52. Chapter Fifty-Two #2
I shrugged and winced as Maloy started to clean it.
“I didn’t know it happened. Honestly, I didn't even realize my shoulder hurt until I got on the plane, and then I thought it was from one of my trips in and out of the window. I won’t apologize for helping blow out a tire of the truck that was trying to run us off the road. ”
Maloy stopped cleaning for a second and looked between me and Lukas. “There was a shootout?”
Lukas rubbed his hand over his face and nodded. “Yeah. Like I said, the commute was interesting.”
Seeing the blood on his hand made me reach out and grab his wrist. “You want to tell me why you aren’t taking care of the wound on your hand?”
After Lukas glanced down and let out a frustrated huff, he reached into the first aid kit and pulled out some alcohol wipes and a couple different types of bandages. Quinn took over taking care of him, and I was grateful for the momentary distraction.
He's fine. It's not like with Derek. It's fine.
Maloy cleared his throat as he wrapped gauze around my arm. “We looked for you for months… years. I never forgot about you. Even when they finally had your funeral, it didn’t feel right.”
Lukas let out a tense sigh and nodded. “That was one of the worst days of my life.”
My eyes went wide. “Wait… There was a funeral?”
Quinn glanced around the cabin. “Not to sound crass or disrespectful, but is there a gravesite? Did they…” She took a deep breath and then swallowed. “Did they bury a casket?”
My focus locked onto Lukas, waiting for an answer.
He pressed his lips in a straight line and nodded. “Yeah, there was a casket, funeral, the whole thing. Mom and Dad fought it, but your parents said they needed closure.”
“Was it empty?”
His eyes locked onto mine. “I don’t know. They kept it closed, though.”
My heart rate took off and when I tried to breathe, nothing happened.
There’s a grave site… with my name on it.
My thoughts spiraled wildly as I tried processing what they said.
Liam… and Susan… They lied about my death… Mom and Dad believed them… They all buried that casket… at a funeral… for me.
“Adair! … Tori!… Victoria!”
I blinked, finally realizing Peter was holding my face in his hands and our noses were mere inches apart. “What?”
He let out a small sigh and nodded. “Stay with me, okay? I don’t know where your mind went, but please stay here with us.”
Someone grabbed my left hand, and I glanced down to see Jensen Maloy holding it. “I am so sorry. I thought you knew.”
I shook my head. “There wasn’t a lot of opportunity to stay informed for after everything happened. I was a little busy recovering from being attacked and shot by my sister, her bodyguard, and my fiance. I was also bounding between different secret locations and safe houses.”
He blinked twice and clenched his teeth. “I’m sorry, my brother did what?”
The barely contained rage would have been terrifying had it not been for the fact I’d felt the same way for years. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Can I get something to drink before I dive into this?”
Maloy’s brown eyes never left mine. “Water or liquor?”
“Yes.”
He told Reynolds to grab some from the galley.
To keep from spiraling out again, I kept my focus on the fact Peter held one of my hands, and Maloy held another. A slightly hysterical giggle spilled out of me.
“What’s so funny?”
I looked up at Peter, probably looking like a lunatic, as I kept laughing. “I have two big, scary mafia guys holding my hands, making sure I feel okay. People would call me crazy if I ever talked about this.”
Maloy chuckled. “If it makes you feel better, you're not the first woman in distress I’ve helped via hug or handholding.”
It was then Reynolds reappeared and held out a bottle of water and a tiny bottle of whiskey. “Let me know if you need more of either.”
“Thanks.” I reluctantly pulled my hands free and took both bottles, opening the whiskey first, drinking the entire thing, and then did the same with the bottle of water.
“Better?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Lukas cleared his throat. “Tori, tell me my brother and his now wife did not attack and shoot you.”
Peter rubbed his thumb over my hand. “You’re safe here, remember? There isn’t a person on this plane who would willingly let anything bad happen to you.”
“I know.” The words came out as a tense whisper forced through clenched teeth.
Maloy shifted where he sat. “Victoria, I need at least part of this story. Everyone thinks you’re dead, so there are going to be a lot of questions when you walk off that plane in Chicago. I can’t look Dallas in the face when we get back and tell him his interrogator couldn’t get information.”
It’s fine. He’s right. Don Dallas is letting us use his plane… because Lianne cashed in a favor. I have to tell him something. “No, I suppose not.” I let out a tense sigh. “Can I start by asking you not to call me Victoria anymore?”
He nodded. “Absolutely. What name would you prefer?”
“Adair.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can give you some of the story, but not all of it. Not today, at least.”
Maloy nodded. “I respect that. You’ve clearly walked through hell.”
I stared at the blanket on my lap, thought of Lynette, and summoned all the strength I could.
“There was an old blood debt contract between George Agosti and my dad. I don’t know how or why it came to be, but it was signed before either of them had kids.
It stated the oldest son/daughter of each family was to marry, which turned out to be me and Liam.
” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Neither of us were thrilled about it when we were informed of the contract’s existence, but there wasn’t much we could do without starting a war, so we agreed to it. ”
“You and Liam looked happy together before you disappeared, though.”
A sad smile appeared on my face at Lukas’s quiet comment. “That was the point. We were friends trying to make the best of it, or at least I was. I wasn’t in love with him, and he very much was not in love with me.”
Jensen Maloy nodded. “If I know my Vaux history well enough, you were in a relationship with one of your father’s guards, right?”
“Yeah. Dad was pissed when he found out about that. We tried to keep it a secret, and were successful for quite a while, too.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “And Liam?”
“Holy shit. He was in love with Susan the whole time, wasn’t he?”
My attention snapped to Quinn, whose eyes were wide with shock and rage.
She figured it out. I nodded. “Yeah. They tried to keep it quiet, too, especially after Liam and I went public with our relationship, if you could even call it that, but I knew they hadn’t stopped seeing each other.
” A shudder shook my shoulders. “I heard and saw so many things I wish I hadn’t. ”
Quinn shook her head. “But why her? She’s a complete bitch.”
I snorted and then laughed. “Do you know how relieving it is to hear someone else say that?”
“But what about the attack? Why did they shoot you?”
I looked at Maloy and stared him straight in the eyes. “Because I told them they had to end their relationship by the time the engagement was made public, or I’d take all my evidence to both of our fathers and the Don Supreme, proving there was a breach of contract.”
Lukas leaned forward. “But if you two didn’t want to get married, wouldn’t breaching contract be a good thing?”
I shook my head. “No. It would have been seen as an insult by either or both families. Our dads impressed upon us how this was a blood debt. One that had to be repaid.”
Maloy’s eyes went wide. “Who was repaying the honor?”
I had to sit there a moment and think. At one time, I had the contract all but memorized. “George Agosti was repaying a debt to my dad.”
Quinn shifted in her seat and let out a deep breath. “So, if I’m understanding this correctly, Liam going after the wrong daughter, so to speak, would have been a massive insult to the Vaux family.”
“Right.”
“Fucking Liam.” She shook her head and looked at Lukas. “I really really hate your brother now.”
“Same.”