by G N Wright
I am sitting frozen on the sofa, watching as the little girl speaks a mile a minute telling Elle about a trip she has taken with her grandparents, whoever they may be. Elle is listening intently, while stealing glances at me every few seconds, like she is expecting me to make a scene. Which isn't too farfetched considering what just happened outside.
We aren’t alone either. Her so called brother is sitting next to her glaring at me intensely, the older man and woman are hovering with worried looks on their faces. I can do nothing but sit here in utter disbelief at how this day has turned out.
I knew Elle had secrets, but I never imagined this. She hasn't spoken to me directly since she introduced Cassie, invited me inside, and told me to sit down. She looks how I feel, confused, worried, devastated, far too many emotions for me to even register them all right now. I can tell she is trying to hide her feelings, but I know her too well for that. The tension in the room grows the longer we sit listening to the little girl’s tales. I have no idea how old she is, but she can’t be older than two or three. She is so small, and her words come out quick and not properly pronounced, telling me she is still young. I am trying not to think about what kind of timeline that puts her birth on, was Elle pregnant before she left town? Is that why she left? Who the fuck was she having sex with at fourteen years old? How the fuck did I miss this?
Just as I conjure up the only person who could be her father, he appears, like my mind summoned him. Asher Donovan. Asher fucking Donovan. He didn’t ring the bell, so clearly, he is comfortable enough here to get past security and be let in. He rounds the corner, and just as I want to ask the question out loud and break my silence, Cassie beats me to it.
“Daddy!”
That one word cracks my already broken heart. Fuck. I never knew something could hurt this much. I bring my hand to my chest and rub against it, like that could take the pain away. When in reality, I don’t think anything will ever ease the pain.
Asher spots me immediately, frowning as he takes quick stock of the rest of the room, gauging the situation. His face sets into a firm grimace until Cassie barrels towards him. He opens his arms for her, and she jumps into them, like she has done it so many times before. I guess she has.
“Hey, how's my best girl?” he says in a strained soothing voice as she nuzzles into his chest, his eyes back to being locked on mine.
“Good, Daddy, miss you!” she replies.
“I missed you too, little angel,” he answers her and it’s the softest I have ever seen him be. Their interaction is bittersweet. I can practically taste the betrayal on my tongue. Elle King isn’t the only liar in this room. Finally, I find my voice as I shake my head in disbelief.
“She loves Asher,” I mutter with a scoffed laugh, more to myself than anyone else.
“What?” Elle says to me, even though it’s clear from the look on her face she heard exactly what I said.
I clear my throat and speak up, “You love Asher, he’s your family, that's what you said to me right? You said you cared about me, but you couldn’t be with me and when I asked about him,” I practically spit as I motion to Asher, “You said he was your family and you loved him. I guess I didn’t take that literal enough did I, little King? Or should I say, little traitor?”
“Careful, Marcus,” Asher warns me with his arms still wrapped around his daughter.
I swing my gaze to him. “And you,” I laugh, “You are a good actor, pretending to be my friend as kids--”
“I was your friend,” he interrupts.
“Yeah, before or after you took my girl and your dad killed--”
“That’s enough,” Elle cuts me off. “Helen, can you take Cass to clean up for lunch please?” The pleading note in her voice calms me some as I remember there is a little girl here, I mutter fuck under my breath.
She offers Elle a sympathetic smile, “Of course, my little rose.”
The woman, Helen, leads Cassie away and the older gentleman follows leaving just me, Elle, Asher, and her brother. I wait until they are out of the room before I continue with my eyes still locked on Asher.
“You looked me right in the eye and said there was nothing going on between the two of you, that there never had been. I, being the fucking idiot I am, trusted you. You think I would have learned my lesson after what happened the last time a Riviera trusted a Donovan,” I spit his last name at him in disgust.
Asher’s frown deepens in confusion, he swings his gaze to Elle, like there is something else going on here. I see the subtle shake of her head and am about to ask about it when an unexpected voice cuts into the room.
“Brother,” Lincoln's wary tone drawls at me.
I snap my head around and see him and Jace standing in the entrance of the room, “The fuck are you doing here?” I ask.
Lincoln swings his gaze to Elle but before either of them can speak, another excited squeal comes as Cassie barrels back into the room.
“Superman!!” she yells out.
WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?
She knows him. Cassie knows him and is using Elle’s nickname to greet him. Which means he knows her too. What the fuck? Jace is standing next to him looking as shocked as I am as he takes in the scene before him with wide eyes. At least there is one person in this fucking town that hasn’t betrayed me.
Cassie curls her arms around Linc’s legs as he pats her head, “Hey princess,” he says with a small smile, then looks at me with a tight expression on his face like he is trying to convey some sort of message to me. Well fuck him.
He looks to Elle and briefly nods before turning to her brother, “Zack,” he greets him.
“Lincoln,” he replies with a nod.
Oh, this just gets better and better, not only did he know about Cassie, but he knew about her brother too. The cogs in my head are turning and it’s like a lightbulb goes on in there when I realize he just called him Zack.
I break my silence again, “Zack? As in Zack Zack?” I look back and forth between the two of them but settle on Zack when I realize who he is, “You’re Zack Royton.”
He flicks his gaze quickly to Elle and back before answering, “Yes.”
“How?” I can’t even form another word. I’m too shocked.
Zack Royton, tech billionaire and our fucking boss is somehow Elle’s brother. It wasn’t even on my radar to think about him when she referred to him by name outside. Now? Now I need to know how she has a brother, a brother I knew nothing about, and how that brother is somehow who I work for.
Elle speaks now, “Zack’s birth mom is Sarah King,” she says with a look of disgust before she continues, “She gave him up when she was young and he was adopted by Arthur and Helen,” she adds, gesturing to the older couple who have re-entered the room.
“Well, fuck me, this is the last thing I expected to find when Lincoln told me we were coming here princess,” Jace says, breaking the silence that followed Elle’s statement.
“Watch your fucking mouth Conrad,” Asher snaps at him and I doubt the irony is lost on any of us that he is calling Jace out for swearing in front of Cassie, while he does it himself.
Cassie gasps, “Bad word, daddy.”
“Daddy?” Jace almost shouts in shock, choking on a laugh before he takes in the room and reads the serious tension on everyone's faces. Yeah, not the fucking time for jokes brother.
“Well fuck,” he adds.
“Last warning,” Asher snaps at him as Cassie shouts, “Swear jar!”
I stand and start to pace; I can feel the anger in me pouring out into the room and clearly it doesn’t go unnoticed. Zack leans forward and speaks to the little girl.
“You hungry squirt? I got you some spaghetti.”
She squeals, “Yes, uncle Zaaa! I love sgetti,” she replies excitedly.
“Well, come on, let's go get it,” he bends in front of her so she can climb on his back. He nods his head at the man and woman, and they all exit the room together leaving just me, Elle, and the guys.
She turns
to the guys first, “You guys should sit, I have a feeling this is gonna take a while,” she says grimly.
Asher sits next to Elle and it just makes the anger inside me burn, as Lincoln and Jace sit in the space next to where I just vacated. There is an awkward silence until I can’t wait any longer for her to start, so I start for her.
“How does she know me?” a hundred questions on my mind but that feels like the only one I can voice. I know I need to ask about Zack, about her and Asher, and about my dad, but the only thing I can think about is that little girl.
Elle releases a breath as she stands and leaves the room, just when I think about going to follow her, she returns with a large book in her hand. She passes it over to me and it’s only then I realize it’s a photo album. I recognize it immediately from when we were kids, she was obsessed with this thing, always adding stuff to it.
I flip through it and countless memories assault my brain, there are hundreds of pictures of us in here. Right back to when we first became friends all the way up to the summer she left. After that, it continues with pictures of me that I have no idea how she got, but they are all in order from after she left, to as recent as just before she came back. I shut it and take a deep breath; I have no idea how to process all of this.
“She wasn’t a good sleeper when she was born and the only thing that would settle her, is if I told her stories,” she shrugs. “I didn’t really have anything to say that wasn’t about us.”
“Us?” I cut her off with a mocking laugh, “What fucking us is that Elle?” I snap at her throwing my arms out as my rage continues to take over.
“Marcus,” Asher growls.
“Don’t even fucking start with me, Donovan, you fucking backstabbing piece of shit!”
“River, please,” Elle pleads.
“I bet you just fucking laughed at me, didn’t you? I trusted you both, and you paid me back by sneaking around behind my back and lying.”
“Brother,” Lincoln's voice pleads with me, “remember what I said, remember who the real enemy is.”
I laugh, “Oh I remember, brother,” I spit back at him. “You told me to trust her, to be there for her. All the while you were in on all her secrets. Guess it’s a day full of betrayals, huh?”
“You need to tell him, Elle,” Lincoln says pleading with her, but her eyes remain on me.
“Tell me what, Linc? About who I can and cannot trust, think I can work that out for myself.” I am so furious I can’t even think straight, I need to get out of here and away from all these liars.
“Marcus,” Elle tries again but I cut her off ignoring the desperate and pleading look on her face.
“No, the one thing I know about this town is that you can’t trust a Donovan, and from the looks of things, this house is full of them,” I bite back at her and her face immediately changes. She no longer looks desperate or pleading. No, her face changes entirely, completely shutting off her emotions to me.
“You were right,” I continue, “I should have stayed away from you and trust me from now on I’ll listen,” with that I turn and leave the room without looking back.
I should have taken her up on every one of her warnings, she told me time and time again she didn’t come back for me, that we couldn’t be together. I was just a fucking blind asshole unwilling to listen. Well, message received, little traitor. Loud and fucking clear.
Chapter 2
ELLE
For the second time in this shitty town, my life has been blown up. The first, I never saw coming, the second, I have been trying to avoid since the minute I got here. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the hell do I do now? Should I have told Marcus the truth? No, that would have been stupid. No, not stupid, suicidal. The boy who stole my heart when I was five is now a man whose job it is to protect people from the Donovan’s. How would he feel if he knew the only person left, he cared about had already been ruined by them? They already took Michael from him, it’s better he thinks I chose them over him, rather than that they took me too. I might not be dead like his father, but they killed something inside of me that night. The only reason my heart continues to beat is because I got something even bigger from them in return, my daughter.
I watch him walk away and force myself to be a shell, burying the pain until I feel nothing. An empty void of no emotions. I have done it before, and I can do it again. It’s as easy as breathing for me. The room is deathly silent, and I can hear Cassie's voice filtering in from the dining room, as she happily chats away while eating her lunch. The innocence of children always astounds me, she has no idea the carnage that has just been left in her wake.
“Does someone wanna enlighten me to what the fuck just happened?” Jace's voice breaks the cold tension of the room, and I have to huff out a laugh because if not, I might just break down. Another innocent soul tangled up in this mess. I won’t bring him into this, I don’t know why Lincoln brought him here, they must have been together when I called, and he rushed over here without thinking. That's the only explanation I can think of.
I glance at Jace and swing my gaze between him and Lincoln who is staring at me tight lipped. I can tell by the look in his eyes that he isn’t happy with me. He has always wanted Marcus to know about Cassie and now he does, he thinks I should have told him everything. Maybe I should have, but Marcus pretty much said it himself, he sees me as a Donovan, he was never going to listen to what I had to say.
I remain just as tight-lipped as Lincoln because the last thing I need is another Rebel in on one of my secrets, while their leader is left out in the dark. I look to Asher who is staring at me, when he realizes I am not going to say anything, he does it for me.
“It doesn’t concern you,” he snaps as he swings his gaze round to him.
“Oh sorry, Daddy, are you in charge now?” Jace growls back at him, sarcastically, but it's far from his usually playful tone, he’s pissed off at me too. Well join the fucking club, pretty boy.
“Careful now, Conrad,” Asher responds. I can tell from his flat, smooth tone that he has gone to his dark place, and things are about to go south fast if I don't step in.
I jump to my feet, “Look, pretty boy, I’m sorry Lincoln dragged you here,” I say looking pointedly at him before turning back to Jace, “but this doesn’t concern you. It can’t concern you, but I need to know what you saw here today, won’t leave this room.”
His serious glare at me shatters. I can tell straight away that I’ve hurt his feelings. He stands abruptly shaking his head, “I really thought you knew me better than that, princess.” He turns to leave, smoothing is long hair behind his ears, when I call out to him.
“Jace,” I say a little desperately, but come up short trying to find more words for him.
He stops without looking back, “Your secrets are safe with me, princess. I never rat on my family,” his tone almost makes me break. I want to tell him, I want to pour out my secrets until he drowns in them, but Marcus needs him more than I do. He is the only one who didn’t betray him in his eyes. We all watch him leave, and then I sit back on the sofa and take a deep breath.
“What the fuck happened, baby girl?” Asher says, taking my hand in his, like he can sense I need the comfort, even though I can tell from his voice he hasn’t left the dark place. He sees this as a new threat to Cassie. It will be a miracle if I can pull him back from this ledge. He is always doing everything in his power to keep Cassie hidden and out of his family's hands. Now that two more people know of her existence, he is going to be worse than ever, especially when those two people are South Side Rebels.
I blow out another breath before I try to explain how this happened, where do I even start? “He was here when I got home, or he followed me,” I shrug. “I’m not totally sure. All I know is I went to get lunch for everyone with Zack, and when we got back and started unloading the car Marcus appeared.” I scrub my eyes over my face, “He thought Zack,” I pause and my nose scrunches in disgust at just thinking about what Marcus thought, “He thought that Z
and I were together.”
Asher snorts aloud, “Of course he did,” before adding under his breathe, “Stubborn fucking Riviera men.”
“And let me guess, he hit Zack?” Lincoln muses knowing how much of a loose temper his brother has.
“Erm actually, Zack hit him,” I cringe a little at admitting that. I know Marcus will be pissed about that too when he lets himself calm down. I see a smile tug at Linc’s lips before I continue, “He was distracted, but then Cassie came running from the house calling out to me.”
“Fuck,” Lincoln replies quietly as silence descends on the room again. Fuck indeed.
“Why didn’t you tell him the truth?” Lincoln asks after a few minutes.
“Are you fucking dense?” Asher snaps before I can even form a response.
“Care to elaborate?” Lincoln replies not affected in the slightest by Ash’s outburst.
“You just saw why she didn’t tell him the truth, something I’m sure you see every fucking day. Marcus is just like his father, a hunter for justice, he is too hot headed to handle the truth.”
I sigh, Asher is right, and I elaborate, before either of them can continue, “Telling him the truth would be the same as signing his death certificate,” I reply grimly.
“It’s better he hates me and Ash thinking what he does now, rather than knowing the truth and going after Greg alone.” Which he would, he wouldn’t even think, he would happily give his life to avenge mine and that is something I won’t allow.
Lincoln doesn’t disagree with me like he has before, he has seen how Marcus has no limit when it comes to me. We have a special bond, or at least we did, I fear that’s over now. I saw the way he looked at me before he left, like I was the lowest of the low. Who can blame him? He thinks I left him after fucking our best friend, had his child, and that I came back here to be with him. That’s all he will ever see when he looks at me now. He won’t see Elle King, the little girl he used to wish upon a star with, no, he will see Elle King, the traitor, and the liar.
Cassie saves any of us from having to say anything further when she comes running back into the room clutching a piece of paper to her chest.