“This is what you built after going against me?” I asked while I stared at the building.
“This is my son’s company.” He leaned closer. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just stop. You can take half the shares. I can make you powerful in Cuba too. I know the right people.”
I let out a short, amused laugh. “Powerful,” I repeated, tasting the word like it didn’t belong in his mouth. I turned my head slightly toward him. “With whose name exactly are you planning to build that power for me? The one you were defending in front of cameras like it still meant something?”
He exhaled sharply. “I know people.”
I leaned back in the seat and rubbed my jaw. “I’ll give you credit where it’s due. The bomb in my car was well-executed. You actually got me with that. The bombing concept, as a strategy, is efficient.”
“Take the company,” he said, and the begging had turned graceless now, whatever dignity he had left bleeding out of his voice. “Just take it and leave me alone. It’s worth billions. Take it all.”
“You know,” I said, “I miss my wife right now. Do you miss yours?”
Something snapped in him then. The begging collapsed, and whatever restraint he had left burned into anger. “You will not get away with this.” he raised his voice.
“Yet tonight I’ll be home,” I smirked, “next to my wife, sleeping like a king.”
He lunged toward the doorknob, rattling it with both hands. “If you take this company, it will fail. It will fall apart without me. I promise you that. It won’t be worth anything without me running it.”
“You’ve misunderstood something.” I pulled another cigar from my jacket, lit it, and smoked it . “I’m not here to take your company.” I caught his eyes again. “We’re just testing how well your bombing techniques are.”
The silence settled for a few seconds before he finally understood. “No… no, you wouldn’t.”
I pulled out my phone and made a single call. “Do it.”
“Wait. Listen…we can talk—” Zachary cut himself off mid-sentence when the explosion hit.
It started as a low, heavy thud from the far end of the building, then the windows gave way in a violent chain reaction, shattering into glittering fragments. The shockwave rolled through, and a thick, dark bloom of smoke tore up from inside, swallowing the upper floors as alarms screamed somewhere beneath the noise.
“No,” Zachary said while scrambling. I unlocked the doors. He pushed himself out and stood frozen as the reality caught up. After a few seconds, he collapsed on his knees.
I stepped out and stood beside him. “You can go ahead and plan something else,” I said. “You’ll watch me destroy everything you touch, one layer at a time, until you understand exactly who you messed up with. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging me to kill you.”
I turned away without waiting for a response. Sirens rose in the background, growing louder with each passing second. Smoke continued to rise from the building as I walked toward a car waiting at a distance where Akim was. I slid into the back seat,and Akim started the engine as I peeled off my gloves.
Chapter Fifty-three
Inna Grace
A month had passed sincemy mother returned to whatever world she lived in back in Mexico. A month of learning what it felt like to trust someone else to carry a burden I couldn’t carry myself. I asked Dmitri for updates more than once. Not because I doubted him. Asking kept me from being alone with my imagination, from building disasters out of silence and convincing myself they were real.
Akim spent that entire month in Mexico. According to Dmitri, it was part of a plan to keep my mother safe while they worked through everything that still needed to be investigated. So I waited. Waiting had never been difficult when I had a reason for it.
My father made it easier, too. We were seeing each other more often, slowly reclaiming the years that we had lost from each other. He told me he has been speaking to my mother, and that they have been staying in contact. She was safe. And that was enough for me.
My father also got a job at an architecture firm here in Florida.It shouldn’t have surprised me. He has always been talented, but seeing him rebuild his life brought a relief I hadn’t realized I needed. He was still staying at the hotel that technically belonged to me. Dmitri suggested more than once that I should work there and run it myself, but I refused. There were things I needed to accomplish first before I settled too comfortably into the life he was building around me.
I had a very specific list of things I wanted to do on my own. Things I wanted to build, earn, and cross off without using a single resource that came from Dmitri. Which was why I was currently seated in Dmitri’s chair inside his office at DK Holdings, writing that list on a piece of company paper with one of his expensive pens.
He called earlier today and asked me to come over. When I arrived, I found him in a meeting, so I waited in his office instead. After spending far too long staring at the ceiling and accomplishing absolutely nothing, I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and started writing.
The list grew faster than I expected. Each wish led to the thought of another. I sat back and looked at what I had written with a small frown. I sure had a lot to tick off. Looking at number thirteen, I wondered whether I was setting myself up for something unrealistic or whether I would actually get through it all.
But still, I continued. I wrote number fourteen, pressed the pen to the paper, ready to finish the thought, but the door opened.
I stood up too fast, grabbing the paper and whipping it behind my back. I straightened and stared at Dmitri standing in the doorway as he read the room.
“Oh, look who is finally here.” I pushed away from the chair and moved around the desk, keeping my voice at a carefully controlled pitch of warm sarcasm to distract him. “My lovelyhusband.”
