HARD LIMIT

by Chloe Fischer

  He stepped toward the door, phone pressed to his ear as he half-hoped it was Sage coming to check up on him.

  The cell rang as Aiden stood, watching the black SUV parked behind his BMW. He could not make out anyone through the tinted glass but something instinctive told him that it was not his new lover.

  “You have reached the personal voicemail of Dr. Sage Pierce. If this is an emergency, please hang up and call 9-1-1. Otherwise, kindly leave me a detailed message after the tone and I will return your call as soon as possible. Thank you and have a lovely day.” The tone beeped, and Aiden paused, his attention still focussed on the unfamiliar vehicle.

  “Sage, it’s Aiden Van Hoyt. I’m sorry I ran out of there, but Audrey needed me. Please know I wouldn’t have left you if it wasn’t urgent. I had an incredible time with you and I would still like to take you out to dinner. I don’t know about you but I’m starving.” He chuckled, a flush rising through him as he remembered how sweet she tasted. “Anyway, I, uh, I hope you get this soon and call me back.”

  He disconnected the call and slipped the iPhone back in his pocket.

  “Hey Corinne!”

  She appeared in the foyer.

  “What’s up?”

  “Is that the same car the guy was driving earlier today? The one who was looking for me?”

  Corinne peered out the window and nodded.

  “Yeah. I guess he’s back.”

  Aiden nodded slowly, his pulse quickening.

  Why is he just sitting there? He wondered, opening the front door. Audrey’s warnings were playing vividly in his head and as he stepped onto the porch, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

  On cue, his cell began to ring but he ignored it, waiting for the man inside to show himself.

  Daddy! Tell him to go away! Audrey screamed in his head. Tell him to leave!

  Get away from the window, Audrey. Daddy’s got this, he told her calmly, but he doubted very much that his daughter heeded his advice.

  Gingerly, he stepped off the patio and onto the flagstone pathway, his blood pressure rising.

  It is nothing. Maybe this is an old friend of Charles and Lisa, he reasoned but as he thought it, another voice played into his thoughts, one unfamiliar.

  I am not an old friend of your adopted parents.

  Aiden was suddenly paralyzed in place, his breaths shortening as the rear passenger door opened and a man stepped onto the driveway.

  It was the same man Audrey had shown him.

  Audrey, stay silent, he ordered her and gratefully for once, she listened.

  “Who are you?” Aiden demanded, forcing himself to stride forward. “What are you doing here?”

  “My name is Drake Conway, Aiden.”

  The men stood face to face and Aiden was filled with a peculiar sensation, one not unlike deja vu.

  “Where do I know you from?” he croaked, his eyes locking into the older man’s, but the answer seemed to be staring him in the face.

  “You recognize me?” Drake Conway asked, his voice catching slightly.

  Aiden snapped his face downward.

  “No,” he said flatly. “I don’t.”

  The man inhaled sharply.

  “I wouldn’t expect you to,” he said quietly. “You were very young when I last saw you, Aiden.”

  “What do you want, Mr. Conway?” Aiden asked. “You seem to have upset my daughter when you came earlier today.”

  “You were still basically an infant the last time I saw you,” Drake Conway continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “You and Xander had just had your first birthdays.”

  The words chilled Aiden and his breath grew shorter as he suddenly realized what the man was trying to tell him.

  “You’re our real father,” Aiden said dully. “Is that what you came here to say?”

  Drake swallowed openly and nodded.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “I have come to reunite all of us, so we can be a family again.”

  He stared at the older man, shaking his head dubiously.

  “This is a lot to process right now,” he said. “Why don’t you tell me where you’re staying, and I will be in touch with you when the time’s better. I have a lot of other things going on right now.”

  Drake hung his head.

  “I see,” he said slowly. “You’re still angry because you were left with the Van Hoyts. You have to know, Aiden that if I had any idea what kind of people they were, we would not have left you in their care. Xander has explained how rough your childhood was and why he did what he did.”

  Aiden scoffed, folding his arms over his chest, conflicting emotions whirling through him like a tornado.

  How many times had he and Xander dreamt about finding their real parents, about finding out where they came from and where they had gotten their abilities?

  But that was when they were children, young and idealistic. They had believed their parents had given them up for some noble cause and would come back for them, rescue them from the wretched Van Hoyts.

  Now he was learning that he and Xander had been deliberately placed with his abusive adopted parents.

  “You have a bit of an ego, don’t you?” he snapped. “I have a life of my own, Mr. Conway. Forgive me if I don’t jump for joy and throw my arms around you after thirty years. Like I said, this is a bad time for this family reunion.”

  “Even to meet your brothers?”

  “Xander and I are not close,” he snapped, his last nerve fraying with the discussion.

  “I’m not talking about Xander. You have two other brothers, both older.”

  Aiden’s blood ran cold and then hot. He was consumed with dizziness as he tried to make sense of what he was hearing.

  I can’t do this. I have to worry about Audrey and Sarah. I don’t have any time for more family. I just can’t.

  “I’m sorry,” Aiden said again, turning away. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you the answer you require.”

  “I am the one who’s sorry, Aiden.”

  He glanced over his shoulder and his jaw fell open in shock.

  Drake had a gun pointed at his back.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Aiden roared, fury coursing through his veins. “Put that away!”

  His biological father shook his head.

  “I’m afraid I can’t Aiden,” he sighed. “I’m afraid I need you and your daughter and I’m not leaving here until you agree to help me.”

  Chapter Nine

  Sage cinched the robe at her waist and listened to the message for a fourth time, trying to detect any falsehood in Aiden’s voice.

  She couldn’t hear anything but that didn’t mean she wasn’t listening with blinders.

  Can a person listen with blinders? She asked herself, shaking her dark head.

  It was difficult to reconcile that he would just have fled the condo like a teenaged boy. He wasn’t the type.

  Then again, what do you know about men really? Your ex is Patrick Keyes.

  She perched on the counter where only an hour earlier she had been splayed, wedged between the surface and Aiden, finding God – a few times.

  What do I do with this information? Sage asked herself, finally putting the phone back on the counter.

  She loathed that she was considering redressing for the third time that night.

  I just want to see if he went back to the house or if that’s just an excuse, she reasoned. Her medical training and common sense told her to go upstairs, crawl into bed and go to sleep but her good judgement was still somewhere buried beneath her raging hormones.

  I’ll just drive by and see if his car is there, she thought, hurrying back into the master bedroom to change into a wine-colored track suit. He’ll never even know I was there.

  She hoped she was smart enough to do just that.

  Not only was Aiden’s BMW parked in the driveway but there were two other vehicles on the wide drive also, a black SUV with tinted windows and a non-descript town car.

  She saw
no one lingering on the lawn but Sage couldn’t help but feel that she had been lied to by Aiden.

  He blew me off for company, she thought, gritting her teeth as she studied the house through narrowed eyes, contemplating her next move. You’re a fool for believing his voicemail. He hadn’t intended to take you out anywhere.

  Still, she couldn’t forget the flowers in her kitchen or the way Aiden had looked at her.

  Without thinking, she picked up her cell and dialed out.

  His phone went to voicemail and Sage grunted, tossing it on the passenger seat, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.

  Fuck it. I’m going in.

  She removed the keys from her console and locked the door, checking both ways before jogging across the street toward the elegant house.

  Her eyes darted about as if looking for an excuse to run back to the security of her car, but of course, nothing was going to stop her; she was too far gone.

  There were so many things wrong with what she was doing that she could barely believe she was the same person she had been two days earlier.

  She had crossed a line by sleeping with the father of one of her patients and she had turned into a stalker. Shit.

  What would Jennica say about this? She wondered as she stepped onto the porch. The idea of someone learning what she was doing caused her cheeks to stain crimson.

  Inhaling, she poked her finger into the doorbell and waited for her humiliation to peak.

  The chimes echoed through the house, but no one immediately came to respond.

  Brow furrowing, she waited a moment before raising the lion’s head knocker. Before she could lower it once, the door fell open and Sage gasped as Audrey stared at her with worried grey eyes.

  “Audrey!” she choked. “I – I was just looking to speak with your dad. Is he home?”

  The young girl pressed her index finger to her lips and gestured for Sage to follow her.

  “Are you all right?” the psychologist asked, but the girl shushed her harshly, slipping through the hall toward the back of the house.

  A fission of apprehension shot through Sage, but she clamped her mouth closed and continued after the child, her ears honed for sounds of life in the house.

  She’s not home alone, is she?

  Sage thought of the housekeeper who had been there earlier in the week and wondered if she lived on site.

  Audrey paused at a doorway and turned to look at her again, once more gesturing for Sage to be silent before she opened the door slowly, being careful not to make a sound.

  It clearly led to the basement and the moment the door opened, voices wafted up.

  “…no idea what the fuck you are talking about!” Aiden growled. “Now, my daughter is upstairs. You can’t be here.”

  Audrey stood, eyeing Sage warily as if she was worried the woman would blow their cover but Sage remained stalk still, listening.

  “You don’t understand, Aiden. You are the final piece of the puzzle. Audrey is not safe now. She – “

  “Don’t even say her name!” Aiden snarled at the unfamiliar man. “I don’t know you people. You can’t just waltz into my life after 30 years and tell me some wild shit and expect me to jump at your command. Especially when you wave a gun in my face!”

  Sage’s stomach dropped and she waved Audrey toward her.

  If there were armed men holding Aiden captive, Audrey needed to be taken to safety. But the girl shook her blonde head firmly, her eyes urgent as she signalled for Sage to listen.

  “Aiden, you must take what we’re saying very seriously.”

  Another man, and Sage was beginning to wonder how many people were in the basement with Aiden.

  I should call the police, she thought but the moment she thought it, Patrick’s face flashed through her mind. Maybe that wasn’t the best idea.

  “Audrey, come on,” she hissed but the girl stood firmly in place.

  “Your concerns are not mine,” she heard Aiden say. “My concern is my family.”

  A heavy pause followed, and Aiden spoke again.

  “We are your family,” he said in a guttural tone, but he sounded just a little off, and Sage looked at Audrey in confusion.

  Aiden scoffed.

  “They are not my family,” he snarled to the man who sounded almost exactly like him. “Sarah and Audrey are my family. Get them the hell out of my house. I have no interest in this asinine plan of theirs.”

  “Aiden – “ someone else started.

  “Get out. Your ten minutes are up.”

  There was finality in Aiden’s tone and Sage heard a scuffling of movement.

  “Come on!” she whispered, yanking on Audrey’s arm and shooing her toward the butler stairs off the side of kitchen.

  The two sat in the shadows as Aiden stomped up into the dark kitchen, his face set with anger.

  Sage’s hand flew to her mouth as four men followed in single file.

  One of them was Xander Van Hoyt, and while she did not recognize the others, there was an uncanny family resemblance in build and coloring.

  What the hell is going on here?

  The woman and girl sat on the stairs but Sage could no longer hear the men speaking as they filed out the front door.

  “Who are those people?” Sage demanded when she was sure they were no longer being detected. “Do I need to call the police?”

  Audrey shook her head vehemently.

  “No!” she breathed. “I don’t know anyone but Uncle Xander.”

  “I thought he was in prison!”

  “Me too,” the child replied, her face showing the same confusion she was feeling.

  What the hell kind of mess did I walk into here? I need to get out of this house and forget I ever met Aiden Van Hoyt.

  But as she stared down at Audrey’s worried face, Sage knew she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Audrey, get out of the stairwell.”

  They both jumped as Aiden’s voice came back to them from the kitchen. He must have flipped on the light, as he waited for Audrey to join him.

  The young girl scurried down the steps as Sage remained in place, hoping that Aiden had not seen her.

  I guess it doesn’t matter; I’m sure Audrey will tell him I’m here, she thought, biting on her lower lip as she debated whether to show her face or not.

  “Daddy, what happened?” Audrey breathed and Sage could hear their clothes rustling as they hugged. “Are you okay? I wanted to…”

  She trailed off for a moment and Sage realized she wasn’t finishing her sentence because she was concentrating, as if listening to a distant sound.

  “Do you understand, sweetheart? And yes, you did the right thing staying hidden. Where’s Corinne?”

  Wait a second, did I miss part of that conversation, Sage thought with confusion.

  “I told her you didn’t want to be disturbed, so she went to her room over the garage.”

  Aiden exhaled.

  “Thank you, pumpkin,” he paused. “We may have to go away for a while, Audrey,” he said softly. “I’m not sure exactly what’s going to happen next. I need to do some research and decide what’s best for all of us, okay? I’m going to tuck you into bed, and tomorrow I’ll let you know what’s going to happen,” he paused, and hugged her tight. “I’m so sorry about all of this, honey. I don’t want to take you away from your friends, but it might be our only choice.”

  “Away? Where? Why was Uncle Xander here? Is he free from jail now?”

  “Can we wait until tomorrow to talk about all of this, pumpkin? I really need you listen to me now and do as I say.”

  “Okay, Daddy,” she replied uncertainly. “But how long will we be gone if we go away? I’m going to miss Corinne.”

  “I know, honey. Now come on, I’m going to tuck you in to bed, okay? We’ll talk about this again in the morning.”

  Audrey nodded solemnly, turning and making her way to her room with her dad. As far as Sage could tell, she hadn’t told her father about Sage being there.


  What was she supposed to do now? She didn’t feel like she should go back home. But what if they left in the morning? What if Aiden decided to take Audrey far away and just never call her again? And were they in any danger? It had sounded like that was what those men were trying to tell him. Could she leave him when him and Audrey were in danger? Could she help him? So many questions, dammit!

  Sage whirled around and planted her butt on one of the bar stools. I’m staying, she decided. She needed some answers too, and for some reason, the idea of never seeing Aiden again hurt her inside. It didn’t really make any sense. She barely knew him. If she was thinking logically, she’d just go back home and wash her hands of the Van Hoyt family.

  But she didn’t do that. She’d drive herself crazy if she tried to analyze this too much, though. There was no way it was ever going to make sense in her brain. Face it, it just isn’t logical. In fact, it’s flat out crazy to feel so strongly, so suddenly about someone.

  Whatever happened in that basement scared him enough to think about uprooting his daughter and leaving, she thought. And Sage knew that she didn’t want that to happen, not when she had just found him.

  I’m connected to this family somehow and I can’t let them sneak away, not when I could do something…

  Just then, she heard Aiden returning from tucking in Audrey.

  She stepped forward and his eyes widened in stunned disbelief.

  “Sage!” he said, his surprise showing on his face. “What are you doing here?”

  “Where are you going?” she asked, ignoring the question. “Who were those men and why are you thinking of taking Audrey away?”

  “Sage, I don’t have time to explain,” he told her gruffly. “You have to trust that whatever I decide to do is best for everyone.”

  “Not for me!” she cried, the words spilling out of her mouth before she could think them through. “You can’t just…”

  She stopped talking abruptly and stared at him, her face displaying the anguish she was feeling.

  “I don’t want you both to… just go,” she finished lamely.

  His sea-green eyes softened as he stared at her, but his jaw locked.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t explain what’s going on, and I have a lot of…work to do tonight.”