Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
HARD TRUTH
Audiemar moved the dinner Phoebe prepared around on his plate.
She always thought he was one of the most handsome, youthful looking men in Ree Heights.
Suave, debonair, with a little gangster to him.
Most people were intimidated by the tattoos on his hands, and although aged, she found them both sexy and intriguing.
She enjoyed the roughness of them when he wrapped his hand around her neck or gripped her waist when he was busting her open from the back.
The man had no problem laying the pipe at his age.
“Is something wrong?” Phoebe asked, taking a sip of her Cabernet selection of wine before setting the glass back on the table.
With his fork still in his hand, shifting pasta from side to side, Audiemar peered up at her from his plate. Slowly, he shook his head before letting his fork clatter against his plate.
“Not really hungry,” he said, reaching for his glass of whiskey.
“Anything you want to talk about?” Phoebe queried.
Audiemar didn’t respond as he peered at her over the rim of his glass and swallowed the warm liquid. He sensed that although he wasn’t in the mood for small talk, she had something on her mind. Slowly, he lowered his glass to the table and grabbed his napkin to wipe his mouth.
“Seems like you do.”
“Have you talked to Kong? He can’t just end this thing with Nayelli like it never happened.”
Sighing, Audiemar shook his head.
His son had been distant, so he hadn’t spoken to him directly in days.
The news about Ayla hit everyone hard, and he was still struggling with it.
Not having all the facts, he sensed that his sons all knew a hell of a lot more than they were saying.
With Moose in rehab and Mozzi and Coast newlyweds dealing with a newborn, his sons suddenly all had lives and responsibilities outside their empire.
He was both happy and filled with pride in all of them, even Moose, but he couldn’t help but be concerned about the direction his family was going.
“Kong is a grown man, Phoebe. I have no control over him or the decision he makes. His reasons for separating from Nayelli are warranted.”
“Warranted?” Phoebe scoffed. “Like he wasn’t using her from jump to try and get over whatever he had with that girl—”
“Her name was Ayla,” Audiemar corrected her sternly.
“She was the help—”
“What is your problem, Phoebe? Hmm?” Audiemar leaned forward with his bushy salt and pepper brows furrowing above his narrowing eyes.
“You still trying to live through your daughter? Why does what she do with her life concern you so much? Last time I checked, she was grown and could make her own decisions. She decided to lie to Kong about the progress of her condition, too. So, why should he trust anything she has to say?”
“He built their marriage on a lie!” she shrieked. “You really want to sit there and defend that?”
“I’m not defending anything. I’m allowing my son to live his life and make his own choices. You should do the same for your daughter.” He nodded across the table.
“This is just like you. What happened to my daughter is what happened to Jane, because of you.” She called him out. “And to Twyla because of Kong.”
“What are you talking about?” Audiemar reclined in his chair, and Phoebe’s utensils clattered against her plate as she pushed her chair from the table.
“I’m talking about all the lies that spew from this family!
You walk around pretending to be so noble and honorable, but you flex your power every chance you get for yourselves.
Leaning on this code that makes you think you’re above everyone!
” She snatched her plate off the table and walked it over to the sink so she could shove what was left in the garbage disposal.
Audiemar barely reacted. He remained seated, thrown by her outburst. Waiting on her to elaborate on her tantrum, which he knew she would, he couldn’t keep his radar from going off. Phoebe kept her back to him, chest heaving as she rested her hand on her hip.
“I know that what happened to my daughter wasn’t an accident,” she revealed in a low whisper.
“Who you been talking to?” Audiemar’s pulse slowed, and he allowed her the floor.
Slowly, she spun, facing him with her resting bitch face and eyes full of fire.
“You know I never keep my ear too far from the street. She was a casualty in the war that you and your sons started with Donahue. I let it go because Kong did right by her, but after this… what am I supposed to do? My child is hurting because of what your son did to her! This is like what happened to Jane all over again!”
This time, Audiemar looked at her.
“What you say?” he asked, bringing himself to his feet.
For a moment, she froze, but only for a second. It was enough to cast suspicion.
“I meant…”
“You said it’s like what happened to Jane, but how the fuck do you know what happened?”
“You think people are stupid, Audie? Jane was your wife. It’s not like you’re nobody in this town. Of course, everyone had something to say about what happened to her.”
“There’s speculation, and then there’s knowing things that only a select few would be privy to.”
“I know she got involved with things that she shouldn’t have. Stuck her little self-righteous nose in business that wasn’t hers. She should have let it go when the Jacobs property collapsed. Her death is as much her own fault as it is yours.”
“I never told anyone she was investigating that collapse,” he replied. “Did Riddle tell you?”
Audiemar knew all about the history with Phoebe, Riddle, and Mira, dating back to when Phoebe and Mira were new on the stroll.
Before Mira decided to take control of the game and flip it to her advantage.
Phoebe didn’t want to live that life, as much as she enjoyed the perks of it all.
She wanted the money; she was just tired of using her body to get it every single day of her life.
So, she used Nayelli to target wealthy men while she did the same, funding an entire lifestyle off it.
When the money started to run low, she would run to Riddle for favors, and he had no problem bailing her out, but it always came with a price.
Eventually, that got old, too, which is why she encouraged her daughter to marry for money asap.
Phoebe’s silence was the loudest thing in the room.
She looked away, and before she could even blink, Audiemar was in her face.
Nowhere to run, his eyes raked over her.
The shell she’d managed to hide under in his presence shrank before his eyes.
He saw it all. The hesitation. Her fear, and the history that existed between them.
Suddenly, twenty years rearranged themselves.
Jane and all her questions. The Jacobs dying in that building collapse.
His wife felt so bad about that she paid for their funeral and all the flower arrangements for their service.
Riddle got that land right after they were killed.
Jane figured it out. Her death wasn’t random.
It was all connected, and he should have known that.
“She was still my friend. You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it,” he growled, expression hardening.
“Jane wouldn’t stop.” Phoebe spoke up after a beat. “She was relentless in finding out what happened. She even came to me, asking me to poke around. I told her to stop. I told her it wouldn’t end well—”
“But you didn’t do anything to stop it.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
Phoebe shut her eyes. It was too late to take it all back.
Audiemar stepped back because every instinct he had wanted to reach out and squeeze the life from her. The room suddenly got smaller.
“I buried the wrong fucking enemy.” He thought about all the blood he left on the street for what he thought happened to her.
Only to find out that he was wrong.
“I never wanted her dead.” Phoebe’s eyes filled with tears of regret.
Audiemar’s gaze shifted back to her. Cold. Menacing. For the first time in decades, he saw Phoebe as someone else. There was no friendship left, and now he doubted there ever was.
“No,” he agreed. “You just helped the people who did.”
“Audie—”
“Phoebe, get the fuck out of my house.” He stood at the island, palms pressed against the granite surface.
Bowing his head, he refused to look at her. If he did, he might end up doing something he might regret. He’d done worse for a hell of a lot less. Phoebe had invaded his home. His family. Her daughter had married his son.
“Well, I guess I can see where Kong got his cut off game from,” she murmured as if she was the one wronged in this situation.
Audiemar wanted to squeeze the air from her lungs. She moved around him and left the kitchen to gather her things from the front hall. By the time he reached the foyer, she was throwing on her jacket and slinging her YSL bag over her shoulder.
“I still have things here. Upstairs.”
“Don’t worry. They’ll find their way out,” he assured her.
Phoebe glanced over her shoulder before letting herself out.
Audiemar took slow, equal steps to the door to lock it behind her.
Bowing his head with one palm pressed against it, he released a harsh sigh.
It was taking everything in him not to deal with Phoebe the way he would any other enemy.
He’d told himself he changed over the years.
Took life and his relationships more seriously, but this… this was something else.
“Son.” Desiree’s voice interrupted the rampant pacing of his thoughts.
Audiemar lifted his head to find her standing at the top of the staircase. Poised, relaxed in her pajamas with her hair covered by her silk bonnet and face makeup free, she tipped her head to the side.
“Not tonight, Mama.”