4. 1
“Kill the bastard,”
Simon grunted.
“I’m in,”
Sam said, his voice low and threatening.
“Not happening,”
Travis contradicted casually.
Four sets of angry male eyes shifted in his direction.
“What the fuck? I’d have thought you’d be the last one to have any qualms about this!”
Kade slammed his empty beer on the coffee table, not giving a damn if it left a mark.
Travis shrugged, looking relaxed and in complete control of himself sitting in Kade’s recliner. “I don’t. He deserves to die for what he did to Asha. But you aren’t doing this for Asha; you’re doing it for yourself. Granted, I don’t know her well, but she doesn’t appear to be the type of woman who wants her brother, brother-in-law, and his friends to go to jail for murder.”
Travis heaved a beleaguered, masculine sigh. “He can be destroyed in other ways, pay for what he’s done to her.”
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kade wasn’t sure much would placate his protective madness except death to the man who had beaten Asha nearly to death…more than once. Burying his head in his hands, he groaned, “I don’t think I can be satisfied with anything else. Just the fact that he beat her hard enough to probably leave her close to death makes me insane.”
“Me either,”
Max rasped.
“He needs to be wiped off the earth,”
Simon commented gruffly.
“Agreed,”
Sam echoed adamantly.
“For Christ’s sake...I’m surrounded by some of the most brilliant, richest men in America, and you’re all acting like idiots. Put your emotions aside and think with your heads,”
Travis said harshly. “You all have too damn much to lose to do anything else. You have kids or children on the way, women you care about.”
“I can’t just leave it,”
Kade replied, his voice hostile. “Yeah, I’m thinking of Asha, but he might kill the next woman he gets involved with.”
A rumble of agreement echoed through the room.
“I’m not suggesting that you leave it. I’m suggesting that you put your emotions aside and use your head,”
Travis drawled. “The last thing Asha needs is more chaos and guilt in her life.”
A pang of remorse stabbed at Kade’s conscience. He knew Travis was right, but he couldn’t seem to control his need to seek some kind of justice for Asha, one that involved severe pain and suffering to her ex-husband.
It had only been a few days since Asha had given him her body for the first time and rocked his world, but they’d made up for lost time by touching each other every chance they had. He couldn’t seem to not touch her when she was anywhere near him. In fact, the urge to get up and go to the kitchen just to see her, make sure she was okay, was almost irresistible.
“I suppose you have a plan,”
Max said slowly, glaring at Travis.
Travis shot a superior look back at Max. “I generally do,”
he answered arrogantly. “I happen to use the head above my waist when it comes to women, unlike the rest of you.”
“Not always,”
Kade reminded him hotly. “Not when it comes to Mia.”
Other than Travis, only Max would understand his statement because he was the only other one who knew that Travis was more than willing to kill when it came to Mia’s safety.
“Unfortunate accident,”
Travis answered nonchalantly. “And Mia’s safety was threatened.”
Simon and Sam looked on, confused, but didn’t comment.
Unfortunate accident, my ass. Kade had no doubt Travis had known exactly what he was doing when the man stalking Mia just happened to have his “unfortunate accident”
that left him conveniently dead, never to bother their sister ever again. “I’m listening. But no guarantee that I still won’t kill the bastard,”
Kade said sharply, his guts still telling him he needed to hurt the one who had hurt Asha.
Max folded his arms and pierced Travis with a stubborn look. “Let’s hear it.”
Sam and Simon grumbled, but agreed to hear Travis out.
With a satisfied smile, Travis began to talk.
Asha replaced the security phone by the door on its cradle and hugged baby Ginny a little tighter. Ginny Helen Hudson was sleeping peacefully in her arms. She loved the smell and feel of the infant, the trust the tiny being had given her by falling asleep while Asha had rocked her. Named after both of her grandmothers, Asha thought she was the most adorable infant she’d ever seen.
“Why would someone want to talk to me?”
she muttered to the sleeping infant as though the baby would answer her. “I don’t even know anyone here.”
Turning away from the door, she walked back into the living room where the women were taking up residence while the guys were on cleaning duty after they had all indulged greedily of the Thanksgiving dinner. Fighting down the instinct to go to the kitchen and help because she was still uncomfortable with the idea of men in the kitchen, she reluctantly handed baby Ginny back to Kara with a frown. “Some lady wants to talk to me. A doctor. Kade’s security agent said he checked her ID and she was legitimate. Apparently she knew my father and wants to give me something that belonged to him.”
“What are you going to do?”
Mia asked, her voice concerned.
Asha shrugged nervously. “I told him to let her come up to the house. She’s alone. I can’t let her leave if she’s claiming to know my real father. I know so little about him. If she does know him, she can fill in some information, tell me more about him and maybe my mother.”
“She could be a reporter in disguise,”
Maddie retorted, her voice sounding disgusted.
“Or just curious. There was enough coverage in the gossip rags about your discovery,”
Kara murmured as she repositioned the sleeping baby Ginny back in her lap.
The doorbell rang, and Asha flinched nervously. Had the woman really known her real father? And if she had known her father, she probably knew her mother, too. Why, after all these years, would she come here?
“I’ll get it,”
Mia said hastily and jumped up from her seat on the couch to jog for the door.
Asha knew she could have answered the door herself, but confusion kept her feet planted on the carpet, the other three women looking at her anxiously.
Mia returned moments later, followed by an older Indian woman. The woman was dressed with casual elegance in a trendy pantsuit of muted fall colors, her hair gathered in a loose knot on the top of her head. Her age was hard to judge, but Asha could see some gray hairs peeking out of coal black tresses.
She stopped in front of Asha, her smile warm and comforting. “Namaste,”
Asha welcomed her softly in Hindi, India’s national language. She wasn’t certain exactly what to say to the woman, and not sure whether or not she even spoke Telugu.
Smiling wider, the woman echoed, “Namaste.”
She paused briefly before continuing in English. “You look very much like Navin and are as beautiful as Alice.”
She gently cupped Asha’s cheek before dropping her hand and adding, “I knew you’d grow up beautiful even when you were a baby. You stole everyone’s heart.”
“Did we meet?”
Asha asked curiously.
“Yes. But you wouldn’t remember me. You were still an infant.”
The woman’s English was lightly accented, but perfect.
“So you really did know my father,”
Asha said softly, offering the older woman a seat and sitting in a chair across from her.
“Yes. May I speak in front of your friends?”
The woman looked around at Maddie, Kara, and Mia.
Asha nodded and introduced her sister, sister-in-law, and Kara, explaining that Mia’s husband, Max, and Maddie were also Alice’s children.
“It’s wonderful to meet you all. I’m Devi Robinson.”
Looking at Maddie, she added, “I’ve heard of you, Dr. Hudson, and the wonderful work you do with your clinic.”
Maddie nodded her thanks and replied, “I’ve heard of you, too. You’re a psychiatrist. A very good one. I’ve read a lot of your case studies and articles.”
“I am a doctor of psychiatry, a dream that never would have happened had it not been for Asha’s father,”
she acknowledged in a fond voice. “How much do you know of your father’s work to help Indian female students, Asha?”
Flabbergasted, Asha gaped at her. “He was an engineer,”
she answered, baffled by the woman’s words.
Devi nodded. “He was. But he was also an activist for the rights of Indian women. And your mother supported him in the cause. They never formed an official organization, but he helped a lot of female students here in the United States, including myself. Navin Paritala was one of the best men I’ve ever known. He gave very selflessly to Indian women here in various bad circumstances. His only request was that we all someday give the money back to his daughter for her education when the time came.”
The woman rummaged in her purse, pulling an envelope from the contents. “None of us could ever locate you. You were whisked off to a foster family very quickly after your parents died, and we weren’t allowed to know where you were. All of us have looked for years, but we couldn’t locate you. When I saw the article about you being a half-sibling to Dr. Hudson and Mr. Hamilton, I had to find you. We owe you this.”
Devi handed Asha the envelope with a smile. “There were ten of us, and we all kept in contact. It’s turned into a substantial sum.”
Asha looked at the envelope and opened it with trembling fingers. The check from the bank was over two hundred thousand dollars. Her head began to spin and her heart pounded. “This isn’t mine,”
she denied, trying to hand the check back to Devi.
The woman pushed Asha’s hand away, refusing to take back the check. “It belonged to your father and mother. He helped all of us financially when we were in trouble. The money now belongs to you. Honestly, all of us are relieved we can finally pay back the debt. Your father gave us our freedom. That was much more valuable than money. When we all finished school, we all put the money in a joint account for you. It’s been there for many years. None of us needs the money, Asha. And it belongs to you.”
“What did Asha’s father and my mother do to help you, Dr. Robinson—if you don’t mind me asking?”
Maddie asked quietly.
“I don’t mind at all,”
Devi said, smiling broadly. “I fell in love with an American man, and my parents found out. They threatened to pull me out of school here and bring me back to India to marry someone from our caste, a man older than me and known to be cruel. Navin and Alice paid my school fees and helped me stay here. Dennis and I married and have two wonderful children, a daughter and a son, a mix of American and Indian just like Asha. Dennis is an architect.”
“Is that hard for your children, being mixed?”
Asha asked tremulously, curious about others like her.
“No,”
Devi answered fondly. “I teach them the good things about my country, but they’re ultimately very progressive Americans. Both of them plan on going to medical school,”
she finished proudly. “Tell me how you were brought up after we lost track of you, Asha. Did you go to college? What do you do?”
Tears filled Asha’s eyes as she looked at Devi, now knowing that her father wouldn’t be very proud of her. She tried to speak, but failed.
Maddie, Mia, and Kara told Devi about Asha’s upbringing and her arranged marriage.
“Oh, Asha!”
Devi exclaimed, her eyes filling with tears. “I’m so sorry. That’s not at all what your mother and father would have wanted. It seems so unfair that you ended up being treated that way after your own father gave us our freedom.”
Devi’s voice was distressed, and she went to her knees beside Asha and gathered her into a hug. “Thank God you’re still very young and you broke your ties. You can find your own way with the money we were able to pay back.”
Asha cautiously hugged the woman back, asking quietly, “What do you think my father would have wanted for me?”
Devi slowly released Asha and returned to her seat as she said adamantly, “He would have wanted you to pursue the dream of your heart, whatever it may be. He wanted your happiness.”
She looked at Maddie, adding, “He knew your mother had two other children from her first marriage that she had to give up. Navin and Alice looked for both you and Mr. Hamilton, but were never able to discover where you were. I don’t think they wanted to rip you away from adoptive parents, but they wanted to know you were okay. They were never able to find your records or get any information about you.”
“We survived. And we all finally found each other,”
Maddie replied with a smile, sounding like that was all she wanted to tell the older woman. “So our mother did finally find a happy life with Asha’s father?”
Devi nodded. “For the time they had together…yes. Navin and Alice loved each other very much. I think loving Navin changed your mother quite profoundly. I remember Alice telling me that she didn’t like the woman she had been before, and Navin was her third marriage. I don’t think she ever wanted to give you and Max up, but she thought you’d have a better life without her. She said she couldn’t even afford to feed you and Max. I hope you can forgive her, Dr. Hudson. In the end, she was a good woman who helped her husband fight for women in bad circumstances. The love of a good man can change a woman, and I think in your mother’s case that’s exactly what happened.”
“I’m not sure she was ever really bad,”
Maddie said sadly. “Just downtrodden. She and my father were poor, and I think she did what she needed to survive when my father died. I don’t know much about her second marriage, but I’m assuming it wasn’t good either. I’m glad she got lucky the third time, and I’m glad I got a sister out of the deal,”
Maddie said with a soft smile at Asha.
“My father and mother wouldn’t be proud of me,”
Asha whispered to herself. Discovering that her father had been so progressive, so adamant about women being treated equally, made her stomach sink in dismay at the realization that she had failed him. What would he have thought of her past, of the abuse she had put up with from Ravi, of the treatment she’d endured as what she thought she deserved from both her foster parents and her ex-husband? He’d have been so disappointed in her.
“He would have been very proud,”
Devi replied sternly, having heard Asha’s low comment. “You survived, even in very bad circumstances. I know Navin would be sad that he hadn’t been there for you, but he would have been proud that you broke away and survived.”
“I’m not sure who I am,”
Asha answered earnestly, looking Devi directly in the eyes. “I was raised very conventional Indian, yet I was born in America to an American mother and a progressive Indian father. I’m American, yet I don’t feel like I am.”
“You’ll find your way. I’ll help you,”
Devi said softly, extracting a business card from her purse and handing it to Asha. “If you can’t speak to me about it, you can talk to my colleague. She’s younger, but is an American with Indian blood just like you. It might be easier for you to talk to someone who never knew your father.”
Devi stood. “I’m sorry I interrupted your Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t wait any longer to see you and repay you. I have to get back home. My husband is cooking our Thanksgiving dinner.”
“Another man in the kitchen,”
Asha muttered.
Devi laughed softly. “Yes. And my son is helping him.”
Asha shook her head. “How did you get used to it? You were raised in India.”
“A little at a time,”
Devi answered, amused. “It’s very easy to get used to once you’ve had the chance to be an equal partner, but it takes time to actually feel like one. Give yourself time, Asha. ”
Asha stood, realizing that at some point all of the men had joined them. After they all quickly introduced themselves, Max and Maddie walked Devi to the door, asking a few final questions about their mother. Asha started to follow, but was pulled up short by Kade, his arm tight around her waist.
“You okay?”
he asked gruffly.
Was she okay? It was going to take awhile for her to process everything she’d just learned. She held up the check she had received from Devi. “I have money,”
she answered flatly, not quite able to believe the funds actually belonged to her.
“I heard. We all tried to give you privacy, but we heard the doorbell from the kitchen and eavesdropped pretty shamelessly,”
Kade said bluntly.
“My parents loved me, Kade. They cared,”
she answered tearfully. God, that was the most astonishing thing of the whole afternoon. “My father was a progressive. He actually helped Indian women in trouble. He was a good man.”
“I know, sweetheart. Didn’t you already know he was a good man?”
Kade said huskily, pulling Asha against his chest and cuddling her close.
If she was honest with herself, Asha had assumed that she was probably of little importance to him because she was a girl child, and that her father was like the other Indian men in her life.
Her dad had made it his mission to see women treated well—equally, even—and he had liberal values. He…an Indian man…had helped women in trouble so they could follow their dreams. She shook her head against Kade’s chest. “Not like that. I never imagined he was that good.”
As Kara, Simon, Sam, Travis, and Mia looked on, Asha rested her head against Kade’s chest and wept.
Asha folded the last shirt she had bought for herself and placed it on the top of her new suitcase with a sigh. She hadn’t packed the clothes that Maddie and Mia had bought, thinking she’d work it out with them later. They were too extravagant, and she was pretty much a casual woman. Her jeans, sandals, and shirts were pretty much her norm. She was a painter, and the outfits weren’t something she’d normally wear. If she could get Maddie to take them back, her sister could get a refund. She hadn’t worn any of them except the red shirt.
Kade’s walls were complete, and she couldn’t kid herself anymore about leaving. There wasn’t one more wall that she could do in his home without causing it to be busy or over decorated. Since Thanksgiving two weeks ago, she’d cherished every moment that they had spent together, but it was time for her to go. He never mentioned anything beyond the moment when they were together, nothing about the future, and she was still broken. Kade deserved better, needed more than she could give him.
She’d seen Devi’s colleague, Dr. Miller, as a patient once a week for the last two weeks and had visited Devi and her family informally as a friend several times. She was slowly realizing just how brainwashed she’d become from her upbringing and her marriage. Even after she’d left her foster home and her marriage to Ravi, that programming had never left her brain. It took a conscious effort every day to reprogram her thinking, to realize that she was a strong woman who deserved so much more. It wasn’t going to happen overnight, but Asha liked to think she’d made a little progress.
After updating her website and posting her new phone number, she’d gotten tons of calls for new jobs, the large majority of them in Florida. No doubt it had something to do with news of her being Max and Maddie’s sister, but her calendar was becoming booked, and she’d accepted all the jobs in Florida. Now that she had the funds, she wanted to get a place to plant her feet, collect things and stop running.
Her soul was completely shattered, and walking away from Kade was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever had to do—probably the hardest thing she would ever have to do—but she knew she had to do it. Maybe someday the pieces of her soul would slowly fall back into place and become whole again. Right now, the pieces were so small she couldn’t see a single particle of it. There was just a black emptiness that was already haunting her, and she hadn’t even left Kade’s home yet.
“What are you doing?”
a smooth baritone asked from the doorway.
Asha swung around, her heart leaping to her throat as she saw Kade, one hip propped against her door, his arms folded, and a puzzled look on his face. All he was wearing was a pair of jeans that rode low on his hips, leaving his incredible upper body bare. He looked freshly showered, his hair wet and sexily mussed. “Nothing…I was just getting my things together. I’m done with your house. There are no walls left for me to paint.”