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Chapter Twenty-Six
Reid
Icounted to ten in my head and practiced breathing deeply as I prepared to do something that would irrevocably change both of our lives forever.
I cut the light on Holly’s phone and slid it into my pocket plunging us into complete darkness as I pulled her to me and buried my face in the top of her hair. She’s covered in dust and dirt from our fall, but the faint scent of strawberries, the sweetness, is still there.
“Reid?” My name was a question, one to which I had all of the answers. I just wasn’t sure that she was ready to hear them. Would there ever be a right time?
I ran the palms of my hands up her arms as I began to speak. “As a little boy, I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I never once questioned it, it was just a part of who I was. I lived in an upper middle-class neighborhood, and I think my father was much like yours, except not.” I chuckled, but the sound was dark and deep in my chest as it vibrated between our bodies.
“My parents had me later in life, and my father owned and was the active CEO of the insurance company that had been in our family for decades. He was removed and absent more often than not. However, my mother, she was amazing, still is. My mother devoted her life to making sure that I got the opportunity to chase my dreams, instead of being forced into a life of the family business just because that’s what was expected of me as a Chapman. So, I forged my own path, much like you did. I went to college, I received my degree, and when that wasn’t enough, I kept going.”
“My dreams and my nightmares share a bed; they are one and the same. For over a decade that’s been my way of life. As long as I could go to bed at the end of the night, no matter what horrors I saw when I closed my eyes and know that I was fighting for the good of the world, that was enough. Until I met you.” I heard her audible gasp; she still doesn’t realize the power she has over me.
“It’s funny, how we tend to circle back around in life. I never anticipated I would sit at a desk at the Chapman Group. Then again, I never anticipated you, and here we stand. You made me a promise, do you remember?”
“Trust. I promised to trust you, and I do. Reid just tell me already, the anticipation is killing me, and I’m not sure how much more I can take today.” Her skin hummed beneath my fingertips.
“I told you that if you would trust me, I would protect your heart. But in reality, I’m here to protect so much more than that. Holly, I’m an undercover federal agent.” She stilled in my arms as I dropped the first of many bombs on her.
“Good guy or bad guy?” I smiled into her hair at her question.
“Good guy, or at least I try to be.”
“FBI, CIA, what am I dealing with here?” She’s not running, and she’s not pissed. So far so good.
“FBI as a division of the Department of Homeland Security.”
“Is your real name Reid?” Her head jerked up as she tried to look at me through the darkness that separated us.
“Yes, I’m undercover right now as myself, which sounds completely bizarre but is true none-the-less.” I laughed under my breath at the odd set of circumstances that landed us both here.
“Wait, you said something about protection. You’re not here for the fire then? You’re here for me. You’re protecting me? Why? Why do I need the protection of a federal agent, Reid?” I could feel her heart begin to race against my chest, as her breathing picked up.
“Sylvester Wilks is a bad man Holly, kind of like old man Anderson. He’s a high-level criminal and involved with some extremely dangerous people.” I began painting the picture for her.
“I knew it! Sylv, ugh, what a creepy old man. He used to do this weird thing with his eyes when I saw him around the house or at the country club growing up when he was meeting with my father. Wait…my father. Does this have anything to do with my father?” Here we go. Prepare for launch.
“How much do you know about your family history, Holly?” I asked the final question that had been eating at me.
“Um, well you know about my relationship with my parents. My mother was estranged from her family, because according to her, they were trailer trash that we shouldn’t associate with, her words. My father was close with my Grandpa Adkins, but they lived in upstate New York. They were immigrants, and both he and my grandma were killed in a tragic car accident a few years ago. We didn’t see them very often growing up, so I can’t say there was much of a relationship there. Other than that, it was just my sisters and I.” I tried to make out her features in the dark as she spoke, my eyes adjusting slowly.
“Holly, your father is Victor Adkins, one of the most well-known and elusive mafia bosses in the world. He’s more dangerous than Wilks, Holly. We’ve been watching your family for decades, but they’re too good – too smooth.” Her body turned to stone under my fingertips.
“What?” Her question wasn’t gentle, it was a demand for more answers.
“Holly, you are the heir to a mafia crime family dynasty. I have been tracking the movement of his group and Wilks as they relate to the trafficking of young children and women for over a decade. I’ve been inside of his clubs, worked for his cartels, been a soldier. Your father is a murderer, and yet his hands remain clean of the blood stains of the hundreds he has led to their deaths.”
“Princess. That’s why you call me princess.” She brought her hand up to cover her mouth, her eyes wide with shock.
“There were so many coincidences. My father is involved with laundering money for this operation. I was presented with this case because of my specific skill set and my ability to go undercover as none other than, myself; albeit compromised because of my relationship with my father, who is going to prison for a very long time when this is all over with. When your file came across my desk and I saw you were Victor’s daughter and were also working the café renovation, which was involved with Chapman, and your company had been recently awarded the Anderson House contract I knew you had to be involved. I was so sure of it that even when the Bureau told me to back off, I kept pushing. I’ve been building the case against your father for years. If there is anything I’ve learned during that time, it’s that there are no coincidences.” I tried to tell her the truth, but I knew how the words sounded as they left my mouth.
“You were using me? All of this, everything. Oh my God, you’re using me to get closer to my father?” She jerked away from me, forgetting the promises that she made. This was my fear. I would rather deal with a gunshot wound than hurt this woman.
“Dammit, Holly, don’t make me chain you to the wall and force you to listen to me. You made a promise.” I gripped her wrist with my hand to keep her from running. She could get lost in these tunnels for days, and we don’t have days, we’re counting down hours.
“And you lied to me Reid!” She’s angry, I get it. She just found out she’s been lied to her entire life, but if the fault lies on anyone it’s, Victor Adkins, not me.
