“What do you mean?” my body shook with fear. This time it was fear of losing the woman I loved.
“She looked like I did when they first admitted me,” Susan giggled. “Run, run, run before you lose her over the black, black water of the deep, deep sea.”
I bolted. I was not inclined to wait for Susan’s words to register or make sense to me. All I knew was Aria needed me and if she was about to do something stupid, it was because I put her on that path.
She sat in the middle of the road, screaming and crying. My hands shook as I exited the car. She was battered and bloodied. Her hair was tangled, her feet were scraped raw and her face had mascara tracks.
I lifted her like a baby and carried her over to the TT. I laid her on the hood of the car. She clung to me like her life depended on it. For the first time since Emma’s funeral, a tear fell down my face.
“I destroy everything, don’t I?” she slurred through her sobs. “I destroyed us too. I should’ve told you the truth, I should’ve—”
“Ssh, princess,” I cooed as I stroked her hair. “I’ve got you. Ssh. I know everything that happened. Travis and I spoke.”
She looked up at me with her bright blue eyes that were surrounded by red. It was as if her eyes were faucets because her tears continued to stream even as her body stopped wracking with sobs.
"You are a beautiful person, Dasher," she whispered. Her lips were plump and lush from the number of times she probably sucked on them. "You are everything."
“Aria—”
“I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you, Dasher, I knew better than that,” she smiled wistfully.
She was a broken doll. My broken doll.
"Aria, hush now, let's get you home," I tried to move her off the car, but she held strong to me.
"Look," she said as she unsteadily used her finger to wipe the tear from my cheek. "I even made you cry. Don't cry for me, Dasher. I'm not worth it."
“Aria, stop, now!” I said getting increasingly angry with her.
She looked up at me and as her tears fell she smiled at me. “I love you, Dasher.”
“I—” I didn’t get to say anything because she fell face first into my chest and passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aria
I stared into my coffee cup hoping it would swallow me whole. I was ashamed of my behavior last night. I can’t remember what I did or said, but judging from the bottle pieces I cleaned up, the cuts in my feet and the vomit I smelt in the bathroom this morning—Dasher had a lot on his plate.
He padded in slowly and took my cup away from me. He gulped down a healthy sip before returning my cup. “Fuck, I needed that.”
I smiled weakly.
“What’s wrong?”
“Really?” I gave him a sour look. “Are we going to do this again?”
"I—" he frowned as his phone rang. He swiped at the screen and answered. "Travis?"
My eyebrows rose as I recalled why we were fighting yesterday.
“Now?” his frown deepened. “Okay.”
He gestured for me to come to the lounge. “You should see this.”
Dasher turned on the tv and the news boomed across the room.
“Camden Media CEO and Founder, David Camden, has just been arrested in what seems to be a triple homicide,” the tv reporter said frantically. In the background, there was a live feed of David Camden being escorted from the Park Avenue High Rise into a police vehicle. He looked stunned and confused all at the same time. “Police have found the remains of Camden’s biggest competitor, Jessup Trent, and Camden’s long-standing media partners, Arnold Gaston and Calvin Moore. The three men were once close associates with Mr. Camden until two years ago when a tragedy befell the stricken family. It is believed that Camden’s niece who was also his adoptive daughter was a victim of gang rape at the hands of the business partners.”
I gasped and grabbed on to Dasher’s hand. He squeezed back but kept his eyes on the screen. I remember Travis telling me that he sought justice for Emmaline. I was afraid to ask what that justice was because I knew what I was seeing on tv was not the complete story.
“Mr. Camden’s adoptive sons both relayed this message to the media, quote: my brother Dasher and I would like to express our need for privacy at this time. What happened to our sister was unacceptable however we were intent on seeking justice through the right avenues. We were unable to lodge any sort of complaint due to the threats on the remaining family members. As much as we are grateful for the fact that these monsters are no longer able to do this to anyone else’s sister or daughter, we understand that our father should not have taken the law into his own hands. However, we will stand by his side as much as we can.”
I raised a brow at Dasher. “Did you really give a statement?”
He shrugged. “Nah, Travis had this all figured out.”
“Did he tell you what I was working on?”
"He told me that he wanted to keep it a surprise which is why I'm not going to ask you about it."
Dasher switched off the tv and then kneeled in front of me. “Last night—”
"I'm so sorry—"
He placed his finger on my lips.
“Last night was terrible. We said things that we really shouldn’t have said even though deep down we know we needed to hear them. We are not perfect. We were never meant to be, Aria.”
I swallowed as tears brimmed in my eyes.
"And yet, somehow despite all odds we keep coming back to each other. The jealousy, the fights, and the insecurities, despite them all we keep coming back," he smiled and swiped his fingers along my cheek. "My brother came to you because he knew that your instinct to protect me would outweigh your need to be with me. You were ready to let us crumble to the ground just to keep his secret because it involved me because you knew that I wasn't ready for whatever it is that you have helped him do."
“Dasher, I never wanted to lie to you,” I said. “I never meant to ignore you or jump to conclusions. It’s hard for me. I try so hard not to compare our relationship to mine with Holden. The cuts are too deep. I’m always going to compare, I’m always going have my shoulders hunched because I’ve been taught that love is fighting to keep his attention.”
“Don’t ever think that you have to fight to keep my attention, Aria,” he warned. His green eyes peered into mine and it was as if I could see his soul. “You never had to fight for my attention, you had it the day you stepped into my hospital room. Even while I tried to convince myself that I felt nothing for you, I knew deep down that one day you were going to become the most important person in my life.”
“Dasher,” I whispered against his hand as his cupped my face.
“I love you, Aria,” he said softly. “I want you to be that vinyl that never stops spinning. I want you to be the reason why my heartbeats always reach alarming levels. I want to wake up every day and know that it’s going to be a new adventure with you. I want to laugh with you. I want to cry with you. I want to fight with you. Mostly, I just want to keep falling in love with you.”
I pulled him by his bare shoulders and kissed him hard. “I love you too, Dasher.”
He pulled me closer to him so that my legs wrapped around his body. He stood and took me with him. His lips never left mine even as he tried to navigate to my bedroom. He laid me down on my bed and stared down at me.
“You are the most beautiful thing in my life, apart from my deejay mixer that is,” he smirked.
I laughed and smacked him hard on his chest. “Keep talking that way and you won’t get any!”
“Hah! We will see,” he wrestled me out of my clothes and then shed his.
He took his time kissing my neck and sucking on it as if he had all the time in the world. My body moved underneath his feeling him grow harder as he slid between me.
“You’re killing me, princess,” he growled in my ear.
“If you don’t fuck me now,” I panted. “I’m going to swear the living hell out of
you.”
He hissed as he slid inside me. His hands clutched both of mine and held them down on the bed. The weight of his body pressed into mine in an imposing yet comfortable way.
“Fuck,” he gritted. “This is like coming home for me.”
Dasher moved in and out of me in such fervor that I felt as if he were trying to imprint himself on me. I looked up into his passionate green eyes and sucked on his lips. He kissed me fiercely while picking up his pace, we were both so close.
“I love you, Aria,” he gritted and I came crashing down all around him.
“I love you too, Dasher,” I answered as I felt him tense and then spill inside me.
I felt loved. Need. Satiated.
Epilogue
1 year and a couple months later…
Dasher
I stood in front of the new ninety-something story glass building in the most central part of New York City. Hawke Towers literally towered over many of its surrounding buildings. The place looked like an architectural dream.
Travis had his office on the last floor of course. The entire floor belonged to him. He sat at a glass corner desk in a three-piece suit and a devilish smile on his face. He watched me walk in with a thoughtful look on his face.
“You ever think about going into corporate life?” he asked by way of greeting.
“Fuck no,” I rolled my eyes.
“It’s a shame,” he shrugged. “We would’ve made a great team.”
“I don’t know,” I gave him a curious look. “You seem to be buddying up with the Vitaly Mafia family quite well.”
He sobered. “You are not supposed to know that.”
I grinned.
“Your fiancé can’t seem to keep her mouth shut it seems,” he rolled his eyes.
“Hey now,” I warned as I took a seat in front of him. “Anyway, I came to invite you to the barbeque we’re throwing at the Brooklyn Bridge Park.”
“You realize the media would have a field day with me out in the open?” Travis asked.
It’s true. Six months after David’s incarceration, Travis and Aria finally released the bomb they were sitting on. Camden Media was gone and replaced by Emmaline Enterprises. Travis now dabbled in the world of media, publications, hotels and even a new chain of restaurants. He also came out with the fact that he was now Travis Hawke and no longer wanted to be associated with the name Camden.
As for our adoptive mother, she drowned herself in a glass of vodka and bottle of Xanax. I hated that she had to resort to that, but either way, her suicide shed more light on Travis and the media had a field day with whether he was, in fact, the orchestrator of the downfall of Camden Media. The best part of it all? His own publication house printed eighty percent of those articles.
“The offer stands,” I shrugged. I stood to leave when he stopped me.
“I’m really happy for you, Dasher,” he said seriously. “You have become a strong person and I suspect the fact that you allowed a bit of love into your life is the reason why you are that way.”
“My wish for you, Travis, is that one day you find something like what I have,” I said. “There is nothing more beautiful than experiencing love.”
Travis grinned. "Don't worry about me, little brother, just tell that fiancé of yours that we signed an NDA before she accepted her position here!"
I chuckled as I exited the office.
Aria had taken up Travis on his offer once he went live with Emmaline Enterprises. She took up the junior post in the marketing and design department and slaved her way up the ranks. Today she is the managing head of design and marketing.
She still does her book cover thing as she used to, this time the authors have the luxury of the Emmaline Enterprises name behind their publications. Aria has been trying to get Travis to agree to an independent publishing section.
I reached the apartment in record time. Aria was preparing for the barbeque we were hosting at the park. She felt like doing something since it was the first weekend in months where we were both free.
My gigs now included me traveling to different countries. On rare occasions, Aria came with me, other than that I was solo and having the time of my life visiting different countries and picking up all sorts of new tricks.
Aria tried to get me to make a demo and send it to a music production company, but I was having none of it.
When we were in France, I played multiple sets and it was fun to see her let her hair down. She loved it because the women there were not as aggressive as the ones back home.
That night after we made hot, sweaty love on the balcony in Paris, I popped the question.
It's been five months since then and neither of us has yet to pick a date for a wedding.
“Hey princess,” I greeted as she took a tray out of the oven. She had gotten better at the cooking and baking thing.
“Hey handsome, what’s the verdict?” she raised her brows.
“Travis is a little media shy,” I shrugged and grabbed a cookie off the tray.
She smacked my hand. “That means he’s going to make an elaborate media induced entrance.”
“It is quite scary how well you know him,” I laughed as I watched her pack things into the freezer for the next day.
“Working hazard,” she laughed.
She dusted her hand and the glint of the ring on her finger brought a smile to my face.
I pulled her flush against my body. “Hey again.”
She placed a soft kiss on my lips. “Hey yourself.”
The doorbell rang, and she sighed. "So much for a quiet weekend."
“You’re the one who wanted to have a barbeque,” I held my hands up. “I was cool with staying in bed all weekend.”
She rolled her eyes and went to answer the door.
Aria
Life with Dasher was a fairytale. We had our ups and downs, but we always found our way back like he said. There were many more meltdowns and Brooklyn Bridge near deaths. There were also a lot of Grey Goose and Tequila moments.
All in all, we found our way through it.
We sat on the grass at the park. The sparkling water gave off a reflection of wonder. All around us we had family and friends. My parents, sister, Olivia and her boyfriend, Katya, Parker, Clay, Sophia, Leo and a few new members that we formed on the way, all congregated around the table as we barbequed and had a fun day of playing games and spending time with each other.
Travis, as usual, made his entrance with media and glam. He was dressed in designer jeans and t-shirt which became the focus of many women’s blog magazines. Katya became hot in the face while Sophia in her young age stared at him with wide eyes.
Parker tried prying his little girl’s attention away from the mogul, but nothing worked. It was as if every woman in the vicinity was drawn to him.
Travis and I managed to keep a cordial relationship even though I wanted to kill him for the dealings he had with certain members of the wrong kind, but for Dasher's sake, everything stayed as sane as it could be between us.
“You look lost in thought,” Alessa said as she stood next to me and watched the water.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “I’m happy.”
“Who would’ve thought that you would see this day, huh?”
"Not me, that was for sure," I shook my head and watched Dasher speak animatedly with my parents while his brother just laughed and charmed the pants off my mother. "I never thought there would be a day in hell where I would be happy. Where I would enjoy happiness this immense."
“When our hearts break,” Alessa smiled. “The magnitude of what happened is more important than the fact that we may have had a heartbreak before that one. We forget that we have overcome the same things before, instead we decide to believe that this one is the one that is going to destroy us.”
I hugged my sister close to me. “Thank you. You and the girls have been my rock through every moment of my life, good or bad.”
“It comes with the job,” she winked and walked back t
o the group.
The rest of the evening we spent time with family and friends, all while Dasher and I couldn’t stop looking at each other.
Later that evening, we walked along the bridge.
“Can you believe that a little over two years ago, we met on this spot?” Dasher shook his head.
“I still remember,” I said wistfully. “I was so distraught over seeing Holden’s new relationship that I ended up walking barefoot on this bridge, bawling my eyes out.”
“What is it about you and being barefoot and crying on this bridge?” he narrowed his eyes at me.
“Very good question,” I shrugged.
"That night," he ran his fingers through his hair. "I accidentally found Emma's laptop. I powered it on and saw a picture of the three of us. I tried every password possible, but nothing worked. I was frustrated, and I needed to know what was on the laptop. I was rushing to Parker to see if he could find someone who would break through the password that night. I looked down for only a second and the next thing I knew, I was looking up at you.”
“I thought you had amnesia about that moment,” I rolled my eyes.
“It came back to me slowly,” he tucked my hair behind my ears. “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
“I know,” I grinned.
“Very modest,” he laughed. “So why did you decide to have such a big barbeque and invite everyone? It felt like a reception.”
I smiled at him and inserted myself into his arms. I looked up into the eyes that brought me back to life and introduced me to the unselfish version of love.
“Because it was,” I kissed him.
“What do you mean?”
“Tomorrow morning, we have tickets, we are going to elope.”
He laughed out loud and hoisted me up into the air and spun me around. “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” I laughed with him. “We’re going to get married. Just you and I.”
The Wreck of Our Hearts Page 18
