Chapter Fifteen – Laina
Lola’s idea of celebration couldn’t quite take form until nightfall, when her favorite club was open. And not a club like the Gilded Rose, but a normal club with fast music you could dance to. I told her we’d meet her there, but she wanted to get ready with me. Do our hair together, our makeup, all that stuff.
Which was fine—I could go home, make sure Tessa stayed true to her word and left, and then I could shower and wash the memory of everything she did away.
But, there was one conversation I wanted to have, first.
My dad got home at five-thirty, and I was waiting for him in the foyer of the house. Fang had gone home; Mike and Kieran were somewhere else in the house, letting me take the lead on this. After Tessa had left, I had to do some editing to the recording on my phone. Don’t worry, though, I still had the original saved.
My dad needed to know the truth, but if he found out Kieran was behind my kidnapping, he’d never forgive him. With this recording, I’d prove that Tessa had been behind it all, and she’d tried to have Kieran killed to suit the narrative she wanted to portray. With any luck, my dad would be too shocked to think too much about it.
And if Kieran had to move out… well, we’d take it one day at a time. I was hoping the fact that I had Tessa’s voice on recording say she’d tried to have him killed and that he’d helped expose her lies would be enough to sway my dad and let him keep living with us.
Anyways, when my dad walked through the door, the first thing he did was loosen his tie and slip off his shoes, and then he spotted me and gave me a smile. “Laina, honey. What’s going on? You never wait for me to get home.”
“Dad,” I said softly, “we need to talk.”
That got his attention. “What is it? Did something happen?”
“You should probably sit down for this,” I warned. When he only stared at me quizzically, I ushered him into the nearby sitting room and sat him down on one of the chairs. I sat across from him, my phone in my hand. “What I need to tell you isn’t going to be easy for you to hear. You’re not going to want to believe it.”
The seriousness of his expression gave way to a sheepish, confused laugh. “What’s this about?”
“It’s about Tessa.”
My dad swallowed hard. “What about her? Where is she? Is she okay?” He stood, like he was seconds from searching for her in the house.
“Dad, sit,” I told him, watching as he was slow to sit. “She’s fine. Probably pissed off beyond belief, but fine besides that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She moved out.” Before he had the chance to ask why, I continued, “To start, there’s something you should know. That Friday I snuck out? I was kidnapped again. Mike and Fang saved me before anything could happen to me. They kept one of the kidnappers alive, and we got some information out of him.”
He shook his head. “What—this is… what are you talking about?”
The story I was about to tell him was the truth, just with a little embellishment. A few white lies sprinkled in, to retract Kieran’s involvement in telling me Tessa was behind it all. “Tessa. It was always Tessa. Tessa hired these guys to kidnap me after she originally hired them to kill Kieran at the press conference.”
Based on the silence radiating from my dad, I could tell his wheels were turning, and ultimately they ended on denial. “What? No, that can’t be right. What kind of story is this? Where is Tessa?” Again, he stood, and I let him walk toward the hallway while I unlocked my phone screen and hit the play button.
My mixed recording of Tessa’s voice, admitting to it all, and it stopped my dad dead in his tracks.
I let it play in its entirety, and then I whispered, “I’m sorry, Dad, but it’s always been Tessa. She’s the reason I was kidnapped in the first place. She had me taken from you for two years, and when things didn’t go right, she turned on her own brother.”
My dad pinched the bridge of his nose before turning around and sitting down on the same chair, though his movements were measured. He sat hunched, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. “This has to be some kind of sick joke,” he muttered, mostly to himself.
“It’s not. I have this recording, but I also have two videos showing the same thing. Kieran and Fang helped me set it up.” Seeing his face so conflicted made my stomach pang in an uncomfortable way. “I’m sorry.”
“Play it again.”
So I did. I let the recording play, the volume turned all the way up.
He shook his head again, asking once it was done, “Why would she do this?”
“To push you up the political ladder. To garner more support. To make a story that would just keep giving. Future book deals and documentaries—she had it all planned out. She used everyone around her, even her own brother.”
My dad’s mouth thinned into a line. “Then we need to go to the police. Show this to them. If she did all of this, then she needs to be behind bars!”
“No. If we make this public, your image will suffer, too. She agreed to go quietly, and I told her if she did, I’d keep these videos to myself. You two can quietly separate and divorce, and we can all move on.”
“I don’t care about my image! I—if she did all this to you, to Kieran, then she shouldn’t be out there on the streets. She needs to be locked up.” He brought a hand to his face, his shoulders slumping even more. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I thought—”
I got up and moved closer to him, setting a hand on his shoulder. I wasn’t good at comfort, but it seemed like a good thing to do here, since I was breaking some awful news to him. “I know. It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay. She’s out of our lives, and she won’t try anything now that we have these videos.”
My dad kept his hand on his face. I didn’t know if he was hiding tears or what. I felt bad; of course I did. I wasn’t a heartless monster. That crown belonged to Tessa herself.
After a while, he muttered, “And Kieran’s still here?”
“Yeah. He’d like to stay, but he understands if you prefer he left. He picked us over his own sister. Even after all this with Tessa, I trust him.” That was a bit of a lie, too: Kieran didn’t pick me and my dad. He picked me. Just me.
Finally, my dad looked at me, and when he did I spotted a mistiness to his eyes that wasn’t there before. “You did all of this on your own?”
“I had Kieran, Mike, and Fang. I was never alone.”
He stood and hugged me close. “You should’ve told me. You should’ve involved me. This wasn’t something for you to handle on your own. I should’ve been there, helping you—”
I angled my head back and met my dad’s watery stare. “Would you have believed me?”
“I—”
His hesitation was enough, and I pulled away from him and gave him a sad smile. “It’s okay. We’ll be okay.”
My dad was utterly despondent as he asked, “How can we be okay when the person who took you away from me is still out there? How am I supposed to—” He stopped himself from finishing that question, whatever it was. “I need some time alone. Will you be all right?”
I nodded. “I was going to go out tonight with the guys, but I can cancel if—”
“No. Go on. Have fun, but be safe.” The look he gave me was heartbreaking, and he patted me on the arm before he shuffled away.
Honestly? My dad took it like a champ. He questioned a little, but he couldn’t deny it in the face of the evidence and the fact that I had actual videos saying the same thing. Thank goodness he didn’t demand to see those videos; those hadn’t been spliced up.
I felt bad for him. I did, but for the first time in a long time—maybe even in my whole life—I felt at peace, and it was that same energy I’d bring to the club tonight.
The villain was thwarted. If she came back, we’d kill her. Life was good.
Lola hired out the club for us. As in, the entire club was ours to screw around in. The DJ would play whatever we wanted, and it was an open bar with no ID-checking. I didn’t partake, but she did—and so did her guys.
After telling my dad the truth about Tessa, I went to Lola’s, where she let me try on some of her dresses. All very short, kind of slutty, but it was feeling like that kind of night. I chose a short, sparkly, strapless silver dress and matching heels. Lola played stylist with my hair and makeup, giving me a sultry, smoky-eyed look and uneven beach waves.
Lola wore red. A skin-tight red dress that was even shorter than mine—and backless. It dipped so low on her back, I didn’t know how it actually stayed on when she moved. Matching lipstick and heels, she was the devil. A beautiful, gorgeous, sexy devil, and she knew it.
All three of her guys joined the party, though it was technically four since her driver, Harvey, hung around, too. While Sylvester mainly lingered around the bar, Viper and Maddox danced with Lola. Harvey was off to the side, by himself—though she did try to drag him to the dance floor every now and then.
With Fang, Mike, and Kieran here, it was a good night. Fang was more than happy to dance with me, while it took some begging on my part to get Mike to take his two left feet closer to the speakers.
Kieran stayed near the bar. After I got all sweaty with the others, he gestured for me to come over to him, so I did. He had a clear glass waiting for me, and when I gave him a mischievous look, he leaned in to me and said, “Water, of course.”
I took the glass and sipped from it—and, like he’d said, it was indeed water. I downed the entire thing in a few gulps. Dancing in heels was a killer workout.
After I got a refill, Kieran said, “So, I take it your dad took it pretty well? He doesn’t want me moving out, does he? I will, but that just means I’ll have to up my stalking game.”
“You don’t have to stalk me.”
He arched a single brow. “I don’t?”
I gave him a playful shove on the arm. “No, of course you don’t. You’re…” There were so many different ways I could’ve ended that sentence. Kieran was my Devil. My guard. My sometimes annoying and way too talkative step-uncle—although that one wouldn’t last long now.
Most of all, though, he was mine.
I settle with saying, “You’re Kieran.”
“I am, thanks for remembering. And you’re… Laurie?”
In spite of it all, I laughed at his stupid joke. “Yep. I’m Laurie. It’s good to see you again.”
“Say,” he went on, his usual sarcasm flooding each word, “you wouldn’t happen to be in a strange, atypical relationship with more than one guy, would you? Because, Laurie, I’m going to be honest, I don’t know if I’m okay with sharing. Call me selfish.”
I shrugged and said, “I guess that depends on you, because I’m not going to say goodbye to either of them. If you can’t handle that, then that’s a you problem, not a me problem.”
“Blunt. Straight to the point.” It was his turn to shrug. “I guess I can try. After all—” A wicked glint reflected in his black eyes as he stepped closer to me and boxed me in against the bar’s counter. His head bent, his lips grazing against my ear as he whispered, “You’re mine.” He sealed the statement with a quick kiss, and then he pulled away and grinned. “There are no take-backsies on that, just so you know.”
“No take-backsies on what?” Another voice to my right asked, and I glanced at the man who’d approached us. Fang. In the dim light, you couldn’t quite see them too well, but when those silver eyes of his met mine, he flashed those fangs all the same.
I almost said nothing important, but I stopped myself; it was important. It was perhaps the most important thing ever. So, instead I said to Kieran, “You know, Fang knew there was something off about you from the beginning. I just thought he sensed how stupidly jealous you got over me, but it turned out he was right after all.”
That got Kieran to glare at Fang, though the glare was half-hearted, at best. “You what now? Psh. As if. We’ve seen each other, what, like twice?”
Fang smirked. “A few times more than that, I think, but it doesn’t matter. I called it the first time I saw you.”
That got the other man to visibly pout. “Wow. And here I thought I was mysterious and cool—”
As Fang attempted to soothe him and make him feel better, I surveyed the club. Mike had gravitated toward his brother while Maddox and Lola danced; they stood on the edge of the dance floor, talking about something. He must’ve felt my stare, because he turned his head in my direction and did something he never, ever did.
He smiled.
Yeah, the big guy smiled at me from across the club, and that smile was enough to make the butterflies in my stomach go crazy.
Mike had a handsome smile. I didn’t know why he didn’t do it more often.
By himself, Harvey now sat on the bottom step of the stairs that led to the balcony area that overlooked the dance floor. He looked… sad, almost. Out of place. If he found clubs this miserable, I didn’t know why he even came.
And then I realized, as I continued to watch him: he was staring at Lola.
I took my cup of water and made a beeline toward him. I sat down beside him and said, “Hey.” From where we were, the music wasn’t so obscenely loud.
He brought his eyes to me, giving me a soft smile. “Hi.”
Turning my head, I glanced at Lola. “She is really pretty, isn’t she?”
Harvey coughed awkwardly. “Uh, yeah. I mean, sure, I guess, if you like that sort of thing—” He only stopped when I gave him a sly, incredulous look.
“Please. Anyone with eyes would think so. Hell, that woman has me questioning my sexuality every time I see her.” I leaned a little closer to him and whispered, “It’s okay to think she’s pretty. My question is, does she know you think she’s pretty?”
He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, I think she does.”
“So what is this, then? You just pining after her from afar?”
The smile he gave me right then was an uneasy one. “I didn’t know I was making it that obvious.”
I didn’t know about obvious. What I did know was the look he was giving Lola across the room was the same look Mike had given me for a while. “Why don’t you make a move? What’s the worst that could happen?”
“She could spurn me, I could lose my job, fail to pay my bills on time and go into bankruptcy since driving is the only thing I’ve ever known,” he quickly rattled off. “Oh, and her current boyfriends could take turns beating the shit out of me, so, you know, typical stuff.”
Well, that escalated fast, didn’t it?
“You’ll never know if you don’t try,” I told him. “Might as well, right? We don’t live forever.”
“I think I still have a little while, yet.” Harvey glanced at the others. “Why don’t you go have fun? From what I understand, this party’s for you.”
I finished what was left in my cup and set it down on the floor before grabbing Harvey’s hand and pulling him to his feet. “Come on.” I didn’t give him a chance to resist; I tugged him through the club, bringing him to the dance floor, right to Lola.
And Lola turned her million-dollar smile upon him and exclaimed, “Harvey! I was wondering if you were ever going to join the party. Dance with me!” She pulled him by his other arm the same moment I let him go, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and began to grind on him while, behind her, Maddox only rolled his eyes.
And Harvey? He had a wide-eyed look for a few seconds, and then let’s just say he got into it.
A large, strong hand was placed on my lower back, and a rather tall and intimidating presence leaned down behind me and said, “That was nice of you.”
I turned around and beamed up at Mike. “I guess I’m just a nice person.”
That got him to chuckle. “I wouldn’t go that far.” Viper had gone to the bar with the others, leaving me and Mike alone on the outskirts of the dance floor. “I’m not a dancer, but dancing with you isn’t bad.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Is that your way of asking me to dance?”
All he did was grunt, and I laughed. The laugh wasn’t even finished coming out of me before he grabbed me by the ass and hoisted me up. His mouth found mine, stifling whatever was left of the laugh as he kissed me in plain view of everyone. Though my eyes were shut, I could imagine the kiss earned us a glare from Kieran’s direction and a knowing smirk from Fang.
And then, of course, was the hooting and hollering from Lola. The loud “You get her, tiger” exclamation that came with it as she cheered Mike on.
When his mouth finally pulled off mine, I grinned. He still held me up by my ass, my body pressed against his. It wasn’t a bad place to be. “What was that for? I didn’t think you enjoyed public displays of affection.”
“I don’t,” he said. “But maybe you bring it out of me.”
Gazing into Mike’s hazel eyes, I couldn’t stop myself from grinning harder. We’d come so far from where we started, and we weren’t finished just yet.
This was my life. These men were mine. The serial killer and her boyfriends were my friends. It’d been a long, twisty road to get here, but deep down I knew this was only the beginning.