Scandal: The Complete Series

by Alison Foster

  “You lost me at the part where you care about me,” I say.

  “Everything I have done was to keep you safe,” Carter says.

  I laugh painfully. “Well, that’s not exactly gone well. Madison is dead and sounds like I am anything but safe.”

  “You are now,” Carter promises. “We can control things. We are very connected. It might take a little time, but we’ll work it out.”

  “I don’t get it,” I say, ignoring his heroic bullshit. “Why Madison? You never even met her. Why would they assume she mattered to you?”

  Carter is finally at a loss for words.

  “Madison was collateral damage,” Jax cuts in to explain. “It was your father’s idea to leave a trail that led to her as his estranged daughter.”

  “Fucking what?” is all I manage to say, my mouth drying instantly. I turn to Carter, struggling to make sense of any of this. “Is that true?”

  My father says nothing. I want to punch his stoic face.

  “Answer me for fuck’s sake,” I say, losing patience. The two goons that kidnapped me stand nearby, hands to their waist, readying themselves to draw their guns if necessary. Two more show up suddenly as if my cry has drawn them out from their slimy hiding places.

  “It’s not that simple,” Carter answers, signaling to the goons to put more distance between them and us.

  “The truth!” I scream at him. “You fucking owe me that.”

  “When things got bad,” he says, accepting his fate, “I had Bronson’s file on my family hacked. Switched your photos with a couple of Madison with your mother. Changed names and dates. I thought it would slow them down. I assumed they’d figure it out. She’s famous for fuck’s sake. The fools.”

  My heart almost stops, then takes a huge leap, trying to escape my chest. Madison died because of us. Because of my father. Because of me. Knowing us killed her. If her father had never married my mother, she would be alive. If my father never left, she would be alive.

  I slowly turn to Jax, my growing fury aimed at him as much as Carter. “You knew all this? How stupid of me to have trusted you again.”

  He keeps his eyes on mine but I can tell his resolve is diminishing. “I did what I thought was best for you. I don’t know what else to tell you.”

  “He could say the same thing, you know. You’re no better than him. You people think you are above everyone, above morality.”

  “You’re right, Ella. That’s why I quit,” Jax says.

  “Really? You quit? Looks like some habits die hard.”

  “I told you everything I could. This one thing, the thing that would hurt you the most, it was up to him to tell you.”

  “That’s weak. You are so full of shit. This fucking thing here is the whole story. All the rest was just what you thought you could get away with.”

  “Sounds weak to me,” Carter says.

  I glare at him like I have never glared in my life. “Don’t get me started on you,” I warn my father. “Your version of all this is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard. You see yourself as a hero? A protector? All you ever did was abandon your family and now, my God, you have us on some kill list.”

  Jaxson reaches out to take my hand.

  “Don’t you touch me,” I say, not ready to forgive him—not even a little.

  “Be mad at me all you want,” he says. “Hate me. Whatever. But right now we need to get you out of here.”

  “Your pretty boy’s right,” Carter says. “Let’s move you to a secure location. You can think of all the ways I failed you once you get settled.”

  My sense of self-preservation finally kicks in. If everything they have told me is true, my anger will have to wait.

  These two arrogant liars may not be the best company to keep, but right now we all have the same goal—keeping me alive.

  I nod reluctantly. Carter waves to his goons and almost instantly two cars approach. I let Jaxson put his hand on my back to guide me.

  “You’re all a bunch of assholes,” I say quite sincerely.

  No one seems to have an argument with that.

  —two—

  Jaxson

  As soon as Ella falls asleep shortly after midnight in the guarded guest house, I head out to the main building looking for Carter. Fucking Carter Wade, the man who fathered the woman I love and then disappeared when she was only a child to lead a life of crime and illusions.

  His ties to my uncle Lucius became apparent to me the day he showed up at the HQ with a battered face and a suitcase full of money and drugs. A situation, as he called it, had gone wrong and Lucius promised to help fix it. I must have been fourteen or fifteen at the most but quite familiar with the kind of bullshit Lucius liked to dip all his fingers and toes into.

  Lucius made no attempt to hide the fact he was feared and revered in the underworld. That was the kind of thing that made his life worth living. He thought I was soft and weak and needed some basic schooling in the cruelty of the real world.

  When Carter showed up that evening, Lucius invited him to have dinner with us. The two men openly discussed Carter’s failed dealings with some drug cartel right in front of me.

  My mind was churning so fast it made me dizzy. The fact the man with the bruised face was Ella’s father added a special element of suspense to his story. I kept my ears open to hear everything that was being said to make sure Ella was not in trouble. Her image was still very clear in my mind and I would have done anything to protect her.

  The days I spent with Ella as kids, running through sundrenched days until night fell, lingered in my imagination ever since my mother died and I had come to live with Lucius in his cold mausoleum. Only Ella’s easy smile penetrated the thick walls of my growing apathy.

  I put it all together those three days that Carter stayed with us at HQ. He left his family when he became restless, when petty crime and small money stopped being enough to satisfy his hunger. Carter wanted power.

  Lucius and Carter go back a long way. They met in middle school and quickly struck some kind of unholy alliance driven by their hate for their parents’ middle-class paralysis. If they could come up with something to upset their families’ status quo, they would attack it with vigor.

  My mother, uncle Lucius’ older and only sister, tried to be a good influence on them but backed away when she realized young Carter was developing feelings for her.

  Carter always had that soft spot for my mother and helped her start over when my father died. He also helped Lucius build his empire in the beginning before becoming unreliable. Lucius felt he owed Carter and that led to feelings of resentment brewing inside my uncle’s head who could not bear the thought of being in anyone’s debt. For all his faults, Lucius was not a man who walked away from his responsibilities. He supported Carter as much as he could.

  Lucius used to keep tabs on Carter who was known for his volatility but eventually Carter made himself scarce and disappeared for long stretches. If Lucius knew what Carter was up to, he certainly would never share it with me. Like Carter, I distanced myself from the organization.

  As far as I know, Carter is no killer but those things can change fast in the underworld. Years have passed. All it takes is one wrong move.

  A guard leads me to a dark room where Carter smokes a cigar while staring at the flame made by an old-fashioned silver lighter. Starlight streams through large windows behind him.

  “Funny thing about a lit cigar,” he says when he notices my presence. “It makes the darkness around it more noticeable.”

  “I had forgotten those little things you say,” I say, turning on a shaded lamp standing on a small table next to the door. The room is bare—the only furniture besides the little table are a loveseat facing the windows with a coffee table next to it. This is effectively the sunroom by day. A few flowerpots against the walls are the only decorations in the room.

  Carter stands near a large glass door, exhaling smoke. “How’s Ella?”

  “Asleep. She’s drained e
motionally and physically.”

  Carter nods. “A necessary inconvenience.”

  “That’s perfect,” I say. My disdain grows stronger with every word out of his mouth. “You can say that to cover your every move. Men like you are always giving yourself a break. Allows you to cross every line.”

  Carter exhales round puffs of smoke that rise slowly toward the ceiling. “There is no line between a man and his child. What would you know about it? You’re a playboy. Ella is just another plaything at your never-ending party.”

  “You drew that line yourself and now you say it doesn’t exist. You’re not all there, Carter. You know it and Lucius knows it, too. You allow yourself delusions to explain some wacky code you have.”

  He puts the cigar out on an ashtray on a coffee table. “You’re the prince of a delusional world. All that fashion bullshit. I see all you sissies looking tough on those billboards. Makes me laugh. The world’s softest men trying to look all hard and dangerous.”

  “I’ll kick any man’s ass who tries to put her at risk,” I say. “Even you.”

  He laughs. “There’s our common ground. I never wanted my daughter to be part of my world. I did what I had to do to distance her from it. I wanted her to hate me enough not to want answers. Not you, though. You want her attentions so much you brought her along for the ride. You call that love? It’s all about you. Pure selfishness. Don’t get it bent, powder face.”

  “Powder face?” I repeat. “I get it. I’m a model. I wear makeup. I forgot you like to bully.”

  “Aren’t you just as sharp as a marble?”

  “Okay, Carter. Say whatever you want to make yourself feel better, but you know as well as I that she is only here and along for the ride because there are people that want to hurt you. This is all on you.”

  “You know, that’s what I’ve heard about you. Too damn innocent and too damn above everyone else,” Carter says, sharply. “I wouldn’t have let her know about any of it. I’d have given myself up before anything happened.”

  “Too late, old man,” I say. “My best friend was brutally murdered. Blood is on your hands that you can’t wash off.”

  Carter grinds his teeth but quickly calms down, a grin taking over his features. “It’s not your fault you’re fucking clueless. At your age you think with your dick. If you had some perspective, you could admit that keeping Ella around is more important to you than keeping her alive.”

  I bite my lip not wanting to be dragged into any more of his verbal combat. If he thinks he’ll throw me off my game with his vulgarity, he’s sorely mistaken. “You’ll be happy to hear that she hates me right now,” I say as a way of interrupting his hidden interrogation. It’s clear that this conversation was a premeditated prodding meant to test my feelings for Ella.

  Carter shakes his head. “My daughter’s frustrations give me no joy.”

  He produces two cigars from his pocket and offers me one. “I’m willing to accept that you love Ella. I can see you think you do. Let me tell you where things stand.”

  I take the cigar and snap it in half, without even thinking, setting the pieces on the ashtray. Carter’s eyes follow my gestures intensely. It takes patience on his part not to blast me for wasting a perfectly fine cigar.

  “I’m waiting,” I say. “Where do things stand?”

  “The Bronsons have delivered Lucius an ultimatum. He has one week to deliver me to them. Alive. They will stand down for one week. No bloodshed. If that time passes and their demand has not been met, they will target Ella again. Lucius will have declared war and that will make you a target as well. You are, after all, Lucius’ only weak spot.”

  “It seems he has a soft spot for you, too,” I remind him. The idea that Lucius has any weak spots at all is laughable.

  “That’s funny,” Carter says. “Lucius cannot give in so easily. That’s all this is about. One outfit makes a demand, the other has to show strength.”

  I stare at Carter coldly. “You think you’ve made it this long without Lucius and his long arm protecting you?”

  “That street runs both ways,” he says without bothering to elaborate.

  I want to tell him Lucius might hand him over. It’s the best play, but Carter knows that. As much as I disagree with his tactics, he is still Ella’s father. I have to play nice.

  “We’re going in circles,” I say instead with a yawn. “When’s this armistice coming to an end? And what’s your fucking plan once it does?”

  If he had any honor or true concern for his daughter, he should turn himself in and life would go on for the rest of us. Carter would never do that. He’s convinced his being here keeps Ella and Lucius and everyone else protected. His delusions of grandeur eliminate any chance of sacrifice.

  “The day after tomorrow,” Carter says.

  “The day after tomorrow?” I repeat, like a delayed echo.

  “That’s when the quiet period ends.” His tone is condescending, spiteful. I’m beginning to see that he despises me. I’m not sure why. He used to be nice to Jack Caleb, the boy I had been. Maybe it’s my uncle he secretly despises or maybe he can’t stand the thought of his daughter loving me and trusting me more than she will ever trust him.

  “What are we supposed to do in two days?”

  He faces me. His eyes are intense and youthful. “The way I see it there are two possible options,” he says. “Ella goes with me or you stay with her at HQ where she will stay guarded 24/7. She can’t be out roaming the streets.”

  “Oh, she will love that,” I say under my breath. “Why in hell would she go with you anyway? Where?”

  “I have a safe house up north, not connected to me in any way,” he explains. “She’d be off the grid.”

  “That would mean she’d have to trust you or you would have to drug her to get her up there. Neither of those things are going to happen,” I clarify with as much intensity as I can convey.

  He stares at my defiance and grins. “Then I guess it’s you and the HQ,” he says, taking a seat on the couch and exhaling a smoke ring. It hits me that this was his plan all along—to have me cornered so I have no option but to do as he says and take Ella to Lucius.

  “You hesitate,” he says, rubbing it in a little more. “Do you have a better idea? And don’t give me that Paris bullshit. Bronson has all kinds of connections with the Parisian underground. Haven’t you done your homework? And those fucking French frogs are sadistic.”

  Carter never loses. He is as precise as a watchmaker. He knows I want Ella safe. He had this exact conversation in his mind, blow by blow, before I even walked into this room. It must have been tedious for him to even voice his part knowing so surely how it would end.

  “It’s not like we have a choice,” I say as a way of undermining any victory he might take from getting what he wanted.

  Carter knows showing up with Ella and asking Lucius to give her shelter won’t go down very well. I can see it in the smug expression on his face. My uncle wants me as far away from Ella as possible. He wants Carter to take care of his own mess and take his daughter under his protection.

  The only person who could convince my uncle otherwise is me. Carter has played me and I must accept it. Ella is all that matters.

  “If I convince my uncle,” I say, “I need something, a single condition.”

  “I didn’t realize her safety comes with conditions.”

  “Carter, shut the fuck up. My condition is that you stay away from Ella and you stay away from HQ. You can’t be a part of any of this and you can’t be under my uncle’s protection. It’s the only way I’ll convince him.”

  “Look at you, dictating terms,” he says, almost proudly.

  “Take it or leave it,” I say.

  “And if I leave it?”

  “Then Ella and I will disappear. Just us. You’ll never know where we are and you’ll never see her again.”

  Carter puffs out several rings of smoke, staring at them with affection. “You think you’re so clever. A prince?
The bee’s fucking knees maybe? You’re nothing but an entitled punk. I don’t expect Lucius to offer me protection. I have my own network. I’m doing this for Ella, not because of your empty threats. Once I know she’s safe, I’ll step back into the shadows.”

  “Then we have a deal,” I say, feeling ice forming in my veins. No matter what, I’ll convince Lucius to take us in. I won’t give him a choice.

  Carter gets up, putting a hand on my shoulder as he goes by me. “Get some rest, Jaxson. Tomorrow will be a tough day for all of us. You’ll have to get both Ella and Lucius to agree to the plan. It’s all on you.”

  *

  Standing outside the room where Ella’s sleeping, I can count the pounding heartbeats in my chest. Just this morning we thought we’d start all over, get away from the ugly clutches of organized crime, away from grief and uncertainty. And now everything has turned around. We are about to fall deeper than ever into this deadly game.

  I enter the room quietly, afraid my booming heart will wake her. I’d give anything to know what she’s dreaming about tonight, what thoughts troubled her before she fell asleep. She barely uttered a word since we arrived.

  My beautiful girl has been put through too much. I will not rest until Ella Wade is safe and once again living her life without fear.

  Kneeling by the bed in the dark, I shut my eyes tight. I don’t need to see her face to picture her breathtaking beauty. Her smile, her brown eyes, her soft curves have been imprinted onto my retinas and heart forever.

  —three—

  Ella

  All I am is tangled nerves and exhaustion. I can’t stop yawning. Last night, I pretended to be asleep so I could avoid more awkward conversation and now I can barely keep my eyes open. Feeling sleepy and losing my mental acuity is not exactly wise after discovering a crime syndicate wants me dead.

  I step out onto the brick patio of the guest house. I stare in wonder at a completely unexpected sight. Last night, when the car dropped us at the doorstep, it was too dark to see much of anything besides the lit sidewalk.