“Yes. I am.”
“She is in Tampa. Why?” I asked.
“You know she’s in Tampa?”
“Zara told me.”
Her lips twitched as if she’d stopped herself from saying something. “What’s going on between the two of you?”
I swallowed. I had a split second to make a decision. Revealing our relationship to Deb was different from telling Zara. One was her friend, and the other was her boss. Penina would’ve liked to choose how she was going to break the news of our relationship to Deb. I wanted to sniff at that, though, since at the moment, I wasn’t sure we were still in a relationship.
“Nothing,” I said. Fuck. I wanted to tell her the truth. “Personal. Nothing personal. We share a patient, and I think she’d want to hear an update.”
“What patient?”
“Leonard Moreau,” I answered just as fast as she asked.
“Well …” Deb heaved a sigh. “She’ll be back on Saturday, maybe.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Dr. Sparrow, but I made her a promise.”
I nodded. At least I knew Penina was not hurt. “Then an emergency came up?”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
I took in a deep breath, bowed graciously, and said, “Thank you.”
Deb narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You’re welcome,” she said then tore down the hallway to do whatever she had set out to do before I got in her way.
I would have to wait until Penina’s flight landed in New Orleans. I scratched my head, thinking of my next move. She must’ve booked a round-trip flight. Deb had said she was returning to work on Saturday, which meant she was flying in sometime tomorrow on Freedom Airlines. I only had two morning surgeries for the next day. I would send Kirk to the airport just in case her flight arrived while I was in the OR. When I was out, and possibly while she was in the air, I would have him pick me up and take me to the airport, and I would wait for as long as necessary to meet her on the ground.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jake Sparrow/Asher Christmas
“Ash, is that you?” Gina called as soon as I set foot into the penthouse. By the hollow echo surrounding her voice, I could tell she was in the kitchen.
I found Gina sitting at the island, eating a grilled cheese sandwich. The smell of hot butter browning bread and melting cheese was a sign she had made it herself. She had also made herself at home in a pair of silk pajamas, the blousy kind. That was different. Gina had always liked showing off her skin and curves.
I’d seen that look in her eyes a million times before. She was begging for my sympathy. “Really, I’m so sorry, Ash. I’ve had time to think about what I did, and I don’t know what came over me. When I saw that woman, I just …” She closed her eyes and massaged her temples.
I positioned myself on the other side of the island. “What are you doing here, Gina?”
She opened her eyes and set her hands in her lap. “A friend told me she saw you at a party last night. I thought if you were in town, then I might find you at the mansion or here. I tried here first, and that was when I ran into her.” She scowled. “She’s a doctor?”
My face felt tight, and I had a headache. “Now what?”
“What do you mean?”
“You found me. Now what?”
She sat her sandwich back on the plate. “I’m not telling your family where you are, if that’s what you’re worried about. You know I wouldn’t do that to you. But haven’t you heard?”
“Haven’t I heard what?”
She studied me then sighed. “So much is happening in your world, Ash. And I’m telling you it’s about to come crashing down. First …” She shoved an opened envelope at me. “I found this in my room, where your girlfriend was sleeping.”
My neck jutted forward as I read who the letter was addressed to. “That belongs to Penina?”
She dropped it onto the counter. “Read it.”
I pressed my finger on it. “You opened her mail?”
She snatched the envelope from under the tip of my finger. “You have to put yourself in my shoes, Ash. I walk into my place, and there’s mail on the dresser for someone I don’t know. What was I supposed to do?” she asked, throwing her hands up in a helpless manner.
“You suspected I was here, and if that was the case, then Penina was associated with me. That’s why you should’ve checked with me before you infringed on her privacy.”
“I knew you weren’t going to read it, so I did. She’s been coded, Ash.”
I frowned. “What do you mean, ‘she’s been coded’?”
“Spence has made a deal with all the commercial DNA test centers in existence. If a person comes up as being an illegitimate child of Arthur Valentine or your father, they’re coded.”
My frown deepened as I processed what she was insinuating. Then I had to see what the hell she meant. I went against my better judgment and took the envelope from her then pulled out the paper.
“Look at the bottom,” she said.
It had the name and number for the indemnity fund, headed by the Jada and Spencer Christmas Foundation. It asked her to call the phone number below to unlock her DNA results and to speak with an agent to schedule an appointment with a local counselor regarding parentage. She was entitled to a healthy restitution for abuses against a primary relative of Randolph Wesley Christmas, Arthur G. Valentine, or both.
I grabbed a handful of my shirt over my heart and whispered, “What the fuck.”
Gina sat watching me with concern, but she appeared to be a hundred miles away. I had to read the note at the bottom of the page again.
“Either she’s your sister, or she’s Valentine’s daughter. Julia’s sister,” she added, whispering.
Fuck, Julia. She and I hadn’t been involved since my father was alive. She was Valentine’s daughter. Our relationship was not healthy and was merely transactional on her part. She was scared as hell of Jasper, but most people were. My oldest brother’s reputation preceded him. Most saw him as a hard, bitter man who was unable to love, the sort of asshole who would rip his foes’ heads off and feed the rest of their bodies to the vultures. Of course, his treachery was overexaggerated. Sure, his enemies had better watch out. But those whom Jasper loved, he loved unconditionally and dutifully. He hadn’t loved Julia and guaranteed her he never would. If they had married, it would’ve been for business only. But just like nearly every woman who crossed my brother’s path, she wanted him to want her for real.
Julia’s ego was the size of the fucking galaxy. She’d seduced me because she thought it would make Jasper jealous. I would admit now what I couldn’t then, that I returned her affections because I wanted a small taste of what Jasper had. But either he hadn’t known about me and Julia, or he hadn’t given a damn.
Jasper hadn’t gotten jealous over a woman until the day Holly Henderson showed up for the annual Christmas with Christmases gathering seven years ago. I thought he would ask Holly Henderson to leave the estate once he learned who she was and why she was there. But he didn’t. It was no surprise he married her. Julia was stupid, thinking she could manipulate Jasper into wanting her for real. But I was the bigger fool for getting entangled with her.
However, that wasn’t why my blood felt as if it had turned into stone.
“Fuck,” I whispered, thinking about all the ways in which I’d fucked Penina and the many more positions I had in store for us. I didn’t want to stop doing her. I wanted her to be in my life forever but not as a fucking sibling. I had enough of those.
Gina shrugged. “Look on the bright side. Your family has already survived some serious inbreeding. I think that’s why Randolph was so fucked up.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. She was agitating the hell out of me, but she had a point. The Christmases were originally Mobleys. My great-great-grandparents Sylvester Mobley and Jane Young were raised as cousins, but the rumor was they were actually brother and sister. They’d fucked, she got pregnant, and to escape public scorn, they snuck off to Ameri
ca with a lot of family money and changed their surname to Christmas.
“That’s a rumor,” I said, even though I believed it to be true.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, it’s true, and you know it. But Penina”—Gina spoke her name with scorn—“being your sister isn’t why I hate her. She’s too fucking perfect. That’s why I hate her. But …” She took a bite of her sandwich. “But eating is helping me get over it. Want one?” She sounded like she had too much sandwich in her mouth.
“No, I don’t want one.” I slammed the letter from the DNA company onto the counter.
“So did you guys have sex?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied, too preoccupied to refine my answer.
Gina sat up straight, eyes wide. “Was she better than me?”
I scratched the back of my ear. I used to enjoy saying hurtful shit to her. I wanted to make her hurt for being in love with my other brother, Spencer, while involved with me. “You really want me to answer that question?”
She looked down and squirmed. “I was fucked up, wasn’t I?”
“We both were,” I said.
She looked up again. “Do you know I haven’t had sex since the last time we tried?”
I jerked my head back. “Really?”
She shrugged. “I mean, I’ve had customers. Like ten of them, back to back, didn’t want to fuck. Then I finally got one who did, and I just couldn’t let him inside. We were in a hotel room in Toronto.” She swallowed as a pained expression overtook her face. “He wasn’t bad-looking, no halitosis, no furry body, but I just felt so fucking dirty. So …” She shook her head. “Neglectful of myself.”
I swallowed. “I’m proud of you.”
She watched me with watery eyes. “Me too.”
Gina knew I couldn’t sleep. She didn’t used to be able to either, but she yawned and told me that now she slept like a baby. We were sharing a bottle of rum. I tried to focus on what she was saying as she told me about the girls she worked with and how happy they had made her.
“But, Ash …” Her eyes trailed from my face down to my dick. “You look so different. I hardly recognize you. You’re so manly, Spencer-like.”
“Ha,” I scoffed, feeling relaxed even though I didn’t want to be relaxed, not with Penina gone. “He’s married, you know.”
“I know,” she snapped. “To another fucking Pollyanna like Jasper’s wife. And look at you. You’re sniffing after one who’s a carbon copy of them. What about me?”
I watched her intently. Gina was a survivor, always had been and always would be. She was a young runaway and prostitute, used and abused by every man she’d ever encountered, even my father. We’d first crossed paths in the secret tunnels at the Christmas mansion. I was twelve, she was fourteen, and somebody had roughed her up. She was bleeding from her mouth, nose, and private parts. I was devastated and scared, but I knew I couldn’t just leave her. I was too afraid to ask Jasper for help because he might have told Father. Even then, I knew who was responsible for her circumstances. So I asked if I could help clean her up, and she shouted at me to go to hell and leave her alone. I said no and held my ground. It wasn’t like I’d found a wild cat or stray dog. She was a human being, a pretty little girl who wasn’t much older than I was.
I had seen them before—girls my age shuffling through the dark tunnels, eyes to the ground, keeping a rapid pace. But I’d never run into one in Gina’s condition.
“Go,” she said, shooing me away while hugging her knees tighter.
“No!” I shouted, shaking my head. “I can’t leave you here to die.”
When I had said that, something seemed to click inside her. She asked me my name, and I told her. She laughed wildly and said that my father had done that to her.
“Then I hate him,” I said, which wasn’t hard to say because it was true.
“Me too,” she replied.
We sat in silence, listening to cold, stale air pushing through the hallway.
“Okay,” she finally said.
“Okay what?”
“I’ll let you help me.”
I went over to help her stand, and I learned why she had been sitting there in the first place. One of her legs was broken. She couldn’t walk. I had to muster all my strength to carry her to my bedroom, which had an attached bathroom. I washed her, dried her, and let her sleep in my bed. Since she had the broken leg, I had to confide in Jasper. All he said was that he would handle it. Gina was taken out of my room and put into one of the guest rooms. A doctor and a nurse came to put her leg in a cast. I visited her as much as I could.
Then one evening, I asked her to join us for dinner at the main table. My parents rarely ate with their children. But it just so happened that on that night, Randolph showed up. He asked who Gina was.
“She’s my friend.”
He frowned indifferently and went on having a conversation with Jasper about needing him in the city to sit in on a meeting when he got out of school that day. He said the helicopter would pick him up at four, then he got up and walked out of the dining room without a second glance at the rest of us.
Later, when I asked Gina why he hadn’t noticed her, she said that when my father was fucking and being an animal, a demon from within took over him. The man was buried somewhere inside, but the monster, the fiend, growled, gnashed his teeth, bit, punched, stomped, and didn’t care what hole he put his dick in.
That was how I’d become her savior. Then she became my family. We tried being lovers, but she was too fucked up. Earlier, when I’d asked Gina to leave, she didn’t comply because she knew if she stayed, I wouldn’t make her go until she was ready to. As far as I was concerned, she was another sister. I loved her just as much as I did Bryn.
“You’re not going to answer, are you?” she asked.
“What about you?” I asked, repeating her question.
She cleared her throat. “Yes.” Her voice cracked regardless.
I was still lost for words. I could never love Gina in that way. Neither could Spencer. Although she never wanted to see it. As a wife, she would’ve been a constant reminder of our family’s dark past. It wasn’t her fault, though—that was how life worked sometimes.
“Once, I caught my father in the tunnels with a girl—young, so damn young,” I said, filling the silence between us. “I asked him what he was doing. He said she’d come to claim her mother’s paycheck, and he was showing her out. Then he told me to get the fuck out of the tunnels, and they weren’t built for me to play in. But I kept playing in them because I knew I’d run into another girl, and I did. You.”
Gina tossed her head back and grunted bitterly. “Is that the memory I incite in you? I incite in all of you?” Her voice cracked. “I’m just a filthy little whore in the tunnels.”
My jaw slackened. I couldn’t believe she’d said that. “No.” My tone was emphatic. “After all the fucking years you’ve been in my life, how could you say that?”
“You left me, Ash!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“I had to leave everybody, all of it,” I yelled back. “Fuck. I had to take care of myself, Gina.”
The silence was a welcomed ally at the moment.
I hadn’t realized how heavily I was breathing until I said, “I cleaned you up. I let you sleep in my bed. I brought you food. We made you family. That’s the ultimate kind of love.”
Her chin trembled as the corners of her mouth pulled downward. “I know,” she whispered then sniffed and swiped the tears off her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “I’m just afraid …”
“What are you afraid of?” I asked as I got a cloth napkin out of the drawer and handed it to her.
She scrunched up her face and said, “I’m filthy and dirty and …”
I shot a hand up. “Could you stop saying that? You’re not filthy and dirty.”
Gina pressed her lips together and wiped her face.
“Have you sought therapy?” I asked.
“No,” she said and sniffed.
“Someone who has suffered the way you have has to. I know some very good ones.”
She snorted. “You sound like a doctor.”
I cracked a smile. “I am a doctor—a surgeon.”
Finally, her face lit up. “I know. I’m very happy for you.”
“And listen”—I leaned toward her to make sure she was looking me in the eye—“I’m a man. Therefore, I can say with certainty that we don’t think that way—at least a mature guy doesn’t. We don’t give a fuck about who you were before we met you. We only care about who you are now.”
She messed up her hair, which was something she did when she became anxious. “Ash, I’m glad you’re okay. I’m going to leave in the morning. Thanks for the good advice. Also, I’m open to hearing your suggestions for a good therapist, and finally, I don’t think you know.”
I grimaced, confused. “Know what?”
“It’s out there.”
“What’s out there?”
She cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. “What happened in Randolph’s room before he died?”
I glared at her, refusing to say a word.
“It’s in the news. Jasper’s done a pretty good job of casting doubt and getting ahead of it, but the accusation is still out there. Lots of people believe that you and Bryn killed Randolph.”
I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. I’d promised never to speak about it without Bryn’s permission. And I was going to keep that promise.
“Thanks for letting me know,” I said.
She nodded softly. “If you killed him, then good for you. He was a roach, a hard-to-kill parasite,” she said, baring her teeth and curling her fingers as if she were choking his neck. Then her expression softened. “But anyway. Do you want to fuck or not?”
My expression was incredulous as I shook my head. “Hasn’t anything I said resonated with you?”
She waggled her eyebrows. “I just remember how fat your dick was—pure fun. I figured since you’re on a break, why not?”
“I’m not on a break.”
Seduction (The Secret Billionaire Asher Christmas Duet Book 1) Page 18
