Realization struck April like a physical blow. "That day at Riversong. When you were insulting me. You asked if I pawned my lucky purse."
"Yeah."
"It's in there, isn't it? It's been in my purse this whole time."
"Yup. It's in the lining."
"What? How did you—" April's voice rose. "Did you think I would just turn it over to you? Were you going to use Kevin as leverage against me? What was your plan, Vince?"
"Well." He gave her a pathetic little chuckle. "I figured I'd try and get us back together first. All I needed to do was get in your house, look around for the purse. Then I'd be gone out of your life. You would have never seen or heard from me again. You sure fucked that up, April."
"Oh my God. I can't believe you just said that."
"It's true. If you hadn't been such a bitch. If you hadn't fought me. If you hadn't run away to begin with?—"
"Oh I amnottaking the blame for this, you asshole!"
She quietly seethed as the van drove along, rain pummeling the top. April's rage burned white-hot, but beneath it was a terrible understanding. This had never been about Kevin. It had never been about custody or fatherhood or rights. It had only ever been about money.
"Why'd you tell them I had the seed code memorized?" April demanded. "Why?"
"Are you stupid? Because if I had, they would’ve found you without telling me and just broken into your house and stolen the purse themselves." Vince's voice was matter-of-fact. "You were my insurance, April. I told them I’d sweet talk you into working with us. But then once I realized I wasn't gonna get back in your panties, let alone in your house, I played the I-wanna-meet-my-son card. I’d get visitation rights or something, get into your house when I picked him up, excuse myself to take a piss, find the purse.”
“Well that sure worked out great, didn’t it?”
“Fuck you, April. You think I wanna be back here with you?” He exhaled. “Just for the record, grabbing you like this wasn’t my idea, it was Dimitri’s. Man’s got zero patience. I don’t know, maybe something happened with his boss. So I figured if he grabbed you today, once they had you and your purse, I'd give them some made-up password. And then?—"
He stopped.
"And then what?" April asked, though she already knew.
Silence.
"It's true, isn't it?" Her voice shook. "You would have let them torture me to try and get the number out of me while you left with the purse."
More silence. Damning silence.
"You would have left me there to die," April whispered. "Tortured to death over something I didn't even know existed."
"Easy come, easy go, baby. You abandoned me first."
"Oh my God." April was shaking now, fury and horror warring in her chest. "If I weren't tied up I'd kill you right now. You idiot. You fucking asshole. You son of a bitch."
By now April was yelling, and she didn't care that the Russians up front were laughing at her.Let them laugh. Let them hear how pissed off she was.
The van took a hard right and April slammed into Vince, who, judging by the thud and the swearing, hit his head against the metal wall.
“Ha! Serves you right, you bastard.”
“Fuck you. That fuckinghurt.”
"So what's happening now?" April demanded. "What's going on? Where are we going?"
"Well." Vince sounded resigned. "Once I saw you were too stupid to bring your Lucky Louis with you into the judge's chambers, I tried to call off the plan, but it was too late. Alarm went off, your boyfriend grabbed the jackpot before I could get over to it. I tried to sneak away but they grabbed me, too. They knew they couldn't trust me by then. Or maybe they'd always planned to double-cross me. Who the hell knows. Doesn't matter—same thing happened. They drove us to this house on the outskirts of town, about five fucking minutes from the courthouse, can you believe that?”
Shit. How long had she been less than a mile from Shane?
Vince went on.
