Daddy’s Law by K.C. Crowne

Chapter 35

Ava

Iwas trembling. Disoriented. They had blindfolded me and I’d been wearing it for a really long while. I had no sense of time. I could have been here for hours or days for all I knew. I was strapped to a chair, hands tied behind my back with thick zip ties. My ankles were similarly bound to the legs of my chair. My restraints were so tight the hard plastic bit angrily into my skin, my joints throbbing and stiff.

“Ava,” a familiar voice said gruffly. “Ava, are you awake?”

“Dad?”

I strained in my chair, turning my head as far as it could go to see him. My father was in a similarly compromising position, backed up against mine in his own chair. Much to my alarm, our captors had roughed him up a great deal. His nose was broken, old and crusted blood staining his upper lip and chin. His right eye was swollen shut, and his suit jacket was ripped from rough handling.

“W-Where are we?” I asked, shivering uncontrollably. “Dad, what’s going on?”

“Don’t worry, Ava, I’ll get us out of this. I won’t let them do anything to you.”

“Don’t worry? How am I not supposed to worry, Dad?”

“We have a few minutes before they get back,” he said. “I’ve been watching them. There aren’t that many. Six of them, tops. We just need to find a window to escape.”

“How are we supposed to escape when our hands and feet are literally tied?”

“I’m working on that. Just try to stay calm.”

I took a deep, shaky breath. As freaked out as I was, Dad was right. Panicking would only harm us more. “A-Are you okay?” I asked him. “Did they hurt you?”

“I’ll be fine, but the important thing is did they hurt you?”

My eyes were so dry I could hear myself blinking. Try as I might, I couldn’t recall what happened to me after they threw me into the van and pointed a gun at my head. I was missing an alarming amount of time. Did I faint? It made sense if I did, considering my kidnapping wasn’t the first major shock of the day.

“I’m alright,” I assured. “My bodyguard pushed me out of the way just in—” The memory of Wilson being hit by the van slapped me across the face. “Oh, my God, Dad. My bodyguard, he’s— I think he might be—” My shoulders shook as violent sobs ripped from my throat. “I think he might be dead.”

I was going to be sick for the second time that day, pregnancy unrelated. Poor Wilson. If only I hadn’t asked to go out for a walk, none of this would have happened.

I tried to close my eyes, forcing the images out of my head. I failed. The more I thought about it, the more fixated I became. The screech of tires, the crack of bones, the slump of Wilson’s body.

What if it had been Theo?

My lungs burned. What if these monsters had attacked while I was still under Theo’s protection? What if they’d hurt him trying to get to me? What if it was Theo’s limp body on the ground instead, while I was helpless to stop any of it?

My father shushed me. Not harshly, but gently, like he used to long ago when I suffered a terrible nightmare. “We’re going to get through this,” he said. “Right now, we need to focus on one step at a time. Can you do that, Ava?”

I swallowed. “Y-Yeah. I think so.”

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I’ll make this right, I swear.”

This was weird. My father willingly apologizing wasn’t a concept I was familiar with.

“I had a moment of clarity while you were out.” He hung his head gravely. “The other night at dinner, when you told me I shouldn’t use you as a means to my ends… That really hit me, Ava. It was never my intention to treat you so…”

“Shitty?”

“Yes. Shitty.” He huffed a laugh. “I’ve been a terrible father. When you told me not to invite you to dinner… I don’t know. I was upset about it at first. I thought you were being disrespectful. Now I see you were just standing up for yourself.”

“Like you taught me to.”

“Right. I’ve been so blind, Ava. I lost track of what mattered. I got into politics because I thought I could make a difference. I don’t know when the job became more important than my family. And now people are targeting you because of me and I can barely live with myself. I’m so sorry, Ava.”

I tipped my head back, gently tapping it against his. “Let’s save this conversation for after we’ve gotten out of here, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You said they’re on shifts?”

“Yes. I don’t know where we are, exactly, but they always have someone posted at that door. See?”

I squinted, struggling to make out shapes in the dark. I spotted the door in question, a faint shadow of someone’s feet visible between the crack at the base and the floor. “There aren’t any other exits?”

“Not that I can see.”

“Not that it’ll mean anything unless we get loose first.”

“Do you think your nails are sharp enough to cut through my zip ties?”

“My nails aren’t made of steel, Dad.”

“It was just a thought.”

“What if we—”

The door burst open, blinding white light exploding into the space. My eyes burned, the sudden change in exposure enough to make me hiss.

“Well, well, well,” someone drawled. I recognized the voice of the man who’d held me at gunpoint in the van. “Looks like everyone’s awake. Fantastic.”

“Let my daughter go, Santos!” Dad demanded. “She has nothing to do with this. Let her go and you can do whatever you want to me.”

The man approached, a wicked grin stretching across his lips. “Michael Santos,” he introduced. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Ava. I’ve been watching you for quite some time now. Did you know you’re a difficult person to get to? All thanks to Daddy’s fancy security service he hired using taxpayer money. No matter. I took care of it.”

“What do you want with us?” I demanded. “Let us go.”

“It’s funny you think you’re in any position to negotiate.”

“Don’t you think this is extreme? You want to hurt us because you disagree with a few of my father’s policies?”

Michael sneered. “Men like your father walk all over people like me. Good people who’ve struggled for everything they have. You wouldn’t understand. You were born with a silver fucking spoon in your mouth.”

I scoffed. “You don’t know me. Everything I have, I worked hard for.”

“I’m sure,” he replied dryly.

“It’s true! And a good person wouldn’t resort to violence just because of a difference of opinion. You’re nothing but a monster—”

A sharp sting radiated across my right cheek. Michael’s hand was still suspended in the air from the follow through of his slap. I didn’t make a sound, too furious and indignant to give him the gratification of a yelp. I glared at him, silently plotting what I’d do in retaliation the second my hands were free.

“I’d watch your fucking mouth,” Michael snarled. “I was only planning on dumping the senator’s body on Capitol Hill, but I have no problem dropping you off, too. Maybe it’ll make people think twice about destroying the earth and its resources.”

“Don’t do this,” Dad pleaded. “Please, we can talk this out.”

“The time for talking has passed, Senator Cruise. This is the only way I can get our cause’s message across.”

I growled. “If this is the only way you can get your message across, it must be a pretty shitty message.”

Michael struck me again, this time hard enough to leave my ears ringing. “What did I say about watching your fucking mouth?” He wound a fist back with the intent to swing, panic rising into my throat.

“Wait, don’t!” I screeched. “I’m pregnant!”