My heart leaps into my throat.
I scoop it all out and turn.
I pause, and my heart jumps into my throat as I see Cohen standing in the doorway, staring at me.
He’s got a gun.
“Are you here to finish the job?” I whisper.
“No,” he growls, low. “You’re going to give me everything you have there, and then you’re going to disappear. Do you understand me?”
My hands are trembling, even though they’re full of the contents from the safe. I’m glad Cohen can’t see how scared I am.
“No,” I say, my voice shaky. “No, you’re not having this stuff.”
“You’re goin’ to give it to me, Aviana, or I’m goin’ to make you give it to me.”
“I thought we were friends,” I whisper. “You took my entire family, and now you want the last of what I have left?”
“We are friends, which is exactly why I’ve got to do this. What you have there is not somethin’ you will be safe havin’. If you leave, and you’ve got it, you’ll be hunted.”
What could it possibly be?
What could Cohen want that is so dangerous?
I stare at the bundle in my hands, and Cohen takes a step closer. “Give it to me and get the hell out of here. Never come back. You come back, you’ll die. Your family is incredibly dangerous, and you’re not safe.”
“Not safe from who?” I whisper. “You?”
“I did what I had to do.”
“You killed them all!” I scream, gripping the sides of my head and shaking it, eyes clenched shut. “I trusted you, Cohen. I ... I thought ...”
My eyes pop open to see him taking a step forward, pulling a needle from his pocket. Realization of what he’s going to do hits me hard, and I take a frantic step backward. “I care about you, so much, which is why I don’t want to have to do this, Aviana, but I will.”
“Please,” I say. “I thought you were all my family ...”
His eyes harden and he shakes his head, his voice bitter when he growls, “You’re not family. You’re a means to an end. We got what we needed. Now, you need to leave.”
He doesn’t mean that. Surely, he doesn’t mean that. He’s just saying it so I’ll hate him, so I’ll do as he asks. I know him, we’re friends, maybe even more than that - he wouldn’t be so cruel ... not after everything we’ve shared.
“You’d hurt me?”
His eyes flash. “Leave, Aviana.”
“Alarick would never hurt me. Briella ...”
“Alarick has nothin’ to do with this ...”
“King ...”
“You’re pushin’ me. Get the fuck out.”
I move to run, but he’s fast. So god damned fast. He lunges at me and plunges the needle into my neck. The effects are immediate and, as I sway, all the contents of the safe fall to the ground and scatter. Money flies everywhere, papers separate, and one piece lands in the pool of blood around my father. Cohen catches me as my legs give way. “Who are you?” I whisper, eyelids getting heavy.
“Someone you’re never goin’ to see again. I’m sorry, Aviana. I’m doin’ this for you.”
Then my entire world goes black.
1NOW – AVIANA
“I can’t believe you’re here,” Briella cries, hugging me so tightly my insides twitch.
I want her to get off me. Not because I don’t love her, but because I hate being touched. Despise it. Dread it. I want her hands away from my body, a body that I’ve used and abused for years. A body I hate.
I step back, forcing her to let go. I stare at her, once my best friend, the only person in the world I had outside of my aunt Carrie, who is now gone. But her club took everything from me. King had my family killed. Cohen made sure I disappeared. They ruined everything. Now I’m back to give them a god damned dose of their own medicine.
I hate that I have to hurt my best friend in the process.
But that’s just how life goes, right?
“I’m glad to be back,” I say to her, my voice not at all convincing.
“Where have you been?”
“Around,” I murmur, glancing at Cohen who is walking inside the house.
He’s avoiding me.
He knows that I know.
I know everything.
I’m going to make him wish he was never born.
“One moment.” I smile at Briella. “I really need to pee and then we can talk about everything.”
Like I fucking want to talk about anything.
“I’m so glad you’re here, seriously.” She smiles. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
I flash her the fakest smile I’ve ever managed to conjure up and then walk toward the clubhouse where the man who took my entire life just disappeared. I know what me being here is doing to him, I know exactly what is going through his mind right now. After all, his little club doesn’t know he had anything to do with my disappearance, nor do they know he took information that they needed. He took it, and I want it back. I want whatever was in that safe, because whatever it was, changed the entire course of my life. For whatever reason, Cohen decided he was the only one who would have access to that information.
He’s fighting a losing battle. I’m here to reclaim who I am, and I’m starting with making him pay for every single thing he put me through when he made me disappear.
I walk into the clubhouse and, for a moment, just a moment, I take in the surroundings of the place I was once, so
