Stanton Bliss: Stanton (5 page)

Deirdre

Deirdre

Deirdre

2:00 a.m. this morning. A two-hour call to Deirdre.

Who is fucking Deirdre?

I frown and swipe through to contacts and click on Deirdre’s phone number.

0414356232.

Shit, how do I remember this number?

Try to remember the last four digits.

6232, 6232, 6232 I repeat in my head.

I swipe the phone off and pass it back up the table.

6232, 6232, 6232 I repeat.

The table is full of deep conversation, and Max and the other guards are at the table next to us. Who is Deirdre? Why so many calls? How could she have a two-hour conversation with her in the middle of the night and not wake Robert? I don’t know, and I don’t even know why I am thinking about this shit?

“Are you hungry, Presh?” Joshua gently kisses the side of my face as he tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear.

I smile at my beautiful man. “I am, are you?”

He smiles darkly and his eyes drop to my lips. “Not for food.”

I bite my bottom lip to stifle my smile. Truth be known, I think Joshua liked screaming at me today, too. It felt normal that he was angry with me – a relief, even.

“What would you like for dessert, Joshua?” I whisper.

He bends and whispers into my ear. “I think you know, my beautiful slut.” His breath on my neck gives me goose bumps and a shudder of excitement runs through me.

I will never tire of this conversation, of this feeling.

Three hours later, dinner is over and, after going for a long walk and stopping at a bar for a drink, we have arrived back in our home.

“I’m having a shower, Presh. Are you coming?” Joshua kisses me on the forehead as he walks past me sitting in the lounge.

“Yes, be there in a minute.”

I watch him disappear into our bedroom, and without thinking, I pick up his phone from the coffee table. As if on autopilot, I scroll through his contacts until I get to the one I want.

James Brennan: 0414356232.

I close my eyes in regret.

Holy fuck.

Chapter 3

S
nooping. The double
edged sword. The Heaven to my Hell.

You think you want to know something, but then you wish you didn’t know it. Margaret has been speaking to James Brennan, not just once, but a lot of times. Two hours in the middle of the night. How do you speak to an abuser that you hate for two hours? What is there to say?

I lay in bed as I go over the conversations Margaret and I have had before in regards to James. She said she loved him at one stage, but then he turned into an abuser and she hated him. Was that just all fucking bullshit? Did he really beat her? Did Robert beat her and she has used James as a cover? What the hell is going on?

I hear Joshua fussing around in the kitchen and the sound of the shaker with ice. I smile. My man is back on his protein. This is a good sign. Normalcy is returning to his life.

He walks in while taking a sip and sits on the end of the bed. “Morning, Presh.”

I smile at his I’ve-been-to-the-gym glow of perspiration. “Good morning, Mr. Stanton.”

He smiles sexily at my playful tone. “What would my wife like to do today?”

“Hmm, let me think.” I smirk.

He bends and kisses the top of my foot as he runs his hand up under the blanket towards my thigh. “Do you need a wake up fuck?” he whispers as his eyes drop to my lips.

“Sex maniac,” I mouth.

He winks mischievously as he bends and kisses my thigh through the sheet.

“How long are we staying here?” I ask.

“How long do you want to stay?”

“A bit longer.” I grab his hand. “I don’t want to go back just yet.”

“Of course, but I will have to work from here, though, and I do have to be back in two weeks for a meeting.”

“Ok.” I smile gratefully. “What time do your parents leave?”

“I think their flight leaves about seven tonight.”

I nod and I look out of the window towards the ocean in thought.

“We will have lunch with them today, if that’s ok? I may not see them for a while. They’ve both dropped everything for us for six weeks. My father needs to get back to work on Monday.”

My eyes meet his. “Are him and your mother working it out?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know, I haven’t asked. Their fucked up relationship hasn’t been on the top of my agenda.”

“Hmm.” My mind ticks over at a million miles per minute.

“What’s happened with James Brennan?” I ask. “Did you ever have him charged?”

He shakes his head. “No, with all the shit that went down, in the grand scheme of things, he was forgotten.”

My eyes hold his. “Did he pay you back the money?”

He raises his eyebrows. “Funnily enough, Murph said it hit my account yesterday.”

I frown. What the hell is going on? Maybe she was just talking him into paying the money back?

“What’s going on with your father and him?”

Joshua gets off the bed and walks into the bathroom. “I don’t know and don’t care. Dad said he was taking care of it. God knows what that means?”

“Is James still married?” I call out.

“Fuck knows,” he calls back.

Hmm, why doesn’t he know anything? God, he’s annoying. I need to get some answers. I get out of bed, quickly dress and head outside while Joshua showers. Max is sitting out the front garden reading the paper and another guard is at the front, sitting by the main gates, reading a book. Max looks up, sees me and smiles broadly.

“Hello,” he says through a smile.

My heart melts a little. Oh, I do love Max. “Hi.” I smile in return. “You ok? I feel like we have hardly spoken since I got back.”

He nods. “Are you ok is the real question?”

“Yes, I’m good.”

His smile turns down sympathetically.

I hesitate before I ask. “Max, are Margaret and Robert staying in the same hotel room?”

He seems taken aback with my question and frowns. “I don’t believe so.”

Oh, right. I pause to think for a minute. “How long since they have slept in the same room?”

“I’m not sure, not since Joshua went to prison. I stayed at the house to watch over Bridget and your mother and they had separate rooms at that time.”

I narrow my eyes. “So, like, six weeks or so?”

He nods and his eyes hold mine. I know he wants to ask what’s going through my head but is choosing to be polite instead.

“Do you think they are still together?” I hesitate. “I mean, based on their body language?”

“I wouldn’t think so.” He shrugs.

I nod. Ok. Interesting. “You ok if we hang here for a while longer? I don’t want to go back for another couple of weeks.”

“I think I could handle that. Just.” He smiles. “This is such a terrible location to work from.”

I laugh as I look around. “It is pretty cool here, isn’t it?”

He raises his eyebrows at my nonchalance. “You could say that.”

I feel him before I see him, and when I turn, Joshua is standing in the doorway. He has obviously been looking for me as he smiles a relieved smile.

“I was just asking Max if it’s ok if we stay here for a couple more weeks,” I blurt out in a guilty rush.

Joshua’s eyes flick to Max.

Max smiles with a curt nod.

“Of course, sweetheart,” Joshua replies softly.

I frown at the sympathy sweetheart. My eyes wander between the two men and I notice they seem to know something that I don’t.

“You two seem to be getting along very well.”

“We are,” Joshua replies flatly.

I continue to look between the two of them and I smirk. “It’s creepy.”

Max laughs out loud while Joshua shakes his head and smacks me on the behind.

“You two are like friendly creepers now. It’s weirding me out.”

Max shakes his head and rolls his eyes at Joshua who laughs in response.

“I thought you wanted us to be friendly creepers?”

I look at him and raise my eyebrows.

“I’m friendly and Max is the creep.”

I smirk and walk back inside. “Bye, Max,” I call over my shoulder.

“Goodbye, Natasha.”

Joshua cuddles me from behind as I walk. “I need to work today, Presh.”

“That’s ok,” I reply. “I’m on my way to see the girls and Adrian.” My face falls. “Is Adrian working today, too?”

“No, he has been working nights.”

I smile with relief.

Joshua’s face lights up. “And this is good because…?”

“This is good because that means I get to see him today.”

He kisses me gently on the lips. “Don’t forget lunch with my parents.”

“Ok. See you.” He disappears into his office, and I shower and dress. I exit through the front door and follow the path around until I get to Adrian’s place. Cameron is sitting on the front steps in the sun.

“Mrs. Stanton.” He smiles.

I grin as a rush of excitement fills me. I rub my hand through the top of his hair. “You know it, baby. Is Adrian inside?”

“No, I think he’s at the girls’ place.”

“Ok, thanks.” I continue walking until I get to their house, and I can hear laughter coming from Mum’s bedroom. I smile and go to investigate.

“You can’t be serious.” Adrian winces as he throws what looks like a shirt out of Mum’s wardrobe.

“Deadly.” Mum frowns as she picks up the discarded shirt from the floor.

Bridget and Abbie are lying on Mum’s bed, curled up in fits of laughter.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

Adrian comes out of Mum’s wardrobe and places his hands on his hips. “Your mother asked me to give her a makeover, but now that I’m in her wardrobe, she won’t let me throw anything out.”

I smile and turn my attention to Mum.

“He’s trying to throw out my best clothes.” She shakes her head in disgust.

Adrian pinches the bridge of his nose. “God, give me strength,” he whispers to himself, and I a giggle. Mum is the worst person to style, she has things in her wardrobe she has had for twenty years. This styling project is long overdue. He disappears back into the wardrobe and I flop onto the bed in between my two friends to watch the show.

“This is going.” He throws a handbag out onto the floor.

“No, it is not. That is a beautiful piece.”

“Exactly, piece being the key word. It belongs in a museum,” Adrian huffs.

The girls and I smile as we listen on.

“I’m glad you think this is funny, bitches.” Mum calls from inside the wardrobe.

“Who wants a coffee?” Abbie asks as she rises and disappears to the kitchen.

Bridget takes my hand in hers and we lay together watching Adrian and Mum squabble over what clothes he is throwing out and I smile. How has this beautiful man become so dear to us? He is like a son to my mum… although it’s a very different relationship to hers and Brock’s. Never in a million years – when I first met Adrian and I thought he was Donatella Versace – did I think I would be laying on a bed watching him clean out my mother’s wardrobe.

“Coffee is up,” Abbie calls from the kitchen. We all take our seat on the kitchen bench. She has cut up warm banana bread and slathered it in butter.

“I think Joshua and I are going to stay for another two weeks,” I mutter as I bite into my bread.

“I’m going to leave in a few days, dear,” Mum tells me. “I haven’t been to Australia for weeks and Nicholas is leaving on Wednesday when the plane arrives back. That’s ok, isn’t it? I will come back to L.A. in six weeks or so.”

Adrian’s face falls. “Is that what Nick said? He’s leaving Wednesday?”

“Yes,” Mum replies as she, too, bites into her banana bread. “How do you not know this? You are staying with him.”

“What’s going on with you two?” I frown into my coffee.

Adrian gets up and closes the heavy glass door so that nobody else can hear us. He shrugs sadly. “Nothing.” He sighs as he flops back onto his stool.

“God, you’re an idiot. Go out there, get butt naked and seduce him in the pool, for fuck’s sake!” Abbie snaps.

Bridget and Mum nod carelessly as they shovel their cake into their mouths.

“Maybe not in the pool. I want to swim in that pool,” Bridget mumbles with her mouth full. I nod as I pull a disgusted face, and Adrian blows out a deep breath deep in thought.

Margaret knocks on the door. “Ready?” She smiles at mum.

“Give me a second.” Mum rushes to her bedroom to get her handbag. They are going shopping.

The girls both stand and go to the door to talk to her as she waits for Mum.

I fake a smile and turn back to my coffee. I don’t know what to even think of her, of this. It’s another fucking nightmare that I don’t need. When she told me back then, when I found her in that hotel, that she was abused by James, I believed her. I would never
not
believe someone who told me they had been raped… but it never did sit right. I always had this gut feeling that something was off with her story, but I guess I put it down to shock. That was the absolute last thing I thought she was going to tell me, and it shocked the hell out of both me and out of Adrian. She was genuinely scared of him in the hotel the night, and yet, here we are, just two months later and she is calling him in the middle of the night. Maybe she was just trying to talk him into paying Joshua the money back. But the text from him said:
I’ve told her everything
.

The only connection I can make to that comment is that he has told his wife everything. But why would he tell his wife everything when he was black mailing Margaret for so many years with the sole purpose of keeping her quiet?

I was going to say something, but now that I know that her and Robert are not together, I’m not so sure that I should. Is it even relevant to anything anymore? The boys know who their biological father is. Robert is no longer being deceived. Am I just going to drag up another ugly can of worms? Nobody knows I know. Ha, that’s the thing. I don’t even know what I know. I’m just jumping to conclusions here. It’s probably completely innocent.

Suddenly, a vision of Amelie lying wet and dead on the ground in the pouring rain comes to me, and I can feel the weight of the heavy gun in my hands.

My face drops as the horrific memory poisons me.

“What is it?” Adrian asks, putting his hand on my thigh in a reassuring gesture.

I jump as I am pulled from my thoughts and shake my head. “I’m sorry. Miles away.” I fake a smile.

Adrian’s knowing eyes hold mine. “Are you ok, baby?”

My heart rate has risen through the roof and I suddenly feel sickly hot. The sting of perspiration burns my underarms. My eyes tear up and I nod. Please stop, I need these feelings to stop. As if reading my mind, he leans over and grabs my head, pulling it to his. “It’s going to be ok,” he whispers.

I nod as our foreheads rest together. “I know.” Fuck, I hate feeling like this. I hate seeing this shit in my head.

“Do you want me to get Josh?” he asks.

I shake my head as the lump in my throat forms. “N-no,” I stammer. “I don’t want to talk about it,” I croak as I pull myself together

He smiles sympathetically and holds my hand in his, resting it on his lap as his worried eyes linger on my face.

I shake off my dark thoughts. “Are you going to get me some more banana bread or what?”

He smiles in my deployment tactics. “Do you want butter?”

“Totally.”

Joshua

I sit in my office and send my fifteenth email of the morning. After not thinking about work for so long, it’s now time for me to step up. We are going through some serious damage control and I’m scrambling to please the board. My mind keeps wandering to my father and the conversation I had with him yesterday about James Brennan. Dad aborted the hit while I was in prison, not wanting to put anyone through any more pain. A cop out if you ask me. He also bought James’ share of the company from him. They have severed ties completely and he has left it up to my mother if she wants to have him charged by the police or not. Regret fills me. I know this means for certain that he has given up on their relationship, that he just wants to be done with it and walk away.

A knock on the door brings me back from my thoughts. It’s Brock.

“Hey,” he calls out. “You wanted to see me.”

“Hi. Take a seat.” I gesture to the chair at my desk and he frowns as he sits. “What’s up?”