Ada gets it before I do, her hands flying to her mouth to catch a shuddering cry. As for me, I’m still lost in a land of confusion.
“You never had a son.” Viper’s looking directly at me again. “I had the records forged to make Semenov believe he’d died, and then Orla took your daughter far, far away from his evil. It was the only way we could get her out.”
Daughter?
“We knew she’d be a paedophile’s plaything because of who her father was.” He shakes his head slowly. “Couldn’t do it, Frankie. Couldn’t let her have that kind of life.”
Daughter?
I glance at Ada who can’t seem to catch her breath, and then the mushroom cloud hits, only it’s not exploding upwards and outwards, it’s consuming me completely because I’m standing right in the middle of it.
But I’m not alone.
She’s been there all along, ever since I walked into a deserted swimming pool on the outskirts of Córdoba.
A beat later, I’m launching myself at the bars.
CHAPTER 38
ADA
As soon as the full force of Frankie’s anger crashes into the prison bars, alarm bells erupt overhead. The sound is deafening. It’s drilling shock down into my soul, exposing the nerves, and making the truth all the more tragic for it.
Alex isn’t dead.
Alex wasn’t a boy, she’s a girl. We had a girl. A beautiful girl who grew up to be just as smart and strong as her father.
I held her
I held her.
Two days ago, she was in my arms. I felt her heart beating against mine. I saw her eyes, and on some intrinsic level I knew, but I didn’t believe it. And now she’s gone, stolen by the same man who stole me.
Frankie is still raging and cursing at Viper who’s standing like a statue, taking it all. His grief for our son is now an onslaught of recrimination over the fate of our daughter.
“I told you not to bring her back to London with us! You dropped a kid right in the middle of a fucking warzone, and now O’Sullivan has her. You were right, that bastard has her!” Reaching into his pocket, he slams his phone against the bars with a harsh metallic thwack. “He sent me a video message of her this morning. It’s really unpleasant. Want to see it?”
“What the fuck was I supposed to do, Frankie?” he fires back, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration. “You’d be trying to kill me right now if I hadn’t brought her with me.”
There’s the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside, and then the room is full of policemen dragging Frankie away from the bars, threatening him with arrest if he doesn’t calm down.
“Where has she been, Viper?” I say quietly, needing to know everything as the alarms are finally shut off. Meanwhile, Frankie is being escorted into the hallway, still cursing his name.
“Orla took her up north. Manchester. She was happy, Ada, I swear to God she was happy. That woman was really good to her. Best of all, the Red Compass didn’t have a clue. We beat them…for once we fucking beat them.” His voice is rough with fatigue and emotion.
“But I was so certain Orla hated me.” I was so sure Roisin did too.
“Because she wasn’t allowed to like you. That house was pure evil, Ada. I felt it the moment I stepped inside it. I knew I wouldn’t be walking out the same way again.”
I take a moment to digest his words. So much information is coming at me. It’s like trying to catch the fragments of a falling star.
“How did Bambi end up in Spain with you?”
“Orla died in a car crash when she was eight. The woman didn’t have any other family, so I stepped up after the funeral. Didn’t want to, but I didn’t want her in a kiddie home either. She snuck into my life and made a stillness in the middle of my crazy. Now I love her like she’s my own, Ada. Even though I’ve probably put her in therapy for the next fifty years.”
“That’s if she has fifty more years left,” I say, voicing my worst fears. “You have to help us find her. Please, Viper.”
He scoffs. “And get a bullet in the back from Frankie?”
“He’s reeling and hurting. We’ve been dealing with the death of our son for the last day, and now this? I know you love her, Viper. I can tell. You love her just as much as we do, and for that I thank you with every single part of my heart. You’ve fought like hell for her. Everything you’ve done for her…” I catch myself before I start crying again. “This is why Roisin didn’t leave London with you, isn’t it? She knew O’Sullivan would tear this city apart for her, and in doing so he might uncover the truth. She couldn’t take that risk.” I close my eyes and take a second to fully appreciate her sacrifice. “I think she was trying to tell me in the hospital before she died.”
“Yeah, she said that.”
“You loved her.”
“Nah, I’m not capable of it, Ada.” The conviction in his voice is hard to hear. “For a kid, sure. You can hold things back from them. Shield them from the worst of you. But a woman?” He shakes his head as if that kind of happy ending is so far out of reach for him there’s no point in trying. “I’m too screwed up. O’Sullivan saw to that.”
“Sounds more like a bad commitment issue to me.”
Frankie reappears in the doorway, looking calmer, but tenser. The universe has given our child back to us, and now a monster has taken her away again. “You really love Bambi? Then stop hiding on the wrong side of those bars. She needs you, Viper. She needs all of us. You kept our daughter safe from harm for fourteen years so don’t fucking fail me now.”
Frankie practically pushes me down the steps outside the police station. Time is ticking for Bambi in all the wrong ways.
“O’Sullivan killed twenty of your men, Viper. I have the rest following up every lead in London.”
“Thiago?” He falls in next to us as he’s pulling out his phone.
I remember what he said about his network of contacts, and I start praying that someone somewhere has information about her.
“He was shot twice, but he’s still alive. He went looking for her in the carnage. That’s when one of O’Sullivan’s men attacked him.”
“How did he know about her?”
“Silas must have given him the lowdown of our whole outfit, kids included.”
“Maybe.” My footsteps falter as we reach the pavement and Frankie’s head snaps back to me. “Or one of his men could have recognised her when she came to my studio.”
“Those were Semenov’s men, not Irish.” Leaning over to slide a warm hand around the nape of my neck, he kisses me firmly on the mouth. “This isn’t your fault.”
We share a look, our determination to find her reflected in each other’s faces. We mourned our son yesterday. We won’t mourn our daughter.
Viper turns to me as we enter the car park. “What level are you on?”
My reply is drowned out by the scream of an engine as an unmarked white van hurtles up the ramp and accelerates in our direction. Frankie curses as it screeches to a stop alongside us, the side door sliding open to reveal a huge man in black army fatigues.