The Hawthorne Legacy (The Inheritance Games #2)(77)

Grayson knocked again, and all he got for his effort was a large rock chucked at him from somewhere up above.

“I don’t like this,” Oren said stonily.

Neither did I, but we were so close—not just to Toby but to answers. I have a secret.…

I knew so much now that I hadn’t before. Maybe I knew everything. but I couldn’t help feeling like this was my chance—maybe my last chance—to know for sure, to know my mom in a way that I’d never known her before.

To understand what she and Toby had.

“See if he’ll talk to me,” I told Grayson. “Tell him…” My voice caught. “Tell him that Hannah’s daughter is on the phone. Hannah Rooney.” That was the first time I had said the name my mom had been born with. The name she’d never told me.

The image on the phone screen went blurry for a moment. Grayson must have lowered the phone. I heard him in the background, yelling something.

Talk to me, I willed Jackson Currie from a distance. Tell me anything and everything you know. About Toby. About my mom. About whatever it is that Toby left with you.

“I told him.” Grayson’s face came back into focus. “No reply. I think we—”

I never got to hear the rest of what Grayson thought, because a moment later, I heard the distinct sound of metal on metal. Dead bolts, I realized, being thrown open.

Grayson turned the camera in time for me to see the metal door creak open. All I saw at first was Jackson Currie’s enormous beard—but then I saw his narrowed eyes.

“Where is she?” he grunted.

“Here,” I said, my voice verging on a yell. “I’m here. I’m Hannah’s daughter.”

“No.” He spat. “Don’t trust phones.” And just like that, he slammed the door.

“What does he mean, he doesn’t trust phones?” Jameson demanded. “What’s not to trust?”

My thoughts were elsewhere. We knew now that Jackson Currie would talk to me. He wouldn’t talk to Grayson. He hadn’t talked to Tobias Hawthorne’s investigators. He was paranoid and pretty much a shut-in. He didn’t trust phones.

But he would talk to me—in person.

“I’ll call you back,” I told Grayson, and then I placed another phone call—to Alisa. “I’m allowed to spend three nights per month away from Hawthorne House. So far, I’ve only spent one.”





CHAPTER 74


Alisa didn’t like the idea of my visiting Hawthorne Island. Oren liked it even less. But there was no stopping me now.

“Fine.” Oren gave me a look. “I will arrange security for you.” His eyes narrowed. “And only you.”

Beside me, Xander jumped to his feet. “I object!”

“Overruled.” Oren’s reply was immediate. “We will be flying into a high-threat situation. I want at least an eight-person security team on the ground. We can’t afford a single distraction. Avery is the package—the only package—or I will duct-tape all three of you to chairs and call it a day.”

All three of us. My eyes found their way to Jameson’s. I waited for him to argue with Oren. Jameson Winchester Hawthorne had never sat out a race in his life. He wasn’t capable of it. So why wasn’t he attempting to negotiate with Oren now?

Jameson noticed something about the way I was looking at him. “What?”

“You’re not going to complain about this?” I stared at him.

“Why would I, Heiress?”

Because you play to win. Because Grayson’s already there. Because this was our game—yours and mine—before it was anyone else’s. I tried to stop myself there. Because your brother kissed me. Because when you and I kiss, you feel it, the same way I do.

I wasn’t about to say a single word of that out loud. “Fine.” I kept my eyes on Jameson’s a moment longer, then turned to Oren. “I’ll go alone.”





It took a little under four hours to fly from Texas to the Oregon coast. Including travel time to and from the airport on each side, that was closer to five. I was standing on Jackson Currie’s doorstep—such as it was—by dusk.

“Are you ready?” Grayson asked beside me, his voice low.

I nodded.

“Your men will have to stay back,” Grayson told Oren. “They can set up a perimeter, but I’d bet a very large amount of money that Currie will not open the door if Avery shows up with her own army.”

Oren nodded to his men and made some kind of hand signal, and they spread out. If this went as planned, my mother’s family would never even know I was here. But if they figured it out, small-time criminals didn’t hold a candle to the power of the Hawthornes.

My power, now. I tried to really believe that as I reached forward and knocked on Jackson Currie’s door. My first knock was hesitant, but then I banged with my fist.

“I’m here!” I said. “For real this time.” No response. “My name’s Avery. I’m Hannah’s daughter.” If I had come all this way and he still wouldn’t open the door, I didn’t know what I would do. “Toby wrote my mother postcards.” I kept yelling. “He said that if she ever needed anything, she should come here. I know you saved Toby’s life after the fire. I know my mom helped you. I know that they were in love. I don’t know if her family found out, or what happened exactly—”