“Since he saved my life, I’m giving him a heads-up. The walls of secrecy that AWR has been hiding behind is going to be exposed. I’m sure with the information he gave me, Mr. Beck already has his ducks in a row, but being he save my life, I figured it was the polite thing to do.”
Ginny rose from the chair. “He should also give serious consideration to changing the name. AWR is definitely a misnomer.”
“I’m curious.” King rested his elbows on the desk to link his fingers together. “Why didn’t you call him yourself? I’m sure he would have taken a call from you.”
“Shade advised me that I should make you aware of the situation. If Mr. Beck believes by saving my life—by ensuring I got the information to convict Allerton—that Gavin and I will play nice and won’t go after the charity he’s now in control of, I’m afraid he’s very much mistaken. The next time he or any of his men steps on my property, we’ll take it as a direct threat and act accordingly.”
Just before she shut the door to his office, she offered, “Have a good evening, King, and tell Evie I said hi.”
Ginny stood behind the curtain, waiting for her intro. From where she was standing, she couldn’t be seen, but she was able see the thousands of people standing in the stadium and the huge screens that would televise the performers.
“Nervous?”
Ginny felt Gavin move closer to her, sliding his arms around her waist.
“No.”
Ginny told her husband the truth. She wasn’t nervous or frightened, and she should be both. She had never hoped to reach this level of fame, to perform on this international stage for Mouth2Mouth.
Kaden had been asked to perform at the massive event to highlight the charity that Sawyer and he had founded to combat violence against women.
“I should be, but I’m not. You going to regret marrying a woman who’s about to instigate a national investigation?”
“I will never regret marrying you. It took me too long to get you to say yes.”
“Wild man, you never needed a piece of paper, legal or illegal, to know I belong to you.”
“A man needs his peace of mind,” he countered.
“Do you have it now?”
“Nymph, you and peace of mind don’t belong in the same sentence.”
Her name being introduced had her hand going to Gavin’s that was laying across her waist. “I hope I do the song justice.”
Kissing her cheek, he removed his arms from around her to give her butt a hard pat to get her moving. She heard his voice as she walked onto the stage. “You’re the only who can.”
She was the only no-name singer performing among twenty-five of the most famous artists in the world. Without Kaden and Sawyer’s help, she wouldn’t have had a chance in hell of even getting a ticket to attend the event; the proceeds were going to help victims of violence across the world.
Walking to the microphone, Ginny heard the music begin to play. She was singing “Hero” by Mariah Carey.
As the words came out of her mouth, she saw Kaden give a nod to the producer. She looked up at one the screens that televised the stage. The image of her singing on the stage switched to a video; it showed a beautiful woman being beaten mercilessly.
Ginny’s gaze transferred to the man who had a front row seat, next to his son.
Markoff and Alek Lukin were guests of honor.
Realizing who they were watching being beaten mercilessly garnered two different reactions. Alek got up and tried to take his father’s frail arm to get him to leave. Markoff jerked his hand free, remaining seated.
On screen, Ivan Pavlov kicked Aanya again as she lay on the floor of the boat before going into another room. A second later, there was a slight movement as a small child scooted out from under the bed to crawl toward Aanya, moving her hair away from her face. The child tried to help Aanya to her feet, but she wasn’t strong enough. Aanya used the side of the bed to raise herself into a sitting position.
Ginny looked at the terrified Evangeline crying as the beautiful woman, despite being beaten mercilessly, cupped the little girl’s cheek to stop her from crying. When that didn’t work, Aanya took of the diamond-encrusted broach, pinning it to the thin shirt that the little girl was wearing.
Pointing at another door, Aanya was silently telling the child to leave. The little girl was shaking her head, but Aanya pushed the little girl toward the door. Little Evangeline was still crying as the door closed behind her, and as it closed, Ivan came back into the room, his face retaining the same fury as when he had left.
Bending down, he lifted Aanya’s struggling body to her feet by her neck. As Aanya’s body went limp in Ivan’s hands, Ginny’s hand went to her neck and pulled on the necklace tucked under her cream-colored blouse.
Singing the last words of the song, the screen cut to Ivan and Aanya standing on the balcony on their palace grounds. As the camera panned in, it was easy to see the woman next to Ivan, while just as beautiful, was not Aanya.
As Ginny sang the final bars of the song, the screen switched back to display her standing on stage. The crowd sat in silence looking at the screen and seeing Ginny’s glistening tears and the camera zoomed in on the scalloped-shaped broach, exposing Aanya’s royal insignia that matched the ones on Alek’s and Markoff’s chest.
The camera panned over to Markoff, who slowly rose to his feet, tears on his face. Staring at Ginny, he bowed his head in acknowledgment, then turned to his guards to usher him out of the coliseum with Alek trying to talk to his father, whose bodyguards repeatedly kept shoving him away until his guards forced him back to the end of the procession.
Ginny finished the song and replaced the microphone. As she began walking off the stage and to the curtain, a sound of clapping could be heard, slowly swelling higher and higher until the whole coliseum was on their feet.
Walking behind the curtain, she went straight to the arms that Gavin held out to her.
Gavin held Ginny in his arms as she cried. Tonight was the only other time Ginny had been willing to watch the video that her mother had given to Ginny before her death. Gavin had watched it the same number of times. Both times, he had thanked God for how close he had come to losing the woman he loved more than life.
“Aanya told me to run and hide, Gavin.”
“I know, baby.”
“She saved my life.”
“You would have survived.”
Ginny lifted her face from his chest. “How do you know?”
“Because that’s what heroes do.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
Ginny’s arms went out for Gavin to lift her off the small jetty that had transported them from the yacht to Clindale Island. She’d been fighting back tears since this morning when she woke to see where they had stopped during the night.
“I told you I would bring you back.” Grinning at her, he set her feet on the new dock.
“Are you sure this is okay?” Ginny asked tearfully. “They have to hate me ….”
“Ginny, look at them. It’s because of you they were able to come home, that their families have been reunited. Allerton loaded them on two ships, telling everyone the island was in the direct path of the storm, and each ship was going to different islands. It was just luck of the draw that my investigators found one of the islanders. Do you know how many islands I paid for them to go to? When they found the first hundred people, we never expected to find the rest of them a hundred miles away. It was pure luck.”