Page 13 of Revenge & Truth

It didn’t take long for blueprints of the judge’s house to show up on my tablet, and I spent the better part of the evening pouring over them. Out of all the jobs I’ve pulled, this one wouldn’t be all that hard. According to Hound, it was your typical two-story-house basic security system. It even had basement window wells to give me cover and weren’t connected to the alarm system. Major oversight if you ask me.

Once in the basement, I’d have to contend with the two motion sensors, but those were easy enough to turn off with Hound’s help. The part of this situation I couldn’t seem to figure out was what kind of safe or where it was located in the basement. Atticus is combing through his bank records trying to locate the purchase, but if he paid for it in cash as I suspected, then we were fucked. No paper trail means we had to come at this from another direction. Then an idea struck me.

Heading into my bedroom, I grabbed my purse and pulled out Ivy’s card. It simply had a beautifully drawn ‘I’ in rose-gold foil and a phone number on it. Deciding it was best to use my cell phone since it was untraceable, I dialed the number.

“Hello,” Ivy answered on the second ring.

“Ivy, it’s Astin,” I greeted.

There was a soft chuckle on the other end of the line. “Miss me already?”

“You did say you wanted to be friends, so don’t friends call each other?” I asked.

“Lovely, but you and I both know this isn’t that kind of call,” she challenged. “How can I help?”

I let out a sigh as I sat on my bed. “I need more information on the judge.”

“Easy, what details do you need?”’

“Where and what kind of safe he has and if there’s any hidden security that couldn’t be discovered through cybersleuthing. We might also be looking for a night he’ll be gone for us to pull the job, but that is more of an afterthought at this point. Without knowing what safe I’m dealing with, I don’t know how to prepare. Some thieves might be able to pull something off on the fly, but that’s not my skill.”

There was a pause with the thumping sound of music and heavy bass somewhere close by. I glanced at the clock seeing it was almost eight, so she was probably at work.

“Okay, I’ve got all the notes written down, and I’ll see what I can do. With things like this, I will only ask for payment if I’m able to fulfill the request. If you don’t hear from me within the next few days, assume I’ve been unable to get what you need,” Ivy instructed, her tone telling me it was a rehearsed line she must tell everyone.

I let out a bark of laughter. “Something tells me that doesn’t happen… ever.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t, but it helps my clients feel more at ease knowing they only pay when I have the information in hand,” Ivy explained. “Oh, and Astin… next time, let’s actually try to do something friends would do together. Okay, bye.” Clearly done with the conversation, she hung up, leaving me to shake my head at this odd woman, who I actually wanted to be friends with.

A knock on my bedroom door made me look up to find Ryker leaning against the door jamb, watching me.

“Who was that?” he asked, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Does it matter?” I shot back, crossing my arms.

He moved away from the door until he stood before me, forcing me to look up at him. “I’m the head of your security. I need to know who you’re dealing with so I can keep you safe.”

“Right,” I drawled. “That’s the only reason.”

Ryker ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “Why does everything between us always have to be a fight, Tin-Tin? You know there was a time you would tell me everything without me even having to ask. It was you and me against the world.”

“Yeah, then you left and lied about it,” I snarked, standing, expecting him to move out of my way, but he didn’t.

“You’re right. I did do that, and it was the hardest choice I ever had to make. What else can I do to get you to believe me when I say how sorry I am? I’ve given you space, confronted you about it, begged you, and I don’t know what else there is I can do,” Ryker said, reaching out to grip my arms. “Astin, I love you more than anything in this world, and I know you love me too.”

“Loved,” I stated. “Past tense.”

“Bullshit,” Ryker snapped. “Don’t fucking lie to me about this just because you’re pissed. I might have lied about where I went when I left home, but that’s it. Everything in the letters I wrote was true. It killed me to be so far away from you. I regretted leaving the moment I got in the car… hell, when I packed my bags.”

“Then, why did you go?” I yelled, shaking him off me and shoving him aside. “If you meant everything you said to me, how could you just abandon me like everyone else in my life has?”

Ryker grabbed my arm and yanked me back until I slammed against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me. “I never abandoned you, Astin,” Ryker whispered harshly in my ear. “Everything I’ve ever done in my life was based around you being the center of my universe. Why did I leave? Because I knew one day we’d be here, back in this house with you running the show. Astin, you were born to be the leader of the Caprioni Family. Confidence and leadership ooze out of you like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

My breathing started to quicken as my heart rate increased, hearing him admit these things to me. Ryker had been my first love. He was everything to me, and someone I thought would never leave my side. When his letters stopped, and I was left alone, it broke something inside me long before Darkness arrived. Maybe it’s what started her creation, I don’t know, but what I do know is I wasn’t sure if I could survive allowing Ryker back in only to have him walk away from me again.

“I was the one who wasn’t good enough for you, Astin. Coming here to be trained by your father as the replacement for head of security was the only option of ever becoming the man who could dare to stand by your side,” Ryker admitted. “Even now, I still don’t feel like it’s enough.”

The walls I’d built around my heart when he left had been cracking. It’s taken everything in me to keep them up and patch the holes he kept punching through the damn thing. Now here he was, spilling his heart to me, finally being honest about why he left, and those walls crumbled under the pressure of a gentle kiss he pressed to my neck.