Chapter 31
Zachariah
I never thought that my girl would ever quit surprising me. Every day was a new experience with Avidya. Not only did she bring me hope and love, but also things I never thought I’d desire with her.
I loved her. My heart only beat for this woman.
I wasn’t sure if I was more turned on, or proud of her when she grabbed the knife. I knew she didn’t have it in her to cause Cody pain, or to lose blood, but he didn’t know that. I was just glad it wasn’t me she was hunting. I knew right then and there, I never wanted to piss off my woman.
“Are you going to answer?” I prompted him. “She knows how to handle that thing.”
“What…what was the question?” Cody stumbled over his words in a rush.
“You broke into my fucking home! Why?” I seethed. “Who shot me and my wife? Why are you here? What are you playing at? What do you get out of all this?”
Yeah, I barked question after question out.
“I can’t answer any of them,” he answered slowly.
“You will,” Avidya said almost too sweetly.
“You won’t make me,” Cody had the guts to say. “He’s playing you.”
“No one is playing me but you,” Avidya laughed out. With that, she pressed the tip of the knife just slightly into his skin. Most likely just enough to get his attention, but not to draw blood.
“Fine,” Cody breathed out, almost as though he was in pain. He knew nothing about the pain that I could cause him. Luckily, I had my men do all the hard bloody work. I hated cleaning up that type of mess. “Aaron put me up to it, alright. I didn’t know that he had someone to come kill you both, but evidently, that didn’t work anyway.”
“Of course not,” Avidya sighed out. “We are both alive, and will continue to be.”
“I had advised him to let me handle it,” Cody went on. “Aaron can be a bit hard-headed, but I knew what to say to get him to agree with my way of thinking. I only needed you, my girl, to get him to stop this all. Then everything would go back to normal.”
“Nothing can ever go back to the way it was,” I stated. “No one is getting my wife.”
“What does he want with me?” Avidya asked.
“He wants you dead, well did. Now, I’m not so sure. Maybe he sees how much of an asset you are to the family. He is your father, after all. Surely he’d see that kindness in his heart to make a good thing out of you,” Cody answered. “He’s never been right in the head on a good day, but I’m sure with some convincing, we can work together to make sure he’ll use you for a benefit instead of just killing you off.”
“I don’t know him, nor will I ever get to know that man,” I stated, knowing the words were as true as ever. “I want nothing to do with him. He has nothing to tie me to him.”
“He has answers that you want,” Cody said quickly. “He’s the only one that knows where Racheal is. He’s the only one that can protect you now with the war that will be coming.”
“To me, he seems to be the only one that is causing this war,” she said, cocking her head to the side in thought. “I mean, I know I’m just a simple girl, and everyone is fighting over me. That doesn’t make sense. Why me?”
“You are a powerful girl. Many people have already died because they want you,” Cody said like it explained it all. “More people will. Do you want this family to die because they try to protect you? Because that is what is going to happen. You might as well give yourself up and save yourself some heartache.”
“No, it won’t,” Avidya said, a smile plastered to her face. “You know why I know that?” She paused, taking a step back and towards me. “I have people that actually care about my well-being. They care if I live or die. They know I am nothing but a simple girl that wants a simple life. All I want to have is a loving family. That was all I ever wanted, you know. I wanted to be my own person.
“I’d fight beside each of these family members I have here, just as they would do the same for me. I have a life here. And nothing, least of all a dead-beat father, will bring it crashing down.” I watched as her eyes darkened, looking up and down at the man that pretended to her father.
“So, what? You’ll just hide away and not live then?” Cody laughed as though that was just expected of her to do.
“I never thought about doing that,” she said, letting me pull her into my side as I took the knife from her hand in the process. “I won’t need to.”
“Oh, why would that be?” Cody asked, trying to move as much as he could in the chair. I knew his arms were most likely pins and needles by now. Serves him right for breaking into my house.
“I don’t need to fight. I’ll let Aaron, and whoever he sends, to walk intoourtrap, and we’ll take them down together, like a family. Nothing will pull me away from what I have here,” she spoke, her voice stronger with each word she spoke.
“She has everything she ever needs with me,” I stated, looking at her lovingly. “My love, body, and soul. She hasmebehind her. Who was it that killed off my guards?” I asked after a moment.
