Just as my fingers curled around the gun, I heard Ash scream. Ayden was on top of him smashing his fists down into Ash’s face. Ayden turned to grab the knife and sat poised to stab him.
Without any hesitation, I grabbed the gun and fired.
Ayden dropped the knife whipping his head around.
“Get off of him, NOW, Ayden!” I screamed still lying on my side holding the gun.
Ayden let Ash go and he fell limp to the floor. Blood oozed from the sides of his mouth.
My God, had Ayden killed him? I saw blood on the tip of the knife.
Still pointing the gun at Ayden, I struggled to my feet holding onto the table next to me to stand.
“Amber! I didn’t hurt him. Not really! Come on, Princess, put the gun down.” Ayden reached towards me. His face was bloody and his eyes terribly swollen. He no longer looked handsome to me. His eyes no longer resembled Ash’s.
Now his eyes only reflected evil.
“Get in that fucking chair now, Ayden!” I ordered.
Ayden laughed. “Topping me from the bottom now, are you? Princess, you’re a terrible shot. You can’t even walk.”
I cocked the gun and fired another shot missing his shoulder by less than an inch.
Ayden’s face paled. He moved slowly towards the chair he’d had me sitting in.
“Sit down!” I ordered him. I discovered I could walk by hopping on one leg. I kept the gun on him every second.
Slipping into the chair, he sat watching me.
“Don’t you fucking move!” I screamed.
Keeping the gun on him, I knelt by Ash’s side. I wiped the blood from the side of his mouth. Tenderly, I touched his wrist checking his pulse. It was strong. Thank God, he was alive. I noticed he had a small stab wound that was bleeding freely on his right shoulder. I had to stop the bleeding now. Sitting the gun down, I whipped off the short dress I was wearing to press onto Ash’s wound. Tears dripped down from my face onto his. I brushed the hair back from his face and kissed his bruised lips.
“Ash, wake up.”
Ash’s eyes fluttered open. His lips curled into a faint smile. He gazed up at me with such love in his eyes.
Suddenly, his eyes turned dark.
“Amber, look out!” he whispered.
Turning back, I saw Ayden coming at me.
Oh, my God.
Forty Five
Ash
Ayden’s hand reached for the gun. Amber whipped around in the nick of time to grab it. Ayden stepped back as Amber struggled to her feet.
Slowly, I attempted to stand up. I had to help Amber get out of here. I pressed Amber’s dress to my wounded shoulder.
“Get back in that chair, Ayden!” Amber ordered.
I stumbled over to stand beside her.
“Well, don’t you two make a pretty pair? All cut up and bleeding. Wow, if this isn’t a happy ending, I don’t know what is.” Ayden chuckled as he sat in the chair.
“We’re leaving, Ayden. Now if you don’t want to leave here in a fucking body bag, you need to sit there and leave us alone while we go.” I took the gun from Amber. I realized that she was nude. Finding an old coat lying next to the chair, I tossed it to her. She slipped it on wrapping it around her body. I wrapped my arm about her waist to help her walk.
Ayden sat in the chair eying us both. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Ash, before you go, we need to talk.”
I rolled my eyes. What the hell was this guy’s problem? Why did he want to talk to me so badly? “What is it?”
“About us. I know who you really are. I’ve known for some time now.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I shook my head. Amber held the dress against my bleeding shoulder. I was starting to feel dizzy.
Ayden swiped the blood from his mouth and licked it from his hand. “You know, Ash, it is true what they say. Blood is thicker than water.”
My heart thudded in my chest. Just what was Ayden saying?
“Your father was a great man, wasn’t he? The legendary Ashler Blackthorne. It was so sad how he died, wasn’t it?”
I shook my head. I was confused. Why the hell was this crazy asshole talking about my father?
“A terrific businessman. A legend in his own time. Always knew when to buy, when to sell.”
Where the hell was he going with this?
Amber tugged on my hand. “Let’s just go.”
“NO!” Ayden roared.
“Why are you talking about my father?”
Ayden laughed. “He was a great father, wasn’t he? Just tell me that.”
“What?”
Amber tugged on me again. “Ash, fuck him. He’s crazy.”
“No, I want to know why he’s talking about my father.” My wound to my shoulder was still steadily seeping blood. I had to blink to keep my focus on Ayden.
I locked eyes with him. There was something about his eyes. Something so….
“Ash, don’t you know who I am?”
My heart pounded. I swallowed hard gripping Amber’s hand.
“I’m…”
Forty Six
Ash
His words stopped me cold. I could hear my own heart beat like drums inside me. The pounding of my heart was so loud it drowned out any other sound.
What was Ayden saying?
I observed the scene unfold before me almost as if I was out of my own body. I saw myself standing there just as if I were watching a scene from a movie. I saw Ayden sitting in the chair leaning forward on his hands with an evil smirk on his face. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth. Amber was shouting something to me as she held my hand.
But I didn’t hear a word she said.
My heart continued to thunder in my ears.
The look on Amber’s face said it all as she paled dramatically at the words Ayden was speaking.
But again, I didn’t hear him either. I watched with strange detachment as they argued back and forth. Amber tugged on my hand.
Looking down at myself, I noticed my hand was still clutched at my shoulder with Amber’s dress covering my wound. Blood had soaked the garment and was beginning to drip down my arm. Surely, the pain from that wound must be overwhelming.
But I didn’t feel a thing.
“ASH!” Amber’s sharp fingernails dug into my hand.
Suddenly, I was slammed back into my body. The pain from my shoulder exploded inside me.
And I could hear everything.
“So, Ash, did I shock you? Or couldn’t you see the resemblance between us all along?” Ayden slowly stood up next to the chair.
“What?” I shook my head to clear it.
“He’s your brother,” Amber murmured, still in shock.
“My brother? How can that be?” Snapping to my senses, I pushed the pain aside.
Ayden chuckled. “My name is Ayden Donovan, but it should’ve been Ayden Blackthorne.”
“So, my father is…your father?” I thought of Rita and all the other girlfriends my father had had.
Ayden began to pace the concrete floor as Amber kept a tight grip on the gun in her other hand. “Yes, he is.”
“Then, who was your mother? Was it Rita? Terri?” I tried to think of all the women I’d known my father to be with. Perhaps it was some woman I never knew about.
Ayden shook his head. “No, but you know her, Ash. You know her quite well.”
Again, I felt my heart began to thunder.
I swallowed hard trying to wrap my mind around it all. “Enough with the cat and mouse bullshit, Ayden. Tell me!” My voice echoed throughout the room.
“My mother…let’s see, well, she wasn’t the best mom that was for sure. No, she let drugs rule her life much like your mother did, Ash.”
As I let his words sink in, I realized what he was saying.
His mother was my mother.
His father was my father.
I closed my eyes. I couldn’t remain standing any longer. I collapsed against the wall slowly allowing myself to sink
down.
“Ash, are you okay?” Amber knelt down beside me.
I nodded.
“He’s bleeding heavily, Ayden. I’ve got to get him to a hospital. Please, can’t you help us?” Amber pleaded with him.
Blood began to pool on the floor next to me. I felt faint. The lights in the room began to dim and Amber’s face floated before me.
Ayden stood up walking towards us. He rubbed his own bleeding face. “What makes you think I would?”
“Because he’s your brother.”
I heard them argue back and forth over me until I thought I would pass out. I managed to choke out the one question burning in my mind. “Tell me, Ayden, why didn’t my father tell me about you?”
Ayden’s voice took on a sinister tone. He crept closer to us. “Because he wanted to protect his precious son. But he was my father, too.”
I nodded, feeling darkness begin to close over my mind.
I gazed up to meet his hazel eyes. Now I understood why they were so much like my own.
My brother.
“Ayden…” I whispered as I felt myself falling through the darkness.
“ASH!”
Amber’s scream was the last thing I heard.
Forty Seven
Ayden
So, I guess you think I’m an asshole. And you’re right about that. But I didn’t mean for it to go down the way it did.
Amber was collateral damage. I loved her very deeply. But when I found out that my father didn’t want a relationship with me, I was devastated. I handled it the only way I knew how.
Stalking her, terrorizing her.
Okay, so now you think I’m blaming my poor coping skills on my traumatic childhood.
Damn right, I am.
Growing up with a drug addicted mother in a rundown area of Chicago moving from house to house with a parade of live in lovers was awful to say the least. I never knew who my father was as a child.
It was only when I found my birth certificate that I realized my mother had been lying to me my entire life.
The man I believed to be my father wasn’t.
Instead of James Donovan being listed on my birth certificate, I saw the name Ashler Blackthorne.
My heart stopped as I recalled hearing the name Ashler Blackthorne in the media. He was a multi-millionaire real estate guy from New York. His face was plastered all over tabloid TV shows.
As was his son’s, Ashton Blackthorne.
Ashton Blackthorne, young, handsome, wealthy, and a Harvard grad. He’d recently been made partner at a huge New York investment bank. Ashton Blackthorne, the man all the ladies swooned over, and the tabloids adored. He was always photographed with a bevy of gorgeous women at his side.
And that fucking prick was my brother…..
It was the year 2001. I’d been living on the streets for three years to get away from my mother’s drug abuse and constant drama. I’d done a lot of terrible things and seen even worse. I was ready for a change. I’d decided to go into the Navy to get away.
It was then I found out who my real father was.
But I wasn’t ready to meet him yet.
By 2009, after being in the Navy and finishing college, I felt good enough to go to New York to meet him.
You know, maybe cash in on the wealthy bloodline.
But when I confronted my father, the great Ashler Blackthorne he didn’t exactly welcome me with open arms.
No, he claimed he didn’t know a thing about me.
Nor did his precious only son, Ashton.
So for the next year, I bummed around New York City working at a job in an investment bank just hoping and waiting for the moment when good old Dad would come around….
As I watched Amber help my brother up the stairs, I couldn’t help but wonder what my life would’ve been like had Ash known about me.
Shaking my head, I looked around the carnage surrounding me. The concrete floor was covered in blood.
His blood.
My blood.
Blood brothers.
That’s what we were.
And that’s what we’d be.
Forty Eight
Ash
“I can’t fucking believe it. How could I have a brother all these years and not know it?” I pounded my fists in anger on the bed.
Amber stood by my side looking at me with such love and concern in her eyes. “Ash, I don’t know what to say. I’m at a loss for words.”
Gazing into her big blue eyes, my heart melted. She was still the woman I wanted. Through everything, she’d been by my side.
Still, thinking about crawling out of that basement fighting our way outside to my car, I couldn’t believe what Ayden had told me.
Maybe there was still a chance it wasn’t true.
But his eyes…they were so like mine. Now with Ayden’s revelation, I couldn’t help but face the truth.
Ayden Donovan was my brother.
The door to my room swung open and a short, stout man in a white coat appeared. He smiled at me as he picked up his clipboard. “So, Mr. Blackthorne, you appear to be doing much better. Your signs all look good.” He adjusted his thick glasses on his face.
As I struggled to sit up, pain exploded throughout my shoulder.
“Now, take it easy, Mr. Blackthorne.”
“Call me Ash.” I moaned still reeling from the intense pain.
“Ash, try to rest.” Amber reached over to push the hair from my brow.
“Your wife is right, Ash. You’ve suffered a great deal of blood loss. We had to give you a small transfusion.”
My heart thudded. “She’s not my wife,” I whispered regretting the correction as I watched Amber’s face fall.
“I’m sorry.”
Then the doctor’s words sank in. Blood transfusion?
“I’m sorry, Doctor, did you say blood transfusion?”
“Yes, it wasn’t much, but you were low.”
My fists curled the bed sheets into knots.
It couldn’t be…
It just couldn’t be…
Ayden!
“Where did you get the blood from, Doctor?” The words fell from my lips readily although I dreaded the reply. To think his blood literally coursed through my veins sickened me.
“From the local blood bank, of course.”
I sighed with relief.
The doctor grinned revealing his even, white teeth. “Or rather that’s where we normally get the blood. However, in your case, your brother who has the same blood type graciously donated his own blood to you.”
I shot up in the bed careless of how much it hurt my shoulder. “Amber! How could you let them give me his blood?” I demanded.
She grinned slowly as she ran her hand down to my chest. “Now when we fuck, it will be like I’m fucking both of you at the same time.”
I fell back against the bed gasping for air. It was all too much. It was all…
My eyes fluttered open. The bright fluorescent burned my eyes as I looked around the sterile room. I was in the hospital, but I couldn’t recall why at first.
Then I remembered.
Ayden.
Amber.
I looked around and saw Amber sitting in a chair next to my bed. My eyes trailed upwards to see all the tubes and bags next to me. “Amber.” My voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Ash!” She cried jumping to my side.
“What happened?”
She smoothed my hair back from my forehead. “You were stabbed, don’t you remember?”
I closed my eyes a moment. I could see Ayden’s hand lashing out at me, the knife embedding itself deep into my shoulder. “Yes. It was Ayden.”
She nodded slowly. Her hair fell all around her face.
“So how did we get here?”
“Ayden brought us.”
“My shoulder feels so stiff.” I tried to move, but winced as pain shot through my body.
“Yes, you lost a lot of blood though.”
Oh God, no. The dream!<
br />
“Did they give me a blood transfusion?”
“Yes, why?”
My stomach tightened. I felt as if I’d vomit.
“It wasn’t…Ayden’s blood, was it?”
“No, of course not. Why would you think that?”
“Because he’s my brother.”
I shuddered recalling my dream. “Amber, is he here?”
“Who?” she asked taking my hand.
“Ayden.”
She shook her head. “No, the police are everywhere. There’s one outside the door on 24 hour watch. They think I was held hostage for money.” She laughed.
“Who told them that?”
“I have no idea. Theories are flying about what happened to us. I haven’t spoken to anyone about it.”
“Good.”
“Amber, his mother is my mother. We are full blood brothers.” I looked down.
“I know, Ash.” She swallowed hard.
“How do you feel about that?” I asked.
She stared down at me with tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “I can’t say I’m thrilled, Ash, but I love you. It doesn’t matter to me who you’re related to.”
Knowing that the man who’d terrorized her years ago and just kidnapped her a few days ago was my brother must be astonishing to her.
But then this was Amber, the strongest woman I’d ever known.
I squeezed her hand. Looking up into her eyes, I knew this was the only woman I’d ever truly loved. Veronica had just been a childhood sweetheart.
No, Amber was the woman for me.
I just needed to find the words to tell her.
A few days passed and they released me from the hospital. Immediately, I was sent home to my house in the Hamptons with my private nurse and Amber.
“Ash, what are we going to do about Ayden? The cops keep asking questions and the media is all over this story.”
I stared up at the ceiling. For once, I was speechless. “I don’t really know, Amber. I still can’t get over the fact that he’s my brother. I grew up my entire life believing I was an only child. I can’t believe my father lied to me.”
Amber stepped over to the bed and stroked my hair. Her touch jolted me.
Darkest Sin Page 42
