Chapter Forty-Nine
AURELIA
I’m in the studio for the fifth time this week recording a new track with Houston and Rich’s help when Loren comes in and signals for me to come out. Since I’m almost done and I’m in love with the take, I finish the recording before I remove the headphones and leave the booth.
“What’s up?” I ask once I’m standing in front of him.
Houston already has Braxton on his lap, and they’re making out like I’m not even here. They’re kissing like they’re two seconds from fucking.
“You have a visitor. Oni’s here too, but she’s meeting with Braxton first as soon as Houston takes his tongue out of her mouth and remembers that we’re working.
You’re up next, kiddo.” Overhearing, Braxton ends the kiss and curses before rushing out of the room.
Technically, Oni was Braxton’s manager. Houston, Loren, and Jericho already had their own powerhouse in Xavier Gray when Brax joined Bound, so Oni and Xavier decided to shake hands and join forces, sharing custody of the band.
“Who is it?”
“I’m not allowed to say,” he says with a sniff. “It would ruin the surprise.”
Rolling my eyes, I follow Loren out of the studio with a frown and up the stairs until I’m on the ground floor, staring down at a familiar face that I never thought I’d see again.
On the outside, he looks the same—deep dark skin and military stance complete with crew cut and disconnected goatee.
But his eyes are different. My former bodyguard used to have expressive brown eyes filled with warmth. They’re shuttered now.
“Tyler?” I gasp, seeing but not believing that my old bodyguard is really there. He looks good. Different, but good. He looks like he made it out in one piece even though I know that isn’t true.
“It’s really you,” we both say at the same time.
“Aww, how cute,” Loren says with a sarcastic smile.
Ignoring the bassist, who quickly makes himself scarce inside another of the many rooms, I take one step toward Tyler before I give up the pretense to rush forward and throw my arms around his neck. “You’re alive,” I say tearfully.
Even though I can see that he is, I still need Tyler to confirm it.
I feel his large hands fall on my back, one of them caressing my spine consolingly. “I’m alive. And so are you. I heard but I didn’t believe it until now. When I saw the news, I thought it was a cruel joke, especially when no one had reported seeing you since.”
“Bound took me in. I’ve been hiding out here.”
“All this time?” he says, sounding slightly hopeful.
“No,” I let him go and take a few steps away. “I’ve only been back for a couple of months.”
Now he just looks horrified, imagining all the horrors I’ve endured. I almost tell him about them. About the cabin and the men who gave me a home, but I don’t because I can’t talk about any of it without spiraling.
Loren returns to the hallway where Tyler and I are still standing and I almost laugh when I see him awkwardly holding a platter of sugar cookies.
Loren was a trust fund baby who decided to forsake his family’s money and make it on his own, but he was still a silver-spoon kid at his core.
He’s also ridiculously pretty and groomed to the gods.
I’ve even heard Braxton call him princess a few times.
“Come along, children. I have refreshments.”
We follow him into the living room where he sets the cookies on the table. There is already water, tea, milk, and coffee waiting. He quickly leaves us alone when he hears Coda awakening from his nap with a cry.
“So are you okay?” Tyler inquires softly.
“Am I o Tyler… I should be asking you that. I am so sorry about your leg. About everything. If I could take it all back—”
“But you can’t, Aurelia,” he interrupts before covering my hand with his.
“And I don’t need you to. The crash wasn’t your fault, and neither was the avalanche.
You can’t carry that with you forever, even though I know you’ll try.
Besides, it’s just a leg, and this new one isn’t so bad.
” He pats the prosthetic hidden under his jeans with a grim smile.
“It could have been a lot worse if search and rescue hadn’t found me when they did.
” Tyler swears and shakes his head as if warding off the memories.
“I just wish they could have found you too.”
They did, I say to myself. In their cabin. But unlike they were with Tyler, my mountain men weren’t so eager to get rid of me.
“Has it been hard for you?” I ask. My stomach turns with dread as I wait for his answer, so I quickly grab one of the waters waiting on the table and take a healthy sip.
“It was at first,” Tyler answers. “I’m still waking up most mornings in a cold sweat. And when I rip back the blanket, I have to relive the moment I first woke up in the hospital all over again.”
“I’m sorry,” I say again when nothing else comes to mind.
“Don’t be.” Tyler chuckles and then glances down at his hand, but my gaze is still stuck on his face and that wistful smile. “It helps that I’m not waking up alone anymore now.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I’m…married now.”
I choke on my water when he shows me the gold band on his finger that I hadn’t noticed before. “Holy fuck! Really?” I snatch his hand to get a better look at it and then drop it like it’s on fire. “Already? What the hell, Tyler? It’s only been a year since the crash!”
He shrugs and chuckles again. “When you know, you know.”
All I can do is gape. I’m both happy for Tyler and flabbergasted. “Who is she? How did you meet?”
“Her name is Shauna, and I met her in physical therapy.”
I stare at him and notice he can’t quite meet my gaze, so I try to hear everything he isn’t saying. “Was she your therapist, Ty?”
When all he does is blush, I cackle while feeling my respect for him grow.
Tyler pulls out his phone and shows me a picture of her and then another and another.
Most of them are of her sleeping. Boy is whipped.
“She’s beautiful,” I say when he finally tucks his phone away.
“I’m impressed, Ty. Look at you bangin’ the pretty doctor like a good little patient. You’re always so straitlaced.”
He makes a sound like he’s insulted. “We’ve fooled around, Aurelia. I don’t know why you’re so shocked.”
“Yes, well.” I swallow nervously. “I think it’s best if you never mention that again.
” When Ty’s eyebrows jump and I see the question forming in his head, I quickly change the subject.
“You should know that I only came back to confront my uncle. He’s doing and has done awful things, and he’s been using my name to do it. I have to stop him.”
Tyler’s body is strung tight as he sits up and swears. “How are you going to do that?”
“I don’t know yet. I can’t just return to my uncle’s side like nothing ever happened. I need to figure how to get close to him without tipping him off to what I’m up to.”
Tyler is pensive for a few moments before he speaks. “Your uncle always felt like you couldn’t survive without him. You need to create a scenario in which you need him. You need to make him believe he has complete control again.”
“How the fuck do I do that? He knows I can’t stand him. He’ll see right through me.”
“Not if you give him a crisis he can believe. Make him think you’ve fallen back into your old ways and you’re drowning without him there to fix it. People love to be proven right.”
“You mean another scandal.”
“You’re rife with them, princess.”
I bite back the urge to ask Tyler not to call me that, but instead, I’m stuck recalling how differently Zeke sounds when says it. He always whispers it like it’s a secret between us, like I’m precious to him, and he doesn’t want anyone else to have me.
“You make me sound like the Wicked Witch of the West.”
“Have you been online? You might as well be. People think you faked your death to garner sympathy.” I did fake my death, but the last thing I cared about was their fucking sympathy.
“The scandal is already brewing and has been for weeks. You don’t even have to start the fire. You just need to fan the flames.”
I drum my fingers on my thigh as I give it some thought. “What about Allesi?”
“The blogger?” Tyler immediately exclaims. “No. Hell no. Allesi is a fucking psycho. I don’t think we need to go that extreme.”
“I’ve met psychopaths,” I say, thinking of Isaac.
“Allesi isn’t one of them. He’s a pest, but he can make waves.
The bad kind we need. And he can make it believable since everyone knows he hates me.
We need to get the job done quickly, and Allesi is nothing if not a sweeping plague.
” When Tyler still doesn’t look convinced, I add, “We’ll only create just enough of a scandal that it feels like the perfect storm but nothing that I can’t bounce back from.
” But then I remember how it was the last time the whole world was against me, and I begin to lose some of my nerve. “Fuck.”
“Fuck,” a small voice echoes. Surprised, I twist to see a partially nude Coda ambling into the room, wearing only a diaper and clutching his father’s drumstick. He loses his balance and then rises to take more unsteady steps toward the couch where we’re sitting. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
I clap a hand over my mouth while Tyler and I stare at each other with guilty eyes.
Coda stumbles over to me and then uses my knee to stay upright, so I lean down and lift him onto my lap.
I see Tyler frowning down at my stomach when my shirt pulls tight over it from the movement.
I’ve always had a bit of a belly, but it’s rounder and firmer than before.
When his questioning eyes snap up to meet mine, I shake my head, silently telling him I don’t want to talk about it.
I take the drumstick from Coda before he pokes his eye out, and a moment later, there are multiple footsteps rushing toward the room. Rich enters first. And then Braxton, Loren, and Houston taking up the rear.
Loren stops abruptly when he sees that Coda’s fine, which causes Houston to collide into his back. Coda, seeing all of his parents together, rises onto his feet excitedly while I hold him steady. He’s back to babbling again as if he’d never spoken.
“Did he just speak?” Rich asks with a mixture of excitement, confusion, and dread in his gray eyes at his son’s first word and possibly missing it.
“Nope,” I immediately lie with a shake of my head. “I don’t think so.”
The members of Bound all give a collective sigh. Braxton takes her son and the five of them leave the room until Tyler and I are alone again.
“Oni said you wanted me back as your bodyguard,” Tyler says before exhaling shakily. “Are you sure that’s what you want?” His voice cracks. “I’m still not at a hundred percent.”
“Of course I’m sure. There’s no one else this side of Canada that I trust to keep me safe. But only if you’re willing. You don’t owe me anything, Tyler.” I take his hand, and he squeezes mine in return. “It’s me who owes you everything.”
“I’m here for you, Aurelia. For however long you need me.”
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Rich asks a week later. His brows are dipped with concern as he and the rest of his family stand together in the front door of their home facing me. “You don’t have to go so soon.”
But I do. I’ve already lost too much time.
Now that I’m alive and the world knows it, according to Oni and her investigators, my uncle has been selling off my property and stocks without my consent, using the proceeds to fund his own businesses and portfolios, and slowly hiding as much of my wealth as he can before I have a chance to reclaim it.
He nearly killed Thor, and now he’s stealing from me.
“She’s ready,” Braxton answers when she notices the look in my eyes.
“Then good luck,” Houston offers.
“You know where to find us if you need us,” Loren says with a salute.
“Thank you. For everything.”
Tyler and my bags are already waiting for me in the car, ready to ferry me back to Los Angeles, so I turn to go.
“Relly!” Loren calls out before I can climb in. I turn my head to silently regard him. “You’re still the second baddest to ever live,” he says with that magazine-worthy smile.
“And let me guess, you’re the first?” Climbing in, I slip my shades over my eyes and shut the door to the sound of Bound’s raucous laughter.