“Claudius,” I say weakly, “you can’t be blamed for wanting to protect your family. It’s the promise we make to our women when they become ours.”
“I hear you, but somebody should have been here, and I’m afraid the situation is worse than what you think.”
“What? Why?”
“We did our own digging. It was Richard who led the operation to kill you and get Cora,” he answers.
I’m so shocked and enraged I tense, wanting to grab my guns and shoot something. That motherfucking bastard.
“No…”
“Yeah. He’s working with Matvey. He’s leading the show, running it, and has links to a terrorist group in Russia who are notorious for arms trafficking.”
“Jesus Christ, what the hell are you saying to me?” I gasp.
“He uses his position in the FBI to get certain things done. They run a billion-dollar operation. People like Matvey work for them and do the dirty work. Richard is an enabler. It looked like the plan was running smoothly until the feds picked up Matvey’s presence in Chicago.”
“He’s here to steal weapons and sell them to people in Sierra Leone,” I say.
“Well, that makes sense about why he’s here.” He nods.
“Cora trusted Richard. The bastard will die when I find him,” I vow.
Claudius looks hesitant. It’s a look that’s rare on him. “Alex… there’s something else…”
“What the fuck more could there be?”
“He’s Cora’s father. Richard is her real father,” he informs me and my mouth falls open.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I was. Cora never knew. Gibbs found some stuff. A letter written to her mother,” Claudius explains.
Fucking hell. What a twist of shit.
“Richard told Cora her father killed her mother.”
“After all I’ve seen, I don’t think that story went that way.”
What way could it have gone? Jesus.
“He has my girl, Claudius. I don’t know if he’ll kill her or not.”
“I know, that’s the worry. Would he kill his own daughter? That bastard seems like he’ll do anything.”
This just became next-level bad. I don’t know Richard. I’ve never met the guy. However, I wouldn’t put anything past him.
I don’t care who he is or what he is.
I need to get my girl back.
It’s shoot to kill as soon as I can move.
* * *
The day passes, and I feel more helpless than ever. Especially when Doc comes by to check on me and change my bandages and tells me the same mantra he uttered this morning. Rest. I don’t want to fucking rest. I want to be out on the street looking for Cora.
The pain meds make me sleep, and I hate that, but I take them because I know they will help me. It’s not until night falls when the meds start to take effect and the pain is slightly less. It’s still very much there but eases enough for me to stand and take a few steps. That’s all I need. I’m a formidable force on the regular, and I’m not going to lie down and wait this out.
I practice walking and lifting things just to get my mobility back.
The problem is when I’m standing, my whole midsection feels like glass. Like someone could smash me in two. My arm feels like it might fall off if I move it too hard, and I generally feel like shit.
I’ve been shot before. That time, it was my leg, and I was down for weeks. That was about ten years ago. This feels like that, but my saving grace is I can stand and I can move. In my mind, that means I can try to save Cora.
I manage to walk out to the kitchen. Donny’s in there making himself a sandwich.
“Hey, you’re supposed to be asleep. It’s late,” he scuffs.
“I’ve been sleeping long enough. I can’t anymore. At least not now. Besides, you’re up.” I point to his sandwich, and he smirks.
“Man’s got to eat.”
“Where are the others?”
“Out looking and trying to get a lead. Claudius is with Gibbs.”
I feel so bad that I’m not out there looking too. Cora must be so frightened. I wonder If she knows the truth by now about Richard. If she does, I know she’s going to have a hard time dealing with it.
“Doc will be back in the morning,” he adds. “I stayed behind to watch over you. I like this place, always knew you had good taste.”
I can see he’s trying to cheer me up. He always gives disconnected compliments when shit’s going down, and he’s trying to distract me.
“Thanks…. she liked it too.” I’m an idiot. I should have been the prick and insisted that we contact no one. If I’d done that, the guys would have found some way to find me, and even if trouble came for us, I would have had more numbers.
“I’m sorry. God, it’s all fucked-up shit. Alex… you know we’ll do our best to get her back.”
“I know.” In the end, that’s what everyone will do, but it doesn’t make me feel any better right now.
I sit down at the table, and he observes me.
“How are you feeling? I’m sure you shouldn’t be up.”
“I feel like shit, but I’m doing my best.”
“Alex, you’ve been shot, bro… I don’t think you can do anything besides follow the doc’s orders.” Worry washes over his face.
“Donny, I hear you, and I don’t disagree, but I can’t just lie in bed when she’s out there. I’m going to rescue her. Whether Gibbs comes back with intel first or not.”
I’m giving myself tonight as downtime. Then I’ll go out on the street tomorrow. I’m glad I have the car now because the bike would have been harder to maneuver with my shoulder. The wound on my shoulder is more like a deep cut. It’s niggling and will take some time to heal, but I can work with it.
“Okay, bro.” He walks around the counter towards me with the sandwich. “Have this. I’m gonna make another.”
I offer him a small smile. “Thanks.”
“No worries. You’ll need your strength. I know if it was my girl, I’d do the same as you. I just wish we were up against anybody besides these people. It gets messy when things are uncertain and you don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
“Yeah. It’s worse when they have leverage.”
He nods and says no more. He just heads back to the fridge.
There is no more to say because the truth of the matter is, nobody knows what’s going on.
Nobody knows what the outcome will be.
* * *
“This looks okay,” Doc says, and Claudius observes him as he looks at the wound on my waist. The area where he stitched doesn’t look as bruised and swollen as it did yesterday. “I need you to rest though. I don’t want those stitches to rip.”
I stare at him and hold my tongue. It’s best if I do because I don’t want to be rude and give him a mouthful for saying shit I don’t want to hear. But I swear to God, if he tells me one more time to rest, I’ll be popping bullets.
“Thanks, Doc,” Claudius says.
Doc places a fresh bandage over the wound and leaves us.
As I look at Claudius, I know he’s getting ready to tell me more things I don’t want to hear. I also know he has an idea of my plans for the day and it doesn’t involve resting of any kind.
This is day two now that they’ve had Cora. Assuming she’s still alive. Tomorrow is when the shit with Matvey is supposed to go down in Chicago. I’m not waiting another minute, and I certainly won’t be wasting it either.
“Alex,” Claudius says when I reach for my T-shirt.
I look at him. “Boss.”
He eyes me with caution. “You need to rest. The boys and I will find her. We’ve called for backup. The Giordanos and the other guys are on their way.”
I stare at him, grateful for the reinforcement of our friends in our alliance, but that’s not going to stop me from being there.
“Thank you, Claudius. I appreciate everything you’re doing. But I have to be there. I c
an’t sit here and wait. I have to do something, anything.”
“I get it, I do, but you know you have us, and we’ll be looking for her like she’s our own.”
I believe him when he says that. They’re all like that, and I have no doubt they’d give their all and more to find Cora. It’s not about that though.
“Claudius, you and I both know that if we were talking about Ava, you’d be on the street with your guts hanging out looking for her.” That silences him, because he knows I’m right. There’s not a damn thing he wouldn’t do for his girl, and he would have to be dead, dead, dead to stop him from going on the street to find her. “I need to be there. I need to be out there looking for her, and she needs to see me. She needs to see that I tried no matter what’s going on with me.”
Before he can say another word, the door opens and Gibbs walks in.
“Found them,” Gibbs says, and I stand.
I’m stronger just for hearing that. “You found her?” I ask.
“Yeah. One of my analysts managed to hack Richard’s phone and files. He’s planning to leave today for LA then head for Russia. They’ll be leaving from a private airport at two.”
“Thanks, Gibbs, good work,” Claudius says.
“Thank you, Gibbs,” I say too, and hope fills me.
I turn to Claudius, deciding to stop any further orders in their tracks.
“I’m going,” I tell him. “I am going. Don’t try to stop me.”
“Okay. I won’t. Let’s gather the crew and get ready to go.”
I nod.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cora
We’re heading to LA.
That’s all I know. As to what will happen after we get there, I don’t know. I haven’t been told any more than that.
I’m sitting in the waiting lounge of the private airport I’ve been taken to.
I’m on the first floor. There are a few benches that look more like what you’d see in a sports arena. The area is wide with an open space that allows me to see the field surrounding the hangar, the landing strip, and the jet we’ll be boarding in a little while. Fifteen minutes.
I’m surrounded by men who are watching me. I don’t know where Richard is, and I no longer care.
I’m a shell. I sit here like an empty, hollow shell. Numb from the inside out, just moving around and doing what I’m told by default, but there are no thoughts there.
Then my mind stirs and moves to Alex and how I wanted that dream we spoke of. I wanted it so badly. I wanted to wear his ring and be his Mrs. Alex. I wanted him to be mine too, and I wanted that future of happiness and children.
I won’t have that now because he’s dead and I’m… whatever I am.
When we argued, I told him he was just like my father. I was right, but not in the context in which I said it.
He was exactly like my father, who’d loved me. I will call Peter Monroe my father until the day I die because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he truly, truly loved me and would have done anything for me. I will never accept Richard as my father. Blood means nothing. It’s shit when there are truth and facts.
He’s evil. Truly evil for all that he’s done, and I can’t believe he’s going to get away with it. The same way he got away with killing my parents.
Thinking of the truth still makes me sick. It still makes my head light. My mind still can’t process what I’ve been told and accept it. I still can’t believe Richard is the same person I grew up looking up to and trusting wholeheartedly.
I’m so ashamed of myself for spending the last four years trying to unravel the love from my heart for a father who was innocent. In my heart I know I should never have believed it. My love for both my father and mother should have been strong enough for me to know that something wasn’t right with Richard’s story.
It was my trust for Richard, and yes, my love for him too that both blinded me and blindsided me. He caught me off guard at a time when I was getting so serious about Alex and I was stuck in my own feelings. Scared by them and how much I loved him.
I look away from the jet when Richard approaches me with a cup of water.
He sits in the chair across from me and keeps his gaze steady like he’s willing me to say something.
When I came to this morning, I was in a room and he was sitting by the bed waiting for me to wake up. I haven’t spoken to him since last night, just crying by default. The tears automatically stream down the corners of my eyes as my soul weeps with loss.
He holds the water out to me to take and I look away.
“Drink it,” he orders.
I don’t like the tone of his voice. I look back at him, take the cup, and throw it down on the floor, watching the water splash out on his suit.
He growls his displeasure. “Is this how you’re going to be?” he snaps, drying off.
“I don’t want anything from you. Don’t give me anything else.”
“Just like your mother.”
“Don’t… don’t you dare do that. Don’t talk about her. You killed her. You did it. You did it and told me bullshit lies,” I throw back.
“Cora, sometimes accidents happen.”
“It wasn’t an accident. You said it yourself. You went there to kill my father.”
“He wasn’t your father. I am.”
I shake my head at him. “You can believe whatever you want. I don’t have to. I don’t care who you are, or what you are. You aren’t my father.”
He chuckles. “It doesn’t matter whether you choose to believe it or not, Cora. The truth will always be the truth. You can’t change that even if you tell yourself lies.”
Another tear runs down my cheek. I hate so badly that he’s right, but I will be stubborn and believe the lie. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but if I die, I won’t die thinking of him. I don’t want to remember anything about him. Good nor bad.
There is one thing I want to know though, one thing I’m eager to find out.
“How did you know about me… I was fourteen when they died. What happened before?” I ask.
“I was helping your mother pack away some stuff in the attic when I came across some old records from when you were born. It showed your blood type. That was when I got the first heads-up. It’s the same as mine. Type O. It made me suspicious, so I looked into it and knew straight away you had to be mine. Peter stole Lily away from me just after we were together. I always wondered about you, if you could be mine, especially when we shared so many similarities. Then I got the confirmation.”
My heart squeezes.
“They knew,” he adds. “The two of them knew. Peter and Lily kept it from me. They kept you from me. Of course, I was enraged, so first I called Lily and asked her about it. She wouldn’t talk to me, and he wouldn’t let her. I went to the house and we fought. I pulled the gun to shoot your father, and Lily tried to push him out of the way. When I saw I hit her and killed her, I killed him too.”
“How can you just sit there and talk about it like they were nothing?” He looks so calm, like he could be talking about the weather. It’s the same manipulative look that caught me in his trap.
“Your mother was everything to me. I only grieve for her. She was never supposed to get hurt. She was supposed to be mine. I begged her to leave that worthless piece of shit. You know how it felt for me to watch her move around because it was safer. Move from one city to the next. Sometimes it was months before I heard anything. You must have changed school seven times before you were fourteen.” He blows out a ragged breath. “When I found out you were mine, I knew I could have given you a better life. Not like that scum who was trying to clean up. People like him can’t clean up. Danger always follows. It was so easy to pin their deaths on his unknown enemies. No one questioned it, and the investigation came to a halt when I gave the word.”
I bite down so hard on my lip, the harsh metallic taste of blood makes me flinch when it hits the back of my throat.
“It doesn’t make it right.
He loved me. He showed he loved me every day, and you just killed him,” I snarl.
“Sometimes a man has to do what he has to do. That is the short and sweet answer. They shouldn’t have kept such a secret from me. It was wrong. I took you and gave you the life I wanted you to have.”
“Why did you tell me my father killed my mother? Why would you lie to me in such a way? Do you know what that did to me?” I shake my head at him. He should be ashamed of himself. People like him feel nothing like that though.
“I worked so hard for you to have a good life, then you got involved with mobster scum. Just like your mother. It was my worst nightmare come true all over again.”
“You didn’t want me to be with Alex, so you thought it was better for me to believe my father killed my mother, then killed himself after?” I don’t know how he thinks that’s okay or reasonable. It’s fucking crazy.
“It was the only thing I could tell you that I knew would make you question your relationship and turn your path around. And it worked. You did exactly what I wanted you to do. Everything, even joining the Bureau.”
“You are despicable. I hate you. I fucking hate you.”
He raises his hand and slaps me across my cheek so hard I fall to the ground. It happened so quickly, I didn’t have time to prepare or dodge.
Blood trickles from my nose, and my face feels like it’s going to fall off. My skin stings and burns, and my vision blurs as I look back at him in utter shock. Hatred in its purity works its way through my body. In all my years, no man has ever laid a hand on me. Never.
He’s completely revealing himself now.
He’s revealing the real him. What I knew him to be all these years was just a mask. It grieves me to think that I share his blood.
“Mind your tongue, Coraline. Do not speak to me like that. You may be my daughter, but you are not immune to my wrath,” he warns.
“I didn’t think so. My father would never treat me this way. You call him mobster scum and call my lover scum, but it’s you who is scum. Shit, you’re absolute shit, and if I get out of this, I will expose you. I will expose everything about you, and you will lose all that you worked so hard for.” The venomous words fall from my lips, and he can see I’m serious as fuck.
Double Edged Hearts Page 16
