Chapter 16 #4
Honey. Why does she have to say things like that to me? I wanted her to hate me, so she wouldn’t hurt so much when I died. What a complete and total failure the villain project was.
“Watch him to make sure he ain’t poisoning shit.” Widow glances my way, arms folded. There’s no heat in his words whatsoever. There’s plenty left in his stare. Something else, too, something that I recognize from my own eyes. We’re not as different as I first thought.
Widow has no one except Scarlett. Me, too.
“Be right back.” I smile and move in the direction of the kitchen, dragging the sword behind me. The tip sings as it slides along the ground, leaving a trail of blood and drawing sharp, silver sparks.
“After you’re done with Maryanne and Trish, is that it?
” Scarlett asks, bare feet padding across the floor behind me.
I’ve never liked having a person at my back (for obvious reasons), but her presence is both comforting and heartbreaking.
I whirl around, blood droplets splatting against the wall as they sling off the edge of the blade.
She raises a brow at me. “No other surprises that you set in motion? No chance of someone worse showing up at the front door while we’re here? ”
“Both Jonas and Chet are attending a political rally in DC.” I reach out a hand to touch her face.
She lets me, which is a gift in and of itself.
I play with the seam of her lips and she sucks my thumb between them.
I groan and let my head fall back as Scarlett reaches up to take my wrist, pulling my hand down.
“You won that race—through an act of God. I am God to you, Ash. Serve your tea. Pay your supplications to me by giving Widow this gift. Then we’re leaving and you’re coming, too. You will never leave my side again without permission. Death included.”
With a small laugh, I turn away from her and lay my sword on the counter, leaving fresh bloodstains.
My heart is pounding so rapidly that I feel dizzy, unstable.
I want what she’s threatening so badly that I can’t think straight.
My very presence is a threat to the person I love most. Aspen was involved in Pavel’s murder.
I am now Aspen. The mob will…You promised to be good for Scarlett. To obey Scarlett.
Giving up control, surrendering, that’s like free-falling.
I make myself busy, so I don’t get lost in the heat of Scarlett at my side.
The way she smells like my favorite soap, this sweet blend of roses and lavender and thyme.
The spot on my thigh where she pressed her high heel, there’s a fire there, born from the sweet pain.
It’s spread all the way down to my toes, into my groin.
“Ash—”
“Gyokuro is an umami rich tea. Better with sushi or something, but chocolate is nice, too.” I grab a small stack of plates and then pull out the jar of tea from Yua’s well-organized cabinet.
Before she left, Yua baked some chocolate scones for me and left them on a tray. I know she hated me at the end there, hated both Ash and Aspen because my twin did his best to make her feel that way, but I wonder if a tiny fraction of her heart still felt love for me.
“Ash.” Scarlett is unamused, but she does pick up a scone and sniff it. I take it from her hands and grab a huge bite before passing it back.
“See?” I ask after swallowing. Can’t seem to pull my eyes from hers. Free-falling. “No poison.”
She sneers at me, pushing her heavy mass of hair over one shoulder. I want my fingers in it. I want her fingers in mine. I want. I want. I want. Selfish.
“What happened, Ash?” Her voice catches and I go still, halfway to spooning dried tea into a strainer. I’ll make a pot for us all to share. Sent my lover an engagement ring. A week later, killed her sister. I might not be far off from Aspen after all.
“Alexis found a moment to get me alone on Thanksgiving.” I take the electric kettle out, fill it with water, and set the temperature before turning back to Scarlett.
I’m not smiling anymore. “She was talking to me like I should know so many things I had no clue about. I tried to play it off, but she could tell. Whatever Alexis had going on with Aspen, I was missing too much to be convincing. She also tried to…touch me.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that? Nothing happened. I didn’t let it. Part of the reason I got caught. Aspen never turned down a dick sucking, not from anything female. Faithfulness is a uniquely Ash quality.
“Touch you?” Scarlett’s voice is deadly, prickling with violence. If I ever slept with another woman, she would execute me. My dick twitches, and I swallow a groan. Can’t have her getting the wrong idea.
“Aspen turned her into a contact without me ever knowing. There was virtually nothing I didn’t know about him, so that surprised me.
Seems we were both capable of keeping a few secrets, even from each other.
” My words are bitter. I figured if he and I ever had any sort of connection, it was there in the knowing.
Lies. “Aspen always wanted what he couldn’t have.
You were his next planned conquest, so cozying up to your sister was an obvious move. ”
“I thought I knew everything about my sister, too.” Scarlett takes a bite of the scone. And then another. Finishes it and takes two more into her hands. “So, me inviting you to turkey day really was the worst idea ever, huh?”
She’s so fucking beautiful. My dick is leaking pre-ejac again. I’m helpless to stop it. I thought our fuck upstairs was the last one we’d ever have. Seemingly not. That is where the arousal is really coming from. Hope. Impossible, dangerous, statistically insignificant hope.
“Apparently, I missed some secret rendezvous that Alexis and I were supposed to have.” I sigh.
Playing a part is so tiresome. I hate being Aspen.
“Then she went and told my father that you, Bohnes, and Widow were harboring Alexei. Chet was already annoyed that I hadn’t taken care of you and Emma like he’d asked.
He sent those men without my consent. Worse, Jonas doesn’t trust me anymore.
He’ll figure out Bolin is missing and then he’ll definitely try to kill me. ”
I feel that anxious stirring inside of me. Fuck. I have never been so afraid in all my life and trust me when I say that I know fear intimately. I understand terror at a level that most human beings cannot comprehend. Jonas doesn’t just kill like I did with Denis. He…dismantles.
“Tying Emma to your bed, that was a creative way to solve things.” Scarlett folds her arms over that sumptuous little dress, emphasizing the smooth curves of her tits above the neckline.
She’s so jealous that the emotion radiates off of her, warming my skin.
Jealous, over me. In love with me? Possibly.
My heart races at the idea, all of that beating, thumping, doki-doki-ing.
“Playing with her at the track in front of me, even better.”
“Don’t you want to know why I burned your house down?
” I ask when the kettle plays a cute little jig to let me know it’s finished heating the water.
I pour it over the tea leaves, closing my eyes and inhaling the scent.
A tiny piece of happiness, the smell of this tea.
It feels illicit for me to indulge. Perverse.
“Because my grandma was the last holdout on the block and Chet Senior wants to build his Prescott Luxury Estates development?” She offers up a dry laugh, eyes sweeping the impressive kitchen that I never use.
If my father were to see me cooking in here, he’d make me suffer for it. Kitchens are for the help.
“Close. He wants to turn that area into a tech hub, build a bunch of data centers.” I glance up in time to see Scarlett gag.
“Data centers?” There’s a look of pure horror on her comely face. “My grandmother’s house…for a data center? That’s even worse than the paste-and-cardboard houses that Archer Realty loves so much.”
I remove the tea leaves. Gyokuro is a very sensitive tea and should only steep for about a minute. I add a small jar of honey to the tray along with the plates, some clotted cream, enough tea cups for everyone (except Trish).
Am I really getting out of here? Isn’t this house my tomb? Why is Scarlett so relentless?
“Chet and Jonas are just about done with me. Aspen. Ash. Doesn’t matter. I’m not performing the role well enough because I’m not actually taking any actions. Tonight was a last-ditch effort, a way to get them in the same room as me, so I could kill them. I’m…sorry about the fire though.”
Her hand comes out, fingers brushing my arm again. It hasn’t hit me yet what I agreed to upstairs. She knows that.
“Well. If it wasn’t you, it would’ve been some for-hire knucklehead.
” Scarlett inhales and shakes out her hands as I lift the tray in one hand and pick up the sword with the other.
“But I’ll tell you this right now: you are never going to meet with Chet or Jonas alone.
If we have to face them, we do it together. ”
Aaaaah. This is harder to deal with than the idea of dying, all this spine-chilling hope.
I stall for time by sweeping into the living room with the snacks.
I want to obey her. I said I would. It just feels so disgustingly selfish of me to want to live when my living might ruin everything.
Marrying Alexei ties Scarlett to the mob and insulates them both from Jonas.
But how to convince the mob of their sincerity if the mayor’s son is fucking the Borisov bride?
You are cordially invited, Ash.
I set the tray down on the coffee table, lifting my eyes to meet Alexei’s. Scarlett hovers behind me, shifting from heel to heel, arms crossed. I’m the focus of her attention, and I love it, even if it means having my emotions picked apart like a vulture with carrion. Rotten meat and bones.