“Yeah,” she whispers. “I kind of forced Ava to take the phone with her.”
A groan rides over my abdominals. "Oh, so now I've got a picture in myfeckinghead, yeah. Kiera, you betrayed me! It wasyou. You reached out to Leith for the plane ride to send Ava home?"
Just as she offers a scarce nod, Leith's tone lowers, becoming lethal. “I’ve searched every database! Even created a backdoor into the feds’ system. Now, you're telling me all I had to do was use a bloody cellphone number and triangulate her location?”
“Keep yelling at my sister, Leith, and I'll jam my foot so far up yourarse!” Ending my rant, I wriggle my jaw and glance around at our clan, who are busy acting like they’ve taken no notice of our heated discussion. I turn back to Leith. “Do your job!”
His hands lift to the heavens. “It’s not a job. You're not paying me!”
“That my problem?” Veins churning with malice, my wrath turns toward my sister. “And Kiera, you're . . . supposed to be my sister. You put Ava in harm's way. Where's thefeckingknife, gon' stab me in the back cause I can't even articulate how I'd-I'd handle you if you weren't my blood!”
Kiera’s face softens as she looks toward Leith’s twisted face and my deadly silent one. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs. “I had no idea how worried you were, brother.”
You don’t know the half of it, lassie. Myfeckingheart’s broken, stolen outta my chest, and dashed against the pavement.
46
Ava
Breaking a promise still hits like a freight train to the chest. After all the crap I’ve lived through, I thought I’d be numb to the promise I made Kiera. However,guiltreminds me that I’m alive.
I had a plan—make Adnan pay for the death of our daughter by any means.
Utter chaos was my original plan before I met a commanding asshole who snatched me up and my heart, too.After being in Keiran’s world, I realize my initial scenario wouldn’t have worked. From the perception of others, Adnan’s silly ex-wife would’ve committed suicide at his wedding. She would’ve been deemed weak, possibly jealous, resentful. The worst of it would have been all the sympathy he gained. First, his wife was a drug addict, then the accident with his daughter, and now this? I would have fed his narcissistic ego. That would not have avenged Arika.
Now, I’ve restructured my vow of vengeance. I won’t stop until I have Adnan’s blood. In red lingerie that’s magnetic against my light-brown skin, I give myself the once over in the standing mirror of Connie’s one-bedroom apartment. Her coworker, Zariah, took her on a girls trip this weekend. My attorney has become such a good friend to me since I came into her office. She promised that either she or her uncle, Samuel, will be at my disposal anytime I needed.
I slide into a black, silk trench coat.Don’t think of him.Damn, black . . . silk.
The sound of my cellphone rescues me. “Hey, Sam.” I end my greeting on a silent measure of oxygen.Please give me a way out. I don’t want to initiate the last option.
“Connie shared that you were able to reach out to your old nanny.”
“Yeah.” I wrap my arms around myself, sinking into the comfy, beige couch with half my ass and hips spilling over the sides. Fire ants gnaw at my skin at the thought of Adnan seeing me soon, seeing me likethis. His whore.
“Ava, you have to know how I’d respond.”
“But the fucking nanny says she saw him! Connie tell you that?”
“Yes, ma’am. Researching a case where a father evaded jail time after leaving his twin children in a car set this up. He found precedence.”
“Great, but the nanny’s our witness,” I reply tersely. However grateful I am that she’s no longer under his thumb, the bitch still slept with my husband whilecaring forArika while I attended college. Now, she’s finally proving useful.
Dead silence proceeds Samuel’s response. “The day you leveraged your divorce on Adnan and the judge’s cover-up, he slapped you with an emergency child-custody hearing. We need to be prepared.”
“The last ninety-something days have been preparation, Sam! The nanny—”
“Is a disgruntled ex-employee. We need more. Please give me—”
“Sorry, Sam.” My brittle voice abruptly stalls our tense conversation. A switch flips in my brain. In a monotonous tone, I say, “Thank you for all your help thus far. Goodbye.”Kiera, sweetheart, looks like I won’t be coming back.I’ll write her from a three-by-three jail cell. How will I respond to Kieran?
* * *
The only thing left between Adnan and me is the kind of revenge that taints our souls.
There were a few ways Adnan was supposed to go down. One, I collaborate with Connie and Samuel Billingslea to bring him to justice. While I was MIA, they worked vigilantly to create a case and also worried my ex-husband might have murdered me. In the beginning, they had said a solid defense doesn’t come over time. Arika had the least amount of time.
What I wouldn’t do to see his smarmy face smeared across all the news circuits. But sullying his image was not what Adnan asked for when he killed my daughter. Thecabrónrequires desecration. Torn from the inside out. Burned to a crisp. Knowing this may be the last resort, I made sure I got a job as a maid at his favorite boutique hotel. I should’ve known that after he married the princess, his usual cravings would return.