Chapter 37
thirty-seven
WEST
“Wake up,” a voice growls in my ear, and I sit straight up, opening my eyes.
“What?” I ask, my heart hammering against my chest. “What happened? Is Eden okay?”
Hudson shakes his head at me. “She’s on the island. She’s fine. It’s not her, it’s Vin.”
Just his name is enough to make me grit my teeth. “What about him?”
“I heard from Asher. He’s on the move.”
I rub the sleep from my eyes with the heels of my hands. “What time is it?” I ask, looking around for my phone. I don’t even remember going to sleep. I must have stumbled in here at some godawful time of the morning. I’m still wearing my shirt and boxers, the rest of my clothes a heap on the floor.
“Almost nine.”
“Shit.” That’s enough to wake me up. My head is pounding. My body groggy. “Where’s he going?”
“No idea. Asher’s working on it. He was woken up from the notification. He slept at his office downtown.”
I let out a breath, trying to push down the guilt at all of them being dragged into the fallout I swore I’d keep them out of.
“Is he heading to the airport?” I ask. “Can we check flight manifests?” Maybe he’s heading back to Vegas. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
Hudson’s phone buzzes. He reads the message quickly, holding his hand up to me to wait.
“He’s in a car. Not heading to the airport based on the route they’re taking,” Hudson murmurs, then he frowns. “Maybe he’s got meetings in Manhattan? He’s heading down Wall Street.”
“To the river?”
Hudson blinks. “No.” He shakes his head. “To the helipad on Pier 6.”
“The one we arrived at yesterday,” I say, my voice low. We exchange glances. “From Liberty.”
Hudson’s face pales. “He could be going anywhere by helicopter,” he says, but neither of us believe that. Because in my heart I know exactly where he’s heading. To Liberty.
To her.
Hudson strides into the living room. “Parker,” he shouts. “We need to leave. Now!”
I’m almost dressed before I hear Parker’s groan. “What’s happening?”
“We think Vin’s heading toward the island.”
“What the hell?” Parker sounds completely awake now. “My wife’s there. She’s pregnant.”
“We all have wives there, asshole. Can you put some damn clothes on, please?” Hudson says. “Jesus, I don’t need to see that.”
When I walk into the living room, fully dressed but completely unshowered, Parker is hopping on one foot, trying to put the other through the leg of his designer jeans. “Where’s the coffee? I need caffeine, now.”
“Asher’s sending a car for us,” Hudson says. “Should be here in twenty.”
“Twenty?” I frown. “That’s too long.”
“It’s nine o’clock in the damn morning in Manhattan traffic,” Hudson shouts, looking frustrated. “I’m not fucking Batman.”
I put my hand up. “Okay. Calm down. Let’s just think for a second.”
“Can you make coffee while you think. Please?” Parker asks.
Hudson sighs. “Do it. Or we’ll end up killing him before we make it to Liberty. And I don’t want my niece to be fatherless.”
“It could be a boy,” Parker says.
“Coffee. On it.” I pull my phone out as I walk to the kitchen, and hit Eden’s number. Of course she doesn’t answer.
“Eden isn’t answering,” I shout. “Have either of you called your wives?”
“Skyler and the kids are fine,” Hudson tells me. “And Asher has Francie in his sights.”
“Autumn’s with Eden,” Parker adds. “Any sign of that damn coffee?”
“I only have black. No milk, wasn’t expecting to be here,” I tell him, pouring him a mug as soon as the Keurig finishes.
He snatches it from me, letting out an almost orgasmic groan as he swallows it down, at the same time as Hudson’s phone rings.
“Asher,” he says, answering it. “You’re on speaker.”
“We’re about five minutes away. Be outside the building or I’m leaving without you.”
“We’ll be there. Any news on Vin?” I ask him.
“We got the manifest. Confirms Liberty as the destination,” Asher says. My stomach tightens.
“Can we refuse landing?” Hudson asks. “The only place they can land is at the hotel.”
“That’s not the destination,” Asher says, his voice almost drowned out by the blast of a horn. “Shit. Are you on your way outside? We’re a minute away.”
“Wait, where’s the destination? Where the hell else can he land?” Hudson asks.
“It says the area to the north of the resort,” Asher replies.
Hudson shakes his head. “There’s nothing to the north except—”
My stomach turns to stone. “Except my house,” I cut in, my voice low.
The line goes silent for a beat, then Asher swears.
And suddenly I’m moving, heart hammering.
He’s going after her.
And if he lays one finger on Eden, I swear I’ll make him regret it for the rest of his life.
EDEN
The chop of the blades cut through the air before the helicopter even crests the horizon.
I’m shoulder to shoulder with Bennett on the grass outside the North House, bracing as the rotor wash slams into us.
Salt burns my lips, my hair whips across my face, and for a second it feels like the ocean is trying to tell us this is a really bad idea.
“West is calling me again,” Bennett shouts over the cacophony. “What should I do?”
He’s been calling all of us in turn for the last half hour. Me, then Autumn, then Bennett. Luckily, Autumn has decided to drive to the coffee shop to stock up on pastries for us all, as well as to give herself some plausible deniability if Parker asks if she was involved.
She has my niece or nephew to think about, after all. Plus, I can think better without her here.
“Answer it if you want to,” I yell back. It’s too late for him to stop us now anyway. And I hate that I’ve dragged Bennett into all of this. Or that Vin has. And I feel like I should give him an out. I’m doing this, no matter what. But he doesn’t have to.
“Ah, he can wait.” Bennett puts his phone firmly back into his pocket, just as the helicopter lands on the grass. My heart hammers in my chest as the rotors slow, then a door opens.
And Vin Marchetti’s bodyguards step out.
“You know them?” I murmur to Bennett.
“Not really. They look pretty scary though.”
Yeah, they do.
The man himself is next. Even from a distance, before I can see his face, I know it’s him. The way his suit catches the wind, the broad set of his shoulders.
He straightens, his eyes landing on us. He murmurs something to his goons and they walk forward, him close behind.
“Hello Bennett,” Vin says. “And you must be the beautiful Eden. I couldn’t miss a chance to meet you.”
“Mrs. Abbott,” I correct him. “Come inside.” I turn, not giving him a chance to protest or say anything more as I walk toward the house, my heart pounding. I hear him murmur something to Bennett, who murmurs back, but I can tell that Bennett is on my side.
“Can I get you a drink?” I ask him when we step into the living room.
“Bennett said you need to talk to me about a problem with the resort. Something that needs my immediate attention.”
“That’s right.” I nod to the couch. “Please sit. Do you take cream and sugar?” I look over at his goons. “Gentlemen? If you follow me to the kitchen, there’s breakfast waiting for you there.”
Vin frowns and his men hesitate, eyes flicking to him for direction.
“It’s not poisoned, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I say lightly, even though my palms are damp.
“Go,” he tells them, flicking his hands to dismiss them as he sits. Pouring us both a coffee, I add cream to both then pass him a cup. But I stay standing. I hope it shows that I’m in control.
He looks carefully at me. “Is there even a problem with the resort?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No. I wanted to meet you.”
“You could have said so, I still would have come. I’ve been aching to meet you. I told West that.”
The hairs on the back of my neck tingle.
“Whatever you told him, whatever you said, you need to know that it won’t affect me. I love him and I’ll always fight for him.”
Vin shakes his head. “But does he love you?”
My throat dries. I swallow a mouthful of hot coffee. “Yes,” I say. “He does.”
Vin says nothing. Just looks at me like he almost feels sorry for me. And I hate it.
“You know West isn’t responsible for your sister’s death,” I tell him. “You’ve twisted your grief into some vendetta he doesn’t deserve.”
“He deserves it. His family hurt mine.” He spits the words out like he hates the way they taste.
I shake my head, stepping closer to him.
“No, your sister loved him. And he loved her. More than his own parents, which is stupidly sad, isn’t it?
He was a child. A scared little boy in a house that broke everybody it touched.
And instead of blaming the man who actually destroyed your sister you’ve spent twenty-five years convincing yourself it was West’s fault. ”
His jaw tightens, but I don’t stop. “Tell me something. If Leona was here right now, do you think she’d be proud of you?
Proud of the way you’re trying to burn down everyone’s life in her name?
Because from everything I’ve heard, she was kind.
She believed in hope. She believed in him. She wouldn’t want this.”
“Don’t you dare—”
“I will,” I cut in, my throat burning but my words steady. “You don’t get to ruin my life because you’ve decided West doesn’t deserve his. You don’t get to take away the man I love because you can’t face the truth about your own past.”
“We’re leaving,” he shouts toward the kitchen. “Bennett, you’re coming too. You’ve spent way too much time with this family.”
“You’re a coward,” I say loudly. For a second, the whole room freezes.
He turns slowly to look at me. And damn it, I’m going all in.
“What is it they used to say at school? You’re a chicken.
You’re scared. You’ve spent your whole life hating a defenseless, little boy because it was easier than facing the truth.
That you’re exactly the kind of man his father was.
And now, even after all this time, revenge doesn’t feel half as good as you thought it would, does it?
West is twice the man you’ll ever be. He pulled himself up from his broken family and he’s building something real, something good. Whereas you just pull things down.”
Vin’s jaw tics. “You think you know me?” His voice is low.
“I know enough to know a bully when I see one. And we all know bullies are nothing more than scared little kids inside.” I lift my jaw, my eyes not leaving his.
“And I need you to know that I’ll never let you take this away from him.
There’s nothing you can do that will stop me from loving him.
Nothing you can say will stop me from fighting you for the resort. ”
He shakes his head. “Look at you. You’re a kid. How are you gonna stop me?”
“I’ll play you for it.”
He stops dead. “What?”
“Poker. You like that game, don’t you? Let’s play a game. You and me. Winner takes it all.”
“Eden, no!” Bennett says, sounding amazingly realistic and unrehearsed even though we’ve practiced this ten times. “You can’t even win at snap.”
Vin’s lips curl. I turn to look at Bennett.
“It’s okay,” I tell him. “He won’t do it. He’s scared of a woman half his age.” I look at his bodyguards, all who are standing in the doorway. One of them is holding half a muffin. “You can take him home. We’re done here.”
“We’re done when I say we’re done,” Vin says. “Go back to the kitchen,” he tells his men. Then, when they don’t move, he yells, “NOW!” He looks at me, his jaw set. “Do you even have a pack of cards?”
“There’s a pack of my niece’s somewhere,” I say lightly, pretending to search. “Oh, here they are.” I hold them up. They’re a set of Barbie cards that I bought for Ayda. “You don’t mind pink, do you?”
“For fuck’s sake,” he mutters. “Just deal.”
“Uh, Eden?” Bennett says, his voice tight as he stares out of the window.
“What?” I snap, the cards sticking to my damp hands. We’re finally getting somewhere and the last thing I need is a distraction. I need to concentrate.
Bennett swallows. “We have company.”
I follow his gaze, and my stomach drops. A black SUV is pulling up outside the North House. Doors open. Hudson. Parker. Asher. And West.
The cards tremble between my fingers, and suddenly the Barbie deck feels heavier than stone.
“One hand. Winner takes all. No second chances,” I tell Vin, pulling my gaze back to him.
“I don’t need second chances,” he replies, gesturing at the coffee table as he sits back down in the easy chair.
I take the seat opposite and pull the cards out of the pack, just as West and my brothers storm in through the front door.
And then everything goes to hell in a handbasket.