Home > Honor Avenged (HORNET #6)(7)

Honor Avenged (HORNET #6)(7)
Author: Tonya Burrows

   Like it or not, their paths to revenge were on a crash course now.

 

 

Chapter Four


   Los Angeles, California

   Eight Months Later

   Leah checked her lipstick in the visor mirror of her Kia Sorento, which currently smelled like spoiled milk. One of the twins—probably Cooper, because he was her little troublemaker—had dumped his drink after she rushed them through a drive-thru for dinner last night, but she hadn’t had the chance to do more than blot up the mess with napkins. So now her car reeked. It was just the cherry on top of her week from hell.

   But maybe today things would turn around. Maybe the worst was behind her.

   She finally had a buyer interested in one of her houses that had been a nightmare to renovate. A complete money pit she couldn’t wait to be rid of. She’d finally finished moving out of the three thousand square foot house she’d shared with her husband in North Hollywood and into a town house in Glendale, much more manageable for a widow living on a significantly smaller budget. Danny’s life insurance and other death benefits made sure her family wouldn’t starve, despite her recent less-than-stellar paychecks. But she now had three kids to put through school on her own and the huge house that had once been her and Danny’s dream had become an albatross around her neck.

   Cooper and Colton had been excited about switching schools, but Maya had been less than thrilled. If the last couple weeks were any indication of the girl’s upcoming teenage years, God help them both. Leah didn’t know if she’d survive it.

   Oh, Danny. I miss you.

   Tears flooded her eyes, spilled over. They happened less often now, so rarely that they always caught her off guard when her vision started to blur. The intense pain of losing him had dulled to an ache as the months dragged on, as her life settled into a new normal that didn’t include the man she’d loved since she was sixteen years old. She doubted she’d ever be completely rid of the ache, and in truth didn’t know if she wanted to be, but she could function with it. Some days, she even forgot about it until a stray thought sharpened the edge and it cut through her again.

   Shit. She was ruining her makeup.

   She sniffled and grabbed her purse from the passenger seat. Using a makeup removing wipe, she cleaned her face. She didn’t have time to completely redo everything, so she settled on a bit of mascara and a swipe of lipstick. Then she changed her mind about the lipstick. It was too bright and made her look like a child playing in her mother’s makeup. She wiped it away and replaced it with a nude lip gloss.

   She checked her reflection again. The makeup had done nothing to hide how exhausted she was. Her blond waves were falling out of the professional bun she’d tucked them into before dropping the kids at school. Her eyes felt gritty and her contacts slid out of place every time she blinked. Her emerald green blouse was wrinkled, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d washed these black pants, and the thought of trading her sneakers for the heels in her back seat made her wince.

   Dammit. Nobody was going to buy a seven-million-dollar house when their real estate agent looked like she’d just rolled out of bed. Especially not Clarence Hayes—multi-millionaire real estate mogul, the founder and CEO of Aid First, one of the biggest humanitarian aid organizations in the world, and a public darling for the upcoming presidential election cycle. He hadn’t announced his intentions to run yet, but everyone knew it was just a matter of time. She’d been beyond thrilled when he called her to view this house and potentially buy it for his daughter. Now she just wanted to get the showing over as fast as possible so she could tackle the gazillion other things on her to-do list.

   No. She couldn’t think like that, couldn’t seem distracted when Hayes arrived. She had to focus. She needed this sale. This house would put her kids through college with a bit left over for an emergency fund.

   She had to pull up her big-girl panties and fix this.

   She took down her hair, ran her fingers through the loose blond waves. She pulled off the blouse. Her satin tank top underneath clung to her figure a bit too much for her liking, but she had a non-wrinkling blazer in the trunk she could throw over it. As for the heels… Well, she’d just have to suck it up. She’d birthed three babies. She could wear heels for an hour.

   In the rearview mirror, she watched a dark car inch by the open gate at the end of the drive. That had to be Hayes. Nobody who lived in the area would drive by that slowly. Any minute now, he’d realize his mistake and turn around.

   She checked her reflection one more time. Not perfect, but she’d make it work. She tried out a smile. It felt forced. She relaxed her face, drew in several deep breaths, then tried again. That was more like it.

   She would sell this house.

   She would make sure her kids had the life she and Danny had hoped for them.

   She was a warrior. A survivor. A mama bear. A queen.

   She had this.

   She put on her heels, got out of the car, and waited, but the dark car didn’t reappear. Minutes ticked by and nobody showed. She checked her phone for the time.

   He was late.

   Her hand started to shake. Oh no. Please don’t ghost me.

   Nope. She shut down that line of thinking and stuffed her phone into the inside pocket of her blazer. Positive thoughts only. He was late, but it was no big deal. People, especially rich people, often operated on their own time schedules. So this wasn’t an emergency yet. It just meant she had time to go inside and do another quick sweep to make sure everything was perfect.

   The house was already unlocked from her earlier walk-through. She opened one half of the big double doors and stepped inside. Her heels clicked across the tile of the foyer, echoing off the empty walls and the high ceiling. She would have preferred to hire stagers to fill the place with furniture before the showing, but the potential buyer had wanted to see it ASAP. She hadn’t had time to find anyone. She’d brought a vase of bright flowers for the kitchen island, and they provided a much-needed splash of life and color in the too-white, too-metallic kitchen. The whole house was too cold and sterile, if you asked her. But some people went for that look, and she wasn’t planning to live here. She was just trying to sell it.

   Hopefully Hayes was into hospital chic.

   Off the kitchen were a breakfast nook and the main living area. Two walls of windows folded back to open the space up to the backyard patio. She should open those windows, because the view would sell this house. Beyond the patio and infinity pool, which seemed to drop off the edge of a cliff, a blue stretch of the Pacific crashed against the rocky cliffside. In the distance to the north, you could just see Malibu Beach and the pier.

   One of the panels wasn’t folding up right, kept snagging on something. She bent to fix it—

   Glass exploded around her, rained down in little shards that bit into her skin.

   What the…?

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