Twisted Desire (The Twisted Series) (3 page)

Abby clearly feels the need to explain.  “Pheobe’s not
that happy at home.  She likes coming here and she deserves the
attention.  The poor girl’s had a rough life.  You of all people
should know that.”  Abby blows out a breath of exhaustion.  “I like
having her around, and so does Maya.”

Aliah understands why Abby does it, but she’s still curious
about the entire arrangement.  “How does Eddie feel about you playing
mommy to your ex’s kid?”

Abigail’s expression shows how uncomfortable she is having
this conversation, but they both wait patiently for her to answer.  “Edwin
knows I chose him.  We have the family I’ve always dreamt of.  I couldn’t
be happier to share that with Pheobe.  I love the girl.  So does
Eddie.”

Edwin returns to the room and slips his arms around Abby’s
waist, hearing her confession.  He rests his chin on her shoulder and
turns his head to kiss her neck.  “Hey, baby.  Everything okay out
here?”

“I think so,” Abby admits, flashing a pointed glance at
Ashley.

Edwin catches the exchange and snatches Abby’s gaze, so he
can steal another kiss.  This time he reaches her lips.

The two guests both stare, admiring the passionate embrace
and the way Eddie takes away all of Abby’s frustrations with his lips. 
Ashley has to shake her head to snap out of it, but not Aliah.

“Get a room.  I don’t need to see this!”  Aliah
grows very uncomfortable.

Edwin smiles, in between kisses, as Abby turns to face
him.  Everyone hears the kids sneaking back down the hall, but the couple
doesn’t stop gazing at each other, sharing chaste, intermittent kisses.

“Love you,” Edwin whispers to Abby.

“Love you too, Eddie.”

“You really think you should be doing that in front of
Pheobe?”  Ashley doesn’t watch her mouth around the kids and everyone can
see how angry that makes Abby.

Edwin winks at Abby, as he lifts Maya back into his arms,
and it seems to bring back her calm.  “Say bye bye to momma.”

“Bye bye,” Maya coos, reaching out for her mom.

Abby collects Maya in her arms and squeezes her
tightly.  “You be a good girl for daddy.  Okay, sweetness?” 
Abby kisses a small, baby soft hand, and delivers Maya back to Edwin.  She
gives Pheobe a hug, and whispers not-so-quietly in her ear.  “You keep an
eye on Eddie for me.  Okay, hun?”

Pheobe giggles.  “I will.”  She runs off with
Maya, and Edwin follows after them.

“You ladies have yourselves a nice night.”

Abby’s smiling, but after Edwin disappears from the room, the
smile near-instantly disappears, as she turns back to Ashley.  “I see no
problem kissing in front of Pheobe and Maya.

“It’s no big deal,” Aliah agrees.

“We’re married, Ashley.  We’re in love.  I see no
issue with sharing that in front of the girls.  You would be pushing it to
say that it is inappropriate.”

Aliah nods in agreement. 
She
can’t even deny
it.  “It’s sweet.  The girls will see the way you two are together
and know you’re in love.”

Abby smiles, catching Aliah’s moment of softness. 
“Hopefully one day you’ll find a love like that.”

Aliah is very uncomfortable with that notion.  She
flags a hand in the air, to stop Abby and her crazy-ass comments. 
“Okay.  I’ve had enough of this mushy shit.  I’m going out.”

“Ally, it’s only seven.  It’s a bit early for you to
hit up your usual stomping grounds, wouldn’t you say?”

“It’s Thursday night.  The lights will already be
low.  I’ll grab something to eat and bug Mitchell over at Riley’s. 
I’m sure I can wrestle a few drinks from him, on the house.”  Aliah winks
at her friend, but Abby doesn’t look real impressed by the idea.

Neither does Ashley.  “I’m surprised Mitchell even lets
you in the place looking like that.  Some of the patrons might get the
wrong impression about what kind of establishment he’s operating there.”

“Stuff it, Ashley.  You’re just jealous because you
have to pay for your drinks.”

Abby explains it, so Aliah doesn’t have to. 
“Mitchell’s had a thing for Aliah as far back as I can remember.”

Aliah scowls at Abby, even though she is doing her a
service.  “I can’t believe you just told her that!”

“Oh, puh-lease.  It’s so obvious to anyone who sees you
two together.  He still crushes on you hard.”

“He has a girlfriend now, you know.”  Aliah tries to
get Abby off her back, but it doesn’t work.

“Yeah, I know.  It hasn’t changed the way he looks at
you.  I’m sure he’s still hung up on you.  He’s just waiting for that
one day when you’ll come around.”

Aliah stuffs her fisted hands under her armpits. 
“He’ll be waiting a long time.”

Abby smirks.  “Why else do you think he would want to
keep you that close, Ally?  Come on.  Think about it.”

“Whatever,” Aliah says, growing tired of always being under
the microscope.

With her father being the City’s fire chief, and she being
his only daughter, all of the town folk think it’s their business to know what
and who she’s doing at all times.  She makes a good effort to keep out of
the public eye.  That way she can avoid the unwanted attention. 
Abby’s not helping her situation any.

“Have fun?” Abby says, smiling.

Aliah answers with a smile.  “You, have fun with the
whole wedding thing.  I’m out of here.”  Aliah tries to ignore the
two of them, as she moves between them to reach the door.

“Be good,” Abby teases.

Aliah smirks back at Abby, as she steps outside.  “You
know I won’t.”

Harley heads home from work early, to get a head start on
his investigation.  He does his best work from home.  His home office
is like a shrine of all his achievements; the greatest of all being the
research he’d done to find his daughter after the death of Hannah’s mother.

He smiles.  Researching Miss Aliah Brooklin will be a
much easier task.  He skips by his office and heads for his bedroom. 
He tosses his laptop on his bed and starts it up.  Harley grasps onto the
tail of his t-shirt and pulls it over his head, tossing it onto the floor next to
his closet.  He gets comfortable on his bed, slouching against his
headboard, and loads the Google search engine.

Aliah Brooklin.

Ah, ha!  This should get interesting.  A large
number of articles pop up about the only daughter of the City’s fire
chief.  Why hasn’t he heard of this girl before?  He’s been slacking.

He skips past all of the mundane articles, when he notices
the images link.

Aliah Brooklin is a babe!

With each picture he scans over, she seems to look more and
more beautiful.  She isn’t your typical beauty either, with blonde hair or
blue eyes, but there’s just something about the fiery look in her eyes that has
him intrigued.  She streaks her hair with dramatic colors, and that only
seems to intensify the darkness in her large, almond-shaped eyes.

He can see why Mitchell Cavanagh is interested. 
Allegedly. 
Harley finds it hard to see how any man with a pair of eyes and a dick
wouldn’t be attracted to her.  He scrolls down the first page of images,
which are mostly of her, with Cavanagh creeping in the background of a few.

He clicks back to the search page and reads over her social
networking profiles, but there isn’t anything there of much interest to
him.  Miss Aliah Brooklin doesn’t seem too active on the social
front.  She seems surprisingly laidback, which is in stark contrast to the
look in her eyes.  Harley stares at a photo of her for a minute too
long.  She’s looking right at the camera, and it feels like she can see
right through him.

This one will be interesting indeed.

Harley figures it’s best he follow his client’s instructions
and attend the bar Mitchell Cavanagh owns, that Miss Brooklin tends to
frequent.  It’s shocking that this spicy looking gal is hanging out at a
local pub with an oversized troll like him.  Does she really think she’s
going to meet the right kind of guy at a place like that?  Maybe she truly
does have a thing for Cavanagh.

Nah.

As Harley climbs out of the shower, he hears his phone
ringing off the hook.  He wraps a black towel around his waist and pads to
his bed to answer it.  He’s not surprised in the least that Ms. Hawkins is
calling already.

“So, did you get any of the answers I was looking for?” the
woman asks, without a friendly greeting.

Harley heads back to the bathroom to grab a hand towel to
dry his upper body.  “This sort of thing takes time, Ms. Hawkins.  I
have some preliminary findings, but I’d like to approach the accused before
giving you anything definitive.”

“Preliminary findings?  Accused?  She
is
guilty!”

He ignores her outburst.  “I will do so tonight. 
I really don’t think there is anything you need to worry about in the
meantime.”

“Tell me what you’ve found,” she demands, with a clipped
tone.

He knew she was going to be one of these.  He’d better
make this case a quick, clean cut.  Like a rip off the bandage, take her
money and run type of deal.

“What I’ve found online shows nothing but a long-term
friendship.  They knew each other as kids.  They went to the same
high school.  Graduated the same year.  I can see it in the pictures. 
Have you checked your own year book, Ms. Hawkins?  I understand you went
to the same school yourself.  If you ask me, there’s nothing going on
there.  At least, not from her perspective.”

“I didn’t pay you for your opinion,” she shouts,
overreacting once again.  “I paid you to show me the proof.  Did you
know I walked in on them last weekend in his office?  If I hadn’t barged
in, she would have fucked him.”

Harley glances to the floor and sighs, digging his fingers
into the corners of his eyes.  He doesn’t want to say it, but this Aliah
girl is way out of Cavanagh’s league.  In every picture of the two of
them, Mitchell looks like he has a case of puppy love.  Little seems to
have changed in the more recent photos.  Harley can see why.

Miss Brooklin is a looker.

“Let me do the detective work here, Ms. Hawkins.  Trust
that I’ll take care of it.”

“You’d better.”

“You should reconsider threatening me, Ms. Hawkins.  I
don’t take lightly to that.”  Harley’s voice does not fluctuate, but his
point is taken.

“I apologize.”

Against his better judgment, he goes on.  “I have to
admit, though, I really don’t think you have this one pegged…”

“Fucked him, I tell you!”  She hollers it into the
phone.  It has him looking over his shoulder to make sure his daughter
hasn’t heard her.

Suddenly Harley starts to see the depths of this woman’s
madness.  It is like she’s flipped a switch from plain Jane to crazy
Connie in a matter of seconds.

“She’s a whore.  She feeds on friendly, nice guys like
Mitchell all the time.  I’m not going to let her have this one.”

“Please, ma’am.  With all due respect.  Let me
look into it and I’ll tell you all that I find.  That is my job.  And
from what I hear, I’m pretty damn good at it.”

She huffs again and snaps at him.  “Make it quick.”

Again, he feels the need to reiterate the obvious
facts.  “Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary between these two. 
If there’s something going on, then I will find out.  I’ll have to do a
little searching, dig a little deeper, but I truly think that you’re wasting
your money here.”

“It’s my money.  Let me decide whether it’s a waste or
not.  Do it.  I want the facts.”

Even as she’s barking the orders, Harley has a rotten
feeling brewing in the pit of his stomach.  When he first saw Aliah’s
photo, he admits he was intrigued, but he doesn’t look at women as anything
other than objects these days.  That is one object he can’t wait to get
his hands on.

“I’ll do it.  Two for the price of one.”

She’s pleased when she hangs up the phone.  His gut
tells him that something is seriously wrong with this woman.  His gut is
rarely wrong.  But the pay check has him pulling on his leather jacket and
rolling out his Harley from storage.

What had started out as an easy investigation into a local
bar owner, was quickly turning into a character assassination by Ms. Brandee
Hawkins.  Harley’s agreed to follow Mitchell Cavanagh around, to make sure
he’s not cheating, but his client is clearly fixated on this Aliah girl. 
If Aliah is as close to Cavanagh as Ms. Hawkins suggests, then it’s likely that
he’ll be running into her tonight too.

This should be fun.

When the sky turns dark, he kisses his daughter on her
forehead and climbs onto his bike.  After giving it a couple of revs, he
lifts his feet and makes his way downtown, leaving a cloud of dust behind him.