Prologue

I wiped the sweat from my brow and shifted the phone to my other ear. “Look, Edna. I can’t come back for her now. That’s why I send money. You’re her grandmother. Your daughter had the custody, not me.”

The sound that came through the line was Edna’s last nerve snapping. “She’s your daughter, and I’m fifty-eight. I already raised my children. Besides, she doesn’t need your money. She needs a father.”

“Fine, I’ll up the allowance. How’s that? I’m not even in the country. I can’t raise a daughter in this—Look, I’m about to get on a plane, okay? I don’t have time for this.” I hung up the phone as my client, James Bivens, got out of his car, looking like a drug lord. With all of his private island investing, he probably was somehow linked to those kinds of people. What I didn’t know wouldn’t hurt me, and I tried really hard to focus on my own business.

“Good to see you again, Gage.” He threw out his hand, and I took it, giving him a firm grip to make an impression.

“How’s it going, James? Are you taking time to play on those islands, or are you busy collecting them?”

He’d bought up every available resort on every island he could find, and because of a chance meeting in New Orleans after Katrina, he hired me as his contractor.

“No rest for the wicked,” he said, patting me on the back and offering a wink.

Like me, he was an opportunist, and while some might not like his ethics, I liked his ability to earn a buck. He’d helped me turn my own family-owned construction business, R&R Enterprises, based in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, into a billion-dollar company. Not only had I rebuilt half of the gulf coast after Katrina and Rita, but more recently, I had the task of rebuilding my hometown after a wildfire destroyed most of it. I’d taken my knowledge for efficient building across the world and was currently on my tenth multi-million-dollar project with Bivens.

As we headed over to the small plane, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my gut. I’d never liked flying in the small puddle-jumpers, especially knowing we were going to be up in the air for a half hour circling small private islands no one had yet inhabited. Biven’s own plane was too big for this kind of travel, and while I had access to a private jet, I didn’t own one myself.

We strapped ourselves in, and James rattled off some instructions to the pilot in Spanish so fluent, it made me wish I’d paid attention in Spanish class instead of spending my time focused on Mrs. Rodriguez, my teacher.

I took a deep breath and held it as the tiny plane took off and climbed higher than expected. “Does this guy know what he’s doing?” I kept my voice low, and James laughed.

“I’ve used him before. He’s got the best-looking planes around, trust me.” He cleared his throat and turned to point out the window. “See that? That’s the area I want to build on. It’s already pretty clear, and there’s a nice fresh-water source nearby.”

“It’s nice. Do you want the same style you’ve been going with?”

“If it’s not broke; you know what I’m saying?” He laughed, and then his face fell flat as the small plane took a hard shake.

“Jesus,” I said, gripping onto my seat.

“That’s right, pray,” James mumbled. Then he said something to the pilot in Spanish I couldn’t understand, but I imagined it was something along the lines of watch what the fuck you’re doing.

The pilot yelled something back and then started to poke buttons frantically and talk in his native tongue.

“Fuck! Hold on, Gage.” James braced himself, and I grabbed onto a bar that was next to me as the plane started to shake violently. I looked and saw nothing but trees below, and suddenly, fear froze me to my core. My little girl, Olivia, had already lost her mother, and now, she’d lose her father, too. I had all but pushed her onto her maternal grandmother while I tried to make my millions, but I had only seen her a handful of times. I’d always thought she’d be better off without me, but now, I wasn’t so sure.

Edna’s previous call was coming back to me now as the little plane spiraled and the pilot fought hard to get it under control. I closed my eyes as the trees below got closer, and sure enough, the awful sound of branches ripping through the thin metal filled my ears. The scratching was like nails on a chalkboard times a thousand, and like demon talons reaching up from the ground to drag me to hell.

“You’re going to go out in a blaze of glory, motherfucker.” The voice of my childhood best friend Noah went through my head. That motherfucker had been right all along. I saw Olivia’s eyes, so big and blue like mine, looking up at me for the first time when her mother and I were barely hanging on to our relationship the day she was born. I’d failed her, and now, I’d never get another chance. She’d never even know me.

Those demons finally ripped their way into the plane, and one twisted branch cut into my chin as my body was slammed into the ground. Then suddenly, it was still around me except for the winding down of the plane in the distance.

It took me a moment to get my bearings; eyes fluttering and heart sputtering, I let out a groan and tried to make sure all of my limbs were intact. Once I accounted for every little finger and toe, and all of my other important appendages, I looked around to see James was stuck in his seat beside me, bloodied and unmoving. The front part of the plane had been tossed not far from me, and the back part of the plane was feet away. Both were in flames.

James was so still that I thought he was dead, but then I saw his hand move as I fought with my seatbelt. Lucky for me, the thing had held better than I expected, and my seat had acted as my own personal carrier. All things considered, it looked like an angel had plucked us from the plane and put us on the ground. I got out of my seat and saw the leaking fuel from the back end of the mangled wreckage. There would be no time for assessing James’s wounds. I grabbed the seats, which were still welded together on a frame, and dragged them into a group of trees where I took cover, only to hear the moans of the pilot in the distance.

I thought he was dead, tossed from the plane as the branches tore it apart. Instead, what was left of the mangled seat remained, and he was twisted beneath a pile of metal. I couldn’t leave him there.

I staggered over, still trying to find my land legs, and the heat grew intense. I knew the pilot was badly injured, but that plane could go up any minute, and I needed us both to be far away from it.

I grabbed hold of him, and thankfully, he pulled away from the wreckage freely. As I hit the trees for coverage, I swore to myself that if I made it out alive, I’d do everything I could to raise my daughter and leave a better legacy for her. Suddenly, the plane exploded into a fireball that shook the earth so hard, it knocked me off my feet.