by M. Robinson
Harley?
I gazed up toward her voice and saw them sitting on the roof of the house. Despite the distance between us, I saw her wrap her arm around him, and to both of our surprise, he let her.
“I’m sorry your dad hit you, but you know he didn’t mean it. He loves you. He’s just hurting because of your mom.”
“I don’t want to talk, Harley.”
“Okay. We can just sit here and look at the sky.”
“I’d like that,” he replied, leaning into her embrace.
“Trust me, I’m as shocked as you are,” Skyler announced, making me jump and bump my head on the window sill.
“Ow!” I grabbed my head, turning around to face her.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Good thing I already have some ice.” I shut the window to give them and us some privacy. “Do you have a sixth sense or something?”
She lightly chuckled, “Hardly. Noah had planned a surprise anniversary party for me, and Jackson wasn’t feeling well, so he took an Uber home early.”
“With Harley? Did she? Was she—”
“No. Aiden called me about an hour ago. Harley overheard me telling Noah we needed to go, then all hell broke loose, and he hit Jackson. She came with us.”
“I’m so sorry you had to leave your party.”
“It’s alright, Aiden is family. Noah’s with him now.”
“Where are they?”
“In the garage.”
I nodded. “I should go.”
“Are you coming back?”
“I don’t… I mean… I don’t know.”
“Please come back. We all need you.”
“Journey called me Ma, Skyler.”
She sighed, taken back. “Oh man. Is that what set Aiden off?”
“Did you know he was coming home?”
She shook her head. “No. Not at all. Noah said he was thinking about stopping in at the party, knowing how much it would mean to us. Had I known he was coming home, I would have told you, Camila. What happened? How did this all start?”
Ashamed, I admitted, “He caught me watching their wedding video.”
Her eyes widened.
“Yeah. But I didn’t mean to. It was in the Beauty and the Beast case, and once I realized what it actually was… I couldn’t stop myself from watching it. I knew it was wrong, I still know it was wrong.”
“Everyone makes mistakes. I’m sure Aiden feels like shit for going off on you.”
“I think it’s best I leave.”
“Okay, let me drive you home at least, alright?”
“You don’t have to do that. I can catch the bus.”
“Camila, it’s past eleven. It’s too danger—”
I blurted out without thinking, “You should see where I live if you think the bus is too dangerous.”
“What?” She frowned.
“I’m probably going to stop in at my friend Danté’s club. I feel like I need a really tall drink,” I laughed, trying to play it off and change the subject.
“I’ll go with you. I can watch you drink.” She grabbed her swollen belly. “And be your designated driver.”
“Then you’d have to drive back, and I wouldn’t feel right about that. Someone needs to be here for Journey.”
She frowned again, knowing I was right. “How far do you live—” She stopped herself. “What’s the name of your friend’s club? So at least if something happens to you, I know what to tell the search party. I’m not Liam Neeson, I won’t find you,” she laughed, wanting to lighten up the heavy mood.
“You’re just as bad as my mom.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“The name of the club is Havana.”
After we reached the front door, she added, “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“I don’t have a phone. It’s broken.”
“How did you break your phone?”
I shrugged, not wanting to tell her Aiden broke it.
“How about you take the SUV?”
“Skyler, I’m not taking their car.”
“But what if I never see you again? Seriously, I have a really bad feeling. Just take the car.”
“I’ll call you when I get back to my apartment from the landline, okay?”
She reluctantly nodded, wrote her number down on a piece of paper, and handed it to me.
I smiled. “Thank you for everything.”
“Why do I feel like you’re saying goodbye?”
I simply hugged her and left.
Feeling like I was…
Saying goodbye.
Chapter 3
<>Camila<>
Music bumping.
Lights flashing.
Illuminating the room filled to the brim with people.
I walked into Danté’s club just after one o’clock in the morning needing to escape, to forget, to get away from it all. My mind couldn’t process what had just happened, how my world was turned upside down in a matter of a few hours. It was a tsunami of emotions, of questions with not enough answers.
Of where we went from here…
I never expected what had occurred tonight. From watching their wedding video, to meeting Dr. Pierce, to the epic explosion that followed. Especially Jackson walking in on us fighting and going to bat for me as if we’d been best friends this whole time, and not archenemies. I didn’t know what to think, what to feel, what to expect from this point forward.
My thoughts were spinning, and all I wanted was to turn them off as I tore through the crowd of people looking for Danté. Knowing he would provide exactly that.
I knocked on his office door before opening it. “Danté!”
“Oh, hey, Camila,” the general manager Felix announced, catching me off guard. He took one look at me and added, “You alright?”
“No.” I shook my head, trying to keep my shit together when all I wanted to do was fall apart. “Not at all. Is Danté around?”
“No, honey, he’s not. What’s going on?”
“Everything.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah.”
“He left for the night. Want me to call him?”
“No, yes… ugh… I don’t know. Where did he go?”
“He’s with Roy.”
Roy was Danté’s new flavor of the month.
“No. Don’t interrupt him.”
“You sure?”
I shrugged.
“Anything I can do?”
I shrugged again.
“Anything Jack, Jose, Jameson, or Jager can help with?”
As soon as he said the name Jager, I flinched.
“Oh, gurl, you got man problems.”
“I have everything problems.”
He gestured for me to follow him. “Let’s go. Nothing a little somethin’ somethin’ one of my J’s can’t solve.”
I was never one to take my problems out on a bottle but with the way I was feeling, I couldn’t have said no for the life of me. And for the first time, I honestly didn’t want to. I welcomed the sting for one night, anything other than what was already dragging me under.
Felix lined up a row of whiskey shots across the bar before handing me one.
“Now I know you don’t drink, bu—”
I clinked his glass with mine and took it down in one huge ass gulp. “Ugh!” I breathed out, feeling the burn of the booze in my throat, my chest, my empty stomach. Desperately trying to block out the memories of tonight.
Without words, he was showing me the deepest part of him.
His oldest wounds.
His jagged scars.
His regrets.
His life...
And the damage it all left behind.
Without thinking twice about it, I swiftly downed another shot.
Through a clenched jaw, he gritted, “Do you not know your place in this house?”
“I’m-I’m-I’m—”
“You are nothing but a glorified babysitter who does a shitty fuckin�
�� job cooking and cleaning my home.”
I closed my eyes for a second, fervently shaking it off.
He got right up in my face again, snarling in a menacing tone, “You’re fired! Now get the fuck out!”
I reached for another shot and swallowed it whole.
“Ma! Ma! Ma!”
“She’s going to make herself sick if someone doesn’t go to her! You want to make me the villain, then go pick up your daughter! Because she needs you more than she needs me!”
Two more shots, one right after the other.
“Ma! Ma! Ma!”
“This is what you wanted all along, isn’t it?! To take my family from me!”
“That’s absurd! I’m just trying to help and you’re doing the exact opposite of that right now!”
“Ugh!” Shoving away another memory, I reached for another shot.
“Oh, fuck…” Felix rasped with wide eyes, grabbing ahold of my arm. “If I let you drink that sixth shot, Danté’s going to kick my ass.”
“Ma! Ma! Ma!”
“She’s not your mother!”
“She’s the only mother Journey’s ever known!”
Even though Felix was talking to me, all I saw was Jackson getting backhanded across the face by his father. Making me abruptly pull my arm away to chug it right the fuck down.
The smell of Aiden, his voice, his dominating demeanor over me, suddenly knocked me on my ass as if he was there with me. I felt him everywhere, his looming presence caving me in.
Where all I could feel…
All I could see…
All I could hear…
Was him.
“Goddamn it.” I stood, swaying a bit. “Dancing, dancing would make me forget.”
“Camila—”
I slurred something along those lines and made my way toward the dance floor. My body suddenly held captive by the beat of the song. “Cure” by Tube and Berger blared through the speakers, searing its way into my soul.
Music always had the power to take away my pain. When words failed, music spoke volumes.
Once I was standing right up on the loud bass, it vibrated against my core, my very being, where all that was left was the rhythm to be one with the music.
I shut my eyes and allowed it to take over. I swayed my hips and made love to the music. My hands slowly worked their way up my waist to my head, running my fingers seductively through my hair as I lifted it up off my glistening neck. Rocking my hips back and forth, I wasn’t dancing for anyone but myself. Remembering how my body reacted to sensing Aiden for the first time in his hospital.
How there was a strong shift in the air, the space, the energy all around me. The resilient force steering me, guiding me was what I allowed to once again consume me.
It was happening all over again, every inch of my skin stirred with an awakening I’d only experienced with him.
My breathing tethered…
My pulse accelerated…
My heart started pounding out of my chest.
Slowly, I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. Getting lost in the overwhelming emotions, the immediate connection I felt to him.
When almost instantly, I was engulfed in another familiar, husky, masculine scent that drove all my nerve endings to set on fire. I backed up into him, just wanting to forget about the man that wasn’t mine to remember.
I felt his lips effortlessly glide along the nook of my neck, and I gradually tilted my head. Leaning away to allow him more access to make me forget.
“You fuckin’ the music while thinkin’ ‘bout me, baby?”
Not meeting Sean’s eyes, I moved my hips against his. He took my silent plea and he started swaying his ass in pace with mine. We’d done this sinful dance hundreds of times, but like everything else that night, it was much different.
“You’re nothing like the man I thought you were. My hero, my father, my best fucking friend…”
Sean wrapped his strong arm around my waist, tugging me closer to him. Close enough to where there was nothing in between us, only the friction of our reckless movements. My mind screamed for me to stop, to not allow this to go any further, but my body…
My heart…
It was so broken, so hurt, so undeniably exhausted.
“How’s it feel to turn out to be a piece of shit like them? Huh? How’s it feel to lose everything you worked so hard for?”
It seemed like hours went by, and for the first time in I don’t know how long, I sought comfort in his arms. When all I wanted was to seek refuge in the man who kicked me the fuck out of his house.
“You’re not my mother,” Jackson snidely replied, glaring solely at his father. “She’s gone, and she’s not coming back.”
Where was she?
Where was Bailey?
I shook away the thought, dancing slowly, sexually, sensually in sync with Sean. Our bodies recalling the feel of one another, as if no time had passed between us.
The devastation.
The torment.
The memories of tonight.
“Do you understand me? I don’t give one flying fuck about you! To hell with you! You’re nothing but a sorry excuse of a man who abandoned his kids when they needed him the most!”
I was dazed.
Confused.
Living in the moment with the wrong man who hurt me more times than I cared to remember. No words were needed as he caged me to the wall in the back of the club, easily turning me to face him. I kept my eyes closed, knowing if I opened them it wouldn’t be the man I wanted looking at me that way.
“You have to stop. Your mom wouldn’t have wanted this. No mother would.”
“Goddamn it! Just make it go away! Please, just make it go away!”
“Shhh… baby, calm down. Your man’s here.” He pulled the hair away from my face, replacing it with his lips against my cheek. “Make what go away? Hmm… what can I do for my queen?”
The smell of his cologne was intoxicating, luring me in with the strum of the tune still blaring around us.
“God, I fuckin’ missed you, baby.” He gripped onto my ass, thrusting his hard dick against me. All while I imagined it was someone else.
It was so wrong, so fucking wrong who I was dreaming of, though it didn’t stop me. If anything, it made it easier, thinking it was him.
Aiden.
Dr. Pierce.
The man who’d been haunting my thoughts.
“Don’t,” he simply stated, like he knew what I was thinking.
I moaned, his mouth now close to mine. Inches, centimeters, seconds from touching each other. Wearing my emotions on my sleeve, he read me like a book.
“You’re my queen, you’ll always be my queen,” he rasped, his lips almost kissing me.
“Just make it all go away! Make me forget! I just want to forget!” I shouted over the memories relentlessly playing out in my head.
The room began to spin, and my breathing faltered. I felt like my body was collapsing in on itself and being ripped open all at the same time, so out of control.
Except, it wasn’t my mind this time. It was actually happening. My back hit the wall with a hard thud, I whimpered instantly opening my eyes. Blinking away the haze.
“Get the fuck off her!”
My eyes widened, my heart sank, and my vision became clear as fuck.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t speak.
I couldn’t tear my eyes off the scene unfolding in front of me.
I watched the man I least expected rip Sean away from me by the back of his leather jacket. Sean didn’t falter, not hesitating for one second, he reached into the back of his jeans.
I screamed, “No!” Hoping he would hear me over the loud beat and I wouldn’t have to witness Sean shooting…
Aiden.
Chapter 4
<>Aiden<>
To believe this all started with Noah roaring, “The fuck you doin’, man?” in my garage. Looking at me with so much disappointment in his eyes.
<
br /> “Back the fuck off, Noah,” I gritted, holding my pounding head between my hands, as I leaned against the hood of my car.
“You’re gonna lose your family, Aiden. Mark my fuckin’ words, get your shit together or you’re gonna no longer have your boy. I grew up wit’ a selfish fuck who beat the shit out of me, yeah?”
“I know.”
“Bailey wouldn’t have wanted this. You fuckin’ know that.”
I seethed, “For fucks sake, Noah!” Locking eyes with him. “Don’t you think I know? I dwell on it day and night! What Bailey wanted! What she needed! How I fuckin’ lost her! Don’t you stand there and tell me what my wife—”
“Aiden!” Skyler reprimanded, bringing our attention to her as she waddled into the garage. Slamming the door behind her.
“Cutie,” Noah warned, only eyeing her.
“Don’t Cutie me! I’m sick of this shit! And if you—” she sternly pointed at him “—won’t tell the man who is like your father what’s up, then I sure as hell will!” She glared back over at me. “I have been here in place of you, in place of her, and you know what? I’m starting to think it was the worst thing I could have offered, but I promised Bailey I would be here for you. So that’s what I did. Camila did not deserve the way you treated her… Oh my God, Aiden! I watched the nanny cam footage! How dare you talk to her like that?! That woman has put her life on hold to take care of your kids! Do you have any idea how much school she has missed? For you.”
“School?” I jerked back, confused.
“Oh, what a surprise,” Skyler sarcastically remarked. Throwing her hands up in the air, ready to pull out her hair. “You weren’t listening when I told you she was in nursing school? What else did you not listen to? Do you even comprehend how much of an asshole you are to everyone trying to help you?!”
“Cutie… reel it in, yeah?”
“No! I’m pregnant! I’m hungry! And I’m pissed at him!” She pointed at me now. “Did you know the last few months she’s been taking the bus here? I was sitting here thinking, ‘Oh it’s not a big deal, people take the bus all the time. Maybe she doesn’t like to drive.’ But tonight, I learn that not only does she live two hours away from your house, but when I Googled her address, she gave me on her resumé, I also find out she lives in one of the worst neighborhoods in the south side of town. Oh, and now she doesn’t even have a cellphone because you broke it! After you fired her and pretty much threw her out of your house on her ass!”
