Chapter 51

-Clarity

Braylin is in the kitchen cleaning fish when he hears Kara’s scream.  He drops the knife and fish taking off he runs up the stairs to her room. 

She’s on the floor her cell phone is lying a few feet away from her.  He’s not sure what’s happened but believes it has something to do with Amelia. 

“Baby talk to me….Kara are you alright.”  He walks over to her sitting on the floor next to her.  He starts to pull her in his arms she screams at him and moves back pushing herself against the nightstand holding her hands out not wanting him to touch her. 

Braylin is at his wits end, he doesn’t know what else to do to help her.  He can’t fight the demons inside her.  He doesn’t know what she’s holding on to.  She’s crying and mumbling he doesn’t understand what she’s saying, she just keeps saying she’s sorry.   

“Kara…it’s alright baby, I’m here.”  His frustration of the situation gets the better of him finally breaking him he turns away from her she hears the emotion in his throat.  He’s crying and he doesn’t want her to see it. 

Kara stares at him, this man that has stood by her through everything and is still with her trying to understand, to help her and to love her but she won’t let him. 

Crawling across the floor to sit next to him against the side of the bed she wraps her arms around his waist snuggling up next to him.  Reaching out she wipes his tears away from his beautiful sad eyes.  She starts to talk with her head lying on his shoulder.  He wraps his arms around her leaning back, his head resting against the side of the bed. 

She goes back as far as she can remember, telling him about all the times her mother would take her with her to meet up with her lovers behind her father’s back.  She knew of her mother’s infidelity and she never told her father of where she had been during the day or the things she seen her mother do.  She carries so much guilt about it because she watched him suffer through their marriage, he knew his wife was unfaithful but he always seemed to believe she would change and Kara knew by what she saw that she wouldn’t.   

A month before she left them for good her father was in Jersey visiting a friend who had just opened up a new restaurant he was spending the night.  Her mother shut the restaurant down early that day.  She told Kara she was going out on a date.  They were preparing to leave the restaurant her mother told her to put the closing sign out and lock the front door.  When she got to the door a man rushed in.  Kara had seen him before she knew he was one of her mother’s former lover’s but she had not seen him for a while.  She didn’t know who her mother was going out with and assumed it was him.  

She let him come inside.  Smelling liquor on his breath she wanted to get away from him, she didn’t like the way he was looking at her she tried to leave the room but he grabbed her and started trying to kiss her.  She can still recall his hot breath on her face as she struggled to get away.  He chased her and threw her on the floor.  He tore her shirt off and yanked her skirt up.  He was holding her down strangling her while he unbuckled his pants.   

Kara was screaming and squirming beneath him, he had his zipper undone when her mother came into the room.  He and her mother started arguing.  He told her mother that he was going to have his way with Kara if she didn’t come back to him. 

Amelia told the man that it wouldn’t change her mind, their relationship was long over.  She turned her back and walked away.  The man looked at Kara and started to unzip his pants.  Kara tried to fight him off when he was hit from behind and knocked on top of her. 

Kara’s mother had hit him with one of the heavy wine bottles used for display in their restaurant.  She told Kara to get up and go clean herself up both were thinking he was passed out.  Kara told Braylin how devastated she by what had happened to her and yet her mother’s tone was uncaring she made her feel like it was her fault. When she came back down to the dining room almost an hour after the man had attacked her, Kara found her mother lying in the dark on the dining room floor near the same spot Kara had been lying in earlier. 

The man wasn’t knocked out, he was only dazed, he got ahold of her mother he beat her and raped her instead while Kara was out of the room.  Afterward he ran out of the restaurant leaving his jacket filled with his wallet and some papers.  Kara only knew that he was some high powered lawyer.  She never saw him again her mother didn’t go to the police and didn’t tell her father what happened.  She cleaned herself up and her mother dropped her off at their house leaving her alone.  Amelia went out on her date with the other man Kara later learned was James Monroe.  She left Kara with questions unanswered and still feeling the fear of what had happened to her.  She never checked to see if Kara was alright and they never spoke of it again.  Amelia was more cold and uncaring toward her until she walked out of their lives the day she got into James Monroe’s car. 

Braylin still has tears in his eyes unable to believe what he has just heard.  He suspected Kara had been abused as a child and thought he was prepared to handle it when she did eventually speak about it.  He didn’t expect to hear of such cruelty from her own mother.   

Kara releases her hold on him shrinking away from him she balls up pressing her head against her knees with her arms wrapped around her softly crying.  Braylin crawls to her pulling her into his arms he hugs her for a long time until her crying stops. 

“Kara, what happened is not your fault, you were a child.  I’m so sorry you had to experience something like that.  You have to let go of this guilt you’re carrying.  Baby you mom should have handled it better she should have protected you and talked to you about it.   You’ve got to move on, stop punishing yourself for the things that she did.”  Braylin is cupping her cheek looking into her eyes. 

“I know Braylin, I guess I need help….I just feel so alone all the time.”  Kara sniffles. 

“Kara….you’re not alone, you just won’t let anyone in for too long.  You have people around you that love you.  I love you so much sweetheart but you keep pushing me away why?”  His voice breaks. 

“I thought I didn’t deserve for anybody to love me, I thought…..Oh Braylin, I’m so sorry I’ve just let her control my life even when she wasn’t a part of it.  I’m so messed up I don’t want to take someone else into my hell.”  She responds. 

“Let go of her Kara….you’ve got to let go of her.  She’s destroying you and us.  Is that what you want?  Do you understand me Kara….none of it is your fault?” 

“Braylin I don’t know how, will you help me?”  Kara grabs ahold of his arm holding on to his sleeve.  

“I’ve been trying sweetheart, tell me what you need from me it’s yours anything you want.”  Braylin slides his hand into her hair cupping the back of her head massaging it.   

“I don’t want to lose you.  I need you.”  Kara tearfully responds.  Braylin pulls her head toward him kissing her on her forehead.  “I need you to Kara.  I’m still not letting go.”  He squeezes her close. 

“Don’t let go Braylin….please don’t let go.”  She lifts her head to press her lips against his their tongues intertwine in a hungered kiss with a need to be closer.  He leans back on the floor with her in his arms, his hands start to roam moving her on top of him.  She likes the beard nuzzling and kissing his face and neck working her way down unbuttoning his shirt, she breathes in as she kisses his chest. 

“Braylin.”  She wrinkles her nose against him.  “You smell like fish.”  She bites him and he yelps. 

“Did you just bite me?”  He tries to look at the mark seeming surprised.  “He dips his head leaving his own love mark on her neck.”  She tries to resist but not really happy to be in his arms. 

“Braylin don’t leave a mark where people can see it.”  She giggles and squirms. 

“Why not, your mine and you smell like fish to sweetheart.”  He sniffs her then kisses her. 

“I’m hungry, you owe me a dinner.”  She wraps her arms around him. 

“I’m hungry to.”  He flips her over lowering his head to lick the soft flesh between her breasts making her shiver.  His blood surges as he presses his body against hers it’s been too long since he felt her against him so intimately.  She echo’s his feeling sliding her hands up his chest welcoming his touch showing her eagerness for it.  In no time he’s got one of her nipples between his teeth, he licks and sucks on it, the pleasure and pain from it makes her want more.  She removes his shirt.  He takes off hers, they continue to undress each other until both are naked.  He grabs a pillow from the bed throwing it on the floor.   

The fish smell between them soon disappears being replaced by another more powerful smell that feels their nostrils full of primal need for one another.  There’s a comfortable queen sized bed a step away yet they never make it to it.  Braylin keeps Kara on that floor she doesn’t mind her body is racked pleasure and repeated orgasms.  Their lovemaking last for quite some time they do more than make up for being intimately apart from each other. 

Back in Manhattan the guys were in a meeting with some of the mid-town project’s construction foremans discussing the repairs of the building involved in the altercation with the hitman.  When Braylin’s pictures came through Cameron showed them to the foremen and one of them asked Lester when he was going back out on his yacht.  The foreman noticed he’s using it again. 

Lester soon discovered that they had seen movement on his yacht when they went fishing last week.  They assumed it was him. 

After the foremen left, Lester called Conner and Det. Farrow asking them to meet him at the boat.  Aaron and Cameron refused to let him go alone they changed clothes and hurried to the Marina where Lester’s boat is docked. 

Arriving at the dock they check with another yacht owner and learn that a woman has been seen there for a couple of weeks now.   Lester ask the neighbors to describe the woman they describe Alexandra.  Before their conversation ends Lester has left their yacht and is running down the ramp to get on his yacht when Cameron and Aaron catch up with him. 

“Hold it.”  Cameron grabs at him holding him back. 

“Why, it’s her she’s on there.  I need to talk to her.”  Lester tries to break away. 

“Wait…Cam’s right.  What if it’s a setup?  We don’t know.  It might not be her.  How can you be sure?”  Aaron ask him. 

“I’m going on that boat to find out.”  Lester isn’t deterred. 

“Alright…fine….but we need a plan, you can’t just show up.”  Cameron tells him. 

“Why not?  It’s my fuckin boat.  There’s not supposed to be anybody on it except the asshole I hired to watch it.  Where is he?  Do you see him?  I couldn’t even reach him by phone. 

Finally agreeing with him because they know they can’t stop him.  They come up with a plan for going aboard the boat. 

They sneak aboard and start carefully checking the cabin.  Lester gets to one of the bedrooms and enters.  A robe is laying on the bed.  It’s a woman's blue satin.  He goes toward the bathroom door hearing water running.  He’s been thinking about her so much he can’t sleep.  He wants it to be her so bad when he opens that door.   

Releasing the breath he holds he turns the nob opening it going in.  Alexandra is in the shower and has her back turned.  She hears the opening of the bathroom door and fears it’s Logan.  She starts screaming just as Lester opens the shower door. 

“Logan?”  He says with an angered look on his face.  “You said Logan?  You’re staying here with someone?”  He barks. 

“No….Lester don’t jump to the wrong conclusion.  I am here with someone but it’s not what you think.  Don’t leave me this time.”   She was holding her hands and arms across her body but now that she sees that it’s Lester she doesn’t try to hide anymore she lunges at him getting him wet as she wraps her arms around him to hug him and keep him from leaving. 

Cameron and Aaron hear the scream, they come running into the bedroom and try to crowd into the bathroom behind him until Lester yells.  “Get out.”  He wraps his arms around Alexandra preventing them from seeing her naked. 

The two brothers back up and turn around only to see Logan Spector standing in fear at the door’s entrance.  They strike grabbing him wrestling him to the ground, Aaron punches him across the face for what he did to his brother. 

Lester and Alexandra hear the commotion, Lester sees what’s going on he comes out of the bathroom grabbing the robe for Alexandra she puts it on and comes out of the bathroom behind Lester. 

“What are you doing here?”  Lester barks at him looking from him to Alexandra.  Really Alex….him?”  He’s about to combust his fury is so deep. 

“I told you it’s not like it seems.  Damn you Lester, you always jump to the wrong conclusions.”  She yells at him in front of the other men.  Cameron and Aaron are holding onto a struggling Logan. 

“Let him go, he didn’t do anything to me and we are not together.  I’m his attorney.”  Alexandra tells them. 

“Since when did you need to keep your clients so close Alex, he tried to kill me, are you aware of that?”   

“I didn’t try to kill anybody.”  Logan squirms still being held onto by the brothers. 

“Please….will the three of you listen for once.  He didn’t know what Amelia was going to do, that’s why he ran.  He knows too much, she’s trying to kill him to. ”  Alexandra explains. 

“So you’re putting my wife in danger?”  Lester turns to him. 

“She’s not your wife anymore man.  We’re working together.  We got James Monroe to kick Amelia out of her house.”  Logan comments. 

“You what.”  Cameron loosens his grip. 

“If you two let me go, I can explain.”  Logan says.  Alexandra grabs some clothes and disappears back into the bathroom.  The four men go into the living area of the yacht.  Aaron doesn’t trust Logan he stands near the exit. 

Logan tells them what he knows about Amelia and Liam.  Alexandra joins them and fills them in on her conversation with James Monroe.   

They can’t believe all of this was going on.  Lester can’t take his eyes off of Alexandra. 

“You’re not staying here any longer.  You’re coming with me.  It’s not safe here.  This hitman, Aleski may have followed you here.  I can’t believe you lead this bastard to my wife Spector.  I ought to kick your ass just because.”  Lester stands over Logan. 

“Come on man, I’m just trying to stay alive right now.  Alexandra and I made a deal.  We’re both afraid of Amelia.”  Logan responds. 

“We need to get them someplace safe.”  Cameron remarks. 

They hear a movement on the boat and assume that it’s Conner and Det. Farrow.  They come up top on the deck of the yacht expecting to see the two men.  As soon as they are all out in the open Aaron can see Conner and Det. Farrow still at the end of the plank walking toward the boat.

“Oh shit….somebody else is on here.”  He says just before a bullet shoots past him hitting Logan in the shoulder knocking him down.  They all react, Cameron grabs his younger brother and they scamper back in the cabin with Lester grabbing Alexandra also trying to make it inside. 

Another shot rings out.  Conner and Det. Farrow are closer to the boat now, Conner can see a man with a rifle with a scope on it aiming it at the yacht from a boat across the dock.  He taps Ronan on the shoulder they take cover and return fire at the boat with the hitman in it.

Soon there are sirens, the police have been notified.  The hitman is gone by the time the police arrive.  Logan is still alive but he’s taken into custody. 

Det. Farrow tells them that Amelia Santino Monroe is officially a wanted woman along with the hitman, Aleski.  The police suspect that they are together.  They speculate if she was someplace close by while the hitman was shooting at them. 

After all is taken care of at the scene, Alexandra gathers her things and is quiet on the ride to Lester’s house.  When they arrive he shows her to her own room feeling like they both need some time to think alone but he’s glad to have her safe and with him.  

Several hours later he knocks on her door to see if she wants something to eat.  He had his chef cook for them before leaving.  She opens the door finding his gaze on her is filled with desire.  She reaches her hand up to his face to cup his cheek. 

“I’m glad you’re alright.”  She says softly. 

“It was you that brought me out of it.  I heard you, was I dreaming it all.”  His eyes burn into hers.

“No…”  She shakes her head, her eyes are full of unshed tears. 

“Why…. if you thought you were in danger, why did you risk coming to the hospital?”  He wears a heavy scowl she’s not sure why he’s asking her that. 

“I had to make sure you were alright, I…I still love you.  I always have and always will.”  She tells him. 

“The baby….it wasn’t Maxim’s?”  He says it as a statement not as a question. 

“No…it was yours.  I’m sorry.”  She tries to hold it together. 

“Me too….I’m so, so sorry.”  He rushes toward her attacking her lips and letting his tongue savor her taste.  She holds on to him, he lifts her up.  She’s concerned knowing it’s not too long since he’s gotten out of the hospital. 

“The only place I want to rest is in your arms.”  He carries her to the bed, Alexandra melts right into him wrapping her body around him hugging him deeply.  He kisses her with so much passion dinner will definitely be late.  They have so much time to make up for. Their need and want for each other is just too great. 

Aaron is on his way home and it’s the one time he wishes he had someone close in his life to go home to.  This ordeal his family is going through is so stressful, he just wants someone that will understand, someone he can talk to.  Out of all the women he’s dated he doesn’t think of any of them.  Making a U-turn and praying he doesn’t get a ticket, not tonight.  He searches in his wallet for her address.  What if she’s not at home?  What if she is and isn’t alone maybe with her boyfriend or just another man.  What can he say to her?  It doesn’t stop him from pulling up in front of her apartment complex.  He’s got nothing to lose.  He checks to make sure of her apartment number. 

He finds her apartment and knocks several times no one answers.  He’s about to leave walking back down the hallway to the elevator in a hurry.  He’s now embarrassed what was he thinking coming to her place without calling. 

Jamming on the elevator button he waits for it to arrive.  When it does and the doors open she’s standing there with a few Target bags in one hand and a grocery bag in the other. 

“Aaron….what are you doing here?  Is Kara alright….Braylin.  What….what’s going on?”  Darla drinks in his handsome appearance but his blue eyes are so troubled. 

“Kara’s fine….Braylin’s fine….Lester and Alexandra are fine and so are my brother Cameron and Michelle.  Everybody is fine, it just that…..I need….I want?  I’m sorry.  Let me help you with your bags to your door and I’ll go.”  He shakes his head taking the plastic bags out of her hands. 

They walk down the hallway together.  One of her neighbors comes out of her apartment seeing them, she gawks at him then gives Darla a thumbs up signal as she passes her.