One Hundred Eleven
Ash
With the kitchen table littered with cut out pictures of wedding paraphernalia, I thought I was going to lose my mind. Amber was obsessed with the wedding particularly her dress. She’d already had the dress made and was getting ready for her final fitting and Heratio was coming by later. Yes, we would be blessed with having the great Heratio coordinate our wedding. I was excited for the wedding, but I had to admit picking out the napkins that would coordinate with the table cloth that coordinated with the flowers simply didn’t interest me.
So when Ayden said he was coming by later I was anxious to talk with him. I threw a pair of tight jeans on and a flannel shirt hoping that when Ayden arrived we could do some skeet shooting. I was itching to go hunting before the wedding. Pedro and Sadie were excited to join as well. I’d been having them practice fetching in the yard.
“Amber, I’m heading out. Ayden just pulled up.” I kissed her on the head as I grabbed my shotgun.
“Oh, you’re shooting again?”
“Maybe.”
She waved her hand at me. She was too wrapped up in the wedding planning.
“Hey, man. How are the twins doing?” I asked as he stepped out of his black Jaguar.
“They’re great.” He smiled weakly. Something was off with him. Oh God, I hoped he wasn’t using again.
“What’s wrong? Is it Reese? Sasha?”
He sighed heavily leaning against the car. His sunglasses hid his eyes from me.
“Both. Everything was going so well. Oh God, Ash, I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do.” He viciously kicked the tires on his car.
“What do you mean?” I had a feeling we weren’t going skeet shooting today. I dropped my bag on the driveway.
“I mean that Sasha gave me this.” He handed me a packet of crumpled papers. I scanned them quickly.
“This is bullshit.” I tossed them back at him. “She won’t get sole custody. She’s single with no job. How will she support them?”
Ayden shrugged. He seemed defeated already. “She had a career before she got pregnant. She was a PR rep. She did pretty well.”
“How well?”
“She bought an apartment in Manhattan not far from where you used to live.”
“Have you called our attorney?”
“Yes, talked to him several days ago before I even got this. He said with my criminal history I have no shot at sole custody. Joint is even debatable.”
“I don’t buy that. You’ve done nothing wrong since you’ve—?”
“—don’t go there, Ash. You know what I’ve done. I don’t want any of that coming out in court. It will devastate Reese.”
“So what are you going to do? Just let her take your kids?”
He shook his head. He shuffled over to the edge of the driveway looking out over the ocean. “No. I’m going to move in with her,” He muttered.
“What?” I rushed over to his side. “Did you say you’re moving in with her?”
He nodded as he looked at the ground.
“Why? That’s fucking crazy!” I couldn’t believe it. How could he let her win? It was insane. “You’re not thinking, man. What about Reese?” I grabbed him by the shoulders.
“I can’t do this. I want to fight her, but I can’t. This isn’t about my happiness. I would do anything for my babies. This is about their future.” His eyes were still hidden by his sunglasses.
I reached up and yanked them off his face. “What the hell are you doing to yourself?” His eyes were red and swollen. I couldn’t stand to see him this way.
“I have to think of Devin and Laney. They’re what matters now. My life doesn’t mean anything without them.” He looked broken.
Shaking my head, I walked to the front of the car. I couldn’t look at him. Taking a cigarette from my pocket, I lit it and exhaled. “Ayden, think this through first. I know you love your twins, but your love for Reese is what sustains you. It’s kept you sober for months now. If you go to be with Sasha, you’ll never be happy.” I kept my back to him.
“It’s done. I want to be with my children. I won’t let them grow up without me. I refuse to let my kids become the drug addict I was.” Ayden threw open the door and jumped back into his car.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I raced to the driver’s side smacking the window.
He cracked the window. “Let me go do this, Ash while I still can.” His voice broke as his hands trembled on the steering wheel. He started the car.
“Do what you want. You will anyway.” I stepped away from the car as he backed up. I couldn’t believe it. He was destroying his life and there was nothing I could do about it.
Or was there?
The night air was cold. Another Nor’ester was blowing in and I didn’t have much time to get where I was going and get back. I wrapped my coat tightly around me as the car heated up.
“Ash, a storm is coming in. Hurry back,” Amber called to me as the garage door was closing.
This was probably the worst idea I’d ever had, I thought as I walked up the cobblestone walkway. A freezing cold wind whipped through my hair as I shivered inside my thick black coat. I glanced at the gold knocker on the door. It was in the shape of spider.
Of course.
Swallowing hard, I knocked. God, I hoped she still didn’t have that hideous spider she’d brought back from Egypt. As soon as the door opened, I had my answer. I could see past her to the huge glass container she kept the spider, Ujaesus inside. I shuddered.
“Ash, I didn’t expect to see you here. Don’t you know a storm is coming? Your sexy fiancé will be worried.” Ava leaned against the door wearing a black silk robe.
“Isn’t it a bit early to be in bed?” I noted her attire. She had a fire burning in the fireplace.
“It’s never too early for bed.” She winked. “As long as you’re not alone.”
I looked past her into the house. I’d never actually been inside her house since she moved out here.
“Come in. I’ve got someone in the bedroom, but I can put him on ice.” She laughed as she stepped aside.
I had a sick feeling in my stomach when she said that. Knowing Ava, she might well have a guy on ice in there. “Who’s your friend? The guy in the bedroom I mean.”
“Just a passing fancy.” Ava laughed grabbing a bottle of Macallan 25 from the bar. She poured the liquor into a crystal tumbler. “Macallan still your favorite?”
I nodded taking the glass.
Soft yet strange music blared from the speakers. She turned the volume down. I cast a weary glance at the huge spider in the glass container.
“I see you kept Ujaesus.” I sipped my scotch.
“Of course. She’s my treasure.” She tapped on the glass and the spider waved her front legs around.
“I bet that gets interesting when you have people over.”
Ava chuckled as she shimmied over to the couch in her slinky robe. The silky fabric parted as she sat down on the velvet chaise revealing she wore nothing beneath.
“Ava, really, you couldn’t get dressed.” I looked away.
“Don’t be a prude, Ash. We’re only half siblings.”
A hard shiver shot up my back as I sat down on the couch. I finished my scotch.
“So, enough with the social bullshit, why are you here?”
“Ayden.”
She closed her eyes briefly shaking her head. “Don’t get me started. Let me guess he’s going to that bitch, Sasha, isn’t he?”
I nodded.
“I knew he would. My God, Reese will be devastated. She’s my everything. I can’t have this happening to her.”
“I know. The whole thing is awful. Ayden just wants to be a good dad. He doesn’t want to hurt Reese. He loves her. She’s what’s kept him sober all these months. Once he leaves her, God knows what will happen to him.”
Ava tapped her long nails on the glass. “I could make Sasha go away,” she murmured.
I stared up at her in horror.
“What did you say?” I couldn’t believe she meant that the way it sounded.
Ava lit a cigarette and blew the smoke out. “I could take care of the problem then Reese could have the twins and Ayden.”
The soft whir of the blower from the fireplace was the only sound I heard. My mouth went dry as I shrank back from her. Was she suggesting what I thought she was? “No, Ava, I don’t think that would be necessary.”
Her blue eyes met mine. She inhaled deeply then blew out the smoke. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before, dear brother.”
My stomach coiled as I absorbed the implication of her statement. The room instantly began to feel overwhelmingly hot. Wiggling out of my jacket, I leaned forward taking my glass in hand. I swallowed the rest of the liquor and poured another glass full. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
She crossed her long legs opening her robe up to the hip.
I could clearly the top of her legs from where I was sitting and she made no attempt to cover herself. Her nipples were hard and poking through the thin silk of her robe. I was both aroused and repulsed. She was my half-sister!
“Haven’t you been doing that all your life, Ash? Pretending, that is. You and I we’re two of a kind.”
“I thought you and Ayden were ‘two of a kind’.”
She laughed grinding her cigarette out in the ashtray. “We are in many ways, but you and me, well, we’re ruthless. Willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. If that means offing someone, I know many people who can do that for me or if I’m bored, I’ll just do it myself.”
“Just don’t kill anyone, Ava. There’s no need for violence. We’ll figure this out…” I stammered as I went for the door.
I shook my head, unable to agree to that possibility. “We’ll figure something out,” I promised as I left her house.