Chapter 20
twenty
“Does she still have it?” Ava asks her father.
Liam shrugs. “As far as I know,” he says. “I’ve never actually seen it. It was just what your mother told me when we were children. Your great grandmother gave it to her when she was born.”
My wife is silent for a moment, and I recognize that the gears in her head are working out a puzzle. I don’t miss the look in her eyes when she sees the box. Like she recognizes it and the minute she remembers where, her eyes light up like fire.
“We need to go back to my old house.” She snaps her fingers and smiles. “That’s where I’ve seen this before.”
“Where in the house?” I ask because if one of her mother’s enemies saw it, they might have taken it.
“In one of my hiding places in the kitchen,” she tells me excitedly. “I always thought it was a recipe box.”
I nod my assent.
“Vas,” we both call for him at the same time. This could get awkward. My wife looks at me askance as Vas steps forward with a broad grin.
“Yes, bosses,” he gives a dramatic pause before adding the extra -es on the end.
Fucking asshole.
“You and Maxim follow us to the house,” Ava orders before I can get a word in edgewise. It’s fine. This is her mission and I’ll let her have that.
For now.
I’m not sure how I planned to take back over the Bratva when I came back, but I know I don’t want Ava near it if I can help it. I do, however, want her to become the face and full-time CEO of Arctic Security. She’s proven several times over that she’s intelligent enough to be able to run it.
Even if she did learn about the company less than a week ago.
“Sully, you’re welcome to join if you wish,” she tells him. Sully nods and leans over to whisper to one of his men. “Matthias, my father, and I will take another car.”
“Does that mean I’m not fired?” Vas jokes but I can see the seriousness behind his eyes. Vas is the closest thing Ava has ever had to a best friend that wasn’t Maleah or one of her sisters, and for the last month or so he’s been lying to her.
Withholding information.
Keeping secrets.
Because of me.
“Still on my shit list,” she mutters darkly as she brushes past him. Vas’s shoulders slump.
“She just needs time,” I tell him, handing him the key fob to Liam’s Ferrari. “See you there.”
Vas nods looking like someone kicked his puppy.
Ava will forgive him a lot easier than she’ll forgive me. That I’m sure of. It will just take time for her heart to heal.
The drive to Ava’s childhood home is quiet. No one is sure what to say. My wife grips the small box tightly as if she’s afraid someone will take it from her. I understand her reticence to let it go. This is her smoking gun. It’s going to be whether her father believes her that matters.
I stare up at the two-story family home and for a moment I wonder what Ava’s childhood here is like. She never really speaks of her time with her mother and that’s my fault. I’ve never taken an interest in her past as she has in mine.
Over our time together she’s revealed snippets every now and then, but I get the feeling that most of her memories from this time are repressed. I just don’t know if it’s purposeful on my wife’s part or if someone forced her to do it.
She wastes no time throwing open the rickety front door and barging inside like a woman on a mission. Ava passes directly through the living room and into the large, homey kitchen.
This is where Ava’s love for baking came from. On several occasions I’ve caught her and Mia baking up a batch of cookies or brownies.
Sometimes even cakes.
Mia tells me it helps her feel safe and secure.
Now I know why.
It reminds her of a time when she was safe and secure. A time before Elias and Christian. A time before me. If I could change my Little Red’s history, I would do it in a heartbeat. Even if it means we would never meet.
“Here it is,” her voice is calm, barely above a whisper as she pulls it out of the small closet hidden at the side of one of the pantries. If she hadn’t pointed it out, I would never have known it was there.
She passes the first box off to me and my heart swells instantly that she trusts me enough to keep it safe for her. At least I haven’t lost that completely. Ava may not fully trust me in some areas, but she knows all I want to do is keep her safe.
The box she holds in her hand now is different.
Newer.
Carved from a tree called Rowan that is native to Ireland. On the top is the same symbol as the one I hold.
The Celtic love knot.
Gingerly, she opens the lid and peers inside.
“That’s the promise ring I gave her when we were fifteen.
” Liam’s throat bobs with emotion as he looks at it.
Respecting my wife by not simply grabbing the ring, he waits for her to hand it to him.
“We always knew we were going to get married. She made me promise her after she got dumped by Mason Walsh in the second grade.”
Ava snorts a laugh as she picks up the next thing.
It’s a lock of her hair and a baby tooth.
“Your mother said it was tradition to put a lock of your first-born daughter’s hair into the box and her first baby tooth. It is said to promote a healthy relationship between the mother and daughter as they move forward in life.”
My wife pulls a face, but she gently sets the two baggies down on the counter with care.
“My baby photo,” Ava whispers as she takes the small thumbnail out and hands it to her father. “Mom said I was born with a head of hair and the brightest emerald eyes. Used to tell me it was like looking at one of the fairies.”
“It’s genetic.” Liam smiles down at her. “The only person not to be born with green eyes was your grandmother. She’d been born with brown eyes.”
Ava nods absently before taking a few more trinkets out of the box that Liam explains are gifts he’s given her over the years. Many from when they were small children. The last thing in the box is a folded-up sheet of paper with Ava’s name on it.
She purses her lips, her hand shaking as she lifts it from the confines of the box. A photo slips out, but she doesn’t pay it any mind. Her entire focus is on the letter. Slowly, she starts to peel back the pages when a sudden noise catches our attention.
“We need to go,” Sully yells from the front of the house. “Now.”
Gunshots echo around us, windows exploding as bullets surge through them. Ava gasps and tucks the note away in her jean pocket before throwing her mother’s trinkets in the box and snatching it up from the counter along with the one in my hand.
“Head down, baby,” I remind her as we dash out of the kitchen to the front door where Sully’s men fire off round after round from their ARs at the bypassing cars. I recognize the make and model.
Platinum Security.
Fucking idiots. They made themselves easily identifiable and that’s a mistake.
“Get us to the helipad,” I order our driver as we slide into the SUV.
“My stuff,” Ava says.
“The men will grab it,” I tell her. “We need to get back to Seattle. I don’t have the manpower here to take on Cartwright and O’Neill.”
Ava spins her head to look at me. “How did you know about Cartwright?”
“You think I didn’t keep track of everything while I was gone?” I ask her incredulously as I pick up my phone to make a call. “I was in constant contact with Vas and my other men. So was Dima.”
“Dima was with you.” It isn’t a question. She knows he was. It’s all starting to come together for her. How much we’ve all kept from her. “Motherfuckers.”
“Dima,” I bark into the phone. “Grab my father and get to the airstrip. We’ve been compromised.”
“Father?” Shock spreads across her face. There might be anger there too but I’m ignoring that.
“We’ll take the helicopter with Liam,” I tell him. “Grab Kenzi, too.” Then I hang up.
“You wanna fill me in on what the hell is going on?” My wife huffs. Liam chuckles beside her. I narrow my eyes at him.
“Don’t pretend like you’re innocent in all this, Kavanaugh,” I snarl. “This was, after all, your idea.”
“What?” Liam grimaces at her sudden shriek. That one breaks the sound barrier for sure.
“Matthias told me about his umm…other father?” He shoots me a questioning look before continuing. “When we got word about the hit put out on him by that very man, we came up with a plan to make it look like Kenzi succeeded to draw him out.”
“Other father?” She looks over at me.
“It’s a long story, Krasnyy,” I tell her. Ava’s response to that is to stare up at me expectantly, arms crossed, and snarl, “We’ve got plenty of time.”
There won’t be any moving forward if I can’t be honest with her. I know that.
“Okay,” I begin. “Let me start from the beginning.”