The connection.
If only I put it together sooner.
I found the old barn. The one exactly like Elias’s.
They trained girls there to be sex slaves to wealthy men and women.
But she was more than that. She was a plant. A fake.
At the same time, she was so real.
Not everyone is who they appear to be, and you will find that those who appear the weakest are in fact the strongest.
I never expected her to betray me. But she did.
And now they are here.
Remember I love you.
Forever.
Your father’s name is Liam Kavanaugh. His father is my father’s right-hand man. He is a good man, my star.
Find him. Tell him my story.
And one day, I hope you find a man just like him.
A mix of monster and prince.
A warrior.
A partner.
I love you, Mo Réalta.
Remember what I’ve told you and?—
The words blur near the bottom, my breath caught somewhere between my ribs and my throat. My fingers tighten around the paper, knuckles aching, as if holding on might somehow finish the sentence for her. My pulse roars in my ears, drowning out the world, drowning out everything but her voice echoing in my head—love, warning, loss. I lean closer, desperate, fragile,needing whatever comes next to make sense of the wreckage she’s left behind.
“Run!” Kristian shouts next to me, ripping me out of the reverie my mother’s letter pulls me into.
A thunderous explosion tears through the air. The world fractures in sound and force, and then Kristian’s weight slams into me, driving me to the ground as the light vanishes and everything goes black.
twenty-two
“I told you something didn’t feel right.”
Leon inclines his head to me respectfully as I exit the lobby, a large smile on his face despite the circumstances. Returning his smile, I embrace the young Italian before taking a step back and checking the feed that is displayed on the monitors in the security corridor.
He is right. Something is off.
“You cleared the building?”
Leon nods. “The minute the breach was flagged, we called a code black,” he confirms. “We’re the only ones here besides the men guarding the vault.”
“Good.” I take a deep, calming breath as Leon leads us to the stairs that descend into the parking garage. The entrance to the vault sits on the other side of the parking garage, concealed beneath one of the many grates that dot the underground structure. Whoever breached our security system last night is careless.
They wanted to be seen.