by Sands, K A
The biggest goddamned pain in the arse I’d ever met. One of my poorest decisions to date. What was I thinking when I decided sticking my dick in her would be a good idea? I was paying for my bloody sins now, wasn’t I?
And Taylor and I were having a baby...except it wasn’t the moment of joy it should have been. Alexa had stolen one of the most beautiful times of a woman’s life from my girl and I was infuriated. Taylor was pregnant and doubting the words that came out my mouth, how could she not? The so-called proof of my lies lay in my lap. I’d have run too, having been confronted with what she had. I couldn’t even be disappointed Taylor hadn’t come straight to me anymore. Alexa had planned quite the elaborate web of deceit and lies and sucked Taylor right in. Most of it would be easy to discredit, but it gnawed at my gut I had to prove it at all.
A baby...
I wanted to holler and whoop and shout it from the rooftops, but that bitch had stolen from me too. My joy felt empty, like I had no right to celebrate without Taylor. We’d never discussed having children, I’d figured there was time to broach the subject. She loved kids, you only had to watch her with Sebastian and his friends to see she did. Still, not a thing we’d ever discussed, and I didn’t know her feelings about being a mother, like she didn’t know mine about being a father.
Father...now there was a hat I could put on and wear with pride. Father. Dad. Old Man. Pops.
Daddy...
I wanted fatherhood. Of course I did. I often felt I’d raised Ayden right alongside Lucca and he was as much my son as his. I’d been with that boy from the day he was born, seen him and raised him more than his mother had. Having a son or daughter of my own was far different I knew, but man...a father. My own flesh and blood, with a woman I loved and wanted to grow old with. Yeah, I wanted kids and Taylor being pregnant didn’t faze me in the slightest. I’d show Taylor, show them all, I’d step up to the plate and be the best damned father ever. Better than my own, that’s for sure. And if my kid turned out to be half the person Ayden was, then I’d be a lucky, lucky guy because Ayden was something wonderful.
I was gonna be a dad...a dad!
Not being able to get lost in the emotion of it, tore at my guts. First, I had to deal with the giant headache that was Alexa. She’d hurt my woman, made her cry, made her doubt and that was simply far too much to stomach. I winced when I thought about Taylor crying and being angry at me, how she’d dealt with this on her own. I had to get the ball rolling and sitting fuming in my truck in the middle of nowhere wasn’t doing any good or getting me any closer to having Taylor home. She was going to see every last scrap in the envelope on my lap was nothing but a vindictive bitch keeping a lame promise she’d made when I’d kicked her out of my bed.
Pulling my phone from my pocket and jamming it into the mobile holder stuck to the windshield, I connected the Bluetooth as I turned the truck engine on.
First port of call - Lucca.
“Hey, bud.” The cheery git picked up on the first ring.
“You found that fucking crazy ex-wife of yours yet?” No point beating around the bush, besides Lucca was used to me forgoing pleasantries and ploughing straight on.
“Still not a whiff. I don’t like not knowing what she’s up to.”
“So, Alexa hasn’t popped up since last week?” We received three-day reports from our PI guy and even though I hadn’t mentioned Alexa and the launch, he almost certainly knew anyway.
“No, which we need to talk about, bro. I’ve given you enough time to come clean.”
“I want the PI back in, I have an A4 envelope full of stuff I need checked out.”
“Yeah? Easy done, I’ll call him when I get off this. Anything I can help with?”
I threw the envelope onto the passenger seat then buckled up. “I’m leaving now, be back later tonight. I’ll come to you if it’s not too late.”
“Come no matter the time. You got Taylor with you?”
Another frosty night, much to my disgust. “Nope.”
“And that’s because of Alexa, right?” My man was so astute, didn’t miss a thing, unless Laura had told him. I wasn’t going into the particulars on the phone, it could wait, I didn’t want my truck ending up in a ditch when I threw a fit of anger and I knew I would if I kept talking on the phone to him.
I simply said yes to him and pulled out of the car park as calmly as I could.
“All right, mate. I’ll see you when you get here. We talking a long night?”
“Probably. You think Laura could wait up too?” She might be able to clue me in to what was running through Taylor’s head. It stung that she hadn’t even hinted about what was going on with her sister, but I wasn’t going to hold a grudge. I knew now, that was the main thing, and it was pointless being annoyed because someone stayed loyal for once.
“I’ll ask her, shouldn’t be a problem.” Lucca paused and before I could disconnect, he cleared his throat and asked, “you good to drive, bro?”
I sighed, a long and heavy noise filling the cab of the truck. “Yeah, just got to figure this out. I’m gonna need your help.”
“Whatever you need. See you soon.”
When he clicked off, the silence in the cab became oppressive and I was sick of going through the same things in my head like a bloody spin cycle. I pushed the stereo button on and let ‘War of The World’s’ blast through the truck. Hitting the volume control, I turned it full to drown out the voice taking up residence in my head, throwing doubts at me over Taylor.
I was getting her back - there was no two ways about it. Alexa Carter was going down.
Nine
It was gone midnight when I traipsed through Lucca’s ridiculously large front hallway. He’d kept the lights low, maybe he wouldn’t see how exhausted I was and not chase me to bed. I needed to get the whole lot out in the open tonight or I’d never sleep a wink. I trudged through to the den and found him, and Laura huddled under a blanket on the sofa, watching a movie on the big screen. Both were engrossed and didn’t move a muscle until I plopped my arse into the recliner and made some noise.
“Finish your film. I’m resting my eyes for five minutes.”
“We’ve seen it before, not long left anyway. You want some coffee?” Laura asked.
“You got some beer?” Coffee would have been far better, but I needed some alcohol to wind down, this staying sober shit wasn’t working.
Laura untangled from Lucca and disappeared through the door I’d just came through while Lucca sat up.
“What you got there?” He pointed to the manila envelope I had clutched in my hand, my grip tight. I looked down at my lap then scoffed and threw the envelope onto the coffee table in front of him.
“Help yourself.” I invited. “Alexa Carter.” I spat, making my disgust clear.
He bowed his head at the envelope. “That why you’re asking about Stella?”
Rubbing my fingers to my eyes, weariness caught up and suddenly I was more than exhausted. “Yeah. Take a look.” I urged again, noting he hadn’t attempted to reach for it.
Lucca shifted forward in his seat, grabbing the envelope and opening it up. Peering inside, he then shook the contents onto the table, his eyes widening as he took in the myriad of documents and other stuff. “What the fuck is this?”
Reaching down he lifted a particularly seedy Polaroid that left nothing to the imagination, staring at it for a second before picking up another. I didn’t care what he saw, this guy was my best friend, he needed to understand the gravity of the situation and I wasn’t going to be embarrassed for having some kinky past and liking things...dirty.
“Jesus...” he breathed, “I take it this is why Taylor left?” I didn’t answer, he could see it in front of him, knew the reason. I watched him push around papers until he eventually found the marriage certificate. Taking his time to read it, he fell back onto the couch, running a hand through his hair as he grasped the severity of what was before him. “The woman’s fucking nuts!”
I agreed, couldn’t dispute his st
atement.
Laura returned with a most welcoming icy beer in her hand and reached forward to give it to me. She didn’t sit down straight away, and I could tell she was uncomfortable when she saw what was laid out on the table.
“You knew?” I asked her, not accusingly because I got her loyalty. She barely knew me and honestly, I admired her for it. But I also needed her to know it was all bullshit and the picture Alexa had painted never was and never would be fact. I had to get Laura on side - my side.
She had the decency to look somewhat ashamed, although even that wasn’t necessary. Like me, she didn’t answer the obvious question and I knew I had to clear the air, get a fresh footing because Laura was key to getting Taylor back.
“Listen. I get it, all right. Don’t worry about it. I’m not the kind of man that holds someone’s loyalty against them. It’s forgotten. But Laura, I need some help here.”
Glancing at Lucca, who was staring at her, I could tell she hadn’t said a word to him either. For some reason it made me feel better. “She’s my sister.” Lucca beckoned Laura to the couch and she went, sitting down next to him and leaning into his side as he put his arm around her shoulder.
“None of this is what it seems...” I paused and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, all right. The pictures don’t lie, but they’re old. Nothing is recent, except the photograph of her at the restaurant.”
“That came up on the PI’s report, but I saw it was handled, she wasn’t making a nuisance of herself.” Lucca interjected.
“I told her to leave. She had black eyes and looked like shit. It’s not my business, I told her so and she left.”
“I didn’t see her.” Laura grumbled.
“Well, no, you didn’t.” I pointed to Lucca and smirked at the pair of them.
“What about the strip club?” Did Laura know the lot?
“You were down at Monty’s?” He hated me going there but he knew why I did. “What the fuck are you playing at, Ryder?”
“Hey, man. Back the fuck off. Chrissie does bar there, you know this. It’s the only place I can drink until three in the morning with company without drowning in self-pity.”
Understanding flashed across Lucca’s face at the mention of Chrissie but Laura was having none of it judging by the narrowing of her eyes at me. She had no idea who Chrissie was so the sound of another woman’s name, especially one in a strip club, was going to have her back up. Understandably so, I hadn’t even told Taylor about my sister, I’d had no reason to until it suddenly looked like I perhaps should have clued her in, instead of her thinking I was out fucking eyeing up other women. This was a mess.
“Chrissie’s my sister.” I explained.
“You have a sister?”
“Yeah, she doesn’t know who I am. I keep tabs on her to make sure Charlie’s doing the right thing by her.”
It was useless keeping anything from Laura at this point, Taylor too. Skeletons didn’t stay in their closets for ever and it seemed to be a day for mine to be resurrected. In for a penny, in for a pound - I had a feeling a lot more was gonna be slung at me before I could get my woman back.
“I’m sorry.” Laura gave me a genuine look of apology before waving her hand toward the coffee table. “What’s the deal here, Ryder?” She crouched down in front of the table and rifled through everything. “You want to do this tonight, or sleep on it?” she asked.
Taking a long gulp of beer, I tried to decide what was for the best. It would all look the same come morning, now was as good a time as any. “Now, if you’re willing to help?”
“Listen to you, sad sack,” Lucca piped up. “Of course we’re gonna help. At least now you have something to go on, know what’s wrong with Taylor. Even if you didn’t start this, you can certainly finish it, man.”
Laura sorted papers into bundles and piles - the Polaroid’s and photographs in one, official looking documents in another and what looked like email transactions into a third pile, Lucca eyed them with distaste. I hadn’t read them all, barely skimmed them in truth, but I could guess the tripe in them.
Clearing my throat, not knowing how else to deliver my news, I dropped the bomb. “Taylor’s pregnant.”
The smile on Lucca’s face threatened to split him in two and it warmed my heart to see his reaction. He jumped up from the couch and tackled me in the recliner, his full weight landing on me and my beer sloshing over his back as I aimed to move it higher.
“Fuck’s sake, Lucca.” I grinned at my very best friend and heard Laura laughing in the background, easing the tension.
“You’re gonna be a dad?”
I was. I found it a trifle hard to be cheerful, the way I knew I should have been, but I told myself joy could come later. “Today should have been one of the best days of my life, you know? Apart from marrying her.” My laugh was short, and I realised I was crying, tears unwillingly slipping from my eyes. I clenched my teeth, trying to keep them at bay while I pointed to the table. “But that fucking bitch stole it from me, stole it from Taylor, and I’ll be fucked if I’m gonna sit back and let her get away with it.”
Lucca let go of me and slid to the floor in front of the recliner, his hand clasped around my calf. “We’ll fix it, all right? Get to the bottom of this crap then deal with it.”
There was nothing I couldn’t prove, nothing there that was true. Even the Polaroids were a crock of shit. They showed us having sex, and as much as they’d hurt Taylor, that’s all they showed. I was never in love with the woman. There was nothing there to say to the contrary.
“Ryder, she only told me about the pictures and the strip club, not all this other stuff. There’s a house deed and bank statements here. Travel documents.” Laura pushed around the piles. “There’s a DNA profile as well. What the hell is that for?” She stretched and handed the stapled documents to Lucca who took a quick scan through before passing them over his shoulder to me. “She has a kid?”
“Not that I know of.” I scratched my head in confusion. “If she does, I’ve never seen it and it’s certainly not mine. I was gloved every single time, no matter how smashed I was.”
Laura cleared her throat. “All right. What’s the story here then? Cos this stuff all points to a life with an...” she read lines from a page, “...Alexa Jennifer Carter, for the last six years or so. This is pretty elaborate for a jinxed lover, don’t you think?”
“She’s not clever enough to pull this off on her own. Someone is helping her.”
I watched Laura take a gulp and look at the floor, our thoughts the same, most likely Lucca’s too. She put down the paper she was holding and almost whispered Stella’s name.
My gut twisted because she was possibly right and none of us needed to be dealing with Lucca’s ex-wife right now - or ever. She was hiding but this smacked of her handiwork. Stella was biding her time and creating havoc where she could in the meantime, using Alexa to do her dirty work. She knew if anything involved me, it involved Lucca. Why not take us both down? The woman wasn’t finished with us yet.
“Will that woman ever be out of my life?” Lucca complained and put his head in his hands. I clapped him on the shoulder reassuringly.
“Makes sense she’d come after me. I didn’t exactly like her, didn’t hide it either.”
He chuckled. “No, you didn’t.”
I hadn’t noticed Laura getting up and now standing at the den door until she spoke. “Uhh...I’m gonna go to bed. I wanna call my sister, make sure she’s okay.” She left real quick, before Lucca could even get to his feet, but he didn’t follow her, just sat back on the couch.
“First thing’s first. You need to decide what to do with this. Deal with it yourself or take it to the police.”
“What a clusterfuck!”
“Want my opinion?” It was why I’d gone to him first. I nodded. “We photocopy the lot and do our own digging using our PI. He’s good, you know he is. We hand it over to the police at the same time, they can open an official investigation. This is fraud, Ryder, and on this
scale, there has to be jail time involved. You get your proof for Taylor, let the police deal with Alexa and whoever else is involved.”
I was exhausted, but Lucca’s plan was solid, and I agreed. “I’ll call them in the morning. We should get copies done tonight.”
He stood, brushing his hands down his thighs then gathered the piles of crap from his coffee table. “Yup. Let’s do that now then you can get some sleep, mate. You look wiped out. Things might look better in the morning.”
“I need Taylor, Lucca. More than ever.”
“I know, bro. I know. We’ll get her home. I promise.”
Ten
Coffee was a great idea. I hadn’t drunk a great deal the night before, opting to keep a clear head. The headache pounding against my temples was borne from another source; Alexa and Taylor. Both had circled my head like sharks all night, granting me little sleep. My emotions were all over the place too. Delighted Taylor was having our baby, cheesed off we had to deal with a raving lunatic rather than bask in the glory of becoming parents for the first time. We should have been on top of the world, and we weren’t.
A cough behind me had me spinning on my feet, coffee mug in the air. “Oh, hey, Laura. You all right?”
Whatever she was last night, she wasn’t this morning. She appeared to have a steely determination about her, the atmosphere in the room decidedly frosty. She stepped cautiously closer, eyeing me up and down and I knew what was coming. How she really felt, what she didn’t want to say in front of Lucca, she was getting ready to spill all and sundry at me. I’d take it, whatever it was, I wanted her to have my back without her feeling like she was betraying her sister.
“She loves you.”
I ducked my head, agreeing with her. Like I’d said before; I wasn’t stupid, I knew how Taylor felt about me, much the same way as I did for her. I hoped Alexa hadn’t royally fucked me up the arse, so to speak. I raised my head and held eye contact with Laura. “It may not look like it right now, but I love her too. I don’t know what else you want me to say?”