“Then who’s responsible for Josh?” Emma finally asked. “And shooting up the buildings?”

“We’ll have to wait and see who’s stupid enough to gloat.”

“What if they don’t?” Emma asked as she got comfortable against Cain.

“The word to concentrate on, lass, is stupid. When someone runs up the hill and declares themselves king, they want the world to know it.” She kissed Emma’s forehead and tried to bleed off the anger still strumming through her body. “That’s when they figure out there’s already a king of the hill, and she’s not at all forgiving.”

Chapter Thirteen

Nicola closed her eyes as the private plane they’d chartered started its descent into New Jersey. She wasn’t ready to fly commercial yet, not wanting to put her face out there any more than she had to. It was better to stay dead until her miraculous resurrection.

Her problems now were so much more than what she faced with her family. The name her girls had put on their schoolwork was seared into her brain, and she had to open her eyes to dispel the image. Whoever Finley Abbott was, one thing was clear. Abigail had moved on, and her children were in total lockstep. Some other woman had taken what was hers.

“Where do you want to start?” Nina asked.

She curled her hand into a fist and counted to ten before stretching it out again. “Call Sacha and set a meeting. Tell him to bring only two of his representatives, and we’ll do the same.”

“You know he’s not going to do that, and if you set up a meeting, he’s going to take it as an invitation to take you down.”

Nina, she realized, issued these helpful hints because she cared about her, but she was tired of giving orders over and over again. “Call him and set it up. I’ve known Sacha for most of his pathetic life, and I know how ambitious he is. If I don’t do this, he’ll try to use my hiding as proof that I need to be taken down. Showing weakness isn’t the Antakov way.”

“I’m only trying to protect you.”

She turned and faced Nina and waited for her to nod. It took longer than she was comfortable with, but Nina gave her what she wanted. “I’m going to show him that taking things that don’t belong to him could cost him his head. So make the arrangements.”

Forty minutes later they taxied to a private hangar, and they were able to get into the waiting cars without anyone seeing them. They made their way into the city and her apartment in Trump Tower. “Call me when you set up the meeting,” she told Nina when they exited the cars in the garage.

“Let me walk you up,” Nina said, walking around to her side.