The Darkness of Perfection Read Online Free PDF

not even be her,” he said for the hundredth time, playing devil’s advocate and trying to make me see reason. He was my closest friend and confidante over the years. He was there and knew my feelings about Jayden. “Be real for just a minute, would you? I mean, what are the chances? She disappears for all these years only to turn up on your cruise, running smack-dab into you? That’s a million-to-one shot in the best of circumstances. You wouldn’t even play those odds, and you know it.”
    He blew out a frustrated breath at my silence, knowing his words fell on deaf ears, and rubbed his face in annoyance. Daniel had followed in his father’s footsteps and taken over as the family attorney upon his death. It was his job to offer counsel and handle all our legal affairs. He also dealt with the Feds who’d been snooping more and more into our affairs over the last couple of years.
    “Nick, man, I just don’t want to see you do something stupid that draws attention to your family right now. You can’t afford rash actions.”
    “It’s her.” I said with conviction, my eyes never leaving her. I saw my men waiting in the distance to fall in behind her family. They would continue watching over her until everything was ready, and then I would bring her home. “I want those background checks on her family. I want to know who that man is. We both know where her father is.”
    I had no clue who the man was she was calling “Dad” or the boy she said was her brother. Her father was dead and rotting in the foundation of one of the high rises in downtown Houston, and she never had a brother; she was an only child. I didn’t recognize her mother, either. I never paid attention to her the few times I saw her as a kid, and she looked nothing like the old photograph I’d seen in my father’s office in the city. None of that mattered though; the scar was all the proof I needed that she was my long-lost Jayden.
    I absently rubbed my left thumb and forefinger together, remembering the feel of the line of slightly puckered skin on the back of her neck that assured me there was no mistake. Jayden had been with me four months when she received that scar.
    “Dad, how long does she have to stay in here this time?” I had asked, trying so hard not to let him knowhow worried I was about her. I knewshe was terrified and I only wanted to get her out of there. I wanted to take her back to my room and let her have her stuffed bear that I kept hidden in my closet.
    I tried not to show concern as I knelt in front of the wooden crate beside his desk. Her small fingers clenched and unclenched around the slates that made up her tiny prison as she tried to reach me. She had one eye pressed against the opening and I could see she was crying.
    She’d dropped my hot chocolate the other day when she brought it to me. The cup was too full and it sloshed over the rim and burned her fingers, causing her to drop it. The problem was, my father was walking by her on his way to the table at the same moment, and it spilled on his pant leg. He needed to get to a meeting, and was forced to miss breakfast because he had to change his suit.
    “Three more days should teach her to be more careful,” he answered calmly as he looked over his newspaper at me. She’d already been in there a day and a half. I picked up another small slice of apple from the plate on the corner of his desk and held it just out of reach of her fingers like he taught me. When she was being punished, the only food she could have was from mine or my father’s hand. I hated this. She had to beg before I could give it to her.
    “Pweethe. I’m so-sowy fo spiwing your ch-chochowat,” she whimpered as she struggled to reach the apple slice.
    My father viciously kicked the side of the crate repeatedly with his boot, causing her to scream and sob loudly. “Stop with the baby talk. Say it right or you get nothing,” he snapped angrily. When she was terrified, she would stutter and