“Actually, I don’t think we’re going to do that,” Lorenzo said. “Because we were the ones that tried to help her get away.”
“What?” my mother asked.
“Yep. We gave her some money so she could get herself to California,” Hunter said. “Though I have to admit, coming back here was gutsy. I’m proud of you, Ava.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile.
“What the hell is going on?” my father asked.
“What’s going on is the fact that your children aren’t taking anymore of your shit,” I said.
“You watch that mouth, young lady. Or you won’t see the sun for a month!”
“You don’t have control anymore over this situation,” I said. “Stop it, Daddy.”
I watched him falter for just a moment before his hand came down at his side. He looked weary. War torn. Very unlike the strong man I grew up with. Now, he seemed weak. Vulnerable. All of those things he tried to teach us not to be. All of those times I heard him beat my brothers’ asses for pulling stupid shit and all those times my mother shielded me from his anger.
It brought us all to this point. Where the four of us stood against our parents.
“I will not tolerate this. I still have control of your trust funds, boys,” my father said.
“I don’t have one so, you guys have a rebuttal for that?” I asked.
“One, we think you should have a trust fund. That’s a load of shit,” Hunter said.
“Two, we’re hoping if you stand your ground on this marriage thing, then maybe we can marry people we love as well,” Lorenzo said.
“What?” I asked.
“Yeah. It’s different for women, obviously. But men get married off, too,” Finn said. “Dad tried to do it to me a couple of years ago, but things fell through. Mostly because Lorenzo sabotaged the efforts.”
“You what?” my father asked.
“I did. Trickled some lies through our group that got back to Dad. Had to do some serious damage control, though. It almost ruined that young woman’s reputation,” Lorenzo said. “She was a great lay after, though.”
“You slept with her? Nice,” Hunter said.
The two of them clapped hands above my head as I stood there, rooted in shock. This was why my brothers were always so encouraging of my insane ideas. This was why they always helped me out whenever I needed to get away and breathe. Our father tried to control them as much as he tried to control me.
I had no idea he did that to them.
“This is absurd!” my father said with a roar. “I will not have my children wandering about like a lost herd of buffalo! You ungrateful, small-minded toddlers. Everything I built was to hand down to you guys. All of this wealth. This house and your educations—”
“Well, their educations,” I said. “I didn’t get one.”
“You will listen to me!” my father roared.
“I will not!” I said. “I will not stand here and continue to be berated. And now that I understand that my brothers are just as unhappy, I will not stand here and allow you to wreak havoc on their lives either. You have a choice, Dad. You can give us the freedom to discover our own lives and have us around, or you can cast us out and be done with it. But I can promise you this. I’m sure the media would love to know exactly how you treat your family on a regular basis. I bet that wouldn’t bode too well for what you built to pass down to us, would it?”
My fists were clenched at my side as my brothers stood around me. Our eyes were trained on our father as he loomed over us. He seemed taller than normal. Darker and angrier than I had ever seen him. My knees shook, but I couldn’t show him weakness. Businessmen like my father thrived on weakness. The moment I showed it, he had the upper hand and there was no getting it back.
I looked into his eyes as my mother shed tears behind him. My heart leapt out for her. I loved my mother, I really did. But the life she had chosen for herself was one that had been imposed on her. She was as happy as she portrayed herself to be, but that was it. No one could ever be able to convince me that this was the life she would’ve chosen had someone stood up for her. Stood beside her, like my brothers did for me.
“Get out of my sight,” my father said. “We’ll discuss this later. Like civil adults.”
I sighed as a smile crossed my face.
“But if you think the three of you are getting any slice of anything I’ve left for you after this blatant portrayal of disrespect, then you are sorely mistaken,” my father said.
“We can discuss it later,” I said. “Like civil adults.”
Fourteen
Travis
Every day that crept by had me more and more worried for Ava. I figured she would’ve already come back to the cabin by now. At least to update me on how things with her father went. Each day that passed by without her presence on my doorstep made me wonder what he had done to her. What type of punishment he had imposed in order to get her to fall back in line. No one could blame her if she had. Not even myself. She was a scared, uneducated twenty two year old girl whose knowledge of life came from nothing but the books she could sneak into her own home. She wanted a life for herself. She craved the ability to make her own decisions.
But it was hard to fight a burning passion with years of habits and tradition.
I went out to get the mail and scanned the horizon. I listened out for any sounds of a car coming up the driveway. I pulled the scant mail from the mailbox and sighed, resolving myself to the fact that Ava wasn’t coming around today either.
But a letter staring me in the face ripped me from my trance.
It had Breathline Energies logo on it but was addressed to my father. I furrowed my brow as I opened up the letter, standing in the middle of the driveway. My eyes scanned the words as anger percolated in my gut. It was yet another threatening letter from Ava’s father’s fucking company. Saying some shit about getting the government involved if we didn’t sell our land. This company was relentless. Her father was relentless. And if he governed his family with the same techniques he used for his business, then Ava didn’t stand a chance fighting him alone.
The only thing I could hope was that her brothers would stand by her side.
The letter went on to state that the government would side with them in an argument to run a gas line through the mountains. This was the third threatening letter they had sent to us after they took their run at us in the media. Either way, I knew our company lawyers were going to have to get involved soon, which was shit because my parents were currently on vacation.
Which meant the call to the lawyer fell on my shoulders.
“Mr. Benson. What can I do for you?”
“Hey there, Richard. Look, is there any way I can set up a meeting with you?” I asked.
“Let me guess. Breathline Energies,” he said.
“You got it. I’ve got their third threatening piece of mail, but this one is from their own lawyers,” I said.
“We can get a meeting on the books. Do you want me to reach out to your parents about this?”
“No, no. Don’t bother them. I’ll give them a call. Dad doesn’t usually pick up his cell phone while they’re down there, but if I leave him a message, he’ll call back,” I said.
“I’ve got this Saturday open for lunch. We could make it an informal thing. I could give you your options, you could mull them over. We could talk formally over the phone about it that following Monday to give you time to talk with your parents.”
“That sounds perfect. Lunch Saturday it is. You pick the place and let me know when to be there,” I said.
“That’s easy. Twelve thirty at Little Gallea.”
“Do you eat anywhere else?” I asked with a chuckle.
“Nope. And my waistline can prove it. See you then, Travis. And don’t worry. They can threaten government involvement all they want. But unless they can prove your father’s company establishes a monopoly by holding onto this land, there isn’t anything they can do to intervene. But
, we’ve got ways of getting them to shut their antics down. Starting by suing for harassment.”
“We’ll talk more Saturday, but thanks. That settles my mind a bit,” I said.
“Talk with you soon.”
“See ya Saturday.”
I hung up the phone and immediately called my father. I made my way inside, listening as the phone rang in my ear. I left him a voice message telling him it was urgent, but when I got a call back, it was my mother.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” she asked.
“Hey, Mom. What’s going on with Dad?” I asked.
“He’s a bit… incapacitated at the moment.”
“Is he okay?” I asked.
“Son, will you just take my word for it and talk with me? He can’t come to his phone right now.”
“I don’t even want to know,” I said.
“You really don’t.”
“I can hear your grin.”
“We’re at the vacation home. Take it for what you will. What’s wrong? It sounds like something’s on your mind,” she said.
“Nothing new has developed, but there was another letter sent out. It was addressed to Dad, but it came to me. Did you guys switch the formal business address to my cabin? Or has Breathline Energies tracked me down?” I asked.
“No, we switched it. Don’t panic. I was going to call and tell you, but I haven’t had the time. I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
“What happened with forwarding the mail to you guys down in Florida?” I asked.
“You really don’t watch the news, do you? This hurricane season’s supposed to be rough. Your father is up to his usual panicky antics and he switched the forwarding address to your house. So we can make sure someone gets the mail. He thinks everything halts when storms blow through.”
“Sounds like Dad. Anyway, it’s another threatening letter from Breathline. Government action and all that shit.”
“Language, sweetheart.”
“Sorry, Mom. And all that stuff. I’ve got an informal sit down with Richard on Saturday for lunch to figure out what we can do about getting them to stop. Richard says they don’t have grounds to involve the government and that we might have some avenues we can take to get them to stop for good.”
“Well, keep us in the loop honey. I’m so sorry we aren’t there to handle this,” she said.
“No worries. You guys enjoy your incapacitated time together. I just wanted to update you on what was going on since I had to call the family lawyer.”
“Thanks, sweetheart. Let us know how Saturday goes.”
“I will. And Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t kill Dad. We need him,” I said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he’s just fine.”
“I can still hear your grin.”
“If you keep questioning me then I’m going to start prodding you on why your voice sounds so chipper.”
“I’m not chipper,” I said.
“Even with the stress you’re shouldering with this letter, you sound much better than you did the last time I talked with you. You don’t want me asking question, then stop teasing me about what your father and I do on vacation,” she said.
“I’m not teasing. The two of you are celibate saints,” I said.
“Uh huh. Keep your head up. And if we need to come back early, we will. Okay?”
“No need. I’ll call you guys after lunch on Saturday,” I said.
I hung up the phone and shook my head. In retrospect, I was lucky to have been raised in the family I had been. My mother and father had no issues with showing affection toward one another while they were around us. They hugged and kissed. My brothers, Jasper and Leo, had the stereotypical “walking in on their parents” moments when they were younger. I had enough sense not to bother them when they were both behind closed doors, but my twin brothers were idiots growing up.
Thank fuck they turned out to be decent human beings as they got older.
I knew I needed to call them with this, but I held off on it. I sat on the couch and closed my eyes, my mind racing back to Ava. I wish I had gotten her number before she left. So I could check in on her and make sure she was doing okay. I had no idea why I was so worried about her, but I was. I didn’t know why I couldn’t get her off my mind, but I couldn’t.
I reached out for the empty space on the couch, imagining her there. How she looked lounging around in my shirt with her supple legs draped over the couch cushions. I opened my eyes and looked over, watching as her form faded away into nothing.
I wasn’t aware of how lonely I had been until she had crashed landed into my life. But now, I was painfully aware of how alone I was.
And I didn’t like it one bit.
Fifteen
Ava
I made my way to the library that morning to check out some new books. Today was the first day I was going to show my father I meant business. Ever since our very heated discussion where I figured out my brothers were just as miserable as I had become, I was determined to stand my ground. My brothers looked up to me just like I looked up to them, and I figured starting with something small would make a good case. My father always checked the books I brought home from the library, but this time he would find a sack of books he didn’t approve of. Books on business and investments. Books on energy and gasoline. Books to educate me on the family business and books on sustainable energy.
I was determined to show my father that I could make a real splash in his world, whether he approved or not.
I spent the entire morning browsing the library. I walked around in sections I hadn’t visited yet and was excited at the material I pulled off the shelves. Educational material used in colleges around the nation and workbooks I could check out with case studies I could read. I found more books on human interaction and sociology books that gave in-depths looks into how people acted the way they did. I figured it could help me to understand my father more. To help give context into why he was the way he was.
I pulled it all from the shelves and filled my bag before I made my way to check them out.
I walked down the sidewalk, taking in the small ships near Kettle’s little public library. I loved spending my summers here. I loved walking these sidewalks. I could remember darting into all these shops with my mother as a child. Marveling at all the trinkets and wondering what sorts of crafts I could get my hands on. Felts and markers and glitter and glue. Things to make messes my father would get angry over. They were wonderful memories I had of my mother until I grew up in the world she lived in.
Those memories were all I had of the perfect world I thought I inhabited.
I walked by the coffee shop and decided to grab some. Walking in with a cup of coffee in my hand would surely send my father through the roof. Only adults drank coffee, he would say. Then he would point out that my mother’s beautiful complexion was because she didn’t take in any source of caffeine. She stuck to infused water and freshly-squeezed juices.
Yep. I drove home with a cup of coffee as well.
I walked into the coffeehouse and was flooded with memories. This was where I had gotten coffee with Travis that day. It was the day I had learned so much about him and his life. His family and how he was raised. Why he was the way he was and how his smile lit up his amber eyes. I smiled as I stood in line, ready to place my order. But a familiar voice wafted from the corner and it caused me to turn my head.
I smiled as Travis came into view, but he didn’t look happy at all.
I studied his interaction with the man he sat with. The stranger was in a suit and had a folder in his hand. The two of them seemed deep in conversation, and the more they talked the more Travis’ brow furrowed. Whatever the conversation was, it wasn’t going well. But I was excited to see him again.
Even if it was from far away.
“What can I get you?” the barista asked.
“Could I get a large coffee with caramel flavoring, please?” I asked.
“Room
for cream and sugar?” she asked.
“Room for just cream, thanks.”
I stood there as the woman made my coffee. She handed it to me and I grabbed the creamer, pouring it in until my black coffee was a light brown in color. I grabbed a straw and made my way for a table so I could enjoy my newfound sense of freedom.
And maybe sit and watch Travis a little while longer.
But when I sat down, he was nowhere to be found. Just like that, he had vanished. The man in the suit was gone, Travis had left, and I sighed as my straw pierced the top of the cup.
“Fancy seeing you here.”
I jumped at the sound of Travis’ voice before I started to giggle. He sat across from me as I held my heart, trying to get my nerves to calm down. As frustrated as he had been only a few moments ago, he seemed relaxed now. His face was calm and his brow was smooth. There was a playful grin on his cheeks as he lounged back in his chair. My eyes scanned him with purpose, taking in the breadth of his shoulders and the strength of his arms.
“Everything okay?” I asked. “You looked frustrated in that meeting.”
“Ah, so you did notice,” Travis said.
“You don’t have to talk about it. I just want to make sure you’re okay,” I said.
“You’re a very sweet girl.”
“Girl?” I asked. “I think I’m hardly a girl. Young woman, maybe. But not a girl.”
“Sticking up for yourself already. I take it things with your dad went well?” he asked.
“If I talk about that, then you have to talk about your meeting,” I said.
“Deal. But ladies first.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It went as well as could be expected. Turns out that my father was also trying to marry off my brothers.”
“Seriously?” he asked.
“Oh yeah. That was a fun revelation. They stood up for me though. Or beside me. However you want to phrase that. I told him that I wanted to make my own decisions in my life. I wanted to choose who I wanted to marry and I wanted to get an education. Or at least be educated.”
“I bet he didn’t take that well.”
March Heat: A Firefighter Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 37