by Blue Saffire
“Hello,” I say into the phone.
“Hello brother,” the voice on the other end says.
I sit back in my chair, blown away at hearing his voice again. The bitterness in his tone is undeniable. I don’t understand how he can have so much hatred for me, and we have never met.
“Hello, Rick, is it,” I reply back.
“Ah, so you have finally figured it out. Or was it my beautiful sister-in-law. She’s a smart one,” Rick says with renewed venom. “Nothing like that whore, Ivana.”
“What do you want,” I growl as I text Kevin to get a trace on the call.
“I want us to finally meet. My other dear baby brother is growing wary of my games. He is concerned for our nieces and nephews or whatever baby Emilsson is carrying. You know, I should have made a play for her when I had Jillian fuck with her head. That would have really killed you. To have me inside your precious Sephora.
“She smells so nice, and that voice is beautiful. I bet she would sound amazing calling my name. Does she like it rough, I bet she likes it rough? All that chocolate skin. I just want to sink my teeth into her,” Rick laughs loudly.
The bastard doesn’t know that the only reason I am letting him disrespect my wife is because I need to track his ass so I can kill him. I am fuming as he rants. I lick my bottom lip and run my hand through my hair.
I can taste his blood in the air. I have never felt this violent in my life. I could choke the life out of him with my bare hands, but I stay silent and let him continue.
“You know what little brother? I waited for so long to talk to you. The one that got to stay. Did you enjoy your nice cushy life? Did you enjoy having the best of everything? Having mommy and daddy’s love? I bet you did.
“Well, let me tell you about the life I have had. Oh, it started out just as sweet as yours did. Even though our sweet parents didn’t want Gavin and I we landed a sweet deal for two years. They say kids don’t remember much, but I remember my mother and my father. The only two people that ever loved Gavin and me.
“I remember her smell and his smile. I remember being loved by them. I remember the day we were ripped from their arms,” his voice rises with each sentence, but I remain quiet. “I get he didn’t want us in his precious circle. He was embarrassed. So fucking what!
“He could have found us a decent home. He could have put us anywhere but there. I see you’re a sadist little brother. Well, so was the sick bastard your father gave us too or should I say the bastard our father gave the task of finding us a home. He broke my jaw twice before our eighth birthday and Garvin’s three times.
“That sick bastard did things you shouldn’t do to little boys, Nicholas. Things you probably wouldn’t do to a consenting adult. Garvin used to be the smallest one. That bastard thought it was okay to treat him like a punching bag.
“Our father could have trusted anyone else to find us a safe home, but he trusted that bastard. Garvin used to wet the bed every night afraid it would be a night that he would leave his family to come to us. Oh yeah, we had a nanny just like you did, Nick, but not to nurture us or keep us happy.
“She was a gatekeeper. Making sure we didn’t run away. Making sure his property stayed intact. You want to know why I hate you so much? Do you,” he bellows. “I hate you so fucking much because he smiles at you the way he smiles at us, but we are the ones he has come to repeatedly. And get this! You don’t even know it. You don’t even know that the devil has been your mentor. He has toyed with us all while acting as a friend.
“That motherfucker set this all in motion. For years he has told us the story of how we were thrown away, and you were the previlegded one that got to stay. He made us know and remember we weren’t wanted.”
My brows are now furrowed. I don’t know who he is talking about, but I am listening a lot more closely now. My heart is aching. I don’t want to care for this monster, but I can’t help that I do.
“I am NOT the fucking monster here,” he snarls as if he heard my thoughts. “I didn’t kill our parents. I may have wanted to kill that bitch, Ivana. She was so stupid. She played with both of your hearts. Gavin was just as crazy about her as you were. Nicky wasn’t your baby, she was Gavin’s.
“When I told her she wasn’t going to trap my baby brother she tried to pin it on you. That bitch took advantage of Gavin. All he has ever wanted was love and a family. I didn’t kill that bitch, but I wish like hell I had.
“Our father made promises. He wanted us to stop fucking with you, and we were going to. If he made good on his promises. If he made that sick fuck pay, this would have all been over.
“But he knew. He had too much to lose to let our father expose him. You know our father cried when we told him our story, and I believe they were genuine tears. But then the stupid fucker went and confronted him without a fucking plan.
“Our great father is the one that got himself, mom, Ivana and Nicky killed. Do you know it wasn’t even that slut’s idea to name the baby Nicky? It was what Gavin wanted. No matter what sex the baby was, he wanted it to be named Nicky. He has always had this love and loyalty to you. It makes me sick.
“He has fought me every step of the way on this. Now I don’t even know where he is. This is all your fucking fault. I have no one now, and it is because of you! I was never going to shoot that fucking kid. I was just trying to scare him. I didn’t know the safety was off. That bitch screamed and… it was a fucking mistake.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt Sephora. I thought I would be able to snatch her and talk to her, but that big ass Irish motherfucker came out of nowhere. He is the reason I ever even started carrying a gun.
“I only wanted to take you down. To rip everything from you because ripping your business apart meant tearing apart his and then we would be able to go after him. Liam was only in the way. He was like our father, blind. He trusted that son of a bitch.
“They all trusted him. Harvey Carver is the worst kind of Monster, Nick, because he hides in plain day. Want to know why Jillian helped us? It’s because she received the same treatment from dear old daddy Carver.
“I’m not the one with the body count, Nick, Harvey is. Mom, Dad, Ivana, Nicky and Presley Hilton. You can tell your friend, her death was on Harvey’s hands, not mine.
“I’m a finance genius. I know shit about murder. I only know Harvey Carver is great at it. You know, I think the son of a bitch admires you because you used to beat the shit out of pretty girls,” Rick gets quiet, but I know he is still there.
“I hate you, but you are still my baby brother. I can’t lose Gavin, and I know I will if I don’t back off. There’s one more thing you should know. Jillian is in that body count. He murdered his own daughter and taped it. It was the last straw. He knew he could break Gavin with it.
“He addressed the fucking package to Gavin, and he watched it. We had a fight, and he left. You’re no longer in danger from me, Nicholas. We are all in danger from Harvey. He’s scared. When the Locatelli's and O’Brien’s find all of this out, he’s a dead man. I finally have what I need to make that happen, and he’s scared shitless.
“I’m sorry that you hate me. I’ve done nothing but share a womb with you and be born, so I am sorry that you hate me for that. If you had taken the time to know me, Rick, you would know I protect what’s mine. So I would have made this right if you had just come to me,” I state calmly.
“Right now, I don’t really like you either, but you are my brother. That makes you mine, so we won’t be needing the Locatelli or O’Brien families for this. I, Nicholas Lincoln will make that motherfucker pay for every time he touched you and my other brother. I’ll make him pay for it all and when I’m done. I’ll think about how I feel about you,” I finish.
He snorts, then laughs hard. “You have balls. That is the one thing I have always liked about you. When Gavin shows up tell him I’m sorry,” Rick’s voice softens. “He really wants a family, Nick. I was behind it all. If you don’t want to know me, fuck, I don’t blame you, b
ut Gavin has always done what I told him to.
“All he does is talk about Sephora and the babies. He almost shit a brick when he hacked her medical records and found out she was having twins. He walks around with their little sonogram in his wallet next to Nicky’s. He is a good man. Let him love you,” with that the phone goes dead.
I fall back in my seat stunned. My fucking head hurts. I don’t know what to believe. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I register the fact that Ivana was not having my baby. Rick’s story adds up now that I have heard it. So many things are playing in my head, different interactions, and all the information I have been sorting through.
If they wanted to make Harvey Carver vulnerable, going through FLI would have been the best option. I made that motherfucker wealthy again when I took over. His company had been in worse shape than anyone in the investment group. He didn’t just benefit from the deal my father made. Harvey had bought heavily into FLI stocks. If I go down, he goes down.
If my father would have exposed him nine years ago he would have lost everything. He wouldn’t have even had the funds for a good legal team to cover his ass.
With Liam on the run, there was no one else that would really question him so I can see why he has been helping Liam stay away all this time. That bastard was taking advantage of every move my brothers made. My brothers, I have brothers.
As that thought sinks in my office door opens and in steps my wife and three best friends. Luke, Kevin, and Wyatt have been here all morning. From the stricken looks on their faces and the tears rolling down Sephora’s cheeks, I know they all heard the same tale I did.
I guess now it’s time I do what I do. Take care of what’s mine. Somebody’s about to die.
chapter Twenty-six
I Can’t Do This
Garvin
I have to protect Nick. I have a bond with Rick, but Nick is my twin. We hatched from the same egg. We all shared a womb, but Nick and I share something more. I have never met my baby brother, but I have always felt him out there.
Rick has sworn up and down that we have been doing the right thing. When we were eighteen and first started planning, it did seem like a great idea. Back then we hadn’t planned on doing anything to harm Nick. We needed Ivana to get information. Our father trusted Nick with FLI, and we need information.
We were never really going to harm anyone other than Carver. I hate that man. He deserves to rot in hell. I can’t believe he murdered his own daughter. She was already just as fucked up as Rick, and I was. He made us all this way, but Jillian didn’t deserve what he did to her.
I don’t think I will ever get that shit out of my head. It will forever remain there along with all the shit that has happened to me throughout my life. I’m not a crybaby about it. I know my life has been fucked up.
Rick doesn’t know this, but I met our mom when I was seventeen. I hadn’t meant to get so close, but she stopped to talk to a friend, and I tried to slip by. She spotted me, and she knew who I was right away.
She didn’t mistake me for Nick, she called me by my name. I was stunned and elated all at the same time. She quickly said bye to her friend and grabbed me by my hand. Twenty minutes later we were in a restaurant having lunch.
I lied to her. I made up this story of this happy life Rick, and I had. She looked so relieved. She apologized that day, and we promised to stay in touch. I wanted to, and I had planned on it.
Little did I know Harvey was having Rick, and I followed when we left the house. He came to the private house we lived in and beat the shit out of me. I try not to think of the other shit he’d done. It was the last time, though. That was when Rick had had enough.
Rick is good with numbers. He is also great with people, not that we got to be around many. Jesus was the groundskeeper at our home. He hated Carver as much as we did. He never saw what was really going on, but he sure did see the evidence of it.
Rick befriended Jesus and tipped him off to making some money, in return for investing the little money Rick gave him. It was with that money that we got away and started to put our plan in motion.
We were just kids; no one was expecting what we pulled off. Our father thought our plotting had just begun when we approached him about Harvey, but we had been in waiting for a really long time.
Ivana was a mistake. She had gotten in the way with her drama. I had cared for her, and she took advantage of that, she had her eyes set on bigger pockets. If she never went to dad with her drama, spewing her bullshit about Rick and me, mom and dad would have never been killed. Ivana distracted dad from Harvey and what needed to be done.
That was all that bastard needed to ruin our lives all over again, so, in turn, we wanted to ruin his. At least, that was what I wanted. Going through Nick was the best way for that, but I never wanted to hurt him.
In hindsight, I can see all of the damage we have done. Sephora’s friend and the video were the last straw for me. I need to get to my baby brother and help him see the snake slithering in his own garden.
That video was just a warning. Harvey is now a desperate man. It is only a matter of time before Liam realizes he was being played all these years. Sure Rick and I caused trouble for everyone, but Harvey played his hand well in the background. We were too young and stupid to see it before it was too late.
“What the fuck,” Wyatt Black growls as he pulls his gun and aims it at me.
I slipped in from the private beach. I had to walk miles of beach to do it, but I needed to get in pass Nick’s security. I know they are on high alert for Nick’s look alike.
I walk out of the shadows with my hands held high. “I mean no harm. You can check me if you like, Nick. I don’t mind you checking me, but please, Nick, I’ll allow only you to touch me,” I grimace at how my words come out.
They are not too soft spoken, but they are awkward to my own ears. My eyes scan the room quickly and land on Sephora who is pushed behind Lucian Emilsson. She is just as small and beautiful up close and personal as she is in pictures. The new haircut makes her look a little older, but not much. I see her peeking around her brother’s back at me and smile.
“I’ll do it,” she says softly.
“No,” Nick and I say in unison.
“If I were dangerous that would be unwise. You’re carrying precious cargo,” I smile broader and wink.
“You can put your hands down,” Nick sighs. “Rick told me you would be coming. God, this is crazy. It’s like looking in a fucking mirror.”
I smile at my baby brother and shrug. “You’re a half an inch taller,” I reply. “And three minutes younger.”
“But I’ve seen Rick, he… I mean, if I think of it now I guess he looks like me at a certain angle, but not like this,” Nick points at me, “Like you.”
“You and I split from the same egg,” I shrug again.
“Nick, I would feel more comfortable if you did search him,” Lucian says cautiously.
Nick nods and walks over to me slowly. I flinch when he reaches me and touches me for the first time. I told you. I am still fucked up in the head. His move is a little too sudden for me.
“Sorry,” Nick mutters with a tight look on his face.
“You’re fine,” I say and turn for him.
When he is done patting me down, I turn to face him again, and we just stare at each other. Nick is pretty easy for me to read. I know he is warring with how he feels at this moment, but I have waited too long for this.
“You’re one handsome motherfucker,” I tease to ease the tension out of the room. It works, Nick snorts then chuckles. This time, I make the sudden move with I pull my baby brother in for a tight hug. “God, I have waited so long for this,” I say in his ear.
“I’m sorry,” Nick chokes out and clears his throat. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what,” I ask. “You didn’t know, and we were babies. It could have been the other way around; you didn’t make the choice.”
And for I don’t know how long, I stand here in the same s
pot holding my baby brother for the first time. I love him, even if I am just meeting him for the first time.
~ B~
Sephora
After what we all heard on the phone this moment is heartbreaking. It is like watching two little boys become friends for the first time. I know it was stupid to offer to check Gavin, but the look in his eyes when he asked for Nick to do it. It tugged at my heart hard.
I can’t even begin to imagine what that horrible man did to him. They lived in a real-life house of horrors. If my dad knew about this, I know he would have helped them. I don’t understand what Nick’s father was thinking.
As much as I hated Jillian, I never wished her dead, well maybe once. Now that I know her father killed her and what she had to go through growing up I feel sorry for her. That man is a total monster. I knew there was something about him.
My rage boils as I think of it and I want to go out for blood. My babies’ uncles are all fucked up, and it is because of that evil man. He needs to pay.
“So what are we going to do about that Mr. Burns looking piece of shit,” I growl after a few minutes pass as Nick and Gavin hug.
Everyone in the room turns to me with stunned looks on their faces. I fold my arms over my chest. “What,” I shrug.
Everyone bursts into laughter, but soon the room sobers up. We all turn to look at Nick. Nick is looking at me.
“I intend to return the favor. An eye for an eye,” Nick shrug.
I shake my head at my man. He has lost his mind. There is no way I am letting him go after that man and get locked up.
“Are you forgetting that you are being watched by the FBI and possibly the local PD,” I tilt my head at him. “Nope, we have to be smart about this.”
“We, there is no we,” Nick and Gavin say in unison, and it is the eeriest thing and not the first time they have done so since being in the room together.
“Oh come on, you know I can help,” I huff. “Besides, I have an idea.”
Gavin narrows his eyes at me and Nick glare. I place my hand on my hip and glare back at both of them. I am not backing down. I want my own pound of flesh. I lost years with my Dad over this, and one of my best friends is in the hospital.
