Chapter 18 #2
“I’m not. I waited for years for her to return, along with my father, but they never did.
I didn’t even know they were separated, or that I had a brother.
I only found out because of Dad’s interview at Tyson’s debut announcement.
I don’t know why he said I was proud of him.
I didn’t even know he existed,” Tyler argued, pressing his hand on his chest like it caused him pain.
“Aurora! Do you have a comment for us? Where’s your father?” one of the reporters shouted as I approached, and I frowned.
“I don’t know.”
“He abandoned you to fend for yourself like Tyler’s parents left him?”
“I’m eighteen,” I deadpanned, taking Tyler’s hand and pulling him back a step. “Let’s go back inside.”
He held my hand a little tighter, and I could feel the tremor in it. The jokester was just a mask, hiding his anxiety and anger.
We left Anika at the gate to deal with them, and I kept Tyler’s hand in mine until we were shut inside away from prying eyes.
The shaking in his hand got worse, and he let go abruptly as he started walking through the house.
“He’ll head down to the gym. I’ll workout with him for a little while,” Caden murmured as he kissed my cheek and headed after Tyler, making Josie wince.
“This is why I’ve been dreading their return. He bottles his emotions until he explodes.”
“He’ll be okay. He’s got all of us,” I said confidently, wanting to go after him but knowing Caden had his back.
“I’ve been invited to a friend’s for lunch. I can stay home if—”
“Go, we’re fine,” I insisted, motioning to Lukas and Jensen. “We’ll just hang out here while Caden and Ty work out. We’ll watch a movie or something.”
“You sure?”
“Positive,” I smiled, earning one in return as she pulled me in for a hug. “You look after the boys then. You’re in charge.”
“Dammit, Josie,” Lukas grumbled, making her laugh as she stepped back from me.
“If you boys think I don’t know you throw parties whenever I leave, you’re delusional.”
Lukas shut up, and she gave me a wink before heading upstairs to her room to get ready.
“You heard her,” I said as I put my hands on my hips.
“Aw, she thinks she’s in charge,” Jensen taunted, a shriek leaving me as he dipped down and tossed me over his shoulder to smack my ass.
“Just you wait until I get back on my feet,” I threatened, only making both of them laugh.
Jensen carried me up to his bedroom and dropped me back on the bed, and I couldn’t stay fake mad when Lukas curled up beside me to snuggle.
His fingers lifted to the necklace around my neck, a small smile on his face.
“I still can’t believe you’re mine.”
“I can’t believe you made Jensen blow you in front of the guys. It was fucking hot,” I grinned, cupping his cheek as his skin flushed lightly.
“I can’t believe I did that either.”
“Alpha Luke is hot when he’s bossy,” Jensen said over his shoulder as he grabbed the TV remote, coming back to lie down on my other side. “At least we know the guys are cool with it.”
“I don’t want to make a habit of it,” Lukas grumbled, burying his face in my neck.
I slid my arm around him and tangled our legs together, Jensen putting a movie on before spooning me.
It was nice just lying together, but my mind was loud today.
I needed to train, find Max, find Mom, and the weight of Slash being gone was so heavy.
To go after Max, I needed to find out where the fuck he was hiding, but if Skeeter couldn’t find him, how could I?
Skeeter
“How’d you sleep?” I asked Diesel as I wandered into the office at the Shed, and he gave me the side-eye. I knew he would have slept like shit, he always did on any type of holiday.
“I didn’t,” he grunted, rubbing his hands over his face.
“You should have stayed. You probably would’ve slept a little with company,” I stated, dropping down at my desk and switching the computer on. “Do you want distractions today, or to hang around the Shed?”
“I’m probably useless if shit goes south.”
“You hang out here today then. Paperwork,” I ordered, making him nod.
“Thanks. What are you doing today?”
“I need to move the bricks of coke, and Hunter texted to tell me to meet him today. Might do that this morning to get it out of the way,” I huffed, not understanding why the asshole wanted to see me. If he needed to talk, he could have called.
Pretty sure he was just wasting my day and trying to piss me off.
“What does he want?” Diesel asked with a yawn, and I shrugged.
“No fucking clue. Guess I’ll find out. Are you good here?”
“I’m good.”
“Promise?” I asked firmly, his eyes sliding to me. He wasn’t fine, I could tell, and I almost told him to spend the day with Rory. The last thing he needed was to become fucking codependent on someone though.
“I’m struggling today but if I get worse I’ll call you,” he said quietly, shame filling his face.
“Hey,” I replied as I stood, moving over to him to pat his shoulder. “It’s that time of year, I get it. If you need to get out of here, call Rory. She’d probably like to hang out and distract you.”
I could tell by the way he scrunched his face up that he didn’t like that idea, but he nodded.
“I can do that, but if I get bad, I’ll call you instead because I won’t be around her like that.”
I could respect that. Diesel had been sober for a long damn time, but he was a nightmare when he spiraled. I just had to get him through the new year and everything would calm down again.
“I’ll be back later,” I said as I patted his shoulder again before leaving, ignoring Claire and Mandy, who were sitting at the bar talking to Samuel and Matteo. It was way too early for them to be here.
I texted Hunter to let him know I was on my way to their warehouse, then I headed towards Mount Mercer.
It was pretty early, so it didn’t take long to get there with fuck all traffic.
“This better be important,” I grumbled as I locked my car and walked towards Hunter, who was waiting at the door for me.
“Good morning to you too,” he huffed, motioning for me to step inside so he could shut the door behind us.
“It’s too early for this shit, man. What do you want to tell me?”
He led me up to the loft so we could talk in his office, irritation washing through me as I stepped inside to find Marco leaning back in his chair smoking a cigarette. He gave me a sly smirk, but he didn’t say anything.
“Are you still looking for Max Donovan?” Hunter asked, making me frown.
“Yeah, why?”
“Some of my guys got hold of him last night and dragged him in for me so I could beat him over debts he owes us. He escaped before I could hand him over to you. He’s got a place in Ashburn somewhere, but it can’t be in his name for a lease agreement or deed. It’s like he’s a ghost.”
“How the fuck did he escape? And why would you hand him over to me?” I asked skeptically, and he raised an eyebrow like I was stupid. Marco gave me a similar look, a flicker of amusement in his tone when he spoke.
“Because Hunt wants to fuck your girl, and handing over her daddy to murder would make the little freak horny as hell,” he drawled, flicking ash in the ashtray before putting his boots up on the desk.
“Our camera system went down, so we don’t know how he got away.
He’s obviously got someone on his side that knows tech though if they shut down our system. ”
“I warned you already,” Hunter bit out, giving me an apologetic look. “I didn’t invite you here to fight.”
“Sure seems like it,” I scowled, glaring at Marco. “Good luck trying to fuck Aurora. She has zero interest in you guys.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Marco shrugged as the door opened and Faris stepped inside.
“Hey, sorry. Hendricks just showed up and wants to speak with you, boss,” he said with a wince, and Hunter growled.
“That motherfucker. I’ll be back in a second,” Hunter bit out before following Faris from the room, closing the door behind them.
I silently watched Marco for a moment before he got to his feet and strolled towards me.
It took every ounce of willpower to stay still and not back away from him.
I’d hated him and Hunter for years, but it was hard to stay so angry with people who had once been the most important people in my life.
Losing Slash was making me soft or something.
“If you let Hunter play with your girl, I can occupy you for a while,” he offered, blowing smoke in my face. “I’ll even let you top me.”
“I’ll smash your face to pieces, Ortega. Don’t push me,” I warned, giving him a shove back, but he just moved closer again with a laugh.
“You worried you’ll remember how much you love me? We can turn the love into a hate-fuck, if you’d prefer?” He reached out to touch my face and I smacked his hand away, not being able to help but take a step back.
I hated him. He was one of the only people in the world that had any power over me, and I refused to fall back into his web of lies. He’d made a joke out of what we’d had, admitted it was nothing but fun and he’d never had feelings involved.
I’d locked down my emotions after that, refusing to let anyone in like that again.
Until Aurora came along and fucked it all up.
“You’re nothing to me, asshole,” I hissed, grabbing his throat and shoving him back against the wall when he tried to touch me again. “Stop trying to fucking touch me!”
“Maybe you need someone to top you? Isn’t her pussy enough?
I bet you think of me when you bend her over,” he grinned, my hand tightening around his throat.
I went to swing my other fist at him, but then he broke free of my hold, spun us around, and slammed my back against the wall with his hand around my throat.
“I’m going to fucking kill—” My threat was cut off as he kissed me, anger burning inside as I tried to push him away. His scent filled my senses as the familiar feeling of his lips on mine hit a memory inside me.
The hand around my throat loosened a fraction, his body pressing closer to mine as his tongue pushed into my mouth. It was so familiar, and for a second, it was as if nothing had come between us.
“You might love her, but you’ll always love me too,” he murmured, nipping my lip and snapping me out of the false reality I was picturing in my head. “She will never be enough for you because she’s not me.”
I shoved him away and punched him in the eye, maniacal laughter leaving him as if something was funny. My heartbeat was slamming in my chest as the old feeling of heartache returned, knowing he was only playing with me.
Why the fuck had I lowered my guard like that?
“You can keep hitting me as long as we get naked. It’s been a while since I’ve had that kind of fun in the bedroom,” he smirked, grabbing his tented jeans and giving his cock a squeeze.
I couldn’t exactly tell Rory about this, but then I was no better than when she’d kept her relationship with Slash a secret. I wanted honesty, but I kept a lot of my past buried from her.
Not because I was ashamed of it, but because it had fucked me up so badly that I swore I’d never think of it again.
My feelings for Marco had been tainted, his entire side of the story being one big lie for his own amusement.
I tackled the smug bastard in a blacked out rage, both of us hitting the ground hard as I straddled him and punched him again, his cock hardening under my ass and only pissing me off more.
My hands wrapped around his throat as I choked him, the crazy fucker seeming to get off on it as he thrust up against me despite his face darkening with the lack of blood flow.
“Hey, what happened?” Hunter demanded as he appeared, prying me off his best friend and tugging me back, Marco coughing between laughter as he caught his breath. “Mark, what the fuck did you say?”
“We were kissing and making up. I don’t know why he snapped,” Marco answered, making Hunter curse as I tried to lunge for the prick again.
“Get out.” I went to leave, more than fucking happy to, but he put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. “Not you, Skeet. Mark can leave.”
“You’re kicking me out?” Marco snapped, but Hunter just eyed him until he huffed and left the room, my whole body calming now that he was away from me.
“I’ve told him to leave you alone,” Hunter said calmly, making me snort.
“I can handle his bullshit.”
“I was there. I know what you guys had and—”
“What we had is irrelevant. I’m with Aurora, and both of you need to stay the fuck out of it. I think you misunderstand our current truce. We’re not friends, never will be again. If you find Max, let me know,” I bit out before leaving the room and stomping down the stairs.
I shoved the door open and walked towards my car, pausing when I noticed Marco by the warehouse punching the wall.
He looked distraught about something, but when he saw me, he put the mask back in place and flipped me off.
I flipped him off in return and climbed into my car, heading straight back to the Shed where I should have stayed in the first place.