Inked (17 page)

Brody felt as if a white, hot knife had been plunged into his back. “You don’t love me?”

“I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“God, Avery, you really are a cold hearted bitch.”

Being called a bitch from Veronica was one thing, but having Brody call her a bitch stung. Of course she loved him, but telling him now would only complicate things further, so she said the only thing she could. “I’d like you to leave.”

Brody felt as if he were going to be sick, like his entire world had reduced to a pile of rubble in the last five seconds. “Please don’t do this,” he begged.

Avery averted her glance. She didn’t want Brody to see the tears streaming from her eyes. “Just go.”

Without speaking another word, Brody finished getting dressed. She watched him disappear into the darkness. A part of her wanted to scream at him to stop, but that would only be postponing the inevitable, so instead, she watched him walk out of her life. A few seconds later the door clicked shut. Brody was gone.

Chapter 16

A week had passed, a week of seconding guessing herself and avoiding all possible contact with Brody. Avery knew that it wouldn’t take much to change her mind, so she’d avoided him at all costs. She was doing this for Parker, or at least that’s what she kept telling herself. Yet a part of her—the tiny part deep in her subconscious that stopped her from doing stupid things—still felt uncertain.

“What do you want me to do with this?” Chloe asked, and held up the big, blue bear that Brody had won for Parker at the carnival.

Avery’s mind was flooded with memories of their day at the waterfront, and she had to force back a fresh wave of tears. Avery could feel Chloe standing behind her, but the last thing she wanted was for her sister to see her cry.

“You’re doing the right thing.” Chloe’s voice was compassionate, but forced, as if she didn’t believe her own words.

“Am I?” Avery shot back harshly. “How is taking Parker away from Brody beneficial for either of them?”

“They’ll still see each other all the time. New York isn’t that far away.”

“That’s not the point, Chloe, and you know it.” Avery stood up and stormed across the living room to where her purse sat in an armchair. She sat down in the chair and began riffling through its contents, tossing aside papers and makeup until she found the solitary piece of paper that had been weighing down her purse for months.

“What’s that?” Chloe asked curiously, and sat down on the sofa next to her.

“Parker’s birthday present from Brody.” Avery held the cheque up to the light, turning it over in her hand.

“Whoa! Since when did Brody become Mr. Money-Bags?”

Avery shrugged. It didn’t matter if Brody was the wealthiest man alive. She’d made up her mind and was sticking to it. Her family was wealthy in their own right. Avery never wanted or needed a cent of Brody’s money.

“What are you going to do with it?” Chloe asked.

In answer to her sister’s question, Avery retrieved a lighter from the inside pocket of her purse, and holding it to the corner of the cheque, she sparked it. Blue flames danced in the air as fire consumed the tiny piece of paper.

“You’re insane. You know that, right?”

“I don’t want his money.”

Chloe leaned over and picked up a folded piece of paper from the table, train tickets to New York. “You could’ve used the money for a plane ticket. Trains are so passé.”

“Parker wanted to take the train. It’s his newest fascination.”

“Five o’clock, huh?” Chloe remarked as she unfolded the paper and noted the departure time..

“Yep, only a few hours to go.” Avery looked around at the mass of boxes that littered the living room. “Are you sure you don’t mind shipping all this crap to me? It’s going to cost a fortune.”

“Hence the reason you should’ve cashed that cheque instead of burning it,” Chloe laughed, but it was a forced, half hearted laugh. Truth be told, she was going to miss her sister. A lot.

“What time is Scott dropping off Parker?”

Scott, Chloe’s husband, had begrudgingly agreed to watch the kids while the girls packed up the last of the apartment.

“He’ll be here by three.”

Avery looked at her watch. Only an hour to go.

•••••

“Don’t put that there,” Brody screamed over the roar of the chainsaw. Opening up a new shop had proved to be more work than he expected. “And don’t start painting until I give you the thumbs up.”

“Yes, boss,” a worker replied in a thick Spanish accent.

The construction provided a much needed distraction, but it didn’t make him easier to work with. For the past week he’d been miserable, barking orders at people and having a meltdown when one of them accidentally bought the wrong colored paint. And the fact that Avery hadn’t returned one of his phone calls, emails, or text messages only added to his misery.

If Brody had not felt his phone vibrate, he would never have heard it ring above the racket of drills, saws, and hammers. Slipping it out of his shirt pocket, he flipped it open and answered a little more harshly than he’d intended. “What?”

“Hey, big guy, it’s me. Tone it down a notch.”

“Sorry, Chastity, I’m kind of busy at the moment.” Chastity—Brody’s sister—was a younger, feistier, more attractive version of himself. “What do you want?”

“Have you heard back from her yet?”

One thing his sister was was blunt. “No, not yet.”

“She leaves today, doesn’t she?”

“Yes,” Brody replied. He didn’t have time for this, not today. The shop opened in a week and there was still two weeks’ worth of work to be done. The last think he wanted or needed was his little sister reminding of what he was losing.

“And you’re just going to let her leave?”

Brody ran a hand through his plaster matted hair and sighed. “What else can I do?”

“Do you love her?”

“Of course I love her. What kind of question is that?”

“Then go after her.”

“Chastity, she made her decision. Nothing I can say or do will change her mind. You don’t know Avery like I do. She’s stubborn.”

“Pot calling the kettle black,” his sister jested. “I may not know Avery, but I know you, Brody. I remember what you were like when you never heard back from her the first time. This time it’s not just the girl you’re losing. You’re losing your son too.”

Brody thought back to five years ago when he’d lost the only woman he ever really loved. It was a dark time in his life, darker than he cared to admit. And Chastity was right, there was a lot more at stake this time around. He stood to lose Avery
and
Parker, the son he’d only just begun to know. The thought was almost too much to bear.

Chastity knew by his lack of response that her brother was considering what she’d said. “Well, what are you waiting for? If you leave now, you’ll catch them at the train station.”

The watch on his wrist read four o’clock. “It’s rush hour. I’ll never make it to the train station in an hour.”

“You won’t know unless you try.”

“Are you at your computer?” he asked in a rush.

“Yeah, why?”

“I need you to check the traffic and construction reports.” Brody rushed through the shop, jumping over boxes of tiles and nearly tripping on an extension cord that had haphazardly been strung across the floor. He burst through the doors and ran towards the silver Volvo parked less than a block away. Behind him, he heard the voice of one of the workers hollering after him.

“Boss, where are you going?”

He glance over his shoulder. “I’ve got something I have to do. Make sure you lock up tonight before you leave.”

“You got it,” the worker hollered back.

With the phone cradled to his ear, Brody slid into the driver’s seat and started the SUV. Frantically, he began to punch the coordinates for the Amtrak station into the GPS unit in the dash. As he eased into traffic, the sound of his sister’s voice rang through the phone.

“There’s an accident on Tremont St
reet and construction on Essex. Bypass those and you should make good time.”

“Thanks,” he replied hurriedly. “Wish me luck.”

“Go get her, tiger.”

Brody laughed.

“Oh, and Brody?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“Love you too, sis.” Brody snapped the phone shut and swerved into the curb lane, cutting off a taxi driver and earning himself a few choice words. 

It was a race against the clock. His future with Avery and Parker hinged on how much traffic stood between him and the train station. He pressed down on the gas pedal. Yellow lights became a mere suggestion and stop signs were nonexistent. The issue wasn’t making it to the train station on time. Brody drove like a mad man. He knew he’d make it there before five o’clock. The real issue was finding them when he got there. He had no idea what train they were on other than it left at 5pm sharp.

Buses and taxis lined the front of the station. Even if he had the slightest inclination to park, he never would’ve found a spot this time of day, so instead, he waited for a taxi to pull out and pulled in behind it. Horns blared when he stepped out of the SUV and ran towards the main entrance. The road that ran along the front of the train station was a no parking zone. Already, cars began to line the road as taxis and buses tried to maneuver around the silver Volvo. But getting a ticket was the least of his concerns. Hell, he didn’t even care if he got towed.

Brody burst through the front doors of the station, taking a second to glance at his watch as he ran towards the information desk. 4:57pm. The girl at the desk looked up in shock as he approached the desk and slammed his fists down on the counter.

“Where’s the train headed for New York.”

“Pardon,” the girl stammered, taken aback by the brutishness of Brody’s demeanor.

“What platform? I need to know what platform the train for New York City is leaving from.”

A series of clicks could be heard as the girl typed frantically. “There are two leaving this evening.”

Frustrated, he narrowed it down even further for her. “What about the one leaving at five o’clock?”

Another series of rapid keystrokes followed. “They’ both leave at five, sir.”

“What platform?”

A group of onlookers stared at Brody, surprised by his loud outburst. The girl, unsure of what to say, scribbled a few words on a piece of paper and handed it to him. “These are the platform numbers.”

Brody looked down at the piece of paper. It was just his luck that they were on opposite sides of the station. He had a fifty-fifty chance of picking the right one. A feeling of hopelessness settled over him and he looked at the girl with pleading eyes. “I don’t suppose you could tell me which train she’s on if I give you her name?”

“I’m sorry, sir, we can’t give out that information.”

The girl behind the desk
felt sorry for him. He could tell by the way she looked at him. Suddenly, Brody felt bad for the way he’d snapped at her. “I’m sorry. Thank you for your help.”

“Sir,” the girl whispered, and motioned for him to come closer. “I can’t tell you what train she’s on, but I can tell you that the train departing from platform D is an express to New York City. If she’s traveling directly to New York, chances are she’d be on that one.”

“You’re a doll,” Brody replied, and ran off in the direction of Platform D. He’d never traveled by train and had to rely solely on the signs marked out with bold green letters to point him in the right direction. All around him people hurried off in different directions and the sound of trains blowing their whistles echoed loudly throughout the cavernous building.

A stitch in his side caused him to slow his pace, but he’d made it. Above him, a sign painted with a large letter D hung overhead. The only thing separating them now was the staircase leading up to the platform. Breathless, he took the stairs two at a time.

Brody reached the top of the stairs and rounded the corner, but the sight before him caused his heart to sink and rip in two. The only thing that greeted him was an empty platform and a large digital sign that hung from the wall opposite to where he stood. The time—5:04pm—flashed across it in big red numbers.

He was too late. He’d missed the one and only chance he had at stopping the woman he loved from making the biggest mistake of her life. Avery and Parker belong
ed in Boston with him, not in some cold, unforgiving city like New York. Brody did the only thing he could think of and reached for his phone. After dialing a succession of numbers, the phone rang three times and a familiar female voice answered. “Chastity,” Brody started, but a lump in his throat caused him to choke on his own words. “I’ve lost her for good.”

Inked (Short Story)

City of the Damned series:

Marked

Hellfire

Unforeseen

Forbidden

Betrayed (Coming Soon)

The Winemaker’s Dinner Trilogy:

Appetizers

Entrée

No Reservations (Prequel)