by Sage, Aubrey
I thought I was going to die.
Suddenly, a pair of strong hands grabbed onto me, and I felt myself being pulled out of the water. Mitch lifted me up to the surface so I could breathe, and then carried me back on to the sand. He laid me down and stuck his hand under my head as I coughed.
“Let it out,” he ordered. “Let it out!”
I coughed again, finding my breathing incredibly difficult, and then with another cough, a surge of water came rushing from my lungs and out of my nose and mouth. I took a few deep breaths of fresh air, and emotion overtook me. Tears started streaming down my face, and I sniffled, realizing how close I had been to death.
“When are you going to start listening to me?!” Mitch scolded loudly. “I try so hard to take care of you, but you won’t let me!”
I sniffed and blinked more tears from my eyes. “I’m sorry Mitch. I’m so sorry.”
“Do you know what I would do if I lost you?! Do you have any idea?!” He stared straight down at me, his hair slack and dripping water, a mix of anger and terror etched across his face.
I looked deep into his ocean colored eyes, and I felt like I was staring into a portal to his soul. He really cared about me. He cared about me more than I ever knew.
The lines on his face smoothed, and his voice softened. “I don’t want to lose you, Annie.”
It felt like slow motion as I watched his body descend closer to mine. My heart raced, and my legs tingled with anticipation, and before I knew it, his lips were pressed up against mine. My body trembled, and I whimpered when our mouths touched for the first time. In a split second, I had forgotten that I had almost drowned, and the only thing I could think about was him.
My stepbrother.
Mitch.
The Wrecker.
The man of my dreams.
The one guy who I was oh-so attracted to, but disregarded because I knew I could never have him.
I couldn’t believe that he was kissing me, and it was the most earth-shattering kiss that I had ever experienced. Not that I had kissed a lot of guys, but it wasn’t like Raymond, not like the forceful, sloppy-drunk kisses I had at the club. Mitch’s kiss was soft and passionate. It spoke to me without saying words.
My hands instinctively reached up and touched him on the head, pulling him closer to me, begging him for more. I felt his lips part slightly and I ran my tongue against the edge of his soft, wet lips, then tested slipping it inside. I could taste him. For a moment, I could taste Mitch, and then a moment later he was gone.
Mitch pulled away and tilted his head down, eyes closed, hands on his forehead.
I wanted to ask him what’s wrong or ask him to come back and finish the kiss, but I was so overwhelmed and confused that I just stared at him, wondering what was going on.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what came over me.”
“No, it’s okay…” I mumbled and reached my hand out to touch him.
He pulled away and stood up, simultaneously sticking his hand in the sand and slinging it into the sky as he rose. “No, it’s not okay.” He turned away and looked out into the ocean.
“But–”
“But what, Annie?” he interrupted. “You’re my sister.”
I sat myself up in the sand and slowly brought myself up to stand. “I…” I began. I didn’t know what to say, but I just wanted to say something. “I want you to be happy, Mitch.”
Mitch sighed loudly. “You would make me happy, Annie. You really would. I mean, you already make me happy. But if I hurt you, or if I tear this family apart, how long will that happiness last?”
“Hurt me? Why would you hurt me?”
Mitch turned around and put his hand on my shoulders, staring directly into my eyes. His voice was husky. “I hurt people. When I play football, I hurt people. When I meet girls, I hurt people. I don’t want to hurt you because I love you too much.”
I swallowed hard. Mitch had told me that he loved me lots of times, but the way he said it there, on the beach, felt different. He said it in the way that a man loves a woman, not the way a brother loves a sister.
“Come on,” he motioned with his head. “I told Mom and Dad that I’d get you home early. I hope you can forgive and forget what happened tonight.”
I nodded and began following him back to the street to catch a taxi. More than anything I just wanted to scream. I wanted to tell him that it was going to be okay and quit acting weird, but deep down inside I knew at least part of what he said was right. He was my brother. I wasn’t sure how Mom and Dad would react if they ever thought that Mitch and I had something going on, but my conscience told me that it would be a disaster.
Chapter 25
What the fuck had I done? The whole plane ride back to LA, I couldn’t get my mind off the fact that I kissed Annie on the beach.
The moment I saw her get sucked under the water, I dropped our shoes to the ground and jumped inside to rescue her. It was dark and impossible to see under the water, so I was lucky that the waves hadn’t pulled her too far from the location she went down.
My heart was pounding out of my chest, and for a moment, I thought that I lost her. I looked down at her fragile body lying in the sand, her white tee soaking wet, clinging to her large breasts, her face exhausted but still beautiful. When I saw that she was still alive, I wanted to pull her as close as possible, to let her know how much I cared. It was a moment of weakness, a moment of emotional instability.
I went too far.
Even worse, Annie seemed okay with it. She kissed me back, and the moment I felt her delicate tongue touch against mine, my loins began to burn. I pulled away to prevent myself from going further than what I did, but the damage had already been done. Somewhere deep inside my soul I knew that I cared for Annie as more than just a sister, but that kiss brought those feelings to life.
The plane landed at Los Angeles International airport and the team all shuffled off towards the baggage claim. As soon as my phone got reception again, it started buzzing and showed 3 missed calls during the plane ride. I didn’t recognize the number, so I figured that someone had misdialed or perhaps it was an old fling who’s contact information I had deleted.
Most of the other players were taking the school’s team bus back to campus, but I had hired a private driver to take me back to my house. I recognized the driver immediately as I exited the main of the airport–an old Indian who had drove me several times, yet still held up a sign that said “Mitch,” to make sure I didn’t miss him.
I hopped inside his Lincoln Town car and told him to take me home, and right as we started off, my phone began to ring again. It was the same number that had called several times before.
I picked up. “Hello?”
“Yes, may I speak to Mitch Ryker, please?”
“This is Mitch.”
“Hi Mitch. This is Carl Sandberg from Ameristock. I’m just calling because you currently have a margin call on your account of 1.5 million dollars.”
“Margin call? I think you’ve made a mistake. Last I checked I had over 8 million in my brokerage account.”
“Yes, that seems to be the case, but I show that you’re short on some very volatile stocks. Have you seen the news? The last two days have seen record breaking gains in the both the NYSE and the NASDAQ, and one of the stocks you’re short in particular, Indigo Medical, just received a patent for a new drug which shot the stock up over 1200%. Now your account is underwater.”
I was shocked and had no idea what to say. “So what happens now? What if the stock goes back down?”
“Usually we give about a week to fill margin calls, but since this is such a large sum, we’re only going to be able to keep you invested for 3 days unless the margin is filled. If not, your holdings will be liquidated, and your account will be sent to collections.”
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” I said. I tried to hide the distress in my voice. If I told him that I kept nearly all of my money in stock
s and that I only had a million left over in the bank, I’m not sure what he would’ve done. I was at least $500, 000 in the hole from what he was saying, so 3 days would give me some time for the stock to fluctuate.
I clicked the phone off and considered if it was some sort of prank, but when I checked the ticker symbol of Indigo Medical, sure enough it had risen 1200% overnight. It was one of my biggest holdings, so it would absolutely destroy my brokerage account. It had to be the work of him, I thought. How easy investing seemed when he was on my side, and how quickly things turned when I refused to do what he said.
I cursed under my breath and considered my options. There was a chance that stocks could retract, but it was also possible that they could get worse. My mansion was worth at least 3 million dollars, so if worse came to worse, I could sell the house and downsize myself a little bit.
The taxi rounded the corner to my house, and I could already sense that something else was wrong. A police car was parked near the end of my driveway, and there were rarely police that patrolled the neighborhood. We continued up the driveway, and when I could see the mansion, my stomach sank. 4 additional police cars were parked right out front with their lights blaring and officers were interviewing my assistant, Valerie, who was standing with slumped shoulders and her arms cross. The door to my house was wide open and all around the driveway was wet.
The driver parked, and I handed him a tip as quickly as possible before I jumped out and stormed towards Valerie and the officers. “What’s going on here?” I questioned.
“Mitch…” Valerie mumbled. “I am so so sorry.” Valerie was a petite woman with a bowl cut haircut and a weather-beaten face. I hired her primarily because I wasn’t attracted to her and knew that there would be little chance I’d mix work with sex with her on my team. The other reason was because she was a strong woman, but at that moment she didn’t look strong at all.
“There’s been a break-in,” the officer in front of Valerie said.
“What?”
Valerie explained, “I guess one of the contractors that I hired left the front door open after they finished the work. There was no sign that anyone broke through the door, but everything is destroyed.”
“What do you mean everything is destroyed?” I was in a state of disbelief.
“They went through the house and ransacked everything, turned all the facets on and flooded the whole house,” the officer added.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I just got here 5 minutes ago to check on the work of the contractors. I called the police first. I was going to call you, just everything happened so fast.”
I pulled my eyes away from Valerie and stormed to the front door. The flower garden beside the steps was a puddle of mud and there was still water dripping out of the doorway. When I passed through the entrance, I was stunned. All of my furniture was flipped over, and the upholstery was ripped to shreds. The glass vases and other decorations scattered throughout were all shattered. I must have spent over one hundred thousand dollars on fine art paintings, and they were all off the walls, laying in the pool of water that was on the floor, wet paint creating a mosaic of destruction.
Room by room I explored my house, and every room was the same, every floor. Even my computer equipment and security cameras were destroyed. Everything. Right at that moment, a realization hit me, and I ran to the garage to check on my cars.
The Ferrari, the BMW, the Mercedes, and my truck were all fucked. The tires had been flattened, the windows were busted out, and the seats had been torn to shreds the same as the furniture in my house. I opened the door to the Ferrari, sat in ruined drivers seat and tried to start the engine. Nothing. I got out, flipped open the engine compartment, and I could see that all the hoses and tubes had been yanked out of their proper places as well.
It was overwhelming, and it took all of my willpower to not have breakdown right there. I returned to the driver’s seat to take a moment to collect myself, punched the wheel of the Ferrari, and it let out a honking sound.
At least the horn still worked.
“Mitch,” came a voice.
I looked up and Valerie was standing there. “The police want to speak with you.”
I got out of the car and headed back outside where the police asked me a bunch of random questions as they filled out their report. Things like “Do you know who could have done this? If I had told them who I thought was responsible–him–they would think I was crazy.
When the police left, Valerie approached me again. “I feel like this is all my fault. I should have stayed with the contractors and made sure they locked up properly.
“No, its not your fault, Val. I have a feeling that there’s nothing you could’ve done to prevent this.” I let out a big sigh. “Hopefully, my insurance will cover it.”
Valerie gulped. “Yeah, about that. I’m not sure myself, but the police were saying that some insurance doesn’t cover vandalism and some doesn’t cover flooding, especially here in California. With both the water and the vandalism, there is a good likelihood that they don’t cover one or the other and will try to fight against your claim. I just want to warn you in case that actually happened.”
“Oh, fuck me,” I muttered. “I’ll call them now and start the process. Judging by the luck I’m having lately, that’s probably going to be the case.”
Chapter 26
After Valerie left, I returned to the house and began sweeping out as much water that was pooled on the floor as possible. I flipped a few piece of key furniture upright, a sofa, a bed, a table, and I covered the upholstery of those pieces with sheets. I opened all the windows and turned on the ceiling fans that were surprisingly still working.
I plopped myself down on the couch and put my face in my hands. “Why are you doing this?” I asked as I shook my head from side to side. I tilted my head up and yelled this time, “Why!?”
I stood up out of sofa, picked up a broken chair and tossed it towards the wall, where it splintered into pieces and fell to the ground with a thud. “Why aren’t you answering now? Come on motherfucker! I know you can hear me! Answer me! Why are you doing this!?”
There was no response.
I sat down and let out a sigh before a voice finally came.
“We had a deal, Mitch.”
I jolted up in my chair. “Yeah, we had a deal. I’m supposed to break every girl’s fucking heart, but you never told me it also involved family!”
“I never said it didn’t.”
I pressed my thumb and my index finger to my temple and I could feel tears starting to swell in my eyes. “Why? Why do you have to be such an evil fuckin’ bastard?”
“I gave you a second chance. And for everything I do good, there must be an evil. There must be balance in the world.”
“Fuck!” I yelled. “Why didn’t you bring down the plane on my way back here? You would’ve killed me the same as that day I almost crashed into the truck!”
“The truck driver was a sex offender, Mitch. I can’t bring down a whole plane full of good people just to teach you a lesson.”
“You’ve just got an answer for everything, don’t you?!” I screamed. I leaned back in my chair and tried to calm my nerves. “What can I do for you to set me free from this shit? I don’t need your help anymore. I’ll do things on my own, but I just want to be free. No more games.”
“Hmm… another deal you seek?”
“You want me to fuck my sister and tell her to fuck off, right?”
The voice laughed. “No, no, no… A quick fuck? That’s too easy. I will set you free, but only on one condition: Make a move on your sister, but make sure your parents know about your intermingling as well. Set the grounds for tearing your whole family apart.”
I gulped. That’s was what I was afraid of more than anything. Having a fling with Annie would be one thing, but if Mom and Dad found out, our family would never be the same. They’d never trust me again, and Annie’s wholesome image would be ruined.
> I struggled with the answer as I looked around my room and saw the destruction surrounding me. My whole world was crumbling, and if I lost my family as well, I’d be left with nothing at all.
“Fuck you!” I finally screamed.
Once again, the voice went silent.
Chapter 27
I sped down the highway in Mom and Dad’s old Subaru. When we got back to LA, I tried to call Mitch to make sure that he made it home okay, but he wasn’t answering his phone. I took it upon myself to borrow the family car and go check on him. I wouldn’t normally be so concerned about what Mitch was doing, but after the loss in Miami, I knew he wasn’t feeling too well. Not to mention the near drowning and most unforgettable kiss of my life.
He told me to forgive and forget, but I couldn’t get him out of my mind. In fact, I was a little bit angry that he would kiss me and walk away like that. I didn’t ask him to kiss me, but when he did it was magical. I know that he felt it too. Maybe we couldn’t realistically be together, but I needed closure. I couldn’t go back to just being his little sister without us talking it out.
I pulled up the driveway to Mitch’s mansion and immediately noticed that all the windows were open and part of the driveway was soaked. My initial thought was that perhaps his water heater burst, but even the windows on the top floor were open. How could all three floors have gotten flooded?
I parked the car and stepped out, adjusting my floral-print sundress as I cautiously headed towards the entrance. Several mud footprints were running back and forth towards the door, and when I knocked, I could see that the door was jarred open.
“Mitch?” I called out as I pushed the door open slowly.
Mitch was just standing up from his couch, now covered with a sheet, when he saw me step into view. He was wearing a pair of plain, stonewash jeans and a plain, black t-shirt. “Annie… What are you doing here?”
All around me there was destruction. It was as if someone bottled up a tornado and let it off in inside of Mitch’s house, then sprinkled a rain shower after all the damage was done. “You weren’t answering your phone. What happened here?”
