“How could we do anything other than come for you?”
Jake also did the same. “You're our sister now and we love you. If you ever need us, for anything, we'll be there.”
This was the first time he had ever demonstrated any sign of open affection towards her and although she hadn’t really been aware of it, subconsciously, she had been waiting for something exactly like this. It had always seemed to her that Jake was reserving judgment of whether he thought her good enough for his brother. The other two Kingdom men had, from the beginning, been so much more open and affectionate with her, not so with Jake. But it now seemed his reservations had been laid to rest.
Jackson was next and extended his hand towards Aviva. She placed her hand in his and he bent his head and kissed the back of her fingers. “I claimed you both that first night we met in our hotel room and what belongs to us, we always protect. That, my dear, goes without saying.”
Aviva blinked away tears as they all watched her with identical looks of sincerity. Jason had remained quiet and unmoving, yet something inside him swelled and he knew his standoff was at an end.
“Um...fath...Jackson, the question you asked me earlier at dinner...I accept.”
Jackson smiled and nodded his head in acknowledgment of Jason's words. “Stand up, Jason.”
“Pardon?”
“I said stand up.”
Although he didn't understand what was going on, he rose to his feet. Jackson immediately enfolded him in a bear hug and kissed him on the cheek. Jason was so taken aback by the demonstration of affection, he froze, his hands hanging at his sides and his eyes bulging. Realizing Jackson had no intentions of releasing him until he returned the embrace, he slowly lifted his arms and patted his father on the back in an awkward gesture.
“I love you, my son,” Jackson told the stubborn man who he held in his arms for the first time.
“Um...yes...well...thanks,” Jason sputtered, feeling as uncomfortable as he had ever felt in his life, acutely aware of his audience of three.
Jackson released him and stood back, looking him straight in the eyes. “Don't worry, son, I can wait for the words, and the title.”
“Well, alright then,” Jason responded, running his fingers under the neckline of his t-shirt, before stretching out his hand, hesitantly patting Jackson on his arm.
Jackson’s eyes flashed a bright green as he said, “Well, I'll leave you young people to talk.”
Looking around, Jason steeled his eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. “Say nothing!”
Josh couldn't if he wanted to, he was laughing so hard.
Aviva sat with a hand over her mouth and he was sure the sparkle in her eyes was there because she too was laughing at him.
Still feeling awkward and stupid as all hell, he began to relax when nobody spoke.
“Well, alright then?” Jake piped in, causing Jason to want to hit him. The eruption of laughter around him sent heat rushing to his face and he picked up his forgotten drink and threw it back in one gulp.
“Angel, I've always been a solitary man, so please tell me how I'm supposed to put up with these people?” Jason asked Aviva.
“Baby, the only thing I can tell ya is...if you're gonna dish it, you better be able to take it,” Aviva answered without the slightest note of sympathy.
A flight attendant arrived, pushing a trolley of hors d'oeuvres, a decanter of whiskey and glasses. “Mr. Kingdom sent these. He thought you might all be ready for a respite.” This woman was older than the one who had brought their drinks earlier, her eyes brimming with amusement.
“Thanks, Dara,” Jake said as she placed everything between them. “We don't want to be disturbed. We'll call if we need anything else.”
“Of course, sir,” Dara said, withdrawing with a polite smile.
Jake watched her disappear from his aisle seat. Once the main compartment door closed, he turned his attention to Jason and nodded, indicating that they had complete privacy.
Jason took up the story that led to them being in London when she called.
Chapter 20
****Eight days earlier****
“Josh, what's the name and number of the taxi company you called for Aviva?”
“I'll find out, give me a minute,” Josh said, leaving the room.
Jason paced the floor of the family room, feeling caged, his frustration rising by the second at not being in charge of what was going on around him. This nightmare had only just begun and he already felt out of control. How dare that smug bastard presume to take what belonged to him. He didn't know who was behind Aviva's abduction, and didn't care. With that one act of reckless stupidity, he had forfeited what all men hold most dear, his life.
In his opinion, humans paid too little regard for the one thing that couldn't be replaced. The notion held by certain people that the rules that governed mortality somehow didn’t apply to them was something Jason had never understood. Human was human and dead was dead.
It was this fear that kept twisting his gut. Aviva's scream reverberated again and again through his mind. What if... he refused to complete the thought, unwilling to contemplate even for a moment where it would lead him.
“What the hell's taking him so long? Is he setting up the damn company or something?!” He wasn't actually speaking to Jake or his father who also occupied the room, rather they were rhetorical questions to fill the void of silence encapsulating the room.
“Jason, he'll be back in a minute. I'm sure he's going as fast as he can,” Jackson spoke in a soothing voice, aware of how close his son was to losing control.
“Well, he's not going fast enough!” Jason barked in response, uncaring of what Jackson thought as he continued pacing, his hand running repeatedly through his hair, becoming more agitated by the second.
“I called the company,” Josh informed them as he came through the door and disconnected his cell. “They're checking their records. They'll call me back as soon as they get the relevant information.”
“Joshua...never, and I mean…never, do that again,” Jason spoke in a quiet voice, walking towards his younger brother, coming to a stop directly in front of him.
“Do what?” Josh asked, confused at the disjointedness of his comment.
“Don't you ever put my woman in a taxi without knowing the name of the damn company. Do you hear me?!” Jason shouted, not even trying to keep his anger towards the younger man in check. Josh stood silently before him, a look of guilt moving across his face.
“Come on, Jason, cut him some slack. He had no way of knowing something like this was going to happen.” Jake came to their younger brother’s defense.
“I wasn't speaking to you, so stay the hell out of it!”
“You may not have been speaking to me, but I sure as hell am speaking to you. This is not his fault, so don't make him feel as though it is.”
“He was the one who called the cab. He should know the name of the damn company!”
“I'm sorry, Jason. You know how I feel about Aviva. If I thought for one moment that she was in danger, I would have done everything...anything to keep her safe.”
“Josh, it's not your fault. None of this is your fault, and I won't stand for him offloading this shit on you.” Jake consoled his younger brother, seeing the look of guilt on his face, and angry with Jason for putting it there.
“What's that supposed to mean? Why don't you say what's really on your mind, you know you want to.”
Jake maintained eye contact with his twin yet was unwilling to voice what they were all wondering.
“All of you need to take a moment and calm down,” Jackson said. “Blaming each other is not going to help us decipher this situation.”
“You think I don't know what you all think? You think I don't know this is all my fault? Aviva's somewhere out there alone, probably terrified, hurting because of me, because of what I've done in the past, the decisions I've made. You think I don't know that? Do you?!”
“Jason, we understan
d your frustration but this behavior only serves to exacerbate the situation. Attributing blame is something we will not do. Not now, not ever!” Jackson said again, attempting to defuse the mounting tension.
Moments of silence followed Jackson's remark before Jake nodded in acceptance of his words. Jason gave no such acknowledgment, instead he turned away, presenting them with his back.
“We are a family, and we will get through his together. Jason, I realize you’re finding this hard to accept, but before this ordeal is over, you will come to understand that when all else around you ceases to make sense, we will be here to support you without judgment.”
The shrill of a phone broke the silence that enshrouded the room as Jackson’s words drew to an end. Raising the handset to his ear, Josh answered the call, listening to the information the caller relayed.
“She was dropped off a West Fourteenth Street at roughly one forty-five. The driver noticed that she turned down Eighth Avenue.”
“That's all I need. Where's your computer?” Jason asked, his previous surliness gone, replaced with a look of determination that he finally had information he could work with.
Josh led the way out of the room, down a long hallway before coming to a stop outside a pair of tall oak paneled doors. Swinging one door open, Jason was confronted by a bank of computers that resembled a small IT suite. Raising an eyebrow, he looked over at his twin, curious to know why they needed so many computers.
“We work from home a lot.”
“Ah hum,” Jackson cleared his throat at the comment.
“Okay... I like computers, alright. I need this many to keep up with...things.”
Jason was skeptical of the reply, but quickly lost interest to concentrate on how thankful he was that his twin was a computer geek. That fact would come in handy before the night was over.
Walking to the nearest computer, Jason pulled out a chair and powered up the machine, his thoughts narrowing, honing in on the task at hand. Fingers running over the keyboard, he quickly forgot the other occupants of the room.
“What do you have in mind?” Josh asked, standing beside his brother, watching him as his fingers moved with rapid intent.
“Okay, I know where and at what time she was dropped off. Now I need to locate her on a CCTV camera and try to pick up her trail.”
Without comment, Jake powered up another machine as Josh took a seat to do the same.
“What can I do?” Jackson asked, wanting to do his share of the search. Although no slouch with a computer, he knew he lacked the same level of technological skills as his sons.
Jason's fingers abruptly stopped moving as he looked at Jackson, long and hard, weighing up a decision. Seeming to come to a conclusion, he spoke. “I need you to find out as much information as you can about Malcolm Alexander and Forrest Farnsworth, specifically what they've been up to, and where they've been in the last six weeks.
“You'll need to check for them under aliases as well as their real names. In fact, Jake, I think Josh and I can handle the CCTV scans. You help Jackson with the search. They're slippery bastards and if you both work on this, hopefully we won’t miss anything. Do you both think you can handle that?”
Folding his arms, Jake cracked his knuckles and rolled his head from side to side. “Move,” he said, looking at Jason.
“Why?”
“Because I need mega-man.”
“You know, I really don't have time for your nonsense right now. Say what you mean or shut up and do what I asked you to do.”
“Move. You’re using mega-man, and I need him. Any of the other computers can cope with what you're doing. Mega-man has the capacity to go where you need me to in order to get the information you asked for.”
Rolling back his chair, Jason moved and Jake took his place. Unable to resist a passing quip, Jason mumbled under his breath, “I bet you have a name for your dick.”
“Yeah, sure do. It’s call bigger than yours.”
“Is that right? Then you must be hung like a...”
“Gentlemen!” Jackson said, raising his hand. “I do believe that last statement was my cue to leave you. I think my skills may well be superfluous to the task at hand. Jake, I have no doubt, is more than capable of handling everything without my assistance.”
“I apologize if I offended you. That wasn’t my intention,” Jason informed his father with the utmost sincerity, having come to respect the older man over the past six weeks. He was just used to saying whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted.
“No offense taken. I remember my youth and all that came with it. I'll go see if I can't rustle up some food and coffee. I have a feeling we may need lots of it before the night is over.”
“Thank you. I appreciate your help…that goes for all of you.”
“No need for thanks. Remember what I said Jason, family. There is one more thing I think you should know. Malcolm Alexander is known to me. He and I attended school together as boys.”
“Did you know he was a trustee of the Aldrich Institute?” Jason asked.
“At the time of the boys’ interviews, I can assure you he was not. Had he been, I would never have even entertained the possibility of their attendance. I disliked him from the first moment he tried to befriend me and my feelings have not changed. I just pray he has no involvement in this whole sordid affair. Although, I have a feeling I'm going to be proved wrong.”
Chapter 21
Jackson’s exit heralded a return to the task at hand. While all the brothers were talented in the use of IT, their skills were far surpassed by Jake's. Each of them blocked out what the other was doing. Jake searched for information and the other two derived devious ways of hacking into CCTV equipment along the route Aviva may have taken. Jason and Josh decided to take different quadrants in order to cover as much ground as possible.
“Got her,” Jason said as he watched Aviva walk down Jane Street, stop, and look up and down the road before turning and walking in the direction from which she had just come. Jason was slightly baffled by her actions until he realized his angel was lost. He couldn't help but smile. Her propensity for getting lost if she was without a navigation system, somehow seemed endearing, even if he had difficulty understanding why her sense of direction was so abysmal. Moments later, he could no longer see her on the screen.
“She's coming your way,” he told Josh.
Josh remained silent for a few moments, searching the monitor for a sign of her. Not every part of the street had cameras so there were intervals where she wasn't visible.
“Got her. She's on Horatio Street. She went into some kind of clothing boutique. The camera I picked her up on is across the street and to the left by about two shops. Time was 14:15.”
Josh kept his eyes trained to the screen, not wanting to miss her exit. He waited ten minutes in real time with Jason breathing down his neck, but still she didn't emerge. Josh looked over his shoulder at Jason, an unspoken question in his eyes. Jason shook his head to indicate the negative.
“Remember she called me later than this. It's too early for anything to have happened. She hasn't been to the hair salon yet. When we spoke, she already had her hair done and was on her way to do more shopping. Fast forward enough to speed things up but make sure we don't miss her leaving.”
Turning back to the screen, Josh sped up the image. A car stopped outside the boutique Aviva had entered and remained idling as though waiting for someone. Jason was immediately suspicious. However, he didn't ask his brother to playback the tape knowing the angle was all wrong. They could tell what type of car it was but it was unremarkable in its similarity to thousands of other cars that graced the streets of any large city.
Their wait was suddenly at an end. Aviva emerged, carrying shopping bags and waving to someone in the doorway of the boutique. She got into the waiting car which wasted no time pulling away from the curb.
“Damn,” Jason swore as he used his muscular legs to propel himself back to his own monitor. He’d been so focused
on watching Aviva, happy and smiling, never for one moment thinking her world was about to come crashing down. Desperately tapping keys, Jason accessed camera after camera in an attempt to spot the car that had driven Aviva away.
Jake stopped his research, picking up on Jason's desperation, wishing there was something he could do to change the events leading them to this desperate race against time. He knew the area where they’d located her. Streets intersected with streets so it would be like traversing through a maze.
“I've lost her... I can't find her...shit...shit!” As his words drifted away, Jason sat immobile, his brain quickly processing what his next course of action should be. It took only moments for him to shake off his feeling of desperation and again move into action.
“Josh, find out the name of that boutique. I want to know the name of the owner, a telephone number and an address. Someone there may know where that car took Aviva.”
“On it.”
Jason couldn't sit still so he started pacing as he waited for Josh to gather the information he wanted. Somehow movement helped him to keep his emotions in check and not put his fist through something. Once he had the contact details, he was going to call on the owner and he or she had better have some information for him – it was his only lead.
Jackson came back into the room, followed by a man and a woman pushing trollies, loaded down with food and coffee. The thought of food turned Jason's stomach, not to mention the smell.
“I know you may all feel as though food is the last thing on your minds, but you should try to eat something. Mrs. Emerson has kindly gone to the trouble of preparing these platters for us and I would hate for her trouble to go unappreciated.”
Jason and his brothers approached the waiting trays, as Jason wondered how Jackson always managed to make three grown ass men feel as though they were children who had no choice other than to do as their parent requested. Jason decided the man was a master manipulator as he picked up a plate and helped himself to sandwiches and a cup of coffee.
For Love and Vengeance Page 16