126

“I finally get to meet my son’s wife,” Zane’s father said as he looked at Ava. Ava could see the resemblance between the father and son. But Zane didn’t have the same eyes as his father she found. Zanes father had nut brown eyes and despite the warm colour, they were cold. Ava was used to be around men with cold eyes, she lived in a mafia mansion where killers were regular visitors. She even knew Zane’s eyes could turn cold as ice. But something about her father-in-law’s eyes made her stomach turn. There was something behind the coldness, there was a hint of madness that unsettled her.
“It will be the last fucking time,” Zane growled and made a gesture with his head. Two of their men steped up to each kneeling man and pulled them to their feet. Zipp ties were pulled out and secured the men’s arms behind their backs.
“You aren’t going to introduce us?” Amon asked Zane in a light tone. Ava could feel the tension in her husband as his father pushed all the right buttons to get him to explode.
“I don’t think there is much use for that,” Ava said. Amon’s focused switched back to her.
“Oh? And why is that?” he asked.
“Because your interest is not genuine. If you wanted an introduction, you would have let Zane know and I would have invited you to the mansion. We would have had dinner and spent the evening engaging in meaningless small talk,” Ava said. There was a hint of surprise in her father-in-law’s eyes.
“You would have invited me into your home?” he asked with a laugh.
“Of course. You are my husband’s father. It would have been the right thing to do. But you chose to disguise yourself as a contractor and arrange a meeting with me and my partner. That tells me you aren’t genuinely interested in being introduced to me and therefor I won’t object when Zane takes you away to where ever it is he will take you,” Ava told him. She had noticed the little guest badge that had been pinned to Amon’s lapel. It held the name of the contractor she and Gabriel had arranged to meet. It didn’t take her long to put two and two together.
“You got yourself one with half a brain, not too bad, son,” Zane’s father huffed in amusement.
“You have no idea. Have you heard anything back from Tristan? It must have been a couple of weeks since last time,” Zane asked his father. Ava watched as Amon shrugged.
“So he got caught. He was never the smartest one,” he told them. Ava was appalled by how casual he was about losing one of his men.
“Yes, he made the mistake of trying to break in to a place while Ava was there. She took him out single handedly,” Zane said. Amon looked at his son with more intensity than he had before. Then his eyes grew a little bigger and he looked at Ava.
“You took out Tristan?” he asked. It was clear to her that he was genuinely surprised by that. Ava also knew that Zane was playing a game, and she had no plan of ruining what he was doing.
“As if it was difficult. I had him unconscious within ten minutes,” she told him. A fleeting expression came over Zane’s father, like he was impressed. But his mask fell back into place just as quick. Ava was uncertain if she had actually seen it.
“If she is so capable, what is with all the men?” he asked and looked around.
“You have become old and senile, Amon,” Jax said as he walked in and joined them.
“Watch how you speak to me boy!” Zane’s father barked. Jax just shrugged.
“I’m just stating the obvious. You seem to have forgotten how the men react to a first lady. True, the organisation hasn’t had one in a while. But I must say, the moment Mrs. A steped into our lives, the men remembered the old ways. The men are protective of her,” Jax said as he had taken a spot next to Ava and Zane. He had used her nick name on purpose. It was as close to an honorary title one could come.
“Who fucking needs a skirt,” Amon said. Zane took half a step forward, as did Jax. The two men on either side of Amon reacted as well and both their fists impacted Amon’s stomach.
“You keep your tone respectful, father. People who disrespect my wife has a tendency to end up dead. And none of them have had an easy passing,” Zane growled.
“That’s enough. I appreciate everyone looking out for me. I do. But I would be even more appreciative if we didn’t stain the cream coloured carpet with blood. Everything has it’s place and I think we do have a nice collection of rooms in the basement at home for talks like this,” Ava said.
“You are right,” Zane agreed. “Take the three of them to the cells, separate ones. No one beside the people in this room are allowed in the basement until I say so!” he then called out. They stood back and watched as the men arranged transportation and took the three men down in separate elevators.
“So that was your father?” Ava asked Zane when the room had almost emptied of people. Only Tom, Ryder, Gabriel, Jax and four men were left.
“Yes, are you considering divorce?” he asked. Ava couldn’t help but giggle.

“Based on what my family have put us through, I think I will stick it out,” she said. She turned to where Ryder and Simon stood. “Are you okay?” she asked Simon.
“I am. I just need to have a conversation with my partner about making changes to my office without telling me about it,” Gabriel told her. Ava nodded, she would need to have one of those as well. She was just turning around to inform Zane of that fact when his, Ryder’s, Tom’s and Jax’s phones all gave off a shrill sound. Ava could hear her’s and Gabriels do the same in their offices. She knew without having to look at it what it meant. The mansion was under attack. The men all took out their phones to read the accompanying message.
“Who?” was all she asked. In her mind there were two possibilities and she didn’t like any of them. Either it was Zane’s father, which would mean this encounter was some kind of a trap. Or it was the police. If it was the police Ava knew they had to have strong evidence before they went after Zane.
“Private, probably my father’s men,” Zane said. That was the better alternative, at least the government weren’t after them. “Linda?” Zane asked Jax.
“Safe, she was at work, the men are keeping her safe,” Jax said and Ava heard the tension in his voice. The men’s phones chimed again. They all cursed as one.
“What now?” Gabriel asked, Ava could hear the beginning of panic in his voice. He wasn’t alone. Ava knew how to put up a facade, but she was starting to loose it.
“The cars transporting my father and his men has been ambushed. Four of our men dead and my father is now on the loose again,” Zain said in a dark voice. Ava took a deep breath, so it had been a trap of some sort. Was it to divide Zane and his men? “I need to go, angel,” Zane told her. Ava was on the verge of telling him no. But she stopped herself. Of course he needed to go. An army needed it’s general. She hated that she couldn’t ask him to stay, tell him to turn his back on everyone and stay with her and the baby. But she had people in that mansion she cared for. Anna, the maids and the men were all persons she knew and that had been kind and loving towards her. Even before she had married Zane. So she nodded with tears in her eyes. “Don’t cry angel. I’ll just go and kill my father and then I will be back for you,” he told her.
“Don’t kill him unless you need to. Capture him and give yourself time,” she told him. He huffed.
“You don’t have to worry about my soul. It’s already as dark as it can get,” he said. Ava shook her head and gave him a light kiss.
“For my soul, please don’t do anything you can’t take back,” she whispered. He looked at her and nodded. He then looked behind her and nodded again. Ava looked back and saw he had been looking at Tom. Tom was walking over to his desk in front of Ava’s office.
“You and Gabriel stay here with Tom and the rest of the men. Jax, Ryder and I will head back,” Zane said as he walked her into her office.
“O-okay,” she said. Something was up, but she didn’t know what. It wasn’t until he had given her a kiss and she saw that Ryder had led an equally confused Gabriel into her office as well that she realised what was happening. She started to walk towards the door as Zane and Ryder walked out of her office. “Zane, don’t you…” was all she had time to say before the metal shutters were slammed shut. Again she was trapped in her office. “Zane! Zane you – you fudging poop bag!” she shouted and slammed her fist against the metal. Ava really wished she could learn how to swear.
“Poop bag? What are we? Five?” Gabriel huffed. “And I think they made them sound proof,” he added. “Ryder you fucking son of a bitch! If you by some miracle can hear me! I’m going to have Linda teach me how to castrate men just so I know how to do a really, really bad job at it with you!” he then shouted. Ava was marching over to the intercom and held down the button that let her speak with Tom.
“Tom?!” she shouted.
“Yes, Mrs. A?” Tom sounded calm as a cucumber.
“Don’t you Mrs. A me! I’m furious! Is my husband out there?”
“No, ma’am,” he answered.
“Open the shutter, Tom,” she told him.
“Can’t do, Mrs. A. The boss told me that you should remain inside until he, Jax or Ryder said otherwise.”
“You work for me now, remember? I am not asking. I am telling you to open the fudging door!”
“I’m sorry. You know I would do anything for you, Mrs. A. But the boss is scarier than you, at least most of the time. I’m going to leave the two of you in there and I’m not going to answer the intercom for a while to let you get settled in. There should be plenty of water and snacks in the fridge,” he told her. There was. Zane had made sure her office was stocked with snacks when she went back to work. There was an attached bathroom so there wasn’t like they were in a bad position. It just made Ava feel useless. What if she was needed and she was locked in? She picked up her phone from her desk and thought about letting Zane know what she thought about his little trick. But then she realised it could be the last thing he would read from her. She didn’t want the last thing she told him to be something bad.

A: We are going to have a long talk about this when you come and collect me. Be safe, don’t do anything stupid and remember that I will always love you. Nothing will ever change that.
Z: Looking forward to it. Love you too, angel.

Zane’s answer had Ava tearing up again. Her hand went to her collar necklace and the little pendant. She saw that Gabriel was reading something on his phone as well and he looked equally heart broken as she felt. She held out her hand to him and together they snuggled up on the couch in the corner to have a cry.