Chapter Eighteen Ava
D ays melted into weeks, and before I knew it, Dare and I had been seeing each other for almost three months. Despite my initial reservations, everything between us was so effortless. We rarely fought unless it was over where to eat dinner.
We even made the distance work between us. Since my job was virtual, I spent the majority of my time working from Dare’s penthouse. Even though he was slammed working to get the Celtic Grand opened, he always made time for me.
I’d become great friends with his sister-in-law, Isla, who lived two floors down from him. While I was still slightly intimidated by her husband, I enjoyed being with him as well. I’d also gotten to know Caterina and Callum, and despite not being a huge baby fan, Julianna had managed to win me over.
I loved that Callum’s family was so much like my own. We also spent time with Nick and the girls. Although Dare had been nothing but charming and respectful, my parents hadn’t warmed up to him. Any time he was around, they appeared on edge, which I couldn’t possibly understand why.
Whenever I asked, they claimed it was because they worried I was devoting too much to a rebound relationship after my divorce.
Tonight found me once again in Dare’s penthouse. After three glorious orgasms from Dare, I was lulled into a deep sleep. The shrill sound of a phone ringing swept me from my dreams. With a grumble, I protested Dare untangling himself from me before reaching over on the nightstand.
“Yeah?” he croaked. A few seconds passed before he groaned. “It’s three in the fucking morning. Can’t this wait?”
When he threw a glance at me over his shoulder, I did my best at playing being asleep. “Fine. I’ll be right down.”
After tossing back the covers, he grabbed his discarded shirt off the floor. He didn’t even bother throwing pants over his boxers. When he left the bedroom, he eased the door shut behind him.
Glancing at the nightstand, I saw where he’d taken his phone. As I nibbled on my bottom lip, I tried driving the voices of doubt out of my head and rationalizing his behavior. Something could’ve gone wrong at Bandia , and they needed his help. Not sure why he would’ve gone off half naked to do that, or why he didn’t wake me up to tell me where he was going.
Considering what had happened with Preston, it wasn’t too surprising I couldn’t let things go. Instead, I crept out of the bed. Once I got downstairs, I searched the apartment for Dare. When there was no sign of him, I went over to the front door.
“Fuck,” I muttered at the armed alarm keypad.
There was no way of getting out without alerting Dare. Since I was thirsty, I went to the kitchen for some water. Just as I reached into the fridge for a bottle, something caught my eye to my left. The backdoor was slightly ajar and light was coming from underneath.
After closing the fridge back, I hurried over to the door. Cracking it open, I saw a set of stairs. Wondering where they led, I didn’t stop to think. I immediately started down them.
When I reached the bottom, a long hallway stretched out before me. The concrete was cold under my bare feet as I started down the hall. I got halfway across it when I started rethinking my actions.
What the hell would I say to Dare if he caught me? That I thought he was cheating on me, so I decided to sneak around in the middle of the night hoping to catch him? “Epic fail, Ava,” I muttered.
Resigned to give up my search, I started back to the stairs when a long groan caused me to freeze. Whirling around, I called, “Dare?”
Silence echoed back to me. When the sound came again, I realized it was coming from a room behind the metal staircase. As the moaning continued, a mixture of fear and anger swirled through me. Had I been right about Dare? If I looked inside the room, would I discover Dare and some new piece of ass?
Unable to wait any longer, I flung open the door, sending light pouring into the dimly lit room. I gasped in horror. It wasn’t Dare and another woman I saw. Instead, a middle-aged man was tied to a chair. His head lolled to one side while blood pooled on the floor. Even though I should’ve waited for Dare, I knew I needed to help him.
Rushing forward, I started across the floor. Just when I reached him, a door in the back of the room opened. A relieved breath whooshed from me at the sight of Dare and Quinn.
Adrenaline thrummed wildly through me as I began to babble. “Oh thank God you two are here. Do you have a knife? We need to cut his binds.” I motioned wildly to the rope binding the man to the chair. “We should call 911. I would, but I left my phone back in the bedroom. Can one of you call 911?”
When they didn’t respond, I glanced back up at them. “Come on! We have to hurry before the person who did this to him comes back.”
“Ava,” Dare said, his voice weirdly calm considering the situation we currently found ourselves in.
Throwing my hands up in exasperation, I gestured frantically at the man. “Why aren’t you helping him? Can’t you see he’s hurt? Some piece of shit has been torturing him right under our nose. I never would’ve believed it could happen in such an expensive building. But I guess you never know what crazies are lurking about.”
When I looked at Dare and Quinn again, they stood stock still, staring at me like I was a bomb about to go off. My gaze dipped from their faces to their bare arms.
Red paint splattered along their skin. They’d even gotten some on their chests. Their hands were stained so red they must’ve dipped them in the paint cans.
I must’ve interrupted their painting. A maniacal laugh tumbled from my lips. Why would they be painting in the middle of the night, not to mention a red room. Well, I guess it could’ve been a sex dungeon. I’d seen pictures of a lot of those painted in red.
It’s not paint! A voice shouted in my head.
A shudder rocketed through my body when I made the horrifying realization.
It wasn’t paint.
It was blood.
Their hands are dipped in…. blood.
My frantic gaze bounced back and forth between the two of them. “No,”I whispered.
“Ava, I need you to take some deep breaths, and don’t lock your knees.”
“ You did this?” I choked out.
Holding his bloody hands cautiously in front of him, Dare said, “I can explain.”
As he took a step forward, I jabbed my finger at him. “Don’t you dare come one step closer.”
“Just hear me out.”
“There’s nothing you can possibly say right now to me that would remotely make any of this okay!”
“This man is a traitor. He threatened our family.”
“That’s always what men like you say to justify your actions.”
“I swear it’s the truth. I can show you the vile things he said he would do to Julianna.”
Bringing my hands over my ears, I shook my head. “No, no, no! Don’t you dare use that baby as justification for your vile actions.”
“He vowed to rape a baby. I can swear to you, we never hurt innocent men.”
Sweeping my arms out in front of me, I countered, “ Nothing you’ve told me is the truth!”
“I’ve never meant to lie to you.”
I manically shook my head back and forth. “But you did. Our entire relationship is built on one fucking lie after another.”
“This is only one part of who I am. Everything else you know about me is the truth.”
When he took a step towards me, I started to jump away when my foot slipped in something slick. The next thing I knew my feet were sliding out from under me, and I was crashing to the ground. Bile rocketed into my mouth when I found myself in a puddle of blood.
Frantically, I tried to get to my feet. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get my footing.
As Dare’s arms came around me, I started swinging my arms against him while kicking my legs. “Don’t you dare touch me!” I shrieked.
“I need to help you.”
“I’ll do it myself.”
With a defeated sigh, Dare took a step back from me. After several agonizing seconds of slipping and sliding through the blood, I finally got on all fours and pushed myself up. When I started to open the door, Quinn stood in front of me.
“Get out of my way.”
“I’m not sure you’re in any state to go back upstairs,” he cautioned.
Sneering, I said, “Afraid I’m going to run out into the streets screaming about your crimes?”
Quinn shook his head. “I’m afraid you’re about to go into shock.”
“Don’t try to act like you care about me!” Jerking a bloodied thumb at Dare, I said, “You’re just as bad as he is. You’re a fucking liar.”
“Let her go,” Dare said in a defeated tone.
“I need to give her something before she totally loses it,” Quinn argued.
My eyes bulged. “You want to drug me?”
“It’s just a sedative.”
“Excuse me for not trusting a man who's been torturing others.”
“Despite what you think, I want to help you, Ava.”
“Fuck you!” Whirling around, I started stomping across the room. “I’ll just go out the way you guys came in.”
“No! Don’t open that door!” Dare shouted.
For once, I wish my stubborn side had listened. But no. I had to ignore the voice screaming in my head.
When I threw open the door, the scene before me was even worse than the one in front of me. Instead of being in a chair, the man was strung up by metal cleavers through his shoulder blades. The skin on his black was flayed open while blood and chunks of flesh oozed down his body.
It was like something out of my worst nightmares or the goriest horror movie I could ever watch.
A scream tore loose from my throat before everything went black.
I woke to something soft and warm on my face. Water lapped against my body. When my eyelids fluttered open, I found I was in the bathtub. Sitting on the edge of the tub, Dare stared down at me, his expression unreadable.
At that moment, I sighed in relief. The two tortured men had been a horrible nightmare. Dare wasn’t a torturer or murderer.
But one glance at his shirt and the blood spatter, and I realized it was all true. Even the reason why I was in the tub was to wash away the blood I’d slipped in. “Oh God,” I murmured, as my stomach clenched.
“Are you okay?”
I narrowed my eyes. “You can’t seriously be asking me that.”
“When you fainted, you hit your head before I could catch you. I wanted to make sure you’re not in pain.”
Smacking my wet chest, I countered, “The only thing that hurts is right here.”
With a pained expression, Dare reached out for me. Batting his hand away, I stood up in the tub. “I’m getting my things and getting out of here, and don’t you dare try to stop me!”
“Ava, please.”
When Dare tried to help me out of the tub, I shrieked, “Don’t touch me!”
“Can’t we talk about this?”
Ignoring Dare, I hiked my leg and stepped out of the tub. After grabbing a towel, I began drying off.
“I didn’t choose this life, Ava. I was born into the Kavanaugh clan. I’m the third generation of a very powerful Irish mafia family. Because of my honor to my family, I took the oath when I was just a teenager. It’s all I’ve ever known.”
Turning around, I stared at him. “Is that supposed to make it right?”
“It’s supposed to give you a greater understanding for why. I took an oath to protect my family. I’ve done a lot of shit I’m not proud of. But I’ll never allow someone to hurt my family. Even if that means doing terrible things to them.”
Turning away from him, I continued to dry my hair with the towel.
“Please talk to me,” Dare begged.
“There’s nothing to say.”
“Yes, there is. What can I say to make you stay?”
“There’s not one possible reason that would induce me to.” Whirling around, I then started out of the bathroom. I went over to my suitcase and grabbed out a pair of yoga pants and a hoodie. I didn’t even bother digging out underwear. As I jumped into the pants, Dare came to the bathroom doorway.
“Ava, please listen to me. What you saw tonight is not who I truly am. It’s just something I do to protect my family.”
With a mirthless laugh, I pulled the hoodie on. I just wanted to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Once I was dressed, I grabbed my bag and marched out of the bedroom.
Dare was close on my heels as we got into the living room. “Did you hear what I said?”
Whirling around, I argued, “There are other ways to protect your family that doesn’t include torture.”
“Not in my world.”
“Then I want no fucking part of your world.”
“Deep down, you know who I really am. I'm not a bad man.”
I recoiled from him in disgust. “And knowing the monster you are, I couldn’t live five minutes with you.”
Hurt radiated in his eyes. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“I don’t want to lose you, Ava.”
“Even if I hadn’t seen what I did, there’s still the fact you lied to me about who you were. How can I ever trust you again?”
Dare grimaced, “At first, I didn’t tell you because I don’t ever tell women about that side of me. And then I met your family and you told me about their experiences with the Greek mafia, and I knew if I was to pursue more with you, I couldn’t be part of something your family hated.” He exhaled a ragged breath. “I didn’t want to lose you because I cared so much.”
When he started to reach for me, I cowered back. An anguished expression came over his face. “For the love of God, Ava, I would cut my off own hands before I would hurt you.”
“I wish I could believe that.”
“I swear it on the saints. I’ve never once hurt someone I loved.”
I gasped. “What did you say?”
“I love you, Ava. I know we haven’t been together long, but I know how I feel about you.”
Pinching my eyes shut, I whispered, “Don’t say that.”
“Hear me when I say it and believe me. I love you.”
My eyes flew open. “Damn you!”
“It’s true.”
“The man that you are…the things that you do.” I shook my head. “You don’t know what that word even means.”
“That’s not true. You’ve seen me with my family…you’ve seen me with your family. You know how I’ve been with you. I love you, Ava.”
“And I could never love a monster like you.”
Dare jerked back as if my words had slapped him. Resignation filled his face. After punching in the alarm code, he opened the door.
At Niall’s expectant face, Dare said, “Please take Ava home.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I can get an Uber,” I countered.
“At least let me do this one last thing for you.”
“I don’t want another fucking thing from you and your world!”
Dare’s eyes shuttered in pain. “Ava, please.”
“No!”
Without another glance at him, I rushed through the doorway. With tears streaming down my face, I sprinted for the elevator. When I got downstairs, I raced into the lobby. At the clench of my stomach, I frantically glanced around.
At the sight of the bathroom, I rushed forward. I blew through the door and into the first open stall. I barely made it before I heaved the contents of my stomach into the toilet.
Over and over, I retched. Each time I thought I was finished, an image of the man tied to the chair and Dare’s bloody hands and clothes would replay in my mind.
Dare was a killer.
Dare was a torturer.
Dare was a criminal.
“Oh God,” I murmured, swiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
When I finally stopped heaving, I flushed the toilet. Lumbering out of the stall, I splashed water on my face. Once I finished washing my hands, I staggered out into the lobby.
Desperate for an Uber, I reached into my purse to take out my phone, but my shaking hands caused me to drop it. “Dammit!”
As I bent over to get it, a pair of pink house shoes stepped into my line of vision. When I jerked my gaze up, Isla stood outfitted in pink pajamas and a floral robe with her hair a mess. Since she lived in the building, I wasn’t too surprised to see her.
“Hey, Ava.” she said softly.
“What are you doing here?”
“Dare wanted me to see if you’d let me take you home.”
Furrowing my brows, I countered, “How did he know I was still here?”
A sheepish expression came over her face. “He has a tracer on your phone.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
She shook her head. “I can assure you it’s only for your safety.”
A maniacal laugh burst from my lips. “Jesus, for a smart woman, they sure have gotten you to chug the Kool Aid.”
“It’s not like that at all.”
When she took a step towards me, I stepped back. “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll scream!”
Her face paled. “Please, Ava, just talk to me.”
Shaking my head, I countered, “Just like I told Dare, I don’t want anything more to do with anyone from his world.” Waving my phone at her, I then pulled my arm back before launching the phone against the marble wall. It shattered into pieces on the floor.
“Tell Dare to leave me alone.”
Without another word to her, I stalked out of the lobby. After the doorman flagged me a cab, I asked the driver to take me to the nearest hotel. In the morning, I would have Nick or one of the girls come get me.
Until then, I planned on getting plastered from the alcohol in the mini-fridge.