Embrace: The Secret Billionaire Asher Christmas Duet, Two (The Dark Christmases Book 9)

by Z. L. Arkadie

  “So how did it go between the two of you?” I asked to get at the truth.

  Spencer shifted out of his comfortable position and fidgeted until he rounded his shoulders and sank deeper into the cushion. “One of my political opponents was attempting to blackmail her. I handled it. Sure, she said she loved me. But I’m in love with my wife and faithful to her.”

  It was still difficult to picture Spencer having a typical relationship with anyone.

  “How’s your relationship with your wife?” I asked, and I instantly wished I hadn’t. A man’s wife was his refuge. I was being critical of him, and Spencer knew me well enough to understand it.

  He sniffed. “My relationship with my wife is good,” he said, nodding. “Healthy.” He tilted his head as he paused. “I would like for you to meet her—soon.”

  I nodded, watching him study my reaction. Spencer was testing me to see if I was ready to return to the fold.

  I rubbed the wrinkles out of my forehead. “Sure, one day, yeah.”

  “How’s your relationship with Penina Ross?” he asked.

  I smiled because the mention of her name made me feel good from the inside out. “It’s healthy, too, and fun.”

  “Fun?” Spencer asked, nodding as if he liked the sound of that. “You’re too serious to have fun.”

  I snorted a chuckle. “The scalpel changed me. Once I was able to transfer my need to control every fucking thing that could go awry into operating on my patients and saving their lives, I could be looser about everything else.”

  Spencer stretched the sides of his mouth downward, continuing to nod thoughtfully. “I get it.”

  I narrowed my eyes doubtfully. “Do you?” The brother I’d once known had no time or patience for complex principles of life.

  “Yeah,” he said as if it was obvious that he had understood what I meant. “I had to transfer my anger into retribution for what Father and Valentine did to those girls, and fuck, even what Father did to us. If it weren’t for Jasper taking the lead, you, Bryn, and I would no doubt be fucked up beyond repair.”

  I glared at the floor as Spencer scowled at the wall. We let silence sit for a moment. Captured in the space of time was true appreciation for our older brother constantly protecting us, watching out for us like a hawk.

  Finally, Spencer smiled faintly. “But listen, Ash.” His tone indicated a change in subject. Then his smile grew as he reached out to take me by the shoulder nearest him and shook me as if we were celebrating a winning touchdown or something. “How the hell were you able to acquire this fucking hospital? We didn’t know it was for sale. No one did. And we’ve been trying to purchase a medical facility just like this one for our portfolio.”

  I put my hands up, palms facing him. “Wait a fucking minute. This is my operation. It’s not going to be a cash cow for CFI.”

  Spencer shook his head. “It’ll make money, but that won’t be its only purpose. We do it differently now that Father’s gone and all his cronies aren’t affiliated with our business anymore. Jasper cleaned house real good.”

  Then he explained how he and his wife were about to go on a world tour, finding partners to expand their foundation. They wanted to build a wing onto the hospital to provide free top-notch medical services for people who had been victims of sex trafficking.

  I was blown away by everything he told me. Not in a million years would I have thought Spencer would care about anyone more than he did himself.

  Then he asked me to explain to “us” how I had come across the purchase.

  “Us?” I asked.

  He picked up his cell phone and shook it.

  I grimaced at his device while saying, “Si’s on the board. They wanted to keep their money problems quiet. Si said he could probably bring them a discreet buyer. A few days later, he pitched their proposal to me.” I smirked, remembering the next part. “I asked myself, ‘What would Jasper do in this scenario?’ That was when I used the Pete Sykes credentials to make all inquiries about the purchase. I was shocked it was still active, and Jasper hadn’t been alerted. I had the cash. I offered them a price, and we negotiated a few numbers before they accepted my best and final one.”

  “Did you hear that, Jasper?” Spencer asked.

  “Every word,” Jasper said, his voice projecting through Spencer’s cell phone.

  Hearing him made my throat tighten. Shit, I never realized how much I missed my brothers. In one sense, it was as if we hadn’t gone a day without speaking to or seeing each other. But on the other hand, it was clear time spent apart was the reason I felt that way.

  I could feel how widely I was smiling, though. “Jasper, how are you?” I asked past my thick throat.

  Jasper coughed. “I’m well, Ash. I’m happy as hell to be talking to you too. It’s been too long. Let me ask you something, though.”

  I sat up straight. “Shoot.”

  “Are you ready to join us again? If not, it’s fine. But if you are, then we should get right down to business.”

  I rubbed my jaw, then the back of my neck, until I realized why I was stalling—then I stopped.

  I knew what getting down to business entailed. I would have to put Jake Sparrow to rest and become Asher Nathaniel Christmas again. Spencer was watching me closely, and Jasper’s curiosity hung in the air. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and did more on-the-spot soul-searching. Then, suddenly, I was struck by illumination.

  Our father was dead. I recalled the last time my siblings and I were together. The bickering and lack of respect was excessive. I was part of it, and I’d hated my participation in it then, and I hated it now. The interesting part was that all of us, excluding Jasper, had to go off on our own and grow the fuck up. As usual, our older brother held down the fort. Now that I had some fucking tools to withstand the hard parts as well the easier parts of being a Christmas, it was time I pulled my weight.

  So I took a deep breath, braced myself for all of what was to come next, and spoke my answer.

  Chapter Seven

  Penina Ross

  On the way to the backyard, Greg Carroll softly took me by the arm and whispered, “Actually, I do want to talk to you about something.”

  I assessed his expression. His gaze flitted around the space, checking out nearby faces.

  “About what?” I asked, sensing I was supposed to keep my voice down.

  “You’re a neurosurgeon.” He wasn’t asking. He already knew.

  I nodded.

  “I have a problem that I need to talk to a neurologist about—one not associated with my team or that is within my organization’s reach. Is that you, Dr. Penina Ross?”

  Then my gaze flitted around Court’s overly designed room. “You want to talk privately?” I asked after my eyes landed back on him.

  He nodded and led me in the opposite direction of where everyone else was going. Greg held the front door open for me to walk out onto the patio first. Then he checked behind him and stepped outside too. I folded my arms, feeling uneasy about all the secrecy. It was weird. But Greg wasn’t done being paranoid as he searched to the right of the house then the left of it.

  “This way,” he said and started down the stairs, searching every dark space as he went.

  I wondered what made him so distrustful. He was beginning to worry me, but I followed him until we stopped under a healthy tree with wiry branches that draped over the lawn enough to provide us some cover.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” I asked, frowning curiously and making sure to put enough distance between us that I could slip away from him if he tried to grab me. He hadn’t earned my full trust yet. As long as he was behaving as if we were in the middle of a drug deal, I had to be cautious.

  “I was hit last year, hard,” he whispered. “When I slammed into the ground, I passed out, but nobody saw what happened. The cameras didn’t even capture the aftermath, and I was told not to mention it.”

  I slapped at an insect that landed on my shoulder. “Okaaay …”


  “I saw our doctor. They told me everything looked fine, but I don’t think it’s true.” He shook his head.

  “Why not?” I asked, rubbing my arms, trying to keep another bug from landing on me.

  “I’ve been forgetting shit and getting massive headaches.”

  “Since last year?”

  He frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I’ve had headaches ever since I started playing this fucking game. But for the past few weeks, I’ve been having bouts of memory lapse that I’ve never had before.”

  “Well, if the impact was a year ago—”

  “I don’t trust them. I know they’re not telling me the truth.”

  I searched his eyes. He looked desperate for answers. If he was reporting symptoms now, it didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t related to what happened to him back then. Something buzzed past my ear, and I twisted a finger inside it. I really wanted to go back inside and cool off, but I had to put my doctor’s hat on, which meant listening to him intently. “Can you give me an example of what you have been forgetting?”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed as he gulped. “Sometimes my name.”

  “Oh.” I hadn’t expected him to say that.

  His eyes expanded so wide that I could see the white around the iris. “Like fucking for real. I can forget my name. My address too.” He scratched his temple. “Sometimes I even forget where I am.”

  I touched him gently on the shoulder. “Can you come to the hospital tomorrow for tests?”

  “No,” he whispered curtly. Greg checked over both shoulders. “They’re watching me.”

  “Who’s watching you?”

  “I’m guaranteed thirty-five million dollars on a three-year contract, as long as I’m stopping a quarterback from scoring touchdowns. They want me to play until I die, and that’s no joke.”

  “I see,” I said. “Well, if I don’t run scans, then I can’t learn what’s wrong with you.”

  He scratched his head as his frown intensified. “Listen, let me figure it out and get back to you.”

  I nodded, thankful that we were coming to the end of my spur-of-the-moment consultation for Greg Carrol while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. “I’m at the hospital in the morning. I’ll also speak to a colleague of mine, and we’ll figure something out.”

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  We swapped numbers and headed inside. Greg waited for me in the hallway while I went into the guest bathroom to wash my hands. He asked me where I was from and how long I’d been in New Orleans as we walked to the backyard, where Courtney had a monstrous tent set up on the lawn. The inquiries into my personal life stopped once we stepped inside the tarp. Thank goodness she had the sense to make it air-conditioned. Yay, Court!

  Greg and I stopped and searched from one corner to the other. Tables were along the canvas walls, which held strings of twinkling lights above the diners’ heads. There had to be over a hundred people in that massive tent. Also, bulbous paper pendant lights looked as if they floated in thin air throughout. I had to get a closer look to see the translucent string holding them in place. There was also a dance floor in the middle and a platform for a band on one side of the space.

  “There they are,” Courtney called. She was sitting next to Rich, who was looking at us as if he wanted to take our heads off.

  I was very aware that she was hyperfocused on me, and it made me uneasy. Suddenly, it felt wrong to be a guest at the party of my ex-boyfriend, who I was not on good terms with, and his mousy new girlfriend. If I weren’t waiting for Jake to show up, I would’ve feigned not feeling well and had Kirk take me home.

  “Over there,” Courtney said, pointing as far away from her and Rich as she could and certainly out of her boyfriend’s line of sight.

  I performed a quick search for Zara as I walked to where Courtney was directing us. Not only was she nowhere to be found, but I also remembered that Courtney had made her own seating arrangement, and I didn’t have to be a brain surgeon to guess who I was seated beside.

  I so very badly wanted to take Courtney by the shoulders, shake her, and tell her that if she was that insecure about her relationship with Rich, then she should probably do what I had done and dump him. However, Courtney’s love life wasn’t any of my concern. Greg and I smiled faintly at each other and sat down. But then I remembered I was supposed to save Jake a seat next to me. I searched up and down my side of the table—there were no empty chairs. However, when I zeroed in on Court, there were two empty chairs to her left. One of those seats must’ve belonged to Jake and the other to Zara.

  I heaved a sigh, considering shifting Courtney’s seating chart. But I couldn’t. That sort of rudeness wasn’t my style. So I decided to make the best out of an infuriating situation.

  First, everyone was served drinks and crawfish-and-crab-cake appetizers. They tasted horrible—too fishy and salty. I took one bite and no more. I was pretty sure Greg was happy that we were sandwiched between people who worked at the hospital because he asked me to tell him everything I knew about CTE. I took care to keep my voice low as I explained. And we probably appeared intimate to those who watched us with curious gazes. That was probably why I felt Jake’s presence before I saw him or heard Crystal Collins from obstetrics and gynecology whisper his name to Dorothy, one of her colleagues.

  Jake was standing at the entrance of the tent when our eyes connected. I felt my smile steadily grow, a natural reaction roused from within me on seeing his gorgeous face. But I was the only one beaming. Jake did not look happy as his frown shifted between Greg and me.

  “Dr. Sparrow. You made it,” Courtney sang. “You’re sitting over here by me.”

  I wanted to strangle her.

  “So do you think I have it?” Greg asked, not noticing me staring at Jake.

  I knew I was looking longingly after him because I felt it on my face. “I don’t know. We’ll have to test for it,” I said, watching Jake sit down.

  He wasn’t looking at me anymore, and I wondered if it was because he thought I had transferred my affections to Greg Carroll.

  I turned back to Greg. “Actually, the doctor who just walked in is one of the best neurosurgeons in the world.”

  Funny, but he looked right at Jake. I hadn’t thought Greg noticed him.

  Greg grunted. “I heard you were pretty good.”

  I nodded. “I am.”

  “But you’re the only one I can trust.”

  “You can trust any doctor to keep your care confidential.”

  “And I’m trusting you to keep my care confidential.”

  I studied his grin with narrowed eyes then leaned back once I realized we were again appearing too intimate.

  “He’s your boyfriend or your colleague?” Greg asked, eyeing Jake.

  I whipped my face around to see Jake practically snarling at us. “Either that or my brother.”

  Greg chuckled at my delivery. He had to know the context to get my joke, and there was no way I was explaining it to him.

  Suddenly, Courtney sprang to her feet. “Thank you all for coming to our Midsummer’s Eve party. We’re going to have a lot of fun. By the way, Rich and I are getting married.”

  That time, she stretched her arm out, flashing her ring to everyone in the tent, and applause erupted all around us. Heck, I clapped too. The two of them more than likely deserved each other. Jake didn’t clap. He looked miserable sitting beside her, staring. He was probably upset that he’d asked me to save him a seat beside me and I hadn’t. I wanted to, though.

  Finally, it quieted down.

  “For dinner, we’re going to have some good old-fashioned gumbo and jambalaya,” she announced, sounding more like a Valley girl than ever.

  I tried to avoid Jake’s cold stare.

  “JJ Good is in the house.”

  She clapped, and applause erupted again as a guy with curly hair and a pointy goatee stood up and took a bow. He was wearing tight pants that were rolled up above his ankles and a red velvet vest
that showed off his hilly chest and biceps.

  Courtney then pushed out her hip, posing. “So, all y’all are going to get to see my lady parts tonight. JJ’s going to paint me nude, live! But don’t worry, I’m not going to show anything you all haven’t seen before.”

  “Girl, I didn’t come here to see your twiggy little ass,” a guy who looked like a football player said.

  “Fuck you, Damon,” Courtney retorted.

  Damon clapped and laughed. She rolled her eyes. That was one thing I liked about Court—she knew how to react to a joke when she heard one.

  “But first,” she announced like a whiny little ringmaster. “It’s time for midsummer-night fairies!” She clapped excitedly, and everyone couldn’t help but join her.

  Music started outside the tent, then in danced six nearly naked girls with flowing scarves tied around their heads, their breasts fully exposed, bushy pussies fully out too.

  A laugh escaped me as a band of flute players comprising shirtless guys with long wigs and pieces of cloth over their loins followed the girls. I bit down on my bottom lip to keep myself from cracking up. I couldn’t decide whether the performance was tasteless or just plain old foolish. Thank goodness Zara wasn’t around, or we would’ve inappropriately broken out in laughter together. When my amused eyes found Jake’s, he pointed his head toward the exit and lifted an eyebrow.

  I nodded eagerly, and after he stood, I turned to say goodnight to Greg. I knew I wouldn’t be back, but he was enthralled by the dancing titties. So I got up, and keeping eye contact with Jake, I walked with him toward the exit.

  My attention was diverted when Rich shot to his feet as well. I couldn’t believe he was following Jake around the table. He would’ve made it all the way if Courtney hadn’t run after him. When Jake and I made it out of the tent, he took my hand and guided me as far away from the noise as he could.

  We stopped next to a lit swimming pool that had candles floating on top of the water. Courtney had thought of everything in her effort to impress her guests.