“I assure you; it is. Against my council, he left you majority of his estates, the rest is for the boys.”
“What about Regina?”
Dash shakes his head and hands her the file of papers. Her hand is quivering like a leaf as she takes it from him and sits back.
“I don’t want this,” she says, dropping the papers on the small table.
“It’s up to you what you do, but any decisions you come to regarding the boy’s assets will be added to their trust funds.”
“Sell the lot.”
Dash pins me with his confused, shocked glare, and I move closer to her. She’s obviously in information overload. It’s for sure a lot to take in.
“What will you do if you sell the town?” I ask her.
“I’ll leave this God-forsaken place and all its evilness.”
“It won’t be as easy as you think. I’ll give you some time to think things through. If you still feel the same, I’ll start the ball rolling.”
“There’s nothing to think through. I’m not living in the house, and the boys aren’t going to live in this town with the history of their father—”
“Like I said, I’ll give you some time. I’ll be in touch.”
He stands and collects his things.
I stay where I am and choose my words very carefully when it’s just the two of us.
“There’s no need to be rash. What you’ve been left is more than substantial, and it’s serious business, Ally. Dash is right, you can’t make decisions on a whim.”
“On a whim? You think I want to leave town on a whim? If it wasn’t for Huxley finding me, I wouldn’t have returned here in first place.”
I have to remind myself her detachment from the town isn’t the same thing as being detached from me. Not that she’s attached.
“You can leave town, but you don’t have to sell everything off before you go. Most of it is for the boys. You could stay away for all time and the boys come back when they’re older. Your memories here aren’t their memories, Allison. This is their town, by right, by blood.”
The spark in her eye flickers out and her shoulders slump as she rests her head on the back of the chair.
“What would you do if you were me?” she asks after a beat of silence.
I would fall in love with me and let me look after you. But what I actually say is, “I wouldn’t make any life-changing decisions for a long while. I’d take a long break and figure out what I want now that I’m free from shackles, and I’d let Dash support me.”
“He hates me. He barely makes it through a conversation with me,” she points out.
“He hates everyone, and this is business, it’s what he lives for. It will be different from now on, as long as you keep it to business. It’ll be like talking with a different guy.”
My eyes fall to the top of her chest where it falls and rises softly as she relaxes after her meltdown.
“Fine, I won’t sell anything…yet. But, when I’m ready to make decisions, no one will stop me once my mind is set.”
“Fair enough.”
I release a sigh of relief and rise to my full height, then sit on the arm of the couch where Dash was sitting moments ago.
“Let me take you and the boys out. You need fresh air, and they need to get their faces out of their iPads.”
Shaking her head, she sits forward and reaches down for the papers around her feet.
“I fired Rose. I’ve got to make the boys dinner and get them ready for bed. It’s getting late, and I think we could all do with an early night. I’ve been too lax with them over the last few days, and they’ve been doing as they please.”
“How do you feel now about Trenton and the adoption?”
She releases her own sigh of something I can’t work out—not relief—and nervously laughs.
“After you left the other day, I looked at him and knew I wouldn’t be able to split him away from Tobias. The pair have bonded so tightly already, it would break their hearts. So, because of that, I will mother him the same I do my son, and I’ll guide him in life. I think Kayleigh would’ve wanted that too. Not that I think I knew my best friend as well as I thought.”
She hasn’t asked me what happened between Huxley, Craig, and Kayleigh yet.
“So, will you stay for dinner? Contrary to belief, I can cook, and I’m not bad at it.” She smiles, and my stomach plummets with nerves. Which is ridiculous.
“Sure.”
In the kitchen, she works quietly, content to do her thing chopping and slicing, frying and boiling while I watch.
“It smells good, whatever it is,” I say after a while.
“This is the one kitchen I never thought I’d cook in, and here I am.”
“Here you are,” I grin.
Dinner is lively. Trenton, although occasionally distanced from us, is chatty and full of questions about Allison and Tobias’s old house and where they came from. I offer to help clear the table, but Allison won’t hear any of it. She’s on a roll this evening, and I make myself busy while she bathes the boys and puts them to bed.
“I had to wait until they fell asleep. Sorry it took so long,” she says, getting my attention.
She’s changed too, into a pair of skin-tight leggings and a long sweater dress type thing.
This is who she is, the girl who was never born to wear stiff dresses and pant suits for this and that occasion. She’s a go-with-the-flow girl, and she dresses for the occasion.
She pours a glass of wine from the bottle she carried in with her, and then proceeds to pour me a healthy measure of whiskey.
The glass in my hand is empty, and I’m glad to swap it for a full one.
“Will you tell me what happened while I was gone? Make me understand?”
“Are you sure you’re ready to hear this, because I know for a fact, you’re never going to be the same when you know what happened.”
“I need to know.”
* * *
THE PAST
The Bailey-Vaughan Christmas Party is in full swing, and it’s the biggest event of the year. It’s tradition for the royalty to lavish the town during the festive season, and Huxley has delivered a party the town will talk about for many months.
Only this year, Huxley isn’t enjoying the holidays. He’s paranoid, and he has every right to be. For months he’s been accusing Kayleigh of cheating on him, and while she’s a good actress and can lie for her life, she’s underestimating his ability to hold onto a fight. For fuck’s sake, he’s still trying to find Allison, and she left town seven years ago. And she’s the reason I’m still here in Bailey Cove. I can’t let him find her. If he does manage to lay eyes on her, I need to be there to make sure she can get away again. Or that’s what I tell myself.
“Have you seen Craig?” Dash asks, sipping his champagne.
“I wasn’t aware he had arrived yet,” I tell him.
“I swear I saw him walk in with a bag of gifts for the kid.”
A kid that some have believed over the years wasn’t Huxley’s son. Huxley has his head so far up his ass over Allison, he wouldn’t even notice if the kid looked like Craig or some other man. He’s too full of himself to believe he could ever be someone else’s child anyway.
“I’ll see if I can find him,” I murmur, and grab another flute of champagne as I push through the crowd of guests taking advantage of being allowed to step in the mansion of horrors.
He’s nowhere to be found downstairs. Come to think of it, neither is Huxley, or Kayleigh.
Making my way upstairs, the party music and the guests’ chatter dies down, and Craig’s desperation floats down the hall. Picking up my pace, I find them all in one of the guest bedrooms, and I already know someone is dying tonight.
Kayleigh is hiding behind Craig, half-dressed, and Huxley is standing in the middle of the room.
Oh shit. This isn’t good. Craig has become sloppy. What was he thinking, fucking Kayleigh at Huxley’s event? He knows better, especially in Huxley’s ho
use when he’s home.
“You took advantage of her. You knew we were going through a rough spot and couldn’t stand that I had someone and you didn’t.”
Hux ignores Craig and notices me leaning against the doorframe. “Did you know about this?” he asks, smooth and calculating as each word pours from his mouth.
I shake my head and keep my mouth shut. Of course I knew, but I’m not going to tell him that.
“She never loved you, Hux. It was always me. From now on, shit’s going to change. She’s coming home with me, and I believe it’s safe to say, our friendship is done.”
Kayleigh doesn’t mutter a single word as she hides behind Craig, but she does flinch when Huxley takes off his tux jacket. He drapes it over one of the chairs and unlinks his cuffs.
Rolling his shirt sleeves up to his elbows, he rolls his neck, and the darker side of him comes to light. It’s never far from the surface, and tonight is no happy holiday night.
“She isn’t leaving, and if somehow she manages to walk out of this house, it’ll be dragging your dead ass out of here.”
“You aren’t going to overpower us again—”
“Kay, you’ve already tested my patience. Don’t force me to keep our son away from his whore of a mother.”
Hux speaks around Craig, patronising him to the core. A small shriek escapes her, and she peeks around her lover’s shoulder.
The more I hear, and the more I see, I reckon Craig wanted to be found tonight. They’ve been creeping around for months. Why be so relaxed about being caught now?
“Sweetheart,” he calls out, almost bored with the scene around him. “Stop this nonsense and come over here.”
Half-dressed and partially hidden behind Craig, she spits, “This is over, Hux. We’re over.”
“Oh, we are, are we?” He smirks, and I step farther into the room. The air
around us is changing, the temperature dipping, and it’s not due to the air conditioner. This affair is coming to an end tonight, one way or another.
“You heard her, Hux. She’s coming home with me, and you can’t stop her from taking her son,” Craig pipes up.
“I’ll make you a deal. If you can make it past me, I’ll let her go.”
“Done.”
Kayleigh’s whimpers soften Craig’s broad set shoulders but infuriate Huxley.
“What’s wrong with the women in my life? All of them are ungrateful cunts,” he snaps.
“Don’t call her that,” Craig warns. “Go and stand with Ry,” he tells her, and then looks at me. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”
Like I give a fuck what happens to her. No one cared what Allison was going through when she was with Huxley, or when she ran from town alone and vulnerable. However, Kayleigh skitters over to me like I’m some sort of saviour and clings to my arm. She smells like sex and desperation.
“Do you know how easy it was to take her from you? I’m surprised you want her back, your precious whore,” Huxley goads him.
Craig rushes him, but Hux has already anticipated his move and crouches at the last minute. Hux uses his shoulder to barge into Craig’s stomach, and they both land on the thick carpet with a thud.
The shrieks coming from beside me annoy the shit out of me. As Craig wraps his arm around Huxley’s neck, Hux throws his fist over his head and catches the edge of Craig’s eye socket.
I should step in, as both of them are my best friends, but I’m not inclined to do so. This is their business.
“How did you think this would end?” I snap at Kayleigh when I can’t take her stupid cries for them to stop any longer.
“Not like this,” she sobs.
“Really? Ally had to run to get away from him. You think he loves you more than her? He doesn’t. He’s never loved you.”
“I know that,” she spits out, miraculously sobering up.
A sickly cracking noise silences us, and we both turn back to the fight. Huxley has the better of Craig, and his head rolls to the side and doesn’t move. Besides Huxley’s panting, the only noise to be heard is Huxley’s fist still connecting with Craig’s face. Even Kayleigh isn’t making a sound beside me.
She falls to her knees and scrambles over to her lover, and the father of her son. She pushes Hux off and leans over Craig’s motionless body.
“What have you done?” she screams at Hux, and I quickly shut the door. “Wake up, please, baby,” she pleads.
Making my way over to them, I kneel beside him and check the pulse on his neck.
I’ve never seen a dead body before, but I know Craig is gone. I didn’t think Huxley was hitting him that hard.
“He’s dead,” I whisper over my shoulder.
Falling back on my ass, my body goes numb when it sinks in what has just happened.
Kayleigh’s tears come fast and heavy, and her screams get louder with every breath she takes.
She sprints up and lurches at Huxley.
“You’re fucking evil!” she screams in his face, wrapping her hands around his throat.
He pushes her away with ease and stumbles up to his feet. I watch him closely, trying to see some sort of guilt setting in, or remorse creeping around, but there’s nothing but repulsion on his face.
“I need Dash.”
“Yeah, you’re going to need a lawyer. You’ll go to prison for sure now.”
He tilts his head and smiles. He actually fucking smiles.
“Actually, I need Dash because he knows someone who can clean the blood out of this carpet. Do you know how much this fucking cost?”
“The carpet?” she shrieks, piercing my eardrums.
She jumps up to her feet and runs across the room. I don’t know what’s going to happen, or why the hell I’m still in the room, but I know she can’t leave.
“Kayleigh, wait,” I call out, and I’m surprised she listens.
“Ryder, he killed him. I need to call the police.”
“Ryder isn’t calling anyone, and neither are you,” Huxley orders.
I stand and move to block the door. My head is spinning, and black dots fill my vision. I lean against the dresser and it does little to help me.
Craig is dead.
Huxley killed him.
He should be arrested, but this is the king of the town, he’ll find his way out of this and continue his search for Allison. He’ll kill her for sure if he finds her.
Across the room, Huxley is in Kayleigh’s face, and she’s laughing at him. That’s strange. I can’t hear them now. My knees buckle, and the last thing I see is Craig’s battered, bloody face.
PRESENT
For a few long, quiet moments, she doesn’t move or say a word. One single tear falls from her eye and lands on the countertop.
“You kept your mouth shut for me?”
I nod.
“You hid the murder of your best friend for me?”
Again, I nod.
“Your plan was to set him up, but then he…did what he did, and you changed everything…for me?”
“Yes, Allison. Everything I’ve ever done has been for you. I don’t know what it is about you, but I started to believe a long ass time ago that I was born to love you, to protect you, to be here when you don’t even know you need me.”
Her breath catches in her throat and another tear falls.
“There’s so much to take in.”
Rounding the island, I wrap my arms around her and hug her tightly.
“You have all the time in the world now.”
Stepping out of my arms, she looks up at me and asks, “What about Kayleigh?”
Swallowing hard, I nudge her until her ass hits the stool. She gets the hint and sits down.
“After I came around, the house was busy with paramedics, and Kayleigh’s body was being zipped up in a body bag.”
Her gasp dies to nothing, and I carry on. “The official story is that she fell down the stairs after drinking too much at the party and died instantly from a brain haemorrhage.”
“What was the real cause of death?”
“She was on her way to tell everyone what Huxley had done to Craig, and he pushed her. She wasn’t drunk.”
Her eyes drop and she swipes her sleeve across her cheekbones. “And the town never questioned it?” She stares at me with watery eyes and laughs. “Of course no one questioned him. I’ll bet he had the town eating out of the palm of his hand.”
I simply nod and lean against the counter.
“He was a monster. How could he face his son every day knowing what he did to his mom?”
“Because he was a monster, you just said it.”
“What about Craig? What happened regarding him?”
“Huxley had Dash clean his mess up, and we’ve never spoken about it. I desperately wanted to, but I didn’t want them getting suspicious as to why I was asking.”
For over an hour, we sit there in silence. I wait for her to ask more questions, but she stares at nothing. I’m not sure she’s still here, mentally, in the room. She needs her space to process this, so I slip off the stool, round the island, and press my lips to her hair before leaving her to her thoughts. I don’t think she even notices me leaving. If she needs me, she’ll call.
Ryder
I’m not losing any sleep over Huxley’s death, so when my phone rings in the middle of the night, it wakes me from the deepest sleep I’ve had in a long time. When I see Ally’s name on the screen, I sit up and swing my legs over the edge of the bed.
“What’s up?” I answer, sounding rough as fuck.
I clear my throat and I’m immediately alert when I hear her whimper down the line.
“Ally? What’s wrong?”
According to the clock, it’s three in the morning, and with Huxley’s funeral tomorrow, or, well, later today, anything could be wrong.
“It’s Trenton. He’s locked himself in the bathroom and he won’t open it for me. I’m a stranger to him. He needs you, Ry.”
Ry.
Her shortening of my name gets me every time, straight in the balls, and I wish I could hear it while I’m balls deep inside of her.
“I’ll be there in twenty.”
She hangs up and I’m dressed within a minute and a half. I’m in the car in another three minutes, and I drive up to the mansion within thirteen minutes of her call.
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