Own (Need #3)

by K. I. Lynn

  I just fucked her in the ass, and now she wants to talk about Emily. That’s so wrong, yet I have no choice but to come clean. At this point, not doing so is going to cause even more problems for us.

  Struggling to catch my breath, I sit up. “My father had a daughter twelve years ago that no one knew about until her mom walked into the hospital my mom works at and Mom saw her resemblance to me.”

  Kira’s jaw unhinges and she just stares at me in shock.

  “I’ve been following him for weeks. Trying to catch him cheating on your mom. That’s where I’ve been going. And also to visit Emily and her mother so we could do a DNA test and prove she’s my sister.”

  She covers her open mouth with her hand, horror dawning in her expression.

  “It gets worse.” I really want to get up, drag her to the bathroom, clean us both up, and crawl into bed with her. Finish the conversation there. But now that I’m confessing, it’s like a floodgate’s opened and I can’t shut the fuck up. “Emily’s mother . . . she’s my dad’s cousin. He roofied her and raped her at a family event.”

  Kira drops her hand. “No. No, no. My mom. No.” Her head shakes back and forth, and she stands up suddenly.

  I follow her and grab her by the arms before she can pick up her phone. “Kitty, what are you doing?”

  “My mom. I have to be the one to tell her. She’s going to be ruined.”

  “You can’t, Kira.”

  Her eyes snap to mine. “What?”

  I take a deep breath, praying she isn’t so caught up in her worry for her mom that she won’t see reason. “Emily is twelve. It happened a long time ago. No police report was ever filed against my father for the rape. It’s his cousin’s word against his. Your mom is obsessed with my dad. She’s dependent. This won’t be enough to get her to let him go.”

  Kira steps back away from me, her eyes searching mine. “That’s why you’ve been stalking him. To catch him cheating. It’s the only thing that’s truly unforgivable in my mom’s book.”

  Even though she was my father’s mistress. I’m not stupid. I see the hypocrisy in Sonia’s thinking.

  But it is what it is.

  I swallow nervously and nod. This is it. The moment I’m forced to face her censure for the path I’ve gone down.

  “Brayden . . . I need you to tell me the truth now. All of it.”

  I nod again eagerly. I’ll do anything as long as she doesn’t turn away from me.

  “I’m going to ask you something.”

  “Anything,” I say.

  “Were you the one that sent that video to Jennifer’s parents?”

  Fuck.

  My girl’s smart.

  Too smart.

  Why the hell did I ever think I could hide anything from her?

  “She kept fucking with you—with us.”

  She exhales slowly. “So you’ve been on this vendetta against Jennifer, a mission to get your father out of my mom’s life, and had to deal with learning of your sister.”

  What is she thinking? I hate when I can’t read her. “Yeah . . .”

  “And you just decided to hide this from me? Oh my God, did Ryan know this whole time?”

  “No! I was trying to protect the both of you.”

  “Protect us?”

  I pull my jeans back on and walk to her. “Yes. Some of what I’m doing is technically illegal—”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s called stalking.”

  Is she ashamed of me? Disgusted? I can’t fucking tell. “Exactly. And I didn’t want to drag either one of you into it.”

  “You’re fresh off legal trouble and you undertook this on your own? Are you crazy?” She pushes at my chest, her face flushing.

  Wait. That’s what she’s worried about? She’s not disgusted at my behavior?

  Kira hits my chest again. “How many fucking times in our lives am I going to tell you not to shut Ryan or me out?” She walks away from me and starts pacing, as usual when she’s agitated. “We’re your fucking family. I don’t understand why you always, always, have to try to handle everything by yourself.”

  I fucking love this girl. Intent on kissing the breath out of her, I start walking toward her.

  She doesn’t even see me coming. “I mean, I know you think you’re Superman and shit. The almighty, invincible Brayden, but I—”

  Smiling, I grab her and lift her up into my arms. “I’m not almighty. Not when it comes to you.”

  She pouts up at me and suddenly I’m very aware that she’s still naked from the waist down. “We can’t be in a relationship if you’re constantly hiding things from me.”

  “You’re right.” I pause mid step to the bathroom, shocked at how much I mean that. “Shit. You’re right. All I do is push people away every time I try to deal with something on my own.”

  “Exactly!” Kira slaps my shoulder and crosses her arms with a huff. “I know I need to bust my ass to learn to trust you, but you’re not helping matters hiding things. And it’s not good for a relationship. I mean, you’re my first one . . .”

  I smile down at her and if she had been looking, she would’ve seen the stupid lovestruck look on my face. “And you’re my first one, too.”

  Her wet eyes stare ahead. “No I’m not.”

  “My first real one, Kira? Yeah. You are. That shit with Amanda was a farce.”

  She clearly doesn’t believe me, but she moves on. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure hiding secrets from each other isn’t healthy for our relationship.”

  I resume walking to the bathroom. “You’re right and I’m so fucking sorry. God, Kitty, sometimes I think you’re a better person than I can ever be.”

  Another huff. “That’s right and don’t you forget it.”

  I chuckle at her pissiness. She’s adorable when she’s like this. “I promise to never hide anything again.” It goes against my self-defensive mechanisms, but I’ll find a way.

  “Seriously Brayden. Swear it. And bust your ass to keep that vow.”

  “I will, Kitty. I will. I swear it.”

  I follow the car in front of me in my rental. I’m probably tailing him too close. Fuck it. I won’t run the risk of losing him. I have the GPS tracking him, but I’m not thinking clearly.

  The fight with Kira really fucked me up.

  She was right. God help me, I’m an idiot that keeps fucking things up with my good intentions. She’s my girl. As much as I want to protect her, my first obligation is to be honest with her.

  Our relationship won’t survive if I’m not.

  But now she knows. She’s in on it. She’s being eaten alive by the possibility that, after everything he’s already done, my father is also now cheating on her mother.

  She knows that my little sister is also my cousin. First cousin once removed.

  All this twisted shit is in her head, doing to her what it’s been doing to me for weeks.

  I didn’t want that for her. I wanted to shield her until the end, at least. Once I had sent the proof of his infidelity to her mother and he was on his way out of the picture.

  If Sonia actually leaves him.

  It’s not the first time the thought occurs to me. I refuse to entertain it for more than a few seconds, because her not leaving him isn’t an option.

  Even if Kira and I move somewhere no one knows us, barring changing our legal names, it’s only a matter of time before the truth gets out. And if we have to live with the stigma of being together and being stepsiblings, we might as well stay here and deal with it on the home front.

  Kira reassured me that her mother has made it clear—everything is forgivable but infidelity. Yes, he cheated on my mom with her, but I think Sonia was convinced he was the great love of her life. But if my father cheats on her, it’s done.

  Let’s hope she’s strong enough to stick to that.

  My father takes a right turn. I slow down and let him get more of a lead. I’ve followed him twice before.

  The first time, he went into a corporate building and I co
uldn’t follow him in. Not without alerting him to my presence.

  The second time he went to a hotel. The Crowne Plaza in downtown Cincinnati. I hurried to park so I could follow him in, but by the time I did he was nowhere in sight.

  No way to find out where in the hotel he’d gone. I staked out the exit of that hotel for hours. When he finally came out, he’d exited on his own.

  I know he was with another woman in there. I know. But I need photos of him with that woman. Without that concrete proof, the sneaky bastard might talk his way out of any accusation.

  Just in case, I still took those photos of him leaving the hotel.

  Don’t think it’s lost on me how sick my life has become.

  I have a little sister I didn’t know about, that’s lived a life of struggle because my father wouldn’t acknowledge and provide for her.

  A little sister that is the daughter of my first cousin once removed. My father’s cousin.

  I’m stalking my father, breaking at least five different laws to do it.

  I’m also desperately trying to hide from the world that my step sister is my girlfriend.

  My life has always been dysfunctional, but fuck.

  Although I’ve already made up my mind. If Sonia doesn’t leave my father, and Kira tells me she can handle it, we’re going to openly be together. Whether that means moving or not.

  My father makes a left turn up ahead. I’m praying at this point. I’m not a religious person. It’s hard to be one when you grow up the way I did, but I don’t completely refute the existence of something out there.

  If it is, I implore it to listen now. I’m not an innocent motherfucker by nature, but Kira and I are innocents in this. I’ve done my wrong, way more than she’s done hers, yet our parents getting married is something neither of us should have had to go through.

  For what? My father was going to fuck that marriage up anyway.

  So I pray, and I pray some more, hoping against hope that this time I’ll catch him red-handed. That I’ll get what I need.

  My father makes the turn into the parking lot of the Deerfield Town Center, and my heart starts drumming with hopeful excitement.

  There’s no hotel here. No corporate building. There’s just a bunch of stores here, and a ton of restaurants. The Rusty Bucket. Firebirds.

  Open places. Nowhere to hide.

  It could just be that he’s here to buy something.

  I squash that pessimistic thought down. This has to be my moment to catch him. It has to be.

  I pull into a parking spot the moment I see one, letting my father drive ahead so he won’t see me. He parks right in front of Firebirds.

  I scramble to get my Nikon ready just in case. Holding it up to my eyes, I squint through the lens and zoom in on him.

  He exits the car.

  In his hands is the largest, most ridiculous bouquet of flowers I’ve ever seen.

  I start taking pictures instantly. Then, I turn my car back on and hurry to find a parking spot that’s closer to him.

  I don’t want to miss a single thing.

  As soon as I’m once again parked, no more than thirty seconds later, I have the camera back in my hand.

  He walks to Firebirds with that cocky swagger of his, the bouquet held at his side.

  We’re so close to home. Close enough that someone who knows him can see him. Please tell me he isn’t this arrogant.

  Actually, scratch that. I need him to be. This is the kind of stupid ass mistake I’ve been waiting for.

  He approaches the outside tables, seeming to head to one in particular.

  A pretty, young looking brunette lights up at the sight of him.

  My stomach turns. She doesn’t seem much older than Kira.

  Her hair is more toward the brown side, and from here her eyes look brown or hazel.

  But the resemblance . . .

  THAT PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT.

  I remind myself to breathe.

  To not slam out of this car.

  To not walk up to him and use the very heavy camera in my hand to end his life.

  To not drive my car straight into him.

  That sick, twisted, worthless waste of skin!

  Oh God. He’s fucking a young girl who looks like my Kira.

  There’s no outlet for my anger. It rises up my throat, unvented, choking me. I swallow back wave after wave of acidic bile, feeling like a snake swallowing its own poison.

  I shouldn’t be surprised, and I desperately need him to fuck up right now.

  Doesn’t change that there’s a voice in my head begging him not to be that low. He’s in his late forties. That girl looks no older than twenty.

  She looks like my girl. The stepdaughter he judged me for sleeping with. The stepdaughter that lived for years under his roof.

  She stands up, eyes glittering at my father with all the foolish, young adoration of a naive little girl who has no idea she’s inviting Satan into her bed.

  He swoops down on her, crushing her to him, and devours her mouth in plain sight.

  My finger abuses the button, taking shot after shot.

  I’m on autopilot. A sickened spectator to this man’s utter depravity. My hands are sweating and I’m struggling not to shake as it occurs to me what this is going to do to Sonia.

  He’s not just cheating. He’s doing it with a girl young enough to be his daughter. A girl that looks like her daughter.

  Sonia is about to find out he had a daughter with his cousin.

  She deserves a life without him, free to hopefully find the right man for her.

  But this? I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. And I also wish I didn’t have to do this. That she’d gotten out of the marriage on her own long before now.

  No one gets between me and Kira anymore. If there is a God, may it forgive me because this has to be done.

  My father sits to have his meal with his pretty young thing. Flirting. Caressing her. Making out with her in public like he’s also a young, horny teenager.

  I’m still taking shots. So many that my finger is cramping up.

  I don’t stop. Fuck that.

  At one point I switch over to recording mode and record them for a few minutes. When my father gropes her, tonguing her mouth like he wants to fuck her right on that table, I want to throw up.

  They enjoy their meal for almost two hours before they stand up to leave. I push my chair all the way back and lower it, struggling to hide my large frame.

  It’s not necessary. My father is too engrossed in that girl to realize anything around him. They get into his car together and I’m tailing him almost immediately, too reckless in my haste to be patient.

  Less than five minutes later he pulls into the back parking lot of the Hyatt.

  I slam the car into a spot right across the street, not caring anymore if I’m spotted. I just need one shot. One picture of him going in there with that girl.

  It occurs to me he might go in through the back entrance.

  Shit. Shit. Shit!

  I hurry to drive around to the back parking lot and get in there in time.

  Such a stupid mistake. I could be losing my chance.

  I grab the first spot I see, luckily with a view of the doors leading inside. My hands are so sweaty that I almost drop the camera.

  My father doesn’t disappoint. Hand in hand with the girl, he walks to the entrance. Once there, he turns around to swoop her up against him again. I can’t hear them from this far, obviously, but I can tell she’s giggling.

  Without even thinking about it, I switch the camera back to record mode and hit the button.

  And then they’re making out again. My father is groping her ass. Grinding his hips into her.

  That’s it. I got all I need. I don’t have to be here anymore, the bile choking me.

  I can’t tell if I’m having some weird version of a panic attack or a suppressed anger attack.

  All I know is that he’s literally about to fuck that girl first chance she gets, and
she looks like my Kira.

  They finally break apart and head inside.

  I drop the camera into the passenger seat and cover my face with my sweating, cold hands.

  I got it. After almost two months of planning and stalking him, I finally got what I need.

  All I have to do is go home, upload this onto a USB, print the pictures, and slip all of it, along with the DNA results of the paternity test in an envelope.

  There’s no feeling of triumph to be found. I want to kill that man. Honest to God, I want to storm in there, while he’s probably mid-fuck with that Kira lookalike, and remove him from the face of this Earth.

  In the back of my head, I realize that this shit isn’t healthy. He deserves what I feel, but it’s not normal for anyone to walk around their whole life despising one of their parents this much.

  Eventually, I’m going to probably have to see someone about this.

  Eventually.

  Right now, I have a really fucked up phone call to make. I have to warn Kira. My girl needs to be prepared for what her mother is about to go through.

  So does Ryan.

  Heart heavy and a sick feeling in my veins, I turn the ignition and head out of the parking lot, aching over what this information is going to do to my girl.

  I’ve calmed down.

  I’ve calmed down.

  If I repeat it enough to myself, I will calm the fuck down.

  I’m in my apartment, pacing back and forth, waiting for Kira and Ryan to come.

  Because I’m about to show them those pictures.

  The video.

  Shame chokes me. You would think I’d be used to it by now. That years of my father’s bullshit would be the norm. I should be inured to this.

  I’m not.

  Disgust sits heavy in my stomach.

  Destructive rage messes with my impulses.

  Hunt him down.

  Break his face.

  End him and his nasty existence once and for all.

  I’m angry he’s cheating on Sonia like he did to my mom. I am.

  But that girl? The young one he’s cheating with? The one with the brown hair?

  Her eyes aren’t gray like Sonia’s.

  I zoomed in on the images. Was able to see enough of her to know—her eyes are definitely hazel. Not the golden-green mix my girl and Ryan share, but fucking close enough.