My arm is soaked in a matter of seconds as I reach out of the window to type in the code to the gate. I’ve known all the codes that are changed weekly since I was a kid and started coming here to hang with Huxley.
Pulling up outside the house, the door opens and Nigel, the butler, comes rushing out with a large black umbrella.
A bolt of lightning flashes across the sky, illuminating her face for a split second. I notice all these things because I watch her every moment I can feast upon her.
“Thanks, Ry.”
She leans across the middle and presses her lips to my cheek. The sudden touch scorches my skin and I’m frozen still. Their butler throws open the door and she bounces out, clambering to his side, and runs with him inside to dry off.
I once hoped he would grow tired of her like he does with everyone and everything, but it’s been six months, and they look to be going strong.
The front doors have barely closed when Hux is burning up my phone again. I hit accept, knowing it’s better not to ignore him.
“She’s just walked through your door,” I say before he can greet me.
“I know. Rose called and told me.”
“What do you want then? I’m tired and I want a shower.”
“Can you stay with her until I return? I’m going to be stuck here for a while because none of the drivers are willing to drive in this rain.”
“She doesn’t need babysitting, Hux.”
The line goes quiet and I roll my eyes.
“She’s scared of storms, particularly the thunder.”
Really? I find that hard to believe.
“Fine.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you soon.”
I don’t need to knock or let myself be known. My face is recognised as much as Huxley’s.
I head for the kitchen and find it empty. I’m about to turn and head upstairs when Allison comes jogging down the stairs, wearing one of Huxley’s football shirts.
Her bare legs cause my mouth to go dry, and I curse the man myself for making me be here.
“Ryder, I thought you left?”
“I did, then turned around. The rain is coming down heavier now. It’s not safe to be outside tonight.”
“I was going to make popcorn and watch a movie. Do you want to join me?” she asks, sounding so pure.
After six months with Huxley, she should be twisted and evil, tainted, but she isn’t. She’s nothing of the sort.
“Sure.”
Her legs are killing me as I follow her to the kitchen, and I have to hide around the island before she catches how much she affects me.
She shoves a bag of popcorn in the microwave and slams the door shut, pushing a bunch of buttons.
The biggest rumble of thunder rolls across the sky, and I swear it shakes the roof. So much so, I keep a close eye on Allison. She doesn’t flinch or cry out. She shows no fear for the storm or the thunder.
“Hux told me you’re scared of the storms. Did you lie, sweet little Allison?”
Normally when people are caught lying to the great Huxley Bailey-Vaughan, they start to stutter and sweat with fear. A small smile creeps along her sweet, delectable mouth, and I inch closer to her.
“I told him that once so I didn’t have to climb out my bedroom window in the middle of the night while my parents slept. Now, every time a storm passes through, he likes to be with me and keep me calm.”
I could keep her distracted by rocking her world. She wouldn’t even notice the sky popping like the popcorn in the microwave.
In the movie room, she sits at one end of the sofa, and I choose the far end. She raises her eyebrows, but I pretend I don’t see it. I’m not going to torment myself until Huxley gets here with sitting close enough to smell her perfume, feel the heat from her bare legs, all the while sitting in the dark.
“I didn’t ask you to fall asleep.”
Lifting my head off the back of the couch, Huxley stands there glaring down at me. What the fuck? Straining my eyes, they stay open and I see the movie is over.
“Hey, I told you I was tired before you asked me to watch her.”
“Well, I’m back now. You can stay, or you can go home. The rain has stopped. They say it should warm up tomorrow.”
Stretching my legs, I stand, and he backs off. Allison is gone from her end of the couch. There’s no way I want to stay here with them together in the same room while I’m sober.
“See you later, bro. I’m out.”
Checking that I’ve still got my keys, I head out and sigh when I realise I’ve just been a glorified babysitter to the girl I’m in love with, and by the time I get home, she would’ve warmed Huxley’s cock and they’d both be sleeping soundly.
PRESENT
I swill the whiskey in the crystal tumbler as I watch the sun rise over Bailey Cove. The Bailey-Vaughan’s may have the biggest of everything, but my family are second to them, and our house is just as big.
My family dates back just as long as the Bailey’s in this town, only we don’t talk about that because it would take the limelight away from the royal family. It never bothered me, not until I couldn’t have the one girl I wanted. Allison. I’m not the fucking babysitter anymore. For years, I’ve watched my supposed best friend torture the passion and light from her eyes. The worst night of my life was when I found her with her veins open in the bathtub. That night has haunted me for years, and yet I’m still the one waiting for something, anything.
He’s gone, and while that doesn’t feel a hundred percent real yet, I do feel a sense of relief I can’t quite swallow. I never want this feeling to go. Huxley brought a darkness over everyone’s lives, and now it’s nothing but the fucking sun over the town I despise so much. I pray so fucking hard that Allison sees this for what it is, her freedom.
The ins and outs, the plans, the years of putting shit together and finding proof was painstakingly slow, but I did it. I found it, put it all together, and let the pieces fall where they did.
Throwing my drink back, I pour another and hope this one affects me like I hoped the previous three drinks would. All I can think of is her, alone at that house of fucking horrors with the boys. I don’t wish I was there, because I would want to support her in the only way I’ve fantasised about, and she’s not ready for that, not for a long while to come. Plus, she asked me to leave. For once, I’m going to be the man who listens to her. She might not notice it in these dark hours, but she will at some point.
As I’m about to down another whiskey, my phone rings. My heart leaps, hoping it’s Allison. Get a fucking grip, man.
It’s Dash. I’ve been waiting on this call. I answer and press the cold screen to my ear.
“It wasn’t easy, you paid generously for the judge to wake up early, but I got Mr. Dwyer bail. It cost you two million. If he runs, it’s your ass on the line, but we both know you can stand to lose it.”
He won’t run. I know for sure he’ll take whatever is coming his way. The guy is dying, he’s suffering from prostate cancer, and has only a matter of weeks left. He won’t be around for the trial. Like I said, all my pieces fell into place perfectly.
“Thanks, man.”
“Once this is over, you should get away. You don’t need to protect her from him any longer. You’re free as well.”
Dash hasn’t been privy to all my plans and thoughts over the years, but he’s not stupid, and he’s put two and two together and came up with four.
“You’ve loved her for so long, you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be you. She’s never going to be who she is in your head.”
“Thanks for the advice, but I’ve got this.”
I didn’t sway Huxley’s demise just to jump in his place. If anything was to happen, I’d want it on real terms.
The call ends and I stand, placing my empty glass on the side table as I notice a spot of blood on my sleeve.
Unbuttoning my shirt, I walk through my room and into my bathroom. Turning the shower on, I strip out of my wrinkled shirt a
nd dress pants, dropping them, along with my boxer briefs, to the floor, and step under the spray of water.
Resting my head against the stone tiles, I close my eyes and let the water cascade over my head and down my back. The scorching heat is working the tension in my shoulders, and I push away from the wall and get washed up. Closing my eyes, I go back to yesterday and replay the moment Mr. Dwyer stood from his chair next to his wife and pulled the gun from his inside jacket pocket. I saw it all, and my pulse trebled in beat with every second it took him to pull the trigger. I don’t know who was most nervous, me or him. Huxley, as usual, stood with an air of arrogance that he had everything, but like I always knew it would be, it was his downfall.
It’s not long before I’m walking through my room, a towel wrapped around my hips, and one hanging loosely around my neck.
With the town in mourning, and me keeping up with the pretence that I’m mourning the prick too, I dress in a sharp black Henley and black slacks.
I feel nothing when it comes to him. I watched him die and felt nothing but fear he would somehow survive.
I watched Ally hover over him, her lips softly parting as she spoke to him, and his face contorting when she did nothing but stay back. She didn’t help, and that’s when I fell in love with her even more.
It took her nearly fifteen years, but she beat him. I told her to fight, to survive, and she did.
Driving through town, it’s eerily quiet, and half the stores on Main Street are closed.
I come to a slow roll at Cove Corner. Cars are lining the roadside, and when I make it through the circus, the driveway to the Bailey mansion grounds are blanketed in cars. I can already see how much fanfare the funeral is going to be. Allison will hate this many people being around. She closes in on herself, she always has done, and I guarantee I won’t find her surrounded by well-wishers and the witches of Bailey Cove hanging around for gossip.
I park up on the lawn, and instantly hear the chitter chatter when I walk through the grand doors.
As I suspected, Allison isn’t anywhere to be found downstairs, or in Huxley’s office. A small part of me is worrying that she left in the night. She ran once, she could do it again. Taking the stairs two at a time, I wander through the first floor and find them all tucked away on sun loungers out on the balcony facing the back.
Up here, you can’t hear the gossip crows hovering around downstairs. I understand why they’re hiding up here.
Tobias is distracted with something on his iPad as he sits beside Trenton, who sits there staring into space, while Allison sits across the balcony from them, smoking and nursing a glass of wine.
“I can’t pretend for one more second, not without screaming in their faces,” she says, hearing me approach.
For a brief moment, I wonder how she knows it’s me, but it passes, and I sit on the end of her lounger. She’s not dressed, and her eyes are bone dry. I was prepared for puffy, red eyes with tears pooling, ready to fall at any moment. I should have known better when it comes to her.
The boys didn’t hear her, and I decide to get up and drag a chair over and block their view of her in case they look over.
Sitting down, she takes a long gulp of her wine and I shake my head.
“Don’t look at me like that. I can smell the drink on your breath.”
Fair enough.
“Don’t ask me to go down there,” she pleads, and I desperately want to be soft with her.
“Suck it up. You know how it goes in this town. Your grief belongs to the town until the funeral.” It’s harsh, but she needs to get through this without raising any questions from people with power who will cost me a lot of money to bail her out.
“Then what? What happens after the funeral?”
“Then the town belongs to you. Well, until the boys turn of age.”
“What will happen to Trenton?” she asks.
“Whatever you decide, he’s your son.”
I’m not sure what she’s talking about. She sits up and struggles to adjust her sight on me.
“Say that again,” she slurs.
“He’s your son.”
Her brows knit together, her eyes squint into slits, and her breathing slows as she takes this in.
“Remind me, how is that possible? Huxley played many games, but I would have remembered birthing a second child. Trust me, I remember the first well enough to never forget.”
“Allison? You signed the adoption papers down at the courthouse weeks ago. I thought he told you.”
Realisation hits her, and her hand latches onto mine in a vicelike grip.
“That can’t be, Ry. I can’t be his mom. He’s their son.”
“Now he’s yours. He’s Tobias’s brother whether you like it or not. You have the funds to raise him without ever having to worry. Get a nanny. Hell, get five, but he’s going nowhere. You now have your part to play in the Bailey-Vaughan dynasty.”
“What’s your part?” she asks, staring into my eyes, trapping me in her orbit. “As much as you tell me this is my life, it’s also yours.”
“We’ll have to wait and see on that one.”
Leaning across, I press my lips to her forehead and soak in her warmth.
“Stay strong, Butterfly, and don’t forget, you loved the shit out of him and his death is crippling you. I’m doing everything I can for Mr. Dwyer, but I don’t need your lack of grief raising questions.”
“I’ll try.”
Pulling my hand away from hers, I have to get away from this closeness. Trenton is still staring off into the abyss, and I turn back to Allison.
“No matter what you’re feeling, don’t ever forget that boy didn’t know the same Hux we did. He’s going to need help understanding what happened.”
Her eyes dart over to the boys, and I see the moment it hits her that they’re both in her life now.
She nods and pushes her glass away. I escape the balcony and head downstairs. The door is in sight, and I’m so close to leaving when Regina steps in front of me at the bottom of the stairs. Dressed in her finest black dress, her eyes are bone dry, but her make-up is set just right to make out she’s been shedding tears.
She ushers me into the parlour room, a room we were never allowed in when we were younger and closes the door. The room is expensively decorated, the gold leaf furniture no doubt real gold. It’s so fancy, I dare not touch anything.
“The rumours are true, aren’t they? Huxley killed Kayleigh and Craig. Mr. Dwyer shot him in revenge.”
I’m not surprised Regina knows more than she should. Most of the police department are in debt to her because she gives jobs to their partners and makes sure the schools have the best teachers for their children.
“I have no idea. We’ll have to see what the police dig up.”
“You know exactly what they’ll dig up. I’ve been thinking all night long, and I keep coming up with you. You would have been the only one who knew anything if it were true. You love Allison, and have, I suspect, well before my son did. I could never understand why you hung around for so long, but I know now. It’s her.”
“Regina.”
Shaking her head, she steps closer to me and places her hands against my chest.
“I won’t say a word. Huxley’s destruction and evilness is at an end. Do what you can for Kayleigh’s father, but don’t let it be known. If you’re going to worm your way in with Allison, those boys will need a man in their lives they can rely on.”
Why does she make it sound like I’m plotting for evil reasons myself?
“You were loyal to him for far longer than he deserved. It’s a shame it wasn’t returned.”
She walks out of the room, leaving me feeling confused, and strangely relieved.
Ryder - The Past
I’ve had to watch him kiss her, hold her, walk her up the stairs knowing he’s taking her to his bed. I’ve seen so much between them, but I’ve never seen him hit her. In front of everyone, he slapped her without no immediate remorse. It was m
e who ran after her when he chose to sit and finish his beer like nothing had happened. No one said a word, myself included, and I will forever hate myself for it.
I caught up to her in no time, but I should have stepped between them. In all honesty, I never thought he would strike her, and now when he wants to talk to her, she sends me away. Both my hands clench into tight fists as I jog down the main stairwell and head out to our table on the patio. He comes to her and she folds as easy as paper for him. Every single time. Leaving her with him doesn’t feel right, not at all. The party goes on like nothing happened, and Dash and Craig are still at our table. Dash is rolling himself a blunt while Craig is trying to keep Kayleigh from killing Huxley. Personally, I’d let her fly. He fucking deserves it.
“Something has to be done. He’s gone way too far,” I grind out to Dash.
He lights his blunt, takes a hit and passes it over. I’m way past the point of being able to relax. Flicking my hand in refusal, he takes another hit himself.
“Seriously, are you just going to sit here and let him do whatever he wants to her?”
“Are you?” Dash grunts. “I don’t see you in there fighting her battles.”
“She asked me to leave,” I say, defending myself.
“Why would she want us there then?”
I look across the table, wondering why Kayleigh isn’t jumping in, making it known that she’ll stand up to him, but her and Craig are gone.
“She’s not as weak as everyone thinks, and he genuinely loves her. Neither are in the right way, but it’s their way, and if they wanted us to step in, they wouldn’t have taken their fight inside.”
I don’t think he outright hates Allison. I honestly think he just doesn’t give a shit. He never went against Huxley when he wanted to play games with her, and he never cheered on their relationship when Huxley declared he wanted to keep her.
“It’s not our business. You’d do well to find your own Allison because you can’t have his, no matter that she’d be much better off with you.”
Bug Page 18