The Ties that Bind (Kingdom) (4 page)

Steve watched as the women rose from the bed, making no attempts to cover their nudity. Strolling around the room they picked up discarded garments one at a time, bending here, stretching there as though putting on a display to entice him towards them. Very aware of the furtive looks they exchanged with each other, Steve continued to watch them in silence as they finished dressing.

Clothing in place the blue-eyed women turned and looked Steve up and down. For one moment, he thought one of them was assessing him, and was about to say something to him. But the moment passed in silence.

Poking her head back through the door, the second woman, looked at her friend in inquiry. “Are you coming or not?”

“I’m coming.”

Still working through the fog that clouded his mind, Steve was unable to grasp exactly what was going on. He thought their looks held pity. He dismissed the thought almost as soon as it entered his head. His level of impatience for them to be gone rising so quickly it gripped his body and tightened his muscles. Then, without a word, the woman walked out of the room following her friend, but his feeling of disquiet remained.

Chapter 4

“As referee, I say Jason number two takes the round.”

All eyes turned to the door as Steve strolled further into the kitchen, looking around at the three men. “I leave you alone for a day and your big ass brain works out a way to grow another you. What happened to that one? Don’t tell me one of your equations was incorrect?” Steve quipped, raising his chin in the direction of the dark haired man.

“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been calling you all day!”

“Sorry, man, I had a few things to work through, but that can wait – what’s going on here?”

When it became apparent to Steve that Jason had no intention of replying, the strangers stepped forward, hands extended and introduced themselves. Steve immediately recognized their names. Although somewhat reclusive, the Kingdoms were well known and respected in the hotel business. He also recognized the similarities in the men and Jason’s last names.

Knowing Jason as he did, Steve knew that it wasn’t the right time for in depth explanations on why these men were in the house. His inquiries would have to wait until he got Jason alone.

“I could eat something – please tell me the thought didn’t enter your heads to get Jason to prepare food.” Steve laughed, taking a seat beside Aviva at the table. But the outward show of his amusement was done only for effect.

“If staring boy over there can make sandwiches, it can’t be that difficult!” Jason snapped out.

Looking over at Aviva, Steve mouthed,
staring boy?
Shaking her head, Aviva mouthed back,
long story.

Maintaining an air of amused nonchalance at the situation, Steve was reeling inside. It was all changing, in a matter of hours his life had changed so much he almost didn’t recognize it.

Steve had come home with the intention of speaking with Jason. Needing to speak with the only person he had left that could help him to make some sense of the direction his life was taking. But he could see that Jason had his own demons to fight.

Watching Jason and Jake compete at building sandwiches, Steve began to withdraw into introspection. It was obvious that Jason was amongst family, a family in which he had no place. Deep in thought, Steve was only partially aware of when Aviva left the room.

He had lied, he didn’t want anything to eat. In fact, the thought of food turned his stomach. For a fraction of time, he had just wanted to be around the familiar. Only this wasn’t it. This room with Jason lookalikes wasn’t what he wanted or needed.

Feeling eyes on him, Steve became aware that someone had just spoken to him. Pulling away from his contemplation, Steve looked around the room, unsure of who had spoken.

“Are you okay?” It had been Jason who had attempted to gain his attention.

“I’m fine, everything’s fine, Jason.” Steve responded, attempting to muster up a smile that would deter three pairs of identical green eyes that were busy dissecting him.

“I think we need to go and talk.” Jason told him, ignoring Steve’s assurance that all was well.

Looking over at his friend, Steve held Jason’s eyes before his almost imperceptible nod showed his agreement. He could feel his emotions swirling around inside him and knew he needed an anchor to the familiar.

“Do you want some of these sandwiches?” Jason asked as he stood eyeing the pile of bulging misshapen slices of bread. Steve followed his gaze, his stomach turning over.

“I’m good. I think I’ll take a pass this time.” Displaying a smile that he was sure fooled no one, Steve rose from his chair, nodded to the brothers and walked out.

Walking into the office that only days before had been the scene of the most brutal display of betrayal he had ever known, Steve came to a halt and closed his eyes. Playing in his head were the voices of the two people that had meant everything to him.

Feeling Jason’s presence, Steve wiped all expression of hurt from his face and turned towards him. The men looked at each other in silence, and Jason was the first to look away from the raw emotion reflected in Steve’s gaze.

“What do you need, man? What can I do or say that will just begin to make you feel a little better?” Jason asked, walking towards his friend.

“You can’t say or do anything that will make this better, Jason.

“Talk to me.”

“About what? About the fact that my fiancée was throwing herself at my best friend, right here in this very room?”

“You know if I could change what went down, I would. But I can’t help if you don’t talk to me!”

“How are you going to help, Jason, huh… how? Are you going to kill her? Is that how you’re going to
help
?” Steve flung out question after question. Unsure of what he was saying, uncaring if he hurt Jason’s feelings or not.

“That’s not fair, and you know it!”

“Well life isn’t fair. You of all people should know that!” Steve stormed at his friend.

“This conversation is at an end. When you’re done blaming me for Hope’s shit, you know where to find me.”

“Well thank you, Mr. Almighty Jason King, oh magnanimous one.”

“I’m going to ignore your shit because I know you’re going through it right now. But please believe I’m sorry that any of this happened.”

“Yeah, well I’m sorry too. Why don’t you go back to the kitchen and join the new additions? Oh, I forgot you’ve got choices. In one fell swoop you’ve found yourself an identical and a spare brother, and no, I didn’t forget about Aviva. Well, I’m happy for you, son. So, why don’t you go take your pick of who to spend time with, and leave me the hell alone!”

“You can be as angry at me as you like. I can find a thousand long lost brothers, but you are, and will always be the man I
choose
to be my brother. No one and nothing will ever change that.”

Jason’s words pulled at Steve, and he wanted nothing more than to respond in kind. But something inside stopped him. He knew Jason didn’t deserve the way he was treating him but all his pent up emotions needed an outlet, and Jason was it. So he remained silent.

“Steve, if you need me… for anything, at any time. Just call me and I’ll be there.”

Steve turned his back to Jason, wanting to accept his friends comfort but unable to do it. His mind still a jumble of their voices, Jason and Hope’s. Their voice, their words spiralling around and around in his head without end, making it impossible to distinguish who was saying what.

The click of the door told him he was again alone with his thoughts, and the knowledge scared him. The shards of his splintered life scared the hell out of him. It frightened him to the point that he had no idea how he was going to attempt to repair all the sharp edges.

Steve considered having a drink. Then he remembered the situation his over indulgence had brought him to and changed his mind. Leaving the office, he made his way to his bedroom and was confronted by even more memories. Frustrated he imagined he could still smell Hope’s fragrance lingering in his room. Her incorporeal being floating around his room, calling him, enticing him even as memories of her behavior mocked him.

Removing his clothing he threw himself across the bed and covered his eyes with his forearm, attempting to hold back the unwanted images. Then the voices returned, and now that he gave them full reign, they returned with a vengeance.

Almost from the beginning of their relationship he had known that Hope had issues that were going to take time to work through. The knowing hadn’t phased him. Who didn’t have issues? Anyone who managed to make it to adulthood had baggage. It was these collective situations that shaped us, made us the people we became. Although troubled by some of her actions they had never impacted on his pursuit of her, until now.

Steve knew some of the issues Hope battled. Yet somehow he could feel that she had not been entirely honest with him. She had left much unsaid. He also knew Jason didn’t really care for Hope, hadn’t from almost the moment he had introduced them, and that had been fine with him. He accepted that Jason was his own person, and while he didn’t necessarily like the way he felt about the woman he loved, he was prepared to respect his feelings. Steve had been certain that given time, Jason would at least come to like the woman he had chosen to be his wife.

Now that was all shot to hell. But everything still didn’t add up. Some pieces were missing; major pieces, and he intended to get to the bottom of it. But it would take time. He still needed to work through how his wedding day had managed to become the worst day of his goddamn life.

**********

Having endured a sleepless night, Steve wasn’t in the mood to deal with Jason. However the telephone conversation he had just had with his assistant necessitated it.

“You did what?” Steve shouted, anger written across his handsome face as he tried to control his growing temper. “What is the matter with you, man? I was only gone for one day, and you’ve probably single-handedly managed to undo all the progress I’ve made in the last year.”

“You weren’t answering your phone. You weren’t here, and I was, so I dealt with the situation.”

“What did you say to him, Jason? If you’ve jeopardized this deal with your antics, I’ll...”

“You’ll what, Steve?” Jason interrupted him in a quiet voice filled with challenge.

“I’ll kick your ass, that’s what I’ll do. I’ve told you a million times, leave the negotiations to me, you short tempered son of a bitch!”

Jason’s booming laugh suddenly filled the room. “Well, you got one thing right, my mother is a bitch. So what else you got?”

“This is serious, Jason. Your antics are no laughing matter. What did you do?” Although burning with curiosity at Jason’s comment about his mother, Steve refrained from following that line of questioning. With Jason’s growing family and his diminishing one, he was unsure if he could deal with any more revelations.

“I took Mr. Cox aside and informed him that he had until the end of the week to sign the contract. No more negotiations, no more pussyfooting around. He either signs the contract or the deal is off the table. I also told him there are a whole bunch of building contractors just waiting in the wings to take his place.”

“Jesus, do you know what you’ve done?”

“What’s going on here? I dealt with a contractor that’s been holding us over a barrel for way too long, making us look like chumps, and you’re sweating it. The question is why?”

Pacing the floor of the office, Steve didn’t answer Jason’s question. The tension in the room swirling around them was increasing Steve’s irritation.

“I’ll ask you again, Steve. What the hell is going on here?”

Steve audibly cleared his throat before he began to speak. “I've got problems with the building commission. It seems one of my sub-contractors used inferior materials on the Ojai project. I’m dealing with it. I thought I’d managed to keep the whole situation under wraps. Somehow Cox found out, now he’s threatening to make a statement to prove that we knew about everything and were willing to cut corners to make a profit. It gets worse. He’s also threatening to swear that corner cutting is almost the company’s motto, and that’s how we’ve managed to grow into a major player so quickly.”

While Steve knew there was no truth in the accusations, in business, this type of mudslinging could stick.

“That greasy, smug bastard! I want to know who’s pulling his leash, and I want to know now!”

“I’m already on it. So far, I’ve drawn a blank.”

“When were you going to tell me about this? For God’s sake, if things hadn’t changed, you would be on your honeymoon right now.”

The mention of his aborted wedding irritated Steve further. Why didn’t Jason leave the subject alone? Why did he feel the need to bring it up at every given opportunity? Angered anew by thoughts of where he should have been instead of standing in Jason’s home office, Steve bit back on what he actually wanted to say, deciding that the best course of action was to deal only with the business they shared.

“I already told you, I’m taking care of it. This right here is what I can’t stand about you, man. You can’t control everything. Leave me the hell alone to do my job!”

“This is my company as much as it is yours, therefore, I have a right to know what’s going on, especially if it affects me. I trust you to take care of our day-to-day business, but not to keep far reaching matters from me when you feel like it. We're partners, and I have to be able to trust you to keep me in the loop, especially about something so serious.”

“Fuck you, you egotistical shit!”

“You can call me as many names as you like, Steve, but it still doesn’t tell me who’s behind this mess and I want answers. We’ve worked too long and too hard for some jumped up piece of shit like Percy Cox to pull the rug from under us!”

“You think I don’t know that? Just back off, Jason. I’ve got this.” Looking at his watch, Steve straightened his tie and reached for his briefcase. “Look man, I’ve got to go. I need to get a handle on what Cox’s next move is going to be, and if I know that slimy turd, he already has a jump start on me.”