She stretched and curled into my arms. I pushed some strands of hair that fell into her eyes before kissing her forehead.
“It’s a little after eight in the morning.”
We kissed and my hand began to wander down her bare back until it grabbed at her plump ass cheek. She groaned which I have learned was the switch I needed to turn me into the wild animal she loved.
I rolled on top of her and was about to pin her arms back when there was a knock at the door.
“Did you order something?” Aria whispered into my ear.
“No.” I lifted my head shaking it and reluctantly, lifting the rest of my body until I left the bed.
Grabbing my jeans that I bought while we were in Denver, as none of us had a change of clothing, I slipped them on before looking out the peephole.
“It’s Grace,” I said as I opened the door.
It felt like all those missed years were trying to squeeze themselves into my heart whenever I saw her. And when she blushed, I knew it was happening to her, too. Maybe that was a twin thing. That I just knew what she was feeling without having to ask.
But something was a little different. Her eyes wouldn’t meet mine and I wondered, was all this too much for her. Not just meeting me but finding out her real mother was a monster?
Everything must all be sinking in now. I wanted to hug her and tell her we had each other but she held her hands up as I moved closer.
“Alex, um, I need to go get something at the store. I’ll take the car, just wanted you to know in case you came looking for me.”
I nodded. “Okay. Thanks for telling me. Is it okay if I give you a hug?”
Her eyes widened as she glanced around the hall. “Why?”
My heart cracked wondering if she was ever shown affection by the people who raised her.
“Because you’re my sister and I love you,” I said with my arms open.
Grace turned her head slightly as if she was thinking of something but finally nodded. I enveloped her in my arms and gave her a big squeeze. She made a squeaking sound and I loosened my hold. When I pulled back she seemed confused.
I stepped back. “When you’re out can you pick us up some coffee because the stuff here is awful. I can give you some money if you need it.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m good. Coffee it is.”
With that, she turned and made her way toward the lobby of the motel. Shutting the door, I went back to the bed. Aria was sitting up looking beautiful. She had put on a T-shirt which made me frown but she was gorgeous with or without clothes.
“That was nice of you,” she said.
“Nice?”
“Yes. You gave her a hug. Now it makes sense why Grace always acted a bit strange. Because of how she was raised. You’re probably one of the first people to hug her because you wanted to, not because you needed to give the appearance that you cared. I have a feeling the few times that woman has been shown affection was because her parents were pretending to care in front of social workers.”
I sat on the edge of the bed. The bed dipped as Aria scooted toward me. Her hands warm and needed as they slid across my chest holding me close.
“I thought it would be the best thing in the world to find my sister, but to know she had to deal with that for so long hurts more than when I had no idea she even existed.”
Aria tightened her hold. Her warm breath soothed my sore heart. What would I do without her? These past few months, whenever my mother pointed her twisted lies toward me, Aria was the one who knew exactly how to bring my pulse under control. She soothed me with her words, with her art, and with her body.
Now that I found her, I’d be lost without her.
“Did you mean it when you said you would marry me?”
My heart had gotten a little in front of my head when I proposed. I meant every word, but the last place I wanted to express my feelings to Aria was in front of my mother.
“How about we just live together for a while? See how it goes,” she said.
I was rubbing the arm she had draped over my chest but stopped at her words. Turning, I pulled her beside me. “You don’t want to marry me?”
Disbelief and melancholy clawed at my neck before settling in my heart.
Her jaw firmed and with a flared nose she nodded.
Aria was using me. Was I some fun oddity, the rich recluse virgin? Well, ex-virgin now. Something to have a good laugh about when she saw her friends again?
I was angry, but most of all, I was hurt. I may not have intended to propose, but I still loved her. Those dreams of us being on the beach and spending the rest of our lives together were so real I could smell the salty, beachy breeze in her hair.
Something unexpected happened. I laughed. It’s not that I meant to, but when I opened my mouth to speak, laughter poured out instead.
“What’s so funny?” Aria asked with rounded eyes.
I stood and waved my hands around the room. “This. This is funny. You run halfway across the country to ‘kidnap me,’” I raised my fingers in air quotes before continuing, “tell me you love me but you don’t want to marry me. This is farcical, Aria. You. Me. Our lives. If Hollywood made a movie of us, it would be a zany comedy.”
Then I lowered my voice. “Can one man escape his evil mother’s clutches to be with the woman he loves? Can he stop the woman he loves from running from her past long enough to see happiness is right in front of her? What love story doesn’t include kidnapping, discovering long lost family, and escaping arranged marriages.”
Aria stood from the bed to pull on her purple panties and jeans. Then there was silence.
“Okay, maybe not a comedy but definitely a soap opera,” I said.
I was losing it. It was obvious. But I didn’t care. I had enough of people holding love and happiness out in front of me like a carrot stick, only to pull it away when I came near.
There was a knock on the door.
“Grace is back with our coffee,” I said as I bent down to grab the brown T-shirt I wore yesterday and put it on.
Making my way to the door, I opened it without glancing at the peephole, which I would discover was a mistake.
“Who are you?” I asked the tall man with the shaggy brown hair and black T-shirt. Something about him seemed familiar but I couldn’t place him.
I heard movement behind me and glanced back to see Aria pulling up her jeans.
“Something happened to your sister. You both need to come with me.” His voice was deep, almost gravely, as he pinned me with a stare.
The past five minutes arguing with Aria melted away as worry for Grace took over.
“Let me grab my shoes—” I turned but he grabbed me by my arm and pulled.
“Hey, wait, aren’t you—” Aria said and was cut off as another man, who must have been standing in the hall, forced his way in and grabbed her.
“Get off of her.” I tried to yank my arm away from the guy with the shaggy hair, but he managed to move behind me and pin my arms back.
Before I knew what was happening, a bag had been put on my head and I was being pushed forward.
“Did Tiffany get you to do this? Aria, did you call Tiffany?” I asked hoping Aria was nearby since I couldn’t see anything.
If Tiffany was behind this, she was smart enough to get someone much taller to help. And the bag wasn’t transparent which made this feel like a real kidnapping.
The guy pushing me halted. “What about Tiffany? What does she have to do with this?”
“I don’t even know what this is? Tiffany is Aria’s friend. She tried to help me a few days ago thinking I was being forced into marriage. She tried to kidnap me, much in the same way you are doing now. Only she’s a lot shorter and not as good at it as you. She seemed to enjoy doing it, though. I thought maybe she was trying again,” I said and knew I was babbling.
His grip loosened and I heard the guy chuckle. “Yeah, I can see her doing something like that.”
“What? So, she is in on
this—” I couldn’t finish what I said as I was pushed inside something. I fell on what felt like a cushioned seat.
When I heard a motor start, I knew I was in a car. The guy had tied my hands behind my back and arranged me in the seat before he closed the door.
“Aria! Are you here?” I said.
“Oh, you won’t be seeing her again. I don’t think Mrs. Hawthorne would like that.” I heard the guy say from in front of me.
My head jerked back as the car moved forward.
Now, I didn’t care if Aria never wanted to marry me, I only wanted her to be safe. Even if it meant she was without me.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Aria
“You ruined, Alexander,” Mrs. Hawthorne sneered at me.
The guy who grabbed me from the motel room finally took the bag off my head. I had been pushed and pulled and shuffled around so much I didn’t know where I was.
I was thankful to be able to breathe. That bag was suffocating and I gulped at the cool, dry air around me. My hair was matted to my face and, with my hands tied behind my back as I sat on the metal chair, there was nothing I could do about it.
But the air felt wonderful.
“I don’t think I was the one to ruin him. If we are talking about ruining people’s lives, Mrs. Hawthorne, you’re going to need to sit as we go through the list of lives you ruined.”
Just because I was kidnapped, had my hands tied behind my back, had no idea where I was, and almost passed out a few times didn’t mean I wasn’t ready to take this bitch down.
“I saved lives, not ruined them.” She moved toward the desk by the back wall. She was impeccably dressed as usual. The steely Emma Hawthorne had a gray silk blouse on with a pencil skirt and heels. Who dresses like that to kidnap someone?
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized I was in a room with a window that overlooked a large warehouse.
I could be anywhere. Even if I screamed, I suspected the only people who would hear me worked for Mrs. Hawthorne.
“Do you really believe that? You kidnapped your son. No mother in her right mind would force her son to marry someone and then kidnap him when he walked away. Can you not see how crazy this appears?” I said as I stared at her.
This woman was so out of touch with reality. Now I know why Alex was laughing back in the hotel room. All of this was absurd.
“You have no idea what we’re up against, Aria. The power that these men hold, it’s deadly. We need to destroy that. Why do you think I let my son be with you?”
“Because he’s an adult and can see whoever he wants,” I mumbled as I rolled my eyes.
A loud bang had my eyes flip up toward her. She pounded her fist on the desk as she gritted her teeth.
“No, because you of all people should understand why I need to do this. I hate that I haven’t been closer with my son. Despise that, they made me live in fear for so long. But, sometimes, we need to make sacrifices for the greater good.” She gazed off into the distance and I wondered what world she saw there.
Maybe she saw her perfect crazy world. A world where she was the hero. Emma Hawthorne really believed that what she did to her son was necessary. She wasn’t some bitter woman who took her anger and need for control out on her son. She was like some loony terrorist who believed that something greater than themselves was telling them they needed to destroy innocent lives.
“But your son isn’t like those men. He’s a good one.” I slowed my words.
Big thugs don’t scare me. Even when that guy, who I never got a good look at, threw a bag over my head and dragged me here, I wasn’t scared. But a delusional person with thoughts of grandeur that involved destroying people’s lives . . . yeah, that scared the piss out of me.
And this crazy person had money and power. She had the means to do anything she wanted.
“Of course he isn’t. That’s why he’s perfect for the plan.”
The door flew open and then a man wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket walked in—the same man who grabbed Alex at the motel.
It’s over one hundred degrees outside and felt only twenty degrees cooler in here.
“You do realize you are inside or did you just have cataract surgery?” I said because beefy thugs irritated the hell out of me.
He turned his head toward me but ignored my words.
“He’s here, Jay. Should we put him in the same room as Alexa?” he said walking up to Mrs. Hawthorne.
Jay? I thought her first name was Emma.
“Yes. Is the minister here?”
I held my breath as I hoped they weren’t talking about Alex.
“He’s about ten minutes away. Soon your son and Alexa will be married. We haven’t found Grace,” he said.
My shoulders slumped in relief. I had never been so thankful that anyone had to make a run to the store in all my life. By doing that, Grace saved herself from being kidnapped.
Mrs. Hawthorne slammed the desk again with her fist. “She has the access to what we need. All those resources at Mimir. We need that. How are we supposed to expose and take down those high-powered men? Those politicians, CEO’s, media executives, and industry leaders?”
How does Mimir play into this?
“Do you really think Grace can get access to that information at Mimir? She’s only the receptionist.”
My eyes bounced between Alex’s mom and the thug next to her. There was something about that guy that seemed familiar. Then it hit me.
“Hey, are you the guy from the coffee shop?” I said but the guy never answered.
“You can go, Jagger. I have enough people here to help me with my son and his soon-to-be wife. Why don’t you head back to Chicago and try to find Grace? I have a feeling if she thinks everyone left her, she’ll give up and head home,” Mrs. Hawthorne said.
He nodded and kept his head down, turning his back to me as he left the room. He didn’t want me to see him. Maybe that’s why he wore the sunglasses inside like a douche.
He’s the guy that watched Alex and I in Wake Up Joe’s a few weeks ago. Mrs. Hawthorne had him follow us. What did he know? Maybe the guy found out about Alex buying Henrik’s place. Mrs. Hawthorne knows more than I had hoped.
I had to get out of here.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath ready to do and say anything to save us. To get Alex and Alexa to safety.
“Thank you, Mrs. Hawthorne,” I said as I willed my eyes not to leak for what I was about to do.
“Thank you? For what? According to you, I’m a terrible mom and a monster.”
You are.
“No, of course not. Once you explained why you did what you had to do and from what Alex told me, I get it. I really do.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, unsure of my sincerity. “And what exactly do you get, Aria?”
“These people need to be stopped. If I had a chance and the resources to destroy the men who killed my sister, don’t you think I would have? But, I’m not you. I don’t have billions of dollars at my fingertips. I don’t have access to people in high places.”
She scrutinized me for a moment. Despite all the Botox that tightened her face I could tell she was considering my words. She had to know what happened to my sister. The woman knew everything. She even had contact with my father.
“That was disgusting what your father did to his children. I hated dealing with your father, but he knew people that could help me. As for the money, well, Alex has it really. My husband left me nothing. That’s one of the reasons I needed Alex for this.” She shook her head.
“Between the Hawthorne name and money and Alexa’s family connection to members of Congress, we can do so much to not only get back at the men who hurt us, but the men who hurt you, Aria. And get the people who want to hurt our country.” Mrs. Hawthorne smiled. And she looked unhinged. “If we can get access to the Mimir information then I won’t need your father anymore.” Mrs. Hawthorne pursed her lips as she leaned against the desk. She muttered something about some Russians b
ut I couldn’t make out exactly what she said.
“I could help you.” My heart jumped madly in my chest as I pushed out the words.
“How could you help?”
“I don’t know what you need, but since both my friends work there, I don’t think they would be suspicious of me stopping by.”
“Hmm.” Emma’s brow pinched as she tapped her finger against her chin. “We would need you to gain access to certain files that would only be allowed through a high level executive computer. These files contain very personal data on lots of people including politicians and leaders throughout the country and the world.”
Everything was coming together in my head. She was going to use their information against them in some way.
“Morgana is an executive. I could use her computer. Wait until she steps out to use the restroom or something and use it then.”
I made fists behind my back as I prayed she believed me. The woman was crazy after all. She could be playing me as I was playing her.
“That does sound solid. We have someone in the company who can tell you exactly what files to download,” she said before walking around the front of the desk.
Mrs. Hawthorne removed a cell phone from one of the desk drawers and tapped at it a few times.
“Hi, Trey, this is Jay,” she said as she placed the phone to her ear.
“I need you to contact Aria Dixon tomorrow. You are going to help her download the Mimir files. Yes, that Aria. How’s Damien doing? Uh huh. Just make sure those cops play their part. I’ll contact you tomorrow,” she said before putting the phone down.
She smiled at me. Or at least, tried to smile. Her cheeks and forehead were so tight it appeared she was in pain as she curved her lips.
Mrs. Hawthorne strolled over and looked down on me. “You understand Alex has to marry Alexa. He is a part of all this too. You will have to sacrifice him for the greater good.”
Her finger pushed away the hair that had dried to my face. I turned my head up and forced myself to keep my eyes on her.
I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “Yes. I’m actually glad he’s marrying her instead of me.”
Her fingers pulled away from my head. “What?”
One Wild Ride Page 20