Page 46 of Reckless Seduction
“You have Elias and your husband searching for you, and none of them thought to look for your old name?” Both Bailey and Ava are cracking up laughing. Even my father is chuckling silently from his seat, the anger that had been rolling off him earlier dissipating slowly. He is looking at Ava with so much love and affection that it is stifling.
Not that he doesn’t show his love for us, but there is a twinkle in his eye when he thinks of Ava and a softness to him when he deals with her. He isn’t much different with our sister Saoirse before she left for Ireland.
In a fit of rage.
But that is a story for another day.
“Let’s be fair here.” The Russian rolls his eyes, less amused than the rest of us. “No one thought you would make it out of the state. Let alone nearly halfway across the country.”
“But I did.”
“I can’t believe no one found you when all you do is shorten your first name.” Bailey is still cracking up over that tidbit of information. “Why didn’t you come up with something different? Like Vivica Storm or something?”
Ava scrunches her nose in distaste. “Vivica Storm?” She snickers. “That sounds like a stripper name or someone who writes dirty erotica.”
“I think all erotica can be considered dirty,” Bailey points out.
“Not the point.”
Bailey just shrugs her shoulders like she doesn’t care one way or the other. “Just saying.”
“She’s got a point, Ava,” Seamus pipes up. “It is kind of like you weren’t even trying.”
Our sister’s mouth falls open in a dramatic gasp. “Well, excuse me, Mr. High and Mighty, but I didn’t exactly know any better. It isn’t like I could watch television or anything, and the only books I was allowed to read had to be either from the school or smuggled in by Libby and Kenzi.”
“Anyway,” she adds. “James Bond doesn’t change his name everywhere he goes.”
Seamus and I groan. We should never have introduced her to those films.
“That’s fiction,” I remind her, a small smile flitting at the edges of my mouth.
Ava shrugs. “All that matters is that it worked.”
Bailey begins cackling again, and Matthias sighs before saying, “Move this along, Red. Otherwise, we will be here all night long, and I have plans for you later.”
A flush creeps up her neck. “Right. So back to the story…”
Ava goes back to regaling Bailey with how Matthias took her from Elias. Who, of course, insisted she spy for him. She never did, much to my surprise. Or maybe she simply didn’t have the opportunity. Then continues on about how Dashkov forced her to marry him.
I am waiting for my father to jump across the table and strangle the poor sod. He doesn’t. Much to my utter dismay.
His jaw is still clenched, his teeth grinding together, but he doesn’t make a move.
Damn.
Her voice is choked with sadness and regret as she remembers Libby, the one she called sister. The one she will always call sister. The poor lass was shot in the head by a sniper during a trap they tried setting for Elias.
“So that’s how you ended up at the stables,” Bailey reiterates after Ava explains that her getaway car was hijacked and thenplowed off the road. My sister nods, biting into a small bit of cake Nan brings out.
“Christian kept me there for nearly two weeks before Liam and the twins rescued me.” Ava’s smile glows. “Then they blew it all up. That was my favorite part.” She laughs lightly.
“What does any of this have to do with my father?” Bailey questions.
Ava sets her fork down on the porcelain plate and stares across the table at Bailey, her emerald eyes lit with determination, but I can see the sorrow lining the edges. She doesn’t want to reveal to Bailey the secrets she holds. Ava may have been quiet and submissive in her time with Elias, but she listened and learned. He paraded her around like a prize to his meetings, believing he would always control her.
He was wrong, and now she uses those secrets to crumble his empire and those associated with him.
“Because your father is the reason Elias and his associates have had such success with trafficking in Seattle,” Ava tells her, face calm, emotionless. “He’s the one who started it.”
