A camera sits to the right of the gate and something tells me there’s currently a very expensive security company who has a guy sitting behind a desk, currently running my license plates and figuring out who the hell is sitting out front of his bosses’ home at 2:30 in the morning.
I don’t miss the massive Dobermans who have been walking around the perimeter of Anton’s home, each one bigger than the last and looking even more vicious. I swear, Anton must only feed those things steroids, and I wouldn’t put it past him to train them to attack with just the slightest click of his fingers.
My phone blasts through the silent car for the twentieth time in the last fifteen minutes and I glance down at the screen. Noah again. It’s been a mix of Noah, Tully, Violet, and Aiden.
I wait for the call to ring out and then wait for the inevitable beep, telling me he’s left another voicemail. It comes two seconds later and I pick up the phone before listening to the message and pressing speaker.
“Spitfire, baby. Please, just call me back. I don’t know where the fuck you are or if you’re even ok. You can’t be doing this shit. I know you’re worried about Ari, but I told you, we’ll get her back no matter what. Please just come home. I can’t be searching for Ari when I’m too fucking stressed thinking about you. Please, Spitfire. I fucking love you. We’ll find her.”
I let out a sigh and close my eyes for a brief second. That message tore my heart right down the center. I hate knowing that he’s worried, but only a little while longer and I’ll give him a call and let him know that I’m alright. Everything going to be alright and one day, hopefully, he’ll be able to see that I’m making the right call.
I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’ve spent the past nine months desperately trying to keep my boyfriend away from this man and here I am, sitting in his driveway, waiting to be welcomed in.
I don’t know what I’m expecting to find when I get inside. Maybe I’m hoping to see a different side of the man that’s been terrorizing my town for far too long. Maybe I’m hoping to see that he’s not as much of a monster that I’ve come to think of him as. Maybe I’m hoping for some answers.
This man, no matter how awful he is, is my father whether I like it or not. His blood runs through my veins and something inside of me is screaming to find some kind of goodness within him. I need it like I need my next breath. I need to know that I’m not doomed to turn into some kind of animal and that my parents’ DNA isn’t going to define me.
Anton had the decency to release Noah only a few short weeks ago, so maybe I’ll be fine. Maybe I can have hope that I’m not going in for a suicide mission. Surely, he will have a little leniency with me. Though that’s assuming he actually knows who I am, and I don’t mean the girlfriend of the guy who used to be his errand boy and whom he nearly shot. I mean his blood, his family, his daughter.
There’s a loud buzz and the gates open wide, making my anxiety sky rocket. What was I thinking? There’s a very real possibility he thinks I’m a joke and wants to keep me locked up in his basement as some kind of sick entertainment. Why should he care about my sister and why the hell haven’t I learned from Noah’s mistake?
Noah was in this very predicament all those years ago. He came desperately seeking the help of a man with connections in order to save his little sister. Yes, at the time, he had received what he thought he had asked for, but in return, Anton made him pay a very steep price; one that I’m not sure I’d be able to stomach.
Shit. If Noah knew what I was doing right now, he’d probably kill me. It’s going to be an interesting talk when I get home and he’s no doubt, waiting on my doorstep, ready to tear me to pieces.
I start creeping my car forward up the longest driveway I’ve ever seen towards the biggest house in Broken Hill. I mean, even for Broken Hill this is ridiculous. Though it has me wondering why he chose to live here. It’s on the outskirts of Broken Hill. There’s no way a man like Anton would be accepted into their world, yet he’s not accepted into ours. Living across the tracks but claiming he’s one of us. It doesn’t make sense to me.
My car comes to a stop at the top of the drive and I don’t miss the way at least four massive dogs circle my car as though I’m some sort of threat.
I swallow back my fear. Do I risk getting out of the car and being torn to shreds or do I back out now? Though something tells me if I start backing out, those big ass metal gates are going to slam closed. No one gets this far without paying a price.
The door of the home is opened before a man in a very expensive suit appears and places something in his mouth. The dogs around me instantly fall back and I realize that I was right; these dogs have been trained very carefully.
The man steps forward and with a strange formalness, he nods his head, indicating that it’s now safe for me to step out of my car. I do so and the way he watches me makes me want to hurry my ass up.
There are about a million steps up to the front door and with my hip desperate to murder me, I do my absolute best and silently thank the man for showing patience as I make my way towards him.
“Follow me,” he says curtly, nothing more, nothing less.
He steps into the massive house and I find myself looking around. Marble. Everything is marble and for this time of night, there are way too many people awake inside this mansion. Clearly, they are all staff but why the hell would one man need so many people working for him in the dead of night?
The need to kick myself a second later flares through me. He’s Anton Mathers, the majority of his work is done at night. He’s most likely nocturnal. Now that’s definitely something I didn’t inherit from the guy. I can stay up as late as I need when I party or when Noah is doing his thing, but any other time I’ll be dead to the world. Sleep is my best friend and there’s no way in hell I would severe that relationship.
The man stops walking and I find myself scrambling to stop behind him to avoid running into his back. “Please make yourself comfortable in the study. Mr. Mathers will be along shortly,” he tells me before holding his hand out and indicating towards a room that looks like it’s come straight out of a movie.
An old wooden desk sits before three, massive bay windows with couches and a bar. This room is his study? Holy shit. It’s bigger than my fucking house. I mean, who needs a fucking bar in a study?
I pace the floor nervously. What was I thinking coming here? Thinking something and actually doing it are two very different things.
I should bail. Definitely bail. Nothing good could come from this. I’ll find Ari another way.
I walk across to one of the massive windows and look out. It’s a long fucking drop if I was to jump. “I wouldn’t,” comes a deep voice from behind that has my skin crawling with memories of being dragged off into the woods of Maxen’s property. “If the fall doesn’t kill you, the dogs will.”
I turn around to find Anton Mathers striding towards me and he really doesn’t look too pleased to be seeing me standing in his home, uninvited. I find myself unable to speak but it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t really give me a chance to shoot anything his way. “Henley Bronx. I would like to say it’s a pleasure to see you here standing in the middle of my study in your dirty boots, but it’s not. Why are you here? I thought we had handled our business.”
“We did,” I tell him. “I’m here for an unrelated matter.”
“Let me guess – your little sister. Aria, is it?”
My eyes narrow on the bastard. “How do you know about my sister?”
“Do you forget who you’re talking to? I have connections everywhere, including the sheriff's office. I know about your sister the same way I know that you lied about my gun. Lucky for you, I was able to get it back before your boyfriend’s little stunt could cause any damage.”
Well, shit. I wasn’t quite expecting that.
“I…um.”
“Spit it out, Henley. I have an empire to run.”
“I need you to find my sister,” I say, rushing it out. “I know y
ou have all the connections and I don’t doubt your people could find her a lot faster than the cops could.”
Anton arches an unimpressed brow. “You’re right about that,” he says, “but no. I’m not interested.”
I stand my ground, clenching my teeth for how this monster before me could simply just say ‘No, I’m not interested.’ This is a little girl’s life in the balance. How could I possibly be related to this animal?
“You couldn’t even do one tiny favor for your daughter?”
That gets his attention. Anton straightens as he studies me closely. He’s quiet for a moment before raising his chin. “How the fuck do you know about that?”
“I found an address listed for my brother and checked it out. It was Gina’s home before she went away. I found birth certificates and DNA results confirming that you’re my father.”
Anton leans against his massive study desk, crossing one leg over the other as he rubs his jaw. “I sent my men searching for those documents. They tore that place apart yet you just stumble across them?”
“Not really,” I tell him. "Your men are just fools. They were in a false drawer hidden within her bedside table. I mean, it’s not exactly rocket science. You need to train your men a little more.” Anton narrows his eyes, clearly not enjoying my lack of respect when it dawns on me. “You’ve known all this time? Even when Gina gave me up to my dad. You knew I was never his.”
“Of course, I knew. You think Gina could possibly run a DNA test on me without my knowledge. I knew the results of that test even before she did. That fool. She could have had it all. She could have had my protection, but she proved to me once and for all that she’s nothing but a whore.”
Hmmm, I guess I could kind of agree. After all, she’s in prison due to her prostitution ring, not to mention she cheated on her husband with my father in a rundown bar.
“I’ve been keeping a close eye on you all these years, Henley,” Anton tells me. “You wouldn’t have believed my surprised when I pull a gun on my errand boy only to find my daughter launching herself at me to protect his worthless ass.”
“He’s not worthless,” I shoot back at him. “Noah is twice the man you’ll ever be.”
“I don’t doubt that,” he mutters. “Why is it you think I let him go?”
“You told me it was because you realized how wrong you’d done by him. His sister was very sick and you used him.”
“That was only a very small deciding factor. They were many, but ultimately, it was you. I could see the lengths that you would have gone to protect that boy and had I pursued war with him, it would have ended badly for you, so I was willing to let it slide.”
“What?” I grunt. “What the hell are you talking about? Why should it matter to you if I get hurt?”
“Believe it or not, Henley, but you’re my daughter. We may not be family in the typical sense but you have my blood running through your veins and I protect what’s mine.”
My eyes drop to the floor as I try to take it all in. I can hardly believe what I’m hearing. All this time he has known. Both Gina and Anton deceived my father, allowed him to think he was getting a little bundle of joy to love and treasure when they were just dumping him with their kid to get her out of the way.
“What do you mean that there were many deciding factors about why you let Noah go?”
Anton tsk’s me and shakes his head. “That doesn’t concern you. Now, can we get back to business? I have a meeting that I’m supposed to be at.”
“At nearly three in the morning?” I question. Anton stares at me blankly and I get on with it. “Fine. Will you please help me find my little sister before anything happens to her?”
“She does not share your blood, Henley. She is just a girl, not your sister.”
I square my jaw and pull back my shoulders. “She is my sister. Are you going to help me or not?”
Anton considers me a moment and I fear that he’s about to tell me to shut the fuck up and get out of his sight when he surprises the ever loving shit out of me. “I will find and return your sister to you,” my hope finally beginning to rise, “but it’s going to cost you.”
Damn it.
I narrow my eyes on the man who looks nothing like me but so damn much like Rivers. “How?” I demand as dread sinks into my stomach. This is where it all went to shit with Noah and I have a feeling the same thing is about to happen to me, but again, this is Aria we’re talking about and I’m pretty damn sure I’d pay any price to see her safe.
“Samuel has gone against my wishes and joined the Marines. He has made it impossible to take over the family business. If I do this for you, if I save this girl you have claimed as your sister, then you will stand by my side and one day take over my business. You are my blood, Henley. This is where you belong.”
I suck in a sharp breath and shake my head. “Anything but that.”
My head starts spinning with all the rumors and stories I’ve heard about Anton Mathers. Drugs, murders, money laundering, theft…and he expects me to be head of all that shit one day. I couldn’t. It would destroy me.
“Those are the terms of our agreement,” Anton tells me. “Consider it your freedom for hers.”
“And if I refuse?” I questions, my eyes filling with unshed tears for the future I would be destroying and throwing away.
“Then I hope you kissed your sister goodbye.” My heart shatters. Never in a million years did I think I’d be faced with this dilemma. “If you do not agree to stand by my side as second in charge and commence your training, then I will not search for your sister. She will be lost and I can guarantee that no one in this town will find her. The police don’t have the resources or the will and deep down, you already know this. So, what’s it going to be Henley. Your freedom or hers?”
I clench my jaw thinking it over. “What exactly does it mean being your second in charge?”
Anton seems to consider it a moment before raising a brow at me. “It means that following your summer, you will move in here with me and you will train day in and day out until I have decided that you have what it takes to continue in my footsteps. Look around you, Henley. All this could be yours.”
I can’t help but glance around and turn up my nose at it all. “What’s to stop me going ahead with all this and then burning your empire to the ground?”
“You forget who I am, young one. Remember, just because we are blood, does not make us family. I won’t hesitate to use yours against you. I might start with Noah, maybe your father, Harrison, or your best friend, Tully. Trust me, if you make this deal and decide to find your sister, then it’s in your best interests to play by my rules.”
“And what if I take the deal and you can’t find her?”
“Then you’re as free as a bird knowing that you did everything you could to save her.”
I let out a shaky breath. Her freedom or mine?
I don’t hesitate for a second. “Deal.”
Chapter 4
The second I pull into my driveway Noah comes tearing out the front door with a crazed look in his eyes. He’s not happy and he sure as hell has a right to feel that way.
What the hell have I done?
I sold my soul to the devil just as Noah had all those years ago. If anyone is going to want to tear me apart over the decision I just made, it’s going to be him. How am I supposed to tell him? He’s going to be shattered. We’d only just rid ourselves of Anton’s darkness and here we are again.
Dread sinks heavy into my stomach as Noah tears his way across the yard and barrels into the side of my car. I hardly have a chance to cut the engine before he’s ripping my door open and grabbing me with both hands. “Where the fuck have you been?” he demands, getting down in my face. “It’s three in the morning. Do you have any idea how scared I was for you? You could have been laying in a fucking gutter somewhere for all I knew. What the hell is so hard about answering your damn phone?”
My soul shatters and the sobs come tearing out of me in heav
y waves. The anger on Noah’s face instantly falls away. “What happened?” he demands, shaking my shoulders as the horror begins to seep into his features. “What did you do?”
I shake my head, unable to even comprehend the past hour or what it means for my life moving forward, as long as Ari is found safe, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. “I’m sorry,” I cry, falling into him. “I had to. I had no choice.”
“Spitfire,” Noah murmurs, dropping to his knee in the doorway of my car as he pulls me back to get a look at my face. “Tell me you didn’t. Tell me you didn’t go to Anton.”
I meet his stormy green eyes to find them pleading, begging for me to say anything except what he’s fearing will come out of my mouth. Tears fall down my cheeks, dropping into my lap before Noah rubs his thumbs across my face, trying to take my pain away. “I had to,” I whisper, repeating myself. “I had to.”
Noah falls back, staring up at me still sitting in my car as though I’m some kind of stranger “I told you I would find her,” he tells me. “You had options. So many fucking options. You should never have gone to him, Henley.”
I climb out of my car and drop down into his lap, ignoring the way the wind whips against my skin, freezing me from the inside out and sending my hair flying up around me. “I didn’t have a choice,” I tell him, searching his eyes. “You know it just as well as I do. Anton is my only option. You can search for her as much as you like but we all know you’ll never find her. She’s not a lost puppy wandering the streets looking for food. She’s my little sister who has been taken away. They could be anywhere, way out of our reach and we’ll be wasting time searching here. She needs me now more than ever and I did what I had to do to get her back.”
“Henley,” he groans.
“No,” I demand. “Anton will get her back and you know it just as well as I do. He has the reach and the means to do impossible things. You know it, Noah. I know you do.”
Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6) Page 3