A Broken Fate (The Beautiful Fate Series book 2) (6 page)

She thought things over for a moment then asked, “Are you disappointed with Ari for not doing the same thing?”

“I am not disappointed in anything that Ari has ever done. That was his choice and he has had to deal with his decision. Who am I to hold a person
’s past against him?”

Lauren
’s door swung open and her cheeks turned bright pink.

“What are you two
talking about in here?” Ari took a step into her room.

I turned towards him and winked.

“The L word,” I answered with a smile.

He turned on his heel, left the room and shut the door behind him.

Lauren giggled and I help her finish packing while the wheels turned in her head about our conversation. Ari and I left as soon as Lauren’s friends from school started to show up for her party that evening. My nerves could not take all of their little squeals and high-pitched screams.

Ari talked me into getting in the hot tub with him. I had never been in one before, but he knew how to make the experience a lot of fun.
In fact, it turned out to be a
very
fun experience and I was extremely thankful for the fact that our house edged a very private part of the beach.

“So what was I interrupting earlier be
tween you and Lauren?” he asked in between kisses.

I bit my lip and gave him my,
‘I don’t know if I should tell you,’ face.

“C
’mon, I’m your husband; you are morally obligated to tell me about any conversations you have with my sister.”

“Uh, she just wanted to know if I was happy with the fact that I had waited until after our wedding to be intimate with you, so I just told her how I felt.”

“And?” he asked.

“Well, of course I
’m happy with the decision I made.”

“I know that, Ava; that
’s not what I’m asking. What else did she ask?”

“She just wanted to know if I was disappointed in your decision to not wait.”

His face fell a little.

“Ugh, she knows about me and Julia?”

“She’s not an idiot, Ari. First of all, do you ever listen to the conversations at the dinner table? Your mother practically gave me her blessing to share your bed with you the third time I met her. What mother does that? And besides, Lauren was there when I got in that fight with you last winter after I found out about the sorted details of you and Julia’s relationship.”

“
Right,” he said, “so are you disappointed in me, Mrs. Alexander?”

Just thinking about Ari and Julia together made me angry
and my stomach was assaulted with all kinds of pains. I tried to push the feelings away and continue on with our nice evening alone.

“I guess you could
try to make it up to me.”

He pulled me closer to him and it didn
’t take long for me to bite down hard on his ear lobe in anticipation and desire.

Chapter 7

Chinese food and scrabble

We had Sunday dinner, as usual, at Aggie and Andy
’s house. In the middle of dinner, Aggie grabbed Ari’s ear.

“Ari, what happened?” she asked in
her worried, motherly tone.

He pulled his head back out of her hand, “Nothing, Ma. Don
’t worry about it.”

“No seriously, Ari, what happened?” she asked again.

“Ma, seriously, nothing,” he responded more sternly and my cheeks turned from pink to red hot in a matter of seconds. Rory happened to hear the conversation, noticed my red face and broke into a fit of loud laughter, with Julia joining in right behind him. I was immediately reminded that Ari had discussed our wedding night in detail with Rory and I was beyond angry.

Ari shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Andy and Thais did the same as Ari. Aggie looked at me confused, as if I might explain the situation to her.
Covering my face with my hands, I to hide my embarrassment.

Aggie pursed her lips at us. “Tell me what
’s going on!”

Ari opened his mouth but no words came from him.

Andy, who is usually cool and calm, said in a very stern voice, “Aggie, drop it
now
.”  Ari threw his arm around my shoulder and kissed me on the temple. I nudged him off me.

“I
’m sorry I asked, Ari.” Aggie said quietly.

I was so mad; I excused myself from the table and walked home. Ari followed
after me.

Storming up our deck steps in a fury, I
passed the pool and then fumed through the sun porch. Walking through the glass doors, into the kitchen, I whipped around to face Ari.

“You told Rory all about our wedding night! I cannot believe you did that, Ari! That was private. It was speci
al to me and now everyone knows!”

Ari closed his eyes and took a breath. “I did not tell Rory, Ava. It wasn
’t like that at all.”

“Julia told me that you told Rory, she even knew details!”

“Julia is an idiot. She doesn’t know what happened and I will talk about this with Rory tomorrow.”

“Tell me how he knows.” I demanded.

Ari ran his hands down his face, nodded and pulled out a seat at the table. He gestured for me to sit down. He took a place across from me.

Ari swallowed hard. “Ok. Here is what happened, Ava. You were missing. I was the last person to talk to you or see you that day. I had a bite mark on my lip, scratch marks down my back. There was umm… blood on our sheets.
” Ari had the decency to look embarrassed. “The detective who showed up was a complete fool. He wouldn’t stop to listen to me about your connections with The Kakos. He was determined that I had injured you or hurt you in some way- that I had killed you. He tried to take me to the police station to get my statement. My dad and Thais were still next door. They were delivering the news of your disappearance to the rest of the family. My dad, Thais and Rory arrived at our house just in time to keep the detective from taking me to the police station.

“My dad made a deal with the detective that I would give a statement but it would be in our home with he and Thais present. After some discussion, the detective agreed.”

Looking distraught, Ari stared down at his hands while he spoke. “I had no other choice, Ava. I had to explain what had caused the marks to my body and the blood in our bed. I had to clear my name so they would focus on finding you. So, I told him that you
did
cause the marks to my lip and back but out of an act from pleasure not otherwise. My dad and Thais each sat on either side of me while I explained in detail what we did together in our bedroom after our wedding. The detective’s questions were relentless, intrusive and at times out of line. Eventually, Detective Scott was called. A neighbor reported seeing Damien Kakos in the area and was concerned. Scott heard of your disappearance and came as soon as he was able. Since Detective Scott was head of The Kakos’ files, he dismissed the other detective and cleared my name.”

Ari looked up at me with a grief stricken look on his face. “I am so sorry, Baby. I really am but I had no other choice but to talk about
the details our relationship.”

I bit at my lip. “That doesn
’t explain Rory and Julia.”

“Like I said, Rory came over with my dad and Thais. He was there when the detective was questioning me and he heard everything. Rory never left my side the entire time you were missing. He was there for me. I am not sure why he told Julia and I am sorry for that.
As I said, I will talk with him about it in the morning.”

“Ava, I know how important your privacy is to you. It is important to me, too. I
never would have exposed our relationship like that if it wasn’t a complete necessity. Please forgive me.”

I got up from my seat, moved across the table and climbed on to Ari
’s lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my forehead up against his. “I’m sorry, too. I hadn’t thought about what an ordeal you must have gone through while I was gone.”

I kissed the bite mark on his ear and the small scar below his lip. “So Andy and Thais know I am a biter, huh? That
’s embarrassing.”

Ari laughed aloud. “Nah, Ava, don
’t sweat it. They are used to passionate women; that’s just how Greek woman are.” Ari winked at me causing my cheeks to flush pink.

Ari was set to start school and work the next day so we cuddled up on the couch and watched a few episodes of
The Abbot and Costello Show
on DVD then went to bed. Ari had classes at Pepperdine Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from eight until one.  After class on those days, he went to work for
baio
. He also worked at
baio
all day Thursdays and Fridays. His was indeed a very full schedule.

My grandmother
took Ari’s employment very seriously. She gave Ari the corner office down the hall from hers. My grandfather, Perry, had used the space when he was alive and I was quite familiar with the spectacular view of L.A. visible from the office window. Margaux was also working on hiring an assistant for Ari. Knowing Margaux, the assistant would be some beautiful, tan, blonde that had great dreams of modeling for
baio
one day.

Thankfully, Margaux expected Ari to be at
baio
only when she was in L.A. and she traveled quite a bit...so his work in the office would not be constant. I wasn’t sure how much he was going to like working for her. In fact, I was pretty sure he was going to end up hating
baio
. I had given up trying to talk him out of working for Margaux, though. In the end, he had to make the decision by himself, and even though I reminded him my plan would give him more time flexibility, he declined it.

I wanted to start classes when Ari did, but my doctor ruled that adding school stress to the burden of physical healing and psychological anxiety I was already carrying would be unwise. And in truth, I needed to use my
time doing some research about The Kakos to see who else may be involved; I was fairly certain there was someone else and I did not want to be blindsided.

In addition, I was going to get started working with Andy at the foundation,
House to Home.
Getting children off the streets, out of the foster care system and into more permanent situations was a difficult task, one that included matching kids to various mentors and tutors.
House to Home
offered regular studies and also included specialized classes like computer skills, ballet and art. My Grandfather, Perry started the organization many years ago, he partnered with Andy a few years after the association was established and it is because of them that hundreds of children in the L.A. area had grown up to be literate and successful adults. I was eager to start helping out as much as I could.

So, I decided to start back to classes mid-year and play catch up over the summer to be on track to graduate from Pepperdine with Ari. My memories about my lost week were still pretty fuzzy and I was afraid of what terrors might pop up in my mind when I least expected them.

The first couple of weeks of Ari being away during the day at school and work took a lot of adjustment. I had some paranoia issues and was uncomfortable being alone. The feelings grew worse as the time went on. In addition, Ari was really busy in the evenings with school work. I helped him as much as I could and we spent a lot of time together in the study. When not working on a project with him, I did my own research on Greeks and The Kakos and never really told him what I was doing; sometimes I didn’t even know exactly what I was looking for myself. We spent our evenings together at home as much as possible; we made dinner and on occasion we watched baseball on TV.

One Friday night, Ari came home, pulled at the knot in his tie, opened his shirt collar and threw himself face first on the couch. I crawled on top of him.

“What’s the matter?” I asked sweetly in his ear.

“Margaux,” was his only reply.

I gave a little laugh, “Yeah, she can be nasty. I did tell you so. Why, what happened? What did she do to you?”

“She didn
’t do anything to me; she is actually unbelievably nice to me. It’s just the way she treats other people. She fired some poor old woman today for spilling coffee on some sample fabric. It was a nightmare. She made a huge scene and was screaming and yelling. Margaux was red in the face with anger and she made the poor woman pack up her things and leave right then.”

“Was that the first time you ever saw her fire someone?” I asked a little shocked.

“Yeah, why?” He looked up at me from the corner of his eye.

“Sounds like she
’s gone soft, but don’t worry I’m sure that woman will be back in the office on Monday morning as if nothing ever happened.”

“Are you serious?”

“Oh yeah, I have seen it happen tons of times. Margaux will have her assistant, Delia call the woman and apologize and then offer her the job back. With a raise.”

“That
’s absurd!”

“That
’s Margaux. So what do you want to do this weekend?”

Ari rolled over on to his back and wrapped his arms around me.

“We’re going to see
Miike Snow
tomorrow, remember?”

“No, I don
’t remember. Since when?”

“You remember -- Rory said he would get tickets.”

I laughed aloud.

“I thought he was just kidding. I never thought he would actually come through on his promise.”

“Yeah, I know; same here. But he felt really bad about telling Julia about our wedding night details and so he got four tickets and made reservations for tomorrow night for dinner. We’ll be meeting him and Julia at their new place in L.A. at seven.”

“Ok, then what do you want to do tonight?” I asked.

“Chinese food and Scrabble,” Ari said with a hopeful look on his face.

“That sounds perfect!”

And so, we spent the whole night spread out on the living room floor playing Scrabble with
Coeur De Pirate
on in the background. Ari had developed a slight obsession with the pianist ever since the time I played a song of hers on the dorm piano.

Aggie and Andy came over and played a few rounds of Scrabble with us and Andy finished off the Chinese take-out leftovers. They stuck around quite a while. I think they were having a bit of empty nest syndrome, Aggie especially. She missed having Lauren around, but really, I think she missed Ari more than anything
else. She had a harder time with him being married, working and going to school than she thought she would; that was my theory. She called him daily to check in and came up with as many excuses as she could to get him to stop by in the evenings. He changed light bulbs, carried in her groceries and even once had to go over there to kill a spider. I love Aggie, but their relationship was a little problematic at times.

Saturday morning, Ari talked me into playing around with him on the beach. I was getting
a tad more comfortable in the water; he really didn’t give me a choice. We walked half way down the beach, and then he picked me up without warning, threw me over his shoulder and ran. I screamed all the way, until he came to a stop in waist-deep warm water. I still wouldn’t let him let me go, but he didn’t seem to mind.

After our romp in the sand and waves, we got ready for
Miike Snow
and listened to their new album twice while showering and dressing. We took Ari’s SUV for our drive into L.A.

Last year, Margaux uprooted me from Dana Point after I killed Kakos No. 1 and No. 2 on New Year
’s Eve. She set me up in a flat in a building she owned in Camden Town in London. I killed No. 5 by burning that building down into a pile of ash. In retaliation for me burning down her building, Margaux turned up at the Alexander’s home and collected my car. Margaux had told me, when I came back from London that if I wanted my vehicle back, I would have to buy it from her. I had been planning to send her the money but just never got around to doing it. I had concentrated on the wedding and then I had been abducted. The car issue had gone right out of my head.