The long and short is that if not for the actions of one twenty-two-year old woman, who’s poor as a bloody church-mouse, I would have never known my own flesh and blood.
Suffice it to say that I’ve ensured that she is now set up for life, and plan to have her over to visit Mad when everything settles.
For now I have some people to maim and kill, starting with this cyst on humanity’s arse.
“You don’t understand.”
“What’s to understand! That filth sold my daughter to you, and then you threw her at an old woman whose only interest in life is alcohol and living the easy life!” I yell, willing myself to calm down when I see my love flinch and her eyes tear up with fear.
This is a side of me I’d never wanted her to see. The side where I let go of my steely control and ruin everything in my path. I could have still maintained that mask and watched silently as my father ripped her a new one, but that had been before my love had started crying—okay, given that had been from anger—but the end results are still the same.
My love had cried when she’d seen what her daughter had been raised in, and that shit is just not going to fly.
No one makes love cry. No one. And if they do, they’re fucking finished.
“My kid spent the first years of her life being neglected and ignored. I’d like nothing more than to—”
“Lucian. Take your wife and her friends and go have a drink, lad. Let me take care of this,” I hear from the doorway.
“Father—”
“Leave her to me, lad. I know what to do with trash,” he mutters, growling low in his throat.
I turn and look at him and feel a slow, evil smile twitch at my lips. If they thought that she would suffer with me, they don’t understand the things that my father is capable of.
“Edward—”
“Keep your mouth shut, Cynthia.”
When she stops her pleading and crying instantly and stiffens her spine, I know that everything I could have done to this person will pale in comparison to what she will now face, and I bloody revel in it.
Don’t get me wrong: I am in no way mending bridges with the old man, but for the sake of the children I’m willing to ignore that in favor of them feeling loved and wanted by their only grandparent.
Plus, I really just enjoy having an ally as ruthless and heartless as I am. Makes for a better killing when you’re sharing with one of your ilk.
“Ash, love, run along and go have a drink with the girls,” I murmur, kissing her reddened nose as I lead her to the door and nod to Cammy.
“No. Lucian—”
“No, love, Father and I will take care of this. Please. Go.”
I turn back and smile coldly only when she’s stopped fretting and being led away by the bevy of females.
“Now then,” I say sweetly, closing the door with a snick. “Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me what I want to know. And you can stop those tears. I could care less about your histrionics.”
As before, she loses the act and sits staring at us stonily, her disdainful demeanor back in full force.
“She was a little nobody. She would have ruined all of our plans for you once you found out about the baby. I simply did what any mother would do and took care of the problem.”
“Problem?” I snarl, throttling back on the rage coursing through me with an iron will.
“Lucian, you weren’t even out of school yet. You still had university, and your father wanted to take you into the company early… It would have ruined everything—”
“You stole my fucking kid and left her to that piece of shit—”
“Calm down, lad. She’s trying to provoke you.”
I hear what he’s saying and just barely manage not to lunge at her where she sits, trying to explain away her actions as if what’s she’s done means nothing.
I shouldn’t be surprised, and yet I am. Even having known this whole time that she was behind this…the hope that she wasn’t had still been strong enough for me to sit through dinner with this…thing.
Now I just want to hurt her. If they’d let me I’d take a pound of flesh for every year I’d missed with my daughter.
“That excuse doesn’t fly, woman, and you know it. We’re old money. We could have taken care of the child while he did what needed doing. Hell, I’d have taken her myself if I’d known,” he snarls, letting her know how truly angry he really is.
“So we will ask you again, once only, why you saw fit to rob this family of their flesh and blood.”
That’s Father, always calm and to the point. That’s when he’s at his most dangerous, because then you know he’s not just violently angry, but he’s making plans to cut you down.
The bitch finally gets it and starts crying again, her thin shoulders heaving as she covers her face and sobs into her hands.
“I knew that he was getting ready to leave. The little shit had been telling me for weeks. With him gone Camille would have been first to inherit the businesses, and…I knew that if you got a whiff of a grandchild you would never let him go.”
Ah, greed. The stupid arse had been eyeing the business for Cammy, no doubt intending to use the poor girl to get what she wanted, which is and has always been more money and power.
She comes from a long line of aristos, the type that know nothing about hard work and look down at others just because they think their blood is blue.
She must have wanted to die when she’d married a second brother thanks to the marriage contract my grandfather had worked out after my own mother had died on giving birth to me.
“You wanted the money, huh? I don’t give you enough to satisfy your greed?”
“You’re too soft to take this family where it needs to go, Edward! We could be so much farther if you’d just stop feeling sorry for everyone and push the business the way you need to.”
“You mean you’d like me to retrench half the workforce and sell the company so we can live like your freeloading relatives? Sorry, dear, but a Jasper man does not spend his life lounging around while others do the hard work. Fortunately for you, the ghastly sight of your husband going off to do a hard day’s toil will no longer have to be borne.”
The moment her piddly mind grasps his meaning is a bittersweet one for me, and I relish the cry of anguish and bare my teeth at her pleas for mercy.
“Edward, please, you cannot—”
“You have exactly thirty minutes to collect whatever you can carry and get your arse out of my house before I call security to drag you out.”
“Edward, I’m begging you—”
“Your pleas won’t work on me. Now get the fuck out of my house before my grandchildren see your pathetic carcass again. Come, Lucian, we have funds to freeze and accounts to close. The bloody leech has a list of the things as long as my bleeding arm!”
We leave her there, sobbing so dreadfully she doesn’t make a sound, and I feel the tight band of tension in my chest ease. Sure, wringing her bloody neck would have been satisfying, but he’s just given me more in the way of revenge than I could have ever hoped for.
I now get to see the monster I’d spent years fearing and hating slink away defeated and broken, something that is so much more than what I could have dreamed.
“Now then, what say we have a drink and watch her slink away from the library windows? I have a need to watch my burden disappear.”
Chapter Thirty Three
Ash
The journey back to America is…interesting. Viv and the girls, not having had anything else to do but keep me company since the wicked witch had flown, had used the jet to get back home to the lives and loves they’d left behind.
I’ve been stuck being a buffer between Luc and his dad. They’re no longer enemies or anything; they’re just not…family, I guess. Even after they’d stood toasting good riddance to that…I won’t tell you what I secretly call her ‘cause it’s a filthy word. Well, they’d gone back to silently glaring at each other.
The
kids, as normal kids do, feel nothing of the undercurrent of hostility, which I have to say is all Luc—I don’t say this out loud because the guy would go postal at me about misplaced loyalty.
I know because the one time I’d told him to chill out he’d said, “You’re being a bloody disloyal shrew, love.” So I’ve basically just kept it zipped and pretended not to like Eddie whenever Luc was around.
“Love, are you sure you’re okay? You’re looking peaked,” Lucian says for the fiftieth time as he comes back from the little room where he’s put the little ones down for a nap.
“Yes. No…I think my tummy aches. I really shouldn’t have eaten so much breakfast, but that cook is diabolic when it comes to eggs and bacon. God, I feel so full,” I moan, rubbing at my belly with a groan.
“I don’t like this.”
“Of course not. I get a hang nail and you’re ready to call the doctor. Calm down, babe, it’s just a little indigestion,” I laugh, stretching out on the leather sofa with my head in his lap and his hands in my hair.
“Are you okay now? I mean, you didn’t get much of a say in what happened to her royal cu—highness. Will you be all right with letting your dad see to her?”
What I’m actually asking is, ‘Will you please stop being so scary cold all the time? Because it’s starting to freak me out a little.’
He laughs loudly, and I blush, realizing he caught my almost slip of the tongue and finds my language amusing. Not always, mind you, since he has a stick up his ass about women cursing, but in this instance he’s laughing and not giving me a hard time.
“I’ll be fine, love. She got a lot more punishment from being banished and left penniless than I could have ever made her suffer. Hopefully that’s the end of that.”
“And will you let your pop visit eventually? He really loves the kids, and—”
I try to say everything in a rush, but he interrupts me by shoving a hand over my mouth and raising a brow.
“I told you I would think about it, and that’s final. Now close your eyes and rest for a while, love. You really do not look well,” he commands, leaning down to give me a peck on the lips before taking up his phone to check email.
Great. I hope this nap does the trick, or Mr Paranoia will definitely have my ass at the doctor’s as soon as we land.
Being married to an attentive and weirdly affectionate rich guy who buys me everything and worries about my health is hard work. But I suppose I can do it.
***
Luc
Lying to my wife is not one of the things I’ve always aspired to, but if it gets the little brat off of my back about ‘Pops’ visiting then I’ll lie through my bloody teeth to accomplish it.
Another reason I’m not that hot to annoy her right now is that the woman is so packed with hormones I’m loathe to upset her and thereby lose my bed privileges.
Yes, I freely admit I will not stand for another freeze out. I’ll just do what I’d done in that hotel room and seduce her hide till she’s writhing and begging me to fuck her, but I far prefer my saucy minx crawling all over me to a woman I have to heat up.
Piggish, yet so true.
My other concern is adding stress to her already full plate. She’s been expanding by leaps and bounds since we’d returned home two months ago, and waddles around like a cute little duck, her hand firmly planted in her back, as if she’s holding herself up with the thing.
“You gonna stop daydreaming anytime soon, or can we get a move on with this contract?” Brody gripes, tossing a dirty lunch napkin at me. “Jesus, man, you’ve been distracted since you got married, and as much as I love Ash, I’m starting to think she’s got your balls in her purse.”
Ever since he’d let go and let God and allowed Cammy to bag him, the man has been insufferable.
“Everything’s done. Just get Ducane to sign it, and we can move ahead. Oh, and bro, I have my balls right where they belong. Under my dick. It’s you I’m worried about, since my little sister cut you down and took your nuts. Who the hell wears a bloody pink silk tie?” I ask with a smirk, grinning when the arse smooths a hand over the fabric and grimaces.
“She gave it to me for my birthday. Not like I had much of a choice,” he grumbles, flicking at the baby pink swath. “That woman is loony tunes. I caught her checking out wedding dresses online. I haven’t even thought about that shit yet, and she’s planning the whole thing.”
I laugh, feeling a little lighter as he groans and grumbles about crazy females and their little club. For some reason that has my alarm bells ringing and I sit back, tapping my lips, contemplating.
“Cammy said you were engaged.”
“Uh, that would be a no. She only said that shit to give your mom a heart attack. We’ve only been together a few months, and we haven’t even…you know.”
Huh.
“And that would be because…?” I ask darkly, narrowing my eyes at my best mate.
I have no trouble letting Cammy run roughshod over him and giving her a little help here and there, but I refuse to watch her give her heart to a man who is not capable of returning her affection.
I’d throw away years of friendship and even look for another VP to save her from more heartache. She’d grown up wanting love and not getting it; I’ll make sure she does even if I have to beat this man to death and find her one worth her heart.
My tone and whatever he sees in my face alerts him to his mistake, and I watch him swallow before his face hardens.
“You mind your wife and I’ll mind mine, Jasper. Fair warning: I won’t tolerate shit from you while I bring my woman to heel.”
Huh.
“Still got one nut in there, huh? Good for you. Break my sister’s heart and I’ll break every bone you own.”
His smile is back in full force, and I laugh, feeling the world right itself once again. Good, now I can go back to worrying about my wife and the little monster I put in her belly.
Love the kid, really I do, but the little bugger is draining my love.
“What’s got ya so tense, man?”
I release a breath and scrub at my neck, closing my eyes on a sigh.
“Ash isn’t doing so well, the children are running wild, and my unborn child seems to be growing like a weed. The poor woman looks like she swallowed a beach ball, and she’s only just over six months along.”
Brody whistles and purses his lips, giving me a pointed stare.
“Dude, I’m gonna do something that’ll chap your ass, but it’s gonna win me some much needed respect with my woman.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“I’m laying down a grand and that winter place you got in France that your girl’s breeding more’n one little Jasper heir in her belly.”
My face, I literally feel it pale as blood rushes out of my suddenly pounding head and settles somewhere in the vicinity of my gut, making me feel woozy and lightheaded.
I’m up and out of my chair, running for the door without a word, when I hear Brody laughing heartily at my dilemma.
Twins?
Well fuck me.
Chapter Thirty Four
“Lucian, goddammit! Stop that shit right now and put me down!”
“Shh, love, we’re just going to a doctor’s appointment,” he mutters, cradling me in his arms and carrying me to the waiting car.
“Hey, Mrs Jasper.”
“Hi, Harry, how’s your wife?” I ask, glaring at my husband when he attempts to buckle the seat belt around me and curses when it won’t go around my girth.
Stupid cravings! I’m big as a freaking house, and he wants me to fit into this shit? As if I don’t feel gross enough as it is.
“I have to get Mad from school and take her to her dance classes. I don’t have time for this shi—stuff today. Anyway, we were just at the doctor’s a few weeks ago,” I mutter, slapping his hands away when he goes for the belt again. “It’s not gonna fit, asshole, so stop trying already!”
He mutters something obscene, a rarity, since h
e’s pedantic about not cursing in front of me unless he’s inside me and out of control, and settles for taking me onto his lap.
“Harry, call Mavis and have her get Maddy from school and to her classes, and get Philip to swing by Benjamin’s school once he’s done with football. Stop squirming, love, it’s not doing any good,” he groans, trying to pull his crotch away from my twitching butt.
Well, hello there!
“Okay,” I sigh, relaxing all my weight onto his thighs.
If he never wants to walk again that’s his business, not mine. My fat ass can’t help it if he insists on this macho crap.
“What’s gotten into you?”
“Love, haven’t you been wondering why you’ve…expanded so rapidly?” he asks haltingly, cringing when my eyes go molten and I glare down at him with a curled lip.
“If this is your way of telling me I’m fat, you’d better let me off your lap before I do something you’ll never recover from, buddy!” I hiss.
That makes him laugh. Yeah, like I really need to be amusing right now, and I find myself trapped between his hands as he kisses the hell outta me.
“Love, I am in no way calling you fat. Trust me on this.”
“No?”
Okay, so I’m really deflating fast, but who can blame me? After I’d tried and failed to button up the newest pair of maternity pants this morning, and had to resort to wearing what looks like Mama June Shannon’s camping tent, I’d gone into something of a funk and almost cried myself sick.
“Um, I was in you before you even woke up this morning, love. Does that tell you nothing?”
Weeeell…
“Then what’s with the expansion talk, wise guy?” I ask, going hazy-eyed when we stop at a light beside a bakery truck that smells like my next wet dream.
“Fine, you don’t think I’m gross. Why exactly are we going to the doctor again?”
It’s really hard to concentrate and give a shit about what he’s saying when my vision and every other sense is focused on the drool-worthy donut emblazoned on the side of that van.
JARED (Lane Brothers Book 4) Page 67