Enjoying Trouble (Trouble #3) (18 page)

Starting with my mother.

I nodded to the doorman as he opened the entrance door for me and I strode in. My knuckles were aching as I pressed for the lift and swiped the card to get access. I needed to ice them upstairs. It didn’t take long to arrive inside the penthouse where soft music was playing through hidden speakers.

My mother stepped into the main room to greet me, a martini glass in her hand. Her silk robe was slightly open, her black lingerie showing underneath. She had obviously started to entertain her company before I had arrived. I looked away and strode into the kitchen to get some ice. Her boldness with her sexuality only made me dislike her more but I guess you didn’t get to own the city’s highest paid, underground, secretive sex club without some boldness.

“How are you, Will?” she asked, following me through to the kitchen.

“Why did you fire Janey?” I asked.

“I didn’t think she was the right fit for Disclosure.”

“You are kidding me, right?” I asked cocking an eyebrow. “She was perfect for the job and going well according to Jake.”

“Jake is too busy with other parts of the club to know how she was really going. I made a decision and that’s that.”

“What’s really going on here?”

“I have no idea what you mean?”

“Stop trying to play with me, mother. I’m the son that doesn’t get fed on your bullshit, remember? Be honest with me; why did you get rid of her?”

“If you must know - I don’t like her.”

“You don’t even know her.”

“I know enough, Will; she’s not right for the club or for you.”

“Since when do you have a say on what’s right for me?” I asked.

“I’m your mother and it’s my right to make sure you make the right decisions.”

“My decisions have nothing to do with you. Haven’t had anything to do with you for a long time. Why the sudden interest in Janey?”

“She clearly has a mental illness and I don’t like her being around you.”

“She was in rehab, not a mental hospital.”

“She doesn’t treat you right. You need a woman to support you and be with you in the – ”

“Excuse me if I’ve entered the Twilight Zone here, but where do you get off even knowing how Janey treats me? How is it any of your business? Leave your controlling desires to your other offspring, not me.”

“She’s bad news.”

“And so are you, but that doesn’t stop you from doing what you like.”

“I resent that. I am not a bad person.”

“And neither is Janey. Reinstate her job.”

“Why is this girl so important to you?”

“Reinstate her job.”

“Well you are the part-owner, so you can reinstate her I guess.”

“And you control the strings on Jake the puppet. Tell him to reinstate her.”

She let out a sigh and sipped her martini, leaving me to wait a moment for her decision. It was a boardroom tactic, to leave them waiting, gaining control of the situation even if you were giving in.

“Fine.”

“Good. And you will also forget she exists and never try to control any part of my life again.”

“She will be your downfall.”

“I’m big enough to worry about myself now, aren’t I?”

“Did she come to you, telling you about losing her job?” she asked.

I frowned, “No, I went to the club and found out for myself. Janey’s been too busy getting into a car accident because her brake lines were most likely cut. Know anything about that?”

She sipped her martini and then said, “I don’t like the girl but I wouldn’t try to kill her, would I?”

“I wouldn’t put anything past you, mother.”

“Well, I hope she’s okay.”

“Someone is messing with her and I’m out to find them. First there were the slashed tyres, then she was fired from her job, then a car accident that she was lucky to survive from and now dead roses being delivered to her at hospital. Someone is working awfully hard to mess with her.”

She took another sip of her martini and asked, “Are you implying that I have something to do with all that?”

“Do you?” I asked.

“I am not going to even answer that,” she said, placing her now empty martini glass on the marble bench.

“The guilty usually say that.”

“Believe what you want to believe Will, but I refuse to even discuss this further,” she said walking out of the kitchen.

“One more thing before I leave,” I called out after her. She stopped and waited. “I want details on my father.”

She looked down at the floor for a moment and then braced her shoulders. “I don’t have any.”

“I don’t believe you,” I returned.

“You were a one night stand Will, I’ve told you this.”

“And I think you know who it is. Why the big secret?”

“Why are you bringing this up again? It’s been years.”

“I want to know about him, surely that’s my right?” I asked.

She turned back to look at me. “Maybe he doesn’t want you to know about him.”

“And why would that be? Is he in jail? A celebrity? What?”

“He’s a nobody,” she said. “Leave it at that.”

I watched her walk away and shook my head. “This isn’t over,” I called out to her.

I heard a door close and then silence, other than the music playing in the main room. I threw the ice pack in the sink and walked out of the kitchen. I looked around the main room and then out to the early morning city. She had so many secrets that I would never be able to find all of the answers. She hadn’t got to where she was today by being soft. I heard muted voices coming from the bedroom and headed over to her office. If she wasn’t going to be forthcoming with information, maybe I would find it myself. I slipped into the room and started looking through her desk.

She kept it all pretty clear so I went through the desk drawers. The bottom one was locked so without any hesitation, I grabbed a paperclip from the desk and starting to pick the lock. I unlocked it and pulled it open to find some slim folders inside. I pulled them out and flipped them open on the desk.

              Janey’s name stared back at me. I frowned and read further to see it was the hospital report from her rehab stay. What the hell was my mother doing with this? I quickly folded it and shoved it in the back pocket of my jeans and then opened the next folder. Zac’s juvenile detention record was next. What the hell? There were photos in the next one with a USB stick. Photos of Janey: some with me, others of her walking along the street, in her car.

I leaned over the desk and took a deep breath. Cold fury travelled through my veins. My mother was behind everything; this information proved it. I shuffled it all together and then yanked her laptop from the desk as well. I needed to take it all and figure this out at home. I angrily cleared her desk with my free hand, pushing notes, a phone and files to the floor. I kicked over her chair and then upturned her desk.

“Will!”

I looked up and glared at my mother with fury.

“You’re the one fucking with Janey!” I growled.

“I didn’t do those things you said,” she said.

“What’s going on?” asked a voice, its owner sticking his head in to the room, his hand touching my mother’s waist.

“None of your fucking business,” I growled.

“You’re making her upset, so it is my business,” he returned, standing in his boxers.

“Are you even legal age?” I shouted in exasperation. “Go back to bed and fuck yourself.”

“Will, calm down,” said my mother, soothing her lover by rubbing his chest.

“Are you trying to kill her?” I asked.

“No. I just want her away from you,” she said putting her hand out to calm me.

“I’ll call security,” said the lover.

“Call security and I’ll feed you your own dick,” I snarled.

“Go and wait for me in the room,” said my mother calmly. The guy stood there, staring at me.

“Move it,” I said striding over to him. My mother moved away from the door quickly, as did her lover as I came barging through. He moved and started to walk backwards, knowing he was no match for me.

“Just calm down, we can discuss this,” said my mother.

I spun around to her. “What have you done to Janey?”

“Nothing, it was just the job,” she answered.

“What else!” I shouted angrily.

“I stopped her access to your apartment,” she added.

“What?! Why the fuck would you do that? That’s my place! What else? Did you get someone to slash her tyres?”

“No.”

“Cut her brake lines?”

“No.”

“What else!”

“I made sure they barred you from visiting her in rehab.”

More shock swirled through me. Janey hadn’t stopped me from seeing her; my own fucking mother had.

“You had no right!”

“She’s bad for you! I didn’t want her near you, so I warned her away.”

“How did you warn her away? You’re not one to give empty threats.”

“That I would have her institutionalised if she continued to be with you.”

“For fuck’s sake!” I growled, fury boiling up inside me.

There was a shout and then I was hit from behind. The knock made me stumble slightly before I swung around and smacked him in the face. His body flung back into the wall behind him and then he slumped down to the floor. One handed, I had knocked my mother’s lover to the ground. Still holding onto the laptop and files, I turned back to her.

“This ends now. You don’t go near Janey ever again.”

“She’s – ”

“It ends now!” I shouted.

“Fine,” she said, her hands on her hips, clearly not happy to agree to my conditions. The lift door opened and two security men walked in. I braced myself for more fighting before my mother pointed to the body slumped on the floor.

“Clear him away, he may need a hospital,” she said.

I watched her walk away from the scene, without another glance at me. I headed to the lift and pressed for the ground floor.

Present

Janey

I headed outside the hospital the next morning with Ava by my side. I was bruised and had a few stitches but I was relieved to be out and heading home. I looked forward to my own bed and maybe something to eat; I hated hospital food.

“Let’s get some burgers on the way home,” I said.

“Sure,” said Ava leading me over to a waiting limo.

“What’s this?” I asked, stopping and not going any further.

“Transport care of Will. Let’s go,” she said opening the door and motioning to me to get in.

“I probably shouldn’t. Can we get a cab?”

“Are you for real?” asked Ava with a laugh, before stopping as she took in my face. “Will’s not in there if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I shook my head and said, “It’s not that.”

“He wants only the best for you,” she said quietly.

“I know,” I said, feeling terrible for what I couldn’t explain to her. “But we’re going back to our place right?” I only hoped Will’s mother didn’t find out that I was travelling in one of her limos.

“Yes,” said Ava, tilting her head to the side and watching me. “What if we weren’t going back home?”

              “Don’t worry,” I said, climbing in slowly, still aching from the accident. Ava followed me in and closed the door behind her.

“So, you know how we’re best friends and don’t keep things from each other?” she asked as the limo started to drive away. I nodded and leaned my head back on the seat, masking the heavy guilt on my shoulders.

“Well, you had a delivery at the hospital from someone unknown and I told Will and then I threw it away,” she said.

“A delivery of what?”

“A dead black rose.”

“Oh, cool - just what every girl wants,” I said with a sigh. He obviously knew I didn’t have my phone with me, so a delivery was the next best thing.

“This is serious, Janey; someone is obviously trying to hurt you or mess with your head. Do you have any idea on who it could be?”

“Yeah, at least five different people; maybe we can do a line-up.”

“Don’t joke around. You could have died last night,” she said emotionally.

“But I didn’t,” I said touching her hand and gently squeezing it. “I’m here and they failed.”

“Which means they will try and do something else. How can you be so calm?”

“Because I think I know what’s triggering their actions and if I stop what I’m doing, everything will be fine.”

“
What
will you stop?” she asked with a frown.

“Being around Will,” I replied, looking out of the window.

“You think it has something to do with him?”

“I know it has. I stop being around him, my problems will stop.”

“Says who?”

I let out a sigh and then decided to break my own rules. She was my family, my best friend and I could no longer shoulder my doomed reality by myself.

“His mother,” I said looking at her. “But this stays between you and I.”

“What? Why? Do you think she would do those things?”

“Her and her minions,” I sighed. “She wants me out of Will’s life and will do anything to get it.”

There was silence as we both processed the information.

“Will needs to know,” said Ava quietly.

“No, he can’t know,” I said shaking my head. “I need to sort this out myself and you can’t tell him or my nosey brother.”

“Your life is in danger. They are already trying to find the people responsible for this. You can’t leave them in the dark, you need – ”

“No. They can’t know.”

Ava sat back in her seat and closed her mouth, clearly frustrated with my decision.

“Who has my phone?” I asked next.

“One of the boys took it last night.”

I closed my eyes, wondering if they had seen any messages pop up on it yet. If they even existed outside the realms of my mind that is.

“There is so much you’re not telling me,” said Ava shaking her head. “I’m so angry, Janey. If our roles were reversed, you would have beaten it out of me by now.”

“You just have to let me work this out,” I returned.

“No,” she stated. “You have five family members who would do anything to help you. Anything. You can’t keep all this to yourself; it’s unfair to all of us, especially Will who has been heartbroken over a decision that you haven’t even made yourself, now that I know the truth.”

I looked out the window, trying to ignore the emotion that wanted to escape from inside of me.

“I need to do this by myself,” I whispered.

“That’s no longer an option.”

I gritted my teeth and steeled myself, ready for an argument.

“While you’re not sharing your secrets, I’ll share one of mine - Will found his father,” she said next.

My head turned to her sharply, as I processed her statement.

“He found out the other night that his father is really his boss at work.”

“Oh my God. That’s why he had needed me the other night, and I ruined everything as usual. So, what happened?”

“Nothing. His father doesn’t know he knows yet. He’s been sworn to some sort of contract secrecy from his mother. His
step
half
-brother reached out to him apparently.”

I let out a big sigh and felt my head swirl. Will had been going through his own hell and I hadn’t been able to help him. I wanted to call him right away and be with him but I knew I couldn’t. Who knew what was in store for me next? We arrived at our house and I climbed out of the limo. Ava went on ahead of me, unlocked the front door and opened it for me.

“Zac’s obviously downstairs,” she said while closing the door behind me.

“I’ll see him later; I need to go up to my room and sleep anyway,” I said, starting to climb the stairs. I was suddenly exhausted and feeling at a loss with my situation.

“You need a drink or anything?”

“No, I’m good,” I said, feeling a little shaky.

“Let me know if you need anything,” she said.

I stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down to her. “Talk later,” I offered.

She nodded, unsuccessfully hiding the hurt in her eyes.

“I love you. Don’t forget that,” I said, emotion swelling up inside me again. “But this is me, remember; I destroy things, I hurt people.”

“The real Janey doesn’t,” she said with a smile. “Go and get some sleep.”

I turned around before her words started to make me cry and reached my bedroom door. I opened it and went inside and then gasped. Will was sitting up on my bed, his back against my bed frame, a laptop in front of him.

“How you feeling?” he asked.

“Okay,” I said softly, closing the door behind me and then leaning against it. “You shouldn’t be here.”

I looked him over, sitting back casually on my bed with his ankles crossed. He watched me take my fill of him in silence. He used to be all mine. That hurt the most right now; talking in past tense. He had to go, before anything bad happened again.

“So, before I forget, here’s your new key card to access the penthouse,” he said, pulling out a card from his pocket and placing it on the bedside table. My eyes filled with tears again as I searched for something to say. Did he think my card no longer worked? Or did he know that I had been barred?

“You’ve got your job back too, for when you’re back on your feet and at a hundred per cent.”

“What have you done?” I whispered to him.

“Here’s the key to the Maserati as well; it’s parked at my place. Use it whenever you like,” he said placing the key on the bedside table next to the card. “Your car is a write-off, obviously and you’ll need something to get you around. If it’s too big or you want something else, just let me know. I’ve got the Mustang too.”

“Will..,” I said.

“You know, we’ve been pretty honest with each other since we met all those years ago. It’s just one part that I love about us.”

“Will.”

“But the moment your life is in danger, you decide to keep it from me,” he continued.

“So you know everything?”

“That my mother has tried her hardest to keep us apart? Yeah.”

I closed my eyes in despair. I didn’t actually know what that meant for me now, but I felt an instant relief regardless. There was a certain satisfaction of sharing the burden and releasing the lies and pain.

“I want you to answer me honestly right now,” he said.

I swallowed and opened my eyes. “Okay.”

I watched him get off the bed and stand up.

“Did you want me to visit you in rehab?”

“Every day,” I whispered.

“Did you have plans on still being with me after it?”

“Yes.”

He started to walk over to me.

“Did you want to jump me that night on the couch?”

I hid a tearful smile. “Yes.”

“Was our sex yesterday the best you’ve ever had?”

I started to cry and laugh at the same time. “Yes.”

He reached me and touched my face with his hand. He wiped the tears on my cheek with his thumb and looked into my eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, leaning into me, his forehead gently touching mine. “To think that I could have lost you forever is making me crazy and the fact that my own mother had something to do with it just makes the madness intolerable.”

“I wanted to tell you but she was going to have me committed,” I cried softly.

“I will never let that happen,” he said taking my face in both of his hands. “I promise. You are my mine; I’m going to keep and hold on to you forever.”

I let out a sob and then let the tears fall freely.

“I’m going to keep you safe and very, very happy,” he added.

I smiled through my tears.

“No more lies or withholding the truth, okay? You and I have always been a team; we do this life together from now on.”

I nodded and then his lips were on mine. He pulled me gently towards him and then his arm was around me, holding me to him. As his lips kissed mine, I was encased within his powerful body and I felt like I was finally home.

“I won’t lose you again. I want this. Us. Forever,” he said, kissing me sweetly.

His words soothed every little segment of angst I had left in me, until I thought of her. “What about your mother?”

“She’ll never mess with you again,” he said, touching my cheek and softly tracing my black eye.

“She tried to kill me.”

“She denies involvement with the tyres and brake incidents, but she knows she needs to stay away now. You’re a part of me and she needs to get over herself.”

He traced my face and then near the stitches in my head.

“Are you in pain?”

“I’m okay, just exhausted. I must look a right mess,” I said leaning into his chest.

“My hot mess,” he said kissing the top of my head, careful not to go near the stitches. I smiled into his chest, liking the sound of being his anything. Just having him hold me now was bliss.

“You need rest,” he said taking my hand and leading me over to my bed.

“I need to get out of these clothes,” I said feeling all shades of seediness.

He sat me down on the bed and started to take my boots off, slowly, one at a time, taking care. My socks were next and then my jeans as he knelt down in front of me. He paused at the bruises on my legs and frowned as he gently traced them too.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you,” he said leaning down and kissing my bruised thigh.

“Pushing myself away from you constantly already felt like I was losing you each and every time,” I whispered.

“I wish you could have said something, even at rehab. I know Ava was always there, you should have told her. I lost my shit when you didn’t let me see you or even contact you. We had such promise before you had gone in and I was left reeling with the idea that you somehow hated me or blamed me for everything.”

I shook my head and said, “She came to visit me - told me that she didn’t want me to have contact with you anymore. She signed in as a family member. I had no choice but to hear her out and then abide by her rules. She seemed to know the doctors and made it clear that she wouldn’t hesitate to get them to commit me.”

“The night you got out early, you came to my place,” he said taking the hem of my t-shirt and pulling it up and over my head. He gasped at the bruises from the seat belt across my body.

“I couldn’t stay away, didn’t want to survive the new world without you, but then she saw me with you and gave me a final warning.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said leaning in to kiss my lips.

“I hated not being able to tell you, hated being away from you, hated seeing you with other girls. I felt like attacking the girl at the festival with my fists. I wanted to cause some serious damage to her pretty face.”