by Calista Fox
I reached for the receiver as distress rippled through me. “This is Ari.”
“Of course it is, darling. I’m sure you knew it was me calling. How lovely that you have an assistant.”
“What do you want?” I had no desire to engage in small talk with her. I knew what prompted the beast to rear its ugly head—money. Plain and simple.
“Wouldn’t you like to hear how I’m doing?” she asked in her delicate tone. The one I had little patience for because I was onto her. “The Olstead Benefit is this Friday at the Biltmore, so I’m busy with salon appointments and still on the lookout for the perfect gown. I really don’t want to buy off the rack, in the event someone else has selected the same Louis Vuitton or Oscar de la Renta. You know, everyone has been copying Amal Clooney’s wedding gown and I just don’t want to match anyone or wear some sort of knockoff—”
“Mother, you’re living the life of a socialite when you are, in fact, not one. Use the Dillard’s certificate I gave you—along with the others you’ve likely stockpiled because they’re ‘not Nordstrom’—and buy a damn dress the way normal people do. At the fucking mall.” Okay, so I’d just snapped. But I knew it was only a matter of time before she showed her true colors. Why beat around the bush about it?
“Aria Lynne DeMille,” she scolded in her haughty voice.
“Mother, I’m at work. Working. A concept that goes well beyond your comprehension, obviously. But it’s how I pay my rent and expenses. I’m under a lot of pressure here and I don’t have time for you to suddenly drop into my life pretending to be my parent. I’ve been perfectly fine with our disassociation. I accepted a long time ago that all you care about is you—not Dad, not me. So stop with the bullshit and tell me why you’re calling.”
“Well, I just…” She huffed, as though I’d hurt her feelings. One would actually have to have feelings in order for them to be hurt. So I didn’t take the bait. “When did you become so cruel?”
I closed my eyes as tears burned. Me, the cruel one? I’d spent the first eighteen years of my life trying to get this woman to love me. At the very least, to notice me. The next eight years had been wrapped around self-therapy, trying to survive my messed-up childhood.
I thought back to the time before I’d met Dane, when I kept everyone at arm’s length, not letting anyone close, not letting anyone touch me except on those rare occasions when I’d craved it a bit too much to deny a quick interaction.
That had all changed. I had friends now. I was surrounded by people all day and I liked them. Finally, I was normal. Well, relatively speaking, since I was addicted to one very dark and broody man, but still …
I could honestly say that, despite the drama in my life, I was happy. I was in love and loved in return.
The woman on the other end of the line who professed to be my mother was, in all honesty, simply someone I used to know. And while I wasn’t a proponent of severing parental ties, in this case I had to admit that it was time.
I pulled in a long breath, then said, “Look, I understand that you feel some false sense of entitlement. Maybe it’s because of all the money Dad made before his injuries. Maybe it’s all the trendy, prestigious places we were invited to, the circle you were all a part of in the professional world of golf. I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t care. You willingly chose to screw up your marriage, and for the life of me, I still can’t fathom why Dad was the one who had to suffer because you were the one to do something wrong. But I am smart enough to know why you’re suddenly dropping into my world, and I’m telling you it’s pointless. So stop calling me.”
Her tone turned downright vicious—the voice I remembered from my childhood. “You’re not the one in control here, Aria Lynne. You hurt me, I’ll hurt your father.”
I slammed the phone into its cradle. My heart pounded. Anger flashed through me. So, too, did anxiety.
How could I have forgotten who she truly was? Why hadn’t I recalled from the onset that it was Maleficent I dealt with?
I dropped my head in my hands. I could rattle off some stone-cold words to her but they meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. They tore at me more than they ever would at her, because it was my own mother I lashed out at. Even if she was the furthest thing from being my mother, it wasn’t easy to rise to her level. The fact that I had worried me a little. But above that, I had the very distinct and sinking feeling that I couldn’t walk the walk.
How was I going to protect my dad and still make my car payments?
“Ari?”
Oh, shit.
Dane.
I sniffled and swiped at my tears before lifting my head.
“What is it?” He was instantly alarmed and stalking across my office.
Damn my mother for calling me at work. This was a private matter and yet here I was, painted into a corner with one more person with whom I couldn’t go toe-to-toe.
“Mommie Dearest has taken to phoning me at work. I’m trying to get her to stop.”
His gaze narrowed. “I thought the two of you didn’t speak.”
“We didn’t. And I’d gotten over it. Then she started seeing my name and photos in papers and magazines. Suddenly she wants to be besties.”
That was a total lie—she didn’t want friendship or anything beyond more checks. And Dane saw right through me.
Taking one of the chairs in front of my desk, he rested his forearms on the glass top and steepled his fingers. Fingers that distracted me. I’d much rather have his hands on me than have this conversation with him.
“What’s really going on?”
“Nothing for you to worry about,” I told him. “I can handle it.”
Wow, I was doling out a few whoppers today.
He regarded me closely for several seconds, then nodded his head. “If you say so.”
It was my turn to eye him curiously. “And that’s that?”
“If you needed my help, you’d ask for it, right?”
I smiled, despite knowing I wasn’t on par with my mother’s wily ways. She was much more cunning—which meant I had to either resort to Dane rescuing me yet again or step up my game. Because I didn’t want him involved any more than I wanted my dad tormented further.
“She wants money,” I confessed. “But it’s my problem and I’ll figure it out.”
He hedged. I saw the wheels churning in his brain, caught the hint of alpha in his eyes.
“Dane,” I warned. “This is a family thing I need to deal with—not something for you to fix.”
“But you know I can.”
“And you hear me asking you not to,” I challenged.
His jaw worked rigorously for a moment. Then he said, “If you insist.”
“I do.” And I meant it.
Luckily, a knock on my opened door saved me from continuing this discussion.
“Hey,” Kyle said. “We have a meeting in the conf—” He frowned. “Why are you crying?”
“I’m not crying.” I swept my hands over my face to erase any evidence to the contrary.
Dane stood and faced my friend. “Everything’s fine, according to Ari.”
“According to Ari.” Kyle stepped into the room. “But not you?”
I got to my feet as well and rounded the desk, standing between the two men.
“It’s just a little family drama,” I said. “Let’s go to our meeting.”
Behind me, Dane scoffed.
Kyle simmered. “You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you? Ever since that day in the bar when the guy with the tattoo grabbed you, you’ve been living on the edge.”
“That’s not fair,” I bit back. “I didn’t ask for him to—”
“Wait a second,” Dane interjected. “Kyle has a point.”
I whirled around and glared at Dane. “You’re siding with him? What sort of alternate universe did I just wake up in?”
With a grim look that conveyed displeasure with my glib comment as much as it revealed a new level of consternation, Dane said in a gruff v
oice, “That guy in the bar had a diamondback tattoo. There are no snakes on this property. I have people who make sure of it. There isn’t an infestation of scorpions, either. And yes, your office was bugged.”
“Holy shit,” Kyle said. “Okay, am I the only one who thinks this is all jacked to hell?”
Ignoring him, Dane told me, “A snake sitting on the fourth-floor landing would have been planted. Security cameras weren’t operating at the time, so it would have been easy for anyone who had access to release it there, knowing you always took the stairs.”
“Someone who had a thing for snakes?” I ventured as my blood ran cold. “Someone who might even have pet rattlers?”
“And if he doesn’t have a problem handling snakes, he wouldn’t mind collecting a few scorpions, either.”
My stomach churned. “I just might be sick.”
“The guy was pissed that I stepped in at the bar,” Dane said. “Pretty easy to exact his own revenge when all he had to do was open a newspaper and see your face—just like your mom. Not difficult to put two and two together when it’s a well-known fact I own the hotel where you work.”
I sank into the chair he’d vacated. “Oh, boy. Now I know why you’ve been so adamant about keeping your exposure on the Internet and elsewhere to a minimum. With the exception of the very obvious and simple-to-discover detail that the Lux is yours.”
“This is fucking unbelievable,” Kyle muttered. “Are you saying…?” He shook his head as his fists clenched at his sides. “Great. This is just great. So it’s not Ari who’s the trouble magnet.” He glowered at Dane. “You’re the reason she’s constantly in danger.”
“Kyle,” I pleaded, not quite having the wherewithal for a confrontation between the two of them.
“Way to go, Buttercup,” he lobbed back at me. I smirked.
Dane dragged a hand down his face. “What?”
“Inside joke,” I explained. Instantly realizing my mistake as his head slowly turned and he shot me a you did not just say that look.
I’d made the entire scene worse.
“So she really is the target here,” Kyle said, agitated. “Because of you.”
Dane’s attention returned to Kyle. “I think you’ve made your point.”
Kyle took several steps forward. “Have I?”
I jumped up and moved between them again. “Knock it off,” I demanded, my pulse racing. To Kyle, I said, “He’s a boxer. You’re a quarterback. I don’t doubt it’d be an interesting showdown, but fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to solve the problem.”
“I’m going to solve the problem,” Dane said as he stormed around us and headed to the door. “All of them, now that I know all the sources.”
“Dane—” I called out, not liking the sharp edge to his voice or the tension in his shoulders.
“Stay here, Ari. Kyle … Goddamn it. Make sure nothing happens to her.”
“Definitely not on my watch.”
Dane let out a low, primal growl before stalking off.
“You just have to provoke him, don’t you?”
He glanced over at me. “And you can’t resist all this risky business.”
“It’s not as though I’m enjoying this. Have you ever been stung by a scorpion?”
“No.” His jaw clenched again. “I’m a little more careful.”
“Stop kicking me when I’m down.”
His entire visage softened instantly. “Ari…”
I waved a hand at him. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll survive. Let’s go to our meeting.”
“Right. Like you can concentrate on work when you have no idea what Dark Knight there just set out to do.”
It’d be hell to focus on business, but what choice did I have? “We have a ton of things to tackle. I’m not letting anything fall through the cracks because of me.”
I collected my files and notebook and preceded Kyle out the door and down the corridor to the main conference room, where I did everything in my power to get through the rest of my day, keeping my shaky hands in my lap and forcing a bit of calm into my voice.
On the inside, however, I was nothing short of a nervous wreck.
chapter 22
My mother called my cell the next morning. My tension hadn’t eased the slightest bit from the day before. Especially when Dane had told me he’d learned the identity of snake-tat guy and that he’d apparently skipped town after paying off a few debts. Dane suspected he hadn’t acted solely on his own—that someone had likely offered him substantial cash to torture me. The very cryptic, “Don’t worry, I’ll find him,” from Dane only made me more apprehensive.
“I don’t have anything new to say to you,” I told my mother.
“It was all a bluff,” she unexpectedly blurted, her voice cracking. “There is no synopsis, chapters, proposal. I made it all up.”
I sank onto the armrest of a sofa in the great room and asked, “You what?”
“I had no choice but to blackmail you, Aria Lynne. I needed the money.”
“Needed?” As in past tense.
“Everything’s fine now,” she rushed on, as though she wanted off the phone ASAP. “I won’t bother you again. Ever. I understand you don’t want me in your life and that’s fine. Consider me gone.”
My stomach knotted. “Just like that?”
“I don’t know what sort of people you associate with—I’m not even really sure who you are. But you won’t hear from me again.” The line went dead.
I sat for a few minutes, trying to process what had just happened. Then I slowly got to my feet and sought out Dane in his office.
“You couldn’t be in two places at once yesterday,” I said without preamble. “So while Amano tracked down tat guy, you were … what? Buying off my mother?”
“She won’t cause trouble for you in the future. I made sure of it.” He didn’t even look up from his laptop, just kept typing.
I stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words as anger roiled through me. I tried to tamp it down, but there were some seriously conflicting feelings clawing at me and I couldn’t get a grip on them. My mother thought I’d become some sort of monster. Had I?
Because I was perfectly happy that I wouldn’t have to deal with her ever again. That she wouldn’t hurt my dad any more than she already had. It was a monumental relief, really. A huge weight off my shoulders.
Conversely …
“You had no right to take care of this. I was handling it.”
Finally, he glanced up. “Were you? Or were you just feeding into her scheme? Because she kept calling you, didn’t she? And five grand here or five grand there would have only snowballed into more and more—until all you were doing was signing over your paycheck to her. And, baby, you work too damn hard to make that sort of sacrifice.”
I wanted to cry. He was right, of course. At the same time, I honestly feared how he’d reconciled the issue. My mother had not sounded normal on the phone. In fact, she’d sounded terrified.
“You threatened her?”
“I got her name from Molly, since she’s called twice at the office. I had someone who works for me locate her. She happened to be at home, which made it easy to write her a check and tell her to stay the hell out of your life.”
“You just said money wouldn’t solve the problem.”
“I said five grand here or there wouldn’t solve the problem. Trust me, she understands that my offer was a one-shot deal.”
“Because you threatened her,” I repeated.
“I did what I had to in order to get my point across.”
That flash of danger in his eyes—the darkness that rimmed his emerald irises—told me very specifically why my mother had been so nervous on the phone.
And the dark side of me that I’d not known existed until now made me pleased that she’d finally gotten a taste of her own medicine. She’d tormented my dad. She’d broken both of our hearts. And she hadn’t cared that she’d done it.
“Ari,” Dane said as he stoo
d and came around to take me in his arms. “None of this is new to me. My entire life has centered around protecting what’s mine. Sometimes there are simple solutions, sometimes not. I’m willing to do whatever I have to do. Anything.”
I gnawed my lower lip. Then asked, “You know when to draw the line, though, right?”
“I currently don’t have any lines. Too much is at stake. You. 10,000 Lux. Hell, even your dad’s reputation. You really think I’d let her publicly rip a hole in him again? He’s your father. You love him. And I respect him. So I stood up for him—and you.”
I realized that all of the shadowy parts of our life together were not strictly Dane’s doing or a result of his personal and professional dealings. I’d brought baggage along to darken our doorstep, too. I wanted an end to it all as much as Dane did.
What kind of a person did that make me?
Regardless of good intentions or the need to protect the people and things we loved, the bottom line seemed to be that we’d both do whatever we had to do.
The question was, could I live with that?
* * *
In the afternoon, Kyle joined me on the terrace outside my office.
“You okay?” he asked as he rested an arm against the railing.
“Sure. You?”
He gave a sardonic laugh. “I’ve lost a little sleep over you.”
“Don’t,” I was quick to say. “It’s not worth it, Kyle.”
He stared at me for several suspended seconds, then said, “I happen to think it is.”
With a sigh, I told him, “I care about you, too.”
“Which is why you didn’t want to see my devastatingly handsome face rearranged? Though, for the record, I’d put money on the quarterback.”
“I’d prefer it if we didn’t find out whether you could last a few rounds with Dane.” I still had no doubt who the victor would be. Kyle could hold his own for a while but I knew Dane would channel all that territorial intensity into a standoff. And it wouldn’t be pretty.
A tremor ran down my spine. I didn’t even want to think of the two of them taking swings at each other. I’d had enough drama, enough danger, to last a lifetime.
“So where is Surly, anyway?” he asked.
