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“Wow,” I say again.
“At that point, I didn’t want to leave anything to chance, so I started working out voraciously. I was determined that in three years, I would be accepted at the academy and become the best police officer out there. I would put people like my father away.”
“Did you ever put him away?” I ask.
“If only…” she says wistfully. “He was part of an elite group of criminals. They were backed by big money, and they were very good at what they did. They never left a trail. I never had probable cause to even have him arrested, let alone evidence that would stick through a trial and conviction. Not until the end, anyway, and by then it was too late.”
“What was the relationship between Grandma Didi and him?”
“It was nonexistent. I didn’t even know who he was until my mom left me with him.” She clears her throat. “She never told me anything about my father. Always refused to talk about it when I asked. Then, when she disappeared, my birth certificate was pulled, and there was his name and birth date.”
“So you never knew the story between them?”
“Nope. According to my father, it was a one-night stand that went wrong. After we were reunited, Grandma Didi still wouldn’t talk about it, so I stopped asking.”
God, so many questions. The nausea has been replaced with morbid curiosity. How did Grandma Didi resurface? Did my grandfather come after my mother?
But the questions have to wait, because my mother—usually so stoic and strong—bursts into tears.
Chapter Forty-Two
Brendan
Dad drops me off back at the bar, and I walk to the bakery to check on Ava…only to find her gone.
“What do you mean she left?” I demand of Luke. “Ava never leaves the bakery during the day.”
“Surprised the hell out of me too,” he says. “Brock showed up earlier, and after that, Ava said she was leaving after the lunch rush. When the lunch rush didn’t happen, which was odd in itself, she left earlier.”
“Unbelievable.” I shake my head.
“Right?”
“Have you heard from her?”
“Nope. Maya and I have things under control, though. It’ll be smooth sailing the rest of the day. And Maya says she can stay late to do the cleanup if Ava doesn’t get back.”
“Any idea where she went?”
“She said she needed to talk to her mom.”
Ruby. She went home to the ranch. “All right. Thanks, Luke.”
I leave the bakery quickly and head back to the bar. Everything’s under control there, and I don’t have to open until later, so I’m heading to Steel Acres.
Somewhere inside, I know Ava needs me.
And I’m going to be there.
Chapter Forty-Three
Ava
“Ava,” Dad says. “You’re going to need to give us a minute.”
Mom wipes her eyes and shakes her head. “No, Ryan. Just no. I need to get this out, and she needs to hear it.”
“It’s in the past, sweetheart. None of it matters.”
“It matters to me,” I interrupt. “I’m sorry, Mom. So sorry that you’ve been through so much. This is my history too. Where I come from. The cards—”
“Please, Ava,” Dad says. “You said earlier you were taking a break from the tarot.”
“I am.” I pause. “But I’m rethinking that stance because, frankly, what’s happening here—first with my conversation with Dad and now this—only proves what the cards have been telling me this whole time. I’m going to question who I am.”
“We’ve been through this,” Dad says. “You haven’t changed. You are still you.”
“I understand that now,” I say truthfully, “but this is all happening now for a reason. I need this information.”
“Why?” Mom sniffles.
“I don’t know the answer to that question,” I tell her. “At least not yet. But I’m positive that I need to know. Not to figure out who I am, but to understand why I am.”
They both look at me as though I have two heads. I don’t blame them. I’m not sure what I mean either. I know only that the cards—and my very existence—have led me to this moment. To find out why I am. Why my family is my family…and how they came to be the Steels.
I know the Steels—all of them—are good people. At least I want to believe that.
“Tell me,” I say to Mom. “Tell me about your cousin Gina.”
Mom sighs, sniffling, and blows her nose into a tissue. “I didn’t know Gina very well. I only met her when I was taken to live with my father when I was fourteen. She was much younger, the daughter of my father’s sister, Erica, and her husband at the time, Rodney Cates.”
“How does she fit into all this, then?” I ask.
“This part of the story begins when my father—your grandfather, Theo Mathias—was in high school. It was a private school. Damn, I can’t remember the name of it.”
“Tejon Prep,” Dad says, “in Grand Junction.”
“Right. That’s it. My father, along with Brad Steel, Wendy Madigan, and several others, including Rodney Cates, were members of something called the future lawmakers club.”
