Chapter 43
Kane glanced over at Ike as they climbed the mountain trail toward the casita. “You going to be all right without your best friend?”
“Go to hell.”
“I’m just saying, Tucker’s been glued to your side since Bobby was killed.” Kane stepped over a knot of exposed roots cutting across the trail. “We could’ve made up a reason Paloma couldn’t take him to her Goat Scout meeting. Maybe borrowed an actual goat from Black Spade for show-and-tell.”
“She wanted Tucker, and I make a habit of not disappointing that little girl.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t need that damn dog.”
The words came out easily enough.
Believing them was another matter.
Ike pushed harder up the incline. The trail narrowed beneath a canopy of palms and mountain mahogany, the casita hidden above them in a pocket of green so dense it looked untouched from below.
“What’s the latest on the investigation?” Ike asked.
“Dead ends everywhere.” Kane’s tone lost its humor. “We were worried Bobby had enemies across half the cartel world. Turns out, not in any way that helps us. He did side jobs, sure, but nothing that put a target on his back.”
That wasn’t what Ike wanted to hear.
Every eliminated suspect shoved him closer to the possibility he’d been trying not to face. If Bobby hadn’t been killed because of the PC-5, or the Brazhenskys, or one of the many dangerous people he’d done business with, then maybe the threat had started somewhere else.
Like with the safe deposit box and Ike’s request for Bobby to dig into it.
“Donald Eastman having an airtight alibi blows up our best chance of clearing Remi.” It blew up the chance of clearing him, too. Ike continued, “She can’t come out of hiding until we know who killed Bobby. With the evidence they have, no jury in the islands would hesitate to send her to Tiverton.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kane ducked beneath a low branch. “Good thing the cops are still baffled by her disappearance.”
“They haven’t found anything linking back to our intercept?”
“Of course not.” Kane looked offended by the question. “I’m undetectable, and Adonis’s team wiped the scene clean. As far as the police can tell, Remi vanished between the St. Felipe Police Station and the secure prisoner transfer dock. There was no trace of a coordinated extraction.”
“That kind of confusion won’t last forever.”
“No, but it bought us time. Their investigation will focus on the police officers from St. Basil who were believed to have picked up Remi from the St. Felipe jail for the transfer. That will keep them busy for a long time.”
Ike shook his head. “A beautiful mess.”
“The departments are blaming each other, and the media is eating it up.”
“That’s useful. With no leads, and Hunter planting proof that Everett left the islands on a private plane the night before Remi was captured, there’s no reason to look at him as part of the escape.”
“Smart move on Hunter’s part.” Kane’s mouth tightened. “I do kind of feel bad for Chief Brown, though. Her press conference was brutal. She might get fired over this.”
“When it’s over, she’ll be redeemed.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Kane said, concern furrowing his brows.
Ike could only imagine that it was rare for Kane to stick around to see the impact of his actions on those affected.
“One more thing,” said Kane.
Ike glanced over. “What is it?”
“The police are releasing Bobby’s remains next week.”
The mountain seemed to go quiet around him.
Ike kept walking because stopping would have given the grief too much room. Holding off on a memorial had allowed some stubborn, irrational part of him to pretend Bobby wasn’t gone. Once they put him in the ground, that lie would be dead, too.
“The Marengos reached out to Greta,” Kane continued. “Offered to pay for the funeral.”
Ike’s jaw locked. “How did she take that?”
“Badly. She lost it on them. Told Sebastian she wasn’t going back to work for that family.”
“You think she knows the PC-5 voted to put Bobby on the death list?”
“Either that, or she thinks they killed him and are letting Remi take the fall.” Kane slowed as the casita came into view through the trees.
“It’s interesting, though. With all the media focus on Remi as Bobby’s murderer, Greta hasn’t lashed out at her for killing him.
Mostly for not loving him enough. Not the way Greta thinks Bobby loved her. ”
“Greta loved a version of Bobby he wanted her to see.”
“So did a lot of people.”
The words hit harder than Ike wanted them to.
He had loved Bobby with his eyes open. At least, he’d believed that. But maybe they had all missed more than they’d realized. Maybe Bobby had been carrying a danger none of them had bothered to drag into the light because they were too used to letting him keep his secrets.
“She won’t need the Marengos,” Ike said. “Everything Bobby had will be hers.”
“We need someone who can track down all his financial accounts.”
“Someone as good as Bobby.”
Kane let out a humorless laugh. “That’s a tall ask. But his local accounts are accessible. Greta doesn’t need the Marengos paying for anything. Gabrielle is helping with the arrangements.”
“Good.”
They reached the clearing. The casita sat ahead, tucked away like a secret the mountain kept. Low and private against the slope, its pale stucco walls, dark wood shutters, and narrow windows set high for privacy were too refined for the ugliness moving through him.
“Ike.”
He looked over. “What?”
Kane slowed beside him. “You should be there when we lay him to rest.”
Ike stared at him. “I’ll think about it.”
Disappointment flickered across Kane’s face. He gave one short nod, then turned and headed back down the trail without another word.
Ike watched him go until the trees swallowed him.
The silence left behind felt heavier than Kane’s disappointment.
Ike jogged the last stretch toward the casita. By the time he reached the door, sweat dampened the back of his shirt.
He unlocked the door and stepped inside.
Then stopped.
Ava stood in the middle of his living room with the safe deposit box open on the table in front of her.
The diamonds were gone.
Every last glittering piece of the mystery his parents had left behind had been swept into the dark velvet pouch in her hand.
She was dressed in black, the sleek fabric clinging to the long, powerful lines of her body like it had been made to help her slip through locked doors and ruin men who should know better.
Her hair was pulled back, showing off her elegant face, the smooth brown skin he could still feel beneath his palms, and a mouth that had no business looking that soft while she stood there stealing from him.
Her eyes held that same impossible mix of heat, secrets, and challenge that had haunted him since Miami.
Ike’s gaze dragged lower despite the fury burning through him. Over the breasts he’d imagined more times than he’d ever admit. Across the curve of her hips and the long, strong legs that made her look like she could outrun him, outfight him, and still make him beg for the privilege of losing.
She stood over the emptied safe deposit box with his parents’ diamonds in her hand, and his first honest impulse was still to close the distance between them.
He hated himself for all of it.
Ava looked over at him as if she expected to be caught.
Or wanted to be.
Ike shut the door behind him. He took a slow step into the room. “I thought Bobby’s death might be because of me. Because he helped me find that fucking safe deposit box. I thought maybe asking him to dig into that box got him killed.”
“Your friend’s death has nothing to do with you or anything related to your parents’ disappearance.”
“Fuck you.”
Ava’s expression didn’t change, but something moved behind her eyes.
He pointed toward the open box. “You used me. All that mystery about my parents’ plane crash. The hints. The warnings. The key. Lesotho. It was all a con so you could get your hands on the diamonds.”
“It wasn’t a con.”
“You paid off twenty-two million dollars of my debt to the Brazhenskys because you knew there were a couple hundred million dollars in diamonds waiting at the end of it.” His laugh came out cold. “Hell of a return on investment.”
“Yes,” she said.
Her honesty was like a slap.
Ava tightened her grip on the velvet pouch. “I needed you to find the diamonds. I tried so many times and failed. Your father made sure almost no one could get to them. But I knew you could.”
His hand flexed, then closed into a fist. “You never cared about my parents. You used their disappearance to manipulate me for those.” He pointed at the velvet bag.
Her face softened. “I loved your parents like they were my own.”
“Liar.”
She stepped away from the table. “There are things you need to find out about your parents. Things that will explain why their plane disappeared. Things I don’t know, Ike. But you can find out. When you do, everything I’ve done will make sense.”
He angled his body toward the door. “Go. You got what you came for.”
Ava’s composure faltered. She looked less like the woman who had played him and more like the woman who regretted the cost.
“Get out, Ava,” Ike said before he was the one who did something he’d regret. “Don’t come back.”
She slid the velvet pouch into a small black backpack and crossed the room toward him. He stayed where he was, one hand still on the door, refusing to move out of her way.
Ava stopped in front of him.
Close enough for him to catch the faint scent of jasmine and for every memory of her to rush back at once.
She lifted a hand and rested it against his face.
He should have moved away, but he couldn’t.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said.
The words struck too deep to answer.
Then she kissed him.
Soft at first. Almost careful. As if she knew he was standing on the edge of too many things and didn’t want to be the one who pushed him over.
He caught the edge of her jacket and pulled her closer.
The kiss changed. Heat sparked fast and mean, all anger and want, betrayal and need tangled so tightly he couldn’t separate one from the other. Ava made a quiet sound against his mouth, and for one reckless moment, he forgot the diamonds, the lies, the grief sitting like a stone in his chest.
Then she broke away.
Her dark eyes held his.
“I’ll be back to go to Bobby’s funeral with you.”
Before he could answer, she slipped past him and disappeared out the door.
Ike remained by the door long after she was gone. Until the mountain air pushed through the house, carrying away the last trace of her jasmine scent before he was ready to let it go.
Eventually, he moved because being rooted in the last place where she had been felt pathetic. He closed the door, then crossed to the sofa and dropped onto it, staring at the safe deposit box. The empty drawer sat open, gutted and useless.
A faint glint caught his eye from the shadows of the box. He reached inside, dragging his fingers across the interior. Two hard shapes shifted beneath his touch, cold and sharp-angled. He pulled his hand back and opened his palm.
Two diamonds rested there. Both stones were large, bright, and heavy against his skin.
He grabbed the box and shook it. A jeweler’s loupe tumbled out. The small magnifying lens landed with a tap on the coffee table.
He stared at the diamonds. Then the loupe.
This wasn’t an oversight.
Ava had left the two diamonds for him to find, along with the one tool that might help him understand why.
Ike turned his palm over and watched the diamonds skitter across the coffee table. Whatever secret waited inside those stones would still be there when he found the strength to look.