Twisted Desire (The Twisted Series) Page 2

  Ashley’s eye bug out of her head the instant she notices her niece sitting in Abigail’s living room. “Pheobe? What are you doing here?” she screeches.

  That was my reaction exactly.

  Abigail shifts from one foot to another and lowers Maya to the floor. “Pheobe, would you please take Maya to her room to get dressed? I’ve picked out her clothes. They’re on top of her dresser.”

  Pheobe doesn’t ask questions. She is old enough now to understand when adults need their privacy. Pheobe reaches for Maya’s hand, then hikes her onto her hip. “Come on, Maya. I’ll help you get dressed.”

  Ashley doesn’t waste any time opening her big mouth. “I can’t believe my brother even talks to you, after what you did to him. He’s still a wreck. You’ve ruined him.”

  Abigail turns her head toward the floor and massages the top of her baby belly. You can see it in her features that she means what she says. “I didn’t mean to hurt him, Ashley. I still care for Cameron, very much. But I’m truly happy now and I know in my heart that I made the right choice. Life couldn’t be any better for me, really. Marrying Edwin was the smartest decision I’ve ever made.”

  As if waiting for the perfect moment, Edwin enters the door and piles into the overcrowded foyer. Maya hears her father arrive home and comes toddling back into the room at full speed, only partially dressed. She springs into her daddy’s arms. Edwin kisses her all over her face, then blows on her belly, making her giggle even harder than she already was.

  Pheobe renters the room and giggles too. Everyone admires the way Edwin is with his little girl. Even Aliah has to admit that he’s a good dad.

  Abigail makes eye contact with her husband. Those two are truly in love.

  It’s sickening.

  “Can you bring the girls to Maya’s room for a few minutes?” Abigail asks him.

  Edwin kisses Abby on the cheek, as he caresses her belly, then he carries his little girl down the hall. “Ladies,” he says, with a nod, as he walks away.

  Pheobe follows after him, like a lost puppy. It is crazy, but the girl appears to have really taken a liking to him.

  Ashley notices Pheobe’s fixation too. “That isn’t even right.”

  “What isn’t right is you flapping your gums like that in Abby’s house,” Aliah vents.

  It’s bad enough Abigail has to put up with Ashley long enough to get through her sister’s wedding. Aliah is happy to lend a hand, if only to get the girl to shut her big fat mouth.

  Abby presses her hand to her forehead. “Do we have to do this now?”

  Ashley seems to think so. “I just can’t get over the fact that Cam’s asked you for help with his daughter. Pheobe is my niece. She can come stay with me.”

  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.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  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.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Aliah escapes that conversation by the nick of her teeth. It’s no wonder she hates hanging around the ladies. They always have to pry at her personal life. She hates nothing more than discussing relationships, marriage and love. Those aren’t things she ever intends on finding and so there is no point in acting like she cares to hear about it.

  What she really needs is a fun man-friend who can meet all of her sexual needs. Then again her friend Abby had tried that with Edwin and look where that got her. Regardless, she isn’t Abby and she has measures in place to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself for her.

  She wonders when it became so difficult to find a man who can appreciate a casual, detached relationshi
p. Her sex toys had helped her get through the first few months after Hunter Wight had dumped her, back when she knew that spreading her legs for another man would never mend her broken heart. But she needs a backup plan, for when she’s looking for something more than a cold, trembling dildo.

  After a long, lonely year, Aliah had finally drummed up the courage to give other men a try, but they were deficient in many areas. She has only hit up the best looking ones, even the ones she had a few years on, but they were substandard lovers. She supposes there were a couple of guys who might have lived up to her standards, with a little practice, but the bastards always break the rules.

  Aliah doesn’t want to meet the parents, or cuddle on the couch to watch a movie on Saturday night. She doesn’t need dinner or shiny trinkets to fill the void in her heart. She doesn’t need showered with gifts of flowers or chocolate. All she needs is an experienced sex god to tease and please her and hit the road when he’s done lighting her bed on fire.

  Is that too much to ask?

  All those other things lead to one thing. The one thing she plans on avoiding at all costs.

  Falling in love.

  Aliah Brooklin will not be making that mistake again.

  She can’t believe a whole year has passed since she has gotten laid though. She has already burned out two vibrators, and has led a lot of men on, but she can’t seem to go through the motions again. She’s afraid, though, that if she doesn’t find a friend soon, she’ll die a lonely, old spinster, complete with crotchety cobwebs.

  It isn’t until her lifelong friend, Mitchell Cavanagh, finds himself a woman that she realizes how dire a situation it has become. Her and Mitchell go way back, that is true, but they’re just friends. He does not fit the bill to be the man in her life, and she’s just not attracted to him that way.

  It’s no secret that Mitchell has always had the hots for her, and it’s true that she’s always known it, but they’ve never let that get in the way of their friendship. They are buddies. And apart from Abby, he is her best.

  Aliah pulls into the parking lot across from Riley’s Pub. She glances across the main street at the warm brick building and the double wooden doors. The patio is surrounded in black rod-iron fencing and protects a number of tables with beer-branded umbrellas hanging above them. Despite the fact that it’s a beautiful night, the patio is nearly empty. The heat from the afternoon has scorched the brick, and almost everyone seems to be hiding inside to take advantage of the air-conditioning.