Chapter Thirteen
Ayden
The warm sunlight on my face tore me from the dream. I had never in my life woken up blinking in the golden assault of dawn. My cell had been on the north side of prison and even at Jace's house, the guest rooms behind the home office faced north.
Then I remembered and my smile warmed to match the sunlight. I peeked one eye open and saw Autumn lying next to me in her cloud-like soft bed. Her blonde hair streamed across the pillow like honey in the morning light.
My heart squeezed inside my chest and, like everyday, I came fully awake in shock. After over a decade of waking up at the same time and in the same way, everyday on the outside surprised me. I was more than out of place. I was out of my own reality. The sinfully soft sheets, the thick cushioned mattress, and the beautiful woman beside me had been so far out of reach for so long that I had not even let myself daydream about them.
As usual, the shock was followed by a surge of guilt. I did not deserve any of this, and all I could do was work for it. Work and make sure I was worthy of my good fortune.
"S'nice to see you," Autumn mumbled, with a dozing smile. "Look too serious though. Too early to be so serious."
"I'm seriously wondering if this is a dream or not," I said. My hand brushed against her bare arm and a current of desire shot through me.
"Seriously," Autumn lifted her head to glance over my shoulder and then nestled deeper into her pillow, "it is way too early on our day off. Go to sleep and dream of me a little longer."
I tickled her under the covers, and she muffled her giggles in her pillow. There was no way I could go back to sleep. My body was still primed to the prison schedule; I woke up at the same early hour no matter what, and I never fell back asleep.
"What are you thinking about now?" Autumn shuffled a hand free of the covers and smoothed my creased forehead.
"I'm thinking that maybe this is a dream and, when I actually wake up, I'll be back in prison. That sure makes a hell of a lot more sense than me winding up here with you," I confessed.
Her hand trailed down the side of my face, caressing the hard stubble on my cheek and chin. Then her silky hand continued down my neck and over the muscles of my shoulder. Her graceful fingers left a trail of electricity. Autumn curled closer under the covers and the smooth warmth of her naked body erased my philosophizing.
I shifted my head onto her pillow and nuzzled her neck. The slope just underneath her ear held a trace of her perfume, and I was hooked. It was a dizzying mix of orange blossom and a heady spice I could not place.
"I think I can prove to you this isn't a dream," Autumn murmured.
She pushed against me, and I happily rolled on to my back. One firm leg slipped over my thighs, and Autumn covered me with her body. My body was already taut, ready, and the silken brush of her over me was enough to make me throb.
"Now I'm dreaming," Autumn groaned. On the bedside table, my phone buzzed incessantly. "Hang on, Mr. CEO. I'll get it for you."
I shook my head and tried to snatch her hand back, but one rock of her hips, and it was all I could do to hold myself back. "Just, please, tell them I'm still asleep," I begged.
"Mr. King's phone. May I take a message?" Autumn asked in a crisp professional tone. "Oh, yes. Yes. Please hold. Thank you."
"Some assistant you are," I grumbled, as she handed me the phone. "How am I supposed to tell them it’s too early, and I'm still sleeping?"
"Ayden, it’s your father," Autumn said. She rolled to the other side of the bed and plucked a robe off the nearby chair.
"No, it can't be," I said into the phone. "My father would not call me and if he did, all I would say is never call me again."
"Ayden, please, listen--" Joseph King said.
"Whatever you think you're going to get from me, forget it. Never call here again," I said through gritted teeth.
"Can you guess where I am?" my father asked. "Just guess. I'm in Vegas. I want to see you, son. It’s important."
"I already told you whatever it is that you want, this so-called important thing, you are not getting it from me."
"I can be at Jace's place in fifteen minutes. We can talk face-to-face," he said.
I sat up in bed and bunched the fluffy duvet in my fist. "Why would I want to see you face-to-face? Why would I want to see you at all? I have no desire to see you at all. Ever."
Autumn sat back down on the edge of the bed and reached for my hand. "Reconcile," she whispered.
"You hear me, son? I'll be there in fifteen minutes," my father said.
I yanked my hand away and shook my head. "You are not welcome here. You could have visited me in prison. You had fifteen years to make an appearance. Today, though, today's no good. The rest of my life is no good either."
"Ayden, I'm coming anyway. We need to talk," my father's voice took on his familiar hard edge.
"Talk? Yes, you could have called me, written letters, sent emails, any number of ways to communicate with someone in prison. But you never did, did you? And now you want to see me because of my recent windfall. Sniffed it out like one of those pigs that hunt truffles, didn't you?" I asked.
"Don't do it for him. Do it for yourself," Autumn whispered. "You need closure."
I stalked from her bed completely naked and went to the sunny window. "Fine, Joseph, you can stop by here. We'll have your face-to-face reunion, and then you will leave. And you will leave me alone for good."
Autumn waited until I hung up the phone and tossed it back on the bed. "Is he on his way now? I think it’s good. I mean, I heard what he did and how upset you are, but I think this will be really good for you. Put him behind you once and for all."
"Where are you going in such a hurry?"
She paused in her scramble to find clean clothes. "I'm going to head in to the office or at least hide-out in the home office. I'll get out of your way while your father is here."
I yanked on my boxer briefs and tried to catch her as she darted by. I missed. "Please stay, Autumn. There is no reason to get out of our way. This is not going to be a tearful reunion. I'm going to look the old man in the eye and tell him to go away once and for all."
Autumn disappeared into the guest suite's walk-in closet. She came back with a coral-colored sundress and white sandals. I watched as she pulled the flowing dress over her head. The straps of her pink bra were scalloped with lace that showed beneath the dress's spaghetti straps. I had a sudden urge to lock the door and use my teeth to slip those lacy straps over and down her shoulders.
She raked her hands through her blonde hair and looked as if she had spent an hour in front of the mirror. I still had not found my pants. I scowled at my watch and knelt down to yank the wrinkled pants out from under the bed. I slipped them on and wondered if I had enough time to grab car keys and drive through the gates before my father arrived. Vegas was an easy place to disappear for a few hours.
"Do yourself a favor and give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's coming over to apologize. Maybe he knows he has a lot to make up for--"
"Maybe he's just after a piece of Jace's empire." I caught her around the waist and hauled her into my arms. "Please, Autumn, stay. I need you to be with me."
Her cheeks took on a pretty rosy hue. "You don't need me. I'll just be in the way. You obviously need to clear the air with your father, and he wants to see you. So now is the time, and I'm not going to mess that up for you."
"There is no way you would mess it up for me. I'm not going in for any apology and reconciliation. As far as I'm concerned, a total stranger is going to show up at the door, ask for a tour and a huge chunk of money, and then I will turn him down and never see him again." I wrapped both arms around her waist and pulled her to the edge of the bed.
She tried to wriggle free as I pulled her closer in between my legs. "Ayden, I don't want to be a distraction for you right now. You have things you need to take care of."
I pulled her closer and rested my head against her breasts. "Please, Autumn, I'm not strong enough to deal with this alone. I need you."
"Strong enough?" she scoffed. "Your arms are like iron."
I closed my eyes and confessed, "I only feel strong when you are near me."
Minutes later it was Autumn that pulled open the impressive door and let Joseph King into the mansion. He smiled at her a few seconds too long, and then reached out a hand that I did not take. Nonplussed, my father strolled through the foyer. He turned around, took in the crystal chandelier and the artwork, and gave a low whistle.
"Jace really made the most of his NFL career, huh?" he asked us.
"He did, and he also invested wisely. He was a soft touch and gave people the benefit of the doubt. I'm neither. What do you want?" I clenched and unclenched my fists.
"A glass of iced tea would be nice," he said.
Autumn lead the way to the kitchen. "Jace never actually retired. In fact, he got busier when he was done playing in the NFL. He worked every day of his life and earned it."
"Unlike my son here," Joseph said.
Autumn's chocolate brown eyes fluttered a little wider and when we reached the kitchen she caught my hand for a sympathetic squeeze.
I waited until my father had taken one sip of his iced tea. He was gazing out the bay window at the sparkling pool when I crossed my arms and confronted him.
"We all know you're only here because you want something, so now's the time to spit it out. You heard Jace left all this to me, and you want to make sure some of it lines your pockets," I snarled.
Joseph shrugged and took another long sip. "I can't believe he left everything to you. What was he thinking? I heard he had turned out to be quite the businessman, but that doesn't make much sense to me."
"Your son is quite the businessman. He earned his Masters in Business," Autumn snapped.
"In prison. You knew that, right, honey? He's not just leading you on?"
I caught Autumn's hand and pulled her back. "It’s not worth it."
"I think it’s about time you said why you were here," she told Joseph.
I snorted. "That's easy. He's here to collect. Somehow you think I'll be generous because we're family. Well, Joseph, you are not my family. My family evaporated fifteen years ago. You forgot that leaving me on my own means you're on your own too."
* * * * *
Joseph took his iced tea and strolled out the French doors to the patio and on to the pool. His eyes greedily marked the Grecian style pavilion next to the pool and the guest cottage tucked at the other end of the rolling gardens. Then he turned around and shaded his eyes to take in the back of the mansion.
Autumn and I followed him at a distance.
"I told you this wasn't a good idea. He's just working out how much money to ask for," I said.
"I'm sorry, Ayden. I just thought after all these years it would be good for you to reconcile with him," Autumn rested worried eyes on mine.
"You were optimistic, I get it. Jace had that lasting effect on people. Now all I want to do is get him out of here and out of my life. Once that's done, I will finally be able to move past this," I sighed.
"You really haven't seen him for fifteen years?" Autumn asked.
"Not once. He looks a lot thinner, faded. Still has a mean stare though."
Joseph was staring at me hard as we dragged our feet. Once we joined him next to the pool, he put his hands in his pockets and shuffled one foot.
"Now I see what Jace was talking about," Joseph said. "He was always so indebted to you, and I couldn't understand why, but now I get it."
I raised an eyebrow. "What exactly do you get?"
"Jace would never have had any of this if it wasn't for you being a good friend. No one understood why Jace stuck by you after the conviction, but he felt he owed all of this to you." Joseph looked over the mansion again and shook his head.
"So now you're going to try to tell me that I owe some of it to you?" I snapped.
"I don't want it." Joseph walked around me and turned his back on the house. His sharp blue eyes bored into mine. "I don't want money or anything else but a chance to tell you how proud I am of you."
I let out a breathless, dry laugh. "You don't have to butter me up. Just ask so I can say no, and we can get on with our separate lives."
"I was always proud of you, Ayden."
Autumn caught my hand and held tight before I could strangle my father. I laced my fingers through hers and clenched my other fist. "You are a liar."
"I was and am proud of you, Ayden. You have to believe me," Joseph said.
"Sorry, no. I'm going to believe all of my memories. Remember? The ones where you told me I was not good enough, and I was a waste of space. The memories of buying my own food because you only cooked for real athletes." I ran out of breath and felt my lungs burn.
"Ayden, please listen. You were never the football player I wanted you to be, but you were exactly what your mother always dreamed of. You made her so proud with your schooling. Remembering that kept me alive after she was gone," Joseph stared down at his shoes.
"After she was gone, I was on my own," I snapped.
My father ignored me as if he had to get out his practiced speech before it choked him. "And then you went to prison before you could go on and graduate. I thought it was all my fault, and I had let your mother down."
I raked both hands through my hair. "What are you talking about? Autumn, I swear, this doesn't make any sense."
She squeezed my hand and turned to Joseph. "Is that why you didn't visit Ayden in prison?"
Joseph gave her a grateful look. "I did not want to face the fact that I had raised a son capable of drug trafficking. I did not want to admit it was my fault he was caught up in all of that. It was hard without Ayden's mother, and I promised her everyday that I would see him off to college, but then he was convicted and it was so final. She was gone, and I had let her down."
"It never occurred to you that I was innocent?" I rasped. "It never occurred to you that Mom would have been more upset by the way we were constantly at each other's throats, the way you turned your back on me, or the way you left me to rot in jail by myself?"
I shook Autumn's hand off and paced around the pool. My breath was unsteady and the edges of my vision faded in and out of focus.
"I didn't want to believe you were capable of it, but they convicted you," my father said. "It was too hard to face you in that visitation room. I felt like your mother was watching over us with a broken heart."
I stalked up to him and met his faded blue eyes. "And it never occurred to you that spending fifteen years alone in prison was harder? You never even considered that I was innocent and locked away for over a decade? Did it ever enter your selfish brain that I was alone and needed my family?"
He blinked slowly. "It was just too hard, Ayden. What would we have said to each other?"
"Funny you should mention that," I spat at him, "because that is exactly what I thought about for years. And then I got over it because you never showed up."
"I'm here now," my father said.
I shoved him away from me. "You're here and making it all about you. I don't owe you anything much less absolution for the way you treated your only son. You left me to rot in prison without a word, so now I have earned the right to tell you this conversation is over, and we will never speak again. Ever."
My breath heaved in and out and, for a horrifying moment, I thought I might pass out. I concentrated on the French doors and slowed my breathing. The one thing I wanted to visualize was Joseph walking through those doors and out of my life, but it did not work. The rage pumped through me and clouded my vision. And Joseph stayed where he was, his hands firmly shoved into his pockets again.
"I just wanted to explain--"
"And now you're done. Your conscious is clear. It doesn't matter that you've shown up out of nowhere and shit all over me once again. It's all about you. Do you feel better? Great! Now leave," my throat hurt as I yelled.
"Son, if you would just take a minute to try to understand," Joseph pleaded.
"Try to understand? Why in the hell would I do that? You never understood me. All you saw was a disappointment that loved school more than football. All you understood was that I was not good enough."
Autumn stepped between us. "This isn't helping anyone. I think you should leave."
"I just want him to know the truth--"
I shoved him towards the door. "You never bothered to find out the truth about me."
My father shuffled back towards the French doors and stumbled into the kitchen. I stalked a step behind him, resisting the urge to toss him out. Autumn came in behind me and shut the door quietly.
Instead of going out the opposite door to the front hallway, my father skirted around the kitchen island and planted his feet firmly. "I know you don't want to hear anything from me. Now I get that it may be too late, but you have to know."
"Mr. King, I'm sorry but you need to leave now. Ayden is right. You believed his conviction over him, and you never bothered to ask if he was innocent." Autumn's cheeks were bright red, and she moved along the counter as if to shoo my father out the door. "You have no idea who he was or what kind of man he has become."
My father slapped the marble counter tops with both hands. "I do. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I know exactly what kind of a man he is, and that is why I am here."
His tone and gestures rang out memories so sharp they cut. I lunged towards him and grabbed his arm. I hauled him towards the door.
"Please, Ayden. I left a manila envelope on the counter. It’s why I'm here. I know exactly what kind of person you are!"
"No more threats, no more talking, no more," I growled between gritted teeth. I hauled him to the front door and shoved him roughly onto the front steps.
I waited, clenched in rage, to hear the sound of his rental car driving away. When the gates had shut behind him, I tried to take a breath. It felt like breathing through mud, and I struggled in the foyer until my breath stopped coming in ragged bursts. Then I smoothed back my hair and walked very slowly back to the kitchen.
Autumn leaned against the far counter and held her glass of iced tea with both hands. "Ayden, I am so, so sorry. If I had known, I never would have handed you the phone. This is all my fault."
"What, all those years of resentment and the bitter disappointment, that was you? Bet you had a hand in my mother's illness too," I joked, but it sank in the heavy atmosphere. "I know you meant well and, no, none of that was your fault."
"He did leave a manila envelope," Autumn nodded towards the middle of the marble countertop.
"Throw it out. I don't want anything from him."
She ignored the manila envelope and put down her glass. I concentrated on my breathing as Autumn came around the kitchen island and took both my hands. There were tears in her eyes as she wrapped my hands around the back of her waist and pulled me into a tight hug.
I held my breath until I had swallowed the tears of rage and sorrow. After all those years and all the confrontations I had imagined with my father, the truth of what happened left me raw.
"I know what kind of man you are," Autumn whispered against my chest. "I know that you are Jace's choice to lead Knight Holdings. You are the Interim CEO, and you are not going to let anyone stand in your way."
"I'll be alright," I managed, but my voice shook.
"It’s over now. That's all in the past." Autumn leaned up and brushed a kiss over my lips. "You have a wonderful future ahead of you."
Her kiss closed the door on the hurricane of my emotions and the knot in my chest unraveled. One last shaky sigh, and I knew that she was my cure.
"The only reason my future has any hopeful glimmer in it is because you might be there," I whispered, before I returned her soft kiss.
"Might be? Oh, you're not getting rid of me that easily, Ayden King." Her lips curled into a smile against my light kisses. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Speaking of going places, how about once we clean up this mess with the official CEO announcement we get out of here. I'd like to see more than Texas and Vegas now that I'm a free man," I said.
"Agreed. We'll see the right man goes to prison, and then you can pick anywhere in the world and I will go with you."
I swept my hands up to cradle her face, "With you is the only place I want to be."