From the Embers

by Aly Martinez

  “Oh, come on. It hasn’t been that bad,” he laughed. “You didn’t waste any time slipping into my life—or my wife.” He tore his eyes away from me and that slimy motherfucker winked at Bree. “I figured she’d still have you out in the pool house, but after that Grammy performance, I guess she moved you right upstairs.” He laughed before spitting into my face. “I never thought you’d make it, much less with my wife’s ice-cold pussy on your arm.”

  “What?” Bree breathed.

  “I said, your ice-cold—”

  He didn’t finish the sentence before I popped him in the mouth again. I wasn’t a violent man, but damn it felt good to feel the bones of my knuckles cracking against his face.

  “Stop fucking punching me!” he barked as he bucked his hips. “Or I swear to God I’m going to snap your neck.”

  It was my turn to smirk, although I didn’t hold half of the disgusting smugness his did. “You already tried to kill me once, asshole. How’d that work out for you?”

  Bree once again waded into this clusterfuck conversation. “You had Doug embezzling money for you?”

  Rob laughed. “He’d been doing it for years. When I got fucked at the fire, I told him if I was going down so was he. Then the money became about me.”

  “Why?” Bree asked, the hurt so clear in her voice it made my blood run hot.

  “Why what? Shit didn’t go as planned. What do you want from me? The fucking house exploded too soon. It isn’t rocket science. I got out the back, but my life was over the minute I saw you two out front. I was not going to let all the work I did be for nothing. With Steven dead, I went back to his place and decided to start over. I used the money to get something that wasn’t a piece-of-shit dilapidated cabin and stayed close to keep an eye on Doug. The last thing I needed was that bastard growing a conscience.”

  “You know they make this little thing called divorce, right?” she snapped.

  “Right. So you could take my company and use the kids to lead me around by my dick for the rest of my life? Fuck that. Married or not, I’d rather be dead than live another fucking day where I had to hand over my balls to you. And surprise, surprise. Here you are, fucking me all over again. I just needed a way out.”

  “No. You needed a way out without looking like a failure!” she hissed, cradling Luna’s face in the curve of her neck. “Your poor, precious little ego. Prism was in the red. Your plan to off me and Eason backfired. You killed your own girlfriend. Everything you’ve ever touched has been one failure after another.”

  “Shut your fucking mouth!” he roared, fighting beneath me, but I kept him pinned.

  “I’ll shut your fucking mouth for you,” I rasped, my throat feeling like I’d swallowed a razor blade. “You thought, now that I got a little money, kidnapping my daughter would be your ticket to freedom?”

  “Oh, Eason. You always were so fucking gullible. You honestly think that kid over there is yours? You and Jessica were fucking how often? Once a month? I took her daily. A few times when you were just in the other room. Why do you think Luna looks so much like Asher and Madison? I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Luna Maxwell is actually Luna Winters.”

  It was my turn to offer a smug smile. “Oh, Rob,” I mimicked. “You always were so fucking egotistical. Jessica may have told you Luna was yours, but you never did a DNA test, did you? You call me the gullible one, but all it took was a woman to put her mouth on your cock whenever you wanted and you just believed any line of bullshit you were fed. We found your extra phone. The texts, the fucking pictures. We knew about the affair and how you thought Luna was biologically yours. Only I wasn’t so stupid to blindly believe something I was told.”

  I flexed my fingers around his throat as I brought my face so close to his that our noses were touching. With more pleasure than I’d ever experienced before, I told him the truth.

  “Luna is mine.”

  His eyes widened, and for the first time since this insane scenario had started, he looked shocked. “You’re lying.”

  “Sorry. Unlike Jessica, DNA doesn’t lie. And you want to hear my favorite part? Now, Bree is mine too. Your boy Asher? Mine. Madison? Mine. A life free and easy, not rotting in a prison cell?” I dropped my voice low and declared, “Mine. So tell me, Rob. Who’s the fucking winner in this situation?”

  With all the adrenaline that had been pumping through my veins, it wasn’t the satisfying sound of flesh on flesh as I punched the man who had turned our world upside down that set me free. It was the way Rob’s face ran through the gamut of emotions as he realized he’d thrown away his life for a woman who had done nothing more than manipulate us all.

  I might have wanted to kill him a few minutes earlier, and if I were being honest, the urge still burned at the edge of my mind. But the sweet victory of knowing I’d been able to deliver the news that rocked him the hardest was all the justice I needed.

  Bree and I were silent after that. She finally took Luna around the front of the house and waited for the police. Rob yelled a lot as we waited. Screaming and cussing. Slinging insults and death threats like they were his second language. But none of it mattered anymore.

  Because once and for all, Rob Winters didn’t matter anymore.

  Agent Garrett and his team arrived shortly. As soon as I was able to release my hold on that delusional psychopath, I took off around the house to find my daughter.

  Luna dove into my arms, still quietly crying. Her warmth immediately thawed the ice that had formed in my veins the second I’d found out she was missing. “Shhh, Daddy’s got you. It’s over now.”

  Even from the front, we could hear Rob continuing to struggle with the officers, yelling at me and Bree as if we had somehow caused his fall from grace.

  Right after the fire, I’d spent too long blaming myself for the things I couldn’t control. I’d grieved the loss of a wife who had never loved me and a man who had posed as my best friend but had been ready to kill me to seize some bullshit idea he had about the perfect life.

  Too many nights, I’d lain awake in bed, replaying the fire in my head over and over, the sour of guilt churning in my stomach because I’d thought I’d saved the wrong woman.

  But with my daughter on my hip and Bree at my side as we headed home to our family, I knew I’d saved exactly the right one.

  BREE

  “Hey, Sug, have you seen my keys?” Eason asked, his broad shoulders filling my doorway.

  I rolled my eyes at his incessant use of the silly nickname. He only called me that when he was trying to wind me up. And with Eason, as soon as he got the reaction he was hunting for, he’d lean in and kiss me breathless. Being called Sug was a small sacrifice to make.

  I peered up at him from the ground, where I was taping up a box of my panties. “Check on the hook by the back door. I had to move the Tahoe to the garage when the packers got here.” I paused and tried to suppress a smile. “And stop calling me Sug.”

  “You know I can’t do that.” Grinning from ear to ear, he prowled over to me. Cupping the back of my head, he folded at the hips and dipped low to make good on his Sug routine.

  I nipped at his bottom lip, asking for more, and Eason was never one to deny me anything. His mouth opened, his tongue snaking out for an all-too-brief tangle with mine.

  On a low growl, he asked, “They aren’t taking the beds tonight, right?”

  I let out a laugh and rested my hand on the side of his face. “No, just packing things up. Movers will be here tomorrow. Though our best bet is going to be a shower after everyone passes out.”

  It had been two weeks since Rob had been arrested.

  Two weeks of trying to figure out why he had done the things he had done.

  Two weeks of trying to relax without the memories of those hours while Luna was missing ravaging our thoughts.

  The betrayal of finding out that your husband was in love with your best friend was a dagger through the heart. The reality that they hated you so much they were willing to hav
e you killed was more like being hit by a train.

  With Rob in custody, Doug sang like a bird, throwing my ex-husband so far under the bus it hit him with every single wheel.

  Based on Doug’s statement to the police, he confessed to introducing Steven Barton to Rob but maintained his innocence about anything that had happened after that. Though the fact that he had still been sending a supposed dead man money every month said otherwise.

  If Rob hadn’t been such a greedy, power-hungry maniac and gone after Luna, he probably could have gotten away with all of it too.

  It still boggled my mind that he’d chosen to take her. Not Asher or Madison—the children he’d raised from birth. But then again, he’d thought Luna was his daughter with his darling Jessica.

  It was purely speculation, since Rob had refused to cooperate with the police. But I thought there was a part of him who just wanted to punish Eason. Seeing him succeed on that Grammy stage, knowing his dreams were coming true while Rob sat alone in hiding, his good name on a tombstone, had to have ignited him into a jealous frenzy.

  Rob had always seemed so supportive of Eason’s music, but looking back, I was starting to think that their friendship had only existed because Rob had always expected Eason to fail. Rob got to play the part of the hero, encouraging Eason, preaching to him that the world was at his fingertips, meanwhile finding peace in his assumption that Eason would never be able to best him in any aspect of life.

  Until he did.

  And Rob went off the deep end.

  Honestly, Rob’s inferiority complex made up the bulk of his issues. He’d hid it well, but he couldn’t stand the idea of his wife being more successful than him. Before I’d stepped down after having Asher, I made more money than he did. Held a higher position than he did. Prism was mine, and while I viewed our work together as a partnership, clearly he did not. I never once asked Rob to stand in my shadow, but he proved to be just an insecure man, scared of the darkness cast by his wife.

  Eason and I still had a lot of questions. Most of which started with why. But regardless of how many answers we got or, as it turned out, didn’t get, the insane and deranged actions of Rob and Jessica would never truly make sense.

  Together, Eason and I could accept that. We were adults with extreme therapy bills. The kids were having a rougher go at things. Luna was experiencing nightmares to the point that Eason had moved her into our room. Deep down, that had as much to do with his fears as her own. But again, together, we were working our way through it.

  While Asher was relieved to find out that he hadn’t seen a ghost and seemed to accept our profuse apologies for not taking his accusations more seriously, he struggled with the truth about what his father had done. We told him as gently as possible after consulting a child psychologist, but there was no way to sugarcoat that kind of depravity. His deluge of questions switched from those about heaven to ones like if Daddy was going to come back and take him or Madison in the middle of the night. Or if Rob could make our house catch fire from jail. We assured him that none of those things were possible, but he asked if he could sleep in our room for a while. And while Madison seemed to be coping pretty well, we were not about to leave my baby girl out.

  Every night, the five of us piled into that bed. There was little sleep to be found, with elbows in my ribs and, on more than one occasion, Eason catching a foot in his nether regions. However, we were together and safe, so the few minutes of rest we did catch were the most peaceful of all.

  I had always been adamant about giving the kids a sense of stability after Rob died. But when that stability became tainted by fear and trauma, it was time to go.

  I had no intention of ever going back to work at Prism. And only part of that was because of the role it had played in Rob’s attempt on our lives. The biggest reason was: I just didn’t want to.

  After everything we’d been through, my family needed me more than ever. And truth be told, I needed them a hundred times more.

  The minute the FBI closed its audit, I was selling the company. Business was good, though news of Rob’s return from the dead had hit the media and soiled our good name. But we still had plenty of offers rolling in from around the world.

  Without anything else holding us in Atlanta, Eason and I had a long talk. His career was just taking off, and for that, he needed to be in LA. We just needed to be with him.

  And thus, the decision was made. In less than twenty-four hours, our little family was off to California.

  The man of my dreams smiled down at me. “Mmm, I could go for another shower with you.” He pecked my lips again and then stood up. “If we have packers here, why are you sitting there packing your stuff?”

  “Oh, right. Why don’t you just go grab one of the guys and tell them to come box up my underwear?”

  He let out a horrified gasp. “No way any man is touching my woman’s Hanes Her Ways.”

  I barked a laugh. “Hey! I have some sexy stuff too.”

  “Yeah, but you know what those white cotton granny panties do for me.” He bit his bottom lip and waggled his eyebrows.

  God, I loved that ridiculous man.

  I swatted at him, but he jumped out of my reach, laughing.

  When he finally sobered, he planted his hands on his hips. “I see you still haven’t cracked into my red M&M’s yet.”

  I followed his gaze to the nightstand and shrugged. “I haven’t been much in the mood for candy recently, I guess.”

  “Hmmm.” He turned his sexy gaze back on me. “You planning on doing that before we leave tomorrow?”

  I eyed him suspiciously. “I hadn’t planned on it.”

  “Kids, Mom has candy!” he yelled while staring right at me. “What about now?”

  “Eason! It’s almost dinner time. And if you have any hope of them falling asleep tonight for you to get that sexy shower, I’m not sure candy is the way to do it.”

  “Hmmm, guess I didn’t think that through. Too late now though.” He shrugged nonchalantly as the sound of a stampede raced up the stairs.

  Asher got there first. “I want candy.”

  Madison was next, her hands raised high above her head. “Me. Me. Me.”

  Luna pulled up the rear. “I need candy!”

  Eason grabbed the jar of M&M’s off the nightstand and brought them over to me. Four eager hands extended out in front of me. Yes. Four. Eason had his stuck out front and center.

  Unscrewing the top, I shook my head. “Two each.”

  “Two!” Asher complained. “Eason promised us ten!”

  He bumped Asher with his hip. “Boy, don’t you get me in trouble.”

  Asher giggled, falling over to the side, his hand still outstretched as he climbed back to his feet.

  “Psh. Ten? Eason was telling stories again.” The lid released and I lifted it off. “Because there is no—”

  And just like that, there were no more words left in the English language.

  Okay, well, maybe one. “Eason!” I breathed, tears welling in my eyes as I stared down at a gorgeous emerald-cut diamond solitaire.

  “You hid it in the M&M’s?” Asher asked, clearly somewhat in on the plan.

  My head snapped up and I found Eason on bended knee in the middle of the kids. Their little hands never lowered even as he started speaking.

  “I have loved you since before I knew I loved you. I have loved you since before I was supposed to love you. And I will continue to love you every single day for the rest of eternity. I cannot tell you life will always be easy. Let’s be honest, I’m still going to call you Sug sometimes.”

  I laughed and a tear rolled down my cheek.

  He wiped it away before continuing. “But I can tell you that I will always be here for you in any and every way you need. I’ll be your best friend. Your biggest fan. The man who drives you crazy in both good and bad ways. I don’t care how you need me or even if you need me at all—I’ll still be here, considering myself the luckiest man on the planet as long as we do this l
ife together.” He lifted the diamond ring from the jar and held it out in front of him. “Bree, will you do me the biggest honor of my life and marry me?”

  This.

  Man.

  I’d thought my life was over the day of the fire, but little had I known, as I’d woken up in his arms outside that raging inferno, it was only the start of forever.

  It was by far the easiest question I would ever answer.

  “Yes,” I breathed. Rising to my knees, I threw my arms around his neck, repeating, “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”

  He slid the ring on my finger and then let out a loud laugh, standing up with me in his arms.

  “She said yes! That means they are getting married,” Asher explained to the girls.

  A round of cheers and giggles broke out around us as Eason peppered kisses all over my face.

  A thought struck me and I leaned away to catch his eyes. “How long has that ring been in that jar?”

  He beamed with pride. “Since I brought it home from California.”

  “Were you ever planning on telling me?”

  “Well, I do know how you love a surprise.”

  I laughed. “I liked this one.”

  “Good. I don’t want to hear a single peep about me eating your red M&M’s from now on. I’d have finished the jar by now.”

  He could have every M&M in the world for all I cared. He could even call me Sug, though I wasn’t about to tell him that.

  “I love you so much.”

  He smiled the most beautiful grin I had ever seen, and because it was Eason, that was saying a lot. “I love you too.”

  EASON

  Two years later…

  “And the nominees for Album of the Year are…” a man announced, but I was too busy staring at my wife to focus on the stage.

  “Talk to me,” I whispered.

  Bree blew out a controlled breath and gripped down on my thigh painfully tight. “Relax. The camera’s about to come to you.”