by V Vee
I’d been out of the hospital for a few months and Eddie had done nothing but cater to me. With Ashley assisting. It had been hard to be home, with our little boys: Edmund Andrew and Everett Logan still in the NICU, but they’d finally been sent home, with the words “miraculous growth” being spoken by their doctor, just the day before.
“I wanted to serve you breakfast in bed,” Eddie told me, as he set the plate of bacon on my nightstand, next to a cup of orange juice, a mug of coffee, and another plate with pancakes, eggs, and homemade hash browns. I laughed harder.
“So you made breakfast?!”
Eddie shrugged. “Did you think I was only going to feed you bacon? C’mon woman. Think!”
I shook my head and let him assist me in sitting up, before he placed the breakfast tray over my lap, setting the plates and cups on top, before he carefully climbed up onto the bed next to me.
I moaned as the food washed over my tastebuds.
“Eddie, this is really good! I had no idea you could cook. Thank you, Baby,” I said, leaning down to place a kiss on his lips.
Eddie grinned sheepishly. “I wish I could take credit, but I didn’t make anything but the bacon.”
I quirked an eyebrow at him.
“And who made the rest?”
He muttered something beneath his breath, and I leaned closer, holding a piece of bacon in my mouth, just delighting in the taste for a moment.
“Ava,” he said again, still soft, but loud enough for me to hear.
I burst into almost uncontrollable giggles.
“It’s not that funny!” Eddie faux pouted and I shook my head at him fondly.
“It is. I can only imagine what she said to you,” I teased him.
“Why don’t you have no home training, Eddie?” We both said simultaneously. Ava had said that phrase more times than I could count when Eddie and I were growing up. Though the first few times had been said with frustration and exasperation, after that every time she said it, it had been said with care and fondness.
I finished my breakfast and smiled at Eddie when he removed the tray. I lay back and patted my very full belly.
“Ooh, I’m going to have to work that off.”
Eddie waggled his eyebrows.
“I can help with that.”
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Oh yeah?”
He simply nodded. Then, after rising off the bed, he walked around and helped me off the mattress. I expected him to undress me, then to make love to me, instead, he started to hum “This Woman’s Work” © by Maxwell. He wrapped his arms around me, and we swayed together. Slow dancing in our bedroom, then into the hallway, and over to the nursery.
We stepped up to the boys’ cribs and merely looked down into their sleeping, cherubic faces.
“Thank you,” Eddie whispered as he pressed his lips against the side of my head.
I tilted my head to the side and frowned. “For what?”
“For loving me. For staying when things got crazy. For coming back when I lost my mind.” He took a deep breath. “For fighting back and surviving.” Eddie shook his head.
“I couldn’t go through this life without you, baby. So thank you for not making me have to.”
I smiled at him, my heart expanding with love. I leaned up and kissed him.
“You’re welcome,” I whispered back, before taking his lips again in a deep kiss.
Chapter Twenty
Eddie
Steele Family Home
Master Bedroom
Baltimore, Maryland
After an amazing, few days of nothing but lovemaking with Heaven, I was actually looking forward to going to work. I pulled out my cellphone and checked to see if I had any missed calls or messages and saw there were four on there.
Harmony, Logan, Khan, and… Zander? From a year before?
I stared at my phone for a long while, wondering how the message had even gotten to me a whole year later. Was there a way for a message to be hidden that long?
I’d have to check with Declan, Andrew’s brother who worked for the FBI. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to listen to the message. Not when I felt this good.
Choosing to decide on that message after I’d listened to the others, I played Harmony’s first.
Hey Eddie… um… so I’m not exactly sure how to tell you this… CJ and me? We’re um… we’re in Russia. With Ivan? He’s an old friend of Cage’s. We’re okay. I promise. He didn’t kidnap us or anything, but, yeah… I feel safe with him. And… well, I’ll call you later to explain everything, but if things that you send me start being returned, unopened, that’s why. Thank you for everything. You have no idea how much I appreciate you and Heaven. Oh… Ivan is calling for me. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.
I stared at my phone.
Ivan?
Harmony had gone off with some guy named, Ivan? I didn’t know anything about him, and Cage hadn’t once mentioned an Ivan to me. I would have remembered. Looked like that was something else I’d have to talk to Declan about.
I saved Harmony’s message and moved onto Logan’s.
Hey bro… fuck… I messed up man. I like… seriously fucked up… Baby! I’m sorry. I swear it was an accident. Bro… Ed… those condoms I gave you? Well… I got ‘em from Kynan, who got ‘em from Andrew. Apparently, they’re faulty. Expired. Old as fucking Methuselah. Parker just found out she’s pregnant… again. Shit. I hope you and Heaven haven’t used them, because odds are… even though she just had the twins? She could be pregnant again. I’m sorry man. Fuck, Parker! I said I was sorry! Stop throwing shit at me! I didn’t do it on purp—
I swallowed the lump of fear that rose in my throat and looked up at the ceiling. Heaven and I had only been using the condoms for a few weeks.
She couldn’t get pregnant this soon after giving birth… could she?
I paused and listened closely. I didn’t hear Heaven cursing, as a matter of fact, I heard her cooing over and over again to our boys upstairs.
I’m sure it’s fine. There’s no way she’s pregnant again.
Deleting Logan’s message, I moved on to Khan’s.
Eddie. I got married. I’m bringing her by to meet you in a few days. Bye.
I stared down at my phone again. Wait… did I hear right? I replayed the message.
Eddie. I got married. I’m bringing her by to meet you in a few days. Bye.
Yeah, that’s what I thought I’d heard.
Khan had gotten married?
First, Harmony moved to fucking Russia with some guy I didn’t know, then Khan got married when I hadn’t even known he was dating?
“What the fuck is going on?” I muttered.
“Ohhh!! Mommy! Daddy said a bad word!” Ashley tattled, and when I spun around to look at her, I found her pointing at me.
“Eddie!” Heaven yelled down at me.
“Sorry, love!” I called back. I narrowed my eyes at my daughter, who simply smiled at me.
“Traitor,” I playfully growled, kneeling as if I were a wolf, and snarling and growling at her, tossing my phone onto the couch.
“No, Daddy. No!” Ashley squealed.
I pawed at the ground, pretending as if I were preparing myself to take off.
“Stay, Daddy. Stay!”
I continued growling.
Ashley tossed the coloring books and crayons she held in her hands up into the air and took off running, heading for the backyard. I let out a howl and ran after her.
My friends had drama going on in their lives, and it seemed as if Zander were intent on haunting us from the grave, but all of that could wait. I grabbed Ashley and spun her in my arms, lowering my head and huffing, snuffing, and playfully biting at her neck, smiling as I listened to her childlike giggles. Movement in the upstairs window, caused me to look up, and I smiled at the sight of Heaven, a baby on each hip, smiling down at our daughter and me. I blew a kiss at her, and she puckered her lips back.
Yeah, the drama wasn’t a priority. The secrets that everyo
ne had could take a moment before I sought them out.
Right now, my family: my newborn sons, my precocious–and honest–daughter, and my gorgeous wife, whom I still did not deserve, were my priority.
The rest of the world could wait.
The End……... sorta.
If you are not a fan of cliffhangers, STOP READING!
Epilogue
Charlene
A Back Road in Virginia
I looked around for the person I was supposed to be meeting, hoping against hope that no one from my family had noticed me leaving my apartment and decided to follow me. I’d finally found a way out of everything.
Hopefully.
I wasn’t positive.
But the distorted voice told me that she had a way out for me.
After more than 10 years of attacking and retreating, of trying to kill my half-sister and the father of my child, after more than 10 years of living in the shadows, only to emerge and strike, before hiding away again, I was ready for this to all be over.
10 years was a long time to not get any sort of resolution.
I needed this to be over.
A car pulled up into the empty parking lot and I watched, knowing this was the person who I’d come to see.
However, I gasped when I saw who climbed out.
Kyra’s friend, Michele?
I felt as if I were being set-up. After all these years with my grandfather, I knew that if I had a weird feeling in my gut, to trust it.
This is not the path to take, Charlene. Find another way.
“Miss O’Sullivan,” Michele nodded at me. “I’m here on behalf of some very rich, very powerful people. They would like to offer you a deal.”
I crossed my arms across my chest. “What kind of deal?”
Michele held out an envelope. I took it and looked inside. There was a huge wad of cash.
“There’s much more where that comes from. All you have to do is take it, take your son, and get out of town. That’s it.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. There was a lot more to it. No one gave away this type of money without wanting something for it.
Suddenly feeling exposed, vulnerable, and as if there were eyes watching me, I smirked at Michele, shook my head, then shot her.
“No deal.”
Kyra “The Boss” Barham-McCarthy
A Back Road in Virginia
I watched as Charlene shot Michele before driving away and I had to fight my urge to step out of my car to put a bullet in her head.
After ten years I’d finally learned about patience and planning. All it had taken was experiencing the worst pain a mother—a parent—could.
I shook my head. I couldn’t think about Andrea, not right then.
I waited until Charlene and her car had disappeared before I stepped out of the darkness and approached the woman I’d once thought was my best friend.
“K-Kyra,” Michele gasped.
I simply nodded.
“Ten years, Michele,” I said. “I gave you over a decade to confess to me. To tell me what the fuck you were up to. And for more than ten years you have moved around the city—my city—making back-alley deals, helping my enemies to escape, and working on a mission that wasn’t sanctioned by me or Andrew.”
I leaned close to her.
“So. Who. The. Fuck. Do. You. Work. For?” I growled.
Michele swallowed and shook her head. “Kyra. I’m innocent. I know it… it doesn’t look like it. I know I look fucking guilty as shit… but things aren’t as they seem. Things are almost done. I promise. I have almost pa-paid off my debt. Have almost cl-cleaned up your family’s mess.”
My eyes widened and I stepped back for a moment. “What mess? Is this something to do with my grandma?”
Michele’s eyes slid closed for a second, as she shook her head. “N-no. Not Grandma Barham. Your dad’s family. You, Ava, and Heaven’s family.”
My skin flushed hot. “Me, Ava, and Heaven’s family?”
Michele nodded. “Your cousins.”
Suddenly I thought back to what I knew about the Jones girls and I knew I needed to talk to them more, see if they knew anything. When I looked back at Michele, her eyes were closed, and she’d slumped onto the ground. I reached down to touch the base of her neck, to feel for her pulse.
“Still alive,” I muttered. “Not sure if I’m happy about that or not.”
Then I pulled out my phone to make a call.
“Hey, Irish. I need a pickup.”
Heaven
Childhood home of Kyra: The Boss of Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland
“So you’re saying that we’re cousins?” Ava asked as she stared at Kyra across the table.
Kyra nodded. “My father and your father were related. Brothers.”
My eyes widened and I shook my head. “This is fucking crazy.”
Kyra snorted. “No. What’s crazy is that apparently all of this…” she gestured around us. “… bullshit is because of some “deal with the devil” our fathers and the rest of their family made.”
Ava frowned. “Like what?”
Kyra shook her head. “I don’t know. Michele was telling us, then Manus showed up. We stepped out of the hospital room to give them some privacy, but…” she sighed. “They disappeared. The whole family.”
“Damn,” I said.
“Yeah,” Kyra agreed.
“I bet Andrew is furious,” Ava said with a sad shake of her head.
Kyra’s face scrunched up in confusion, and she tilted her head to the side. “Actually, he’s not as angry as I expected him to be…” She rolled her eyes. “Sonofabitch. He knew they were going to take off!”
Ava and I gasped. I shook my head. “No way. Andrew wouldn’t keep something like that from you.”
“Hell no, he wouldn’t. That man is utterly devoted to you.”
Kyra nodded. “I know he is. Which is why I know he wouldn’t tell me because I wouldn’t have listened to any fucking explanation him, Michele, or Manus tried to give me to explain their actions. I couldn’t have. I wasn’t in a place to listen.” She crossed her arms. “I’m still not.”
Ava and I shared a glance, then I picked up my mug of coffee. I’d have to get my bill soon and say goodbye. Eddie was probably going crazy having to watch our three kids all by himself.
“So, what do we do next?” Ava asked.
Kyra paused for a second, then nodded.
“We find out what the fuck our dads got us into, then we get ourselves out of it.”
I looked at my sister then nodded.
“Looks like it’s time for us to go back to Daytona.”
The End… for now.
Catch up with the next story in this epic saga: Twisted Promises, coming early 2021!
Thanks For Reading!
Thank you for your continued support.
As a thank you, I have included excerpts from seven different books of mine, from various pen names. Enjoy!
-V
Twisted Affair
Heaven
This. Mother. Fucker.
“Thank you, Shannon,” I said to the company’s receptionist.
Shannon was young and an idealist. She was also a bit of a romantic. It was becoming a bit of a problem with all of us.
She’d let in three stalkers, four exes, two vengeful college students, and now…
This mother fucker.
Shannon grinned broadly at me. “Okay. Well… you two enjoy your reunion.” She batted her eyelashes flirtatiously at Eddie.
“Nice to meet you, Eddie.”
Eddie finally dragged his gaze away from me and grinned at her.
“It was nice to meet you as well,” he said with a wink in her direction.
Ugh. Asshole.
I rolled my eyes.
I turned away as Shannon left the lab, glad for once that I was in there all alone. The rest of the members of my team had left to go to go have coffee together. They didn’t usually invite me along b
ecause I never attended. Don’t ask me why. I wasn’t usually anti-social, but there were some things Zander had said to me over the years that made me a little uncomfortable with hanging with anyone… not him. Or not his friends and family.
“Did you miss me?”
Logan’s voice sounded much too close to me and I turned around quickly, gasping when I realized he was only two or three feet away.
“Why the fuck would I miss you?” I hissed.
He looked good. Too damn good. His shoulders were much broader than they had been when we’d been in high school. His torso packed with muscles that practically ripped at the seams of his t-shirt, his thighs so thickly muscled that the jeans hugged them like a second skin. He had a trim waist, his skin was tanned, and his dirty blond hair was cut short on the side, and longer on top.
“Because we love each other,” Eddie responded with a shrug.
I scoffed. “I loved you, but you didn’t love me.”
Eddie frowned and stepped even closer to me, looming over me with his large frame. “What the fuck would make you say some bullshit like that to me?”
“It’s the truth.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Eddie. It is. You. Left. Me,” I practically yelled. I held up my hand when he went to speak. “No. You left me, Eddie. You didn’t talk to me about staying longer. Didn’t tell me why you wanted to. You just left for the Marines and disappeared from my life.” Fucking tears. I sniffled and stared at him, my heart clenching at the sight of Eddie’s own despair and the guilt darkening his visage. “I needed you and you weren’t here.”
I wouldn’t tell him why I needed him. He didn’t have the right to know about Ashley. But I wanted him to feel bad. I needed him to feel bad.