Chapter 14 #2
“I don’t know how to make it right, Mom. Except to keep away. I know you must hate me for ignoring your calls, but you hate me anyway, so…”
I can almost see Lily shrug her shoulders.
“I’m sorry for being a coward, but I can live without knowing exactly how much you loathe me,” she says, but her voice falters.
“I don’t know what else to say. Do you want to hear about my job?
Are you interested? Well, it’s shit. The guy I trained up, and briefly allowed into my bed, has blamed all his fuck-ups on me because I dared to dump him.
And not only has Connor stolen all my best clients, but the boss thinks the sun shines out of his ass. ”
“That I can fix,” I promise Lily.
“And in other news, I’m seeing someone,” she continues. “Well, it’s more a matter of he sees me. It’s a game we like to play. He appears from nowhere, gives me the most explosive orgasms of my life, then disappears into the shadows. His name? Do you know, I haven’t got a clue.”
I swipe a finger on my laptop’s touchpad and hover over the disconnect button. I have a feeling this is a conversation I don’t want to hear. I should be grateful her mom isn’t on the other end of the line because I’d be getting destroyed by now.
“Yes, I know those are some pretty serious red flags. Did I mention he sometimes carries a gun? And he broke into my apartment.” Lily gasps as another thought strikes her. “Worst of all, he stole my chocolate.”
“Hey, I left three bars in your fridge!” I say in my defense.
“But he does look after me,” Lily adds. I swear I can hear her smiling. “I get lectures about my safety, and I had a security company contact me yesterday to arrange to have new locks installed on my front door. I like him, Mom. Even if I can’t see us having a future together.”
There’s a soft thud as she drops down onto what I guess must be her couch.
“We can’t play games forever, and I know he’s going to get bored,” she says. “Accountants aren’t exactly known for their exciting personalities. Maybe that’s why he won’t stay over. He doesn’t really want to get to know me. It’s an illusion neither of us want to break.”
My hand goes to my phone. I could message her again, but what would I say? It’s not you, it’s me? “You have no idea how much I want to spend every night with you, Lily,” I say out loud. “I love watching you, obsessing over you, worshiping you. I just don’t want you to see me.”
There’s a heavy silence that stretches all the way from Chicago to New York. And then Lily’s intercom buzzes. Lily has a delivery, and I can almost forget the fears she’s just voiced when I hear her accept a large package. She drags it into the living room.
“What the hell?” Lily asks.
Who needs a camera when she can give me a running commentary. I picture her face scrunched in puzzlement as she rips the box open. There’s rustling as the inner packaging is removed, and then Lily laughs.
“You have to be kidding me, Shade!”
Lily rifles through the hamper I’ve sent for her girls’ night in with Kaitlyn. It contains two fluffy robes, face masks, wine, and the popcorn I promised. I like that she immediately knew the gift was from me.
Her laugh tells me she’s found the note I sent. “Stay in. I’m watching you,” she reads. “Well, if you are spying on me, Shade, watch this.”
I can’t quite decide what hand gesture she’s just made, but just as I start to feel smug, a sob tears from Lily’s throat and my blood runs cold.
“Don’t start being nice to me,” she cries. “I don’t deserve nice.”
It’s the first time I’ve ever been in Alice’s New York apartment, and it’s as cold and impersonal as I imagined, although I suspect the room her housekeeper directed us to is rarely used.
There are no personal touches, no family photos, no private items or files on the bookshelves.
The Emersons are well aware of my reputation, and even in this time of supposed reconciliation, Alice isn’t affording me the opportunity to spy.
“I should plant a bug in here just to give them something to find when they do a sweep of the room later,” I tell Ash. I don’t keep my voice low. If Alice is listening in as part of a counter move, let her hear.
Ash rests his back against the leather armchair and crosses his legs. “Think before you speak today, Mace,” Ash says. “This meeting could benefit all parties.”
I put my feet up on the low coffee table and stretch my arms across the back of the couch. “Except the Russians.”
Before Ash can respond, there’s a click of a door opening behind me. I don’t turn around, or take my feet off the table as the shuffle of steps grows nearer.
Alice comes into view, impeccably dressed in a Chanel two-piece.
Her deep brown hair is perfectly styled with no sign of grey to betray her age, but her heavy makeup can’t disguise how far her body has been ravaged by cancer.
Time has caught up to the woman I thought was made of stone to match her heart.
The facade of immortal power crumbles in front of my eyes as Alice takes measured steps while a nurse supports her arm. She’s human after all.
As she’s helped into an armchair, I glance at Ash. If he’s as shocked as I am, he won’t let it show either.
Alice waits until we’re alone. “Thank you for coming.”
My feet thud against the rug as I sit up and rest my elbows on my knees. I haven’t taken my feet off the table out of respect. Her voice is barely a whisper and I have to lean closer just to hear.
“I am, however, disappointed that Hunter hasn’t deigned to join us,” she continues, her true nature revealing itself. “I had hoped he would appreciate how important this is.”
“To who?” I ask. “You?”
The hollow at her neck deepens as she takes a breath. I’ve annoyed her already. I didn’t expect it to be so easy. “Yes, Mason, it’s important to me. Your mother,” she scolds.
“Thanks for the reminder,” I reply. “It’s so easy to forget I came out of your vagina.”
Alice tenses at my vulgarity, and turns to Ash. “Did Petra offer you refreshments?”
“We’re all good,” he says. “This doesn’t need to take long.”
She reaches for the glass of water the nurse has left on a side table. “I presume you’ve given some thought to what I asked of you at the gala?”
“You think we needed time to decide if we’d welcome Barrett into our family with open arms?” I ask. I’d almost forgotten her dying wish. “I guess you didn’t hear Hunter promising to kill him once you were dead and buried.”
“What I do recall is your unprovoked attack on one of our most trusted employees,” she hits back. Despite her frailty, she isn’t shying away from a fight.
“Ray?” I mock.
“Can we get this conversation back on track?” Ash says. He doesn’t look at me, but I hear the warning. The less we say about the traitor in the Emerson’s camp, the better.
“Thank you, Asher,” Alice says. Her features soften, and her eyes turn glassy.
“Time isn’t on my side, I’m afraid. This could be the last time we have together.
” She takes a sip of water, her gaze never leaving her firstborn.
“I want you to know that it was hardest of all to leave you, knowing you’d always remember me in your life. It can’t have been easy.”
I curse myself when I feel my eye twitch. I always suspected she’d never given me a second thought when she left, but it’s still a surprise to hear her admit it.
She’s still focused on Ash. “I just want to say that I’m proud of the man you’ve become.”
“No thanks to you,” I interject. I know I’m supposed to behave, but fuck it, Alice brings out the worst in me.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Mason,” she retorts.
“Leaving your father was the best thing I could have done for all of you. I knew Lisa was waiting in the wings, so I didn’t need to worry about your care, but I’d like to think that my absence gave you the push you needed to stand on your own two feet. ”
I laugh out loud, but not in the way that Lily sometimes makes me laugh. My chest remains tight, and my jaw aches with tension. “In case it slipped your memory, I was a baby. I hadn’t learned to walk when you abandoned us.”
“It’s a turn of phrase, Mason,” she replies, her eyes as cold as mine. “I made you. Never forget that.”
“I’ll tell you what I’ll never forget,” I say. “The day I realized it wasn’t normal for a kid to call their mom by her first name. It was when Reid was born and everyone suddenly started referring to Lisa as his mom.”
I glance to Ash, knowing his gaze is fixed on me.
The crease between his eyebrows has deepened ever so slightly, and it’s the smallest tell that I’ve shocked him.
We don’t normally share our innermost thoughts, and I’ve never spoken of the day my dad and Lisa brought Reid home from hospital, not to anyone.
I don’t know what’s happening to me lately.
All I do know is that I’d much rather be with someone else right now.
“What do you want from me, Mason?”
“A show of remorse would be nice,” Ash says, answering her so I don’t have to. He waits a beat. “But maybe save your breath, Alice. We’re not under any illusion it would be genuine, and that’s not why we’re here.”
“Then why have you come?”
“There’s only one reason we ever speak to you,” he explains. “Business.”
“And there’s only one reason you speak to us,” I add. “Barrett.”
Alice takes another sip of water. It trembles in her hand. “I’m listening.”
“When we met at the gala, you mentioned Barrett was being targeted by the mafia,” Ash says. “We know the family involved and you’re right, he caused major disruption to one of their distribution networks.”
Alice sits straighter, coming to life for the first time. “So, you can help him?”
“If Barrett had half a brain, and had tried to appease his new-found enemy, we could have done something,” I reply. Not that I would have personally lifted a finger, but Ash has higher morals than me. “But unfortunately, the prick seems to think his enemy’s enemy can be his friend.”
“He’s in deep with the Russian Bratva, Alice,” Ash continues.
“I know he’s made new allies,” she offers, as if an alliance with the Russians were that simple.
Ash shakes his head. “Did you also know that Barrett is happy for them to use Poulton Springs as a hub for human trafficking.”
“I imagine something like that will lose him his friends in high places,” I add. “He’s not going to be as protected as he thinks.”
Alice’s eyes bounce between us as we deliver each blow. Suddenly, the alliance doesn’t look so appealing to her. “Then you have to stop it. My son needs–”
“Your son?” I interject. We might have a plan, but why make it easy on the dying woman?
“Your…” Her words die on her lips before the conversation can turn full circle to the one started at the gala. Barrett isn’t, nor ever could be considered our brother.
“Why didn’t you stop him?” Ash asks.
She shakes her head. “I tried to get him to abandon the entire site in Poulton Springs, but my position on the board isn’t what it was.
And this isn’t exactly something that’s appearing on the books.
This is a private arrangement, and Barrett’s convinced his connection with the Russians will strengthen his position. ”
“I can promise you it won’t be long before Barrett feels decidedly powerless,” says Ash.
Despite the makeup, Alice has noticeably paled. “I’ll speak to him again. Now that I know the full facts.”
“Unfortunately, it could be too late,” he says. “You don’t simply back out of deals with the Bratva.”
Alice’s gaze is pleading when she adds, “Is there nothing you can do to help?”
My brother looks to me. And waits.
“There is one option,” I say. Rescuing Barrett doesn’t sit well with any of us, but I take some small satisfaction that Alice’s least favorite son is the one to offer a way out. “We take on the coming war.”
“You’d do that?”
For Alice and Barrett? That would be a hard no.
“We don’t seek out trouble, but where human traffickers are involved, we’re happy to make an exception,” I explain.
“But to be clear, that doesn’t mean we’re about to unite forces with Barrett.
We’re simply stepping in to take control of the situation. ”
“And to do that, we need you to transfer ownership of the property in Poulton Springs over to us. Barrett won’t be getting his new house, but he does get to live.”
“Consider it done,” Alice says.
And it’s as simple as that.
There are no hugs or emotional goodbyes. Alice is too distracted as she prepares to exert what little authority she has over Barrett one last time, and Ash and I need to get back to our brothers so we can prepare for the storm that’s coming.
Ash is convinced John McConkey will come through for us once we take on the fight as our own.
And if we gain control of the property, John gets his asset back.
It’s a win-win for everyone except the Bratva, although I doubt Barrett will see it that way.
Alice is going to have her work cut out, and the transfer of ownership won’t happen overnight. For now, it’s just a waiting game.
Refusing to let my conversation with Alice play on my mind, I decompress on the flight home by stirring up trouble elsewhere. Connor hurt my girl, and that’s a crime that isn’t going to go unpunished.