Page 57 of Trial of Deceit (The Family’s Oath #1)

Chapter thirty-six

S ince Jediah gave his mother her greatest desire, life was going good.

No, great.

Ashari and Jediah were closer than ever.

The entirety of Jamaica was open for Jediah to roam.

Still, he remained on edge. It’d been some months since he transferred power to his mother in February.

With much convincing, Ashari had finally gotten Jediah to agree to a trip to a Kingston restaurant for a romantic getaway dinner.

“What are you thinking about?” Jediah asked, helping Ashari stand from the table.

“How I could barely enjoy my food ’cause you kept looking over your shoulder,” Ashari joked, joining their hands as they moved toward the restaurant’s entrance, which also served as one of its exits.

“I’m on edge. Mi work hard fi dis, but it feel weird being in Kingston—”

Ashari squeezed his hand. “Relax. Nothing’s gonna happen to you.”

“Easy for you to say,” he grumbled.

Ashari rolled her eyes. “Cedella’s hospital is right around the corner if you want her to give you something for the nerves.”

Jediah chuckled. “Look at you taking advantage of your newfound resources.”

She grinned. “Remember I’m a Richardson, too.”

“Yeah, I guess you are,” he teased, making her gasp. Jediah grinned at her while opening the door.

They stepped out into the cool night air.

Jediah looked before him, then his body froze.

“Hands in the air!” came a yell.

Ashari’s heart raced, her hand loosening from Jediah’s grip and falling to her side.

Her fingers began undoing the zip on her clutch.

She watched through wide eyes as a convoy of police cars pulled closer to the curb, blinding blue lights flashing atop them.

Loud gasps came from the patrons behind them.

Jediah shoved Ashari behind him. He turned his head from one side to the next, encountering nothing but a wall of police personnel behind a barricade.

Not all of them were armed. Some of them held onto leashes of dogs, spit dripping from their long canines as they barked and snarled at Jediah and Ashari.

Feet shuffled behind them as Jediah took a step backward, forcing Ashari to take one, too. They could run back into the building, but it wouldn’t make any sense. By the police’s formation, Ashari knew the entire building was surrounded.

“Hands in the air!” ordered a louder, more impatient voice from within the crowd.

Ashari’s eyes darted around, but she couldn’t place who the voice belonged to or where exactly it stemmed from.

“I know my rights,” Jediah gritted out.

“Rights?” came that same voice, and Ashari’s blood ran cold. The person stepped through the blockade, donned in a bullet proof vest with his stance sharp.

Senior.

Jediah went rigid.

Ashari stumbled a few paces backward.

This couldn’t be happening.

It shouldn’t have been right now—

Toby’s eyes met Ashari’s. “I’m giving you one last chance to make things right.”

Those words made the world slow around Ashari.

Yet, somehow, her heart was the only thing that continued at an irregular pace.

Beat.

Beat.

Beat.

Every thrum played louder in her ear.

As Jediah looked over his shoulder.

As his lips loosened from shock, then pulled into a straight line.

As he sneered at her with a ferocity she never knew she could be at the receiving end of again.

Jediah’s eyes darted to the barrel of Ashari’s raised gun before he looked her in the eyes. There was no love or lust. No understanding or comfort. Just plain hatred and malice for the woman who’d promised to never betray him again.

Her hand holding the gun trembled. Tears formed in her eyes as she dropped her open clutch, its contents spilling onto the ground as she barely managed to hold the pistol tighter. “Just raise your hands, Jediah,” she begged, her voice weak. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“Ashari,” he spat. “I swear, when mi done wid yu—”

She pulled the trigger.

Her eyes snapped shut in the seconds it took the bullet to travel.

She couldn’t bear watching it rip through Jediah’s tailored tuxedo.

A sob ripped from her throat at the sound of feet swarming forward from every direction.

Ashari flicked on the safety and tossed the gun to the side as if it burned.

Jediah hurled curses, unable to mask the pain caused by the sting of the bullet, as the police slammed his body into the ground.

“Jediah Richardson, you’re under arrest for the murder of F.B.I. agent, Romar Payne,” said a local law enforcement officer.

Ashari forced her eyes open. Toby stood closeby, watching as local law enforcement kneeled in Jediah’s lower back to restrain his flailing body. Ashari’s eyes drifted to Jediah’s face, being pressed against the grimy ground while another officer handcuffed him.

She wanted to yell for them to be gentle.

They were hurting him.

The arrest needed to be quick or else he’d bleed out before he got to the closest hospital.

Her eyes searched his body for where she’d shot him, but it was hard to tell through a teary vision and the bustling commotion. Ashari wiped the back of her hand across her eyes, then stooped to take up her gun. As her finger hit the cold metal, a mocking chant formed in her head.

Ashari: three.

Ashari: three.

Ashari: three.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been staring at the scratches on the metal table. However long it’d been, it was enough time for all the long lines of different shapes and sizes to blur before her vision. It was when they started to refocus, she realized that she wasn’t alone.

Ashari looked from the scratches to Senior. He towered above her, his frame blocking some of the light emitted from the ceiling bulb in the interrogation room.

He stared at her for a nerve-wracking moment before releasing a long sigh. Toby pulled out the other chair, then sat on it. Clasping his hands atop the cold table, he said, “This case is a misfortune.”

“How?” Ashari asked, her voice hoarse. She cleared her parched throat.

“Do you want some water?”

Ashari shook her head. Water was comfort. She didn’t want to become comfortable in this stuffy room.

“It’s a misfortune because what you’ve achieved isn’t the goal of your assignment,” Toby said while shuffling the paperwork atop the table.

“I still got him arrested.”

Toby shrugged. “A dead F.B.I. agent is one thing, but with the only known witness being a wife…”

Ashari’s brows crinkled as she listened to him.

That wasn’t what she’d told him. She’d clearly stated that she’d been the one to kill Romar, bury him, then fight the urge to cry when Jediah dug up the rotting body.

She’d vomited twice in the SUV when Jediah drove them to a mortuary, and had fussed over which urn would be the perfect forever-home for her brother.

A shiny white one, branded with the mortuary’s name on the bottom, was ideal. White was pure. Innocent. Just like the relationship she and her brother had before they knew what sibling rivalry or perverse feelings were.

Toby gave her a hard glare. It was one Ashari knew all too well: he was warning her to be quiet. Walls had ears, and they were always listening.

“We are fortunate that the mortuary keeps physical records of all its visitors and cremations. Worse case scenario, you would’ve been lucky that spousal immunity can be waived.

Regardless, this is not enough to have Jediah arrested for all his crimes against the United States, but at least I’ll be able to sleep better at night knowing Romar’s killer will be brought to justice. That is all thanks to you,” Toby said.

Tears rushed to Ashari’s eyes. Her bottom lip trembled.

“However, if you’d never gotten too close, you really would’ve become my greatest protégée,” Toby added.

Sighing, Ashari blinked away the tears and focused on the table. Those words were like a knife in her heart. “What happens now?” she asked instead of voicing her dismay that he didn’t allow her to have this one win without tearing her down.

“It’s best if you choose a different career path. The F.B.I. isn’t ideal for you.”

Closing her eyes, she nodded. When it felt like she wouldn’t burst into a fit of tears, she opened her eyes to look at her father. He didn’t react as she gave him a tight-lipped smile, then stood.

Ashari exited the interrogation room. She kept her head high and her shoulders straight as she walked down the hallway. The door leading into the observation room opened.

Lyssa exited with a thick file in her hand. She wore a bright smile. “Here are the divorce papers!”

Ashari’s urge to roll her eyes was overpowered by a forced smile. “I must’ve forgotten to sign them when I was filling out the rest of the case’s paperwork.”

“I understand. You can fill them out when you come back to the office tomorrow. We can also review Isley’s case file together so we can ensure he kept up all ends of the deal,” Lyssa said and lowered her hand.

“Yeah,” Ashari said. “Tomorrow.”

Lyssa licked her dry lips, then whispered, “I’ll call you later?”

“Honestly, Lyssa… After all that’s happened since last night, I just wanna get some rest.”

Lyssa nodded. “I understand. I’ll see you later.”

Ashari forced another smile, then walked away.

She ignored the whispers and stares of her colleagues as she entered the elevator, exited after arriving in the lobby, then continued toward the exit of the building.

Now that the operation was over, the F.B.I.

would finalize Jediah’s extradition, then return to America.

Now outside, Ashari inhaled a large breath of the misty morning air. It was nearing six a.m. If her body allowed it, she’d be getting a good rest later.

Ashari continued toward the escort Toby arranged for her.

Along the walkway, people idled. Ashari turned her back to the car, observing the cluster of job seekers.

Some sat on the benches with files resting on their laps.

Others stood, impatiently tapping their feet while glancing at their wristwatches.

Ashari was unsure what the local law enforcement would do with this building.

It’d been vacant for a long while before they gave it to the F.B.I.

to perform its tasks. Maybe, it’d become a real call center.

So many people wouldn’t be left feeling disappointed after they learned that their job applications were denied.

She should’ve been ecstatic that the case was finally closed, so why did she have the same harrowing feeling in her chest?

Forcing away the feeling, she spun around.

She slammed into a man that was approaching the building, almost falling over.

The man grabbed her arms, squeezing it tightly to hold her steady.

He rushed out an apology before releasing her and moving toward the crowd, who were all on their feet and moving toward the building as the clock struck six.

Ashari entered the car, barely muttering a greeting to Sanjae as he drove off. He dropped her off at the house Toby stayed at during the operation.

After Ashari assured him she’d be okay, Sanjae left her by herself.

Ashari went to the room she’d slept in only once — the first night she flew from America to get herself re-accustomed to a Jamaican lifestyle and better learn Jediah’s lifestyles for her case.

Surprised to find it untouched, Ashari moved to the closet.

She grabbed a bag, then began packing as much as she could into it.

Minutes later, the sound of the front door being opened startled her.

Ashari froze.

Her eyes darted side-to-side, desperate to find a weapon.

No one should be here.

No one should know about this house.

Sanjae had taken a lot of detours and backroads to get her here. They couldn’t have been followed. This private scheme needed an access code just to get past the gate.

Ashari’s mouth dried. Her tongue became heavy in her mouth while her heart began to race.

She was about to dart to the first hiding spot she could find, when a voice halted her.

“Ashari?” came the voice again.

Releasing a long breath, Ashari continued packing. “Why are you here?” she asked as Toby appeared in the doorway. She thought her father would’ve been on his way to the hospital to taunt Jediah about how badly he was going to be tortured once he was healed enough to go on a plane.

“I didn’t feel good knowing you’re home alone,” Toby answered. “Where are you going?”

Finding a keychain that had a family portrait of herself, mother, brother, and father, Ashari tucked it into the side of the bag.

She tossed the heavy bag over her shoulder, then faced her father.

“To find a new meaning for my life,” she confessed.

“I know that you won’t say it to my face ’cause you love us equally, but I know that deep down, your sadness won’t make you look at me the same again.

I’m not the daughter you wanted, but I’m the one you got.

I should’ve said this back at the office: I’m sorry I disappointed you, Senior. ”

Toby was quiet for a moment that almost dragged on forever.

Finally, he moved from the doorway. He stopped before her, then pulled her into a hug.

Stunned, a few seconds drifted away before Ashari found the strength to return the hug. She laid her head against his chest, feeling his heart thud against her head while she released a long, contented sigh.

Toby placed a kiss on her head. He pulled back, but he didn’t free her from the hug. “Where will you search for this new purpose? You’re all I have now. I hope you’re not planning to leave me forever.”

“We’ll see,” Ashari joked, chuckling as she pulled away completely. She clutched the strap of her bag, moving toward the room’s exit and saying over her shoulder with a small smile, “I’ve never been to another island before.”