Chapter 4
Ash-pen
My men are dead at the bottom of a lake, drowned on an Archer Realty construction site.
Of course they are. If Chet had waited for me to act instead of impulsively throwing his weight against Scarlett, maybe we wouldn’t have lost four cars and four qualified employees. Gluttonous, self-aggrandizing idiot.
Scarlett was my target. Is my target. Emma Jean, too. My responsibility, not his. How dare he?
The reporter—the journalist—is handcuffed to my bed, staring up at me with tears drying on her cheeks. Gagged. Dressed in violent red lingerie, stark against her pale skin. She struggles a little, but mostly she pleads for mercy with her eyes.
Pointless. Her pleading is pointless.
I’ve dismissed all of the household employees, so when a knock comes at the door, I check the cameras and then walk downstairs to answer it.
I’m holding Aspen the Frog’s portable habitat by one handle.
It’s comforting for me to know that this Aspen is an amphibian, that he probably doesn’t feel love and hate the same way that a mammal does.
This Aspen feels nothing for me and that’s an improvement. The old one was obsessed. I could never escape his stare. Part of being born in a set of identical twins, huh?
“You’re still alive?” I ask imperiously as I fling the front door open to find Chet Junior Cody Archer slumped against the wall. His jeans are bloody and he’s wearing an unzipped sweater with the hood up. There’s something stuck to his chest, matted with blood against his skin.
I’m planning on killing him. Right here.
Tonight. With Aspen still held carefully in my right hand, I use my left to lift a mounted samurai sword off the wall.
I drop it by my side and then turn the blade so that the flat of it is facing Cody.
I pushed him down the stairs for a reason.
What the fuck is he doing on my doorstep?
I thought Bohnes was going to kill him for sure.
“They cut my dick off, man,” he’s mumbling, staring at me with wide, unseeing eyes, like he’s been broken.
Aw. I like that. Cody has broken so many other people in his life that this can only be karmic justice.
“You…” I use the sword to point at his bloodied crotch and then swing it up to rest on my left shoulder.
Huh. Bohnes didn’t kill him, but used him.
I almost appreciate the extra level of cruelty it took to turn a pervert into a eunuch and leave him helpless and alone on the mayor’s doorstep. “Have no dick?”
I try not to sound gleeful about that, but fail terribly. Kuso. I sound fucking delighted. Hopefully he doesn’t run off.
“You heard me!” Cody screams, spittle flying everywhere.
He charges into me, grabbing my shirt in two fists and shaking me.
The whites of his eyes are sallow and red-veined, his hands bloody.
“Call an ambulance! Call my father! Call Ernest!” He releases me and stumbles back, shouting into the house for help.
Too bad for him that it’s only me and the journalist here. I turn to look at Cody over my left shoulder, catching sight of my wild, unhinged expression in the reflection on the blade. What’s that on Cody’s chest then? It looks like a letter.
That’d be like Bohnes to do something so dramatic.
I walk over to where Cody’s clinging onto the back of the couch and screaming. I’m not sure if he remembers that I’m the one that pushed him down the stairs or not. If he did, maybe he’d be wary about me coming up behind him.
He spins at the last second, giving me a proper look at the item on his chest.
It is a piece of paper. It’s also stapled to Cody’s bare skin.
I squint my eyes when a bit of the embossed gold writing catches my attention. Scarlett Diana Force. Her name is there clear as day. I set Aspen’s vivarium on the sofa table as Cody stares at me like I’m insane.
“You didn’t hear me, dumbass? Call my father!” Cody is hysterical—as any man who had his cock chopped off would be. “It’s Alexei Borisov! He’s the one who did this to me.” He’s panting, staring at the floor, unseeing. Jaw tense. Teeth gritted. Veins protruding from his forehead.
Chet Jr. over here now has a grudge, and he’s the sort of petty who will crawl back out of the grave to exact his revenge. Doki-doki. Doki-doki. Doki-doki.
My hand shoots out, grabbing the page that’s stapled into his skin and ripping it off. Some of the staples come out. The paper tears. Cody shrieks in agony.
I lift it up, dark eyes flicking over the words.
What I see there nearly breaks me.
Clink. That’s the sound of a pebble hitting the windshield of my sanity. It’s already spiderwebby. Won’t take much to shatter it completely.
You Are Cordially Invited to the Wedding of Alexei Grove Borisov and Scarlett Diana Force. There’s a date and time, a venue.
My eye twitches as I reach up to my hair with the invitation still held in my hand.
It crumples as I grab a hank of hair and pull on it so hard that my scalp screams in pain.
Scarlett is marrying Alexei? I blink past that realization.
It doesn’t matter. What matters is this: Alexei is coming out of hiding.
The mob turning its gaze on the mayor.
Smart.
Alexis Force has told my father everything. Hiding won’t do Scarlett or Alexei any good now. Jonas knows who Bohnes is, too. Widow. He knows they’re all involved, that they’re actively working against him. Offensive rather than defensive moves are in Scarlett’s best interest at this point.
I resist the urge to spear Cody through the heart with the sword. I want to. But he really is more useful alive than dead—for today. Tomorrow will be a different story.
I pull my phone from my pocket. Today has been a disaster from the start. I knew I’d have to face my father’s wrath at some point, but calling him is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I dial him up anyway.
Click. He answers immediately.
“You lost four of my best men today. Care to explain that, Aspen?” Jonas’ voice is at its worst. He’s getting more and more frustrated with me.
Doesn’t matter that he believes I’m Aspen.
He’s tired of my antics. I won’t have very many opportunities in the future to be alone in a room with him—if any at all.
“Four grown men and they couldn’t manage to murder one teenage girl between them?
Whose inadequacy is that, really? Their orders were not to move on the target until I was there as well.
Chet is the one who rushed the chase. If anyone should be blamed, it should be him.
” I keep my voice cool, neutral, and sane.
My eye is still twitching and my hand is clenched so hard around the hilt of the sword that it shakes.
You are cordially invited. Alexei and Scarlett. Wedding.
I sent my own engagement ring because I couldn’t help myself.
One last gesture. One final play-pretend at a future we were never going to have.
All along, Scarlett saw obsession in my eyes and attributed that emotion to me.
But it was just a reflection of what was in her own eyes. She’s the one who’s obsessed.
I need to break her of that bad habit.
“Boy, you are lucky you’re my only heir.” This is Jonas’ way of threatening me. I grit my teeth and curl my lip. I don’t appreciate him talking to me like that. I’ve lived my entire life with people talking shit to me, and I had to learn to let most of it go.
Not anymore.
“Call Chet and Ernest. Cody is at the house and he has some interesting news.” I pause, letting the moment grow heavy. I’m trying to gauge Jonas’ change in mood at what I’m about to say. Will he be afraid? If not, he should be. “Alexei Borisov sent us an invitation to his wedding.”
I hang up and put the phone in my pocket. I tuck the wedding invitation alongside it.
You are cordially invited. I turn to Cody, taking the heirloom katana in both hands. It belonged to my mother’s side of the family.
“What the fuck, you crazy psycho?” he snarls, shrinking back from me. I can’t kill him yet, but I’m mad. I’m so fucking pissed. I start swinging at the couch on either side of Cody’s trembling body. I probably look insane. He has no idea how much control I’m exerting right now to keep him alive.
Fabric scraps and bits of foam litter the floor as I draw back and swipe my arm over my lips, still clutching onto the sword with that same hand. With the other, I ruffle up my sweaty hair as Cody collapses to a shivery, stammering heap on the floor. He starts to rock back and forth, and I sigh.
“Get up. They’ll be here soon and you know what your father will do if he sees you looking like a bitch.
” I squat down and reach out with a single finger, pressing it into the center of Cody’s forehead.
There’s a flash of darkness in his eyes, and I realize he’s not quite as broken as he’s pretending.
“Cody, you were dickless before you ever lost your dick. Don’t worry: it’s only a physical change.
You’re still the same spineless, heartless cretin that you always were.
Losing your cock doesn’t make you less of a man because you weren’t one to begin with. ”
A horrible smile alights on my face, a fragment of Aspen spilling over my mouth. I’ve never had so much fun playing the part. I even laugh, the sound carefree and joyous. Euphoric.
“I’ll kill you for that!” Cody screeches. His words are meaningless. He’s bleeding all over the floor, cock-free and in absolutely no state to issue threats of any kind.
I stand up, taking the sword and Aspen the Frog with me over to the intact sofa to wait. Cody remains on the floor, curled up in a fetal position and murmuring more unlikely proclamations about revenge.
You are cordially invited.
I tug the invitation from my pocket and stare at it.
You are cordially invited. Wedding. Wedding, wedding, wedding.
I’ve made my choices. My time with Scarlett is over—permanently. She has three lovers, not four. Three fuckboys. We’re nothing to each other. Less than nothing.
Nothing.