Chapter 58
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Viktor
“ W here is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why were you talking to her?” I demand.
“She called me.”
“She won’t talk to me, but she’ll fucking talk to you. What did she want to talk about?”
“Calm down.”
“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down. There’s no reason for her to talk to you.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. She called asking about the money in her account.”
“What did you tell her?” I demand. I walk to the bar. I’m in desperate need of a drink, even though it’s barely eleven in the morning.
“The truth. You asked me to wire money to her account.”
“Anything else? How long were you on the cell with her? Where is she?”
“Less than two minutes. I didn’t get a chance to ask more. You came in and took the cell.”
“Unacceptable.” I refuse to let her go. I’ll do what I must, whatever it takes to bring her home. I don’t give a fuck what my father wants.
“She needs time to cool off. What do you want me to do?”
“Bring her home.”
I walk away. I’m done talking. I need to fix this. Fiona took advantage of a lapse of judgment on my part. Now I’m paying the price. I’ll fight to bring Ava home regardless of any deal my father has with Cillian. If he wants to get in bed with the Irish so bad, Cillian can fucking take over and they can leave me out of it.
I only have one thing I care about, Ava. I’ll move heaven and earth to bring her home. This is not the end. I found the love of my life. Something I never thought would happen to me. Something I never thought I could have or deserved.
Upstairs in my bedroom, I’m met by her sweet scent of lavender. Everything is in its place. I’m hoping this is a nightmare and Ava will walk into our bedroom any moment. But her ring is on the dresser where she left it. I take it and go downstairs to my office. Oliver is in the foyer talking with a few of our men.
“Why are you still here? I asked you to bring her home.” He takes a deep breath. “What?” I bark.
“I have to find her first,” he answers.
“What do you mean?”
“I was asking her where she wanted her things to be sent. She said she isn’t living with her father.” I take my cell and dial Tina.
“Hi, how are you feeling?” she asks.
“Where’s Ava? Is she hiding at your place?”
“No. I don’t know where she is.”
I end the call and dial my mother.
“Hi, sweetheart. How are you feeling?”
“Mom, where’s Ava? Are you hiding her?”
“I haven’t seen her since she left last night. Did something happen?”
“Call me if you hear from her.”
“Viktor—”
“Just call me.”
“Of course. Call me when you find her.”
“I will.” I end the call and walk outside the house.
“Where are you going?”
“To check that she wasn’t lying.” Oliver follows me.
“What are you going to do when you find her?” he asks as we get in the first SUV I see.
“Bring her home.”
“You need a better plan. Forcing her won’t work. Besides, you heard what our father said.”
“I don’t give a shit what he said. I’ll put a bullet in his head before he kills her.”
“Are you ready for that?”
“I love her,” I confess.
“I understand. But you must also think about what being with you will mean for her. You’re asking her to fight your war. And we don’t know how that war will end.”
“She isn’t fighting my war.”
“We’re Scots and she is American. We only marry our kind. This was going to be hard from the very beginning. You knew that. And you still chose to make your arrangement. What did you think was going to happen?”
“Yet he wants me to marry an Irish woman,” I say, ignoring his question.
“That marriage is business.”
“Fuck his business. He can run the clan until his death. I don’t need him. He needs me.”
“I swore to you I’d go to war beside you. I know you love her. But are you ready to fight your brothers? Are you ready to make them choose sides? You’re the heir to our clan whether you want it or not. You can’t hide from that.”
“Our grandfather, one of the most ruthless men, brought his ways from Glasgow. But we’re in the States. We don’t have to live their way.”
“It’s the life we’ve been dealt.”
“It’s a life that will destroy me. I won’t lead the clan if it means losing the woman I love forever.”
“I know you don’t want me to say it, but?—”
“Then don’t.”
I know what he’s going to say. He’s going to tell me I have a responsibility. He’s going to tell me I need to marry Fiona to save our clan. My father will burn the clan alive if he must.
Being with Ava has left me conflicted. I was molded to be the leader of the Manarch Clan. But if he makes me choose, I’ll choose her over everything, and he knows it. I’m no one without her.
“You must marry Fiona. At least for a while. Our father will kill Ava if you don’t obey him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he already has a bounty on her head.”
“You’re right. I don’t want to hear it.”
“At least tell our father you’ll marry Fiona. Buy yourself some time until you have a plan.”
“Fuck, Oliver.” I hit the steering wheel.
“I know. But you’ll have a fighting chance if you do. You must think with your head. Be strategic.” He’s right. If I go in blazing hot, there’s no way to know what my father would do. But what is the alternative?
“What do you have in mind?”
“You won’t like it.” I eye him. “You can’t go to her. I’m sure our father has people watching your every move. I’ll find her. I give you, my word.”
“She is my world.”
“And this is the only way you can keep her alive.”
My father has threatened me over the years, but I never thought he would take it this far. His need for power is greater than his loyalty to flesh and blood. I’ve always prided myself in not letting emotions rule me. I’m strategic and calculated with every decision I make. But something changed when Ava walked into my life. I can’t go back to the man I was before her.
If someone had told me that night at the restaurant I was meeting the woman who was born to be by my side, I would‘ve laughed.
Ava is infuriating, sexy, beautiful, smart, and mine. I’ll bring her home where she belongs at any cost. I won’t let anyone come between us. If it’s war my father wants, then war he will get.
Ava is my future, and I won’t let the clan get in the way of that.