CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Griffin
I stand there, chest heaving, hands trembling from the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I can still hear the echo of glass breaking, see the shards sparkling in the air, and feel the rush of crisp fall air from the shattered window.
It’s over.
Miller falls, and I want to spit, he’s getting what he deserves. Fucking Ava. She brilliantly orchestrated his death to look like an accident. Like he jumped to this death instead of going into rehab. Shane will look into that damn cult and make sure no one retaliates.
He’ll fall two stories down, and I can’t wait for the sickening thud that is his head exploding.
But my heart explodes in my chest seeing Ava go out the window with him.
“Noooo!” I bolt forward and nearly fall out myself, holding on to an unsteady metal joist holding the empty leaded frame.
The silence below is deafening.
With my balance back, I lurch to see down into the yard. “Ava!”
I jet out of the office and rush down the steps, nearly falling to my death. My face throbs and blood trickles from a cut above my eyebrow. As I’m racing past the foyer, Zeke opens the front door and pulls his gun, seeing the bruised state I’m in.
“Boss, what the hell happened in here?”
“Ava! Ava fell out the window.” That’s all I say because it’s all I care about. It’s all I can explain.
“What?” Zeke says, following me.
I get to the back patio door and push it open, ready to shatter that, too.
Miller lays face up on the concrete pad, Ava curled into a ball next to him. On the grass.
Falling to my feet, I reach out to touch her with shaking hands. But I only hover. “Ava?”
“Ouch,” she says, trying to move her arms.
“Oh my God, talk to me.”
“He broke my fall, but God, I think I busted a rib.”
“Don’t move, my love.”
Zeke stands over Miller, his gun drawn. “Who the fuck is this?”
“Don’t... Don’t touch him.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Zeke, call Shane. Tell him to lock down my cameras and get over here.”
“Yes, boss.” Zeke takes out his phone and makes the call.
Groaning crawls out of Miller’s mouth. He’s not dead.
Fuck!
Ava sits up, her expression unreadable, “Ouch again.”
“Stay down, woman.” I lay next to her on the grass filled with broken glass, my pulse still racing. “I’m bringing you to the hospital.”
I’m wrecked with worry that she’s hurt badly. She’s fucking pregnant with my child.
“ You okay?” she asks, her eyes scanning my face.
“Me?” I swipe at my brow, ignoring the blood. “You psycho, you just fell out of a window.”
My eyes flick toward Miller again and her gaze follows.
“Oh God, he’s not dead, is he?” Ava whines.
“No, Miller’s not dead.” I curse under my breath.
Ace rushes toward us at top speed and collapses to his knees in front of Ava. It’s so quick, it’s so sudden, I nearly pull my gun on the guy.
“Boss, it’s okay,” Zeke says, helping me to my feet. “Ace has medical training.”
My non-verbal guard starts a series of checks on Ava that seem to take forever. He uses ASL and I’m shocked and not shocked at the same time when Ava responds, using it, too.
Ace gently taps her head, her neck, and her shoulders as they silently communicate. Christ, she got incredibly lucky. She’s a fucking black cat with nine lives.
The sound of heavy footsteps pulls my gaze away from my wife, and I nearly lose it seeing Connor and Shane storm into the yard, guns drawn, their faces tight with concern.
“Jesus Christ,” Connor mutters, his eyes darting from the broken window above to the bloodied mess that is Miller. “What the hell happened?”
Shane looks up and frowns at the broken window panes from my office and back to the shattered glass all around us. “I moved all the camera footage to an external drive to review later. It’s off your server, and I put an added firewall in case the CVMs try to hack it.”
“Shane, what about those files?” I mutter, hating my concern is stretched between that and my wife.
“I found them. Corrupted them and ghosted the IP. We’re good.” Shane breathes heavily.
“What was Miller looking for?” Connor asks.
“I don’t know, but Kai’s been sending me shit about the project, copying me on emails to sub-contractors that I’m sure wasn’t flattering, or legal-sounding.”
“Rand Miller is supposed to be in rehab,” Shane says.
“Looks like he’s going to the morgue,” Connor sneers. “Did you shoot him, Griff?
Shaking my head, I bite my lip. “Ava had him against the window, and I shot the glass out hoping he’d fall out alone. But he, he...”
The vision of her going out the window still plays in my head in slow motion. Next, I’m vomiting. Spitting it all out, I glance over at Ava, who’s sitting up.
Fuck, that’s a good sign.
“It’s okay.” Connor rubs my back. “But if this asshole lives, we’re fucked. It doesn’t matter that he broke in. You want me to finish him off?”
“No!”
Ava was trying to make it look like a suicide, I’m sure of it. I get to my feet, watching Ace touch my wife, who’s now taking small steps on the other side of the yard.
“Shane, unload all that crap about Miller anyway. His father’s announcement today makes a suicide motive completely plausible. Figure out a way to stage a fall somewhere else. And make sure that fucking cult knows it.”
“On it,” he says and walks back into the house.
“Call Trace,” I say to Connor. “Give him the details. He’ll know what to do.”
“Boss, glaciers are on their way to repair the window and clean the glass.” Zeke touches my face. “Want Ace to check you out, next?”
“No.” I hustle over to the patio table and kneel in front of Ava, who’s sitting again. “Ace, check on Miller.” When he walks away, I gently grasp my wife’s ice-cold hand. “How do you feel, siren?”
Cringing, she says, “I’m sore. But I’m okay.”
Ace comes back, his face grim. Miller is unconscious and probably won’t make it. He got what he deserved. I hope he felt that fall for what he did to my wife.
I hold Ava close, careful not to crush her chest.
She speaks in a hoarse voice. “You’re bleeding.”
“You fell out of a window.” My eyes scan her chest and blinking, I run a finger along her collarbone. “Fuck.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
She touches her neck. “Norah’s chain. It’s gone. He grabbed it.”
I watch her almost fall apart. She chose not to wear her engagement ring out of stubbornness. But I gave her my sister’s chain, and Ava never took it off. That gesture makes Miller trying to kill her with the fall meant for him my fault.
“It’s here somewhere.” I point to the yard. “I’ll find it.”
“All the glass. It will get—”
I press my lips to her ear. “I will find it.”
Trace arrives a few minutes later with Rhys and a team of his men for extra protection in case someone is waiting to hear from Miller and will unleash a fury at us when he doesn’t respond.
With all the cameras in the houses nearby turned off, Trace’s men prepare to haul an unconscious Miller to a ghost car my enforcer uses.
“Where’s Miller’s car?” I ask.
Zeke looks around. “No strange cars outside, boss.”
“It’s Manhattan, he probably took car service,” Connor says.
“Shane, check his phone,” I spit out.
He gripes in relief as he pulls it out of Miller’s pocket. “Uh, yep. He took a lift service here. I’m downloading the ride-share record and deleting it from their system.”
“Give me the driver’s info,” Rhys says.
“Don’t...kill a fucking lift driver,” I bite out.
“No one will find the driver with the record gone and the nearby cameras wiped,” Shane adds.
“Are you really that stupid?” I shout at Miller’s unconscious, bloodied, and bruised body, his breathing a death rattle.
“Please, take it easy until I get back.” I hold Ava’s face. “This is too important. I have to make sure it’s done. I have to see it with my own eyes.”
“I know. But I’m coming with you. Don’t leave me here alone.”
She’s here alone all the time with the guards. She must be traumatized. But instead of going inward, she’s reaching out. All she wants is me.
Gus drives us in my Escalade as we follow the ghost car, driven by Trace. A few minutes later, I get a text from Rhys.
Rhys: Found a warehouse. We can stage the fall. We got this, cuz.
There would come a point, I have to be a leader and let those who work for me do their job. I trust them. My wife needs me. She’s my priority.
“We’re getting you looked at.” I make a call.
Ava stretches her limbs with only minor grunts. Her hand rests in my lap, her fingers still trembling slightly.
I squeeze gently. “You need X-rays. Cormac will take care of it.”
“You know everyone, don’t you?” She sits back, holding her stomach.
I make the call to my shadow medic. “Cormac. Ava needs X-rays, right fucking now.”
“Who’d she fuck up?” he asks.
“She...” I give a soft chuckle.” My wife fell.”
“Fell where? How?”
I give him a brief rundown leaving Miller out of it. “I need you. I’ll meet you anywhere, Cor.”
“Meet me at the school’s lab. I’ll do them myself.”
“Aye, thanks, doc.”
I turn to Ava, my heart still heavy with adrenaline and the weight of what we’d just gone through. “Just a few more minutes, baby.”
Ava bites her lip with a weak smile then doubles over with a sharp cry.
“Ava, what?”
She shifts in her seat and reaches between her legs. I gasp when her hand comes out, full of blood.