Page 122 of Reckless Love
“The fact that I control a lot of those branches of law in the first place.”
“No, your daughter. Hurting you would have hurt her. But when you become the agent of that hurt, when you’re the one causing Ava pain? There are no lengths that I will not go to.” I turn to face her, determined that she’ll see nothing but my rage. “If you won’t help her, I’ll cause you an equal amount of pain. Turn over all my information to the few police who aren’t in someone’s pocket. Ensure the judge you’re forced to face is one that can’t be bought. You aren’t the only one with pull, the only person others owe favors to. All those tricky situations I got you or your family out of? I’m just as skilled at getting people into them—or don’t you remember? Do not underestimate me.”
She raises her eyebrows, not showing a hint of unease, and then she sips her coffee before wandering over to the couch. Her thinking time. If she can determine a way to trap me instead, she will. We’re dancing through live wires, and there’s a chance one of us will be burnt to a crisp by the end.
“What makes you so sure I have anything that could help Ava?”
“You’d never have suggested him, never have put Ava in his path, if you didn’t have leverage to control him. That’s the smart play. That’s the Celia fucking Tucker playbook. Control. Control. Control.”
“Regardless of anything he’s done, he’s still a better match for her than you. Surely you must know that. Ava’s always loved luxury. Unlike my other children, she craves wealth and status. Being poor with you will never satisfy her. You are not the man she’ll spend forever with. She’s the most like me.”
“You’ve never understood any of your children particularly well—never bothered to get to know them in a real way—so I’ll forgive your ignorance here too.”
“Never understood my children?” She barks out a laugh. “And you understand everything as an outsider?” She shakes her head. “Let’s say I helped you with some leverage for Ava to get divorced. Raul is very connected on this island. How will you make up for that loss for the Tucker family?”
“Easy. Assuming you were smart enough to gather enough leverage, Ava will take him for all he’s got. He’ll be forced to start over, financially, personally, on the island. His power and control will go poof.” I turn back to stare out at the ocean again, ignoring her. “He’ll be a shell of a man. Maybe you won’t have won against Ava, but you’ll have defeated him. That’s really all that matters, isn’t it? Some sort of victory. A flex for you?”
“If I give you what I have,” she says slowly, “what’s the stop you from fucking me over next?”
“Only my own safety and security.” I spin to face her. “Isn’t that how you set this up? Mutually assured destruction. I go after you, and you come for me. The point of this isn’t to ruin you, and I certainly don’t want to ruin my own life—not now. All I want is to get Ava out of her marriage.”
“And into your bed?”
“To give her the freedom to choose what she wants,” I correct.
“No,” she says, standing up and taking her coffee cup back to where she first poured it. “That’s not enough for me. I’m not having you hang my sins over my head every time one of my children wants something, and that’s where this will lead. I will give you the information I have on Raul in exchange for everything you have on me.”
From inside my jacket pocket, I remove a portable hard drive, and I wave it at her.
“How do I know you don’t have backups in a cloud somewhere?”
“I’m not that tech savvy.” I am, but I was always careful to pretend ignorance around her. Pretended to have to call in other experts whenever she needed something on the internet hidden or surfaced. A few times, I was able to see the chess board a little better than her. Thank god this was one of them.
She narrows her eyes, and she’s clearly trying to read if I’m lying. But my claim fits the narrative she knows.
“You show me what’s on there in my office, and I’ll get you the information on Raul.” She leaves the room in brisk strides. “Follow me.”
In her office, she plugs in the hard drive, and she does a search. The names she enters are the ones that involved violence, where she had someone beat up or intimidated or orchestrated an injury. Nothing extreme, but there’s a clear pattern of intimidation. Combined, they’d give her the largest jail sentence. I’m a little surprised she doesn’t search the insider trading cases too, but I guess knowing I have this particular information is enough.
Her face is red when she turns to me. “If you’re lying to me about this being the only copy, I will make sure you rot in jail right beside me.”
“What do you have on Raul?” I ask. “Is it enough?”
“Of course it’s enough,” she says with a huff, navigating on the computer to an area behind multiple password prompts. She takes a USB key out of a top drawer, plugs it in, and she drops a file titled “Santos” onto it before removing it and gripping it in her hand for an extra beat. “You don’t ever come ask me for another thing. We’re done.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” I say, holding out my hand. “We’re dead to each other.”
“Tell Ava I did this all for her.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “I don’t know why you did it, but it wasn’t for her.” Then I snatch the USB out of her hand, and I head for the door.
Chapter Forty-Four
Ava
Icalled in sick. When I woke up and saw Stephen was gone, I felt ill. Since I already spoke to my mother about the chaos she caused in my life, I can only imagine how well calling her on her bullshit went for Stephen.
Gage took Landon to school because I told him I was doing divorce-related things—what I didn’t tell him was that I was determining whether I could even seek a divorce.
