Inevitable (Stonewood Brothers, #1)

by Shain Rose

Jett answered this time. “I’ll fit you in later this afternoon. Just come to my office when you get a chance. You can talk with Jay later about the relationship you have with Jax. He seems to look like he needs an explanation. Anyway, I have to go, I have another meeting.”

“I could have said those things to you a year ago, in high school, today, tomorrow. The time wouldn’t matter.”

Everyone wants to believe they can overcome that type of chemistry, that they can listen to reason. I physically felt nauseous as I tried to do just that. My body just rebelled as if it knew the only thing it needed to survive was Jax.

“I left Frank to die in that room. I did it on purpose.” “I know.” He stumbled back. “You don’t know. I’m saying I decided he didn’t need to live. I fucking wanted to kill him.” His admission was one the cops and my father’s lawyer had looked for but had never received from him. He never, ever admitted to anything when called to the stand or asked by the press. I placed my hand on his chest and felt his heart thundering. “Father always kept the keys on him, and you’ve never—not once—done something without calculating the odds. I knew, Jax.” “But that summer, you never said anything.” “I didn’t care.” I corrected myself, “I don’t care.”

I took a huge gulp of the wine the waitress had brought over. No one said anything. They all just watched me. “What?” I caved. “You’re blushing,” Katie pointed out. “Blushing like you do when someone would catch us—” Rome started. I held up my finger. “Do not finish that sentence, Rome.” “Or I’ll punch your dumb ass,” Jay finished, glaring at him.

People in the VIP area were recognizable figures in one way or another. Jay waved us over to introduce two tall, gorgeous men, both with dark curly hair and brown eyes. “Caden, Bastian, meet my crew from back home.”

He turned to yell to Jay, “I’m taking this girl down to the real party.” Caden groaned from the seat he was sharing with some blonde. “Do you always have to do the opposite of what our security asks?” Bastian chuckled and told me to ignore him. Jay walked over. “Bastian, my man, I told you she was my girl. He trying to steal you, Brey?” “More like saving me. I want to go.” He eyed me curiously. “You sure?” I held his gaze. “Sure.” He nodded at Bastian and we moved around him. Bastian whispered into my ear as we walked toward the steps, “That was easier than I thought.”

“You’re right. I don’t belong here.” He stayed close. “Where do you belong then? I want to know so I can be there.” Butterflies erupted in my stomach and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. My reaction should have been to his words. I didn’t react to other men though. I felt his cold blue eyes on me from afar and knew if I turned, he’d be heading our way. Suddenly, mint and sandalwood surrounded me. I felt his abs up against my back as he pressed right into me and leaned far enough forward that his arms enclosed me as he set his hands on the bar. By doing so, he’d nudged Bastian back, and they stared each other down, neither willing to speak at first. Bastian, like most, conceded first. “It’s never a pleasure, Jax.”

Bastian smirked at me and looked over at the bartender to hand him some cash for our drinks. Before he could though, Jax spoke loudly across the bar, “The drinks are on the house, Ricky.” Our now named bartender smiled and shrugged at Bastian before he nodded toward Jax and walked away. I saw Bastian tweak his neck a little one way as if trying to rid himself of irritation. “Leave it to Jax Stonewood to always one up a man even when it comes to buying a girl a drink.” “She’s not a girl. She’s the girl. My girl.” His words should have embarrassed me but goosebumps flew up my arms and my heartbeat picked up speed.

Bastian sighed like he didn’t want the drama. “What’s your angle? As Brey said, we’re having fun.” I nodded and started to say I agreed with him, but Jax cut me off. “Go have fun with someone else.” “There isn’t anyone else I’d rather be having fun with.” Bastian’s eyes were on me, and I felt his attraction. If Jax hadn’t been there, magnetizing all the attraction I could have in one lifetime, I probably would have felt something more for him.

Bastian tried again, “Jay introduced Brey and me. I got the rundown on you all being childhood friends.” “Not just friends.” Jax enunciated each word and looked at me like I’d disappointed him. “Never were we just friends.”

My heart raced to the beat of the up-tempo music, and I forgot about my fear of the crowd around me. Jax stole an orgasm from me like an experienced art thief stealing a painting from a museum. No alarm sounded, no one knew anything happened, no one even took a second glance.

She will fight the inevitable until the bitter end, hoping the pendulum will swing in her favor at one point or another. Our relationship wasn’t structured like a fucking pendulum though. It was a circle, always leading us back to the same point at which we belonged. We belonged together.

“It’s something we both need to do. We can’t forget. Whatever force there is between us, it’ll destroy the fucking world, Whitfield, before it lets us forget about it or be casual.” His words rumbled out of him. “We’re inevitable.” Inevitable.

He’d said it before in describing us. And so had I. Inevitable. It used to scare me with its finality. It used to be the end for me. Inevitable. Now it seemed solid, concrete, reliable. It signaled an end but also a beginning.

We had issues bigger than mountains, but being high up in those clouds, I thought we could overcome them.

“What you’ve never understood, Peaches, is that I’ve never had a relationship of any sort with any woman other than you. Everyone I’ve been with has been you. She’d have your hair or your eyes or say something like you.” She narrowed her eyes. “They were a way to pass the time, a means to an end. A way for me to feel you even if you weren’t there with me.” Admitting it out loud jarred the shit out of me but it also made sense.

“My girlfriend doesn’t want me to have any relationship of convenience and I can’t imagine her working with someone she's fucked. So, you’re fired.” Aubrey gasped and Isabel’s voice came through my house speakers loudly as she squeaked out, “What?” I repeated claiming Aubrey so that she and Isabel knew how serious I was. “My girl is done with our arrangement. I will be sure to provide you with great references.”

Every day Aubrey stepped closer to the line that read unapologetic. Here and now, with me, was where she crossed it.

I knew, this time, nothing would stop me from helping her through the outcome. I'd pick her up wherever she fell. It was what I was meant to do.

“Don’t do something you’re going to regret, Officer. Another step toward them won’t end well for you.” “Are you threatening a man in uniform?” “I never threaten anyone.” “Then, what would you call that?” “A complimentary warning that you won’t get again.”

A color my father insisted upon. White, so clean and pristine. Like walking into a room with fresh, clean sheets free of any stains. No one would ever guess how quickly you had to wash blood off that white color to make sure it didn’t set into the fabric. Or how many times we’d had to clean that fabric to make sure it was white enough for the next event. White. It was our show color. And there I stood, donning it again just like he would have wanted.

Walking to meet him didn’t scare me anymore. Walking away from her that day did.

“You don’t get to go there without me, Whitfield,” I repeated. “Don’t I? He’s my father, Jax.” The fight in her was back. I wondered why I wished for it and how I could want to engage in it. “He’s nothing but a man who gave you life, then took the life that was most important to you.” She stared deep down into the dark depths of me as she said, “Are you talking about my mother or are you talking about you? Because I lost both of you to him.”

Jay pushed through the crowd of people to get to me. He didn’t say anything, just moved in to hug me tightly. I knew he knew. He’d called about a hundred times. I just didn’t want to address it with anyone yet. He pulled back and held my face in his hands so I could look up at him. “When you’re ready, I’m ready, Brey.”

I walked along beside him without looking back at anyone else. This moment, this downfall was ours alone.

I know I lunged for his face, ready to claw him, arms and fingers stretched, ready to tear him down and make him feel the pain I felt. It wasn't just what I wanted, it was the only thing I could do. And yet, Rome held me off, pulling me back away from him and the circle of people that had formed. Through the haze of what I remember, one particular image stood out, clear as blood on white linen. Jax's stone-cold face as he looked on at me fighting to get to him. He didn't look scared or sad or remorseful. He didn't look like any emotion at all. Then, Jay walked right up to him and punched him in the face so hard, everyone gasped.

I wasn’t sad, I’d told them over and over. And it wasn’t a lie. I was numb. Dead. Empty. Those were better words.

“I don’t know another damn soul that has fucked with a person the way you two fuck with each other.”

I have to take what I learned from them and know when something is toxic. We're toxic and unhealthy, Jax. And I have to walk away from something like that even if my mother couldn’t."

"Jax, please just let us go." "No,” he practically yelled. “If what we have is unhealthy, I don't want to be healthy. I'll take the fucking heart attack." His voice cracked. "Inevitable, Peaches. We’re inevitable. Watch the news tomorrow." Then, he hung up.

“He did the impossible,” I whispered to them. Neither of them responded. We just listened to the news anchor go over the millions he must have lost in his latest deal to close down Whitfield Candy Company. The numbers were staggering, yet the feeling of my father stripped of all his power was even more overwhelming.

No one really believed he’d lost his investing touch after all the right moves he’d made with that, and so this was a calculated plan to purposefully take a loss and shut down the company. They speculated he’d done everything for me. For once, I believed the media.

“This doesn’t erase how crazy we are together, you guys.” “Better to be crazy together, than nothing at all apart,”

On the phone, yelling at him, I could do. Seeing him and knowing what he’d done for me, for us, I didn’t know if my knees would give out or I would end up crying on the floor on my first day. He walked to me, and I tried to ready myself for a conversation. When I opened my mouth, he shook his head and shoved the cup in my hand. "It's a chai latte." "I don't drink—" "Humor me, okay?" My eyes started to water at those words. "Jax." He shook his head again. "Not today, Whitfield. Enjoy your first day. White looks phenomenal on you."

We had our end. We can’t keep having it over and over.”

“You shouldn’t have done all that, Jax. You shouldn’t have spent your time and money to destroy him for me.” “It wasn’t just for you. It was for myself. It had to be done. For both of us.”

I love you, Peaches. I don’t ever say it right, but I mean it every time. Shit, woman, I mean it even when I don’t say it all.”

People who say all is fair in love and war haven’t really loved or fought in a war.

All’s fair in love. And. War. And damn, weren’t we at war with each other half the time. But I loved loving her and loved warring with her just as much every day of my life.

She controlled my heart in high school, my soul when I left her mother and father to die, my music when I left her, and my career when I wanted to get her back. I was a fucking slave to her, and she hadn’t even known it.

Souls connected somehow had the uncanny ability to make you feel the other's pain. That pain brought me to my knees, literally.