Chapter 2 - The Ashford Deception
The heavy doors of the bulletproof SUV slammed shut, cutting off the noise of the rain, the sirens, and the shouting crowd on Fifth Avenue.
Inside the cabin, it was deathly silent.
I sat across from Mave and Posie. The little girl was shivering, her wet clothes clinging to her small frame.
Without a word, I stripped off my tuxedo jacket and draped it over them.
Mave pulled it tight around her daughter, refusing to meet my eyes.
"You shouldn't have done that," Mave whispered, staring at the floorboards. "Do you have any idea what you've just unleashed?"
"I know exactly what I've unleashed," I said evenly. "What I don't know is how I spent three years believing you left me for another man."
Mave's head snapped up, her eyes flashing with sudden anger.
"Another man? Is that what she told you?"
"My mother told me she caught you wiring money to an offshore account, packing your bags in the dead of night, and fleeing with a lover."
Mave let out a bitter, exhausted laugh.
"I was pregnant, Garrett. I was terrified. And your mother came into our apartment with four armed men while you were in Chicago."
My hands curled into fists.
"She told me that if I didn't disappear, I wouldn't live long enough to give birth. She said the Hail family couldn't afford a weak bloodline."
Posie shifted in Mave's lap, looking at me with those wide, gray eyes.
"Are you my daddy?" she asked, her voice small and sweet.
My breath caught in my throat.
I had ordered men to their deaths without blinking. I had stared down federal prosecutors and rival bosses.
But this little girl asking me a simple question brought me to my knees mentally.
"I am," I said gently. "I am your daddy."
Mave closed her eyes, a single tear slipping down her cheek.
Up front, the partition rolled down an inch. Wesley's voice came through, tight and professional.
"Boss. The Ashford family has already mobilized. We have tails. Three black sedans closing in from the rear."
"They aren't wasting time," I muttered.
Coraline's father, Marcus Ashford, was not a man who accepted public humiliation.
By leaving his daughter at the altar, I had just shattered a delicate treaty that kept the eastern seaboard from drowning in blood.
"Lose them, Wesley," I commanded. "Take us to the safe house in the Catskills. The one off the main grid. Only you and I know about it."
"Copy that."
The SUV lurched forward, the engine roaring as Wesley took a hard, illegal turn down a narrow one-way street, scattering delivery trucks and cabs.
I looked back at Mave.
"I'm sorry," I said, my voice thick with regret. "I'm so damn sorry I wasn't there."
Mave pulled Posie closer.
"Sorry doesn't fix the last three years, Garrett. Sorry doesn't feed a child when you're working three shifts at a diner just to pay for heat."
Her words cut me to the bone.
I was a billionaire. I controlled shipping ports and real estate across the globe.
And my daughter had been freezing because of my family's cruelty.
"I know it doesn't," I swore, leaning forward. "But I swear on my life, Mave... you will never have to worry about anything ever again."
Just then, a loud crack echoed through the cabin.
The reinforced glass of the rear window spider-webbed.
Posie screamed, burying her face in Mave's chest.
"Get down!" I roared, throwing myself over both of them as a second bullet struck the armored plating of the door.
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The Ashfords weren't just angry.
They were trying to kill us.
