Page 23 of Redeemed (Redeemed #1)

Chapter Nineteen

Kennedy

I knew that phone call wouldn’t be the end of Ashton Rose’s scolding, but I had no idea he would show up in person to choke his daughter out.

I’m sure, in his head, it was a more effective way to get his point across.

My father isn’t a stranger to punishing me, but he has usually tasked someone else with the job under the guise of “training.”

My closet door clicks shut, and my knees sink into the plush carpet as I give myself a moment to process what just happened.

A surprise visit from my father rarely comes with good news.

I have no idea how long he is staying or even the main reason for this visit.

Nothing matters outside of surviving however long Ashton Rose decides to torment us with his presence.

I dress in my black training gear, preparing for any possible jobs I could be sent on.

My hair is pulled up, shoes are on, and I’m ready to leave in ten minutes.

Nathan joins me, both of us ready to get this day over with.

It’s better for everyone if Ashton Rose is out of the city within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

“I need you to text the leaders. No street member is to step foot on the estate until AR is gone. The leaders need to be on standby until further notice,” I say as we head to the car.

There’s a slight comfort in knowing that Nathan has my back, until I remember that he’s the only person that could’ve told my father I changed the Garcia mission.

“How did my father find out what happened with the Garcia assignment?”

He stops scrolling on his phone, turning his narrow gaze to me. “How am I supposed to know? He showed up here this morning, unexpected, wanting to know where we were holding Garcia.”

I can hear the frustration in his voice, but for my peace of mind, I had to ask. My fist hits the side of the steering wheel in frustration.

“I really fucked up this time.”

“Yeah, Ashton’s hand around your neck was the clear indicator that he is beyond pissed at you.”

“I also haven’t informed him of the situation with the Hill’s restaurant. He may put a bullet through my skull.”

“No doubt about that.” He goes back to scrolling on his phone.

I snort at his dark humor and punch the side of the arm.

“You know, technically, you’re supposed to jump in front of any bullets for me. It’s part of the job description.”

He laughs at that but doesn’t comment.

“Cancel your plans for the foreseeable future. I need you with me as long as he’s here.”

“Already done.”

Wherever my father wants me to go, I need Nate to be close. We made a pact a long time ago, that it would always be us against him whenever it came to Ashton Rose.

Nathan leans back in his seat and focuses on me. “So, you ready to tell me about the situation that I found you in this morning?”

“No, I’m not ready to tell you anything because there’s nothing to tell.”

I will protect everything about this budding relationship with Alex. First to keep him safe, and second, selfishly, to keep him to myself as long as possible.

We pull up at the estate and the guards recognize my car, prompting them to open the gates immediately.

“Both of you looked like heartsick teenagers.” I can feel him watching me and analyzing every expression.

“There’s nothing different from any other causal relationship I’ve had in the past. We’re both in it for the sex and when he gets attached, I’ll cut him loose.”

“But what happens when you get attached?”

I pull into my parking spot, throwing the car in park before turning to look him in the eye. “Now, Nate, you know I don’t fall for anything, let alone a man.”

“Kennedy, don’t give your father more ammunition against you.” He opens the door and gets out without another word.

I take a moment to settle myself before walking into the estate, only to run into Ms. Kathy on my way to my office. My anxiousness lowers a bit because she usually puts my father in a good mood.

“Your father is here. He’s in a better mood than when he arrived. I made sure he had breakfast,” she says with a wink.

“Thank you, Momma K,” I whisper over my shoulder with a smirk.

I step up to my office door and wipe any remaining emotion from my face before knocking. Today this office isn’t mine, I’m simply a soldier for Ashton Rose to command.

“Enter.” The cold, gravelly voice comes through the door.

My father has paperwork covering my desk in organized stacks.

It’s amazing how harmless he looks with his glasses perched on his nose, working through inventory sheets.

I move to stand behind the chair in front of the desk until he either dismisses me or asks me to sit.

He doesn’t even look up to acknowledge my presence.

“Your ledgers are a mess. Where is the clean data?”

“They’ve been loaded into Excel spreadsheets, sir.”

The grip on the pen he’s holding tightens as he takes a deep breath. Outside of his tablet that he uses to read the news, Ashton Rose despises anything to do with technology. Meanwhile, I’m slowly trying to lead us into a new age.

He looks up at me with narrowed eyes. “You mean to tell me that you don’t have copies of your originals before you wrote all over these logs?”

Here it is, the smoking fucking gun that is going to catapult this day from bad to much worse.

“I can print copies of the original documents from my computer. We had a discrepancy with the money drops last week. The Hill restaurant was short on the money they were supposed to clean.”

“Print the documents and leave,” he demands through clenched teeth.

As I walk towards the kitchen, I text Nate, instructing him to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

When my phone chimes with a notification, I expect a response from Nathan, but it’s a message from Alexander.

I debate with myself whether I should open the message, but the day is already on rocky ground.

I can’t afford to be distracted while my father is here.

I swipe the notification away without reading it and go back to making my coffee.

Momma K comes walking through the back door with vegetables from the small garden she’s cultivated near the main house. Leave it to her to bring life and light to a place often centered around death and darkness.

“Fix me a cup, will you, hun,” she requests, ambling over to the sink to rinse her veggies before taking them over to the table.

I sit down at the table with her, releasing a deep sigh as I allow my mind to catch up with the craziness of this morning.

“He put that mark on your neck?” she asks, pointing the knife she’s using to cut her veggies in the direction of my throat.

“Yep.”

“Your mother would’ve killed him for that.”

The remark was meant to make me understand the depth of love my mother had for me, but it makes me mad.

“Well, my mother isn’t here.”

“It’s not because she didn’t want to be. Don’t let that man steal the little bit of joy you’ve allowed yourself to have in this life. You have a plan, trust yourself and work toward it.”

“We made a deal. For all his wrongs, I thought he would stay consistent in making the people who took her from me pay.”

For the second time today, my eyes fill with tears, but this time my chest tightens, and it becomes harder to take a deep breath. Then, Momma K is up on her feet, wrapping her arms around me like she would when I was a child crying for my mother.

“Then make him pay,” she whispers in my ear.

She holds me until I’m inhaling fully, without any trouble.

I put my head in my hands, thinking through her words, and they almost serve as confirmation that the path I’ve started down is destiny.

My mother’s death still deserves to be avenged, but I’m even more convicted about doing it on my own terms. My father will be mad, but this is an agreement we came to together.

I followed him blindly down this path of revenge and he can’t just shut me out.

Two hours pass with me working at the kitchen table, when my phone buzzes.

Ashton Rose: You and Nathan, report to my office.

Nathan meets me in the kitchen, and we walk to face my father together. Like when we arrived earlier, I knock on the door and wait for permission to enter the office.

“Come in,” my father bellows from beyond the door.

I walk in behind Nate, which is customary and a habit, for protection purposes. We both stand as my father assesses us both with a narrowed gaze.

“Let’s count your transgressions, shall we? Derailing a mission, allowing my money to be stolen, and failing to report all this to me in a timely manner. Am I forgetting anything?

“No, sir.”

Although, I don’t know how I exactly “allowed” his money to be stolen. As if I had the ability to prevent it from happening.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself? I’m of the right mind to make you come back to Texas with me.”

Nope. No. That will not be happening.

“We were able to recover money through Antonio Garcia’s online accounts. Also, we have it on good authority that his clientele responsible for selling in our zones hasn’t gotten a new dealer.”

It’s a fight to keep the smug look off my face because I know he wasn’t expecting that update. Money is the main way to gain respect from my father, so his tone is a little more agreeable when his next question comes.

“How long have you known who Antonio Garcia was?”

My eyes narrow because the Garcia assignment was just another game in the cat and mouse chase he’s been playing with Michael Ellis.

“The better question is, why didn’t you tell me who he was?”

I can feel Nathan’s gaze on the side of my face, but I can’t find it in me to care. This is my mother’s revenge we are talking about, not some shitty business deal gone bad.

“Do not forget this is my empire. It only becomes yours if I allow you to live long enough to take it over. We leave in fifteen minutes to make our rounds, and you will be in my car. Nathan, follow in Kennedy’s car. Leave me.”

We leave the office, and I slam the door behind me, aware that I’m acting like a petulant teenager, but I’m pissed. It also isn’t lost on me that his only focus is me taking over this godforsaken business. I would rather see it burned to the ground.