Chapter 10

The morning was alreadyin full swing by the time Kayla eased her legs over the side of the bed. A situation she occasionally indulged in on the weekends, but never during the workweek. Evidently, experiencing not one but two traumatic events in a single evening had a sedative effect on her.

She still wore her black leggings and tee. Her hair had escaped its tie and now fell around her face and she was tempted to stay hidden behind the blond veil, but that wasn’t her way.

Unable to put the moment off a second longer, she brushed her hair aside and turned toward the sofa, only to find it empty. She scanned the rest of the room for Ash’s tall, imposing figure, but found no evidence of him anywhere. Crispy had abandoned her, too.

If not for her Kevlar vest draped over one of the high-backed chairs near the cold fireplace, and the tender spot on her head, she might have convinced herself that last night had been nothing but a vivid nightmare.

She didn’t know whether to feel relief or disappointment at finding Ash gone. It had taken awhile for her to fall asleep last night, not being used to having others in her private space. But once she succumbed, she’d slept through the night, though her dream state mind produced a vivid reenactment of the governor’s assassination, replacing Vicky’s face with Ash’s .

Rising, she padded across the expansive room and pushed open the curtains. Rather than her normal adrenaline-pumping anticipation to get the day started, she felt a strange nervousness.

A reluctance.

The small display of pictures lining the mantel drew her attention. One photo near the middle snagged her attention. A younger version of herself smiled at the camera, her arms wrapped around Sybil and Elsie on her left and Jillian and Vicky on her right. The Hungarian Parliament building’s imposing red dome and stunning Gothic towers soared above their heads as they drifted along the Danube River, day one of their weeklong getaway to celebrate Kayla’s twenty-fifth birthday.

The trip that changed her life, her worldview, forever.

A trip she would later learn had been initiated by Vicky, not Jillian. She was still processing that fact. Still didn’t know how she felt about it. Maybe she never would.

That day seemed like a lifetime ago, now.

Kayla wasn’t the same bright-eyed, bend the world toward goodness person. A decade as a lobbyist had opened her eyes to the fragility of democracy, the flexibility of morality, the power of hope.

She traced the tip of her index finger across Vicky’s laughing face. Her throat contracted, making it hard to swallow, to breathe, to think of a life without one of her greatest cheerleaders.

Her dearest auntie.

Her godmother.

Her friend.

She loved them all, but there had always been something special about Victoria. Though no one had ever acknowledged it. Not Kayla, not Vicky. Not Jillian or the other aunties. They all knew of her and Vicky’s special bond.

Maybe it was the godmother-goddaughter connection. Maybe they just clicked better.

The constriction around her throat crept downward to engulf her chest. It squeezed and squeezed, daring her to release the grief bottled up in her heart, making her eyes burn.

Kayla wouldn’t let the tears fall. She hadn’t earned that right. Her auntie’s killer was out there. Free. No doubt congratulating themself for removing whatever threat Vicky had posed to them.

No matter what Ash or Detective Morgan said, Kayla didn’t buy their hypothesis that a scuffle between a rhinestone and a rug had saved her from assassination. If the killer had wanted her dead, they had only to pull the trigger for the second time. She’d given an experienced killer ample time to take her out before she’d thought to drop to the floor.

Kayla didn’t know who would want Vicky dead, but she would use every bit of her abundant resources to find them and avenge her auntie’s murder. Fire gathered in her center, filling her with new purpose and replacing her earlier reluctance to meet the day.

Somehow, she would figure out who’d stolen North Carolina’s beloved governor from the people of this great state.

From her.

And make them pay.