22. Ivy
CHAPTER 22
Ivy
T his must be a joke.
A big, ugly joke that I can’t stop laughing at.
I don’t even know where I’m going or how far I’ve been going but I can’t even march down this street with dignity.
I stumble on nothing and then fall, but before I hit the ground, a solid pair of arms catches me.
“Oops,” a now familiar voice speaks close to my ear. “Careful.”
After he rights me, I look up into golden brown eyes illuminated by the bright street lamps.
“You okay?” Vaughn asks in his soft voice that makes my mind reel.
“You’re Emmett’s cousin?” I question, unable to believe it.
“Unfortunately, I am.”
“You are truly Emmett’s cousin?”
“His mother and my father were siblings.”
“Were?”
“Daphne Easton passed away several years ago,” Vaughn says, watching me.
I will myself not to react to that. After all, this guy’s poker face is incredible.
“You are Emmett’s cousin,” I finally say, as if accepting it. “You’re both so…”
“Different?” he offers with a smile that could charm the pants off of any red-blooded human being. “I’m glad you think so. I can’t maintain that frosty attitude of his all day.”
I don’t know why I laugh at this, but I do.
The pressure in my chest eases slightly as I picture Emmett’s broody but oh-so ridiculously handsome face that I can’t stand sometimes.
“He’s uptight, gloomy, and doesn’t care for anything,” Vaughn continues. “Which has me wondering how you two know each other.”
“We don’t!” I quickly assert.
“Hmm, someone who keeps an emergency inhaler on them when they don’t have asthma might say otherwise.”
I pause, thinking back to the way Emmett just pulled an inhaler out of nowhere.
I could’ve sworn only Grammy and Samuel know that I have asthma, which developed the night I met Emmett Easton.
The crimes and sins Emmett has committed against me and my family are too many, and yet my heart fluttered.
“If indeed he’s your cousin, then you must know that he’s an asshole who knows everything about everyone and exploits their weaknesses.”
At that, Vaughn throws his head back and laughs.
Like a rich-baritone, toe-curling laugh that I strangely enjoy.
“I like you,” he suddenly says. “You have a spine, won’t be bullied, but most of all, you’re not scared.”
“Does it look like I’m not scared?” I mumble, watching him. “Because it’s not every day I meet members of the freaking Mafia!”
When those words blurt out of my mouth, a shiver goes through me.
Emmett’s family is the mafia!
The mafia is Emmett!
All these years, that hidden side of him… was the freaking mafia!
And Emmett has Italian roots? How the hell did I not know that?
“Ahh, it seems you don’t know everything about the boy you grew up with,” Vaughn says softly, his intelligent gaze studying me.
“Wait, how did you know that?”
How the hell does he know I grew up with Emmett?
This night is revealing how much of a fool I am as compared to everyone else.
Even the girl I thought contacted me as my half-sister turned out to not only be my sister, but a twin sister who has been raised perfectly well by the man I thought I’d meet and the woman I thought I’d find somewhere else, living a horrible life.
After all, why else wouldn’t Beverly come back home to see her parents unless she was in a position where she couldn’t?
But not only is she perfectly well, she’s married to the governor of New York, living the life of the rich debutant, political wife!
A throbbing pain blooms behind my eyes.
“How about I give you a ride back to the city so we can talk?” Vaughn asks, his voice now a bit softer than before. “You don’t look so good.”
“I wonder what gave that away,” I mutter just as a black SUV pulls up.
The rear door is opened, and I’m ushered in gently, none of the manhandling Emmett did earlier.
They might be cousins, but their disposition is entirely different.
Where Emmett is tall, huge, intimidating, and quiet, Vaughn is also tall but on the slim side, smiles a lot, and seems to be friendly and open.
However, the two are similar in that both of them have an aura.
An aura I should’ve picked up years ago. Or maybe I did, only to ignore it.
Does Samuel know that Emmett is in the Mafia? Is that why he said war would break out?
My mind is whirling with so many thoughts that I can’t even hear anything else until Vaughn taps my hand.
“Huh?”
“Oh boy,” he says softly. “You’ve had one hell of a night.”
“Wouldn’t you if you found out that the parents who abandoned you have been living well and only kept you separate from their beautiful lives so you can be the thing that fulfills their power-hungry shady mafia contract?”
Anger, shame, and pain slither their way into me.
I’m ashamed that I fell for the bait.
I’m horrified that I was made a fool of.
But I’m even more angry at myself.
I knew building fantasies in my head of a beautiful family reunion was just looking for trouble, but nowhere in my wildest dreams was I expecting this.
“Well, if it helps, I believe Governor Hughes and his wife were both not expecting you,” Vaughn says.
“I gathered from the way my so-called twin sister announced that she found the girl who will take the fall for her.”
And her parents agreed.
Not once did any of them stand up for me. Hell, they didn’t even know my name but now, in five days I have to marry?
Like hell.
“How did you know?” I turn to look at Vaughn.
He sits comfortably, like Emmett does in any room, but where Emmett is natural, Vaughn is intentional.
“That you are from Westbrook Blues?” Vaughn asks as he turns to look at me and gives me another charming panty-melting smile. “I guessed but you just confirmed it.”
“Really?”
“Well, my cousin is not a friendly person, nor does he give a damn about anyone else. The only people ever reported to be in his life are the kids from Westbrook Blues, and sorry to say but I already knew there was a black girl too.”
“And you just guessed it’s me?”
“No, I guessed that you are the black girl he saved from drowning when he was ten and since then, things changed.”
A shudder goes through me at that.
“What do you mean things changed?”
“I mean everything changed. Daphne Easton, Emmett’s mother and my aunt, was the heir of the Outfit. She died and then a few days later, her son who assumed her position as heir almost died while saving some girl, so of course it completely changed everything,” Vaughn says, now looking at me deeply and meaningfully. “But seeing you now, though you’re grown, I completely understand.”
“Understand what?”
“I would easily shed every responsibility on my shoulders and rescue you if you ever needed it,” he suddenly says in a sexy, rugged deep voice that makes me freeze. “You are worth the lives of countless men.”
OMG.
What did he just say?
And the way he’s looking at me…
“That’s not going to work,” I mutter suddenly.
“What?” he frowns.
“That.” I point at his face. “Putting your charm on, flirting with me, and saying all that just so I pick you as the next boss like your grandfather said.”
“Ahh, so you will go through with your parents’ commands.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“But I mean every word I just said, believe it or not,” Vaughn says, still staring at me intently. “I’d shed every responsibility if it meant I got to have you.”
The atmosphere changes.
I almost start shifting in my seat, so I clench my fists around the edge of the leather seat.
Vaughn holds my gaze the entire time, as if he wants me to see… everything.
Is he saying he doesn’t care at all about being the next boss? That he’d give all that up…for me?
Jesus, this man is scandalous.
“Do you want to know the first thought I had when you crashed into me when I caught you eavesdropping?”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping.”
“Sure, we’ll be telling that tale to the end of time,” he says with an infectious smile.
“Is God finally coming through for me by giving me you?”
“What?” I croak.
“That’s what I thought.”
Holy God. Who is this man?
“You’re so fucking beautiful, it hurts,” he whispers in the silence of the car cruising down the highway back to the city.
“So is my twin sister.”
“I never noticed.”
I almost gasp.
“You’re very direct,” I mutter, clearing my throat. “I guess it’s a family trait.”
“Now I’m curious.” Vaughn smiles.
“Curious about what?”
“What else my cousin and I have in common through your eyes.”
“Do you want to have something in common with a person you hate?” I ask.
This catches him by surprise.
“What makes you think I hate my cousin?”
I don’t bother answering that, I just watch him, to which he starts laughing again.
“Wow! Indeed you are incredible and very perceptive!” he applauds softly. “I’d say he hates me too.”
At that, I don’t comment.
Emmett, as much as it seems he’s very obvious, is not at all easy to read.
I think Emmett might regard his cousin as a nuisance, an inconvenience more than anything.
Hate? I think that’s reserved for his grandfather from what I saw tonight from the look Emmett gave the frail old man.
“Hey, can you explain what the hell is going on here?” I ask, figuring Vaughn is my only source of clarity even though he just met me in the most brutal and vulnerable point of my life.
“Ask me anything and I’ll try my best to tell you.”
I pause, studying him.
“Are mafia men always so up-front?”
“Well, seeing as you and I might be married in five days, I don’t see why we shouldn’t jump-start the rest of our lives with honesty.”
“Wow,” I mutter, and Vaughn laughs again.
I’d never lie to you…
Emmett’s words from the plane flit through my ears for a second.
I knew he meant it then, but I’m not sure if that, too, is a family trait, because if he’d never lie to me, why didn’t he tell me about the Hughes family?
“You mentioned that Emmett’s mother was the heir of the Easton family, which is pretty badass, what happened to her?”
“It’s not known.”
“What?”
“No one knows what exactly happened to her, but I do know that the very fact that she was the firstborn—which is what automatically made her heir—made her a target. My own father and uncles hated her for that.”
Hmm, so Emmett was literally born into an already evolving conspiracy.
“Aunt Daphne married Syrus because he wasn’t a threat to her power. A year later, they had a son, while at the same time my father was competing against Aunt Daphne.”
“How did your father compete?”
“How else but to get my mother to give birth to me before Aunt did?”
The way Vaughn bites out those words makes me pause. There’s anger in those words.
Something must’ve happened to Vaughn’s mother, if they are all assuming that she’s dead.
“Unfortunately, my father didn’t get his way and so the law of firstborns of the next generation continued. Emmett is the firstborn of the next generation,” Vaughn finishes with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
He whips his head around to look at me in surprise. “What?”
“I said I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” I mutter. “You must’ve suffered for something that’s not your fault at all and it must’ve been horrible. The people at fault never suffer nor do they ever apologize. So, I’m sorry.”
He stares at me for so long, time passes.
“What else did you want to know?” he asks gruffly.
“I… If Emmett was already the next heir after his mother, why did your grandfather say I would be choosing the next heir?”
“Simply because Grandfather is no longer sure of Emmett.”
That makes something in me stand up at attention.
“Why?”
“I’m not sure of the details but for the last few years, there’s been a rumor that has been floating around.”
“A rumor you started?”
“Well, I wouldn’t be alive if I started it,” he says with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“What rumor?”
“Well, there have been many rumors about the monster of the Easton Family."
"They call Emmett a monster?"
"He was born premature, but do you see how huge he is?"
Wait, what? Emmett was born a premie?
“But that’s not why he’s feared beyond any boss of the mafia.” Vaughn’s voice drops suddenly, and he looks out the window as if he’s now stuck in a distant yet potent memory. “We basically grew up together, my cousin and I. We were ‘raised’ together.”
Somehow, I don’t think he means that in the traditional sense of raising a child.
“We were evaluated together, but only one of us has these deep-cemented rumors that cause a kind of fear that’s too deep, too dark and horrible, it only grows wilder, even when Emmett does nothing for a time.”
“How?”
“Because he doesn’t have a bark.”
“What do you mean?” I whisper as my heart starts to race.
Vaughn turns to look at me.
“I’m sure you have suspected,” he starts. “My cousin doesn’t waste time with making a whole show of threatening someone. He never makes noise. He doesn’t warn anyone that they are doomed. Instead, he uses his sharp, iron jagged teeth to shred, devour, and tear apart immediately and profoundly.”
Shivers roll through my body as if I’ve been cast into an ice bath.
The sinister way in which Vaughn says this makes me realize that he’s telling the truth about Emmett.
“All the idiots that have tried going against my cousin have never seen the next sunrise after he found them,” Vaughn continues. “And they never died peacefully or easily. It’s best not to have my cousin as an enemy, even our grandfather knows this.”
Emmett’s entirely dark and ruthless side.
Even Alex King has made some vague comments about Emmett.
Noah has also alluded to this, but of course none of them are afraid of Emmett—but then again, that might be because Emmett has never been their enemy. He’s been their friend.
“My cousin doesn’t believe in giving chances or having proportions,” Vaughn says. “He doesn’t do sentiment, has no mercy, does not bother with trying to lure anyone into a trap. He’ll just directly deal with you. A monster that moves in the shadows without a sound is worse than the one you can hear coming.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Vaughn is warning me.
But I have firsthand experience of having your life destroyed by Emmett Easton.
Hell, not just me, but my grandmother and brother know.
“You say that and yet you two seem to be going at each other’s throat,” I point out.
If Vaughn is being considered for the position of boss along with someone like Emmett, then there’s more to Vaughn than just a sexy smile and captivating eyes.
“I’m the Consigliere of the Family.”
“You’re a lawyer?” I’m surprised.
“I am, yes,” he says. “I went to college at fifteen. I simultaneously studied law both here in America and back home while at the same time, Emmett studied at MIT and even some arts school, and on top of that, he also got a law degree.”
“What?” This time, my mind is reeling.
Emmett has a freaking law degree???
He went to MIT?
When did Emmett do all of that?
“So while I handle most of the legal affairs of both my firm and the Family’s, which forces Emmett and I to deal with each other, he alone in the past eight years has brought in the most lucrative deals and expanded the empire even further than anyone has ever done, so now, every kind of industry you can think of, we’re there, but at the same time, he has also discontinued and destroyed all other deals brought in by my father, uncles, and anyone who has been in league with them.”
That’s because Emmett’s on a mission.
“So the rumor is that he’ll bulldoze over anyone that gets in his way?” I question, changing the topic.
“No, the rumor is that there’s something wrong with him.”
I freeze.
“And judging by that reaction, it seems it's true, and you must know what’s wrong with him.”
“I guess you’re overestimating this so-called relationship between Emmett and I just because we grew up together,” I counter. “You’ve told me more about him than I even knew.”
“So there’s nothing between you two?” he asks.
“Did you expect there to be something?”
“I saw…” he trails off and falls silent, studying me. “Anyway, here.”
Vaughn extends a card to me.
“What’s this?”
“My number.”
“On a card?” I say, unable to stop smiling. “You’re very old-fashioned.”
“And a gentleman too,” he says gesturing out my window to the restaurant I told him I’m going to that’s eight blocks away from where I’m staying. I don’t want him to know that I’m going back to the place I thought I wouldn’t go back to, but here I am.
“Oh wow, thank you,” I say as I unbuckle, open the door, and get out.
After closing the door, the window rolls down and I hear, more than see, Vaughn.
“Keep that… for when you need me.”
“Huh?”
“Seeing as these next five days will make you wish you never even stepped foot in New York, I’m sure you’ll need someone,” he says simply. “I went to Columbia Law, so I can help you get acclimated with the school.”
I stare at him, hardly blinking, and he laughs.
“You’re wondering how I know you’ll be going to Columbia’s Med School?” he says with a smile, then he waves his phone where I can vaguely see a document with a picture of me on it. “I literally just found out.”
“You had me researched?”
“Of course,” he says. “You’re very intelligent and quiet. We will definitely be friends.”
“How presumptuous of you,” I say, laughing. “Who says we’ll be friends?”
“I do, as well as the invite I just sent you.”
“What invite?”
“There’s a fundraiser dinner tomorrow night. You can come, bring a plus-one if you want, but I’ll introduce you to some notable people in academia if you’d like.”
“You even got my number?”
“Yes, all data is out there, available for those who are adept at finding it, don’t you agree?”
“Well… I’ll think about it.”
“While you consider my harmless invitation, also think about the imminent danger you are in,” he stays. “Stay away from my cousin. He’s more vicious and more brutal than you think.”
And with that, he’s gone, but maybe I should’ve told him that I know firsthand how dangerous Emmett is.
After all, he was the reason why my brother and I had no home for four years.
If only I had kept my mind and memories locked in oblivion.