Chasing What’s Mine by Ava Gray
Gemma
Aiden pokes his head around my bedroom door, and says, “You’re not packing?”
I pull out my earbuds and stop the playlist I’ve been wallowing in, placing my phone on my bedside table. It’s been painfully silent the past few days, with only Kate making contact with me.
Aiden comes to sit beside me on my bed. “What’s up?” he asks, genuinely concerned.
“I got an email this morning.”
“O-kay,” he says, drawing out the word.
“From the mayoral campaign office.”
His eyes grow wide as he looks at me. “What was it about?”
I sigh heavily, choosing my words. “Well, the mayor’s up for re-election this year, and they want me to join the campaign.”
I watch as his mouth drops open. “You’re kidding. They offered you a job? Gem, this is great news!” He bounces up and down on the bed, but then stops. “Wait, why do you look like someone died?”
“Because I haven’t accepted, and I don’t know if I should.”
“Shut up, you’re taking the job,” he says. “It’s not just anyone that walks into something like this fresh off graduation.”
I know he’s right. Being part of the mayoral campaign would be a huge boost to my career. But that’s not the reason I’m in two minds taking the job. If I don’t get on that plane tomorrow, what does it mean for Dax and me? After what happened at the gym the other day, I don’t see how we can salvage anything. Although, I know that if we have enough time in the same orbit, we’ll find a way. It’s something I feel strongly in my bones. Which then leaves me with the problem of my brothers and how they’ll feel about our relationship. Ugh. It’s all just too much.
“Gem, listen to me,” Aiden says. “As your older brother, I surely know more than you do.”
He chuckles and I slap his arm. Leave it to him to use whatever moment he can get to go all big brother on me.
“But seriously,” he says, “Hawaii can wait. An opportunity like this might never come your way again.”
“Gee, thanks, bro. Good to know you have so much faith in me.”
“Come on, Gem, you know how it works. Close this door, you risk alienating the very people who could open another for you in future.”
I roll my eyes at him, but mostly because I know he’s right. There’s no way I can pass up this job. But I haven’t told Aiden or Riley that they were right since I was seven years old and didn’t know any better; I sure as hell am not going to start now.
“You don’t have to say it,” he says, with a knowing smile. “I can see it in your eyes.”
I aim a playful kick at his leg, and we both laugh. It’s the first time I’ve done that in days.
“Hey, okay,” I say, my laughter fading. “Since you’re my all-knowing brother and all—” He waggles his eyebrows at me. “—what can you tell me about that creep who’s always hanging around Dax? The one he was fighting with the other night?”
Aiden’s face drops instantly, and his eyes grow dark with worry. Or is it fear? He pushes off my bed and starts pacing in front of it, muttering to himself.
“What is all this secrecy about? He won’t tell me anything, and now you’ve gone all Rain man on me, too? I can’t take it.”
And maybe it’s me raising my voice that does it, but Aiden quits his pacing and looks at me. For a while he doesn’t say anything, and I don’t push him either. I don’t want to risk him clamming up again. So, I wait.
“This isn’t a good idea,” he says, with a grimace. “It’s not something you should be getting involved in.”
I’ve about had it up to here with people deciding what’s best for me. “Aiden, I’m asking, and you’re going to tell me.”
He sighs, shakes his head, but eventually gives in. And not a moment too soon, either, because I’m more than ready to lose whatever shit needs to be lost to get some answers.
“His name’s Stash,” Aiden says, sitting back down again. This time, though, he keeps to the edge of my bed and doesn’t come near me.
“Who is he?”
I think I already know the answer to this one, but I ask anyway.
“Just some scumbag from Dax’s past. They grew up on the streets together,” he says, fiddling with the frayed ends of my throw blanket. “But whereas Dax learned his lesson and cleaned up, Stash—” His voice trails away.
“Stash didn’t,” I say, finishing his sentence for him.
Aiden nods slowly. “He just ended up getting worse. In and out of prison, mixed up in all kinds of shady stuff.”
“And the fight?”
He sucks in his breath, chewing the inside of his lip the way he does when he’s nervous about something. That’s how I know I’m onto something.
“Aiden talk to me. What was the fight about?”
“Listen, Gem, this guy, he’s not just some thug, okay? He’s dangerous. Or he can be. And I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to—”
I get up and go round my bed until I’m right in front of him. “Would you quit your rambling and just tell me already? I’m sick of everyone treating me like some fragile baby who can’t handle herself. Just tell me!”
Aiden jumps up, too. “Okay! Dammit, okay!” He’s out of breath and clearly agitated. “I’ll tell you. Just—just calm down.”
I take a deep breath and step back to give him room. This is my show of good faith. “I’m calm,” I say.
He eyes me suspiciously for a moment, half-expecting me to bite his head off again, I’m sure. But when he sees that’s not going to happen, he starts talking.
“I don’t know if you know about Stash and Ciara,” he says.
“What? What about them?”
Aiden picks up the Paris snow globe from my dresser and starts toying with it. He functions best when he’s tinkering with something, which is what makes him so good at his job.
“Stash and Ciara used to date,” he says, tossing the globe and catching it again. “It turns out that he never got over her, and a few weeks ago he tried to enlist Dax to get them to break up so he could get her back.”
If the news about Ciara’s past flirtation with the dark side threw me for a loop, Dax’s involvement in messing with my brother’s relationship absolutely floors me.
“Dax did what?”
“No, no,” Aiden says, holding up his hands. “He tried to get Dax to help him, but he wouldn’t.”
I let out a shaky breath. “Oh.”
“I mean, he did come over here asking me to talk to Riley.”
“He what?”
“Yeah, he said Riley was better off just doing what Stash wanted,” he says. “But Riley refused, obviously.”
“He loves her. He would never.”
“Which is pretty much how that conversation went down.” He starts pacing again, swirling the globe and watching the flakes reflect in the sunlight. “And then it came out that Stash threatened our family.”
“The hits just keep coming, don’t they?” I’m finding it hard to follow the conversation as well as my hyperactive brother, who can’t keep still. “What the hell, Aiden? How does all of this happen without one of you telling me about it?”
He shrugs and shakes his head. “I guess it’s one of those ‘the less you know, the better’ situations.”
“Well, that’s a bullshit excuse,” I say, and snatch the snow globe from him. He looks like a puppy who’s just lost his favorite bone. “Is that what the fight was about? Was Dax trying to put an end to it?”
Aiden takes the globe back and goes right on tossing it around. “Who knows why it happened? But if I had to guess, I’d say that was the reason.”
I finally have the answers I’ve been looking for all this time, and the weight of them bears down on me so heavily I find it hard to breathe. I flop down on the bed and watch Aiden pace the length of my room in front of me. The fact that Dax didn’t mention any of this to me in the first place is unsettling. It felt like we really had a connection, especially when I spent the night with him. That he would go off and fight this guy and not say anything to me—
“So, do you think it’s over?” I ask. “You think Dax got this guy to back down?”
Aiden scoffs. “You obviously haven’t heard the news.” I shake my head. How can there be more? After all that, how can there be even more to add to this glorious shit storm? “Dax challenged him to a proper fight. In the arena.”
My heart drops to my feet. “He didn’t.” I breathe the words, too shocked to attempt anything more.
Aiden says nothing, but nods.
“That’s insane,” I say.
He comes to sit beside me, twirling the globe around and around in his hands. “Yeah, well, that’s in keeping with all things Dax Daytona.”
My mind is racing for a way to get around this. To avoid the fight, and to get this Stash asshole out of the picture once and for all.
“What if I give it a shot?”
“You wanna fight Stash Lombardi in the arena?”
I slap the back of his head. “No, you idiot. Well, yes, but not in the way you think.”