Redemption (The Bet) (18 page)

“We went to school together.” She sighed. “
Our relationship was doomed from the start. But he meant everything to me. I loved him completely, but in the end he didn’t want me. So I ran.”

“And the kids?” he prompted.

“He didn’t know about Bella and Dylan.” She admitted with a wearied sigh.

He regarded her through narrowed eyes. “
Why didn’t you tell me?”

Ellie gave a one shoulder shrug. “I didn’t think it mattered.”

Setting the glass tumbler down, Devlin approached her. He didn’t immediately close the distance between them but waited, settling dark blue eyes on her in search of something only he seemed privy to.

"
You know what hurts the most, Ellie? I’ve shared everything with you, and yet you couldn’t bring yourself to tell me about this part of your life. And I can’t help but wonder why. So I’m going ask you to be honest with me here.  Is he someone I have to worry about? Are you still in love with him?”

Ellie fervently shook her head
. "No!” she was so tired of this. “Of course I don’t still love him.”

"Then why the hell didn't you tell me about him? You told me about S
ophie's father and I understood. Why couldn't you tell me about Bella and Dylan's?"

Ellie swallowed hard. "It was wrong of me to not tell you about him, I admit it, Devlin and I
am so sorry for that. I loved Nicholas, yes, more than words could begin to explain and he used that love to hurt me. That pain isn't something you easily forget, or the person who caused it. I didn't tell you about him because even after all these years it still hurts. I wanted to forget about him and move on with my life, dwelling on what he did would've only kept him alive and I didn't want that."

She went to him then because being apart, having this rift between them was torturous.
Taking Devlin's fisted hand within her own, Ellie unclenched the tight digits and laced their fingers together. "Loving you, having you in my life has helped me in more ways than you can ever know. Nicholas is my past, Dev and my love for him will always remain in the past. I've moved on. You’re who I want to love. You’re my future.”

Dark blue eyes held
her own for a span of eternity before large hands cupped her face and whiskey wet lips crashed against Ellie's pliant ones. Devlin punished with the same breath he gave absolution, tender and yet merciless, he staked his claim and Ellie allowed him to.

"Don't
 
ever
 keep secrets from me, Ellie." He whispered hoarsely against Ellie's dewy lips. "Promise me."

"I promise Dev. N
o more secrets." And the promise was sealed with a kiss.

Tragedy avoided, their kiss was broken apart
by Dina's abrupt arrival. She still looked panicked and Ellie wondered if the dark haired antichrist was the reason for her frenzied state now.

"Mom?" She stepped away from Devlin and went to her. "Mom, what's wrong?" Before Dina could respond, Gabe crashed into the room, just as grim as her mother. "Gabe, what? What's going on?"

"Sophie's missing." Why did Ellie even think of trying to get her life in some semblance of order, when the universe conspired with the fates to bring about discord and pain?

"What the hell do you mean she's miss
ing? I just saw her." She looked at her mother. "Right, Mom? Wasn't she with you?"

"She said she was going to go outsi
de for a minute, but that was a half hour ago. We looked almost everywhere. Miranda has the staff out looking for her too, but nothing so far."

"I'm sure she's just in the garden playing with Roan," And as if the utterance of his name
conjured him, Devlin's only son knocked and then entered the room. Devlin reached Roan first, Ellie not too far behind. "Roan have you seen, Sophie?"

"Yeah," there was a collective sigh of relief from the occupants of the room, but his next words heightened the panic once more. "I saw her sneaking into
a Rolls Royce a while ago. It drove away before I could stop her."

"A Rolls Royce? But whose? And why?" Dina posed the question that only
Ellie had the answers to.

"Should we call the police?"

"No, there's no need for…"Ellie pulled out her cell phone and looked at the unknown number flashing across the screen, she flipped it open and rested against her ear.

"Tell me Sophie's with you?"

"She is and she's fine." was the even toned reply.

"Put her on
the phone." It was a demand that would be meted out if Nicholas knew what was good for him.

Too bad Nicholas didn't care much for his health. "I can't do that."

"Why the hell not?"

"She's afraid you'll yell at her."

Of all the fucking nerve! "She's my daughter, if I want to throttle the living daylights out of her, she'll sit there and take it! Now put her on the phone, Nicholas or I'm calling the police."

She heard a sigh.
"Go easy on her, Ellie, she feels bad enough as it is."

"
Nicholas, pass her the phone.” There was a few crinkling noises of the phone being passed over.

"Hello…”
She sounded terrified and Ellie knew that she had to calm down or else she would say something she'd later regret.

"Are you okay?"
She was choking on her anger.

"Yeah.
"

"I don't know what you thought
you would accomplish by pulling this stunt tonight, but I want you to get your butt home this very second, do you hear me, Sophie?"

"Y-yes Mom."

"Pass the phone over to, Nicholas."

"Mom, I'm sorry."

"We'll talk about it when we get home, pass the phone to Nicholas."

"Hello?"

"We're leaving the country club right now and should be home in a little bit."

"Ellie…
"

"Please j
ust drop her off, Nicholas.”

"We'll be there in
fifteen minutes."

"Thank you."

There was no explaining the anger that boiled through Ellie's veins, all she knew was that her daughter had deliberately gone against her wishes and opened a can of worms that Ellie thought long buried.

"Mom, can you and dad drive me back home?"

"Of course sweetheart, I'll just go get your father and the twins and meet you in the front entrance."

"Am I going mental or did I just hear that Nicholas is back?" Gabe silently asked the minute both Dina and Devlin left.

Ellie sighed. "He's back, he knows about the twins and Sophie is on some warped crusade to get us back together. My life has once again gone to hell."

Ten years in a maximum security prison
had taught Tony Carlyle a few lessons that even now, months after being released, resonated. Lesson number one, in prison, much like in life, you were always expected to keep on your toes. Relax an inch and you’d find yourself the personal bitch to a bear size man who would mercilessly rip into you until your blood became his lubricant. Lesson number two, invisibility was a skill that one needed to acquire if one was to evade the brawny fists of pussy hungry bear man and his numskull cronies. Which led to lesson number three. Pissing off said numskull cronies was a mistake you didn’t want to make, because as stupid as they may have looked, they didn't need brains to utilize your body as a punching bag.

Lesson number four, this particular lesson was Tony's favorite, one that
had kept him fueled with hope when everything else had seemed to be a melting pot of shit. Always, always remember that revenge was the best sort of optimism. It was vengeance that fueled Edmond Dantes to return as the Count of Monte Cristo and decimate his enemies. It was the same burning vengeance that now blazed a path through Tony's veins. The sadistic joy he took from fantasies of wreaking havoc on the lives of those who made his life hell all these years had festered and fledged into this cancerous malady that could only be cured with everyone’s misery.

Ten years behind bars, with nothing
but the grimy walls of his box-sized cell for company had taught Tony the importance of patience. The greatest vendettas in history were never accomplished in one day. They were cultivated and then brilliantly executed one blow at a time.

His crowning moment would soon
come. It was all a matter of timing and perseverance.

That day all those years ago was forever embossed on Tony's memor
y. Tony had never forgotten and when the time came for retribution, he would make damn sure that Nicholas Grayson paid dearly for the pain he had wrought. But unlike all those years ago, Tony would not underestimate the dark haired prick. This time he would make sure that there was no room for mistakes. The Grayson scion had his Achilles heel and it was the same weak point that he and Tony shared. But unlike him, Tony was no longer afflicted by his love for Ellie Holbrook.

H
e stabbed a blue tack into the picture he held against the water stained wall of his rat infested apartment and took a step back. A myriad of images all taken at a distance of a curly haired biracial woman and her children littered the wall in a collage of the day to day events of Ellie's life. The majority of images were of either Ellie going about her daily routine or of the twelve year old girl that was Tony's only child.

A child he barely even knew and vice versa. A child who would be the key to Tony's plans and when everything was over and done with he would make sure that his daughter knew exactly who he was. But for now, he had more planning to do, more images to collect and more information to sift through.

Slipping into a black windbreaker he picked up the Ipris C-50 camera, the most expensive object in his possession and settled it into his small bag. At the door, he put on a pair of beat up Nike's, grabbed his keys and ambled out of his apartment. The pungent odor of piss, cigarettes and semen immediately invaded his nostrils and slid down his throat. He snorted and hacked the taste down the bottom of the concrete staircase to his far right.

He'd been living in this shit hole for almost seven months now and in that time he'd had to deal with a greasy, loud
mouthed fat fuck for a landlord. He’d had to evade crack heads, ho's and pimps alike while trying to deal with his asshole of a probation officer. But through it all, Tony realized that this hell was far better than where he'd been before. So with as much jaunt as he could put in his step, he exited the apartment building and immersed himself in the downtown crowd.

~*
~*~*~

Once she'd overcome the initial shock of hearing that Nicholas was back, knew of his childre
n and that Sophie was with him. It had taken all of Ronnie's strength to convince Gabe that under no circumstances would there be guns involved when Nicholas dropped Sophie off. They had enough problems already and certainly didn't need to add to them with Gabe murdering one of the most powerful men in the world and getting himself incarcerated.

It’d been wrong of
Ellie to keep such a devastating secret for so long. But in hindsight Ronnie couldn’t say she blamed Ellie for doing what she did. But then again two wrongs didn’t make a right. Nicholas, cruel as he may have been back then, had been a terribly wounded and lost individual, even more so than a recuperating Ellie. Having bared witness to their whirlwind love affair and the great lost Nicholas experienced, Ronnie couldn’t say she didn’t feel for him.

They’d both been so wounded and rightly so, could’ve taken comfort in the other. It would’ve been so easy.
But life wasn’t some fairy tale story. Ronnie hadn’t protested much when Ellie initially decided to keep quiet about the twins. After experiencing all that they had, she’d believed they’d both needed the time apart to mend those gaping wounds, to find life outside of their encompassing love. Ronnie had believed Ellie would eventually tell Nicholas and maybe her goddaughter had also believed that, at the beginning. But then weeks turned into months and months into years and even before they’d all realized ten years had passed. Now Nicholas was here and Ellie was left to face the repercussions.

It was an all-around difficult situation to be in but more than anything Ronnie felt for those twins
; the poor dears, missing out on the opportunity to know their father. All Ronnie could pray for now was that Ellie and Nicholas put their differences aside to work together to find some semblance of peace for their children.

With a resigned sigh, Ronnie entered the living room
to find Ellie seated in front of a muted television screen, a pensive frown on her face. Phillip and Gabe powwowed near the kitchen entrance. The scent of freshly brewed coffee permeated the air, Dina’s obvious handiwork. As if sensing her presence, Ellie looked up, met Ronnie's gaze and opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the doorbell.

Ellie was off the couch like a shot, she hurried to the door, Gabe and Phillip dogging her steps. Ronnie chose to remain behind with Dina and await the conference to come to them, as she knew it would.