by Roxy Sloane
“You know, I didn’t even want this.” I nod to the folder detailing Ashcroft’s estate. “I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I don’t know why Ashcroft wanted me to have everything, But now... “ I feel a spark of determination. “They’re playing dirty. And that makes me want to fight.”
“Atta girl.” Justine grins. “I’ve got a couple of ideas up my sleeve that might shut them up.”
“Like what?”
“Nothing I can talk about yet,” she replies mysteriously. “I’ll let you know as soon as something works out.”
* * *
Justine has to get to work, so I find myself totally free in the middle of the day for the first time in years. I drive over to Beverly Hills and park near Rodeo Drive, strolling the sunny, palm tree-lined streets in a daze. The people here are all glossy and chic, in designer clothes and fancy sunglasses, even if they’re just in work-out gear going to grab a coffee.
This could be me soon. Not that I’d ever spend two hundred bucks on a pair of yoga pants, I decide. But the rest of it: the freedom, the security...
I’ve never had a safety net like that, and ever since my parents died, it’s all been on my shoulders. Rent, expenses, my job, loans. Juggling it all, just trying to get by. In one stroke of his pen, Ashcroft could have lifted all the weight from my shoulders.
And I still don’t know the reason why.
Except there’s one thing that could ruin it all. Vaughn.
I feel my body tense up at his memory, already alert, remembering the other night and how he drove me crazy. My fingers sliding frantically against my own slick nub. The steel in his tone when he ordered me to my knees with a single word. And the feel of his massive cock plunging deep into my throat, so big, I could barely breathe, sobbing over the relentless spear as his mouth devoured my pussy.
Sweet Jesus, that man makes me scream. But something was off -- after the scene back at my apartment, he took off, barely saying a word. And now it’s been almost twenty-four hours, and I still haven’t heard from him.
Usually, he’s not a man to ever back down. He still wants to possess me completely, and after the way he’s chased me, I half-expected him to be calling every five minutes. Texting, sending flowers. Doing anything it took until I surrender it all.
I check my phone. No messages.
My thumb moves to the ‘call’ button. I feel an overwhelming urge to be the one to reach out to him this time. I tell myself it’s because I need to check about Brent and the Ashcroft situation: make sure they haven’t tracked down Vaughn and learned the truth. After all, it’s not just about my job at the law firm anymore. This is the whole inheritance on the line.
But deep down, I know the truth. I can’t wait to see him again. Whatever it is that man has that sends me into such a spin, I crave more of it. I need another fix.
Suddenly reckless, I dial his number. It rings and rings, and then, voicemail.
“You’ve reached Vaughn.” His voice is sexy, even on the other end of a phone line. “You know how this shit works.”
Beep.
“Hi,” I start, feeling weirdly nervous. “It’s me. Keely.” I pull it together and make my voice calm, “It would be great to see you again. Maybe dinner--” I stop, remembering what happened the last time I made him sit through dinner. “Or not,” I add, laughing. “Unless we want to get arrested for public indecency. Either way, give me a call.”
I hang up, wondering why he hasn’t called. This isn’t like other relationships I’ve had with guys, when I’ve tried to seem like I’m in control, like I could take it or leave it whenever I like.
We both know that’s a lie.
So where are you, Vaughn? Why won’t you pick up the phone?
15
VAUGHN
“Either way, give me a call.”
Keely’s voice is teasing and flirty on my voicemail -- just the thing I can’t deal with right now.
I toss my phone down, and turn back to the computer screen. Twenty-four hours of research and strong coffee, and I wish I’d never started this damn chase again. Down the rabbit hole, with nothing but bad memories to drive me on.
New company with its sights set on success...
Ashcroft and Partners forge new path for industry...
Takeovers by Ashcroft and Partners tip them for the top..
The newspaper print-outs litter the room. Headlines that track the history of the multinational corporation back forty years, to when it was just two guys in an office in Queens, with dreams of making their mark on the world.
I stare at the photo of Ashcroft taken way back then, when he was still a young man. He’s proudly posing in front of his first new office with his arm clasped around his business partner. His friend.
My father.
Fury burns in my chest, or maybe that’s just the whiskey. Looking at that photo, you could never guess what would happen to them. How my dad would lose it all, betrayed by the one man he trusted.
How Ashcroft would destroy him, take everything from us and never look back.
I force myself to keep reading, filling in the blanks of what I already know. They started out together. College buddies, setting up shop on their own. They brought in a third partner with the cash, and soon, they expanded. Cargo, shipping -- if you had it, they’d move it.
I was just a kid when Ashcroft cut him out. I don’t know what happened, hell, even my dad couldn’t figure it out, but I remember shit getting bad at work. He’d come home late, stressed, drinking too much. They were on the verge of some big deal, that’s what he said, and he got paranoid that Ashcroft was going behind his back. Plotting to remove him from the partnership before the deal went through.
My mom thought he was crazy. She reassured him, Ashcroft would never betray him like that. They’d been working together for years, they were friends. The man was my godfather, for Christ’s sake.
She was wrong.
It was some legal bullshit maneuver, my dad never saw it coming. One day, he was co-president of a booming company. The next, he was out on his ass with nothing.
It destroyed him -- not just losing everything, but that Ashcroft was the one who did it.
Yeah, that bastard was ruthless. Reading the reports, I can see it all in black and white. The other partner disappeared a couple of years later -- sent to prison on some bullshit tax evasion charge. Ashcroft’s plotting too, I’ll bet. Ashcroft took sole control of the company, got married, adopted some kids. Acted like my father had never existed.
But dad couldn’t go on. Three months after Ashcroft pushed him out, he put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
I grab the whiskey and take another gulp. I was only eight years old, too young to follow the details, but I understood what had happened. My father had been betrayed. I swore I’d find some way to make Ashcroft pay.
But the bastard is dead now, and all the obituaries are fawning over what a great guy he was. A humanitarian, all that charity work. Even Keely thinks her client was a sweet old man.
I know the truth. That guy was a fucking monster. And now I’ll never have my revenge.
My cellphone rings again. I snatch it up, expecting Keely’s voice.
“Hello, Mr. Vaughn? It’s Carter Abrams.”
“Who the fuck?” I grow, pissed.
“From Hudgens, Cartwright and Abrams,” he explains.
I remember him, the creepy fuck from Keely’s office -- the one who treated her like shit.
“What do you want?” I stride to the windows, looking out at the city lights.
“I was calling because we’re investigating one of our former staff members.” His voice is smarmy as fuck. “Unfortunately, we’ve learned she was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a client. I wanted to make sure she hadn’t made similar advances to you. I believe you met with her last week. Keely Fawes?”
I tense. So this is what Keely was so panicked about the other day. Her fuckwad of a boss is on some witch-hunt. Well, damn
if I’m going to help.
“No,” I say. I was the one who chased her down. “She never did a thing wrong. Put me down as saying, she’s been nothing but professional.”
“Oh.” Carter sounds surprised. “That’s... interesting. I thought you two had become very close.”
“Yeah, well you thought wrong.” I wish he was right here in front of me, then my fists would show him how fucking wrong he is. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re playing at with this, but it’s bullshit, we both know. Keely wouldn’t do anything wrong.”
Except come her brains out all over my tongue in the middle of the company law library.
“If you’re sure there’s nothing we need to know...” Carter presses me again.
“I’m sure.”
“Thanks for your time.” Carter sounds pissed. “I hope we see you--”
“Fuck off.” I hang up on him.
Damn. I pace, restless. I’m worried for Keely now, this fucker has it out for her. And that’s a whole new ballgame.
I don’t get worried about women. I don’t stick around long enough to care. I forget their names the minute I pull my spent cock out of their clenching pussy, and that’s the way I like it.
Except I can’t shake the thought of Keely, looking at me with those big brown eyes. Begging me to fuck her, gasping my name as she comes.
I scroll through my phone until I reach her number. I pause, then I force myself to hit ‘delete.’
I can’t get in any deeper. It doesn’t matter how much I need to claim that sweet cunt of hers, give her a pounding like she wouldn’t believe.
I already want to protect her too much. I can’t risk the price.
16
KEELY
I wait for Vaughn’s call, but it doesn’t come. Three whole days, and I turn into the kind of needy girl I’ve always hated: grabbing for my phone with every ring, my heart leaping as I hope to God it’s finally him.
But it never is.
I don’t understand. He’s been relentless, hunting me down, forcing my boundaries until finally I can’t make it through a single minute without imagining his hands on me. His mouth.
His massive, incredible cock.
I wonder if this is all part of a game, but that doesn’t make sense. Vaughn has always been brutally direct about what he wants. Me, on my knees, begging for him.
And I’m ready.
Just the memory makes my skin hot and my nipples ache. If this really is a way to make me surrender, it’s working. I’m craving him like never before. I still don’t know what secrets he’s hiding, but I’m too far gone to care. Fantasizing about all the wicked, dirty things he’s done to me is the only thing that gets me through the day. And now I don’t have work to distract me, that’s far too much time on my hands thinking only of him.
I need to do something before I go out of my mind.
Trying to snap out of my limbo, I head to the homeless shelter downtown where I volunteer a couple of times a month. They’re not expecting me today, but there’s always work to do: helping to prepare meals in the kitchens, or working in the office in back, organizing fund-raising drives.
“You mind if I pitch in?” I ask Loretta, who’s stuffing envelopes with letters asking for donations.
“Be my guest. We need all the help we can get.” She points me to a stack of empty envelopes. “The weather’s getting hotter, and you know how we’re already stretched to the limit here as it is.”
I start folding and stuffing. Summer in LA is brutal, and people on the streets don’t get to escape into the nice cool AC. I look around at the shabby offices and realize, if the Ashcroft money is really mine, then I could do more than just stuff envelopes. I could donate enough to buy another building; serve hundreds more meals. Think of how many people I could help -- and all without making a dent in the fortune.
Maybe this was why Ashcroft left me the money. We chatted about my volunteer work before. Maybe he knew I’d try and use it for good.
I’m a hundred envelopes down when my cell starts to ring. I snatch it up hopefully. Justine. I sigh. “Hey,” I answer.
“What’s up with you?”
“Nothing.” I try to sound more cheerful. “What’s going on?”
“Well...” She pauses, and I know right away, something’s wrong.
“What happened?” I demand. “Is this about the will? Did Brent get it thrown out already?”
“No, but...” Justine sounds reluctant. “I did something, and now you’ve got to promise not to be mad at me.”
“What?” I ask, my nerves growing. Justine is usually joking around, but she sounds deadly serious.
“So, I was thinking about why Ashcroft named you heir,” she says quickly. “And it doesn’t make sense, right? You only met him a couple of months ago, and the guy was eccentric, but not crazy, he still had his shit together.”
“Right...” I answer slowly, not sure where she’s going with this.
“But I got thinking about what you told me, that thing with the bracelet. He really wanted you to have it, like it mattered to him. Anyway, I just had this hunch, so I made them run a test, comparing your DNA to his.”
I freeze. “What? How?”
“You left your toothbrush at my house, one time you crashed there,” Justine explains, “Anyway, I figured it was a long-shot. I wasn’t going to say anything until the results came back.” She pauses. “They arrived today.”
I get this feeling of dread, like something terrible is about to happen.
“What does it say?” I whisper.
“They match,” Justine replies. “The DNA samples. They match. It explains everything, Keely, why he named you heir to his fortune. Ashcroft was your father.”
I sit down with a thump. “No.” I say, then again, louder. “No, there’s got to be some mistake. I know who my father is, he raised me!”
“I’m sorry, but it’s true, I can show you the lab report if you want,” Justine offers.
“I don’t understand,” I say, dizzy. “My parents were happy together, they were in love.”
“But they married super-fast, didn’t they?” Justine reminds me.
“Because it was love at first sight,” I whisper.
“It still might have been,” Justine tries to comfort me. “But I checked the dates. It looks like your mom was already pregnant when they met.”
“But with Ashcroft?” I try and wrap my head around it. “It’s impossible.”
“I’m sorry,” Justine says. “I know this is weird for you, but I found employment records, showing she was a secretary at his company for a year. Then she quit and moved to California and married your dad.”
“What? No,” I protest. “Mom would never have an affair with a married man.”
“She didn’t.” Justine reassures me. “This was before he met his wife. I guess it was scandalous enough, sleeping with the boss. They broke up right around the time she got pregnant. I don’t know what happened there.”
My head spins. My whole life I grew up believing I knew my parents. Why wouldn’t I? But now, the things Justine is telling me make me feel like they’re strangers.
“Are you OK?” she checks. “I know this is a lot to process.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what to think about anything anymore.”
“Well, the bright side is Brent can’t really contest the will,” Justine points out. “The DNA results show why Ashcroft left you the money. If they can’t claim you manipulated him into naming you in the will, then you’re safe from that morality clause.”
For now.
But the money is the last thing on my mind. “I have to go,” I tell her quickly. “Thanks, for...”
I stop. For what? Tearing apart my memories of my family? Making my head ache with a hundred questions about my past?
“I’ll call you later,” Justine promises. “Try not to freak out.”
It’s easy for her to say. I hang up, staring blankly around at the cartons of flyers
. I need to get out of here, so I bolt, grabbing my purse and racing back to my car without even saying goodbye. I start the engine, but I don’t know where I’m going, so I just drive, aimlessly circling the busy streets, too caught up in my thoughts to care.
Ashcroft was my father. All this time, I never knew the truth.
I wonder what my mom was thinking -- what could have possibly driven her to lie all this time? Did Ashcroft not want me, is that why she never told me the truth? Something must have happened to make her run like that: move across the country and start a whole new life with a different guy.
And dad... My father was a good man. Kind and patient, funny and loving. I have eighteen years of happy memories with him, and even though I know this new revelation doesn’t take them away from me, I wonder if he knew all along. Did he look at me and see some other guy’s kid?
Who am I now?
I gulp back the tears. My heart is breaking. I’ve been so alone since the car accident stole my family from me -- but all along, I had someone out there. I just didn’t know it.
And now I’ll never have the chance to know him.
I think back over my few brief meetings with Ashcroft. The jokes he cracked, the stories he told me about his life. I enjoyed our time together, but I didn’t think twice about it. Now, I ache with the missed opportunity.
If he’d only told me, I could have known the truth. We wouldn’t have had long together, but it would have been something.
Why did he seek me out after all this time? What changed? I run through the possibilities in my mind, trying to make sense of it. Maybe there was a reason things didn’t work out with my mom, maybe he regrets the way it ended. Or maybe he just felt guilty after all this time, and was trying to pay me off from beyond the grave.
So many questions. I’ll probably never know the answers now.
All I’m left with are regrets.
I look up, paying attention to the road for the first time. I realize that I’ve driven up towards the Hollywood Hills. Towards Vaughn’s house.
I feel a sudden flash of recklessness. I know I’m all mixed up, reeling from the bombshell news, but suddenly, I crave him more than ever.