.”
“Let me go,” Kaia cuts in suddenly.
We both turn to her and watch her drain her glass. “What?”
“Let me go and check it out. If we make it look like I escaped, then there’s a good chance they’ll let me walk in the front gate. I know those tunnels. Vic and I used to play in them when we were kids and hiding from the world. If Eva’s there, I can find her.”
Just like that, the distrust rises inside me like a wave.
I’m reminded that this could be another trick, that placing her with her brother has enabled them to come up with a plan that takes advantage of me and sends Eva to her death at the hands of Kaia.
And it hurts.
It hurts because that distrust collides with the growing affection I have for the woman who cooks and paints and plays with my daughter until she laughs so hard she can’t breathe.
“And if this is a trick?” Frank speaks up. “We send you into the lion’s den where Eva’s life is in your hands. How are we to trust you?”
“Trust my guilt,” Kaia says. “I’m…destroyed inside every time I think of how scared Angie must have been when I stole her.
Even if my mistaken reasoning was to save both of us, I know I scared her and that makes me just as bad as the monster down in your cells.
I want to make up for that. Please, let me make amends by bringing your other daughter home to you. ”
“But,” Frank starts and I cut him off.
“Leave us, Frank.”
“Sir?”
“I need to talk to her alone.”
Frank’s face twists with the disbelief that I’d excuse him, but he ducks his head anyway and steps from the room.
As the door closes, I move to the couch and sink down with a weary sigh.
“Trusting you feels impossible. I look at you and I want to trust you. I think of your time here, our time together and I feel like I should be able to trust you, but something stops me.”
“I know,” Kaia says softly and she walks toward me, glass in hand.
“But you don’t have a choice. I’m not saying that to trick you, but we need to find out if Eva is there and alive, and any attack on those walls is a death sentence.
This is the only way to get in and minimize any harm to your daughter.
If I go and I die, then you still have the option to attack. ”
She speaks the truth and deep down in my soul, I know it. I only have two options.
Wait and risk Eva.
Attack and risk Eva.
Trust Kaia and risk Eva. It’s an impossible decision because whatever I choose will place the blame of Eva’s fate squarely on my shoulders, as if it’s not already crushing me.
“How can I prove to you that you can trust me?” Kaia asks.
“You can’t,” I murmur, staring down at my hands.
“You’re asking me to put the life of my daughter in your hands, the woman who has tried to kill me twice, who stole Angie.
And I know why you did it. I do. But in my heart, I…
I’m scared. I’m scared that I’ll trust you and she will die.
Scared that I’ll trust you and you will die.
Scared that I’ve waited too long being toyed with, scared that—. ”
She’s suddenly on her knees before me, clasping her hands around my entwined fists.
“I can’t begin to imagine how scared you are.
And I know we have every reason to hate each other for everything that’s happened between us and our families.
You kidnapped me, but now I know the truth I feel like your reasoning is the same as me taking Angie to save her from you.
We both did it to protect someone we care about.
And I do care about Angie. She’s a darling and I’m so twisted by what my brother did that I still can’t believe it’s real.
But I care about you, Flynn. Maybe I shouldn’t.
Maybe I should hate you as much as I hate myself, but I don’t.
I look and I just see a father desperate to save his baby. ”
Her words are softer than I deserve, and despite the voice of warning in my mind, deep down in my heart, I know she’s right.
Unable to trust myself, I do trust Angie and her apparent insight into saving Kaia on the dock.
Without that, I wouldn’t have this option to get Eva back safely.
I should be able to tell if she’s manipulating me, if she’s tricking me to save her brother, but I can’t.
My insight is fogged by the grief I’ve carried for weeks—and the attraction I harbor for her in my heart.
“If you can’t trust any of that,” Kaia continues softly. “Then trust that I care for you and Angie and that I need to make this right for my own soul. I’ve been blind to my family for far too long.”
“Those are just words,” I say tightly. “The same words that manipulated your brother into telling you the truth.”
“Then what can I do?” Kaia says and she gazes up at me earnestly. “I will do anything and everything you ask until you trust me enough to do this. Just tell me what you want and I’ll do it, Flynn. Let me prove you can trust me. Please.”
Just like that, the confusion lifts as I stare deep into her eyes. How far is she willing to go? How far can I push her?
I lean forward and lightly grasp her chin. “Those are dangerous words, Kaia.”
“And yet I mean every single one of them.”