Chapter Six
Autumn
Ayden drew me from across the party, across a never still ocean of people. He was stronger than a magnet. It was more like gravity, and I could not defy its laws. He spotted me halfway across the crowded room and his laser blue eyes measured every step. I reached him with my cheeks hot and my insides like melted honey.
"I've been looking for you," he said.
The hovering circle of gorgeous women that constantly surrounded him narrowed their eyes and glared at me. Ayden did not notice. His eyes never left me.
"Well, here I am," I managed breathlessly. "You have a question about work?"
Even in the dream I cringed. If it was not for work, I would have no reason to be within a mile of a man like Ayden King. Only he was nothing like his sullied reputation or his dark smirking facade. He was smart, loyal, and generous. Ayden gave everything to the people he loved.
He smiled away my query and leaned down. My heart leapt and I reached up on my tiptoes to meet him more than halfway. I wanted Ayden's lips on my own and he knew it. He lingered just centimeters away until I almost begged.
Then the phone rang. It was a brutal exit from the sensational dream and, for a moment, I could not allow my eyes to open. I wanted to catch the dream back and feel his kiss even if it was only in my imagination.
"That's not good," I mumbled. A burgeoning attraction to my boss's best friend and my new co-worker was inappropriate at best, but a middle-of-the-night phone call was definitely worse.
I forced myself out of bed and found my phone. I was, of course, too late. The number was withheld and there was nothing I could do but stand in my darkened room and assume one hundred horrible possibilities.
"A wrong number." I convinced myself and then jumped a mile when my phone rang again.
"Hello?"
"Ms. Bishop? Is this the Ms. Bishop that works for Jace Knight?" a gruff matter-of-fact voice asked.
"Yes. May I ask who's calling?" I sat back down on the corner of my bed.
"This is the LVPD. You are Mr. Knight's emergency contact, is that correct?" the officer asked.
"Yes," I swallowed hard. "Is everything okay?"
"I'm sorry, but Mr. Knight has been in a car accident," the officer toned down his gruffness to deliver the painful news.
I stood back up and wandered in small circles around my bedroom. Jace had been in an accident. When everything was finally smoothing out. For once Jace had taken real steps towards settling down. He had even found a woman he was actually interested in. A woman whose very name made his eyes light up.
I blinked over and over. It seemed darker than it should have been. I could not focus on anything. Then I forced my eyes to check the clock. It was almost 4:30am.
"Are you there, Miss?"
"Yes. Yes, I am. Can you tell me when the accident happened?" My voice caught on the word 'accident' and I had to slow down my panicked breathing.
"I’m afraid there may have been alcohol or drugs involved. He was taken to the hospital forty minutes ago--"
"Wait, what?" I screeched. "That can’t be right. He doesn’t drink or do drugs. And even if his meeting ran on he would have texted to let me know. If his new business partners took him straight to the club, he would have texted me. That is way too late."
"Miss!" the officer barked, and then softened his tone again. "The accident was very serious. Mr. Knight's car went down an embankment. Emergency crews were able to reach him within fifteen minutes, but he was unresponsive. He was taken to the hospital."
Silence seeped in. I knew I should ask a question, or prompt the officer to continue, but my voice was caught under the leaden rock in my stomach.
"I'm sorry to tell you that Mr. Knight was pronounced dead on arrival." The officer bit the words off fast and fell silent again.
"You're telling me Jace Knight is dead?" a sour bubble of laughter escaped. "This is a prank, right? Is he there with you? Tell him I was sad for a few seconds, but I'm not stupid."
The officer sighed. "Ms. Bishop, please. This is the LVPD, and I regret to inform you that Jace Knight died from injuries sustained in a serious car accident. Any other questions you may have can be directed to the hospital."
I wrote down the information with a shaking hand and hoped I could read it when I turned on the light. Then I hung up the phone and sat in the dark. It hurt to breath. The weight on my chest was so heavy. It was not until the pale rays of sunrise drifted through the gap in my curtains that I tried to decipher what I had scribbled.
Jace dead. Car accident. Rolled off sharp curve, down embankment. Alcohol and drugs suspected, high-speed cause of death. Call Ayden.
The last two words squeezed my heart so hard that tears poured from my eyes. How was I going to tell Ayden his best friend was dead? The man had survived fifteen years in prison and had just begun to open up again. Jace had spent the entire afternoon before his meeting teasing Ayden in the hopes of seeing a genuine smile.
Jace had sent me a photograph just to prove it. Ayden's dazzling smile had kick started my heated dream.
I sobbed until the line rang, and then I forced my breath into a slow but jagged rhythm. "Ayden? It’s Autumn. I'm sorry to call so late."
"What's wrong? What happened? I can hear it in your voice. There's been an accident?" Ayden's rapid-fire words shattered my attempt at calm.
"Jace died. He was in a car accident, and they rushed him to the hospital, but he didn't make it," I sobbed.
Ayden ground his teeth together. "When? Where? Did the police say there was a cause? Was anyone else involved?"
"Around 3:50am. The sharp curves near the canyon road. He lost control and rolled down an embankment. There were no other cars, no passenger. Just Jace. Oh, Ayden, I am so sorry." The tears thickened my voice.
"They think it was an accident?" Ayden growled.
"Yes. They said there was alcohol or drugs or both involved. He was going too fast and lost control on the sharp turn."
"Bullshit," Ayden snapped.
His words knocked the sobs out of my chest. "It's true, Ayden, he's gone. I'll call the hospital and get the full report, but Jace is gone."
"Not from drugs or alcohol," Ayden said. "When was the last time you saw him with an alcoholic drink? And have you ever known him to do drugs?"
I could feel Ayden's anger pulsing through the phone. "No?"
"Come on, Autumn, tell me the truth!"
His harsh tone shook me. "I've never seen Jace do drugs. The last time I saw him have an alcoholic beverage was that can of beer with you on your second night in town."
"He took one sip and threw it in the pool. I know you remember because you fished it out and left a note for the pool cleaner," Ayden snarled. "So are you really telling me you believe this whole drugs and alcohol bullshit?"
"What are you saying?" I cried. "Are you saying the police lied to me? I mean, I get how you might not trust them, but this just sounds like denial."
Ayden let fly a stream of profanities so blistering that I held the phone away from my ear. "What if it wasn't an accident?"
I took a deep, jagged breath. "Just because neither of us saw Jace drinking or doing drugs doesn't mean he didn't. He was a grown man, one you haven't seen for years. And I was his assistant, not high on the list for hearing confession."
"You're right, you're right," Ayden snapped. "It had been too long. And now he's gone."
The silence was worse than the swearing.
"I'm on my way." I hung up the phone and lunged towards my closet.
Within a half an hour, I had pulled myself together enough for a white-knuckled drive to Jace's house. I had to drive past the fatal corner, and there were still police squad cars parked on the shoulder. A tow truck was dragging Jace's mangled car up the embankment.
The image was still flashing in my mind when Ayden yanked the front door open. "Thank god you're here. How do we lock the front gate?"
"I can do it. Wait, why? What is going on?" I asked.
Ayden pulled me down the hallway and into the kitchen. The flat screen that dominated the wall above the eating nook was on full volume with a reporter speculating about Jace's death. "It’s all over the morning news. Every station. We're about to get attacked. I can feel it coming."
“I don’t understand,” I wrung my hands as I watched the news headlines, “Jace never drank or did drugs but the officers reported evidence of both. The coroner told me there was a mix-up with the toxicology reports. We can’t prove Jace was clean.”
“You think someone wanted to bury the truth?” Ayden scowled at the television. “I don’t think truth is going to matter much to anyone but us right about now.”
The doorbell rang and Ayden was right. A swarm of reporters demanded a statement, and two even tried to push open the front door when all I would say was 'no comment.' I pushed the door closed and bolted it.
Jace's security team shouldered their way through the reporters and pushed them back past the front gate. Ayden watched through the side window with a dark scowl.
"Vultures," he spat.
"Just stay away from them," I said. "I'll handle the press. It's going to get ugly, but there is no reason you need to be involved."
There was a sharp knock on the door and Ayden dodged for it before I could stop him.
"Let me guess, you were hiding in the fucking bushes?" Ayden roared. "Well, here's a statement for you - if you don't show some goddamn respect, I will hammer it into your skull."
The young man yelped and jumped back, but not before Ayden caught his collar. Ayden dragged the cub reporter up onto his tiptoes and snarled in his face.
"Security!" I screamed out the open front door. Then I tried to pry Ayden's hands off the young man's collar. It was like forcing a bulldog to release its jaw. "You're done. Get out of here and pull yourself together somewhere private."
Ayden dropped the kid who scrambled into the waiting arms of the security detail. Satisfied, Ayden turned on his heel, disappeared into Jace's home office, and slammed the door. It was a full twenty-four hours until he reappeared.
I leaned against the kitchen island and held a coffee cup with both hands. My head was swimming from two sleepless nights and every nerve was raw. Just his heavy footsteps were enough to make me flinch.
"Autumn, I'm sorry. I was way out of line," Ayden said.
"Are you okay?"
He scrubbed two hands over his face and then knotted his fingers in his black hair. Just as he opened his mouth to answer, his cell phone rang. "I don't know why I'm still carrying this damn thing," he groaned.
I concentrated on getting the life-saving caffeine from the mug to my lips without my shaking hands upsetting everything. Ayden stayed in the kitchen, his feet rooted to the spot. His hair was a mess, and his face was a dark shadow of stubble.
"How did you get this number?"
The hairs on my neck stood up at Ayden's steel-barbed tone. It was impossible to move much less ignore the tense phone call.
"Liar. You never visited me in prison so you never ran into Jace there."
I stood up, but Ayden shook his head and motioned for me to sit down again. He held the phone away from his ear and spat, "No need. It's just my father. It'll be quick."
I inched towards the kitchen door but stopped. Ayden did not want me to leave. I had heard about his father through Jace. It sounded like he was a terrible man that dismissed his only child as a complete loss. It was no wonder he did not want to speak to him, much less have a private conversation with the man.
"I don't believe a single word," Ayden snarled into the phone. "And I don't give a shit about your justifications or, as you're trying to call them, good intentions. Stay the fuck away from the funeral and never call this number again."
* * * * *
Ayden stood in the archway of the dining room with a large spray of white lilies. Any other time and place the combination of his rugged handsomeness with the delicate flowers would light me up like a firecracker. As it was Jace's funeral, all I could muster was a weak fizzle.
Next to the smooth and flawless white flowers, Ayden was a wreck. His suit was rumpled, his face still shadowed by scratchy beard growth, and dark circles marred his bright blue eyes. He dropped the newest offering on an already crowded dining room table and crossed his arms over his chest.
"We should have put another leaf in the table," I joked, but it fell flat.
The house was full of flowers and that only threw Ayden's grief into sharp contrast. He was dressed in a black-on-black suit, and every expression was overshadowed by his grief.
"What do we do with all of them after this is done?" Ayden asked.
"We pay the funeral planner too much money," David sniped. He mentally tabulated the cost of all our choices. "For gods sake, how many people did you invite?"
"Jace's closets friends and the people he thought highly of," Ayden cocked an eyebrow as if questioning why David was present.
"There's the funeral planner now, if you want to meet her." I pointed David towards the tall, solemn woman who had come highly recommended.
It was enough to distract David while the mourners filed towards the waiting cars for the funeral procession. I lead Ayden towards the lead car though my arm was tucked into his elbow.
He pulled us on a detour and found Patrice leaning against the garage door. She looked as if she might slip to the ground until Ayden reached out and took her hand.
"He would have wanted you with us," Ayden said.
Jace's last love nodded but could not muster the strength to say anything else. All three of us sat in silence as the cars filled up and the gates were opened. I was relieved when David was swept up by a few investment bankers we worked with. I could easily imagine Ayden smashing his face in before we reached the cemetery. The silence was much better.
Unfortunately, the quiet made my thoughts all the louder. Ayden was edgy and upset. His name had already been mentioned in the headlines, and I was worried how he might act at the very public burial service.
We arrived at the cemetery and a flock of Patrice's friends helped her out of the limousine. Ayden slid out behind her, but I could not move. Hundreds of people were picking their way among the gravestones to give Jace Knight their last respects. It was an outpouring of love that only made me miss him even more. Everyone loved Jace and seeing it so apparent only left me more bereft.
My car door opened and Ayden extended his hand. "Ms. Bishop? Jace always said you were a stickler for punctuality."
I choked back the tears and took his hand.
"You did an amazing job for him, Autumn."
Ayden's blue eyes were too near and too empathetic. It hurt to look at him. I closed my eyes and let him lead me across the drive to the uneven ground of the cemetery.
"Thank you," I finally managed. "I couldn't have done this without you."
"Liar. Not only did you do this on your own, but you kept me together."
I looked up at him. His jaw flexed against his pain. "How about today? How are we going to keep it together today?"
"Like this," Ayden whispered. He took my hand and threaded it through his and linked us together tightly.
The tears blurred my vision, and I was grateful to have Ayden to lean on as we made our way through the gravestones. Jace's plot was high on a hill with a stunning sunset view. By the time we took our seats, the sky was streaked with reds and oranges.
"Excuse me, are you Ayden King?" The question sounded ridiculous coming from the international rock star, but he was quite serious.
"Yes, sir. And a big fan of yours," Ayden said. He shook the legend's hand.
"Jace talked about you. Loyalty, man, and what friends do for each other. He loved you, and I remembered I always loved hearing about you two."
"Yeah, Jace was sentimental that way. Bet he didn't tell you he had a poster of yours up in his closet. The one with you leaping off the stage," Ayden said.
The rock star laughed loudly enough to turn a lot of heads. "I signed that for him a long time ago. Loyalty. That's what Jace was all about."
Ayden let go of my arm so the two men could embrace. I almost laughed myself when I saw an Oscar-winning actor sneaking a photograph of them with his phone.
The funeral was an A-List of the famous and infamous and by the time we reached the graveside, nearly every one of them had stopped to talk to Ayden. It seemed that Jace had always spoken of his absent friend in terms that made people remember.
"He said he owed you his good life. You gave up everything to make sure he got his shot. Wish my friends had been the same," a notorious chart-topping defector from a boy band said.
Ayden cracked a pained smile. "It was nothing because I literally had nothing. No big deal."
The solo artist cocked his head to the side. "No big deal? Jace made it sound like the only deal, though he never gave the details."
"No one would ever call Jace quiet, but he was certainly discreet," Ayden said. The two men shook hands and the chart-topper gave him a solid chuck on the shoulder.
"Disgusting," David hissed in my ear. "He's been worming his way into any spotlight all day. Aren't you disgusted?"
I dug my fingernails into my palm. "I don't see it. They're all talking about Jace. That's what people do at funerals."
David ignored me. "And as if all the sucking up to celebrities wasn't enough, do you have any idea what his online business degree is costing us?"
"You got your MBA online," I said.
"He closed the clubs. Can you believe that? Do you have any idea what that is costing us? This has to be the most expensive funeral in the history of Las Vegas." David crossed his arms and tipped his nose in the air.
"Ayden decided to close the clubs so that Jace's employees could mourn him. You know as well as I do how much Jace loved his clubs, and how he made it a priority to know every person that worked for him. They wanted to pay their respects." I tried to escape David's toxic presence, but he clung to me through the crowd.
"Well, it’s no decision any businessman would make."
"A businessman did not make the final decision. I did," I snapped. "It was what Jace would have wanted and, in case you don't remember, that is what all of this is about."
I spun around to get away from David and ran right into Ayden's rock hard chest. He gave my arm a comforting rub before he lightly pushed me behind him and towered over David.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Autumn seems upset. Maybe you can continue your conversation some other time?" Ayden's words were polite, but his body language was feral. He wanted to shred David's jugular but would not out of respect for Jace.
David took advantage of that fact. "We were just discussing your, ah, interesting choice on closing the clubs. Maybe they watered it down for you in prison but, in the real world, sympathy and business don't mix."
"Like business and respect don't mix in yours?" Ayden took a threatening step forward.
"This is not a discussion for right now," I hissed at them both.
"What exactly was the discussion? What problem do you have with closing the clubs today?" Ayden asked David.
David sneered. "Well, let's check your math skills. What are you at, a fourth grade level? Do you know exactly how much money your little idea is costing Knight Holdings?"
I stepped between them and raised my voice to a loud whisper. "I was the one that made the final decision, and I stand by it. Jace was beloved by his employees, and they deserve a chance to say goodbye."
"Seriously? That's what this is about? That little shit is more worried about business than mourning. If you're so concerned then why are you here? Shouldn't you scurry off to some office and recline in front of a computer?" Ayden took another step forward and bumped David back.
He was about to grab the smaller man by the arms and escort him back to the cars when I grabbed his arm. "Ayden, let it go."
"Exactly," David sniped from behind my back. "Let it go. As in your scam-artist business degree and all of Knight Holdings. You should be back on a plane to Texas within a week. If you really want to show your friend some respect, you won't stay here and tank his life's work."
Ayden's eyes blazed and I held up both hands. "This is a ridiculous conversation for today. There will be a formal decision as to the running of Knight Holdings, and I suggest you wait until then. As of now, this conversation is over."
David gave Ayden a mock salute and found his seat near the front of the mourners. Everyone else had filed into place. An empty chair waited for Ayden in the front row, but he refused to move. We stood together just outside of the crowd for the entire service.
Despite our position, we were still the last ones to reach our car. Thousands of condolences, too many handshakes to count, and the fact that Ayden did not move until the last shovel of dirt was in place, had us walking to the limousine in the dark.
The funeral planner had a flashlight to guide us, and the last gentle words of sympathy. "I'm truly sorry for your loss."
Ayden shrugged. "Thanks for waiting. This was the one time Jace left the party early, and I had to make it past last call for him."
He opened the door for me and then climbed in behind me as I slid over. Halfway across the seat, I stumbled on something and landed in a heap on the leather interior.
"You packed a bag?" I asked.
Ayden stared out the window even though there was nothing but darkness along the cemetery road. "All of his life, people took advantage of Jace. He was too kind, too generous, and he never minded it. I did, on his behalf. I can't stay a minute longer at his place. It wouldn't be right."
"It’s not last call yet," I snapped.
His laser blue eyes met mine under the limousine's glittering interior lights. "I know Jace invited me to this party, but I'm not exactly welcome. I don't fit in."
"And don't you think that is exactly why Jace needed you? He didn't fit in either and that was the secret to his success. Jace was not about to see everything he built go to some businessman that fits in." My cheeks were hot, and I hoped it was just the stress of the last few days. It had nothing to do with his eyes locked on mine.
"Good thing he's not here to see it." Ayden flexed his jaw and looked away.
"But I am," I cried. "I'm here without Jace and, without Jace, I need someone with humanity and generosity and a big mouth to run whenever things get out of hand."
"I forget how well you knew him," Ayden grimaced. "You know no other human being can talk as much as he did, right?"
"And I know you barely put four words together at a time, but all I care about is one word. Please, Ayden, say yes. I need you to stay and help me keep Knight Holdings together." I hoped he did not hear the hitch in my voice, but when his hand found mine and squeezed, I knew he had.
"I'm not making any promises, but yes. For now," Ayden whispered. He continued to hold my hand as the limousine left the cemetery, and we headed back to an empty house full of funeral flowers.