Deeper (The Deeper Chronicles #1) (19 page)

“Right,” Harry began. “The thing is, I got a letter from Ellie Linton.”

A cold sweat broke out over Avi’s body. If her blood could, it would have congealed. It became difficult to breathe. Her eyes misted in anticipation.

What has Mommy done now?

“What happened to my mother, detective?” She stood from her chair and paced her small kitchen.

“What? No, nothing. I mean nothing that I know about. This call is nothing bad, Avianna,” Harry rushed out his reassurances. “M-may I call you Avi?”

His uncertainty and stammering touched her. She wanted to say yes, but she was raised by Ellie after all. The breath she was holding quickly left her lungs, even though her heart still galloped. “Uh, no.”
Who is this man?
“How do you know my mother?” She repeated her question when he didn’t respond.

“Well, uh, that’s the reason I left my card.”

How would she even know a New York City cop?

“You see, your mother and I, well, we had a relationship.”

Avi shook her head, the web of confusion crowding her already cramped brain. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Can we meet?”

“What?”
No. No, she wouldn’t meet with this quack.
She flung herself onto the couch, one arm covering her eyes. “I’m meeting you nowhere anytime soon. As a matter of fact, I’ll be hang—”

“No,” Harry yelled. He lowered his voice. “No. Please. I-I...you’re my daughter.”

The phone slipped from Avi’s grip.

She sat up in a haste.

I must have heard him wrong. Yes, that’s it.

My father is dead.

Disbelief cramped her small living room.

Her hand fluttered up to her forehead and passed through her curls.

A weight landed hard on her chest.

Thump.

Thump.

The beat of her heart rang in her ears. Her gaze drifted over her sparse furnishings, but remained unseeing.

“Avi. Avianna,” Harry called out. “You answer me right now or you’ll find a squad car at your apartment building.”

The cloud cleared only a little. Harry’s voice bombarded her confused mind and she picked her phone up.

“I-I, this, this...” Her thoughts were all over the place. Her brain couldn’t keep up with the questions circulating that all demanded answers right away. A tear escaped onto her cheek.

“Fa-father?”
Can’t be.
“She told me you died,” Avi shared. The words came out soft.

She wouldn’t lie about this, or would she?

“Please, can we meet?” Harry begged.

Despite herself and her better judgment, she said, “Yes.”

Neither said anything else.

Avi shook her head with the intention to take back her hasty acceptance.

“Thank you. Thank you. I had no idea...”

It was his yearning that kept her cradling the phone to her ear. It was his palpable desperation that warmed her heart. Her grip on the cell phone was bone-crushing. Seconds ticked by before she found the ability to speak.

“O-okay.” She breathed deeply.

His laugh was rich, warm, and tinged with an undercurrent of ache. “
Okay
she says.”

Avi didn’t feel ridiculed. Her lips curled at one corner. Just the tiniest of grins. But it was there and wasn’t forced. “I-I guess I get my weird sense of humor from you?” She meant to make a statement, but instead, it came out as a question.

She didn’t know him...not at all. Her grin left her face. She was served a pack of lies from the person who raised her and claimed to have her best interest at heart. Avi’s head dropped backward as she looked up at her ceiling.

“Look, I won’t go back on my word...”
That’s not who I am.
Aloud she said, “We can meet somewhere that’s public and in the daytime. That’s all I ask.”

“Are you free this Sunday? There’s a place I know.”

Harry hung up the phone with a wide smile on his face.

He walked back to his desk with his head held high and his chest puffed out.

“What’s up with your shit-eating grin?” Frank asked, head bent while he typed on the computer. “Don’t you meet with IA in a few?”

Not even the infernal Internal Affairs and their ass-backward inquiry would get him down.
I’m meeting Avi, my flesh and blood, in six days.
He felt as weightless as air and floated as he sat on his chair. He kicked his feet up on top of the desk and leaned back in the chair.

Frank raised his head. “Listen, I didn’t throw you under the bus or nothing.”

Harry’s brow wrinkled, his smile disappearing.

“All I’m saying is I answered their questions and only those.”

Harry’s feet dropped to the ground.

“They had a lot of damn questions, too.”

Harry was tempted to ask for more information, but Frank always played by the book and probably wouldn’t reveal anything.

“IA can kiss my ass. They’re barking up the wrong tree.”

“That’s what I told ‘em.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Harry said.

“Who’s the woman who put you in such a good mood?”

Harry’s hands became busy with folders on his desk. “No one you’d know.”

For now, his main goal was meeting his daughter and introducing her to the rest of his family. IA had nothing on him, so he wasn’t going to worry about the investigators, not when he had a bigger fish to catch, whose name was Ido.

I just hope Noah can come back with a solid lead.

A loud handclap helped settled the rambunctious voices vying for attention from their peers and the one adult in the room.

“Children, remember to take home your pictures to show your moms and dads how well we’re doing with our numbers,” Avi said with a smile.

The end of day bell rang just as hands shot up in the air.

God knows I’m beat.

Avi ushered the students through the door and outside, where she was grateful for the parents who picked up their children on time. Amidst the many ‘see you laters’ from little squeaky voices and ‘have a great weekend’ from mature ones who understood another adult’s pleasure at the end of a Friday afternoon, Avi walked back to her classroom, looking forward to a relaxing evening.

“Hey, you,” Sofie peeked around Avi’s room door.

Nestling farther into the leather chair Sofie had gifted her with last week, Avi didn’t open her eyes.

She felt a nudge on her knee. “So you’re just going to sit there and pretend today isn’t the day?”

Avi opened her eyelids to Sofie’s raised brow and folded arms. “You’re so nosey.” Avi’s head shook. “Can’t you throw an old woman a bone?” she continued, putting as much pretend annoyance in her tone as she could muster.

Sofie, much to Avi’s chagrin, mimed playing a small air violin. “Give me the deets. You’ve been dodging me all week.” She smiled.

Avi rolled her eyes.

“Come on. Inquiring minds want to know,” Sofie said. “Have you spoken to Jayson? What did you say to Noah? I’ve got all the time in the world.” She pulled up a chair and placed her feet up on Avi’s desk.

Avi exhale loudly. “No, I haven’t spoken to Jayson, and I don’t know if I ever will. And, I gave Noah a piece of my mind.”
Well, not for long, but...

“I’m kind of glad about Jayson.” She gave Avi a thumbs up. “But what did Noah say? Did this ‘piece of mind’ involve a lot of shouting, or maybe...?” Sofie wiggled her brows.

“Get your mind out of the gutter.” One of Avi’s shoulders lifted then fell. “We spoke.”
Maybe if I don’t look at her, she’ll take my word.

“Avi...” Sofie’s tone hinted she knew more.

“Sofie,” she replied.

“Avi...”

She picked her head up.

“What?”

“Don’t ‘what’ me,” Sofie shot back, pointing an accusing finger at her. “What the hell went down in that bedroom, because I’m not buying your ‘we spoke’ line.”

Her lips parted to tell her to mind her business, but different words flew off her tongue. As Avi spoke, Sofie’s emotions were clearly displayed on her face, which ran the gamut: curious, impatient, and finally settling on concerned.

Avi paused for a breath. “Thank God for that phone call.”

Even now, she was relieved for the interruption that allowed sanity to come back to her. However, at nights, haunted by dreams of her and Noah, she wondered if leaving was a mistake.

“Who was on the phone?” Sofie asked.

“I don’t know. I hightailed it out of that room as fast as I could. Then my weekend continued on its high roll,” she continued sarcastically. “I came home to a detective’s card in my mailbox. Scared the hell out of me.” She became somber, remembering the revelations during the call. “Seems my father isn’t dead after all.”

“What? Really?”

“And, I’m meeting him in two days.” She took a breath.

The rest of her life’s story weighed her down, but her friend voiced a question, stumping Avi.

“Why would your mother lie?”

“I-I don’t know.”

Growing up, she never considered her mother to be a liar, but then again, Avi only saw her through the rose-colored lenses through which all children viewed their parents.

“Will you ask her?”

It took Avi a while to answer, then she said low, “I don’t know.”