Colour Series Box Set (106 page)

Anger’s venom courses through me as I send a message to the number labeled Owen.

I need you, as a doctor. Mat said I could trust you.

I attach the location of the estate to my message and hope he comes or at least answers me.

It’s 11pm do you want me to come now?

Yes I want you to come now.

On my way. Are you okay do I need to bring something with me?

Contraceptives, and an open mind.

He doesn’t respond and I sit and wait for him to arrive. The anger turns to anxiety as I start to contemplate what lengths Harmon might go to. I won’t let him rape me, inseminate me or put a baby in me by any means. I plan to kill him, but I need that deadline to expire first because if I read the legal shit right, if he dies before then the whole company goes to Amya and I would rather save her from this shit. I will call her tomorrow and discuss this shitstorm of a clusterfuck that’s exploding around me. I dial Mathew again as I wait for Owen. I’m so angry with him now. Seething mad I growl into the phone.

“You knew all along what Callum had planned, you let me come home and walk into this. He could have raped me, kidnapped me, done anything to get what he wants and it would have been on you because you could have TOLD ME. You are like everyone in my life. I should have killed you the night I met you.”

My angry words are yelled into the abyss of his voicemail as I cut the call and collapse on the floor and weep, I let myself love him and fuck me it hurts. Love will wound you far worse than any knife or gun in this world. I long for the ability to shut these feelings away in the vault of cold ignorance. I just want to stop hurting, this love in me is agonising.

An hour later, Owen rings the bell at the gate and I press the button to open it for him, his car tyres crunch the gravel driveway as I unlock the front door. He grabs a small black backpack off the backseat and walks towards the house, he looks rough like I woke him, who am I kidding, I woke him.

“Hi,” he says with a sheepish look of guilt on his face. I suspect he knows at least part of this story already. He has what looks like bedhead and looks like morning after sex and before coffee.

“Get inside, there are people watching me all the time.” I know they will be out there letting Harmon know that I had a visitor in the night.

He steps past me and I lock the gate and door again.

“I can’t be here long, I have patient in labor so I have to get back.” I didn’t wake him, he was working. I almost feel guilty, but I don’t really because I need to protect myself from this contract.

“I don’t need you for long, I need contraception and to know some things.” I usher him into the lounge area. “Coffee?” I ask him because I need some even if he doesn’t.

“Yes please, black no sugar.” Is there any other way to drink coffee?

“So, do you know his real name, Mathew that is?” I ask as I turn the coffee machine on and push the button to make two cups.

“Yes, we have been friends since junior school.” He shakes his head and slumps his shoulders as he answers me.

“Look Avery, he came back here for Callum’s case and it was awesome to see him after years, I know what he does and I accept and understand it. He can’t plant roots. What he does is against the law and he will never stop. He’s gone and I have no idea who you are and why he has this need to keep you safe so I’m just going to say this right now. I will not tell you who he is, I’m not giving you his name or where he went.” I’m instantly irritated by him.

“I wasn’t asking you to. I just needed to know that you also knew.” I hand him coffee and sit opposite him.

“I need a contraceptive and I want a years supply of the morning after pill as the backup plan,” I tell him.

“You don’t need a contraceptive for another month, Mathew gave you a shot before he left it is good for three months. I can arrange the others for you.” He still doesn’t look me in the eye.

“He did what?” I’m confused.

“Fuck it all to hell, I might as well tell you what I know.” He puts his cup down. “You obviously know some of it already.”

“You better start talking before I start doing what I do best.” I threaten him and put my gun down next to my cup. His eyes bulge and I can see his hand shake with fear, I like that he’s afraid of me and can’t help but smile.

“Mathew knew about this whole business of you having to get pregnant, he wanted to try and keep you safe, he was even going to stay, but the guy who’s supposed to knock you up, tipped the cops off about him. He threatened him and you. He had to disappear. He told me the bits he knew and asked that if you needed help I help you and to break in here next month and inject you again.” I’m sorry Owen has been dragged into this mess, but I do need him.

“He was going to stay?” That part stood out more than anything else.

“Yes, he said he felt like he found home.” Owen sips his coffee his eyes on the gun and not me. I reach for it and he jumps a little as I get up and put it in the drawer. “He said that cops would bring attention to you, look I have no idea what it is you do but he seemed to think that it was better to just go.” I sit again and contemplate the man in front of me, he isn’t from our world, he’s a good man, a bit of an asshole but a good man. He knows nothing about me, or people like me.

“You were going to break in here for him?” I raise an eyebrow and wonder how they ever thought that would work.

“I would have done anything for him. I owe him.” I hear the sadness in his voice and I realise something despite the lies or truths.

“I owe him too.” We finish our coffee in almost silence. I watch him and I see something I missed the first time we met it was hidden behind the ego. Owen carries a deep hurt in his eyes.

“Who ripped your heart out?” I sit back relaxed in his presence now.

“Love did, she’s such a bitch.”
She—
I laugh a little.

“That she is. My uncle taught me that if you love something you should kill it before it kills you. I’m beginning to see the truth in his words more every day.” He looks genuinely shocked at my statement. I shake my head, he is not cut from the same bloodied rag as I am.

“Thank you for coming, Owen.” I’m genuinely grateful, because I know more now. I know I’m going to kill Harmon O’Reilly and I’ll love doing it.

“I will have your pills tomorrow, we can have lunch if you would like to get them from me?” I would have liked that but I cannot have Harmon knowing that I know what’s going on and seeing an OBGYN would tip him off.

“I’ll send a courier. Like I said, I’m watched all the time. I need to protect myself. Owen, tell him I understand.” He smiles and shakes his head as he stands in the doorway of my home. I do understand it in a way. I feel less abandoned and more loved than I ever have in all my life. He left to protect me, he.

“Bye, Avery.” He just puts a hand on my shoulder as he walks past me to his car.

Ignorance is a voluntary misfortune.

AVERY HAS BEEN LESS
hostile and I think being nice has started to pay off. I cannot rely on this happening naturally any longer and I have made a donation into a little white cup and have a plan to help the process along after the presidential event. I’m sure if I get her a little drunk and I can get physically close to her, I can convince her that we went to bed together. I may even go to bed with her if the doctor says it won’t affect the results of the procedure. I had no idea the female body was quite that complicated. I have even had guys checking her trash so we could learn her cycle and that date is perfect for making a baby. Women are disgusting when you down to the biology of it.

My secretary left after I let her fuck me, she was obviously too delicate to work for me anyway. The new one is better at her job, all of it. She’s better looking and more to my tastes, since I decided that there was no way to woo Avery I gave up and set my more forceful plan in motion so now I’m free to fuck the staff and anyone I want to really. I will have everything I want soon enough. I just have to convince her we had a one night stand and get her pregnant. I just hope we don’t need to try more than once because my time is running out faster than I anticipated. I don’t get it people have unwanted babies all the time and I am having no luck getting near her pants never mind getting her knocked up.

She has to be the most confusing human I have ever come across in all my days, at first I thought I would just tell her the plan and it would work but she loathes me, the open hostility may be gone but I can tell that she seethes with hate for me. I have come into her world and stolen her inheritance from her and it is hurting her. I secretly love the fact that it is, this was never her kingdom to rule she is
not
family no matter what my sad sick brother believed. I do, however understand that our child will be the purest form of monster ever born and that excites me, the possibilities for the future are endless. Callum’s genius knew no boundaries and I have to admire that. He did underestimate the level of derangement that is Avery, I have been alerted to her latest extra-curricular activities and I have to say I’m impressed at how many bodies she is stacking up. The fascination lies in who she is killing, they are not even paying jobs some of them. She is acting as some sort of saviour for the wounded souls. She is becoming weak, soft and allowing emotion to affect her—she’s going to get caught.

“What do you want, Baldini?” I answer the man’s tenth call of the day.

“You know what I want you fool.” He barks at me over the phone and I do know exactly what he wants. Revenge, he isn’t done yet. Their family has no clue when to be done.

“I’m not done getting what I need from her. We discussed this.”

“My patience won’t last forever, I’m an old man and I would like to get this done before I die, boy.” I made a deal with him, I give Avery in exchange and he leaves my family out of his vendetta. Now he is like a rabid dog with a bone. When he calls me ‘boy’ my blood pressure goes through the fucking roof and I’m reminded of my brother as I was abandoned at boarding school.
“Just behave boy, until I need you, your job is to behave.”
I think he had this plan in his head even then.

He knew he would need me. I was needed, yet my whole life I had felt useless and pushed aside. I wasn’t, he was just waiting for the right time, I am the one, the chosen one to make everything right again.

SOMETIMES IN OUR LIVES
we don’t have the faintest idea what to expect, I didn’t expect what I saw when I collected Avery from her room at the hotel on the evening of the presidents dinner. She was wearing a gown that exposed her chest and back, the black fabric highlights the vivid colours that adorn her milky white skin. The one side of her body is completely covered in tattoos, the side with her father’s blue eye, the other side is white and pure—the opposite of her heart. The beauty of the monster before me is truly breath taking and when she takes the hand I offer her, I could easily fall prey to her seduction. I see how it was easy for her to kill so many men, they never stood a chance against that. My eyes take in every inch of her, usually she’s covered and none of this exposed to anyone, I feel like she inviting me in just a little bit.

“You are so beautiful, Avery.” I manage to let the words out softly in a whisper as she takes step towards me, her hand in mine. She is the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen.

“Looks can be very deceiving, Harm, but thank you.” The villainous tone in her voice alerts me to just how difficult this might be, but I will do it by force if that’s what it takes. Tonight I am putting a baby inside her, the future of crime families and the legacy my brother wanted so badly. We walk to the lift at the end of the corridor, my eyes catch the room where things are set up for after the event and my eyes linger on the number for a second. The doors close in front of us and for a few minutes as we descend, it is just me and her. We’re looking back at ourselves in the mirror and I can see us in an alternate reality where we are the power couple in that image. The business man and the murderess, for a few minutes I think about what it would be like if I cared enough for one person to spend my life with them. To share my demons and fears instead I carry them alone. We look so normal in that reflection, a couple of young people off to a party in their finest clothes, but as she said looks are so deceiving. We are enemies beneath the surface.