“But you wouldn’t have the life you live … or the money you have … if it wasn’t for me,” Leo points out. “You’d have absolutely nothin’ without me.”
“This is not a pissin’ contest when you deal out hit lists with every fuckin’ breakfast!” Lawson argues, unwilling to let his father win. “Yes, you gave me a comfortable life, and I’m thankful for never needin’ anythin’, but if you looked closer, you’d find out that I pay my men with the money I earn with my own business. I don’t touch a dime of what you’ve given me.” Lawson narrows his gaze, watching his father for his reaction. “Eden as my witness I never dealt out a single cent of your blood money.”
“Don’t know why you’re lookin’ so coy, Eden, it’s not very becomin’ of you,” Leo says, refocusing his disgusted attention. I hadn’t even noticed she was reacting. “And wipe that smile off your face.” The look he offers Eden is one full of malice, showing that Eden really made enemies. “You’re part of the problem.”
“I always was, though, wasn’t I?” Eden asks, giving him a crooked smirk. “I mean … legend had it me and Lawson were meant to fall in love to make The Firm stronger than ever. I mean one bloodline meets another … the power of havin; that forged into one made men like my father happy … you, however, were always so against it.”
“I never wanted my son tied to a woman,” Leo states, disdain in his voice.
“No, maybe not, but you had to accept it was goin’ to happen at one point. We grew up together, we were bound to cave,” Eden tells him, and my heart pulsates pain into my chest with every beat it takes listening to her. “And when we did it was the most beautiful thing ever … Lawson finally became just like you, Leo.” She looks at Lawson, giving him an honest, sincere smile. “You never saw Lawson come into his own because you never wanted to look passed the fact your son was able to cause you hell.” She doesn’t slow her attack, barely drawing breath to defend a man I know I can’t. “You always hated that he was able to tear this city apart and still have better control of his men than you ever could.”
Leo starts to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Eden asks, cutting Leo short.
“Oh, nothin’,” Leo begins to say, sobering up on his laughter. “It’s just funny how you’re so willin’ to start condemnin’ me when you’re one of the biggest disappointments in the room … I mean, look at that night you left.”
“Don’t,” Eden utters.
I sense Leo’s men move around us and I spin around looking around to see what’s going on, but not one looks at me. I watch two of them cover the distance to Eden, standing behind her, looking at Leo.
“I think it’s time that the world knew why you disappeared Eden,” Leo starts, narrowing his gaze onto Eden. “I mean, that pretty little secret can’t be healthy.”
Suddenly, Eden is thrown to the floor onto her knees. She yelps against the pain I imagine just burst through her kneecaps. She struggles forcibly against one of the men’s hold, not weakening against them. I feel my breathing shallow as I watch her – the woman who tormented me, who threatened my existence and made me doubt my own heart struggle for freedom.
Part of me craves to see the outcome, to watch intently to see what they’ll do to her.
Another part wants me to help her, to prove I’m not the enemy when she’s made me one.
“Get off her!” Lawson roars, shaking me from my reverie.
“No, Lawson,” Leo says to his son as one of the men grabs Lawson and holds him back. “None of you move,” he warns Lawson’s men as Liam makes an advance. “We’re just gettin’ started here.”
“Get the fuck off me!” Eden shouts, shirking her entire body to get rid of the man holding her. “Get off me, or I’ll fuckin’ feed your fuckin’ balls when I get free!”
“Your father always hated how violent you were,” Leo says, using the right weapon as Eden looks at Leo with such a somber look. “He always, always loathed the way you came out … but I suppose a girl who sees what she does at such a tender age never stood a chance in our world.”
“I was always what you wanted me to be,” Eden snipes, jerking again.
“Maybe,” Leo states, taking up a pace as he straightens the cuffs on his sleeves. “But it’s how we ended up here with the divide between the two bloodlines.” Eden goes to speak, but fails to force the words – Leo looks more amused than ever. “Lawson hasn’t a clue what happened that night, does he?” he asks her, starting to pace.
“Dad,” Lawson starts, a warning tone issued with the singular syllable.
Leo signals, forcing a man to guard Lawson just like they have with Eden.
“No,” Leo says, putting his hand up to stop him. “You don’t know, do you?”
“No, and I don’t want to,” Lawson asserts. “I don’t need to,” he adds, giving me a sideways glance. “It changes nothin’.”
“Now, Lawson, we all know secrets make us weaker than necessary.” Leo paces, unstoppable now. “And we know the more time passes, the more curiosity grows … among your men, amongst The Firm, in you and well, I think it’s finally time to know why Eden left.”
“Please, don’t,” Eden begs, her strength lost in the fear.
Leo doesn’t stop, but paces harder, lifting a hand up showing one finger. “The first is she made some very vocal enemies.” He lifts his middle finger to sit with his index, showing two. “The second that she was the cause of her father’s death.” He lifts the third finger. “The third is she never ran because she didn’t love you, Lawson.”
The fallout from that one comment is cataclysmic. I feel it before I even look at the devastation on Lawson’s face. I force myself to see what a man in love looks like. Maybe, had Eden never come home, I may have forced him to feel like that had I ever left.
“Oh no, she ran because the monster she was on the inside finally showed on the outside.” He walks over to Eden, still wrestling to get free, he places his hand gently to her chin, tilting it upward to look at him. “Isn’t that right, my sweet dawlin’ girl?”
“Please,” she sobs, her begging tone lost in tears. “Please, Leo, don’t do this. Not like this.”
“Be sure your sins will find you out,” Leo recites, dropping his hand and consequently steps away. “All of yours are about to be laid out for all to see.”
“Please, Leo,” she begs, nowhere near the bitch that threatened my life. “Please, don’t do this. Please.”
“Enough!” he silences her, his eyes meeting the man who holds her. “Do it.”
“Please!” she screams, fighting harder against the brutes hold on her. “Please! Stop! Don’t fuckin’ do this!”
No one stops what the man does behind Eden. He rips the leather jacket from her body, and she tries to get away, but she’s quickly held back in place, tears fall unbidden down her face. The second man that stood behind her, moving her blond curls from her back and over her shoulder and I see the glint of a blade. I roll my eyes, forcing myself to be strong, but as I watch them cut the back of her dress apart, the sobs Eden releases are haunting.
I hear Lawson gasp first, others following and I allow my eyes to focus. What I see horrifies me to the core. Her back is covered in scarred skin, melted away. I swallow hard, watching them tear the dress apart more, revealing the truth to Eden’s past. While it’s sickening to watch, I notice a burst of color, sat on the side of her torso, just over her ribs, covering part of the scarred tissue, is the most delicate tattoo I have ever seen. Etched into the scars, making something ugly beautiful, is a tattoo of pink orchids.
These are the parts of Eden I should never know about, but here she is vulnerable at the will of a man who wants to even the playing field. Eden continues to sob harder as the man releases her, and she falls onto her hands, destroyed by the outing of her secrets.
“You see that night that Eden’s father died and she disappeared was quite an eventful one,” Leo states, losing focus on Eden to look at his son.
“You knew?” Law
son asks, staring at the love he lost before looking at his father. “You knew what some bastard did to her, and you didn’t let me fuckin’ rip them limb from limb?”
“It was her decision for you never to know,” Leo says, incriminating Eden. “I admit, I should’ve told you what we learned, but a vendetta was put out on you and Eden, a revenge plan that myself and Joseph only learned about while the men were closin’ in on Eden. We stood no time to get to you and her.” Leo seems solemn now, as he spills the details. “Joseph saved Eden from the brunt of the attack, but suffered that fatal stab wound because of it.”
“Doesn’t look like he saved her from the brunt of it,” Lawson comments, his eyes unable to leave Eden.
“They threw acid,” Leo says, shrugging as if it warrants no compassion. “They were aimin’ for her face. Had Joseph not pushed her at all, the outcome would have been far worse.” Leo now looks at Eden as she tries to pull her broken pieces together. Now, I see the man that would’ve doted on her and Lawson once upon a time. “By the time help arrived, Joseph was passed savin’, and the acid had already eaten too far into Eden’s skin. It took us too long to find them … in that time she basically watched her father die right in front of her while dealing with tremendous pain until the acid killed her nerve endings.”
“The pain pills,” Lawson utters, realization hitting him. “That’s why you take the pills.”
Eden looks up at Lawson from her spot on the floor, her eyes red and raw from her own tears. She nods, and I notice her eyes flash toward me before she looks away ashamedly.
“Eden only missed the funeral because she was in the hospital,” Leo admits, letting the men know why Eden was absent that day. “Annie wanted nothin’ to do with Eden afterward, so she entrusted me with her care. She couldn’t look at the daughter who took away her husband … so ultimately, she had no daughter.”
“You should’ve told me,” Lawson tells him.
“Eden’s wishes were for you never to know,” Leo deadpans, reiterating his earlier words.
“You should’ve told me!” Lawson bellows, grief exploding.
I watch the man I know I could love grieve for something he never knew about. He forced himself to feel something for me because he believed the woman who broke his heart did it purely to break his heart.
My spot in his life, by his side, suddenly feels more threatened than ever.
“Liam tried to bring you both back together,” Leo starts. and Liam puts his hands to his head, guiltily. “Liam here tracked down Alexander and got access to Eden while she was in the hospital,” he tells us all, stating the facts behind Eden’s disappearance. “He fought his way to her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lawson asks before he rears up, going for his father in the process. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”
I can hear the tears in his voice, the thickness caused by the grief he’s falling into.
“Don’t think you should really be askin’ me that question, Son,” he tells his son. “Think you should be asking her that one.” He points at Eden, who hiccups on her tears. “It was her decision.”
I watch as Lawson calms his breathing, but each remains a heavy heave against the pain I can only imagine bursting through his body.
“She didn’t want you to see her,” Liam bravely speaks up. “She barely let anyone near her.”
“But she let you!” Lawson argues through gritted teeth as he flies toward Liam, pushing him hard. “She let you near her!”
“I didn’t give her the choice,” Liam boldly states.
Lawson looks ruined by the choices his closest confidantes made without him. “You should’ve told me where she was … you knew I looked for her. You know I tried, but you kept me away from her!”
“Please don’t blame him,” Eden finally speaks, and while her voice is raw from crying, she holds power to stop Lawson. She’s now standing, dejected and vulnerable before us all but she only focuses on Lawson. “I didn’t want you to see what was left of me.”
I know I should feel little for Eden, but it’s hard when Leo has just pulled apart a group of people who are closer than any family can be.
“I struggled with that decision every day,” she admits, unable to lift her gaze. “I ruined us that night … and then I got my father killed … and I got punished. I didn’t think I deserved to come crawlin’ back to you so that you could just look after me.”
“But that wouldn’t have been what it was about,” Lawson argues, swooping in toward her and I feel my eyes water at the tenderness he handles her with. “I wouldn’t have done any of that to just look after you, Eden.”
“You don’t know that,” Eden disputes. “Alex had to look after me … I wanted you to do it, to be there, but we argued, and I lost badly because of it.”
Lawson fights for every word he can to make this better, but he fails. Throwing his hands onto his head, he threads them through his hair and growls, turning his back on Eden.
The devastation that registers on her face is unmissable.
“Why?” Eden asks Leo, her slender arms crawling around her body, protecting her from her own shame as she faces Leo. “Why did you have to tell him?” she queries, her eyebrows furrow. “He was never supposed to find out!”
“And how would you have hidden that?” Leo asks, advancing toward her. “How the hell were you going to do that when you’re still madly in love with my son?” he questions, crossing his arms over his chest. “Hmm?” he pushes her, tapping his fingers to his chin in a questioning manner. “He had to find out at some point what you were hidin’.”
He grabs her then, pulls her close to his chest and holds her with her back to us all, giving us a better look at what she’s left with. The scar is mottled, deep shades of pink in some areas, barely there in others, but that orchid sits so pronounced, so poignant.
“See how she tried to make herself beautiful again?” Leo sneers pulling apart her dress to reveal all of the tattoo, showing the extent of the acid burn. “She chose the flower you picked for her, Lawson,” he states, his hand running down the scar. Eden flinches, begging him beneath her breath to let her go. He lets her go, all at once he pushes her but doesn’t let her go. “Pretty sweet, isn’t it, really? That even after all that time, after her denyin’ your proposal, after runnin’ scared of the man she loved … she still used the flowers you always used to pick for her to make herself feel comforted at night.”
Eden smashes her fists into Leo’s chest, fighting to free herself, to hide from everyone’s watchful gazes, but Leo is stronger, and Eden is spent – physically and emotionally.
“You’re a bastard!” she tells him, her declaration laced with poison. “I trusted you!”
“You should never trust the devil you work for,” Leo utters, letting her go with a heavy push.
I can’t deny the pit in me that opens up. Dread infiltrates my system faster than I can stop it and I’m left to watch Lawson and Eden as they deal with the fallout. I thought the reason she left would be more corrupt, would eventually force the love Lawson has for Eden to wither entirely and die.
Liam grabs Eden’s leather jacket, using it to cover her up and I watch as his folds his arms around her, pulling her tightly into his embrace, urging her to be stronger than she is.
Curiosity kills me when I look and see Lawson watching Eden and Liam with absolute venom. I see the rage in his eyes, know the love he has for Eden hasn’t lessened any regardless of what he has to say.
My fickle heart shatters.
“Which brings us to you, Ashley Johnson.”
He states my name, and I swear my world slows. The way he pronounces it feels like my death is not far behind it. He draws me slowly back to the reality of the situation, and I steel my emotions.
“What are the secrets you hide?” he asks, tilting his head as if to see into my soul. “You’re the ghost of the gang for now.”
“I-I don’t have any,” I state, hating myself for the stutter.
�
��Everyone has secrets,” Leo says, grinning as if what just happened never did. “The fact you’re smitten for my son isn’t one.” Shaking his head, Leo falls into a low maniacal laugh. “How’s the jealousy?” he asks me, forcing me to gulp. “Killer, isn’t it?”
He’s right. The jealousy that rages in me from the love that Lawson and Eden share is enough to kill me, but I won’t let it. Never in my life have I had the chance to love a man so wholeheartedly as I have Lawson.
Now I have, and I don’t want to let it go without giving it the chance to blossom.
“As the offspring of two kings, Eden and Lawson were always meant to be pulled together … just like she stated earlier,” Leo admits, his eyes fixated on me. “But that never said any other woman couldn’t steal his heart in the process.” He pauses, running his gaze over me, observing every inch of my being. “So … are you worthy?” he asks, not even waiting for a response. “Because a sorry little nobody who was cursed before birth doesn’t seem like the maker of a strong human.”
“Maybe not,” I begin to say. “But what I’ve lived through has forced me to become one.”
My response has him hardening his glare on me, and I bite my lip, involuntarily showing my nervousness at being crucified under the watchful gaze of Leo Matthews. I tell myself to shake away the nervousness, to prove myself because if I don’t, I’ll be written off.
“You don’t survive things like I have to become weak,” I start and look at Eden as she stands defeated. A part of me wants her to feel the force of my words, to realize that the part of me that cared for her died when Leo started his attack on me. “You survive things for a reason and crying over them isn’t a good show that you used them to drive you.”
“So, what you’re sayin’ is that Eden isn’t strong?” he asks, cocking a brow.
“I think it’s a mask,” I say, casually condemning her. “She forces herself to look brave,” I say, making sure I’m looking at Eden. “She likes to threaten people to make herself feel better.”
Sweet Venom (Crazy in Love #1) Page 28
