Ava chuckled. “Ah, the great MC, the Sons of Brotherhood. They’re still active on the West Coast. I had a few run-ins with them when I was running stuff with Marc, my foster brother. Once they found out who I was, they left me alone.”
“Did you ever hear any of Dad’s songs? Ash played a few for me. He was really talented.” I mused recalling the songs.
“Alice’s Attic. They had some great stuff. I’ve always had a thing for metal even 70s metal. I used to listen to their records while Rita was passed out on the floor. I can’t say I had a relationship with that woman. She was never a mother to me. She was only the vessel I used to come into the world. That’s it.” She fished in her jacket pocket until she came up with a pack of French cigarettes. She lit two and held one out to me.
Taking it, I inhaled deeply. It had been a few months since I’d had one. Ash continually ‘forgot’ to bring them. “We have that in common. My mother wasn’t anything to me either. She was a fucking train wreck. I got out of there as soon as I could. Been on my own since I was sixteen.”
Ava nodded taking a long drag on the cigarette. She was elegant, refined, yet so dark and dangerous.
“Seems like we’ve got a lot in common.” I finished the cigarette crushing it into an old green ashtray.
“Yes. I’ve watched you both for a while, Ayden,” she confessed.
“Obviously.”
“You’re as troubled as I was, although I was much smarter. I learned quickly how to make my way in the world. After the piece of shit who fostered me tried turning us out…” she broke off looking down. Her full lips quivered slightly.
The fire crackled as we sat quietly for a moment.
Ava ran her hands through her long hair before looking at me again. “He was a pig. He got what he deserved.” She smirked at me before lighting another cigarette.
I cringed as I pictured her adoptive father dead in ditch somewhere. Although she was thin, it wasn’t difficult to imagine her strangling some guy with her bare hands. “I heard. I met Estra.”
“Ah, Estra. I remember her. She was a good person. She’d suffered a lot in this life. I wished her well when I left.”
“She said you took off with your foster brother and another girl?”
“Two girls actually. One was my soulmate and the other was her baby sister.”
“Your soulmate?” It made sense. Ava was a lesbian. I recalled her hot scenes with Sasha.
She smiled. Her eyes looked soft. “She was something else. So beautiful, sexy, smart, but she made the same mistake most women do and fell in love with a rich asshole.” Ava shrugged.
“What happened after you left your foster father?”
Her deep blue eyes turned dark. A storm brewed behind them I could sense the rage boiling within her just below the surface. “We left for Reno. Did a little of this and little of that to survive. Fucking cops got called because the two girls were underage. The state took them away from me.”
“What about your foster brother? Wasn’t he there?”
“Oh, you mean Marc. He turned out to be the biggest pussy. I got us a deal with a cartel that ran with LZ. He fucked that deal up, so after the girls were taken away, we had to run to a place outside Dubuque, Iowa. Total drag.” Ava grabbed the bottle of scotch and filled her glass.
As fascinated as I was with her story, I was impatient. I was also getting quite drunk for the first time since I’d been here. “When did you think to find Ashton?”
She glared at me as she sipped the liquor. She was annoyed that I’d interrupted her story. She sighed swirling the dark liquid in the glass. “After Marc died, I felt all my ties to the past were severed. I wasn’t upset by it so much as it made me feel so disconnected with the world. I’ve never been one to entertain any type of long term relationship, but Marc had been with me for a while. Also, I couldn’t find my baby….”
“Baby?” I nearly choked on my scotch. She’d had a baby? Ava seemed about as motherly as a serial killer.
She laughed waving her hand. “Not an infant, you fucking idiot. Please. I meant my old girlfriend and foster sister, Reese. She’d left me and gone onto college. I’d had several lovers both male and female, but no woman satisfied me as she had and no man had stood by me as Marc had. So I was alone.”
Somehow, Ava seemed like the type who could handle being on her own quite well. She exuded confidence bordering on arrogance.
“I was cleaning out the house in Dubuque getting ready to move. I wanted to get a place in Chicago. As I was moving stuff, a book fell out. Several pictures fluttered to the floor. As I looked through them, I saw me and Ashton playing. He was only about eight years old and I was eleven. I was flooded with memories of my mother being married to Ashler and living on his New York estate. I never knew for sure who my real father was. The year my mother was married to Ashler I pretended he was my real father. He was so handsome, so kind to me.”
Abruptly, a huge gust of wind thrust the flimsy cabin door open swirling snow around the room.
I jumped up and pushed it closed latching it firmly. When I turned back to Ava, I saw her eyes blazing. I swallowed hard and sat down across from her.
“I found a letter that Ashler had written my mother asking about me. To make a long story short, the letters between them indicated that I was Ashler’s daughter.”
My eyes widened. “I found my original birth certificate. That’s how I found out,” I confessed.
She nodded as if she already knew everything about me. Somehow, I suspected she did. I shook the eerie feeling off as I listened to her.
“I decided to do a little research. I quickly found out how wealthy both Ash and Ashler were. I debated on whether or not to come to New York and meet him, but I decided against it.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Some things were going on in my life at that time. I didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to myself.”
Her words hung in the air as I stared at the fire which was slowly dying. I got up to replace a few logs in the fireplace,
Ava sat back quietly inhaling on her cigarette. “After some time had passed, I found both of you. I’ve been watching you for a while.”
“Why did you tell me your name was Lena? Why did you fuck Sasha with me if you knew you were my sister?”
She shrugged with a smirk. “I like good pussy what can I say? And to do a woman with my half-brother…..well, that was a taboo I couldn’t wait to break.” She laughed flicking her ash into the green tray.
Good answer, I thought.
“Where is the lovely Sasha? I half expected to find her here with you.”
“She’s gone. After what happened with Amber’s brother, Mark, I told her it was over. Ash was going to put me in hiding and it wasn’t fair to her to make her wait.” I didn’t want her to know I’d broken my word to Ash and let Sasha visit me in the cabin.
“You’re a wise one, little brother.” Ava moved to the love seat and sat next to me. She brushed my hair from my face. Her touch was electrifying.
“I’ve been here for the past four months.”
“Pretty lonely out here, isn’t it?”
I agreed. “How did you find me? Ash was certain no one would.”
Ava ran her hands over her thighs and sighed. “It wasn’t easy, but I have my ways.”
My curiosity was piqued. This sister of ours was certainly diabolical to say the least. “Really? Like what?”
She playfully swatted my arm. “Like I’m going to tell you. I came here tonight for a reason. Do you want to hear it or not?”
Running my fingers through my tangle of hair, I nodded.
Ava gazed at me with a smirk on her lips. “I can get you out of here, Ayden.”
Ninety Four
Ash
I had to admit, having a burner phone ring in the predawn hours awoke me with a start. I fell out of bed shaking. Ayden had never called me at 5 AM before. I only imagined the worst. The Feds were there busting him, hauling him off t
o prison not before indicting me for aiding and abetting.
Ash, I have big news. Come today if you can.
I rubbed my eyes as I read his text. I felt a twinge of fear tickling in the pit of my stomach. What big news? Ever since Amber’s brother was murdered, I developed a sickening fear whenever unexpected news came from Ayden. God knows what it could be this time.
Snatching a blue V necked t-shirt from the drawer, I yanked it over my head. Pulling a pair of tight well-worn jeans on, I bent to waken Amber.
“What?” She jumped as I gently shook her.
“I have to go see Ayden.”
She rolled over throwing her arm over her head. “It’s not the first of the month yet.”
“He texted me.”
Alarmed, Amber shot up in the bed wide awake. She, too, had developed a sickening dread anytime unexpected news came from Ayden. “What happened?”
I shrugged tying my black Nike shoes. I wondered if I should bring my jacket as a cool front was forecast to arrive from the north later this evening. I figured if I left now I should be there by 5 PM or so.
“Is he okay?” Amber threw the covers off and sat beside me.
“I have no idea. I’ll call him when I’m on the way.”
“Are you leaving now?” Amber stood up with her hands on her hips. Her long hair was tousled wildly on her head and last night’s eye makeup was smeared beneath her eyes making her look like a raccoon.
“That was the plan. It’s almost 9 AM and I don’t have any time to waste. It must be important if he texted me this at 5:00 this morning.”
Knowing Ayden’s penchant for sleeping late, Amber wasted no time whipping off her nightgown. She grabbed the first clothes she found: a pink t-shirt and black yoga pants. “I’m going too.”
I hesitated a moment. Ayden could’ve gotten himself into some sort of trouble. Whatever was going on I didn’t want Amber involved in whatever mess he’d found himself in. “I think I should do this alone. God only knows what’s going on with him. I don’t want you in harm’s way.” I put my hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged me off. “Fuck that, Ash. The last time Ayden did something ‘unexpected’ he murdered my brother. If Ayden is calling you about big news, it’s time we both went up to see just what that is. It’s a rural part of Maine. Hardly anyone lives around there. I can’t imagine what’s going on, but I’m not spending the day lying around going crazy terrified about what might happen to you. I’m going.” Her eyes told me everything.
She was dead set on going and there was no way I was going to talk her out of it.
Nodding, I pushed past her to our safe behind the Monet painting on the bedroom wall. Retrieving a large amount of cash, $25,000.00 to be exact and my Glock 19, I figured whatever trouble Ayden was in either one of those things would be sure to get him out of it.
Minutes later, we were both in the Range Rover heading north to I-95 to Maine.
With my gun loaded and safely beneath my seat, I could only imagine what Ayden was doing.
Eight hours later, I pulled down the old dirt road that led to Ayden’s cabin. Every time I drove down this road, I remembered my dad bringing me up here to go hunting and fishing when I was a kid. He’d take out our fishing poles and our rifles and we’d go happily into the small cabin. My grandfather had built the cabin with my dad when he was a kid. My dad would regale me with tales of his own youth as we’d clean the rifles together and get the tackle box ready for the next day. I’d bagged my first deer while staying at that cabin as well as cleaning my first fish. The cabin was always so cozy and inviting to me. When Ayden had first showed up at my door soaked in blood holding a knife, my first thought went to this cabin. I wanted to put him in the safest place I knew.
So here he’d been for the past four months. I knew it’d been hard on him being so isolated and alone, but it was the only way I could ensure his safety. He had a record and I knew the cops would be naming him as a suspect. I had a great deal of influence with the judicial system and the local police department, but my reach only went so far. Here I knew he’d stay out of prison. After all, he’d killed Mark to ensure mine and Amber’s safety.
As the Range Rover slowly ambled down the road, we came upon a shiny black Ferrari Spyder. A Ferrari? Out here? My heart thudded as we came to a stop in front of the cabin.
“Whose car is that?” Amber wondered as we stepped out.
“I have no idea.” Who the fuck would be out in that kind of car? How did such a car make it out here? The terrain was tough to say the least. I took my gun and shoved it behind my back. No telling what we were walking into.
As we walked up the path to the door, I noticed a fire burning merrily in the fireplace. The wind was cold and the night was turning quite chilly. Smoke emanated from the chimney.
“Ayden!” I called knocking on the door. Instinctively, I pushed Amber behind me. “Stay back, who knows who’s in there with him. Be ready to run.” I instructed her.
She rolled her eyes at me as we stood shivering in the cold.
The door flew open and there stood the longest legs I’d ever seen. My eyes traveled up those gorgeous legs encased in tight black pants to meet with the bluest eyes imaginable. She was tall about 5’8” which still made her a bit shorter than Ayden and I who each stood 6’3” Long raven black hair spilled around her shoulders.
Her full lips were stained blood red with lipstick as she smirked at me. “You must be Ash. Come in.”
I swallowed hard pulling Amber behind me. We stepped inside and stood motionless as we both stared at the captivating woman in front of us. The room was stifling hot as the fire roared in the fireplace. Ayden was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Ayden?” I demanded.
The woman slinked over to me.
As we stood face to face, I noticed rage seething behind her eyes. Oh God, her eyes! So familiar. Where had I seen her before?
“Right here,” he called emerging from the bathroom wearing a towel swathed around his narrow hips. His dark chest hair still curled from the shower. Water dripped from his bulging tattooed biceps.
“What the fuck?” I gestured at the woman. She smirked and folded her arms across her chest. She was absolutely stunning I could see why Ayden would want her.
But how did she get here?
Who was she?
He laughed rubbing his wet hair. “Guess it’s time for some drinks, huh?”
Amber looked furious. Had Ayden really drug us all the way out here to boast of his latest conquest?
Without another word, Ayden brought four glasses to the coffee table and sat down a full bottle of Macallan.
“Shall I?” the woman asked arching her eyebrow at Ayden.
“Please.” A teasing smile played on his lips.
“Ash, it’s so good to finally meet you in person. And this must be the lovely Amber.” Her eyes swept over Amber as she slowly licked her lips.
“Who the hell are you?” Amber demanded in an uncharacteristically bossy voice. She slammed down her scotch in one gulp.
Ayden’s eyes widened.
“Aren’t you the fiery one? Better watch out. This one will burn you.” She winked.
Amber gritted her teeth. She wasn’t in a playful mood.
Neither was I not after driving 8 hours for this bullshit.
“Well, since everyone’s on the edge of their seat, here goes. My name is Ava, but you might know me better as Amelia.”
Amelia.
What?
This woman was our…sister?
No.
“Amelia? As in Amelia Cooper?”
“As in Blackthorne.” She swallowed the rest of her scotch. Ayden sank down on the couch still wearing his towel. “She’s our half-sister.” Ayden rubbed his wet hair with a towel.
Amber sat back stunned. She blinked several times. “Ash? Is this some kind of joke?”
I spread my hands helplessly. For once, I didn’t know what to say. “How did you find her, Ayden?”<
br />
He stood up and left the room for a moment. Seconds later, he reappeared wearing a t-shirt and shorts. “I didn’t. She found me.”
Alarm filled me. If this woman could find Ayden, then the cops could too.
“Don’t be scared. I’m the only one who knows where he is.” Ava put her hand on my arm.
I snatched it away as her touch felt like fire. “How did you find him? Us?”
“I have my ways, dear brother. You will come to appreciate that in time. I’ve known about you, Ayden, and our father for some time now.”
Reeling from the revelation, I sat back feeling myself sink into the soft leather of the couch. The Macallan was now burning a hole in my stomach. “Did you ever meet our father? I mean, as an adult?”
She shook her head pouring another drink. “No. I remember him though. I remember living with you at the Blackthorne estate in New York. The year our parents were married was one of the best of my life. You know my mother, Rita was a drug addicted whore. She bounced me around from place to place most of my life. When we lived with you and your father, I felt safe for the first time. Do you remember me living there with you?”
I remembered her vividly. But she’d been young and she looked so different now. It was hard to picture the sophisticated, sexy woman in front of me now as the awkward, shy, knobby-kneed girl with long stringy hair. “Yes, I do. But you’re so different now. I’d never have recognized you.”
She laughed. “I hope so. It’s been thirty-two years.”
Meanwhile, Amber had been clutching my thigh so hard she was about to draw blood.
“So, Amelia—”
“Amelia was my given name. I prefer Ava.”
“Ava,” I corrected, “what led you to find Ayden?”
“I’ve been watching the two of you for some time. I know Ayden grew up much the way I did with a drug addicted slut of a mother. We have much in common. It seems only you, dear Ash, grew up in the lap of luxury while the two of us fought it out in various trailer parks and white trash neighborhoods throughout the country.” Ava glared at me over her glass.
“If you’re so mad, why are you here?” Amber demanded.
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