Pure Redemption (Tainted Legacy)

by Amity Hope

  Molly nodded. “She doesn’t know it, but I plan on meeting her after work. Yesterday I went with her and bought a day pass. I told her I just wasn’t ready to be alone. I sat out by the pool all day soaking up the sun and drinking mango smoothies but I didn’t think I could get away with that two days in a row. I think she knows something is up. She keeps trying to convince me to call Oliver but I keep telling her I’m just not ready. She hinted that I might be overreacting to the situation with him and Serena, which of course I am,” Molly said with an eye roll. “Which makes it really hard to carry on with this nonsense! But I’m doing it for her so I’ll keep up with it for as long as I have to.”

  Ava’s face crinkled with concern. “How are things with Oliver?”

  Molly sighed and Ava noticed how glossy her eyes became. “The sooner this is over, the better. At first, he thought I was joking about the texts. I’ve never been overly jealous so I completely blindsided him. When he realized I was serious, he freaked. He blocked Serena’s number and promised to never talk to her again. He sent flowers yesterday and he stopped by. Luckily my parents were at work so I just didn’t answer the door. I hope he forgives me for this.”

  “He will,” Ava said reassuringly. She meant it. Oliver obviously cared a lot about Molly and she was certain that he wasn’t going to get over her in a matter of days. Whether or not he’d get over the whole debacle that was created was an entirely different matter but Ava was sure Molly would be able to smooth things over. It might take her a while, but she was certain it could be done.

  “So,” Molly said hopefully, “one week?”

  “One week,” Ava agreed. “At least, that’s the timeframe Rafe gave Gabe. Although I think Gabe intends to end things a lot sooner than that.”

  “Does Gabe have any idea what he’s going to do?”

  Ava shifted uncomfortably under her friend’s scrutinizing gaze. Neither she nor Gabe had admitted it but she was certain they both knew there was only one way to stop Rafe. It was just a matter of when and how to do it discreetly.

  Putting an end to Azael had been one thing, he was elusive. He traveled extensively and as far as Gabe knew, never stayed anywhere long enough to make an impression. They agreed that once he was gone, Rafe had likely used his abilities to take care of any loose ends so that everything that was Azael’s became his.

  No questions asked.

  Ridding the world of Rafe would be trickier. He’d been in Granville, especially at the radio station, long enough that he would likely be missed. Gabe didn’t possess the same mystical abilities as his brother so covering their tracks this time would not be a simple thing. They had discussed none of this but Ava knew it was what they were both thinking and it would have to be discussed soon enough. Most likely, that evening and she became ill with fear every time she let the realization cross her mind.

  “Ava?” Molly pressed. She wore a grimace on her face.

  “I’m sorry Molly, but I think it’s best if you don’t know. Trust me, you don’t want to know,” she finally admitted as she picked at a loose thread on her friend’s comforter.

  Molly gave her a small nod, indicating she understood even as a terrified look flooded her face. “Be careful, Ava. Both of you.”

  “I will,” she assured her. “It’s Gabe I’m worried about. He thinks he needs to handle this on his own.” She paused. “I hate to say this, but I’m worried. In the past, he readily admitted he was no match for his brother.”

  “He outsmarted a demon, Ava. I’m sure he can outsmart his asshat of a brother,” Molly said with firm yet soft assurance. She sat on the bed next to her friend. “You two have been through so much already. This is not going to stop you.”

  Ava mustered up a smile. “You know what? You’re right. We’ve got a little bit of time to come up with something. Gabe’s smart. We dealt with his family once, we can do it again.” I just hope we don’t have to pay such a high price this time, she thought.

  Her phone vibrated in her pocket. It was a text from Gabe.

  “What?” Molly demanded when she saw the startled look on her friend’s face.

  “I think I have to go,” Ava said as she slid off the bed. “I’m supposed to meet Gabe right away at my parents’ house.”

  “Why?” Molly wondered.

  Ava blew out a breath. “I have no idea but I have a feeling it can’t be good.”

  She left with Molly’s assurance that she’d stick by Julia’s side that evening whether Julia liked it or not.

  ***

  Ava tried calling Gabe the moment she was in her car but it went straight to voicemail. Her first thought was that something horrible had happened to one of her parents. Had Rafe gone after them as well as Julia?

  She quickly rid herself of that notion. If something serious had happened, Gabe knew she was at Molly’s. He’d come and get her, tell her the bad news in person. Wouldn’t he?

  But then she glanced at the clock and started to worry all over again because it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. He should still be at work. Something big had to have happened for him to be missing work when he hadn’t even had the job a week yet.

  She had never been mad at Gabe before but she was mad now. How could he send her a text like that and then not answer his phone?

  Her heart was doing a chaotic dance in her chest by the time she arrived. Her dad’s car was parked in the driveway but Gabe’s motorcycle was not. She pulled up to the curb and rushed up the sidewalk.

  “Gabe?” she called as she burst through the door.

  “In here,” her dad called from the living room.

  She hurried through the foyer to find Gabe sitting on the couch, a sheepish look on his face and her dad pacing the room. His quick, frantic strides put Molly’s slow meandering to shame.

  “What’s wrong?” Ava demanded. “Is Mom okay?” she wondered, noting she was the only one missing.

  “Oh yes, yes,” her dad said, his voice a little too high, his face far too pasty. “She’s fine. For now.” He turned to Ava and his eyes looked frenzied.

  “Okay, so is someone going to tell me what’s going on? Gabe?” she asked as she turned to him. “Why aren’t you at work? Either of you?”

  “Uh, well…” Gabe started. Both his voice and expression were repentant.

  Daniel cleared his throat. “I decided to stop by the jobsite this morning. Just to see how things were going. But you know how clumsy I am,” he said grimly and Ava’s heart twisted.

  “What happened? Did someone get hurt?” Had her dad injured someone on the jobsite? Judging by the look on his face, he had. And badly.

  Gabe’s gaze bore into her apologetically but she had no idea what that could mean.

  “Gabe,” her dad said. “Gabe got hurt.”

  And instantly, she knew. She knew that her dad knew. He knew something was different about Gabe.

  “I tripped, knocked the ladder over and Gabe fell from the second story.” Daniel let out a pained breath as he raked his hand over what little he had left of his hair. “For a moment, I thought I’d killed him. It was two stories! He landed on the concrete patio apron.”

  “He just knocked the wind out of me,” Gabe quickly assured Ava.

  “Just knocked the wind out of him,” Daniel muttered. “Just knocked the wind out of him!” Then he turned to Ava, his eyes wide. “His arm, it was all twisted. It had to have been broken in multiple places. Shattered even.”

  Ava felt herself collapse next to Gabe. Her hand sought his and he gave her fingers a squeeze.

  “But before I could even call for help,” Daniel continued, “he was sitting up.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Gabe muttered. Ava knew that compared to other horrors he’d faced, a shattered arm truly wasn’t that bad.

  “And then…! And then…!” Daniel sputtered as his pacing came to an abrupt halt.

  “It fixed itself,” Ava softly supplied.

  “You do know!” Daniel exclaimed. His voice was a blend of surprise
and relief.

  Ava nodded, sneaking a look at Gabe.

  “I told him you knew but he was worried that I was lying,” he said with a small shrug. “Not that I blame him. Anyhow, that’s why he wanted me to get you over here right away. I didn’t, uh…” he threw a glance at Daniel. “I didn’t want to discuss anything without you. I thought this was something we needed to do together.”

  “Oh!” Daniel shot out. “You two have some explaining to do! I called your mom. She’s leaving work and should be here any minute.” Daniel went back to his pacing. “I shouldn’t have even been there! But we received a rather large anonymous donation not too long ago. It came directly to the church with a note asking us to use it however we saw fit. Of course, Helping Hands was in dire need of some income so we took a vote and applied the money to the cause.” Ava turned to Gabe again and he gave her a guilty shrug. Now she knew what he’d done with the rest of his money. She shook her head but couldn’t fight the small smile fighting its way onto her lips. “And the supplies just came in,” Daniel continued, speaking more to himself than anyone else. “I just wanted to let Mike know. Then I saw Gabe and thought I’d say hello. But my foot got tangled in an air compressor hose and I stumbled into the ladder.” He stopped pacing and turned to stare at Gabe’s arm.

  “Dad, it’s okay,” Ava tried to sooth him. Actually, she wasn’t so sure it was okay. Telling her friends was one thing. Telling her parents, completely another. But there was really no way around it. Not now. Ava quickly tried to convince herself this was a good thing. No more secrets. And yet, she had a nagging suspicion that her parents were not going to be able to handle this nearly as well as Molly.

  Daniel simply shook his head at Ava’s assurance and went to the window. He braced his hands on the frame and stared out into the front yard, watching for his wife’s car, Ava was sure.

  Gabe nudged her and gave her a questioning look. She tried to give him a confident look in return but she was sure she failed miserably. She wished they’d discussed how to handle this, should the situation arise. But neither of them ever thought it would come up like this. They had both assumed it would be on their terms, at a time of their choosing. If it ever came up at all. Now they were going to be forced to divulge everything without even having a chance to consider how best to handle it.

  Should they tell everything? Could they get away with saying as little as possible? What was as little as possible? Ava didn’t even know. She wished she could drag Gabe into the other room for a quick consultation but she knew her dad would be on their heels. Instead, she sat back and tried to think of a gentle way to tell them.

  It wasn’t long before she determined there wasn’t an easy way. This was going to be painful in more ways than one by the time they were done and she was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it. For the millionth time since his return, Ava was filled with relief that at least he was there with her. They could face this together. She leaned into him and he released her hand, choosing to wrap his arm around her instead.

  Daniel turned at the rustling sound of their movements. His mouth opened and closed a few times at the sight of them curled up together on his couch. As if, under these new bizarre circumstances he shouldn’t be allowing it but he seemed to think better of it and went back to gazing out the window.

  “There she is!” he finally announced as he saw Leah’s car creeping down the street. Her drive would’ve been much longer than Ava’s who was only coming from Molly’s a few miles away. Leah worked at a vet clinic over in Granville and even still, Ava was certain that her mother made good time.

  Minutes later Leah was in the house and Daniel was recounting for her everything he’d just admitted to Ava. At first, her expression was one of utter disbelief, sure that this was all a joke—and a bad one at that, for having pulled her out of work—but the look on her husband’s face was causing her some concern.

  “You’re telling me he fell from two stories up onto cement and he looks like that?” Leah asked as she motioned toward Gabe. The three of them gave her somber looks in return. “I’m sorry, but that’s just too much to believe.”

  “His arm was broken,” Daniel reminded her.

  “My leg, too,” Gabe muttered so quietly that Ava was the only one who heard him.

  “Daniel,” Leah said gently, “that’s not possible. I think you’ve been working too much lately. I know you haven’t been sleeping enough.”

  He shook his head. “No. I saw it. I helped him up and got him to my car. I thought at the very least I’d have to bring him into the emergency room but he was protesting the whole way. By the time we got to the car, it was looking better but still,” he grimaced, “it didn’t look right. An arm doesn’t bend the way his was bending. You can’t see it because his shirt is black,” he said as he pointed to Gabe, “but it’s drenched in blood.” Now that he had pointed it out, Ava couldn’t miss it. It was on the arm opposite of where she was sitting and it looked as though it had dried already. For the first time, Ava also noticed that someone had thrown a ratty blanket across the couch before Gabe sat down. Gabe cringed as Ava’s eyes widened at the sight of the blood. Her dad continued to speak. “There’s no injury underneath. Now! But there was. When we got to the car I pulled his sleeve up. It looked like a puncture wound. I don’t know from what because the work area was clear.” Ava’s stomach lurched. She was certain the puncture wound was caused by Gabe’s bone, a bone that would have started healing itself in that amount of time. “Gabe was already refusing to go to the hospital. I knew right away something was amiss. I went to tell Mike I knocked Gabe off the ladder and that I was taking him to be checked out. Gabe insisted on coming here. By the time we arrived, his arm was nearly completely healed.” He let out a huge huff of air, as if he’d just finished running a marathon instead of giving an explanation. “And look at it now! Not a trace of anything ever happening. Except for the blood. I’d almost be willing to think I hallucinated it all but, see? There’s blood!”

  Leah turned her concerned gaze to her daughter. Ava could tell that she still wasn’t convinced that Daniel wasn’t simply suffering from exhaustion.

  As much as Ava would like to pretend that was the reason, she went ahead and dove in with the truth. “He’s right Mom.”

  Leah frowned and looked at Gabe who nodded. “I heal fast,” was his simple reply.

  Daniel let out a strangled sound. “You heal fast? Is that all you have to say?”

  Leah took Daniel by the arm and led him to his recliner. She gently pushed him into it and kneeled on the floor beside him. “Clearly,” she began, “someone has some explaining to do.”

  For the second time in three days, Ava recounted every nightmarish moment of the events of the prior spring. There were countless gasps of disbelief, numerous questions, looks of complete incomprehension and horror.

  Finally, hours later, after a lengthy discussion and questioning session, their story was out. Considering the extent of Gabe’s injuries, Daniel was inclined to believe them because he couldn’t think of any other explanation, despite how unbelievable Gabe and Ava’s explanation was.

  “You see Mom,” Ava said softly, “that’s why he’s staying with me. I thought I lost him but we’ve somehow, by some miracle been given a second chance and I’m going to hold onto that with everything I’ve got.”

  Leah hung her head, still not sure what to say, as she tried to gather her scattered thoughts. Finally, looking up and blinking away tears, she asked the question that mattered the most. “Are you sure it’s safe? Are you really safe now?”

  “I would never let anything happen to her,” Gabe fiercely replied, saving Ava from having to say anything.

  While she’d confessed what she’d needed to of their past, she hadn’t wanted to terrify them with the predicament of their present. There was nothing her parents could do to help. She didn’t want to burden them with any more information than she already had.

  Leah nodded but Daniel didn’t l
ook so certain. He gently pulled Ava from the room. He took her outside, onto the back deck where he thought they’d have privacy. It was obvious he wanted Ava to have a chance to speak without Gabe hearing. Ava didn’t bother to let him know Gabe could probably hear them, anyway.

  “Do you truly trust him? Can you swear to me that you feel safe with him?” Daniel asked as his eyes searched her face for any sign of faltering.

  “Daddy,” Ava said softly, “I trusted him with my life. He didn’t let me down. He protected me then with everything he had. He’s not going to let anything hurt me now. I promise you.”

  Daniel nodded and pulled his daughter into a fierce hug before leading her back inside. Her parents pleaded with them to stay, at least through dinnertime but they politely yet firmly declined. They both knew that their nightmare was far from over.

  Ava slid into the driver’s seat of her car, enjoying the sense of relief telling her parents had brought her. It was short lived as Gabe handed Ava her phone. She’d left it in the car, sitting on the passenger seat.

  “Eleven missed calls from Molly,” she groaned. “This cannot be good!”

  Chapter 22

  “Ava,” Molly began in a shaky voice, “I think we have a problem.”

  “Another one?” Ava asked on a moan. She was now sitting in the passenger seat because after seeing how upset the missed calls from Molly made her, Gabe insisted on driving. They hadn’t even pulled away from the curb in front of her parents’ house when she got Molly on the line.

  “I couldn’t stop thinking about Oliver so I decided I needed a distraction. Yesterday, it was so relaxing at the country club. I decided to go back. You know, keep an eye on Julia and keep my mind off of Oliver at the same time. When I got there, I looked around for her but I didn’t see her. I thought she must be on her lunch break. I waited for a while but then realized she’d been gone way too long,” she admitted. “You know she works with that snob, Audrey Richmond. I asked Audrey if she’d seen Julia. She was livid. She said Julia came in, worked for a little bit, then claimed to be sick and said she needed to go home.”