Bailey took a seat in the pale blue suede armchair stationed over by the bay window and brought her feet up on the ottoman. “I understand your position, but did you see how his face lit up when you walked in? I can see he misses and loves you, too. And he calls you sweetness. That’s so cute.”
Sienna swiped away the tear that slid down her cheek. “Yes, it is. But I need more than that. I deserve more.”
• • •
“The look on her face said it all.” Glum, Gavin dropped down in the black leather recliner. “She’s done with me.”
“Yeah, she didn’t seem happy to see you, bro.” Munching from a bag of jalapeño flavored tortilla chips, Dax reclined his chair and stretched out his frame. “Looked pretty bad.”
“I have to agree, it didn’t look good for you, my man.” Sean uncapped two bottles of Dogfish 90 Minute IPAs and handed one over. “But not all is lost.”
“His ass had better fix it,” Lucas grumbled from his seat on Sean’s right while aiming the remote at the theater screen to set the surround sound. “I need my wife back ASAP.”
“How can I fix anything if she’s not speaking to me? You all seem to forget that part,” Gavin groused.
Sean sat forward and angled toward him. “Here’s what you do. Don’t go to her today. We all could see she wasn’t that pleased to see you. The ice has been broken, nonetheless. Show up tomorrow bright and early with flowers and candy. Shit, use my gulfstream to take her to Paris if you think it would help you. In other words, brother, beg.”
Seated at the far end in the line of theater seats, Dax leaned forward. “Sean, are you speaking from firsthand experience?”
Lucas threw peanut shells at Dax’s head, then turned back to Gavin. “Listen to Sean. Tell Sienna about what you’ve been doing for your father, and how you had little choice after you fucked up by calling the man in to handle Dale, but that you got Kavanagh involved because you feared for her safety. Then, as Sean said, kiss her feet.”
“It’s for a good cause,” Sean added.
“In all seriousness, they’re right.” Dax came out of his reclined pose. “Worth a shot. Plus, your ass won’t find a woman that damn hot any time soon, so you had better hold on to her like a fucking parachute.”
Heads fell back in hearty laughter and mumbled agreement.
Gavin sat forward to look past Lucas and Sean. “Dax, women discover that toy chest you keep and are smart to put heels to the pavement.” It was partly a joke. The guy was into some kinky shit. “None of the previous women I’ve been with come close to my Sie, that I’ll agree, but what about Veronica?”
“Are you referring to that life-like blow up doll you keep tucked away in your closet?” Dax puffed his cheeks and blew. Beer sprayed from Sean’s mouth. Lucas was close to choking with laughter. “I’m just fucking with you, bro,” Dax added, yet they all continued to buckle over in boisterous amusement.
Unable to suppress a chuckle, Gavin sat back and sent them all a solid salute of his middle finger as he took deep swallows from his bottle.
They were right about one thing. What did he have to lose?
Chapter Thirty
The car pulled up to the palatial estate just off the coast in Osterville, Massachusetts. The driver assisted Sienna and Bailey out of the car, then retrieved their luggage from the trunk. He insisted on seeing the two small carry-ons to the door. She and Bailey thanked him, and with a polite incline of his head, he went on his way.
It was a private car service, one that Lucas had been adamant she and Bailey use for the drive to Faith’s parents’ home from the private airstrip where his jet had landed.
If someone had told Sienna when she was a young girl eating week-old take-out or savoring stale crackers from the barren cupboard, while her mother lay passed out beneath whoever had been her chosen companion from the night before, that she would be cruising in a CEO’s private jet, riding around in Gavin’s kickass Lamborghini, and even getting to rub elbows with people such as Sean Grant, the hotel mogul, she would have suggested they seek professional help. Talk about life’s curveballs. Sienna thought about how much her life had changed as she and Bailey took the wide steps up to the stately ornate front door, and Sienna rang the bell. Moments later, the door opened. Faith’s stepmother, the regal Mrs. Sullivan, stood before her and Bailey wearing a smile as bright as her yellow floral, perfectly fitted dress and sunny yellow pumps. A matching floral hairband neatly held back rich red, wavy tresses from her attractive, narrow-angled face.
“Good afternoon, ladies. It is such a delight to see you both, please come in.”
Entering the opulent foyer, they set their bags just inside the door.
“Mary?” Mrs. Sullivan called out softly, and in a flash, the woman appeared, as if she’d been prepped to be summoned.
Sienna pulled her attention away from the maid, Mary, scurrying up the stairs with her and Bailey’s carry-ons. “Thank you for letting us come out to visit. We wanted to spend a little time with Faith.”
“Yes, thank you, Mrs. Sullivan. I hope it’s not a problem for us to stay,” Bailey said. “We can go to a hotel.”
“I wouldn’t hear of it. It’s no trouble at all. Your rooms have already been prepared. I was glad you called. Faith hasn’t been the same since that day.” Her gray eyes lowered, and her warm smile waned in a quiet instant as she shook her head. “She has struggled so. The incident with her poor mother was such a tragedy. This recent matter, I fear, has regressed the progress she had achieved with her therapist.” With a sigh, kind eyes met theirs again while projecting a hint of a smile. “I’m happy you all are here. It’s sure to lift her spirits. Come, Faith is looking forward to your visit.” She preceded them through the house and out onto the terrace. “Mr. Sullivan is away on business. He’s sorry he couldn’t be here to greet you.” The terrace looked out over the infinity pool and onward, beyond the manicured shrubbery to the breathtaking view of Nantucket Sound.
Faith lay stretched out on a lounger, cocooned up to her chin beneath a blanket. She stared out at the water, it seemed, in a comatose state.
“Faith, honey, your friends have arrived.” Mrs. Sullivan shooed them forward, then retreated into the house.
Faith’s head turned slowly toward them. Her long, lustrous blonde hair was now cropped into a short, boyish style. Blue eyes widened and instantly watered. “You came.” Her stare settled on Bailey and tears spilled over. “I didn’t think you would, but you came.”
Bailey sat down on the edge of the lounger and drew Faith into a hug, then took her hand in hers. “Of course we came.”
Sienna rounded the lounger, took a seat, and hugged her next. “We missed you. How’s your shoulder?”
“Stiff, but okay.” Her red, weary eyes shifted between them before she burst into a sea of tears, sobbing into her palms. “I’m so sorry.”
They hurriedly embraced her once more. “Shh,” Sienna soothed, while looking around for a tissue. A box sat on the small, round glass table to her left. Scattered at her feet were wads of balled-up tissues that she hadn’t noticed, evidence of Faith’s abysmal state.
She pulled several tissues from the box and gently dried her friend’s face. “Don’t cry. Here, your nose is running.
“I want to thank you for saving my life. If you hadn’t done what you did that day, I don’t believe I would be sitting here right now. But what happened is in the past. It was Dale who—”
“He threatened to hurt you and Bailey,” Faith interjected as she reached over to the side-table and grabbed another tissue to wipe her eyes.
Sienna and Bailey exchanged gaping looks, then Sienna removed her crossed-body purse and angled her frame, bringing her right leg under her to sit more comfortably. “Hurt us how? Dale wanted you to seduce Lucas into sleeping with him, so you could bribe him for money. That much we know.”
Faith blew her nose as more tears rained down. With red eyes fixed on Bailey, her expression filled with grief. “I’m sorry for what
I did to you.”
Bailey took her hand again. “Are you saying Dale had planned to hurt us if you didn’t go to Lucas for money?”
She nodded. “He took me to this apartment in Southeast D.C., near the Anacostia River.”
Sienna tapped Bailey’s arm. “See, I told you I’d overheard him planning something bad.” She turned back to Faith. “Go on.”
“He owed money to these guys. Dale initially told me it had been gambling losses that he owed. I tried to help him, but my father found out. He got angry that I was involved with Dale again and kicked me out.” She dropped her gaze, her voice an almost whisper. “I felt I owed Dale for what happened years ago. It was my fault he’d gone to jail. He’d wanted to expand his operation, so I’d put him in contact with a friend I knew from high school, a guy that used to supply all the kids with stuff at parties here on the Cape.
“Dale didn’t name me in what took place during that drug bust at the apartment, but I—”
“What happened when you went to Anacostia?” Sienna cut in, wanting to stay on topic and not looking to be reminded of yet another tornado that once swirled around the three of them.
Facing them again, Faith drew her knees up, hugging her legs close to her chest. “There were these two really big, scary looking guys. The one named Turk was angry with Dale because a package that Dale was supposed to pick up had gotten seized by the police. That’s how I learned that it was drugs. He’d told me he wasn’t dealing anymore, but he’d lied to me.”
“Go figure,” Bailey muttered with an eye roll, not bothering to mask her discontent.
“Dale owed Turk the money that he didn’t receive from the pickup that had been seized. To make up for it, Turk told Dale right there in front of me that if he didn’t bring him the money, he would expect Dale to turn me over as payment. I-I would’ve had to be with Turk for several hours,” she said, lips trembling, tears flooding, rushing down her cheeks. “He took a liking to me.”
Sienna frowned. “You’re saying you would’ve had to sleep with that guy as payment?” Getting a nod, she frowned harder, her anger closing her throat. “That bastard would’ve had you do something disgusting like that to get his ass out of the mess he brought on himself,” she gritted. “Sick prick.”
Faith rested her forehead atop up-drawn knees. “Dale said it was either Lucas or Turk,” she said through broken breaths.
Sienna looked at Bailey when she reached out, and a gentle hand stroked Faith’s arm. She’d expected to see anger in her friend’s eyes over Faith’s attempt to sleep with Lucas but met green eyes clouded in sorrow for their friend.
“I never liked that bastard. I always told you that he’d been using you. Why didn’t you come to us?”
“You said he threatened to hurt Sienna and me,” Bailey interjected this time, her expression now harsh, yet her hand upon Faith’s arm kept up a tender caress.
“Yes, after those guys threatened to do him in, Dale got so crazy. I mean, it was as if he’d snapped. He’d been given two weeks to come up with the money he owed. If I didn’t do what he wanted, he said he’d send the drug dealers after you both. He also said he’d have them go after my family if I said anything to anyone. What took place years ago—” Faith started.
With a heavy sigh, Sienna shook her head. “Look, I really don’t want to rehash—” she paused from the light touch upon her hand.
“Please, let me explain. I should’ve been honest with you both back then. For that, I’m sorry, and I’m so very sorry for what you both went through in that police raid because of me.” Tears welled in her eyes once more. “Your friendship is important to me. You two are all I have. That’s why I want you to know everything.”
Sienna and Bailey looked at one another for a long moment, then Sienna nodded, figuring maybe it was best to air all the dirty crap that happened, then perhaps they could wipe the slate clean and move on.
“Dale had taken the full rap for that drug bust years ago because my father had convinced him to leave my name out of it. In return, my father had promised him that he’d ensure Dale served no more than three months. But Dale had been given the full twenty-eight. He called me when he was released and asked to meet. He’d said he wasn’t dealing anymore, that he’d changed, but that he’d lost a load of money gambling with some guys. He’d been trying to win money to get himself back on his feet. At least that had been the lie he’d told me.”
“So you felt you owed him because he didn’t implicate you in the bust and because of your father’s betrayal,” Sienna said.
“Yes. Dale threatened to have my father killed. I didn’t know what to do. As you said, he was using me. I realized that he hadn’t changed, that he only wanted revenge against me for everything that happen to him years ago. There was no doubt in my mind that he would have hurt you . . . ” Her eyes dipped briefly to the hand Sienna subconsciously held pressed below her left breast at the area of Dale’s mark. A pulsing, dull ache seemed to occur whenever the man’s name was spoken.
“I found out that those men he’d been dealing with also ran a prostitution ring. They were the ones behind that news report about all those teen girls that had gone missing in D.C.”
As Sienna listened to Faith detail all of what she’d gone through and what Dale had intended to do, more and more, she was beginning to understand the strong stem of Gavin’s anger, feeling he’d been justified in what he’d done to that sick asshole. As Bailey had said, Gavin let him off easy. Dale should have been cemented under the jail cell.
Taking a breath, Sienna compelled herself to push it all away. Having lost enough sleep over it all, she didn’t need to add to her nightmares.
She took Faith’s hand in hers. “Dale, and everything that happened between the three of us, all of it is history now. Let’s focus on friendship. I want us to get back to the way we were freshman year. Can we do that?” She and Faith turned hopeful stares on Bailey.
Staring back at them, Bailey took Sienna’s hand in her left and Faith’s in her right. “I’d like that.”
“Bailey’s pregnant,” Sienna blurted and placed a hand on her friend’s slight baby bump.
A soft smile brimmed Faith’s lips. “I’m going to be an aunt?” She jumped up to her knees, blue eyes bright, excitement returning color to her cheeks. Looking between them, her features grew hesitant. “Right?”
Smiling, Bailey nodded.
“I’m going to be an aunt!” Faith screeched and pulled them into a crushing hug. “Sisters forever, right?”
Sienna smiled. “You know it.” The ring of her cell phone broke into their sisterhood moment. She pulled it from her purse. Seeing a New York number that she didn’t recognize was no surprise. Her mom often changed her number to go M.I.A. at the close of a relationship. That way, the man in question could no longer reach her.
Damn it. With all that she’d been through, the monthly deposit had been forgotten. She answered the call, prepared to reassure her mom the money was on its way, but before she could speak, an unfamiliar voice spoke in a mechanical calm, laying out details like a skilled doctor setting a bone break with one quick snap into place to minimize the shock.
“Thank you for letting me know.” Sienna disconnected and sat stock-still. The quiver started in her belly, small at first, but swiftly intensified until she was hugging her middle. The frigid shiver crawled up to her chest, and her shoulders began to tremble as the tears broke free.
“Sie, what’s wrong?” Bailey asked, concern tightly creasing her brow.
Faith gaped. “Who was that on the phone?”
“A friend of my mom’s,” Sienna managed through strangled sobs. “She called to tell me my mom is dead.”
Both of her friends gasped, then, as one, embraced her as she wept, wept hard for her mom’s warm hug that she’d longed for and held out hope for, but now would never get. For those many times she’d yearned for a smidgen of affection of any kind. For the many times she’d strangled back her tears to stay strong dur
ing those moments she had to swab cold compresses to her mom’s face and neck to help bring her back from the hell she’d slipped into. For the vomit she’d mopped up from a freshly washed floor. And for the days and nights of sheer terror when she’d hide in the dark recesses of her closet to escape the cruel and brutal groping hands of those lecherous unwanted touches.
When her sobs had waned to short sniffles, she pulled out of her friends’ supportive grasp.
Faith quickly snatched up several tissues and handed them over, while offering a gentle stroke on the shoulder. “What happened?” she asked softly.
Sienna dried her eyes. “An overdose. She regularly took a prescribed medication for a leg injury she’d suffered from dancing years ago. She often combined other pills . . . I didn’t know what they were half the time. This time she’d added something to help her sleep. The combined dosage stopped her heart.” A tear rolled down her cheek.
Faith handed her another tissue. “We’re here for you.”
Bailey took her hand, squeezing lightly. “Yes, tell us what you need.”
Sienna dried her eyes once more and looked between them. Her throat ached with the excruciatingly heavy strain of her emotions. “You both are here . . . together with me. That’s all I need for now.” Staring back into sorrowful blue eyes and anguished-filled green ones, Sienna’s tears rained down, her grief overtaking her in racking spasms. They drew her back into their joint embrace, and she held on tight. The years of loneliness in her life had been great. Without the two of them, she’d be completely alone in the world.
Her thoughts drifted to Gavin once more.
Chapter Thirty-one
At the gravesite in New York, a small group gathered and listened to final respects offered by the pastor to Lydia Keller. When Gavin had learned of Sienna’s mother’s death, he’d reached out to her immediately, but she wouldn’t take his calls and wouldn’t see him.
During the service, he’d sat quietly in the back of the church watching her as people offered their respects, and now he stood in the rear listening to the pastor speak of loss, and watching Sienna, with Bailey and Faith at her side, as she lay her mother to rest. Lucas stood behind his wife, his hand supportively upon her shoulder. Gavin wished he could do the same for Sienna. He’d lost that privilege. They were over.
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