by Sarah Bailey
“No matter what happens tonight, I don’t want to see you again afterwards. I’m not interested in a relationship with you. You’ve caused enough damage, so you’re going to stay away from us once we’re through, is that understood?”
There was silence for another long moment.
“I want you to hear me out first, Aiden. Hear what I have to say. If you still want me to stay away after that, I’ll respect your wishes.”
Aiden looked down at me. As much as I didn’t want Rick in our lives, I also knew we didn’t have the whole picture. I nodded at him.
“Fine.”
“See you tonight.”
He hung up without saying another word. Aiden slipped his phone back in his pocket.
“I don’t know what he expects. He’ll never be my father and nothing he can say will ever change that.”
“I know,” I said, stroking a hand down his arm.
“Time we got back to John.”
I nodded. Even though I didn’t want to see my cousin again. Not after he held a knife to my throat. I had to do this. I was going to be strong because after tonight, all of this would be over and we’d never have to deal with the shit my family was involved in ever again.
I wish I’d known what kind of revelations were coming.
Because each and every one of them destroyed something inside Aiden and me.
And the only hope we had left in the dust and ashes of the truth…
Was each other.
Chapter Twenty Two
Aiden
I held Ed by the scruff of his neck as we waited outside the large townhouse. Avery knew this place. She’d been here before. The place where Rick had his men take her. It was just one of Robert Bassington’s residences in the city. He had two in Mayfair alone. Fucking rich prick. He was going down with the rest of them. I’d fucking well make sure of it.
Ed’s hands were bound behind him, but he didn’t struggle. I think he’d accepted his fate. He didn’t try to talk to Avery or apologise to her for what he’d done. He’d just stared at her with remorse in his expression. I didn’t think he ever intended to kill her. Avery was right. Ed wasn’t a killer. He might have run the girls for Chuck since he was eighteen, but he hadn’t crossed the line into the darkness that we had.
I hadn’t lied to Avery. I didn’t want to be that man any longer. The one who killed. Being with her changed me. Gave me something to hold onto. Something to live for after so many years feeling nothing but hate. The violence I’d grown up with had shaped me in so many ways.
Avery taught me there were other ways to make people pay. She was pure. She was my salvation. And I loved her for it.
I looked over at her. She was tense next to me, her expression dark. I knew she remembered what she’d had to go through in this house. How she’d witnessed so much abuse. I couldn’t help but think about how she’d sobbed on my shoulder when she’d come home. How she’d needed me to take her pain away in the only way we knew how. How having her gone had broken something so deep inside me, it’d taken weeks for me to admit how much it had affected me.
In so many ways, seeing Avery in pain and torment had hurt me so much worse than having my mother ripped away from me. My love for my wife was all-encompassing. This beautiful raven haired twenty one year old girl beside me was my entire world. And I was hers. We’d never let each other go.
For a long time, I’d struggled to come to terms with the fact that I loved her more than I’d ever loved anyone. That she was the air I breathed into my lungs. The sun that burnt my skin. The rain which washed away everything. The earth upon which I laid my head.
I could never be the angel my mother really needed to save her, but I could be Avery’s. I was Avery’s. Her avenging angel. And whilst tonight we would enact our final battle and lay to rest my demons, the only person I was doing this for now was Avery.
My mother was gone. I’d accepted that. I couldn’t change it. It had been almost twenty two years and it was time I let go. The last piece of the puzzle was who’d killed her. I hoped that was the only thing I needed to put this behind me.
The door opened, revealing a bald headed man who Avery and I had both seen on the footage from her house. The man who’d taken her. Kurt.
“Good evening,” he said, stepping back.
I shoved Ed forward. Kurt had taken my fucking wife and helped Rick put cameras in her house. I held back from punching his fucking face in.
“I’ll take him,” Kurt continued.
“Good. Little fuck is getting on my fucking nerves.”
Kurt took Ed’s arm, handing him off to another man that stood in the hallway with him. I took Avery’s hand as Kurt indicated with his head that we should follow him.
“Wait, what are you going to do with me?” Ed asked.
“We’re under strict instructions to keep you under surveillance until Mr and Mrs Lockhart have finished speaking to my employer,” Kurt said. “Then they’ll decide what happens to you.”
Ed’s face went white as a sheet. I’d already told him we were making sure he got sent to prison for his part in the Daniels’ dirty business.
“You’re not going to hurt me, are you?”
Kurt looked at him like he was a fucking idiot.
“No.”
Kurt walked off down a long corridor. Avery and I followed. Her hand tightened in mine. We were both concerned about what Rick might tell us, but we had no choice. It was time for the truth to come out.
The room Kurt brought us into looked like a salon straight out of the fucking 1700s. Gilded furniture with floral patterned fabric covering the cushioned seats. Ornate wallpaper and paintings lined the walls. Avery was looking around with a confused expression, but I was staring at Rick seated in a highbacked armchair by the fire. He was wearing a three piece navy suit with brown brogues. He looked like a jumped up fuck yet again. I mean he had a fucking necktie and a handkerchief in his pocket.
Avery and I, by contrast, were in jeans and trainers with matching leather jackets on. We looked so out of place in this room but I didn’t care. We’d gone home to change whilst John had kept an eye on Ed in the car for us. I had to drop the bike back home anyway.
Kurt took our coats from us and indicated we should sit down on one of the uncomfortable looking sofas near Rick. I took Avery over to one of them and sat with her, feeling like I was about to have high fucking tea in some posh rich fuck’s house.
Kurt shut the door behind him, leaving the three of us alone.
“Scotch?” Rick asked, indicating the decanter on the side table next to him.
“No thanks.”
I wasn’t going to have a drink tonight. I wanted a clear head. Rick poured himself a glass and sat back, twirling the amber liquid in the glass.
“Has to be said, the Scots do make damn fine whisky.”
Avery and I were silent. Our entwined fingers were resting on my thigh as she sat right next to me, our bodies touching. I needed her to get through this evening. Her touch was the only thing grounding me. Stopping me from ripping Rick to pieces for everything he’d done.
Rick placed his glass back on the side table after he sipped at it. His dark eyes appraised me for a long moment.
“Most of what I am going to tell you is going to remain between these four walls. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” I replied.
I’d always known Rick was the one man I’d never destroy or take down. He had too much power and in all honesty, I didn’t really have it in me to kill my own father. Even though I’d killed my wife’s parents, that was before I’d known her. Before I’d come to love her more than life itself. If I could go back and spare her that pain, I would. No matter how much I hated Mitchell and Kathleen, I would spare Avery that because I loved her to fucking death.
“Good. Let me start at the beginning. You won’t want to hear this, but it’s important.”
My hand in Avery’s tightened. I real
ly didn’t want to hear about how he’d raped my mother, but I wasn’t going to stop him. As long as he told me the truth, I could get through this. I could do it because I needed to know everything. To finally understand what had happened to her and why.
“The day I set eyes on Lizzie was the day which changed everything. Before then, I hadn’t cared much what women Nick took. They were just playthings. Lizzie was different. She was special. There was something in her eyes. A darkness perhaps as if she’d lived a life full of pain and suffering. I suppose she had.”
He didn’t take his eyes off me. Avery shifted in her seat next to me. I looked over at her pained expression. This conversation was already making her uncomfortable, but I needed her here. I couldn’t fucking sit here and listen to all this shit without her.
“I realise it was wrong of me to want her. I was almost twice her age, but she was beautiful inside and out. Nick always allowed me first pick of the new girls. I didn’t want to share her with anyone, but, of course, I didn’t have a say in who she was with when I was back home.”
It was fucking wrong. She was a sixteen year old girl and he had no fucking business lusting after her. No fucking business at all.
“I was her first in every sense of the word. Y’all seem to think I’m a complete monster, but whilst I might have… forced her, I never hurt her or beat her into submission. That holds no interest for me, unlike my counterparts.”
My fist clenched at my side. Avery wrapped her free hand around my arm, leaning into me. I could feel her trembling, but I didn’t look at her again. All my focus was on the man who’d give me the fucking truth.
“Just fucking say it for what it is, you raped her,” I muttered.
Rick’s eyes flashed for a moment. He picked up his tumbler and took a long draw from it before placing the glass back down.
“You want me to admit I’m a rapist, fine. She never gave consent. Not once in all the years I knew her. The truth is not going to be easy for you to hear, Aiden. I never wanted to tell you like this, but there we have it.”
Nausea coiled in my stomach. I’d known he’d forced her, but to know that she never once wanted him, that was the worst thing he could’ve told me. Listening to him admit he raped her fucking gutted me. Fucking cunt. I had to lock down all my instincts to lunge at him. Only the fact that Avery was next to me, holding onto me and reminding me I’d agreed to sit here and listen to him kept me from losing my shit. I had to stay in control.
I felt her chin on my shoulder. I glanced over at her. Her doe eyes were wide with unshed tears. My heart was fucking shattering in my chest and I knew hers was too. She hurt for me.
Rick’s voice made me turn back to him.
“As I told you before, when we discovered she was with child, it was the best and worst moment of my life. I’ll repeat this for Avery’s benefit. Annabelle just discovered she was unable to conceive. The very next day, I received the phone call from Nick about Lizzie. She was refusing to give you up. He was furious. The whole thing was a mess and, in all honesty, I wanted her to keep you so I couldn’t find it in me to tell Nick to make her abort you.”
I wasn’t sure how to feel about knowing I was wanted by both of them. My mother called me her angel. The only good thing in her life and now I could see why.
“I wanted to bring Lizzie to the US, but I couldn’t. Not with Annabelle to think of. So, I paid for her instead. Just to make sure Nick wouldn’t cast her out on the streets. I wish now I’d taken her away from him completely, but Nick and I were still close and I trusted him.”
A sick feeling dug its way into my stomach. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any more of what Rick had to say. Not if it was going the way I thought it might be. Fuck. What the hell was Avery going to think when she learnt the truth? I looked over at her again. She was in tears now. They fell down her face, making tear tracks in her makeup.
I felt the urge to comfort her, but my limbs stayed locked in place. I was so close to losing my shit and I could not afford to take any of it out on her. The person I was angry with was Rick. Rick and her family.
I think she knew from my expression I was struggling. She let go of my hand and tugged my arm around her instead, resting her face on my chest as she wrapped both her arms around my waist. She held me to her as she cried on my jumper.
“I’m here,” she whispered. “I’ve got you.”
Fuck. I’d said that to her so many times when she was falling apart. Now she was the one holding me up. Keeping me from drowning. I curled my hand around her waist, keeping her pressed against my side as I turned back to Rick.
“Go on,” I said, my voice hoarse.
“I was there the day you were born. Lizzie didn’t really want me there, but she couldn’t stop me. The midwife placed you in my arms and I was lost. Even now when I look at you, I still remember that day as clearly as if it was yesterday. I regret much in my life but having you is not one of those things even if I never got to raise you as my son.”
I didn’t want to hear this shit from him. I didn’t care about his feelings. Fuck. I wanted him to hurry up and tell me who the fuck killed my mother. Why she even had to die.
I reached up with my free hand and stroked Avery’s hair. She was still crying silently on me and I couldn’t fucking do a thing to stop it. Fuck. This was bringing up too many painful emotions for both of us. My heart burnt. My chest felt tight. My head started to pound, but I couldn’t walk out of here.
“As you started to grow, I tried to see you and Lizzie as much as I could, but work kept me away from the UK. When I learnt that Mitchell had taken an interest in her, I wasn’t happy. I knew what he liked to do to women. There was nothing I could do because Nick didn’t know, at least not at first. Mitchell kept his tracks well covered. He had taken over running the girls so there was no reason for Nick to know.”
Avery trembled next to me. I was sure she didn’t want to hear that shit about her father.
“It was only when Nick found out, that everything was ruined. I was at home, so I only heard about it afterwards. It was too late for me to save her even though I knew she was in danger. I knew Mitchell could only keep it a secret for so long.”
I clutched Avery tighter, pushing her face into my chest as she could no longer hold back her sobs.
“Shh, shh, princess,” I murmured.
I knew what was coming. I fucking knew it and it killed me all the same. Broke something so fucking deep inside me.
“The man you saw slit her throat… that wasn’t Mitchell. It was Nick. He murdered her.”
I swallowed back bile rising in my throat. Avery let out an agonising gasp of abject horror. That was why I recognised his voice. Nick sounded very much like Mitchell. Hell, they’d even looked like carbon fucking copies of each other except Nick was obviously older.
“Why?” I choked out.
“He saw her as the reason Mitchell wasn’t focused on anything. That she was tearing apart his family and he hated my interference in his business because of you. So when Tina called me and told me what happened and that she’d taken you, I told her to keep you safe so Nick wouldn’t come after you too.”
“Then what happened?” I forced myself to ask.
“He covered it up. He wouldn’t tell me how they got rid of her body or what they did with her, but no one would care if a girl who’d run away from her foster home died. Not really.”
The memory of that day slammed into me, reminding me of how I’d watched him slit her throat. How I’d cried out her name when he left and watched her bleed to death. It tore me to shreds. I couldn’t breathe properly.
Avery’s tears had left a damp patch on my jumper which had seeped into my t-shirt, but I hardly noticed. I held her, trying to fight against the waves of emotions crashing over me. Absolute despair wracked through my body, like shards of glass digging into my skin.
“Do I need to give you two a moment?” Rick asked.
“Is there m
ore?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me the rest.”
I needed this to be over. I couldn’t stand having to wait to hear what else he had to say, but what the fuck could it possibly be?
“I wanted to destroy him for what he’d done. Killing the mother of my son wasn’t acceptable. We’d been friends for so long, but that day was the beginning of the end. He knew how I felt about Lizzie. I loved her in my own way.”
He paused, taking another sip of whisky before continuing.
“It was only when Tina told me about the trouble she was having with you. The violent outbursts and your refusal to get help that I knew if you found out what happened to Lizzie, you’d want to avenge her. It took me years to exact my own revenge on Nick. I still am even though he’s dead. You see, this is the final nail in the coffin, but we’ll get to that later.”
I didn’t know what the fuck he meant by that but I wished he would fucking well hurry up. Avery was sobbing in earnest on my chest and I didn’t know how much more she could take. Hell, I didn’t know how much more I could at this rate.
“Everyone thinks Nick died of natural causes. It’s true he had lung cancer, but I wasn’t satisfied with him dying that way. I was there the night he passed away. I told him exactly what was going to happen. He was so weak by that stage; he couldn’t do anything to stop me. I told him what I thought you would do when you learnt about Mitchell, that you would stop at nothing to destroy his entire family. And that I would ultimately help you do so. I’d make sure you had the final pieces of evidence which would see everyone involved in his operation burn. He tried to reason with me, but I told him he betrayed me when he killed Lizzie. I couldn’t forgive him for it.
“And then I placed a pillow over his face and suffocated him. I paid the coroner to say he died of natural causes. It was simple really. Some people will do anything for money. There was no need for a post mortem because of his cancer. No one suspected anything. It was terminal, they all knew he would die.”
Avery pulled away from me abruptly. Her makeup was streaked across her face and had probably got all over my jumper. Her eyes were bloodshot and she looked completely shell-shocked. She turned to Rick; doe eyes wide with sadness.
