A Beautiful Fate (43 page)

“Oh no, please don’t do this to me,” Andy said with nervous laughter. I ignored his plea and threw up again, then grabbed my toothbrush from next to the kitchen sink for the tenth time that day, scrubbed my mouth clean and used the last bit of my mouthwash as a chaser. I was a complete nervous wreck.

Andy came up to me and looped my arm through his, steadying me.

“Just stand with me like this for a minute, Ava.” I did as he said. My racing heart slowed and my breathing began to return to normal.

“Ari is out there waiting for you. He loves you and I know that you love him,” Andy said as he took a few slow steps towards the back door. “You look astonishing tonight, and I know you can handle anything that’s out there,” he said, and we took a few more steps through the door and out to the deck.

“All this is, is a wedding. The most important part about today is that when it’s over and the guests are gone, you will start on a road with Ari that will last the rest of your life.”

He had talked me down the deck, right up to the aisle. I focused on what he was saying and squeezed his arm with all of my strength. Through the fog that had wrapped itself around my mind, I could hear the music playing and I could see faces turned in my direction, but I ignored them and just listened to Andy, still talking and leading each step we took. When we were at the home stretch, he said over and over again, “It’s just Ari, don’t worry; it’s just Ari.”

Andy took my hand and held it in his at the end of the aisle; he squeezed it, and then kissed me on the cheek.

“There, see?” he said looking up at the man before me – “it’s just Ari.” I nodded my head and smiled at Andy. He had done it. I was there, in front of our gathered friends and family, and there was just the two of us – Ari and myself. Andy placed my hand into his son’s hand and all my nervousness immediately drifted away.

A small gasp escaped my lips when our minister began to conduct the ceremony in French. August translated the most important parts so as not to exclude our guests, but for the most part our ceremony was incredibly private and beautiful. Ari had clearly been behind this detail because he knew exactly what to say and when to say it. When it was finally time, Ari wrapped his arms around me, held my body tight, and kissed me the way a husband kisses his wife. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause and my cheeks turned pink.

Aggie and Andy found us after the ceremony and I threw my arms around Andy’s neck and thanked him. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye.

“Are you going to be okay?” His voice was full of concern.

“Yes, thank you, Andy.” I then hugged Aggie and thanked her again for the support and love she had given me in the morning. Once his parents walked away to join the other guests, Ari turned and looked at me perplexed.

“What was that all about?”

“Nothing,” I replied. “Just that I was in desperate need of a mom and dad today and yours were there for me.”

Ari kissed me on the temple.

“We will always be here for you, Ava.”

We greeted our wedding guests with hugs and kisses on the cheeks. Emily, Viola and Sophie had come, along with several of Ari’s friends from DPI. Margaux and a few of her respected colleagues and close friends were in attendance. Collin, Nick’s friend, had come and congratulated Ari. In all the time since I first saw him, he had never spoken to me, and he didn’t say anything at the wedding either.

Karen, Mia’s mom, had made the journey from Chicago and seeing her brought on a fleet of emotions. I hugged her tightly, thanked her for coming and somehow managed not to break down and weep at the thought of my dear friend, Mia. The evening passed by in a blink, August and Rory both gave speeches and I am pretty sure they were trying to outdo one another in the number of laughs they received, but in the end they each had very sweet things to say.

I had put Ari in charge of picking our wedding song. It may be possible that he loves music just as much if not more than I do and I knew that our song had been a very important detail to him to consider. He took my hand, there under the canopy of twinkling lights, and led me onto the wooden dance floor. He held me close and we were greeted by a live acoustic performance of “Pink Moon,” the very same people we had seen perform the song together the fall before.

“Oh Ari, this couldn’t be more perfect. I love you.”

“I love you more.”

Ari held me in his arms all night and we swayed back and forth to the music; kissing softly more than dancing, really. The stars were shining bright above us when Ari took me by the hand and began gradually weaving us in and out of the crowd of wedding guests. When he finally found a clearing, he picked me up, cradled me in his arms, and started down the strip of beach towards our home. I peeked behind him and saw a gathering of smiling faces, some giggling at our departure and I buried my face shyly into Ari’s shoulder.

The butterflies in my stomach were beating their wings restlessly while Ari carried me up the steps and through the door. I closed my eyes to suppress the nerves. He carried me through our home, down the hall and finally set me down again in front of our bedroom door. We stopped there and kissed. Our kisses were delicate and soft. I could feel his hands run up my bare back and my stomach did somersaults. His fingers stopped at the top of my wispy straps, the only thing keeping my dress tied to the rest of my body.

Our kisses became deeper and more frantic and I moved my fingers to the buttons on his shirt. I let out a breath and my nerves vanished. They were quickly replaced with desire. Ari grabbed the door handle, pushed the door open, and pulled me in with him. I pulled his shirt off his shoulders and ran my fingers down his chest, towards the button on his pants. His eyes fluttered closed at my touch and when they opened, they were dark and full of need.

Ari slid the tiny straps of my dress from my shoulders and the dress rippled down into a puddle of silk at my feet.

“Oh, my God, Ava, you are so beautiful,” he said, and his voice was rough and deep. The eagerness became overwhelming. Ari pulled me onto the bed and climbed on top of me, his hands settled on either side of my head. He stopped kissing me for a moment and looked me in the eyes and suddenly I was filled with surprise, pain and pleasure all at once. I gasped and Ari stilled.

“Are you ok, Baby?”

“Yes,” I whispered. I was more than okay. We whispered, “I love you” to each other in between breathless gasps. Ari grabbed my body tight and held me close so I could feel his heartbeat. I ran my hands down his back. He was sweet, gentle and loving. My body melted with the desire. We were covered in a sultry sheen. His hands were knotted fists in my hair. My lips were pressed firmly against his. When I felt like I was going to explode with the pleasure, I dug my fingernails into his bare back and bit down on the corner of his bottom lip to keep myself from screaming out. Ari made a muffled moan into my mouth.

Our breathing slowed and he tucked me into his side, his arms wrapped around me. Ari wiped a tiny amount of blood from his bottom lip and kissed me softly on my forehead. I was completely drained. I felt my consciousness begin to fade.

“Goodnight, Mrs. Alexander.”

“Mmm,” I mused and fell asleep.

Chapter 26

When I awoke in the morning, I was wrapped up in Ari; the sun was flooding our new bedroom with light. I had not noticed one detail about the room the night before due to my preoccupation with the details of Ari as Husband. Our bedroom was clearly the best room in the house. Our bed, a four-poster king-sized fluffy bed, was draped by Ari’s traditional huge overstuffed blankets and graced by matching pillows. Our sheets were softer than silk. The total effect was what I imagined sleeping on a cloud in heaven would be like. I spied a walk-in closet across the room and next to it the door to the master bath. Ari’s great bedroom chair from next door, my personal favorite piece of furniture, had been moved over to a corner in our room. Stacks of his books and mine were piled up next to it.

The furniture was an eclectic mix of both vintage and modern. There was an old dressing table with a very large mirror above it. On the dressing table was a huge bouquet of our wedding flowers in a clear-glass vase. Flanking the bed were unmatched bedside tables. Ari’s was masculine and mine was sweet and dainty. Each was adorned with a glass vase of more white anemone flowers. A bench at the foot of our bed was embellished with a soft looking throw blanket and more decorative pillows. The window offered a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean, and hanging on the wall behind the bed were the photos Aggie had taken of Ari and myself sleeping. The room was perfect and I was completely at peace.

“Good morning, Sweet Ava,” Ari said sleepily. I got one good look at his lip and my eyes grew huge.

“Oh, my gosh, Ari, I am so sorry.”

Ari gave me a beautiful laugh.

“That’s nothing,” he said as he sat up and turned so that his back was visible. Scratch marks stretched from his neck down his shoulder blades. I covered my face with my hands but Ari quickly pulled them away. He had a smile stretched across his face.

“Believe me Ava, last night was amazing.”

My cheeks flushed.

“Yeah, it was,” I admitted sheepishly.

Ari moved me on top of him.

“Care to try it again?”

I giggled and we spent the rest of the morning in bed.

****

Since many of our guests had come from out of town, we planned to host a goodbye dinner at a restaurant in Laguna. The dinner would be a nice way to say our thanks before our guests left for home. When Ari and I finally did decide to get out of bed, he announced that he was going to take a shower and start to get ready. I decided that, if I needed to be able to function around all of the guests and family members, I should probably get a run in.

“Ok, Baby, I love you. Remember, you hold my heart in here,” he pointed to my chest, “I can’t live without it, so please be careful and don’t be gone for too long.”

I swooned and seriously contemplated staying behind and giving up on the run for the day. But I shook my head and tried to focus, knowing a decent run would be the only way to clear the fog from my brain.

“I love you, too,” I said and stood up on my toes to kiss him. I looked at his lip again. I was fairly certain there would be a scar.

Ari had spent the week before the wedding moving our clothes over from his parent’s house, so I found my things in the closet. I threw on my favorite Cub’s tee-shirt, one that I have had since I was fourteen, and a pair of running shorts. I found the Nikes that Rory had given me for Christmas and set out for a run, shoving my ear buds into my ears.

I was stiff and sore from the night before and the lazy morning, but as I ran, I began to loosen up and stretch out. My mind kept wandering back to our wedding and our wedding night. I had a foolish, happy grin stretched across my face. I reached a secluded part of the beach about a mile and a half into my run. I turned around in the sand and began my jog home to Ari. I had
Lykke Li
playing loudly in my ears when, out of nowhere, I felt a blinding, radiating pain across the back of my head. My legs gave out, and as I fell I caught a glimpse of Kakos brother No. 6 holding a baseball bat.

No, no, no, not this. Not now.

My eyes blinked closed and I succumbed to darkness.

****

I came to feeling groggy, my head spinning. I was certain that I had been drugged. My thoughts were incoherent and jumbled. There was a dull ache all throughout my body. My eyesight was fuzzy and I blinked several times before being able to make out that I was in a dark basement of some sort. The cement floor was cold and damp. A small, rectangular window near the ceiling let in the moonlight.

The basement was empty except for a small TV plugged into a corner wall across from me. I was on the floor, my feet tied together with rope. My hands were cuffed around the pipes of a water heater and my mouth was covered in duct tape. There was nothing that hinted of escape anywhere within view.

“Ah, Ava, I was beginning to worry that you might never wake up.”

I turned my head, startled, and saw a large, middle-aged man standing before me. He was bald on top and his belly protruded somewhat over his belt. He smelled of sweat and cigars.

“No need for introductions. I’m sure you know who I am and why you are here,” he said with a slight European accent. “I am just so pleased, Ava, that I get to be the one to kill you. I cannot wait to watch you beg, plead and cry. Mostly I cannot wait to watch you die.”

His eyes twinkled with delight.

“It’s a shame, for you, that you killed my brothers. You will pay for each one of them, Ava I can assure you. Really, you would have done better to let them finish what they planned for you eight months ago. You might have been able to avoid the torture I have in mind for you now.”

My mind was going a million miles an hour. My eyes were wide. My mouth was dry and every muscle in my body was clenched tight.

I am going to die.

No. 6 took out a nine mm revolver and brushed the cold barrel against my cheek.