Chapter Twenty-Seven
Matthias had a family.
Archer’s name was really Ivan, and he was Matthias’s brother.
Kirill, the man Matthias thought to be his father, had started the human trafficking ring we knew as the Chameleon Agency, and he had been a member of the stupid secret society thing.
Oh, and he was dead.
And his biological father was here to help.
Because he was the head of the Russian Bratva.
Like the head honcho.
The Pakhans of all Pakhans.
I was going to be sick.
The helicopter ride had been short. An easy ninety minutes, which had been plenty of time for my husband to catch me up on all the shit he had been doing as a dead man. The Archer/Ivan thing still got me, though.
I owed that man a swift right hook to the jaw.
Twat waffle.
“The penthouse might not be secure,” my father told Matthias. “But we’re going to need all the evidence from the vault if we want to piece everything together.” Matthias nodded in agreement.
“Have your lower-tier men move to a safe house,” my father said. “The rest of you can come stay with us. I doubt anyone would look for your there.”
Except someone would know we were there. I went to say something, but Matthias’s elbow jabbed me in the side. “Sounds good,” he agreed. “I’ll have Tony drive you.”
Nodding, my father kissed my forehead gently before striding out the lobby doors. All my time here, and I had never known there was a helipad on the top of the building. It was cool in a billionaire tycoon kind of way.
“Wait for me outside with Kristian.” Matthias tilted his head at the burly security guard that monitored the lobby doors. He was a good guy with a sucky name. Not that I held it against him. I just refused to call him by it. Opting for Kris instead. The man didn’t seem to mind.
“Okay,” I whispered, clutching the boxes to my chest.
“Good girl.” And there went my panties. Matthias bent down and kissed me softly before following Maksim and Vas into the elevator that led down to the subbasement level where the vault was held.
“Ma’am.” Kris opened the glass door for me and tilted his head toward the large fountain area a little farther from the building. “There’s a bench just over there we can sit at until they return.”
I grinned and nodded. “Thanks.”
He led me to the large wooden bench that sat just in front of a small fountain that was the building’s focal point in the front. The building was as much of a business hub as it was a home. Not just for me, but also for many of my men.
No, not mine any longer. Matthias’s.
A small part of me mourned the loss of being Pakhan. I doubted Matthias was planning to let me help him run anything. Not that I wanted to run anything with him.
He’d lied to me. Kept secrets. I’d wept for him, killed for him, and he wasn’t even dead.
We may be getting along now, but that didn’t mean I would just crawl back to him. I’d tried that before and look where it got me. Nowhere. When he thought I’d betrayed him, I did everything I could to draw him back in. To get him to trust me again and build back some of what we had before.
I had pursued him.
If he truly wanted me, he had to come after me. Woo me. And there was no way in hell I was going to make that easy.
But that was something for future Ava to deal with. After a large cup of coffee. Maybe two. Right now, I was more interested in the note addressed to me in my mother’s handwriting. Licking my lips, I pulled the paper out of my pocket and unfolded it.
Mo Réalta,
If you are reading this, then my time has come, my precious little star.
I don’t want you to be sad.
Death is nothing to fear or mourn but something to rejoice and cherish.
You are ten now, my heart.
I don’t have much time. They are coming for me, and our time together will soon end.
I love you. I want you to know that. Because what I am about to tell you may very well break your heart, as it did mine so many years ago.
There are dark forces at work, my star, that I hope will never taint your sweet, gentle soul.
When I was eighteen, I was taken by a man named Elias Ward, who works for a devil. A man with two faces.
I didn’t notice at first. The changes were so subtle that I barely saw what was right in front of me.
Until one day, I did.
You will never meet your grandfather, God rest his soul, for the man who wears his face is nothing but a lie.
A con.
One that has been going on far longer than I could have ever anticipated.
Oh, my star.
I escaped the man who took me, and I ran back to your father. The love of my life.
Unfortunately, I was ill advised and later betrayed.
But I wouldn’t figure this out until several months later.
Elias stole me again, and I was resigned to my fate until one day I found out about my little miracle.
Mo Réalta.
Now it was life or death. If Elias ever found out about you, he would have forced me to end the pregnancy.
With some help, I escaped again.
I went back to your father, but he had already moved on.
With the one who betrayed me.
She wasn’t who she appeared to be, my heart.
Over the years, I have struggled to find out how she was involved, and I think I finally found it.
The connection.
If only I had put it together sooner.
I found the old barn. The one exactly like Elias’s.
They train girls there to be sex slaves to wealthy men and women.
But she was more than that. She was a plant. A fake.
At the same time, she was so real.
Not everyone is who they appear to be, and you’ll find that those who appear the weakest are, in fact, the strongest.
I never expected her to betray me. But she did.
And now they are here.
Remember, I love you.
Forever.
Your father’s name is Liam Kavanaugh. His father was my father’s right-hand man. He is a good man, my star.
Find him. Tell him my story.
And one day, I hope you find a man just like him.
A mix of monster and prince.
A warrior.
A partner.
I love you, Mo Réalta.
Remember what I’ve told you and—
“Run!” Kristian shouted next to me, drawing me out of the reverie my mother’s letter had pulled me into.
There was a sudden explosion. A cracking sound rent the air, and the next thing I knew, he was tackling me to the ground, and everything went black.