“She’s off somewhere with Breaker. I don’t know when she’s coming back.”
I forced my arms straight at my sides, relaxing my hands and I tried to figure out what came next. “Well...when is she back?”
“I just said I don’t know.”
“Yeah, but like, is it overnight or just today? How long am I waiting here?”
He folded his arms across his T-shirt clad chest. T-shirt? On Toby? “If it’s to hurl abuse at her, I suggest you wait forever. She doesn’t take kindly to being called a—how did you put it? A meddling piece of shit?”
“I honestly don’t give a fuck what she thinks, Toby. She’s been messing with my life and I need her to back the hell off.”
“Why?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why do you need her to back off?”
“Because I don’t need her and my mother colluding to marry me off.”
“OK. But, in the last month what has she done to you?”
I opened my mouth, ready to argue but there was nothing to say. I hadn’t even heard from Jasmine since I left.
“Exactly,” he stated. “I told you I’d take care of it, and I did. So, unless you want to get dragged back into all the shit Abbot and I fought to get you out of, I suggest you jump back in that old van of yours and go back home. Now, Sloane.”
“But...”
“I’m not kidding. You can’t be here.”
With all the teeth pulled out of my fight, I stumbled back. Did he know I was being set up with Abbot? He didn’t seem shocked in the slightest. What the hell is wrong with this family?
“Oh excellent,” he muttered, lifting a hand as the rumble of a Harley motor came our way. I turned to find Breaker riding up the long driveway with Jasmine on the back.
“What do I do?” I asked, suddenly in a panic. Did I leave or did I stay? Did I face Jasmine or keep my mouth shut? What was the play?
“Say hi. Tell her you were passing through and realised you forgot something.”
“Forgot what?”
He disappeared for a second then came back holding onto an old jumper that he shoved into my hands. It was then I realised he was not only wearing a T-shirt but track pants as well. The man did relax after all.
“Sloane,” Jasmine said when Breaker pulled up and cut the engine. Her voice was light and airy as she pulled off her helmet and ran her fingers through her hair. “What a nice surprise.”
“Hi. I was just passing through and realised I forgot this, ah…” I held the jumper up and read the printing on the front. “Torquay High jumper.”
I glanced at Toby who looked like he wanted to slap himself in the face while Jasmine came closer. “Class of ’95. That was your year, wasn’t it, Toby?”
“That was the wrong jumper,” he said, snatching the jumper back, trying to salvage the situation.
“Save it,” Jasmine quipped, obviously not buying it. “Why don’t you come inside, Sloane. Tell me why you’re really here.”
“I…”
Breaker clapped a hand on my shoulder and pressed his fingers in a little too firmly. “Think it’s best if you do as you’re told, missy.” He frogmarched me towards the door in Jasmine’s wake.
Oh fuck. This can’t be good.
“Jasmine,” Toby said in warning.
“We’re just talking, Toby. Relax.” She gestured for me to be taken into the formal living room while she asked for Breaker to ‘be a dear’ and get us something to drink.
We sat in silence while he brought us tea and cookies that he’d ‘baked this morning’ then stood in the archway like a sentry, the leather cut he was wearing displaying his Grim Order membership. Intimidating.
“Am I in trouble here?” I asked, feeling uneasy and a little foolish. I’d always been told there were consequences for getting too close to this family, but this was the first time I’d ever felt like there could be any real danger in associating with them. Stupid. How could I be that naïve when I knew what they did for a living?
Jasmine sipped her tea and crossed her legs. “I was under the impression that you no longer wanted anything to do with our business. We appreciated the work you did for us, and as a favour to Trevor—God rest his soul—we released you from any further commitment. For the second time in your life, mind you. Care to explain what you’re doing here now?”
“Uh…” I looked around for Toby, wanting his guidance, but he wasn’t in my line of sight. I was on my own here. Did I go with the truth, or did I make something up?
“Mum told me about your plan.” I went with the truth.
“Oh, she did? Not the brightest thing she’s ever done. Doesn’t she know you’re the quintessential redhead, full of fire and fury?”
“I’m afraid my mother doesn’t really know me at all.”
“Or did she want you to come back here?”
I pressed my fingers against my forehead. “Why don’t you tell me?” I had no fucking clue anymore.
“As far as I was concerned, we were done.” Jasmine sipped her tea and nibbled the edge of a cookie.
“I’m here to make sure we really are.”
“You seem so confused, Sloane. I always told your grandfather that you needed a more stable female role model in your life. Someone to guide you and help you find your true path.”
“Funny, he used to say your boys needed a stable male role model of their own.”
Her eyes flashed. “My boys got everything they needed from me. I turned them into men.”
“Men, or soldiers in your games?”
Her smile fell. “I don’t expect you to understand, Sloane. Trevor kept you sheltered for a long time, and I’m sure you preferred that. But you don’t get to come in here with your cloistered opinions and judge my choices or the way I run this family. My rule is what keeps us all safe. It’s what keeps us going, wealthy, powerful, and strong. I built us up from nothing and I will make sure that this family continues in that manner long after I’m gone. Whether it’s with you, or without you.”
“So you’re orchestrating a breeding program? Do you understand how insane that is?”
She laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m simply choosing women who are the best fit for this family and my sons. Who better to choose a wife for them than me—the person who moulded them? You should be flattered I considered you worthy.” Flattered?
“You have lost your mind.”
She sighed, seeming bored. “You’re being dramatic. I’m an even better matchmaker than Breaker is a baker. Have you tried these cookies?” She took a bite and spoke around the crumbs. “They’re to die for.”
“Thank you, baby,” Breaker said from his post.
“You are so talented,” she said, kissing the air in his direction before turning back to me. They were so weird. “Anyway, you’ve seen with your own eyes how happy my married sons are. Did I choose wrong for them? Was I wrong about you and Abbot, too? Tell me you feel nothing for him and maybe I’ll consider your opinion.”
I opened my mouth, but there was no way I was going to deny the feelings I had for Abbot. They’d only deepened in the time we were apart and were as true and as strong as my heartbeat. “It’s still wrong,” I whispered.
“Go and tell Abbot you’re in love with him.” It was a challenge, not a suggestion.
“He doesn’t want me.”
She narrowed her eyes, assessing me. “Are you sure about that?”
While she studied my expression, the unmistakeable roar of Abbot’s Jag came up the drive. He’s here? That was some epic-level timing.
“Here’s your knight in shinin’ armour,” Breaker said, looking out the front window. I ran my hand over my hair and pressed my palms together.
Jasmine smiled and folded her hands in her lap. “Five... Four...” Why is she counting? “Three… Two…”
“What the fuck is going on?” Abbot yelled, bursting through the front door.
“One,” Jasmine said at the same time. Sipping her tea and chuckli
ng as Abbot continued.
“Sloane?”
“I’m in here,” I called out, relieved he was here. I felt instantly better with his presence.
He appeared in the archway next to Breaker, his chest heaving, his expression stricken. He’s so damn beautiful. I’ve missed him so much.
“Toby’s been up to his usual tricks,” Jasmine stated, her face serene as both sons entered the room.
“This does concern him too,” Toby said, taking the seat farthest away from his mother. Abbot sat beside me, and despite the intensity of the situation, my heart did a little happy dance inside my chest.
“Why are you here, Slater?” he asked softly, his eyes searching mine.
My heart quit dancing. Way to make a girl feel unwelcome.
“She’s come to help with the transport job. Haven’t you, Sloane?” I wasn’t sure if Jasmine was lying to cover up the real reason, or if she was giving me a command.
“Uh, I don’t know about that. I actually came to find answers,” I said, turning back to Abbot. “Like, why our mothers were trying to bribe us into marrying each other.”
Abbot leapt back so fast, I thought he might hit the end of the couch and topple onto the floor. A commitment phobe to the very last breath. “Fucking what?”
“Oh my God,” Jasmine said with a dramatic eye-roll. “You’re both acting like I held a gun to your head. I orchestrated a meeting. Emma gave you a little push. Neither of which worked out, so we let it go. Get over yourselves. It was a set-up, not a marry or die situation.”
Abbot glared at her. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I know how you feel about such things. I gave you the choice. You chose wrong, by the way. You let her go and you’ve been a nightmare ever since.” He has?
“I…” Abbot shook his head, looking between his mother and me. “You’re a manipulative bitch, Jasmine.” Whoa.
“Call me a name I haven’t heard before,” she stated without even flinching. “But she’s back now, so either man up or quit storming in here to save her from my evil ways. It’s getting old, and despite what everyone else thinks, I think Sloane belongs here. With us. I helped shape her. She’s one of us.” Is this woman serious?
“She deserves to choose her own path and be happy, Mother,” Abbot ground out.
“We tried that. Twice. And her path led her here. Twice. That’s kismet if ever I saw it.”
I don’t like where this is going.
“Do not force a wedding, Mother,” Abbot said, his voice like the stomping of a foot.
Ow. I knew how against this he was already, but ow.
“I’m not asking you to. But, there are consequences.” She turned her attention elsewhere.
“Don’t you dare look at me,” Toby put in, and I thought I might scream for the second time that day. Instead, I jumped to my feet.
“I don’t want to marry any of you,” I yelled, storming towards the door while muttering to myself about the insanity of these people and the fact they actually had the gall to think they could decide my life for me.
“Maybe you should sit back down,” Breaker said, catching me by the arm with a firm grip.
“I don’t want to sit back down. I want to go home. Coming back here was nothing but a fool’s errand.”
“No,” Jasmine said. “You made the perfect choice coming here. We have a job coming up that requires your lock-picking skills. Stay, teach my sons what you know, and we’ll compensate you handsomely. I don’t need you to marry into the family to utilise your skills. But what I do need is your understanding that you operate as a consultant from this point on. When I require your efforts, I will contact you directly, give you a price, and the rest of the job will come out of your own pocket. You will liaise with Toby or me, and depending on the work, you may have contact with the others. However, since you aren’t joining the family, you won’t be socialising with us anymore. There are to be no public connections or meetups, nor joint celebrations or parties—nothing from this point on. You get in, you do the job, and you get out. You’ll remove our information from your phone and contact us only via an unlocked Blackberry that will be changed out regularly. You never come back to the house. We are no longer friends. Do you understand?” Wow.
I was suddenly a business associate, no longer welcome in their home. In their lives. And it stung. Only a moment ago she’d berated Abbot for letting me go, but now she was forcefully pushing me out of her family once and for all. I didn’t know what was beating in that woman’s chest, but it couldn’t possibly be a heart.
“Do I even have choice?”
“Not anymore, no,” she stated simply, getting out of her chair and walking towards me. “Now, we’ll get you set up with what you need. Toby?” She swung her eyes in his direction momentarily, returning her attention my way before continuing. “There’s a lovely resort in town. I suggest you make use of their serviced apartments and facilities to keep yourself close but out of the way while we’re in training for this job. A month or two should do it, but Toby will fill you in on the particulars when you’re settled.”
“Ah.” It was a small sound of exasperation while I stood at the mouth of the room and wondered how the fuck coming here to yell at her turned into a job I wasn’t allowed to say no to.
“Fine. I’ll marry her,” Abbot said suddenly, his eyes closed and his brow creased like he was defeated.
Defeated.
Jasmine grinned.
Fine. I’ll marry her.
What the actual fuck?
“Stick it up your arse, Abbot,” I returned, scrunching my face up in utter offence. How dare he? “Stick it so far up that you choke on it. I don’t want you. Not like this. Not at all. Fuck this. Fuck all of you.”
Why even suggest that? So I wasn’t cut off from the family? It didn’t make any sense, and I was above taking scraps. I had some pride.
When I turned this time, Breaker let me go. Not that I got far; the front door was locked. “Can someone let me the fuck out of this house?” My voice sounded hoarse with emotion.
Toby came up behind me with a set of keys and unlocked the door, holding out an old Blackberry phone and a Post-it Note with a number written on top of an address. “Don’t call us on anything but the Blackberry. This is what the job’s worth and where you need to be on Monday at nine in the morning. Take the weekend at home, pack your stuff, and remember—if you try to run, I can find you. Wherever you are. I will bring you back.”
I snatched the items from his hand, feeling sick to my stomach. “I get it. Show up for work. Keep my mouth shut and do as I’m told.”
“That a girl,” he said.
“Fuck you, Toby.”
“For what it’s worth, Sloane. I tried, OK?”
“Tried to leave or tried to keep me out of it?”
He smiled softly as he opened the front door to let me go without an answer.
With a tight ball of emotion in my chest, I turned the phone over in my hand, a black piece of ancient-looking technology that I wasn’t even sure how to use. I tried…
Seemed none of us could fully get out.
* * *
Taking a detour to Bendigo on the way home, I stopped in to visit my mother, needing to talk to someone who knew Jasmine. I didn’t care that I’d screamed at her earlier in the day, the woman was the kind of person who could stab you in the thigh then say, “Oh my God, that was so five minutes ago,” while you were howling in pain. So, I had no problem showing up unannounced demanding answers and clarity.
“Sloane,” she said with a smile when she answered her door, still wearing that silk scarf even though she was home. “This is unexpected. Come inside.”
Leading me towards the lounge room, she opened a cabinet that was full of liquor bottles. “It’s after five, so I’m offering a drink instead of tea. Unless of course you want Long Island.”
“I have to drive.”
“So, whisky neat?”
“One f
inger,” I replied, taking a seat on her floral couch.
“Here to shoot the breeze or talk about this job Jasmine has you doing?” She handed me a glass and sat across from me.
“My God, she’s already told you?”
“Of course. We’ve always talked where you’re concerned.”
Sipping my whiskey, I leaned back in the chair. “Why is everyone messing around with my life?”
She shrugged. “Have you considered it’s because we care?”
“Wouldn’t caring mean you support me in following my own path?”
“People care in their own ways, baby. It doesn’t always fit our expectations.”
“You think that’s what my problem is? I expect too much?”
“I don’t know, Sloane. I honestly don’t know why you’d expect anything after your upbringing. I was raised by the same man, and I certainly don’t. Trevor always cared, but he wasn’t the most loving man.”
I sighed. My mother had a convoluted way of looking at things. I knew she left me with Pop because she ‘wasn’t the mothering kind’. But if she thought he’d fucked her up with his stoic ways, why put that on me too? Ugh. No wonder I was fucked in the head.
“So, what do I do about this job offer of Jasmine’s?”
“It’s not a job offer, sweetheart. It just is. Do what they ask, get paid and keep your nose clean.”
“Keep my nose clean. Pop always said that too.”
“He said it to me as well. Or did he say ‘keep your money clean’? I can’t remember which one.”
“Think you can help me with that?”
“Cleaning your money?”
I emptied my glass. “Yeah.” I didn’t like the woman in front of me, and I had no remorse feeling like that. But on the drive there I’d made a decision: this was business. I’d been forced into a job I didn’t want, to work with people I needed to keep at arm’s length. There are to be no public connections or meetups, no joint celebrations or parties... You get in, you do the job, and you get out… You never come back to the house. I’d covered myself with an armour of detachment and come here. This wouldn’t be a bonding session but a necessary schooling of skills I’d never been shown. It was my life now, and I would—could—embrace it.
Fool’s Errand: Cartwright Brothers, Book 4 Page 20
