A Price to Pay Read online

  Michael took a step closer to Avery, hating her for telling the truth but respecting her for not taking a step back. “My family is none of your damn business. Carter, tell your baby’s mama to get away from me.”

  “She’s right,” Carter said. He was a little shaken by the look of hurt on Michael’s face as he turned to his big brother.

  “You siding with her now?” Michael asked.

  Avery was a little taken aback herself. Usually when she had a problem with Michael, Carter told her to stay out of it, refused to pick sides, or sided with Michael. Was he actually agreeing with her?

  “I’m not siding with anyone,” Carter said. “But Daniel has mentioned some things to me in the past couple of months.”

  “And you didn’t tell me?” Michael’s expression was taut and resentful.

  “You blow up every time I mention anything about Kimberly. I’m sick of it and I don’t have the time or patience for your bloodthirsty revenge against her.”

  “Revenge for what?” Avery asked. Although Kimberly would tell her nothing, Avery knew Michael had told Carter what had changed. But Carter would never betray Michael’s secrets.

  Carter turned to Avery, showing his discomfort. He couldn’t tell her about the pimp, the murder, the witness, and the tape. That was a secret that had only been between him and Michael for the longest time and now included their parents. No one else could know. The price to the family was too high.

  “Yeah, Carter.” Michael folded his arms across his chest, daring his brother to betray him; to betray their whole family. He knew he wouldn’t do it. “Tell her our secrets. Tell the woman who tried to hide your own baby from you.”

  “That has nothing to do with this,” Avery said.

  “You’re both a bunch of hypocrites,” Michael said with a laugh. “You want to tell me about my marriage? Like you two wouldn’t hit it if given the chance.”

  “Michael!” Carter warned.

  “Everyone sees it.” Michael shot them both a twisted smile. “So keep the self-righteous speeches to yourself.”

  After one last menacing glare at Avery, Michael shoved past Carter in search of a hard drink. This was none of that holier-than-thou bitch’s business. He was in control of his marriage and he could take care of his boys. He’d thought he was in control of Kimberly’s access to Avery, but he would have to work harder on that. That, and making sure Kimberly kept her mouth shut.

  “Thanks.” Avery felt guilty for the look on Carter’s face now. He was in his worst moods when he and Michael were fighting.

  “For what?”

  “Backing me up,” she answered. “I know its hard for you to go against . . .”

  “You have to let it go,” Carter said. “It really isn’t any of your business.”

  “Kimberly is my friend and I love those boys. I thought you did too.” As she saw Carter’s frown deepen, Avery realized what she’d said and felt awful. “I didn’t mean to . . . I know you love the twins.”

  Carter looked back at his little brother, who was becoming someone he no longer recognized. Michael hadn’t been a perfect husband, but he loved Kimberly to death. She’d screwed up, more than once, but what Michael was doing now wasn’t right.

  “He’s miserable,” Carter said. “He’s completely shut me out. I don’t know how to make him listen.”

  “I’m sorry.” Avery resisted the urge to reach out and touch him, to comfort him. He was a ridiculously handsome man, but was even more beautiful when he was sad. He very rarely showed any emotions. It touched her deeply when he did.

  The soft tone of her voice made Carter turn back to Avery. Looking into her large, doe-like eyes, he saw the compassion that he had become so familiar with; had come to rely on to greet him when he came home at the end of the day or when he was stressed and angry over anything. Those eyes were so honest and empathetic. They reached inside of him and stripped him of any pretense; any need to protect himself. He got lost in those eyes.

  “Avery.” Her name came just above a whisper from his lips as he felt something just as familiar: the pull in his groin whenever she was near. He always wanted her.

  She was in trouble, Avery knew it. The voice in her head was yelling, begging for her to turn and walk away. Even her heart was trying to whisper her away. But her body wanted her to take a step closer and touch him as the world simply disappeared around them.

  Then she heard it. Her name was being called by . . . by her husband. She turned to look for him, but he was right there. He’d been standing right next to her, for how long she had no idea because she was so caught up with Carter.

  Carter hid the resentment he felt at the interruption of this annoying man. He looked forward to the day when Anthony Harper would be out of their lives for good, but was actually happy he’d come just now. Another second and Carter was likely to have slipped up.

  “Hey, Anthony.” Carter reached out and patted Anthony’s shoulder once before Anthony jerked away. Pleased that Avery noticed the gesture, Carter shrugged his shoulders at her and smiled before making a quick retreat. Let the arguing commence.

  There he was.

  When Haley finally found the disappearing boyfriend, he was in the kitchen talking on his cell phone. No, Garrett hadn’t been around long and she probably wasn’t going to keep him around much longer, but as long as he was with her, he had to learn the rules. Never, ever leave Haley hanging. He’d been missing for almost a half hour.

  Haley was debating his punishment as she quietly snuck up to him, but just as she reached him, he quickly swung around to face her and the look on his face told her something was very wrong. His expression was tight with strain and . . . it looked like fear.

  “Who are you talking to?” she asked, quickly placing her hands on her hips and assuming the pre-tantrum position. Haley gasped out loud as Garrett lifted his finger to gesture for her to wait. This boy must be crazy.

  Without hesitation, she grabbed the phone from his hands. “No, I don’t wait for anyone.”

  “Haley.” Garrett reached for the phone and almost tore Haley’s hand off getting it back. He put the phone to his ear and frantically said, “Hello? Hello? Mr. Bilton? Are you still there?”

  He sighed, seeming satisfied with the response. Haley was ready to explode, but the nosy girl in her was more interested in what had Garrett looking ready to explode.

  “Yes sir,” he said, clearly flustered. “But I . . . I don’t think it will come to that. Yes, I know I messed up, but Justin . . . Isn’t that a bit drastic Mr. . . .”

  He turned his back to Haley, but she wasn’t having it. She stepped around to remain face-to-face with him, further intrigued by the pained expression on his face. She didn’t need to rip him a new one because someone on the phone had just said something that made him look like he wanted to pee his pants.

  “You can’t mean that,” he said flatly, as if he’d already known the answer to his own question. “Yes, sir.”

  He blinked, looking at the phone as if it would explain that entire conversation to him.

  “Poor baby,” Haley said with fake sympathy. “Your brown-nosing skills are pretty pitiful. You sounded like you were about to cry. I can’t believe he didn’t fire you. You were talking to your boss, right?”

  Garrett appeared miles away as he attempted to place the phone in the side pocket of his pants, but missed and the phone fell to the granite floor. Haley was curious as to why he didn’t even seem to care.

  “Not exactly.” Garrett ran his hand over his head, shaking it as if not believing something in his own mind. “Uhm . . . I have to go.”

  “What?” Haley asked. “You beg me to come to this thing, show up, disappear, and now you’re telling me you have to leave? You must not plan on coming back here.”

  He reached down and grabbed the various pieces of his cell phone that had fallen apart. “Give me a break, Haley.”

  “I don’t do that.”

  “I have to go.” He shrugged. “It’s o
ut of my hands.”

  He was actually leaving, and Haley decided it wasn’t necessary to see him again. “It seems like a lot of things are out of your hands, Garrett. Not impressive.”

  She was annoyed by the fact that he wasn’t even listening on his way out of the kitchen, but as her mother entered, Haley didn’t want to show it. She hated showing anything.

  “What was that about? ” Janet asked. “And why are you in here?”

  “Don’t I live here?” Haley opened the double doors of the stainless-steel refrigerator, peeking in for something; anything with chocolate.

  “Is he leaving?” Janet waited a second, but realized that Haley wasn’t going to answer her. “Well, he wasn’t invited anyway.”

  Haley slammed the refrigerator door. “Is there something you want?”

  “No,” Janet said shortly. “There’s something you want, remember? You wanted me to tell you when your father was in a good mood so you can ask him about that condo in Sydney again.”

  Haley sighed. “Why can’t you just make him buy it?”

  While spending the summer in Sydney, Haley had gotten into her fair share of trouble, but had also found a reason to spend more time there in the future. She would have stayed had it not been for her father dangling her degree as a condition for getting access to her trust fund.

  While there, she had stayed in the presidential suite at the Four Seasons on Sydney Harbor, but made friends with someone who lived in an exclusive condo building in downtown Melbourne. The second she entered the building, Haley knew she wanted to buy a condo there, considering that she would probably need a place to stay in Australia for the future.

  The problem was that it cost three million dollars, and she wouldn’t have access to that much of her trust fund until she was thirty. She was barely getting by on the two hundred thousand she was allowed now. There was at least fifteen million dollars in there.

  “I hate him,” Haley said. “He’s not going to do it, just to spite me.”

  “Your father has no need to spite you,” Janet said. “And your attitude is not going to help. Why do you want this place so bad?”

  “Why do I have to tell you everything?”

  “Usually asking for three million dollars comes with more than It’s a great place and I have to have it.”

  “That’s all there is to it,” Haley answered, even though it was a lie. “Just tell him to buy it already. I’m sick of talking to him.”

  As her youngest daughter stormed out of the room, Janet knew something was going on. She could always tell when her children were up to something. Well, at least most of the time. She’d been caught off guard a bit too much lately, but she couldn’t worry about that now. She had a little birthday princess to get back to.

  When twenty-six-year-old detective Sean Jackson entered the living room of his parents’ modest View Park home, he was looking for his father to help him fix his motorcycle, which had broken down again. What he found was his twenty-year-old sister, Taylor, lounging on one end of the sofa with her newest best friend, Claire, lounging on the other end. They were chatting while absorbed in their respective laptops.

  Taylor was a pretty girl who had been a model while attending Spelman. Her skin was as smooth and glowing as chocolate milk, and she had an innocent beauty that was appealing, but not intimidating.

  Claire was pretty, blond and not too smart. So why, of all the students in any of Taylor’s classes at UCLA, did she pick Claire to hang with constantly? Claire’s last name was Huffington. She was the daughter of the owner of Huffington’s, the luxury men’s shoe store chain. Taylor chose her friends carefully. Despite her decidedly middle-class upbringing, the daughter of an artist and a cop, Taylor only chose to socialize with the spawn of the rich. She had hoped a marriage between Carter and their sister, Avery, could get her in the circle. One couldn’t get any better than being related to the Chase family. But that never happened.

  It wasn’t as if their parents were nobodies. Their father, Charlie, was the former chief of police of View Park, now retired after suffering an almost fatal gunshot less than a year ago. He was a local hero and many expected him to run for local office soon. Their mother, once a stay-at-home bohemian artist, was now the owner of HUE, a hot art gallery in View Park.

  “What a whore!” Taylor laughed as she scrolled down her screen.

  “I know,” Claire added with a sneer. “She probably slept with both of them. I . . .”

  Claire stopped talking and looked up when Taylor cleared her throat. Taylor nodded toward her brother, who was approaching them. Sean was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, making him look even younger than he already did. He looked eighteen at best today, the poster boy for Boy Scouts. You could tell from a mile away, he was one of the good guys that the girls ignored when they were young, but wished they hadn’t later.

  Sean noticed the gesture. “What? Attempting to protect my delicate ears from sex talk?”

  “What are you doing here?” Taylor asked.

  “Nice to see you too, sis.” Sean reached to push against her shoulder, but noticed that Taylor quickly turned her laptop so he couldn’t see the screen. “What? What is it?”

  “Nothing,” she answered. She didn’t want to get into it with Sean over Haley Chase. Even two years after their short, but extremely destructive relationship, Haley was still a sore subject with him.

  “I’m a police detective,” Sean said. “I’ll find out.”

  “It’s Haley,” Claire offered with her chin lifted high.

  Sean thought it was possible that girls like Claire had a hard time seeing a black girl elevated above them, no matter how wealthy her father was. Taylor might be a different case. Even if Claire and her set of friends let her “in” she still would be with them. They would never be with her. Haley was an altogether different story and Sean sensed that Claire was jealous. But Claire couldn’t be too much of a snob if she was willing to hang out at their parents’ very humble abode.

  “What about her?” Sean asked.

  Despite what his family thought, Sean was no longer upset at the mention of Haley’s name. Two years ago, he’d fallen in love with her. He’d been protecting her from a drug dealer before she could testify to a murder she’d seen him commit while she was carrying on a secret affair with a married congressman. But he’d had to break it off with Haley. He could never make her happy enough on a detective’s salary, and his pride was too strong to let her father take care of them both.

  He’d regretted making the choice . . . for awhile. Haley quickly turned on him and tried to ruin his life. He’d almost gotten fired from the police force because of her antics. Fortunately, her father sent her off to Europe to get her out of his hair. Even then he’d missed her. Until she came back and resumed her hell-raising tactics. This time she’d gotten Taylor involved and almost hurt him beyond repair.

  Yes, he was over her now—mostly. After all, she was Haley Chase. “You don’t have to hide it from me. I know how crazy she is. More than either of you.”

  Claire lifted up her laptop. “See for yourself. She started a fight at Club Villa.”

  “Haley got into a fight?” Sean asked. “She likes to decimate people with her words.”

  “She didn’t get into a fight,” Taylor answered, returning to her own screen. “She started one between two guys.”

  The headline on the black-celebrity gossip blog read PRINCESS CHASE SHUTS DOWN VILLA. Club Villa was the hardest-to-get-into nightclub of the moment, frequented by celebrities. Just another place where people stood in line for hours on end, weren’t allowed in, but still came back the next night.

  “I wouldn’t really blame this on her,” Sean said after reading the blog. “One guy was trying to talk to her and when he went to get a drink, another guy . . .”

  “Still trying to defend her.” Taylor shook her head. From the moment she’d met Haley, the bitch had treated her like dirt; the same way she treated everyone else.

  “I’m
not defending her.” Sean handed the laptop back to Claire. He was a little concerned at how quickly he wanted to lay the blame elsewhere. He had seen a glimpse of a good Haley. It was only for a short while, but it had stayed with him.

  “Well, have fun reading the gossip blogs,” Sean said. “A good way to make up for lost time.”

  After getting herself into a little bit of trouble with a nightclub owner who had been sleeping with Haley, Taylor had made the decision to stay home. When modeling was her dream, Chris Reman, the manager at Pearl nightclub in L.A., promised her some local modeling jobs. He ended up trying to pimp her out. It was a nightmare, and even though she hadn’t been harmed, Taylor wasn’t interested in being too far from her mother. So instead of going back for her junior year at Spelman, she transferred to UCLA. In the process, she’d lost her scholarships.

  “Nothing Haley Chase does even matters.” Taylor clicked out of the site. “I need to be looking for scholarships anyway. If I get one, can I pocket it? I mean can I use it for everyday money?”

  “I don’t know,” Claire said. “I’ve never needed one.”

  Taylor rolled her eyes. “Well, unlike you, I need the money. Bad.”

  “You don’t really,” Sean said. He knew that their parents had provided Taylor with enough spending money to get all she needed. Her definition of need had to be in order to keep up with the Claires of the world.

  Taylor looked up at him. “And what did you say you wanted?”

  Sean got the hint. “Fine, I’m out, but be careful with the money. If you get some extra ducats, you need to save them for your senior-year tuition.”

  Taylor didn’t want to hear what she should be doing with it. She needed cash to buy new clothes. Things were too tight now that her father was retired.

  “I know what you can do!” Claire started typing furiously on her laptop.