Saving Red

by Carter Blake

  In her closet there are piles of boxes lining one of the upper shelves. One of them boasts a label that reads Family Pictures. It bothers me for some reason, but I can’t put my finger on it.

  I reach for every box and bring them down to the floor. The first I look through are filled with mementos, napkins with illegible scrawls that my grandmother used to jot down things she needed to remember, and other miscellaneous useless pieces of paper.

  Then it hits me. All the family pictures we had are on display in Redmond Estate’s long corridors. My family isn’t the sort that would have personal and casual pictures hidden in the closet.

  Hopeful that this might be the answer to all my problems, I remove the lid at once. Inside, I find neatly folded documents. The first page tells me what it is: Last Will and Testament. The date on it is of the week prior to my grandmother’s death.

  Jared’s papers are all dated to a month before her death.

  I scramble to leaf through all the pages, reading faster than I ever have before. My heart pounds on my chest as I see the carefully detailed plans that specify that upon her death, all of my grandmother’s properties, family holdings, and belongings, are to pass to me.

  There is no provision with restrictions. No mention of a fucking trustee.

  The sum of my inheritance is well over eight figures. So, not the pittance I thought. And it’s all mine to control as I see fit.

  The best part is what I find on the last page. My grandmother’s signature is different from what I saw on Jared’s documents.

  It dawns on me that this is it. This is the smoking gun I needed.

  I knock a few of the boxes over, spilling their contents across the floor, as I make my quick getaway to go tell the staff what I found.

  Chapter 8

  Ash

  Amber’s home is cramped, but no more so than my small accommodations at the Redmond Estate had been. The difference is that it’s filled with love and laughter, especially little Bailey’s. My nephew might have the misfortune of being the son of a charlatan, but his upbringing is all Amber.

  As soon as I arrived, Wolfe started paying child support. He’s skirted his responsibilities for years but now that I’m here, he’s honoring his part of our bargain. I keep my ears to the ground and see what information I can glean about what’s happening at the Redmond Estate. The purse strings shut pretty tightly on Ella, but I know that Wolfe won’t let it stay that way for too long.

  He’s pinching the pennies for now because it’s a scare tactic. Once Ella has had enough, he assumes she’ll go crawling to him. Then he’ll be her savior and he’ll have an in with her again.

  For a man who spent so many years working on Ella’s grandmother and being in close proximity to know how Ella works, he’s clueless. The day I left, I broke Ella’s heart. But it’s for the best.

  Once Wolfe makes his move, I’ll find a way to get in touch with her and share my suspicions.

  It might just be that she’ll end up with him. He’s scary, controlling, and an all-around asshole, but he orbits her world. He’s on her level.

  The thought alone makes me itch to kick someone’s ass.

  I spend too many hours of the day thinking about Ella. Her hair, her pale skin, her full lips, and her body.

  God, that body.

  It’s enough to make my cock hard even though I know I shouldn’t be thinking of her that way anymore.

  “Are you any closer to finding a job?” Amber asks.

  “No.”

  Yeah, that’s another lie I told Ella. There’s no job. There’s nothing except what money we’re receiving from Wolfe. If not for the fact that it’s his money that keeps us off the streets, I know there isn’t a person in this little apartment that would accept it. Even little Bailey is smart enough to know his father is a deadbeat.

  Once upon a time, my family wasn’t in such dire straits. That all changed when Wolfe came into the picture. His family swindled us for all we were worth, leaving us penniless and Amber in trouble.

  I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that she once went to bed with him without any threats hanging over her head. How anyone can mistake any act of his as benevolence or decency is beyond me. But I can’t hold it against Amber because she has it hard enough already.

  “I don’t want to take that man’s money forever,” she says.

  Amber avoids saying his name because she doesn’t want Bailey to know when she’s talking about Wolfe. I haven’t told her I suspect Bailey knows everything that happens. Kids are like that. They pick up on everything and are far more aware than most adults give them credit for.

  “I know,” I say. “I’m trying but there just isn’t anything. You know how it is, with this economy. And besides, as much as I hate him, that money is for Bailey. Bleed him dry if you can.”

  “I can’t believe you gave up your job,” she says.

  She’s doing the dishes while Bailey plays with his toys on the floor. I’m reading the paper, looking at the classifieds to see if I can find anything that might pan out. It’s slim pickings out there for us unemployed folk.

  “Well, believe it.”

  I avoid this subject as much as I can because I don’t want to face Amber’s wrath when she finds out how I left things. She’ll call me a coward just as Ella had. Maybe that’s what I am. Maybe I should’ve fought harder.

  There’s a knock at the door—a quick tap tap tap. Bailey jumps up to answer it. He’s at that age when he wants to take on as many adult tasks as he can. It’s adorable but also dangerous if we don’t know who it is. It’s not like he’s tall enough to check the peephole and tell us.

  “Hold on, buddy,” I say. “Let me get this one.”

  The look he gives me makes me feel like I kicked his puppy. I make a mental note to make it up to him later.

  Forgetting to check the peephole myself, I open the door. On the other side stands Ella.

  “Red,” I say.

  “We have to talk,” she says, barging in without waiting for my invitation. I shake my head, but I’m smiling because it’s typical Ella.

  “Ella, this is my sister, Amber.”

  Amber dries off her hands and looks at me quizzically. Ella isn’t looking at me but rather at Bailey, shocked.

  That’s probably because he’s the spitting image of Wolfe. I mouth, It’s okay to my sister.

  Ella just looks at Bailey for the longest time. “Is he…?”

  “Yeah. Unfortunately.”

  “God.”

  She takes a deep breath. She remembers her manners and greets Amber, getting all the pleasantries out of the way.

  “You won’t believe what I uncovered,” she finally says. “He lied. There’s no trustee for the estate. He made it all up. The money is all mine. Everything is mine. He played me for a fool.”

  I want to say all of this blows my hair back, but the truth is, it doesn’t. Ella’s grandmother was a kooky old woman, and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that she really did leave things in that nonsensical state when she died. Nevertheless, it did strike me as odd. I just couldn’t prove my suspicious at the time.

  The fact his actions don’t shock me doesn’t mean I’m not angry.

  “Who did?” Amber asks.

  There are a lot of blanks she’s not aware of, and there’s no time to bring her up to speed with Ella here.

  “Jared Wolfe,” Ella replies. “He—he’s a crook.”

  Ella launches into the whole sordid tale, starting with the very first day she got back to the Redmond Estate and ending with how she found everything out. Amber is riveted throughout the whole thing, even gasping at some of the hairier parts. Little Bailey doesn’t pay us any mind, lost in his playacting.

  It’s probably for the best.

  “So, I want to talk to you,” Ella says. She’s shy all of a sudden. Turning to Amber, she adds, “And it’s the kind of thing I would like to do privately, if possible.”

  Amber takes the hint and carries Ba
iley over to her bedroom.

  “Red, I am so sorry,” I begin saying.

  She shushes me. “No, I am. I was so hurt when you left the way you did. I cursed you in my mind for days. Weeks. I never stopped to consider that…”

  “It’s okay. This is all my fault. I never should’ve left you alone.”

  “I’m glad you see it that way.” She clears her throat. “I want you to come back. I want to give you your old job, with a sizable raise, of course.”

  That takes me aback. “Red, look—”

  “No, you listen. You didn’t have to leave, and you yourself said just now that it was a mistake. So please come back.”

  She looks so fucking beautiful, with the loose strands of hair framing her face. She’s wearing no make-up, but her lips are still rose red. So kissable. If I hadn’t fucked it up with her…

  “I can’t go back. Not as an employee. It’s not what I want.”

  “I don’t understand. Now, with Jared gone and everything perfect, you don’t want to come back? Am I that repulsive? Did it really mean nothing to you? Did—”

  “Red, listen!” That gets her to shut up. “I don’t think I could go back to just being a worker on your estate. I know I said a lot of mean things when I left, but it was only because I thought that me distancing myself from you was ultimately in your best interest. But you have no idea how fucked up it left me. It made me realize that…”

  “What?” She’s hanging off my every word, and that gives me hope.

  “You’re… You’re everything.”

  I hold my hand out, giving her the option of taking it or not. She does and comes close to me. Our faces are mere inches away from each other.

  The urge to kiss her is intoxicating.

  But I don’t dare. I need to get through what I have to say.

  “I want more,” I say. The room gets very quiet, so quiet that it would be possible to hear a pin drop. “I want forever with you.”

  “You’re serious?” she whispers.

  “Yes, I’m serious,” I say. I take her response so far as leave to bring her closer. “So, what do you say?”

  “I say yes!” she cries.

  “Yes?” I ask again, this time just teasing her.

  “Yes, you moron. It’s always been you.”

  I waste no more time. There’s a lot of time I could’ve spent with her the past month to make up for.

  I start with a kiss.

  There’s forever to get to all the rest, and I plan to make good use of every moment.

  Epilogue

  Ella

  The first snow of the year falls on my wedding day. We’re on the clearing that served as inspiration for my painting after the first time we slept together. It’s like a scene out of a fairy tale. The snowflakes float like there are a thousand wizards hiding behind the curtains with their wands out, levitating them with an ancient incantation.

  Ash is a handsome groom. I ended up opting for a tuxedo wedding, and though the formal attire makes him feel out of his element, he never complains. He also doesn’t let go of me for the entire evening.

  Our first dance is a gift to me. He took lessons in the strictest secrecy, and I only found out when he dragged me out to the dance floor. The string ensemble we hired to perform starts a slow waltz which makes me squeal.

  I’m a sucker for these little things. Which don’t feel so little when I’m with him.

  For the first time in my life, I have everything that I could ever wish for.

  My gorgeous home is an idyllic country estate.

  I’m like a princess.

  I have my prince.

  And we both got the justice we deserved.

  Shortly after I discovered Jared’s deception, the authorities took over. It goes way beyond unethical behavior perpetrated by a soon-to-be-disbarred attorney. His family had an entire house of cards built on the backs of honest people like Ash and his family. The investigation turned up a pattern of fraud and abuse going back several decades.

  And Jared was dumb enough to leave his fingerprints all over it.

  I’ll say one thing for him, never has a person been so dishonest and so clever about it, while also setting themselves up for failure. He never imagined his little plan to strip me of my birthright and force a marriage down my throat wouldn’t be fruitful. It all hinged on me being a dumb girl.

  His arrogance was his downfall.

  Now there’s poetic justice.

  Their plan to monopolize the area surrounding the estate had gone perfectly. Then my grandmother died before Jared conned her into leaving it all to him or at least making it very difficult for her next of kin—me—to access.

  Faced with the prospect of losing all his family worked so hard for, he created the charade with me. If they managed to trick so many folks for years, what would a spoiled young woman who hadn’t even finished her undergrad be?

  Easy as pie. Or so they thought.

  Stupid, stupid people.

  Turns out the entire Wolfe clan is shady. Now they’re getting what they deserve.

  I’m now convinced my grandmother was right. Selling off the land for commercial development would be a sin. Which is why Ash and I will take up residence there, just as soon as we return from our honeymoon. With his sister only a couple of miles away in a comfortable home of her own, it couldn’t have worked out better.

  Wolfe’s in jail, where he’ll remain for years to come. Even longer, if I—or, better yet, Ash—have anything to do with it.

  Ash twirls me around, and my full skirt swells around me.

  “What are you thinking about?” he whispers in my ear when he spins me back to face his front.

  “Oh, nothing,” I say with a teasing smile.

  “You have this intense, kinda turned-on look, and I just want to make sure you know that the Redmond Estate is very, very close to here, in case you want to slip out…” He trails off, leaving so much to my imagination.

  We don’t break eye contact for several beats. He leans in and takes my world by storm with a magical kiss that leaves me breathless.

  Heat.

  Passion.

  Wicked pleasure.

  I can’t wait to let my husband ravish me the way only he knows how.

  The End.

  More Naughty Beasts & Filthy Princes

  Book 1 Saving Red (Little Red Riding Hood)

  Book 2 Guarding Beauty (Sleeping Beauty)

  Book 3 Craving Snow (Snow White)

  Book 4 Owning Swan (Ugly Duckling)

  PREVIEW: Thunderstruck

  Sixteen Years Old

  Thunder

  The air ripples between us.

  A spark of energy. A sizzle of light.

  I promised myself years ago that no one would ever hold the power to hurt me. But this girl has the power to destroy me.

  “It’s cold out here.” Kennedy shivers and rubs her bare arms.

  “Here.” I tug off my hoodie, then help her into it.

  She’s tiny, barely coming up to my chin, and the sweatshirt is huge on her. I let my hands linger a little longer than I should.

  “Thanks,” she says, looking up at me. The nervous tension between us is palpable.

  “It’s almost midnight. You don’t want to miss the fireworks.” At least that’s my excuse for dragging her out here, away from the New Year’s Eve party her parents are hosting inside. What I really want to do is pull her into my arms and crush my lips against hers.

  Not happening.

  “We should be able to see them from here.” I pull away and take a sip of the beer I stole from my father's stash.

  When I offer her one, she scrunches her nose up at it, instead snuggling into the warmth of my sweatshirt. Her eyes go wide when she notices the new ink covering my forearms. “Oh my God. Is that real?”

  “Yeah.” I grin, proud of the web of patterns I designed myself.

  “Your dad let you?”

  “Like he cares,” I sneer, which isn’t exactly true
. He beat the shit out of me when he saw it.

  “How?” She takes my arm in her hands and begins tracing the patterns.

  Almost instantly, I’m rock hard.

  “Three hundred dollars and a fake ID.” I shrug, like it’s not a big deal, like her touch doesn’t send a thousand bolts of electricity pulsating through my body.

  “It’s…” she bites her lip, fingers still playing across the ink, sending more sparks of heat thrumming through my veins, “beautiful.”

  I lean in, mesmerized by her perfect mouth, and wanting nothing more than to taste those lips.

  “Beautiful,” I murmur, brushing a lock of blonde hair off her cheek and tucking it behind her ear.

  So fucking beautiful.

  That’s what she is.

  And so much more.

  Kind.

  Sweet.

  Pure.

  All the things I’m not.

  I’ve known Kennedy Harper my entire life. She’s practically family. So why the hell can’t I control my thoughts around her?

  “Ten, nine, eight…” Inside, people start the count down to the New Year. “…seven, six, five…”

  I drain the last of my beer, then place it on the railing.

  “…four, three, two…”

  In the distance, the first flashes of light brighten up the night sky.

  Kennedy stands against the railing, and I move behind her. When she shivers, I go against all common sense, and pull her back towards me, wrapping my arms around her body, and leaning down so that my head rests on top of hers.

  I dip my head towards hers, breathing in the scent of her; watching her eyes light up as the fireworks go off.

  She leans back into me, like she wants my touch.

  I should step away, but instead I press in closer. I’m so far out of my comfort zone with all these emotions twisting in my chest.