by Sarah Bailey
ME: Princess, I need you to be careful. I know who it is.
AVERY: What do you mean?
ME: The Collector.
AVERY: Who is it?
The lift dinged. I didn’t have time to reply to her. I strode out of it and made my way to Ed’s office. I threw open the door. He was standing at his desk with his phone to his ear. As soon as he saw me, his face dropped.
“I have to go,” he said to the person on the phone.
I was relatively sure it was Flavia.
“You and I need to talk,” I said when he dropped his phone on his desk.
“You can’t come storming in here,” he replied, walking around his desk.
“Oh, I think I can.”
Ed stared at me for one long moment before he bolted from the room, not giving me a chance to stop him. I turned and ran after him. He shoved open the door to Avery’s office and my stomach dropped out from under me.
What the fuck did he think he was doing going in there?
When I got through the door, I almost fucking died on the spot.
My heart hammered in my chest.
Ed had a knife to her throat.
And Avery’s doe eyes were wide with fear and confusion.
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty One
Avery
I looked down at my phone, frowning. Why hadn’t Aiden texted me back? He knew who The Collector was. How had he found out? Did that escort tell him? Why would she even know? I had too many questions and Aiden wasn’t responding.
The door to my office flew open. I looked up. Ed strode in. I was about to ask him what he was doing when he tugged me up out of my chair and pulled me against his chest. The next thing I knew, he was holding his arm across my chest and had a knife to my throat.
What the fuck?
Aiden walked in and stopped dead. His grey eyes were dark with shock and then anger.
“Let her go.”
“No. Don’t come any closer,” Ed said.
“What are you doing?” I asked, fear lacing my tone.
He had a fucking knife against my throat. What the hell was he doing and why?
“Shut the fuck up,” he hissed in my ear.
I couldn’t stop my limbs trembling. The knife was cold against my skin. Whilst it wasn’t digging in, I was still petrified. And worst of all, it brought back all my memories of that night I’d killed Tristan.
“Let her go, Ed,” Aiden said.
“You think I’m going to give up the only fucking leverage I have? Don’t make me laugh.”
My eyes met Aiden’s again. The agony in his expression killed me. My life was in danger and there was nothing he could do about it. I wasn’t entirely sure Ed would actually hurt me, but we couldn’t take that risk.
“She’s not a part of this.”
“You know. You fucking know.”
“Yeah, I do know.”
“What were you going to do, huh? I know you hate what we do. I know everything.”
Aiden shook his head.
“Put the knife down and we can talk.”
Ed pressed the knife into my throat. I almost couldn’t breathe.
“Please,” I whispered, terrified that speaking would make it dig into my skin.
“I told you to shut up.”
His arm around me tightened.
“Let Avery go.”
“And risk you coming after me? I don’t think so.”
“Ed, please, I don’t know what’s happening,” I whispered. “Please.”
And then it dawned on me. Aiden had come here for a reason. That reason was my cousin. Ed was The Collector. Ed ran the girls.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
How could I not have known that?
“Let my wife go, Ed. I won’t tell you again. Do you really want to murder your own cousin? There are cameras in this room. This is being recorded. Don’t be fucking stupid.”
It took a moment, but Ed’s grip on me loosened a little. He still kept the knife to my throat, but I felt like I could breathe again. I shifted, feeling increasingly uncomfortable pressed up against my cousin.
“I don’t want to hurt her,” Ed said, his voice a little high pitched.
“Then put the knife down.”
“What do you want, Aiden? Are you going to turn me in?”
“I want you to tell me where they are.”
I couldn’t see Ed’s face so I didn’t know what he was thinking, but Aiden just looked tense. His grey eyes were fixed on mine. He was pleading with me to stay still. To not aggravate the situation.
“And what, you’re going to take them, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“What are you going to do with me?”
Aiden’s hands came up.
“Nothing. I just want to shut it down.”
Except I knew he was lying. We were going to destroy all of them because we had enough evidence to.
“I don’t believe you.”
“You tell me where they are, I’ll let you walk out of here and you can run. I don’t care where you go as long as you don’t fucking come back. Just let Avery go, please.”
No one moved or said anything for several long moments. All I could hear was my heart pounding my ears. And all I could think about was how I’d killed with a knife. I’d stabbed Tristan in the neck with a knife. That night decimated me. I felt tears pricking at my eyes. I tried to squash the memories, but they blared in my head.
“Am I? Are you sure about that? Too fucking bad for you, isn’t it? That I’m Avery Lockhart now.”
“You fucking bitch.”
There was blood everywhere. So much blood. I choked back a sob. Ed shifted behind me. Tears rolled down my cheeks. The agony in Aiden’s expression told me he knew exactly what was happening to me.
“Please,” I sobbed. “Let me go.”
I couldn’t do this. I needed the knife away from me or the memories would ruin me.
“You’re just a little whore to him. He could never truly want you.”
I felt his hands all over me. I felt it when he slammed me into the floor after I’d tried to run. I felt the knife slicing into his flesh. More tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn’t stop the tidal wave of emotion crashing down on me. And the one person who could make it go away was standing several feet away from me, completely helpless to stop this.
“Please, Ed. Please let me go.”
The next moment, the knife left my throat and Ed shoved me away from him. I almost collapsed in a heap on the floor, but I didn’t. I took several shaky steps towards Aiden. He met me halfway and bundled me up in his arms.
“Do not fucking move,” he said to Ed over my shoulder.
He stroked my back as I sobbed on his chest.
“Shh, princess. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Ed asked.
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Now write down where they are and don’t fucking bullshit me, Ed. I will find you and then you’re going down. I want you to ring whoever is in charge of this shit for you and tell them they’re not going to stop me taking them. Do you understand?”
“Yes, fuck, yes I do.”
“Good.”
I clutched Aiden tighter. I couldn’t deal with any of this shit. I wasn’t prepared to find out my cousin ran the girls. I wasn’t prepared to deal with the onslaught of emotions having a knife pressed to my throat brought on either. The images were still there. Haunting me. Tearing me to shreds.
“Princess, shh, shh, it’s okay,” Aiden murmured. “You’re okay. Nothing can hurt you. I’m right here. You’re not back there, okay? You’re not. I promise.”
“Aiden,” I sobbed. “I can’t stop.”
He stroked my hair, his touch soothing.
“Get on with it, Ed, then you can fucking well leave,” Aiden said over the top of my head.
“Okay, okay.”
> I heard the shuffling of paper.
“Their schedule is on my phone, all right? I’ll send it to Avery’s email. Then you can see who they’re with.”
“Don’t forget to phone their fucking handlers.”
I heard Ed talking in low tones a few minutes later whilst Aiden continued to stroke my hair and my back. Having his solid form pressed against mine calmed me. He grounded me. My breathing slowed. My heart rate subsided to a normal rhythm and my tears dissipated.
“You remembered it, didn’t you?” Aiden whispered.
I nodded against his chest.
“He can’t hurt you anymore, okay?”
“I know,” I whispered.
I really did know that. Tristan and Frazier were dead. We knew where the girls were. We had everything we needed now. All of it. This could finally be over. The nightmare that had encompassed our lives for months. I couldn’t believe it. That it was almost done with.
I pulled away, staring up at Aiden. He gently brushed away my tears with his thumb.
“I’ve got this, okay?” he said.
“Yes,” I replied.
He let go of me and stepped towards Ed.
“You, sit and stay.”
“What? You said I could go.”
“I was lying.”
I turned to find Ed’s face growing white. He’d put the knife down on my desk. Aiden strode over to it and picked it up off there before Ed had a chance to go for it.
“Sit down,” he demanded.
Ed sat at my desk, placing his hands on top of it.
“What are you going to do?”
“End this bullshit once and for all. You and the rest of them are going down for this. So you’re going to stay there.”
Aiden turned to me.
“Get John in here.”
I nodded. I walked away out of the room. I’d sent him off for lunch half an hour ago. I found him in the conference room.
“John… I need you to come back to the office,” I said, poking my head around the door.
“Sure thing,” he replied, standing up abruptly.
He chucked away his wrappers in the bin before following me back into my office. When he spied Aiden and Ed, he looked at me.
“What’s going on?”
“This shit right here is The Collector,” Aiden said, pointing at Ed.
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not. We know where the girls are now. I want you to watch him in case he tries to bolt. I need to speak to Rick.”
John nodded. He walked over to my desk and eyed Ed with some distaste.
I went over to Aiden, putting my hand on his arm.
“Why Rick?”
“Because this shit is going to end tonight. I’m done. You’re done. It’s time for us to live our lives without all of these fuckers ruining it. We have everything now, princess. All the evidence. I told you no more bloodshed and I meant it. These pricks are going to prison.”
I moved closer to him, lowering my voice.
“But what if they work out what we’ve done. Won’t they tell the police?”
He shook his head.
“No proof to back it up even if they did.”
He was right. The only people who could implicate us were ourselves. I would never turn him in and he’d never tell them what I did. He’d covered it up for me. I trusted Aiden with my life. I don’t know why I’d been getting so insecure and worked up about shit between the two of us. Maybe I was just on edge because we were so close to finding out the truth.
The only thing we didn’t know was who killed his mother. That was why he had to speak to Rick. And we had to find out why Rick kept saying I was important. What did he want? He must’ve had his reasons for wanting Aiden to get rid of my father. To destroy all of this shit. Was it because of Aiden’s mother? He said he regretted that he wasn’t there to save her. Was this his version of revenge?
The only way we’d know is if we spoke to him. Aiden needed this. Needed to have closure. I knew it was the only way he’d move on from his mother’s death. The only way he’d let go of all the pain and heartache he’d carried for almost twenty two years. Longer than I’d even been alive. My beautiful tattooed angel. He needed to find peace. Desperately. He’d found some of it with me, but he’d never be free until he knew the truth.
“Call Rick,” I said, resting my head against his chest with my hand on his heart.
He wrapped an arm around me as he pulled out his phone. I felt his heart thundering underneath my fingertips. Tension radiated off him in waves. He didn’t want to speak to Rick, but this was the only way.
“Come, princess, let’s not do this here,” he said.
I pulled away from him. He took my hand, nodding at John as he pulled me from the office. We walked into the photocopier room nearby. He shut the door behind us.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He paced the room, running a hand through his hair.
“No. That fucking prick had a knife to your throat, do you think I’d be okay after that? Fuck, princess, if I lost you…”
My heart broke for him. I knew he hated having to see me like that. To know my life was in someone else’s hands. I put my hand on his arm when he came near, stopping him in his tracks.
“Aiden, I’m right here. Look at me.”
He stood in front of me, staring down into my eyes with his grey ones. They were full of suppressed anger and fear. I reached up, cupping his face.
“I was so scared he’d hurt me.”
“Avery…”
“No, let me finish.”
He sighed, stepping closer and wrapping a hand around my waist.
“Ed isn’t a killer. Maybe he would’ve done it if you hadn’t been so calm about it. Not everything has to be handled with violence. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course I do. Why do you think I’m turning your uncle and cousins in rather than taking them out? I told you if we could avoid killing them, then we would.”
I didn’t think I’d ever hear Aiden say that, but he had a habit of doing the opposite of what I thought he was going to. He had gone and beaten someone up just for daring to help his father take me. Ed held a knife to my throat. All things considered, that was far worse.
“So you don’t want to kill Ed for what he did?”
“I didn’t say that. I want him dead for ever threatening your life, but I don’t want to be that man anymore. The one who kills. You told me once that side of me terrified you. I don’t want you scared of me. I want you to love every part of me because I’m deserving of it.”
Tears pricked at my eyes. Fuck. Aiden. Sometimes he really gutted me. My insides were like jagged shards of ice, cutting into my organs.
“Aiden… you’ve always deserved me. Don’t you see that? And I do love you. Every single inch of you. Even the dark parts. Even the cold parts. Every single part of your soul. I will never see anything other than the man I love when I look at you. Haven’t I told you that enough times? Shown you? Don’t you believe me?”
I needed him to believe me. Desperately. I needed him to see what I saw. The man who’d give his own life in place of mine. That man was deserving of me. That man was him.
“Princess,” he whispered, his voice sounding a little choked up and hoarse. “I’ve always believed you. I trust you… I…”
“You just don’t see yourself that way,” I finished for him.
He nodded.
“Well, you should. You don’t have to say it, but I know you. I see it in the way you look at me. You’d give up everything to make me happy, even your own life. Don’t you see that’s the most selfless thing a person could ever do?”
He stared at me for a long moment.
“I never looked at it like that.”
“Well no, you wouldn’t. You don’t see yourself as a good person, that’s why, but I do and I suppose that has to be enough for the both
of us.”
That made him smile.
“You’ve got the most perfect soul, princess.”
I rolled my eyes. I didn’t, but if he saw me that way, then who was I to dissuade him of it. Hell, it made me feel special. Being Aiden’s girl had always made me feel on top of the world even when he’d hurt me. I lived in the darkness with him now. The stain on my soul from my actions guaranteed that, but even before I killed Tristan, I’d already embraced the dark.
He leant down and brushed his lips against mine. Tingles shot down my spine at the briefest of touches. My hands wound into his hair, tugging him closer as our lips melded together. Relief sunk into me. This ordeal was almost at an end. We wouldn’t have to be looking over our shoulders any longer. My life wouldn’t be in danger and neither would his.
When he pulled back, he just held onto me for the longest time. Savouring each other’s warmth and touch.
“You need to call him,” I said, knowing we should get back to John and Ed.
He sighed, shifting away from me a little so he could dial Rick’s number. He put it on speakerphone and we both listened to it ringing.
“Aiden,” came his annoying voice as he answered.
“We need to talk.”
“After your wife’s little outburst, I didn’t expect to hear from you.”
“We know everything. We have the evidence to destroy the Daniels and their legacy. We know where the girls are. We have Ed Daniels so he can’t run and Chuck has no idea yet. The last piece of the puzzle lies with you. You’re going to tell me who killed my mother, why you really took Avery and why you keep telling me she’s so important. I’m done with this game now. It ends tonight.”
Rick was silent for a long moment. I wondered if he was actually going to agree or not. After all, his stipulation was three weeks of dinners with us and I’d royally fucked that up.
“Fine. Bring Ed, I’ll deal with the rest. I’ll text you when and where.”
“You’re going to tell me who killed her.”
“Yes. I told your little da… Avery, I would. Can’t go back on my word now. It is time this ended. Everything is in place.”
I wondered what he meant by that. Rick obviously had his own agenda. That much was clear after he told us he knew Aiden would go after my parents.