Schooled in Revenge

by Lasky, Jesse

  He puts his arm around Jane’s shoulder, whispers in her ear. “Don’t worry, sweetheart; Daddy’s meeting is over. We’ll get to spend the whole day together now. I just have one quick stop to make.”

  Jane looks up at him. She loves spending time with her father.

  The limo pulls up to a bar built to look like an old Spanish mission. Its name—Tavern Red—is lit up in flickering neon light.

  The big man across from her puts his glass down, shakes William Reinhardt’s hand, and leaves the limo.

  Now that they’re alone, and Jane’s been such a good girl, William hands her a gift box.

  She takes it, asking what it’s for.

  “It’s for you. Plain and simple. Don’t need an occasion to give you a gift, do I?” His deep, aggressive voice makes most people nervous, but to Jane, it’s as harmonious as the music box on her dresser.

  Jane opens the gift, thrilled to see her very own china doll. Just what she’s been wanting. Reinhardt lowers the limo’s divider and commands the driver to head to Napa Valley. The driver asks where exactly in Napa they’re going.

  “Starling Vineyards. I’ve got a proposition for the owner. She’s a tough one,” he says, then looks at his daughter with a wink. “But Daddy’ll crack her.”

  Jane is too busy playing with her new doll to care. She thanks him again.

  Reinhardt smiles.

  Emerging from the memory, Jane turned her attention to a stack of certificates and awards from school competitions and extracurricular activities. It appeared she had gone to boarding school, taken karate and tai kwon do, ridden horses competitively, and sailed extensively.

  She leaned in, looking more closely at a certificate of completion from an aviation academy; a photograph tucked into the frame showed her standing next to a small propeller plane.

  “Flying lessons,” Jane murmured.

  She looked at it all, finally understanding. She wasn’t some kind of badass genius. Just a spoiled rich girl who’d had the luxury of learning and experiencing everything that interested her.

  And then she saw something else. Something on the aviation certificate that had escaped her notice on everything else.

  We are pleased to award this Certificate of Completion to Mira Reinhardt…

  Mira Reinhardt.

  Mira. Reinhardt.

  She dropped the stack of certificates, horror washing over her. She was William Reinhardt’s daughter.

  Her father had helped kill Reena’s mother, had destroyed Ava’s life.

  “Oh, God…” Jane stumbled backward, the wheels of her mind turning.

  If he was capable of murder, or betrayal, or theft… was he also behind what happened to her?

  Her attention was pulled away from the possibility by the sound of shouting outside her room. She went to the door and listened.

  The voice was deep and aggressive. Intimidating.

  And familiar.

  Sixteen-year-old Mira Reinhardt is sitting shotgun in her boyfriend Tim’s candy-apple-red Mustang as they pull into Starling Vineyards’ large circular driveway. Tim’s house is just ten minutes away on the other side of town, in an affluent neighborhood that prides itself on old money. Still, it’s nothing compared to Starling.

  “This is it,” Mira says, as Tim, draped in a popped collar and low-sitting baseball cap, hops out of the car to open the door for his new lady, proving that chivalry isn’t dead. At least not to a sixteen-year-old boy who’s dating the hottest girl in his class—and wants to keep it that way.

  “Starling,” Tim says in awe of the landscape. Mira mentions it’s some kind of bird or something, she’s not really sure.

  Tim and Mira pass the marble fountain. She runs her hand through the water and flicks some back Tim’s way with a flirty giggle. Mira’s truly happy, frighteningly unaware of the fate that lies ahead.

  Tim looks around at the lavish estate, asking Mira what it must be like to live in a place as opulent as this. “I don’t know yet, we just moved in,” she says, grabbing his arm and moving her boyfriend along. “C’mon, let’s go upstairs,” she says suggestively.

  They walk up the stairs, Tim noting the elegant beauty of the cathedral-like home Mira’s father recently acquired. She’s used to her dad’s frequent acquisition of businesses and houses, but this place is different. It’s so gorgeous and meticulously designed, as if the people who lived here had planned to stay forever. She wonders why they left. Where they’ve gone.

  Tim takes in every last detail of Mira as she walks up the stairs. Mira notices his appreciation of her. They stop on the stairs and kiss the way only teenagers can. Tim pulls away, asking if her father’s home. But Mira just shrugs—even if he is, he’s too busy to care.

  Mira takes Tim’s hand as they continue toward her bedroom. Tim asks about a rectangle of faded paint on the wall. Seems something used to hang here. Mira mentions there was a painting when they first arrived, a gorgeous portrait of three women.

  “Perhaps they were the original owners?” Tim reasons, but Mira’s already thinking about what can go in its place. Maybe she’ll take an art class in the fall and replace it with something new and original. Tim wonders how she’ll find the time, given her tennis, equestrian, and aviation lessons.

  Mira wraps her arms around Tim. She finds time for this, doesn’t she?

  Mira stops inches from her father’s master suite, hearing deep voices looming from within. Mira suggests that today’s the day Tim finally meets her father. Tim doesn’t like the sound of that, but Mira tells him to relax—it’ll be fine. They approach the door, but before she opens it, she realizes her dad and two other men are speaking in the most serious of tones. Mira tells Tim to hang on for a moment, and listens.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this,” Tim says, but Mira shushes him, eavesdropping diligently.

  “So then it’s settled. You’ll take her out.”

  Mira’s heart begins to pound. What are they talking about?

  “I’ve got the right guy to do it,” Cain says, “Darren Marcus.”

  Reinhardt wants to know if he’s loyal. Cain snickers—they’re all loyal, till they’re not. “And if that happens, we’ll deal with him accordingly. Just like we’re dealing with this Senator Fuller situation.” Wells explains this can never be traced back to him. The assassination, or this meeting. But that’s not a problem. The problem is figuring out who’s going to take the fall. Wells says that’s already taken care of, as he presents a photograph of Simon and Cruz Benton. Cruz works for Senator Fuller, so they’ll make it appear as if his brother Simon used Cruz’s name to sneak in the back, past security at the upcoming state capitol event in Sacramento. They can’t pin it on Cruz because he’ll be working all that day and have alibis. But Simon is on vacation from college and isn’t being watched.

  “What’s his motivation?”

  “He killed his abusive father when he was eleven. The courts ruled it self-defense, but it’s still on record. Last week we arranged for someone to start a bar fight with him up in Boston after he had a few drinks. Kid was arrested, though no charges were filed.”

  Mira and Tim don’t know what to do with this knowledge. They are flustered, don’t know where to turn. They bump into each other and Tim drops his keys, the sound seems to echo throughout the house. Reinhardt opens the door. Standing behind him are Wells and Cain. The three men look at Mira, her father particularly troubled by her possibly having overheard. “Mira, get out of here. Take this boy with you.” “Dad, I—”

  “LEAVE. NOW.” Mira doesn’t need to be told again. As she goes, Cain and Wells trade looks. They wonder how much she and the boy heard. Reinhardt tells them not to worry—his daughter didn’t hear anything.

  But Wells and Cain aren’t so sure. And don’t want anyone getting in their way.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Ava and Shay entered Ava’s secret room, planning to make their way into the main house from the restored cellar.

  They were at the top of the
stairs inside the main pantry when she grabbed Shay’s arms.

  “What?” he hissed. “We need to find Jane.”

  “I know we need to find Jane, but why are you freaking out? Why is it so wrong for her to see Reinhardt if he’s her father?”

  Shay’s eyes glinted in the semidarkness. “Because he’s the one who tried to kill her. He thinks she’s dead, Ava. And if he figures out she’s not, he’s going to change that.”

  The barrel of the gun, cold and hard, pressed against Reena’s cheek.

  “Still not talking?” Reinhardt asked.

  She didn’t say anything. She was playing a dangerous game, waiting until the last minute to play her final card. There was always a risk she would miscalculate and wait too long, something of which she was acutely aware with the gun so close to her brain.

  “Just pull the trigger,” Wells said. “If someone was coming for her, she would have said something by now.”

  Reinhardt cocked the gun.

  “Aren’t you afraid you’ll make a mess on your perfect white walls?” she said.

  Reinhardt hesitated. “The peace of mind will be worth the extra effort.”

  There was a long moment in which Reena wondered if she’d waited too long, half-expecting to hear the roar of the gun rip through the room.

  “Okay, okay, don’t shoot!” she said, readying herself for the next phase of the plan.

  Reinhardt and Wells exchanged satisfied glances.

  “It was Charlie,” she said. “Charlie’s the one who hired me to spy on you.”

  Wells immediately went for Reinhardt’s throat. “You said we could trust him!”

  Reinhardt shook his head. “She’s lying. Charlie’s in as deep as we are. He has just as much to lose.”

  But Reena could hear the doubt creeping into his voice.

  “If she’s lying, how does she even know about him?” Wells demanded.

  “Please,” Reena begged, playing the part of the frightened captive. “Don’t hurt me. Charlie put me up to it.”

  “Why would he do that?” Reinhardt asked, pressing the gun more firmly into her cheek.

  “He wants to ruin you,” she said. “He paid me to get into your little meeting and find out where Marcus is.”

  Reinhardt’s face went still as he considered her words.

  “This is just great,” Wells said. “For all we know, your little con man got to Cain. Maybe that’s why we haven’t been able to get ahold of him.”

  It was working. Reena couldn’t believe it. In just a few minutes, with just a few well-chosen words, Charlie was being stripped of the trust he’d worked for years to build with Reinhardt.

  And now that he didn’t have his old life to fall back on—thanks to Ava—Charlie had nothing.

  Which meant at least one of their targets had been successfully shattered.

  “We need to get rid of him,” Wells asserted nervously. “He’s working with Cain to destroy us.”

  Reinhardt shook his head. “We don’t know that.”

  “Don’t be stupid!” Wells shouted.

  “Why would they do that?” Reinhardt asked. “We’ve given them everything they’ve wanted.”

  “Why does any man do anything, William? Not for love—that’s for children. And not for money, because there’s always a way to get that. But power… now that’s something worth fighting for. Your sidekick wants to dethrone you, my friend. And he’s planning to make me a casualty in his little coup.” Wells shook his head. “He knows too much. We can’t afford to take the chance.”

  “What about Fuller’s daughter?” Reinhardt asked.

  Wells walked over, removing the gun from Reinhardt’s hand. He pressed it against Reena’s temple. “I think you know the answer to that question.”

  Just outside the door in the hallway, Jane approached her father’s master suite, following the sound of his muffled voice. She didn’t know if she was prepared to face him. He was just a man she didn’t even remember outside of a handful of muddled memories and a white-faced toy.

  But whoever she’d been before waking up on Rebun, she wasn’t that person anymore. And how could she embrace the person she was, the person she’d become, without facing the person she’d been?

  She grasped the doorknob, preparing to face her father.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  “Look at it this way,” Wells said. “we’re doing you a favor, reuniting you with your mother.”

  Remembering Takeda’s words, Reena masked her rage, consigning emotion to a dark corner of her mind where it couldn’t affect her mission.

  “Do what you want,” she said. “But if you kill me, then you better start running. Out of Napa, and into hiding.”

  “What are you talking about?” shouted Wells impatiently.

  The gun was still pointed at her, but he wasn’t shooting. Not now. He was too interested in what she had to say next.

  Reena laughed. “You don’t think Charlie knows I’m in here? He’s been collecting information on you guys for months. And he has almost enough to bring you down. Killing me would be the last piece of the puzzle to send you away for a very long time.”

  Lowering the gun, Wells grabbed Reinhardt and pulled him aside. They spoke in low murmurs as Reena watched their frenzied discussion with satisfaction.

  Finally, Reinhardt walked back over to her. “Let’s make a deal, Miss Fuller.”

  “I’m listening,” she said.

  “We’ll double whatever Charlie’s paying you.” His tone was almost conciliatory. “In return, you leave Napa and never come back, never speak a word of this to anyone.”

  “And if you do,” Wells said, “they’ll be the last words you ever speak.”

  “What about Charlie?” Reena asked, playing her part to the hilt. “He’ll come after me if I betray him.”

  “We’ll take care of Charlie,” Wells said.

  Reena pretended to think about it. “Deal. But I don’t want your money.”

  Reinhardt narrowed his eyes. “What do you want?”

  She gave them a slow smile. “Let’s just say it’s enough to know what I know. Call it my own little insurance policy.”

  “Just remember,” Wells said, “that tattoo on your neck is more than a circle. It’s a permanent target. If you ever talk, we’ll come for you, just like we came for your mother.”

  Reena stepped closer to the man who had eradicated her family for a new suit and a used Senate seat. She whispered something in his ear and turned for the door.

  Jane closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impending confrontation. She had wanted the truth, only the truth, for so long. But now that it was in front of her, she felt nothing but fear.

  She glanced around the magnificent house. A palace with a dark and dangerous underside. Even before she’d lost her memory, she’d been living in a palace of secrets and lies.

  She turned the knob.

  It was time to step into the light.

  Reena stepped into the empty hallway, leaning against the wall to catch her breath, her heart pounding crazily in her ears. Finally in the clear, she allowed herself a rare moment of accomplishment.

  Not only did she know where Marcus was hiding, but she had rattled Reinhardt and Wells’s cage. They would be looking over their shoulders for a long time.

  Certainly until Reena could come back and finish the job.

  She rubbed the tattoo on her neck, smiling slightly to herself. She might not be able to bring Cruz or her mother back, but she wouldn’t let their killers walk away unscathed.

  And she wouldn’t let Simon rot in jail, either.

  Mission accomplished. For now.

  She was turning to leave when she heard footsteps gallop toward her down the hall.

  Inside the bedroom, Reinhardt and Wells poured stiff drinks. Walking to the large window overlooking the terraced lawns of the Starling estate, they peered out into the darkness.

  “What did she say to you?” Reinhardt asked the senator.

>   Wells finished his drink in a single gulp. “She said the next time she sees me, she’s going to kill me.”

  “Ava! Shay!” Reena said, surprised to see them around the corner of the hall. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you waiting in the car?”

  “It’s Jane,” Ava explained. “She knows who she is. We need to find her before she exposes herself to Reinhardt.” Reena shook her head. “I haven’t seen her.” “Where the hell is she?” Shay said.

  Suddenly, the hallway linen closet burst open. A tall, good-looking guy emerged wearing an expensive suit. “Jon?” Ava said, mouth open.

  He started down the hall, Jane flung over his shoulder. “Jane was just leaving. Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  As the gala shows signs of waning, Jane leaves Shay behind in the car and moves through security, flashing them an irresistible smile. One of the guards, Steve, with a thick neck and thicker mustache, is happy to grant Jane entry. As she goes, he nudges the arm of another man working security next to him.

  “That one’s easy on the eyes, ain’t she? Must be one of Reinhardt’s girls.”

  “Something like that,” Jon says, patting Steve on the back.

  Jon follows Jane inside, hanging back just enough to not garner her attention. He waits outside her bedroom door, wondering if she’s remembering.

  And if so, what it’s doing to her.

  He’s patient, in no hurry. This is his mission.

  Still, he knows that Ava is in the vicinity and he desperately wants to see her again. To tell her that he’s all right. To explain where he’s been and why he hasn’t contacted her.

  But that’s not all. He wants to tell her that he’s missed her. God, how he’s missed her.

  The kiss on the porch had been a revelation. It had just taken him some time and distance to figure out what it meant.