Each of them had a different way of dealing. I saw Dasher's way. I wished I had never glimpsed Travis's.
My masochistic self couldn’t help but watch the Instagram story with Dasher and DJ Bex over and over. He looked blissfully happy and she looked like she belonged in his arms.
My phone rang and I expected Dasher's name to flash but instead, it was Katya.
"Hello beautiful," I put her on the loudspeaker as I started to outline my ideas on the Camden notepad.
“Are you okay?” she asked breathlessly.
“Are you having sex right now?”
“What?” she sounded confused. “No! I’m on a fucking treadmill.”
“Language,” I tsked.
“Har-Har, seriously though, are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I frowned. My neck had a kink in it from bending over. I grabbed my stuff and spread it out on the floor of Travis’s office.
“Where are you right now?” her voice sounded stable but still out of breath.
“At a business meeting,” I said distractedly. “If you think I’m not okay because of DJ Bex and DJ Dash having a moment, then you’re wrong.”
“I am? I thought you loved him.”
“I do,” I said absent-mindedly. “Which is why I will give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“Such a grown up,” I pictured her smiling. “I expected a full-on meltdown and rebound.”
“I’m trying; besides it wouldn’t surprise me if he found someone else though.”
“Here we go,” she sighed.
“What now?”
“You need to stop being so cynical,” she said. “You have someone in your life that truly wants to try no matter what you may think, maybe let that run its course before you jinx anything.”
“Yes ma’am,” I mentally saluted. “Now, can I get back to work?”
“Where’s this business meeting?”
“At a top-secret location,” I answered.
“Aria!”
“I’m serious, I’m contractually bound to keep my mouth shut.”
“Fine,” she gritted. “You better not be rebranding for a sex-shop or something.”
“Now there’s a thought! I’ll get on to researching that,” I chuckled.
“Aria!”
I hung up before she could swear me anymore. I was so enthralled in my project thereafter that for two straight days I hadn’t moved from my apartment floor. All I did in those two days was work and work without once glancing at my phone.
That’s probably why I missed the fact that Dasher had lost the competition to DJ Bex and also missed the fact that he was standing in front of me ten minutes after I sent through the completed rebranding pack to Travis.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dasher
To say that I was confused and hurt at the same time was an understatement. Aria looked up at me as if wondering how or why I was standing before her.
“Hey,” she said after a few blinks. “I didn’t know you were getting home today.”
“If you looked at your phone,” I gritted. “You would’ve. I tried calling you, but it was off.”
"Oh crap," she snapped her fingers with an uncomfortable laugh. "I was lost in work and actually forgot all about the phone or life, to be honest."
“So, I’m guessing you didn’t tune in to the finale?” I tilted my head. My body was stiff, and I was exhausted.
“Did you win?” she raised her brows with a hopeful look on her face.
“Nope,” I dropped my duffle to the floor and folded my arms across my chest. “What’s going on with you Aria?”
“I told you, I was lost in my work for two days straight,” she rolled her eyes and stretched her body. I noticed her wearing the same t-shirt with my name across her chest. It looked lived in and her hair really did look like it was two days old.
“What were you doing with my brother, Aria?” the words tasted sour in my mouth.
“He had a business proposition for me,” she answered.
“And that was what you’ve been doing for the past two days?”
“Yip,” she sighed. “Look, I know you have issues with your brother—”
"Issues?" I said in a deceptively calm voice. "Aria, issues don't even cover the problems that exist between my brother and me, and for you, my girlfriend to get into bed with him—”
“Watch your words, Dasher,” she snapped. “It is a simple rebranding project which I just wrapped up five minutes ago.”
“It was a simple rebranding project which had you lost to me for two days and you were not even tuned in to the finale of an important venture in my life!”
Her eyes flared with anger. “My business is also important in my life, Dasher, this project is going to go down in history and my name and growing business will forever be linked to this. Besides, you had DJ Bex to keep you content!”
I rolled my eyes and rubbed at my tired eyes. “Rebecca was just a friend.”
“And Travis was nothing but a business decision,” she countered. “Are you really going to stand there and be a hypocrite. You had this woman in your arms and were photographed with her repeatedly, the world has already shipped you guys because of how cute you both look together.”
“Fuck that, Aria, you know it isn’t anything like that,” I shouted.
“No, I didn’t actually, because I hardly heard anything from you after that first day that you were there,” she gritted. She pushed her tangled blonde hair off her face. “Look, can we not do this right now?”
“I don’t get it,” I said with a shake of my head. “For someone who spent three years of her life having an online relationship, you really had difficulty navigating the last month without me.”
Her mouth dropped opened. “What did you just say?”
“Think about it,” I said tiredly. “You hardly spoke to me, you hardly initiated the conversation and even when you saw the posts about Rebecca and me, you did not confront me—so really, I don’t know why you’re making it a big deal now? Is it to cover up what’s really going on with you and Travis?”
“Dasher,” she warned. “I will remind you to watch your words. You are insinuating.”
“That is all I can do, Aria,” I threw my hands in the air. “What are you really doing for my brother?”
“I’m contractually bound not to say anything,” she stared at me coldly.
“What else are you contractually bound not to talk about? After all, we both know when you get jealous and lonely, you become impulsive.”
I felt the hot sting before I registered the sound of the slap. I held the left side of my face and stared into the angry tear-filled eyes of the girl I hurt beyond repair.
“Get the fuck out,” she said softly.
“Aria—”
“No,” she held her finger up. “You’ve said enough. You have no idea what’s going on. You have no sense of trust which is why you’ve ruined every chance of having any relationship with Travis. You ruin everything.”
I stumbled back at her words.
“All you see is yourself, all you see is what you are going through, all you try to do is feel like the victim no matter who you hurt in the process,” she screamed. “Just leave. Just get out.”
I wanted to argue with her. I wanted to fight it out. I wanted to make things works, but I was angry.
“You think that you have done some great service by teaming up with my brother,” I said. “He is the one person who has let me down the most and you side with him?”
“The sides exist only in your head,” she snapped. “The only thing I did was take a business opportunity!”
“Then you are no different than Paisley,” I shook my head in disgust. “Fucking opportunists. That’s probably why your trust fund boyfriend left you for someone in his league.”
Her stunned face was the last thing I saw before I grabbed my bag and slammed my way out of the apartment.
Aria
I knew he would be
angry. I knew I had to come up with some sort of excuse as to why I was working with Travis. What I never expected were his harsh words. Words that would haunt me.
Words that brought back the things Holden said to me.
Girls who do that trying to be noticed are tacky.
You just like playing the role of the bleeding lover.
Don’t be dramatic.
You like to think so, but you love living in a fairytale and I’m the realist.
Stick to your Brooklyn people and I will continue on my way which doesn’t lead to Brooklyn as you well know.
I scrubbed at my face as each insult slashed me word after word. I stumbled over the couch trying to desperately get to the kitchen. I knew that there was a chance that things with end with Dasher just as they ended with Holden, but just like with Holden, I had never expected to get insulted.
I ripped opened the grocery cupboard door and grabbed the bottle of Grey Goose. I twisted the cap and hesitated as the bottle touched the tip of my lip.
We both know when you get jealous and lonely, you become impulsive.
I tipped the bottled and gulped down the liquid that burned its way down my throat.
“Well, that’s quite mature,” a voice mocked.
I glanced up through my tears and saw the hazy figure of Holden. He was as handsome as ever and dressed in those ridiculously expensive clothes he liked.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Language,” he shook his head. “You always were a little too rural for my liking.”
The insult stung and brought with it fresh tears. “Stop.”
“Stop what?” he mocked. “This is what you do, Aria, you know the score from the beginning. Hell, your subconscious even warns you, your heart tries to stop you, but against all odds, you still put yourself in situations where you become the victim."
“I’m not—”
“Face it,” he laughed. “That’s why your boy left. He knew deep down that you were high maintenance.”
I dropped to my knees the slamming of the tile jarring my bones as I looked at the cruel smile on his face. He was a figment of my imagination, some part of me knew that, but the part of me that kept feeding myself more and more alcohol slowly started to push that thought out of my head.
“You have to understand, Aria,” Holden leaned against the counter with his arms folded. “You're hot and at times you are a funny person which makes you refreshing to talk to, but long-term commitments with you? I couldn't do it. What makes you think that this guy is going to do the same thing huh? As it is you scared him away with your continuous meltdowns at his club events."
I clenched my teeth and fists as I let word after word sink into my head. It was true, wasn't it? I always fell fast and hard even when I tried to school myself into not doing it. I always tried as hard as I could.
“Do you really?” Holden quipped from his stance in my kitchen. “Cos from my point of view… you have not learned anything!"
I cried and flung the bottle at the image of him causing him to disappear and the bottle smashing into a million pieces.
I sat like a pitiful waste of space in the middle of the kitchen floor and I cried. I held my stomach as the pain hit so intensely. I felt like my body was breaking apart. I knew it was my heart that shattered.
I stood on shaky legs and stumbled over the glass, I felt them pierce my skin as I tried to reach up and pull down the other bottle we had in the cupboard. It wasn’t vodka, it was tequila.
I was sure that would do the trick.
I grabbed the bottle and stumbled out the house with no care of the blood stains I left behind.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dasher
I pounded the shit out of the door to our Park Avenue high rise. I felt hurt and annoyed. I literally had no other place to go. Aria was my home which was now tainted by Travis. He had to fucking pay for that.
Travis swung the door opened. He was shirtless and dressed in pajama pants. The fucker was having an amazing fucking sleep while my life was falling apart.
I shoved him hard enough and he stumbled backward. "What the—"
“Aria was off limits, asshole!” I roared.
Travis frowned at me as he tried to regain his footing. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb, you fucker!” I seethed and pushed him again. “You knew she meant everything to me that is why you sought her out.”
“I can assure you,” Travis pushed me away. “Seeking her out had nothing to do with you.”
“You’re lying!”
“You are right actually,” he shrugged. “It had everything to do with you, just not in the way you think.”
I decked him in the jaw. “I love her! Why would you take that away from me?”
Travis paused with an angry glare in his gaze and socked me hard in the face. Hard enough for me to spin around and fall flat on my face.
I looked up at him with shock all over my face. “What the—”
“Shut your ungrateful and uneducated mouth and listen for one fucking second!” he shouted. I truly shrunk back because for the first time I saw Travis as my older brother. My scary older brother.
“Aria has nothing to do with me romantically,” he gritted. He moved to the couch that was directly in front of where I sprawled. “I went to her because I needed someone out of Camden to help me, I needed someone who cared enough to keep the transition under wraps.”
I opened my mouth to ask him what transition but one look from him told me to shut my mouth. I watched as my brother, cold and stoic, swallowed hard as he prepared to tell me the truth that was about to change my life drastically.
“Two years ago when Emmaline told us what had happened, you believed that I just disappeared for a few hours and then came back as if nothing had happened. You believed that I was capable of letting everything that happened to our baby sister slide under the rug without so much as a blink of an eye.”
I frowned at him as I silently agreed with him.
“That night,” he inhaled. “I followed them. I found each of the three bastards and I took them down.”
My body locked and the temperature in my blood dropped alarmingly low as I processed what he said. “What?”
“I captured each one of them and had them confined for the last two years,” he shook his head and his eyes filled with a dangerous glint that instilled fear in me. “Each day for the last two years, I learned how to get on David’s good side. I learned business in a much better way than he did. I took his allies and made them mine. I crumbled Camden from the inside out. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
“What happened to the three assholes?” I asked even though I knew I wasn’t going be very happy with his answer.
“Pieces of them are going to show up very soon,” he grinned. “David is going to be implicated and Camden is going to become solely mine.”
“You told Aria all of this?” I asked, horrified. What would she think of me if she realizes my brother is a cold-blooded killer.
“No,” he snorted. “Your girl is feisty and strong, but she would’ve definitely turned me in, even if I did for a good enough reason. Aria rebranded Camden. Once all the chips fall into place, I’m taking the Camden name down.”
“Why would you do all of that?” I tried and failed to sit up. The blows he delivered verbally, kept me down. “You always told me to be grateful to them for all that they had done for us. You told me to be grateful that they took us in.”
“That was until our baby sister was murdered right under their fucking noses,” Travis flashed feral eyes at me. “I would stop at nothing to protect both of you.”
“So, all those questions about the inheritance?”
“That was so that he couldn’t try and claim anything from either one of us,” Travis shrugged. “I needed to know that you had the money safely or invested in something other than funding your life. Good choice on the charity by the way.”
“That
was Aria’s idea.”
“She’s a keeper,” Travis smiled. “She gave me enough attitude to ensure I don’t ever ask her for another favor. Although I do think she would make an excellent addition to the Camden enterprise.”
“I told her so much of things before I left,” I shook my head. “I think I ruined her idea of me.”
“If she loves you, she will forgive you,” he answered. “You should go sort things out.”
I stood and held my hand out to him. He slid his into mine in a tight grip.
“Thank you, brother,” I said softly. “For avenging our sister and keeping me safe.”
"You're welcome, Dasher," Travis squeezed my hand once.
I made my way to the door when he called my name. I turned back with both my brows raised.
"I'm sending some papers for you when everything calms down, I think it is time that we Hawke men take our name back."
I winked at him before I escaped out the door.
The apartment was empty when I got back to Aria’s apartment. That wasn’t the alarming part. The door was opened and blood stained the doorstep. My heart sped up like a horse galloping at high speed. I ran into the lounge area and found her laptop toppled over. I walked into the kitchen and found a smashed bottle of Grey Goose and blood on the glass.
She must’ve stepped on it.
I glanced up at the opened cupboard and noticed that it was the cupboard we kept all the alcohol in. the tequila was gone.
“Fuck!”
I reached for my cell and dialed her number. The phone went straight to voicemail and I figured she hadn’t yet put the damn thing on. I grabbed the keys to the TT and ran down the stairs almost crashing into Susan.
“You keep breaking her heart Dasher,” Susan sang as she twirled her way up the stairs. “You may not get her back this time.”
“Where is she?” I held Susan by her upper arms and shook her. “Tell me!”
“Where you first met,” she grinned. “Only, I don’t think she’s there anymore.”
The Wreck of Our Hearts Page 17
