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“Hello?” I asked, my voice thick with sleep.
“It’s about time you answer your phone, Ava Dashkov,” a voice on the other end chirped brightly. It was a female, one with a lilting accent I couldn’t place. “This was my third attempt to get a hold of you, and I was afraid my present would go to waste. It would have been a pity if it had.”
Sitting up, I nudged at Matthias, who groaned and stirred next to me. When he saw me sitting up in bed, he bolted upright, a frown on his face. Placing a finger to my lips, I brought the phone down and hit the speakerphone button.
“Who is this?” I asked. The woman laughed, a bell chime on the wind.
“Oh, please,” she tutted. “Like you don’t know.”
“I don’t.” I ground my teeth to keep from snapping at her. “That’s why I’m asking.”
Another laugh.
“I’m known by many names, dear,” she admitted loftily. “But you can call me Caesar. All hail her reign.”
That’s some narcissism right there.
“What can I do for you, Caesar?” I questioned, eyeing Matthias, who was tapping away silently on his cell phone. No doubt trying to see if Mark or Bridget could trace the call.
“Oh, dear,” she chimed. “It’s not what you can do for me, not yet anyway. And all about what I have done for you.”
My brow creased in confusion. “And what have you done for me?”
“Why don’t you go look out your bedroom window, poppet,” she urged me. “I’m sure you’ll be so grateful for my grand gesture.”
I swung my feet over the side of the bed and walked to the window on shaky legs.
“Don’t be afraid,” she assured me. “I won’t hurt you. You have nothing to be afraid of.”
Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I reached a hand out to the curtain and ripped it aside.
Then I promptly screamed.
Matthias was at my side in less than a second, his body covering mine as if we were under attack.
“Shit,” he cursed under his breath, less affected by the gruesome scene just outside our window than me. In fact, the moment he let me go, I sank to my knees and hurled all over the carpet. When Nan got back from Ireland, she was going to kill me.
“Did you like my surprise, poppet?” The woman laughed. It was almost dainty, childlike.
“No,” I croaked, trying to get the image out of my head. They hung outside our window on the opposite wall, which was barely four feet away, their bodies split from their chests to their navels, insides strewn out. Their faces hadn’t been touched except the tongue that was nailed to their foreheads.
They were meant for me to be able to identify.
No wonder we hadn’t found them. Sheila and Remus McDonough were dead, hanging for me to see. The room had begun to fill with the rest of our dysfunctional family, but I barely paid them any attention. Kenzi knelt by my side, rubbing her hand soothingly along my back. She didn’t recognize this woman’s voice, and whispered as much to my father, but when Matthias had mentioned her name, she stiffened.
“Oh, come on now.” The bitch was smirking. “I saved you all that time and effort of looking for them.”
“And sent an army after my husband,” I hissed at her. She just laughed.
“Oh please.” She brushed it off. “That was just my way of introducing myself.”
Unbelievable.
“Well, it was not nice to meet you,” I snarled. “Now, leave us the fuck alone.”
Another laugh, but this one sent a cold chill up my spine.
Shit, my goose bumps had goose bumps.
