“How long until we get to Clover?” Cordelia said into the headset mic.
“It’s forty-five minutes north,” he said. “Fortunately, out of flood range.”
Cordelia sighed and slumped back on the seat. Was it resignation on her face? Sadness? Guilt?
Mackenzie stared at her, mind still reeling with the revelation. “You are a liar. I don’t trust you to keep us alive.”
Cordelia’s voice through the mic was slightly tinny. “I know, but the important thing is your brother trusted me.”
“Did he?”
Cordelia blazed a defiant look at them.
“The two of you aren’t dead, so I’ve done what I set out to do.” Cordelia folded her arms around herself. “As soon as we get to the next airport, you can do whatever you want. But if you die, at least I can sleep knowing I tried my best to save you. I’m Frank Soliel’s daughter, but I’m not his lackey, no matter what you think.”
“So you’re going to run away from your father?” Gideon said.
“Yes.”
Mackenzie considered. Could she be telling the truth? Why else would she have plucked them away from her father’s minions? “Aren’t you worried he’ll come after you?”
“He will, I have no doubt.”
“But you’d still rather face that than turn him over to the police?” Mackenzie asked.
“I know how the system works.”
Gideon’s disgust was clear. “It’s easier to hide than do the right thing.”
Cordelia’s eyes flashed fire. “You have no right to judge me, either of you. You don’t know anything about what I’ve endured as a Soliel. How do you think it feels to know your father had your fiancé murdered?” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “I’ll be in hiding for the rest of my life. Anyone new I meet, anyone who shows interest ... might be one of my father’s spies. I’ll never have a chance at a normal existence while he’s alive, so you can paint me as a villain if you want, but I’m more of a victim than either of you. Aaron was the only one who ever understood.” She gulped back tears.
Mackenzie was stung. Whatever Cordelia had or hadn’t done, Aaron had loved her. Her anger began to dissipate. “I ... can’t imagine what it must have been like for you with that man as your father.”
Cordelia swiped at her cheeks. “You have no idea. I only figured out what he was into when I was a teen. Up until then, I didn’t understand the meetings, the strange people who showed up to our house, the phone calls. I thought it was all normal. When I’d ask my mother what Daddy did for a living, she’d say he was a businessman. She knew, of course, but she pretended not to. I guess it was easier that way.”
Mackenzie understood. She’d dismissed aspects of her brother’s life that she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. Her love had bordered on hero worship, and it had blinded her. The tight knot of anger in her belly loosened. She and Gideon listened as Cordelia’s story flowed out.
“He wasn’t always like he is now. Oh, he was overprotectiveand strict, but after my mom got sick, he changed. He made sure she saw the best cancer specialists in the country, and he flew her all over the world to seek treatment. He wasn’t able to accept that he couldn’t find a cure to save her. He controlled everything, everyone, but he couldn’t defeat her disease.”
The helicopter vibrations thrummed through Mackenzie as she listened.
“I remember when I first realized who my father really was. Three men came to our house, Al, Jerry, and someone I didn’t know. I didn’t understand why the third guy was so scared. He was soaked with sweat and shaking. My dad saw me looking and shouted for my mom, who came to get me, but before the door closed, I heard the man say, ‘Please.’ I’ll never forget the way he said it, begging.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Begging for his life, I came to realize. Mom wouldn’t tell me anything, but from then on I understood my dad was powerful and people were afraid of him. I listened after that, eavesdropped whenever I could until I was old enough to put the details together. I should have known from the way people treated us in town, like we were royalty or mobsters, which I guess we were.”
Gideon nodded, encouraging her to continue.
“My mother died when I was eleven, and he turned into someone else. He wouldn’t let me go anywhere or be around other people unless he was with me or his bodyguards were. I wasn’t even allowed to go to public school. There were tutors instead. I had no friends, no community. My cell phone was policed, and there was a tracking app on it. My only escape was the horses, if I was accompanied.”
Mackenzie forced herself to absorb every word, unbelievable as it sounded. This person sitting before her, the woman her brother had loved, was Bullseye’s child.
“I left home when I was eighteen, went to community college. Eventually I bought the stables with the money my mother left me. It upset him so much he didn’t speak to me for six months, but he had me watched. I kept my distance, except for one visit. It all came rushing back, and I couldn’t stand knowing what he did for a living. I saw how everyone around him looked ... scared. Scared of what he’d do if they displeased him. I knew I’d disappointed him, but I couldn’t be what he wanted. I couldn’t fill the empty space my mother had left. A child can’t do that. It’s wrong to try to make them. Children deserve to be free.” Cordelia’s eyes blazed with emotion, and her lips trembled.
Her story ended in a breathless rush. “There was always someone spying wherever I went. People knew, and they made sure never to get too close to me.”
“Why didn’t you move away from this town?” Gideon asked.
“It wouldn’t have mattered. He could find me anywhere. At least I had some acquaintances here, and my horses. I lived my own life and pretended.”
How incredibly lonely she must have felt.
