by Unknown
“Where else is he going to go, Ari? I blew up our entire building along with eighty percent of his belongings.”
“You can’t do this, Ava.”
“What choice do I have?” I said, nearly screaming. “I can’t just stay here while they pick you guys off one by one.”
“Ava, quit worrying about that! No one is going to come for us and if they do, we’ll stop it. Just like before.”
“Just like before! What the hell, Ari! Lauren could have died. I killed two people on Dana Point beach. It cannot be just like before.”
“Look at yourself, Ava; I can see your bones. Clearly, August isn’t good for you. You belong here at home. None of us wants you to leave, so please, please stay.”
Tears stung the backs of my eyes; August put his hand on my back trying to settle me down and Ari did not react well to that at all. “Do not ever touch her, do you understand? Don’t touch her or I’ll…”
August threw his palms out as a sign of peace. “Whoa, man, sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Andy came to break up our public screaming match. “Hey guys, let’s everybody calm down. We will get this all figured out. Let’s just try to enjoy the weekend.”
Andy pulled me in for a one-armed hug and I could feel the tears threatening to roll over the brim. I brushed past Ari and made my way to the bathroom so I could get myself together.
I stayed in there for a few minutes just trying to breathe. I heard a tiny rap at the door. I was expecting August, but found Ari instead. I opened the door up the rest of the way and allowed him to come in. He pulled me straight in to his arms and held me tight.
“I am so sorry, Ava.”
“I’m sorry, too. I don’t want to leave you. I just can’t think of any other way.”
“Shhh,” he said rocking me back and forth. “I don’t want to talk about it now. I just want to hold you for as long as I can.”
He locked his hands around the small of my back and the unused frustration from our fight came out in a deep, desperate kiss. I knotted my fist around his tie and pulled him closer to me. Ari lifted me up onto the sink and I grabbed a handful of his hair. His hands ran up under my dress on my bare thigh and a small moan escaped from my lips, causing my cheeks to burn, and the butterflies in my stomach to erupt in an erratic flutter.
There was a quick knock at the door right before it came open. August stood there with an annoyed look on his face and hollered down the hall, “I found them…unfortunately.” He turned his attention back to us. “Look, sorry to interrupt, but we have to go now, or you’ll be late.” He pointed at Ari and gave him a look of contempt.
Ari helped me down off the sink and wiped some lip-gloss off his bottom lip.
“Hey, August,” he said before August could walk away. “I want to apologize for the way I acted back there and for last night. Any friend of Ava’s is a friend of mine and I should not have spoken to you like that. It’s just, Ava means the world to me and I get really crazy when it comes to her.”
August smiled, “No worries, man. She gets the same way about you. And by the way I’m gay, so you don’t have to worry about…you know, that,” he said pointing, between him and me with a repulsed look on his face.
“Even better,” Ari said with a relieved laugh and patted August on the back. I rolled my eyes at Ari and elbowed him in the ribs.
We arrived at the graduation ceremony without a moment to spare. I gave Ari a kiss and August and I found our seats with Ari’s family. He delivered a brilliant speech. His words were poignant; his message was one of living honestly and loving fully, seizing the day and measuring success in one’s love and family. He never took his eyes off me for a moment while he talked. I stared back at him in wonderment. Aggie elbowed me gently, smiled, then winked. Since half of the audience was related to the Alexanders in some way, the crowd erupted in cheers when Ari, Rory and Julia received their diplomas.
****
Aggie and Gianna had put together a wonderful party. A lit, stone passageway connected their back decks. Little party lights had been strung up all over the place. Waiters served cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while people greeted one another and congratulated Ari, Rory and Julia. All of the people from the twelfth floor were there, along with half of the rest of the school. After an onslaught of questions hit me, full on, as to where I had been and what had happened on the beach on New Year’s, I decided it was best to hang back with August at the bar. He kept me company for a while. Suddenly, after about an hour or so, I felt a cold, strong hand on my shoulder.
Crap, it was Margaux. “Hello, Margaux. What are you doing here?” Embarrassingly, my voice came out in a bit of a squeak.
“I might ask you the same question, Ava Dear,” she purred in my ear, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.
“Didn’t you hear? My place in London caught on fire.”
“Oh, Ava,” she smiled wickedly. “I know all about my building catching on fire.”
“Oh, right… it was an accident?” I hedged.
She peered her beady black eyes at me. “Don’t lie, Ava. It is very unbecoming of you. I know the fire wasn’t an accident. You owe me, huge. However, I am glad to see you unharmed. Now answer me, what are you doing here?”
“Moment of weakness.”
“I’d say so. If this is where you choose to be, then you are the one who has to pay for the consequences, not me. I was only trying to help you by keeping you in London, but it seems very clear to me that you and that Alexander boy can’t stay away from one another. If I can be perfectly honest with you, Ava, he is a very bright man to choose to be with.”
I was surprised that she even bothered to say that at all. “Besides,” she continued, “in a week you will be free to do whatever you wish so take this time and try to enjoy it. I know you have been through so much,” she concluded in an oily voice.
That’s right, I’ll be eighteen in a week and I won’t ever have to talk to you again; that alone was reason enough to celebrate. Margaux continued to hang around me for a few more moments, trying without much success to be nice, then excused herself, having completely ignored August the entire time. I am pretty positive he was relieved when she finally left. I still wasn’t entirely sure why she had even been there or what her message to me had actually been. I knew that she and Andy had the foundation together, but I had never thought of her as the graduation party type.
Ari stole me away from August after he greeted all of the partygoers. He held me in his arms and we swayed back and forth to the soft croons of Jim James playing in the background.
“Last night was fun,” he whispered in my ear. I felt the butterflies in my stomach twirl around.
“Last night was more than fun,” I whispered back, playing along with his quiet game. Ari’s eyes shot open and a sly smile snuck onto his face.
“What was your favorite part?”
Oh, the things Ari does to me with his words.
“My favorite part was when you touched me.”
“I am afraid you are going to have to be more specific, Ava. If I remember correctly, I believe I touched you several places. Was it when I touched you here?” He gently traced his fingers across my face. I shook my head no and Ari’s smile grew brighter. “Well, was it when I touched you here?” His fingers left my face and trickled down my neck to my collarbone. I shook my head no again and Ari’s smile got brighter. “What about when I touched you here?” He moved his fingers with a deliberate slowness down my chest and finally paused for a moment right below my tummy where the butterflies danced. My eyes shot up into his dark and lidded gaze and I nodded a small yes. Ari moved his hand around my back and we continued to sway with the music.
“I liked that, too, but my favorite part was when you asked me not to stop.”
I closed my eyes. My breath hitched in my throat. My body ignited with desire. Ari rocked us gently back and forth to the music and held me tightly to him. His mouth was on my ear.
/> “I wanted to do things to you that would make you blush for a week. I didn’t ever want to stop. But if I remember correctly, you seemed relieved when I did stop. I told you I would wait forever, Ava, and I meant it. It seems to me that maybe you don’t want to wait forever. I think that maybe you and I should have a talk about sex. I will do anything you want. I will wait for six months, a year, five – it doesn’t matter, but I will not let things between us get carried away and sneak up on us and just happen one night. I want you to tell me what it is you want, Ava.”
I swallowed hard. “Can I think about it for a while?”
“Take as long as you’d like, but I will not touch you like that again until you have set some boundaries.”
Andy walked up and handed Ari two drinks. “I think maybe you two should cool down.”
I looked at him puzzled. We had only been dancing; our words were no louder than a small whisper into each other’s ears. There was no way anyone could overhear our conversation. Ari smiled coolly at his father, took the drinks and set them on the table. He took my hand and led me into the house. We walked back to the bedroom. He kept his bedroom light off so no one could see us through his giant floor to ceiling wall of a window. He disappeared into his closet.
“Come with me to the beach?”
He held up my bikini, the one I received from Julia the past Christmas.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. You don’t even have to get wet. Just please come with me.”
“Ari, you have a house full of people who are here to see you.”
“I see these people every day. I went to school with them for four years, lived by them and sat by them in class. It is you I want to see, not them; these last six months have been hell and all I want to do is be alone with you.”
I agreed and we snuck out through the front door and cut through his neighbor’s yard onto their beach area.
“Are you sure they won’t mind us out here?” I asked.
The home was magnificent and the house was situated in such a way that they basically had their own private strip of beach. He walked me through their sandy back yard and I felt as though we were going to get in trouble.
Ari laughed at me. “You’re afraid of a little trespassing?”
“I don’t know these people and I don’t want them to get mad at us for being on their beach.”
“Don’t worry. They aren’t home,” he said very confidently. I didn’t argue with him and concentrated on keeping up. I followed him out onto the beach and stopped. Ari turned around once he realized I wasn’t following him any longer.
“I promise, Ava, nothing will happen to you. It’ll be fine. Just come on.”
I let him take my hand as he slowly walked closer to the crashing waves. He sat down with me in the sand and wrapped his arm around my body. The warm water rushed up to our bare feet and I let out a little gasp.
“This is as far as we will go. Nothing can hurt you here,” he said. We stared out at the star-filled sky and I took a deep breath, my head resting on Ari’s shoulder. We sat quietly, listening to the waves rush in and then trickle back towards sea.
“So what’s next, Ari, are you going to school somewhere?” Ari is brilliant and I was positive he could get into any school anywhere. He would move on and meet someone he could be happy with, a girl that wouldn’t bring the constant threat of death and danger every time she was near.
He wrapped his arm tighter around my body.
“I don’t know yet. I am weighing a few options right now. I’m not really sure what my decision is going to be.”
“Ok, so what are your options; maybe I can help,” I offered.
He let out a cheek-filled breath and rubbed the stubble on his sun-bronzed face.
“Well, I have been accepted into a handful of schools across the country, but I was just planning on going to Pepperdine, until Margaux called me.”
“Margaux? You mean my Margaux? Why would she call you?”
“She is looking for someone to handle the business side of her company and she wants to keep baio in her family, so she was thinking of handing it over to you.”
“Great,” I said sarcastically. “That is probably the last thing I am interested in.”
“She knows you feel that way, so she offered the job to me instead. She and my dad have a long-standing professional relationship and if she can’t keep baio in her family, she would like to involve mine.”
Ari looked at me with a worried expression. “I can’t help but feel as though I am taking an opportunity away from you, betraying you, Ava, and if you don’t want me involved in your company, your family’s company, then I understand.”
“I have nothing to do with baio. It is nothing but a last name to me. If that is what you want to do then do it. Don’t let me hold you back.”
Ari let out another breath. “OK… well Margaux wants me to start this fall while I take classes. She doesn’t care which office I work out of, so I’ve narrowed my choices down to schools in California, Chicago, New York and London.”
“So which are you thinking of choosing?”
“Umm… I guess I’m just waiting to see where you land before I commit to anything.”
“Oh,” I said, “so what does that mean exactly?”
“Listen Ava, I want to be with you. You make me happy. I know there are some obstacles in the way but I just don’t see any future for me without you in it. I am not going to let you out of my sight while you are being hunted. I am going with you. From now on, we are going to be together. I have explained all of this to Margaux and she understands that you are going to be in my life and I in yours.”
“Ari, I just don’t think it will be that easy.”
“Yes, it will, Ava.”
“I don’t even know where No. 6 is. I have no idea how to find him. I have tried to see his plans, but he is blocking me in some way. I have no idea of where to go or when to go. I’m scared, Ari, and my biggest fear is that something might happen to you.”
“I can help you if you’ll just let me. No one said you have to deal with the Kakos on your own, and besides, I’ll be a way better roommate than August.”
“Well, that is true,” I smiled. “But let’s just say you’re right and that we should take care of No. 6 together. What do you have in mind?”
He thought for a moment.
“If you don’t know where this guy is, then you should use that to your advantage. Don’t let him know where you are. Stay ahead of him for a while. Let’s travel across the country or backpack through Europe or hide out on the gulf. Let’s just take the summer and run away for a while. We can come back here, to California, this fall and worry about him then.”
“Ari… I don’t know.”
“Come on, Ava, you don’t have a better plan...just try it with me.”
“Ok,” I said, “I will; let’s do it.”
I couldn’t bear the idea of leaving him again. Every time the thought crept into my mind, I felt pain in my heart and so I was selfish. I wanted Ari so much that I agreed to put his life at risk for my happiness.
A huge, beautiful smile spread across his face and he grabbed me and pulled me down with him on to the sandy beach. The dark blue water lapped at our legs.
“I love you, Ava Baby. Wherever you are is where I want to be.” He kissed me. Our kiss was long, slow, and sweet. I wanted it to never end.
Eventually, we made our way up the beach to the Alexander’s deck. The party had died down and all the remaining guests and family members were now inside the house. Ari grabbed a light blanket and we nestled up on the deck, in the hammock and fell asleep; both of our bodies were caked in sand.
Chapter 21
Intense
I woke at dawn, blinking my eyes and yawning. I was stiff and could feel the hard rope material of the hammock pushing firmly into my skin. Ari was still deeply asleep. I noticed Rory, across the yard, on the deck behind his house. Julia was wrapped up in his arms and he was covering h
er in kisses while she smiled and giggled at his affection. I quickly looked away to give them privacy.
A minute later, they took off for a run. That’s when my own personal truth really dawned on me. Ari was right. I did need his help. I couldn’t keep my life teetering on the delicate point of balance I had created any longer. I was miserable in London without Ari. But I had to learn to keep the proper distance between him and my problem with the Kakos family, or what was left of it. I also had to work on keeping my mind clear and sharp when Ari was near me. When I was with him, he was my whole world. I am positive that Margaux had been right – if I hadn’t been so pre-occupied with Ari, the Kakos would never have gotten to Lauren in the first place.
I was running these thoughts through my mind when August walked out onto the deck, holding a cup of coffee and the paper in his hands. I spoke up so that he would be aware he wasn’t alone.
“Morning, August,” I said quietly – and he jumped about ten feet in the air anyway.
“Oh, merde, Ava!! You scared me. I didn’t know you two were out here; I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said as he turned around to head back inside.
“No stop, you aren’t interrupting anything. First of all, Ari is asleep and secondly, what you are seeing here is not a compromising situation, it’s just what hammocks do to people.”
“Oh, really?” He gave me a smug little stare. “You could have fooled me. Look at yourself. You’re in a bikini at six in the morning, you’re covered in sand, and don’t even get me started on your hair.”
I took my hair and threw it in a messy bun at the nape of my neck.
“No reason to get nasty,” I said as I made my way off the hammock to join August at the wrap-around couch by the outside fireplace.
“Ok fine, so dish,” he said, “what did you do last night?”
“Nothing,” I shrugged, “we just went to the beach for a while and then came up here and fell asleep on the hammock. It was completely innocent.”