Hunting Ava

by Kiki Swinson

Genres: Women's Fiction

Synopsis

In an unforgettable portrait of Southern scheming, greed, and brutality a high-end criminal turned suburban mom in hiding must fight against the dangerous fallout from her corrupt past and escape an calculated enemy hell-bent on revenge.

She was once the best luxury car thief in the game. But Ava Frost paid a high price when her children were stolen. Forced to confront her ruthless ex-boss, Nick, she uncovered his devious silent partner in the kidnapping: her seemingly loving, seemingly wealthy husband, Kevin. Now Ava is making a new life with her children several states away from her former suburban life. She's also struggling to help her young son heal from their traumatic ordeal. So, when her soon-to-be ex-husband pressures her to return his part of the ransom, Ava pushes back . . . hard.

Along with a secret life insurance policy Kevin took out on her, Ava soon realizes she's worth way more to him dead than alive. And when she learns he's set Nick's vengeful sister and her murderous gangster husband on her trail, she must go up against an overwhelming enemy who will never stop hunting her—or her kids . . .

Fighting may be your last move . . .
Now with the odds against her and time running out, Ava must marshal all her resources and formidable skills to defend everything she's fought to save. But when one last dangerous twist causes her plans to irrevocably crash-and-burn, she'll battle tooth and claw to put her pursuers on the run—straight into a trap so treacherous even she may have no chance to survive . . .

Release date: September 30, 2025

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 240

Sample

IT’S BEEN FOUR MONTHS SINCE MY MOVE TO HOUSTON, TEXAS, AND it has been peaceful. I brought Paulina and the kids with me and we’re now living in a beautiful five-bedroom, four-bath, one-million-dollar house. It also has a three-car garage, and all the amenities to go with it. I couldn’t have asked for a better home. The good thing about it is that I purchased it with cold, hard cash. I even bought myself a brand-new SUV. In fact, I picked up a $240,000 Bentley Bentayga truck. It came with all the bells and whistles, and I am enjoying the hell out of it.

My divorce from Kevin is still ongoing, but I will get through it. Since the house is on the market, I heard from the kids that he’s living in Richmond with his sidepiece, Ty. I’m sure she loved it when she found out that I filed for divorce. I’m sure she was waiting with bated breath for that day to happen. He Facetimes the kids every day like clockwork. He wants to see what’s going on and who’s around us. He knows that Paulina is with me, and I bought a bigger house. He even knows that Nick is dead. Kevin was informed a day later when the detectives stopped by our home and questioned us both about the last time we saw or spoke with Nick. When they stopped by, I had Paulina take the children out of the house for ice cream. Kevin told them the last time he spoke with Nick was the day after our kids were kidnapped. When it was my turn to speak, I told them I had stopped by his shop to see if I could borrow money for my kids’ ransom. When Nick told me that he couldn’t help me, I left, and that was the last time I saw him. I took it they believed what we said because they hadn’t reached back out to us again for further questioning.

After the detectives left, Kevin went into interrogation mode to see if I knew anything about Nick’s death, but I told him flat out that I didn’t. What I told him was, Nick took me to meet the kidnappers, he handed them the money, got the kids back for me, and then we went our separate ways after that. My story seemed plausible, so I gathered that he believed me, too. No one knew what really happened—but me and Little Kevin—and I made him promise that he wouldn’t tell a soul—not even his father. He said that he wouldn’t tell anyone.

Thankfully, Kevin wasn’t giving me any grief about the kids being in the South with me. I assumed his mistress and his new baby kept him busy to the point where our kids’ absences hadn’t bothered him so much, so that worked great for me.

As usual, he’d call on Saturday morning to check on the kids before Paulina took them to their soccer games. I’ve always tried to stay out of the way to avoid speaking with him. After finding out about the other woman and the baby, his pathetic existence really got underneath my skin. Knowing that he picked up another family behind my back was the most diabolical act of betrayal of a lifetime and I knew it was going to take me a while to get over it. There was nothing else for me to do but embrace it.

I was in my bedroom when he called my cell phone to Facetime with Little Kevin and Kamryn. Instead of answering it myself, I walked into Kamryn’s bedroom, where she was, and handed her the phone.

“Hi, Daddy,” she answered as I walked away and headed back into my bedroom, which was only a few feet away. I could hear the conversation clear as day.

“Hey, baby girl, what’s going on?” Kevin started off.

“Nothing much. Just getting ready to go to my soccer game,” Kamryn replied.

“Are you excited about it?”

“Yes, I am. I think we’re gonna win this time, because the girls we are playing aren’t really good.”

“That’s awesome. I wish I could be there to see it.”

“So, when are you coming out here to see us?”

“Soon. I just have to take some time off work and then I’ll take a flight out there to see you guys.”

“Okay, do you want to talk to Little Kevin now?” she asked. It was apparent that she was more excited about getting ready for her soccer game than talking to her father. Kevin was used to the kids casting him to the side for outside activities, so he didn’t take it personally.

“Yes, of course. Where is he?” I heard him say.

“I think he’s in his room, hold on. Let me go get him,” Kamryn said, and then I heard her run into the hallway, where Little Kevin was probably fishing his sports equipment out of the closet, like he did every Saturday morning.

When Little Kevin came into her room, she handed the phone to her brother. I heard Little Kevin say, “Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, son, what’s going on?” Kevin replied.

“Nothing much, just got my kneepads and now I’m getting my gym bag. Paulina is waiting outside in the car to take us to our games.” The conversation faded out as he headed back into his bedroom with my cell phone. I didn’t time their conversation, but they were on the phone for a good while, so I continued on with doing my chores. That was abruptly interrupted when Little Kevin walked into my bedroom and handed me my cell phone back.

“Dad wants to talk to you.”

Instantly annoyed by the fact that Kevin wanted to speak with me, I took a deep breath and braced myself for what he had to say, while Little Kevin sped off into the opposite direction.

Now facing him via Facetime, I gave him a nonchalant expression and asked, “What do you need?”

He got straight to the point. “Is there something you wanna tell me?”

“What are you talking about?” I was becoming more irritated by the second.

“Tell Little Kevin to come back to the phone.”

“For what? Just spit it out.”

“Was Nick the one who kidnapped my kids?” Kevin asked me directly.

Shocked by his question, I swallowed hard on the imaginary lump in my throat and pretended not to have heard his question clearly. I calmly asked him to repeat himself.

“You heard me. Was Nick the one who kidnapped my kids?” he asked once again, with his eyes laser focused on me. Kevin and I had been together for a long time, so he knew when I was lying. I wouldn’t give him direct eye contact and the palm of my hands would start to sweat uncontrollably. Today I had an edge because he couldn’t see my hands, so all I had to do was keep direct eye contact with him and he’d believe me.

“Where did you get that from?” I asked, creating another stall tactic.

“Where do you think I got it from? Little Kevin just told me,” he stated outright.

“I don’t believe you,” I said, looking him straight in the eyes.

“Call him right now. Get him to come back to the phone,” Kevin demanded. I could tell that he was getting upset and losing patience with me.

“He’s not here. He just walked out of the house to go to his game,” I lied. I could literally hear Little Kevin downstairs rummaging around in the refrigerator, getting himself a snack to take with him. Kamryn was already in the car with Paulina.

“Ava, don’t bullshit me! Why would Little Kevin volunteer and tell me that my friend Nick was the one who took him and his sister out of our house?”

“He probably said it because Nick’s face was the first one he saw after he paid the guys the ransom money.” My lies kept coming and my story was coming together.

“Stop it, Ava!”

“Stop what?”

“Little Kevin told me about y’all’s little secret, too.”

“What secret?” I pretended not to know. But deep down in my heart, I knew what Kevin was about to tell me and I instantly got sick to my stomach. I wanted to vomit right then and there, but I realized that Kevin was watching my every move, so I had to hold on to my composure.

“Since you wanna play fucking dumb, let me tell you about my son’s little secret,” he started off saying. His eyes doubled in size and spit spewed forth from his mouth. “His exact words, ‘Dad, I wanna tell you about me and Mom’s secret, but you gotta promise that you won’t tell anyone else.’ So I said, ‘Son, I promise I won’t tell a soul.’ And then he went on to tell me that he heard you and Nick arguing upstairs in Nick’s kitchen because you found out that he was the one who kidnapped him and his sister. Then he said that Nick started beating on you, so he ran upstairs, grabbed the gun that was on the floor, and killed Nick with it,” Kevin added.

Taken aback by this whole conversation, I stood there paralyzed, and I was at a loss for words. How was I going to talk my way out of this? Little Kevin just exposed the truth to his father and now I needed to figure out how I was going to handle things going forward.

“So you don’t have anything to say?” Kevin pressed me.

“What do you want me to say?” I asked. I mean, I couldn’t lie and say that what Little Kevin said wasn’t true, because what child at his age would conjure up a story like that?

“First of all, I want to know why you didn’t tell me that Nick was the one who kidnapped my kids? And two, don’t you think I should’ve been the first person to know that my son was the one who shot and killed him? My goodness, I am his fucking father and you’re his mother, so you should’ve been the one to tell me right after the shit happened.”

Still not knowing what to say, I stood there, trying to gather my thoughts and this pissed Kevin off. “So you’re just gonna stand there and say nothing?” he spat out.

“I don’t know what to say,” I finally spoke up.

“Why don’t you start with the reason you felt like it was okay for you not to tell me what happened the night you got my kids back? I mean, don’t you think that what Little Kevin did is going to affect him for the rest of his life? That shit probably traumatized him.”

“You’re blowing this out of proportion. He’s gonna be fine.”

“How can you say that? He fucking shot and killed a man, Ava! Do you know what that does to a person’s mind? Just imagine what it can do to a kid.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but you should’ve saw him when he did it. He was a natural, and after he did it, he mentioned that it felt good to protect me.”

“He’s a freaking child, Ava. He’s not mature enough to be in tune with his feelings.”

“I’m telling you, Kevin, our son is a different breed. He’s gonna be fine.”

“No, he’s not, Ava. And I suggest that you take him to a shrink.”

“Are you crazy? I am not taking him to a fucking shrink! No one else can find out about this, because if they do, then there’s a chance that our son could go to jail, and I wouldn’t be able to live with that.”

“If what you said was true, then he wouldn’t go. It would be a case of self-defense.”

“No, I can’t chance it,” I said with finality.

Kevin let out a long sigh. “Look, I’m gonna leave that alone for right now, but we will revisit this later.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I uttered, my words barely audible. Right when I lifted my free hand to press the END button, Kevin said, “Hey, wait, before you go.”

“What is it?” I replied.

“I’m gonna need my part of the ransom back, now that I know that Nick was the actual kidnapper.”

“What do you mean, your part?”

“The part that I gave you. I want that back.”

“What makes you think I have it?”

“You think I’m stupid, don’t you? I always wondered how you were able to pack up, relocate out of town, and purchase a new house when I was the only breadwinner in this house? And now it all makes sense to me.”

I let out a nervous laugh.

“You go ahead and laugh, but I know what I’m talking about. Speaking of which, I spoke to Nick’s sister, Lacey, right after he was murdered and she told me that all of Nick’s money was stolen from his house, along with his computer and some other things. Now that I know you were the last one there after Nick was killed, I know you took the ransom money back. So I want my part back and you’ve got less than forty-eight hours to send it to me,” he warned.

“Do you realize that piece of shit took our kids from us because he figured that would be the only way he was going to get back all the money that you owed him?”

“That’s bullshit! Don’t blame that on me!” Kevin shouted. It was obvious that he didn’t want to be the blame for our children’s kidnapping.

“Well, it’s the truth. He said that you were a fucking loser, Kevin! And that I was stupid for leaving him to be with you. He said that I was better off with him.”

“He didn’t say that.”

“Believe what you want, but I’m not sending you a dime. Charge it to the game! You owed it to Nick anyway.”

“Listen, you bitch, if you don’t send me that money, shit is going to hit the fan.”

“And what does that mean?”

“Don’t send me my money back and you will find out,” Kevin threatened.

I chuckled. “So, whatcha gonna do? Call the cops and tell them that your son shot and killed a man?”

“Yes, and I’m gonna tell them you were there and that you coerced him into doing your dirty work for you.”

“That’s bullshit! I wouldn’t never get Little Kevin to do that!” I roared. “If I could take that day back, I would’ve killed Nick my fucking self! Don’t you dare say that bullshit to me again,” I continued.

“Yeah, you can pretend to have wanted to save the day all you want, but I know you. And I know how conniving you can be, so save that melodrama for someone who doesn’t know you. Before I go, I want you to look at a calendar and figure out when you’ll be able to put my kids on a plane and send them back here to Virginia so I can spend some time with them.”

“Oh, you can forget that. That’ll never happen,” I refuted the idea.

“And why not?”

“Do you think that I’m gonna let you take my kids around that fucking home-wrecker you’re laid up with out there? I think not.”

“She’s not a home-wrecker. And besides, they’re gonna have to meet her one day. She and I have a kid together, who is their sibling.”

“Do you think I care about that kid being their sibling? It’s not happening.”

“Oh, it’s gonna happen. And it may happen after the cops put your ass behind bars and I get full custody of the kids.”

I chuckled once again because I saw where this whole conversation was going. “So you think by having this over my head, you’re gonna get full custody of the kids? Fat chance, buddy!”

“You can laugh all you want, because for one, there’s no judge in the court system that’s gonna prevent me from having my kids around Ty and my daughter. And two, if you don’t send me my money, this whole situation will get ugly, and I will get full custody when it’s all said and done.”

“We’ll see about that,” I told him, and then I abruptly ended the Facetime call.

After I ended our call, I stood there pissed off at the idea that he threatened me about the ransom money. Then, on top of that, the audacity of him wanting me to put the kids on a flight so they could go and visit him in Virginia so that he could parade his fucking side chick and baby around them. Was he crazy? My kids aren’t gonna feel comfortable with that dynamic over there. They’re just now getting adjusted to the idea that we’re going through a divorce. Allow us to get over this first hurdle and then, maybe after that, we can address the fact that he fucked around on me and had that baby. But until then, we’re gonna do things my way.

Still reeling from the thought of that bastard threatening me with the cops and taking my kids away from me, I couldn’t do anything else but toss my phone on the bed and slump down on the edge of it. I figured the only thing to do was wait it out and see what happens next. And if push came to shove, to keep him from taking my kids from me, I’d end his life for sure. Because I refuse to let another soul take my kids away from me and live to tell about it.

Not now. Not ever.

And that includes their father.

“THINK SHE’S GOING TO SEND YOUR PART OF THE RANSOM BACK?” Ty asked me when she entered the living room, where I was sitting down on the sofa.

“I take it you heard my conversation?” I said.

“Yep, I heard every word,” she replied, sitting down next to me.

“Can you believe that shit?”

“Which part?”

“All of it. She literally kept that entire night a secret from me. And if it wasn’t for my son, I would’ve never known what happened. What kind of mother is she?”

“I can’t tell you what kind of mother she is, but I can say that I would’ve never allowed my child to do that.”

“I couldn’t, either.”

“So, how do you feel about him killing your friend?”

“Well, it’s obvious that he really wasn’t my friend, especially after finding out he was the one who kidnapped my kids. Besides that, I feel bad for my son, because knowing. . .