Inevitable (Stonewood Brothers, #1)

by Shain Rose

“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.”

“The problem with me being in LA is that I’ll worry Brey will get lost chasing you.” He zeroed in on Jax. “And this time, she won’t be able to find her way back. I am not fucking Alice in Wonderland and I can’t navigate her world well enough to bring her back one more time.”

“Jay, if we could have forgotten each other, maybe we would have. But she wasn’t ever okay without me. Just like I wasn’t okay without her.”

“Everything she does without me is an act, a fucking way to get through the day. I know it because I do the exact same thing. You want your best friend, you get me along with her. And you damn well know it.”

“You think I don’t know that I only get half of Brey when she’s mourning the loss of you after you can’t fucking pick up the phone and call her? You think I don’t know her pain when you go visit that fucking guy in prison with no explanation?”

“So much for the Sass Pot keeping her voice down.” Jax’s smile reached all the way to his eyes as he chuckled. “Never fails to amaze me how quickly you can put us in our place, Peaches.”

“You know I’ve said it before, I wish I could say something different. I don’t know if it will work out. But if you avoid trying, you’ve chosen to fail miserably by default and then you will never move on. Life is brutal when you live with all those regrets.”

“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.”

“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.

“She won’t be confused any longer.” I hovered over Aubrey and stared right into her eyes as I said my next words. “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.”

She had that look from years ago, it was her surrendering and taking control of me at the same time. By giving into me, she was taking my heart all over again.

After my talk on the Ferris wheel with my brothers and Rome, I had allies to help put everything into motion. Pieces moved fast but with the four of us working together, we predicted each movement correctly.

I wanted to tell her she could trust me with every bone in her body but words didn’t bring that type of trust. We’d had it before, and I’d broken it. I’d broken both of us.

They were both vicious, but hers were more threatening. They held the look of a mother protecting her child. Dangerous. Fierce. Merciless. It was the first time I saw her ready to lose everything. It made me want to have children with her. Want to protect her protecting others, and it made us both more dangerous than we’d ever been before.

Some part of me died holding her, seeing the red marks on her arms and face. A kind, understanding part of me. One that would have held back and rationalized what I could.

“This is your daughter. You are her mother. You are all she has. Don’t do what my mom did. Don’t lie for him.”

His stare gave me options. He talked to me through that damn stare, saying I didn’t have to do this but he was there for me if I wanted to. Somehow, he let me know he was the fucking rock I had needed all these years and that he would be for a long time after this.

“I never wanted to share it with anyone. I wanted to share it with you and you weren’t there. So, I shared it with the world, hoping you’d hear it.”

“I love being in the background of it but nothing else. What I feel for you, I can’t share that with anyone else anymore.”

He’d made me feel ravaged and then like a treasure. I wanted to box the night up, put it in a safe and go back to it every time I missed him. And I would miss him. Very much. Because today, I knew we were over.

I knew I was walking out on the one man I'd never be able to get over. Yet, as I took in his sun-kissed skin and his dark hair, his full lips and his sculpted chest, I knew that I'd never, ever find the strength to walk away again and do this on my own. And I did have to do it on my own.

The past few months with Jax had changed me. I'd changed me too. I had more trust in myself. Confidence. Determination.

“He didn’t want me to tell you. He started coming here from some guilt. You know, he could have woken me up in that fire, saved us all a lot of trouble. He didn’t though, and it scared him as a little boy. He wanted some sort of redemption by coming to visit me. He threw that trust fund in my face and I laughed, Aubrey. I laughed so hard.”

“Neither of you knew—your mother never had access to my money. To any money. That trust fund was set up by the Stonewoods for you. They didn’t want you to feel like a charity case. Without me though, and without them, you are. Your mother never could have left you anything because I made her. I owned everything. I still do. Well, except for some of my company now. You know who owns a part of it?”

“Jax owns a part of it now. So, I would have kept our little trust fund secret like he’s always wanted me to in order for him to come here and keep helping me, but now he’s invested enough in my company that he wouldn’t dream of screwing me and himself over.”

“Even if it wasn’t, you’re strong enough to get through it. You’re you. You fight, you bleed, you fall, you get back up. You don’t give up. You survive.”

“What if all I’ve been doing is surviving?” “Then you’ll start living today, baby girl. Life’s not over.”

“Fuck.” I let the swear slip. “I forgot about the launch. I forgot about everything when I went this morning, honestly. And after today, it doesn’t matter. Jax and I are over, but I didn’t want to harm his launch or the app. I just ... I had to go.”

He pointed to where the Stonewoods were. They’d been fenced in and security was all around them, typical for the infamous American family. Jax had asked me to be there with them, and Nancy Stonewood called, along with Jay, to try and persuade me. Now, more than ever, I was so happy I hadn’t taken them up on the offer.

The first song was about waking up to your lover and living that small moment to the fullest before you left them for the day. Some had argued it could have been forever. I wasn’t sure what he meant by it either. He’d written it after leaving me. So, I imagined it had been about him leaving me for good and my heart broke, shattered, and disintegrated every time I heard it.

“It’s one all of us know but one I always save to see if I can really perform it the right way for you. Today, cut me some slack. It’ll be a little different.”

Sweet Sin, Sweet Sin, You pulled me in Like an apple from the devil Like a moth to a flame I’d have followed you to hell But you couldn’t wait, Sweet Sin, Sweet Sin, you pulled me in I was a fool, such a fool To think this wasn’t a game

“I fucking love you, woman.” “No!” I screamed. “Don’t say those three words to me like this. You did it just as badly before.” “I meant it then just like I mean it now.” “You don’t know how to mean it. You don’t know how to love me. I don’t believe it.” “You better because I’m not fucking around.”

Jay cut him off, "I told you not to fuck this up." Jay glanced my way. I saw pain as deep as mine, like he couldn't believe his brother had done this.

I felt the loss of someone I’d loved for so long, it was like death, plain and simple. Our relationship was dead, and the vision of who he painted himself to be was dead too.

I was numb. Dead. Empty. Those were better words. I’d told myself I wouldn’t fall for him again and I had. I’d fallen so hard and so deep into that hole of love, I couldn’t see a way out.

“I don’t care about being kind, Brey. I don’t waste my time on niceties to make someone feel good. You’re family. You think you owe me for giving a person in my family a trust? Fine. I need time off and Jett will need an intern to help. You can pay me back by being that intern for Jett.”

"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."

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.

The hit to his name and bank account would be monumental, they said. Speculation swirled on other channels too. They said he’d slotted everything into place for that app launch, that money was flooding in from it. 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.

“Better to be crazy together, than nothing at all apart,” Rome said matter-of-factly as he got up. “Kate-Bait, talk some sense into your friend.”

“The lyrics that day were out of anger. This version, I wrote for you out of love. 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.”

“I’m not strong enough to keep doing this, Jax.” He took his hand from my face, and I felt the loss of warmth immediately. “Don’t be strong anymore, then. I’ll be strong for both of us.”

“Sweet Sin, Sweet Sin. You pulled me in. You’re my beacon in the night, won’t ever stop being my light. I loved you before, ever more, ever more. Sweet Sin, Sweet Sin, I love you now. Stop fighting it. Just fight for this. For this. For us. Ever more, ever more. Sweet Sin.”

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.

My brother stood next to me but it wasn't out of concern. He bent low to face me and I remember his low whisper. "You deserve all this fucking pain, man. All of it. Losing her will be your biggest mistake. So, you better get the fuck up and start working to get her back."

Today, those white sheets look even better with a bright red engagement ring box sitting on top of them. Today will be hard for her, but I’m hoping this will make it a little bit better.