Provoking the Enemy

by M. E. Clayton

  “Get out,” I hissed, aiming my anger, shame, and resentment his way, now that Elise was no longer in the room.

  “Ava…” his voice was firm but compassionate and that was my undoing.

  I ran past him and didn’t stop until I was peeling my car out of the driveway. I probably wasn’t in the safest frame of mind to be driving, but I had to get out of there. I needed a place where I wouldn’t be judged. I needed a place where I felt safe.

  I needed any place where Ace wasn’t.

  Chapter 16

  Ace~

  I raced down the stairs, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest. When I had gone upstairs, it hadn’t been to hear all that. It hadn’t been to find out Ava’s most shameful secrets. It hadn’t been to intrude on the most painful corner of her soul.

  Hearing Ava bring up the past had stopped me inside her doorway, but she and Elise had been so wrapped up in their hate for one another, neither woman had noticed me. I seriously hadn’t meant to…become a part of their fight, but when Ava had started talking about being molested when she was a child, well, I couldn’t have walked away even if I had wanted to.

  It explained so much, hearing what had been done to her, and how Elise let it happen. And as horrible as what that sonofabitch had done to her, I had to agree with Ava. It wasn’t nearly as traumatizing as what Elise had done to her.

  What kind of human being lets their child be brutalized like that?

  You heard about children being sold and trafficked all the time, but like a horrible reality you can’t cope with, you skim through the news article, feel that pang of sorrow, but quickly move on. You convince yourself it’s not your problem because there’s nothing you can do about it, right? The article is from another country, or another state, far, far away from you.

  You’re human, so you feel empathy for all those poor abused children, but because you can’t do anything about it, you move on to a happier article and tell yourself someone else will save them, someone else will help them. After all, that’s what Child Protective Services are for, right?

  Right??

  I found Elise playing the victim with my father in the kitchen when I headed through there to get to the garage. There was a variety of cars in the garage for whoever’s use, and all the keys were hanging along the east wall for that purpose. But when I saw Elise with my dad, I couldn’t run out of there without saying something. I needed to find Ava, but I couldn’t let my dad leave with this evil bitch without warning him of the type of woman he’s been dating.

  Elise eyes widened when she saw me. “Ace-”

  “Shut the fuck up,” I snapped.

  “Ace!” my dad thundered.

  I turned to face him, ignoring Elise’s fake tears. “You want to know why Ava brings out the worst in Elise, Dad?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. “It’s because she’s afraid Ava will reveal their little secret.”

  “Ace, you don’t-”

  My dad’s eyes flickered back and forth between me and Elise. “What secret?” he asked, interrupting her. And it surprised me that he asked. It surprised me that he was willing to hear me out on this.

  I jerked my chin towards that heinous bitch. “When Ava was nine, one of Elise’s boyfriends molested her, and Elise knew about it. Worse, Elise let it continue.”

  “He’s lying!” she screamed. “He’s lying! Ava’s a liar!”

  My dad shook his head. “No,” he denied. “That’s…you’re wrong, Ace. No person would…you’re wrong.”

  “I heard them upstairs fighting about it,” I went on. “Ava accused Elise of not caring and Elise accused Ava of asking for it.”

  “You bastard!” Elise yelled hatefully. “This is none of your business!”

  I stepped to her, and I never wanted to kill someone so badly in all my life. Not even my dad. “A monster-any monster who lets children be abused is my fucking business!” Looking at how beautiful this woman was on the outside disgusted me. Monsters should look like monsters. “You let your little girl be used by a grown man for money,” I hissed. “You let him destroy her and you did nothing to stop it. And when he was gone, you did nothing to fix it. You’re lucky I don’t kill you where you stand.”

  My dad turned towards her, his face pale. “Elise, is…he’s lying right? He’s just mad. The kids are just mad so they’re-”

  “Greg,” she cried, “please, understand-”

  He shook his head. “It’s a yes or no question, Elise. Yes or no.” She took too long to answer, and that was all he needed.

  I turned to leave, but not before looking at my dad and saying, “We don’t have the best relationship, but if you ever want to have anything to do with me ever again, you better dump that wretched-ass cunt, Greg.” I ran out the door before he could respond to my ultimatum.

  I grabbed all the keys off their hooks and got in each car turning them on and checking the GPS history on each car. I had no idea who any of Ava’s friends were or where they lived, so I prayed the ostentatiousness of their wealth would help me find her.

  Each GPS had multiple addresses, but only one came up in every single car, and it read Delaney’s. And then I remembered what that girl at the party had said. She had said Delaney was Ava’s best friend.

  Thank you, God.

  I jumped into the emerald Audi, brought up Delaney’s address, and programmed the goddamn car to take me there.

  I knew I wasn’t going to be welcomed, but I didn’t care. I was not going to leave Ava to fight this shit alone. I knew she had baggage, but I never imagined it was the kind of baggage that was damaging to your heart, soul, and mind. I thought it was my kind of baggage, neglect and abandonment.

  I never imagined this.

  But it didn’t matter. As much as I knew Ava was going to push me away, and want nothing to do with me, she wasn’t going to get her way on this. Suddenly, what happened with the closet didn’t matter anymore. Everything Ava’s done or said since I’ve met her came from a place of confusion and darkness. I couldn’t read into anything she’s done or said, so far, because suddenly I was reading a different book. The traumatized Ava I heard screaming at her mother was not the strong Ava I’d been going up against since I got here.

  Ava wasn’t strong; she was brave, and, therein, lied the difference.

  She wasn’t strong enough seek help for what had happened to her, but she was brave enough to create a new set of rules for herself, so she could exist. And she wasn’t a victim, that was blatantly clear.

  She was just lost.

  Ten minutes later, I was rolling up to another goddamn mansion, and I thanked the GPS again when I saw Ava’s car parked in the driveway. I came to a stop and parked in front of the house along the sidewalk. This had to be Delaney’s house, and if it wasn’t, I didn’t care. That was Ava’s car in the driveway and that’s all that mattered.

  I got out of the car, and hit the key fob, locking it out of habit. I jogged up the walkway and steeled myself for what I was going to have to face when the door opened-if the door opened. I had serious doubts that Ava would let me in, and if she didn’t give the green light, there’s no way her friend would let me in, either. Hell, I didn’t even know if her friend knew what I did.

  I didn’t know fucking shit.

  For all I knew, she could be in there with another guy doing what she’s always done to cope. She could be fucking some guy, high as a kite, right now, and I wouldn’t even know what to do about that. Oh, I knew I’d kick his ass, whoever he was, but how could I take away her only way of coping? How did I make her pick me? How did I make her choose me to help her through this?

  Fuck it.

  I raised my hand and started pounding on the front door as I rang the doorbell with my other hand. “Ava!” I yelled through the thick wood. “Ava! Open this goddamn door!” I kept banging on the door until I finally took a step back, looking around, ready to break a fucking window. It was then that the door swung open, and in the doorway, stood a guy who looked ready to murder
me.

  He stood about my height, and I could tell the guy was solid muscle, but that didn’t scare me. I didn’t scare easily. His burning green eyes stood out surrounded by his dark hair and menacing features, but at least he had clothes on, so he wasn’t in there fucking Ava.

  “Where’s Ava?” I demanded.

  He cocked his head and crossed his arms over his chest. The dude gave nothing away. “And who the fuck are you?”

  Before I could tell him who I was, a lovely and petite brunette with keen brown eyes and a scar across her cheek squeezed her way around him. He grunted as she stood in front of him looking up at me. “I’m Delaney,” she said, introducing herself. “You must be Ace.”

  I gave her a quick nod. “Where’s Ava, Delaney?” I asked, not caring how rude I sounded.

  “She’s inside,” she answered and moved to step back, so I could get through. However, her sentinel wouldn’t budge. She looked back up at him and hissed, “Knock it off, Deke. Let him in.”

  Deke looked at me and said, “You do anything to hurt Ava, you won’t leave here alive.” I arched a brow, but nodded anyway, because I would never hurt Ava.

  Ever.

  Chapter 17

  Ava~

  When I had arrived at Delaney’s, I hadn’t expected everyone to be here. But when she got a look at my face and ushered me inside, I had seen Ramsey, Emerson, Deke, Liam, and Roselyn all scattered around the living room, booze bottles out and music playing softly in the background.

  I knew there was a chance Deke would be home with her, but I never counted on the entire Sands Cove royal family being in attendance. However, I had been such a mess, I hadn’t guarded my words or asked for privacy. I had turned my back on my audience and cried to Delaney, spilling everything.

  I ranted and raved about what an unforgiveable bitch my mother was and how Ace knew everything. When Delaney had asked what was everything, it had all come tumbling out. And then, I was sitting in one of the chairs as everyone sat around the living room giving me space. But while they gave me space, they hadn’t excused themselves when I had barged in and poured out all my darkest poisons all over the place.

  When I had finished letting everything out about my fight with Elise and my fight with Ace, Delaney had guided me towards the chair and Emerson had silently handed me a bottle of vodka. I had grabbed it and almost drank it empty.

  The silence in the room had been so palpable, it should have sent me running for the hills, but it hadn’t. I had stayed put and just…purged all the pain and confusion I was feeling. Delaney had sat on the floor next to me and I had wondered if Deke was going to kill me for making her cry.

  I knew Delaney, being the kind of person she was, that she’d hurt for me. We were, after all, best friends. But I hadn’t counted on anyone else in the room to give a shit. When I had looked up from the bottle of vodka and glanced around the room, Roselyn had been wrapped up in Liam’s arms with wet eyes, and Emerson was looking at me like she was ready to go to war for me.

  But what had surprised me the most were the guys. Liam had looked like he was ready to commit murder, whereas Deke had looked like he always did. He looked stoic, except for his arms crossed over his chest, his fists white-knuckled. And Ramsey…Ramsey had looked like he was ready to burn down the entire town of Sands Cove. He had been standing behind Emerson with his hands on her shoulders, and the picture of them together was…regal. With Emerson’s bravery and Ramsey’s relentlessness, those two could rule a country, I bet.

  It should have bothered me that they knew what Peter had done to me, but it didn’t. For whatever reason, it didn’t. It bothered me that Ace knew, though. That’s what was tearing me up inside. When I had started to worry that he would regret touching me, knowing I was damaged the way I was, I had started wondering if Ramsey and Liam were thinking back to when they had slept with me and now felt dirty. Like they took advantage of a damaged, lost girl, and I had rushed towards the closest bathroom, and threw up everything I’d ever consumed since forever.

  Luckily, having been here before, I knew where the nearest bathroom was, and Delaney had been hot my heels when I entered the bathroom and flipped the toilet seat lid. The throwing up and dry heaves had been so brutal, Delaney had run out and gotten me some clothes and came back to run a shower for me. Once I was done, Delaney had given me some privacy, and now I was sitting on the cold tile with my arms wrapped around my legs and my head resting on my knees.

  God, I was so tired.

  I felt so goddamn exhausted, and now I was going to have to walk out of this house through a group of people who knew my deepest, darkest shame. All my tough-girl strength suddenly depleted with the truth.

  The truth was out there, and I couldn’t hide it behind my don’t-give-a-shit attitude anymore because I did give a shit. I had to in order to fall apart in front of Ace, Delaney, and the entire crew.

  There was a soft knock on the door, and I knew it was Delaney. “Come in,” I rasped out, my throat sore from the vomiting. Luckily, Delaney had brought me a toothbrush and toothpaste when she had brought me towels and extra clothes.

  It took all the remaining strength I had to look up at Delaney, but when I did, my breath left my lungs as I saw Emerson standing near the door and not Delaney. She had the decency to look uncomfortable. “I know you probably thought I was Delaney, sorry.”

  I shook my head and said, “It’s okay,” simply because I couldn’t think of anything else to say to this girl.

  “Do you mind if I sit?” she asked.

  What the hell?

  I shook my head again. “Uh, no. Go ahead,” I mumbled.

  She sank down to sit against the door and propped her legs up like mine were. “I…I hope you don’t mind, Ava,” she started. “The last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable.”

  I let out a pathetic puff of a laugh. “I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable again, Emerson,” I told her honestly. She nodded in understanding, but how could she understand?

  “You know,” she began saying, “I’m not sure if you heard about me and…uh, my situation when I first moved to Sands Cove.”

  Sure, I knew. Everyone knew. That bitch of a cousin of hers had told everyone who would listen how Emerson’s dad had killed her mother, and how she had been forced to live with them because Emerson had still been a minor at the time. “I heard,” I confirmed for her.

  I watched this beautiful girl take a deep breath and her silver eyes reflected an old soul. “What no one knows outside the people in this house is that my father didn’t just beat my mother. He beat me, too. He started beating me as soon as I was old enough to be discipline in his eyes. Six-years-old.”

  I couldn’t stop my gasp. Looking at Emerson, no one would ever think she had been abused as a child. “That’s…horrible,” I muttered, feeling her perfectly concealed pain.

  “Yeah, it was,” she agreed. “But it wasn’t as unconscionable as what was done to you.” She stretched her legs out and dropped her hands in her lap. She cocked her head at me, and I was blown away by how…unparalleled this girl was. “What you had to endure was way worse than whatever my father put me through. But we do have one thing in common.”

  “What’s that?”

  Emerson’s smile was sad. “We were both betrayed by people who were supposed to protect us, not offer us up to their demons like a sacrifice.”

  Tears began to escape, but I didn’t bother to wipe them away. “How do you erase almost ten years of horrible choices and painful mistakes? How do I stop being this person who is in perfect mental control, but emotionally out of control with rage, hate, and resentment?”

  She shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know the answer to that, Ava,” she admitted. “I never sought therapy for what I had to live with, but I’m not against it, either.”

  “Plus, now you have Ramsey,” I pointed out.

  “I love Ramsey more than I ever thought I could love someone,” she replied. “I love him like I can’t breathe wi
thout him sometimes. But that doesn’t make what we have healthy. Our co-dependency is…dangerous. And all those self-help books tell me I should be with anyone other than a guy like Ramsey. He’s calls to the darkness that lives within me. That pull, that hold…it’s bound to become a breaking news report one day.”

  “And knowing all that, you still stay with him,” I replied, awed and confused.

  “Because he sees all my broken parts and thinks I’m beautiful, anyway,” she said softly, love dripping from every word. “Just like I see all his broken parts and know that there is no one else for me but him.” She smiled, and it still floored me how stunning she was. “I think you just need to find someone who can look at all your broken parts and see what a beautiful person you are despite all those sharp shards of pain. I just don’t think you’ve had enough people tell you you’re beautiful regardless of how evil has touched you. You’re not evil, Ava. You’re…you’re as beautiful as the rest of us who are just trying to live and cope with the ugly parts of ourselves.”

  I started really crying. “How can you do that?” She cocked her head at me, confusion marring her pretty features. “How can you want to help me knowing what you know?”

  Her gaze raced upward, as if she wished she could see through the door, and back towards me. “Because I’m lucky enough to know that Ramsey is out-of-his-mind in love with me. That he can’t acknowledge anything in his life before me. It’s scary and overwhelming, but I have no cause to be jealous of anyone, Ava. Ramsey’s life before me doesn’t exist for him anymore. I have no doubts where he’s concerned.” In that moment I had never envied someone so badly in all my life.

  There was a knock on the door that kept me from replying to what she said, but, seriously, what was there to say?

  Emerson stood up and opened the door. Delaney walked in and she looked so torn up, a part of me was sorry I came here. “What’s up?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Ace is here, Ava,” she whispered. “He’s here, and he’s not leaving until he sees you.”