Page 25 of Redeemed (Redeemed #1)

Chapter Twenty-One

Kennedy

M y father continues speaking as though his new business arrangement hasn’t changed my life.

The whooshing in my ears blocks out every word he utters as I try to process what the fuck is happening.

My hands are shaking so hard that hot coffee spills onto my lap, but I don’t feel a thing.

I can’t turn my gaze from his indifferent expression as he goes on about upending my life.

There are no words to make sense of his decision. Since I was eight, I’ve been training to avenge my mother, not be a housewife. He spent years grooming me into a weapon to the point of mental and physical exhaustion. This wasn’t our agreement.

I slam my cup down on the table, demanding his attention. His only response is the lifting of his brow. I catch movement from my peripheral, and notice that Nathan is moving in closer. He’s the only one in the room who will have my back.

My gaze is locked on my father as a sneer forms on my face. “This wasn’t the plan! I’ve been abused, manipulated, and molded into this fucked-up person. All that training was to end the man who took her from us!”

My voice is reaching screaming levels, and my throat is protesting with pain.

I stand up, pointing my finger in his direction. “I’m not marrying some asshole I don’t know. The day they lower your body into the ground, this empire is dead.”

Shock flickers over my father’s face before quickly settling back to indifference.

He doesn’t say a word as he stands up, slowly moving towards my side.

In my rage, I stare him down the entire time, refusing to break eye contact.

The anger takes me out of the moment—makes me forget myself—so I don’t see the backhand coming until my father’s ring connects with my cheekbone.

The pain immediately radiates through the side of my face as blood pools in my mouth.

He slams my head to the table, pressing my face into the surface, as he leans in, making direct eye contact. The evil staring back at me is one reserved for the people he intends to kill and I know, in this moment, if I wasn’t a business transaction, I would be dead.

“You will do what I tell you to do, and you won’t question me again.” His voice is deadly soft, but not meek.

He rises, looking down on me with his lip curled in a snarl. Self-preservation is out the window, especially now that I know he needs me alive to strengthen his business ties. Ashton Rose turns away, snapping his fingers at his idiot guards, intending to walk out with the last word.

Fuck that!

“I wish it was you they killed.”

My father walks out of the apartment to catch a flight like he hasn’t dropped the biggest bombshell of my life since learning my mother died.

My eyes fill with tears, and I don’t stop them from falling. Angry tears are better than sad ones, and I’m not ready to let this rage go. If I get up from this seat it means that I’m moving on with life—accepting this new future.

Nathan appears at my shoulder, making me jump. He releases a sigh as he lifts a bag of frozen peas to my face.

“Kenn.” He examines my face with a tortured expression.

“Did you know?” My voice shakes as I try to hold the tears back a moment longer. I’m losing the rage faster than is fair.

Nathan rears back like I hit him. “How was I supposed to know? Why did you question him, Kennedy?”

Of course, Nathan didn’t know. He’s just as brainwashed as I am.

I knock his hand away and take over holding the peas to my face. “Are you seriously asking why I questioned my father’s decision to marry me off as part of a business deal? Don’t you think this time is just a little too far?”

The adrenaline that was rushing through my body moments ago is no longer here to sustain me through another argument.

I go to my room, slamming the door and locking it.

My father was in town for less than two fucking days and managed to rip me to shreds.

I strip on my way to the shower, preparing to wash off the bullshit that is my life before going back to bed.

I turn on the water before I stop to stare at my reflection in the mirror. The bruise on my cheek is already miscoloring my brown skin to match the fingerprints on my neck. The tears are back, and I hate myself for being weak.

I can’t stand to look at myself any longer, so I step into the shower and stand under the near-scalding water. I’m scrubbing soap over my body when my mind flashes to Alex. How can life be so cruel and place a wonderful man in my life, only to take him away so fast.

I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around my body before grabbing the sleeping pills the Empire’s doc prescribed me.

The pills go down rough with the last swing of warm wine from my nightstand, and I send Tori a text telling her to cancel my VIP reservations for the night.

The last thing I do before crying myself to sleep is close my blackout curtains and set my phone to Do not Disturb .

Nobody likes being woken up out of a dead sleep, but it’s even worse when you’re woken up to people shouting. My eyelids are heavy, but I peel them open before checking the time and realizing I’ve successfully slept another day away.

The shouting from the other side of my bedroom door starts up again. Nathan’s voice rings through my foggy brain loud and clear, but it’s the voice that answers him that makes me sit upright in my bed.

Alexander?

I jump out of bed, quickly finding a shirt and joggers before running down the hall to find Nate and Alex chest to chest, ready to come to blows. Momma Kay is standing behind Nathan pulling at his shirt and begging him to calm down.

“Don’t worry about where Kennedy is, she’s fine and isn’t looking to have company tonight.”

Nate’s hands are clenched at his side, ready to throw a punch at any moment.

“What the hell is going on?” I croak out in disbelief.

Both men startle at the sound of my voice. Nathan turns to me with a look of rage that I only catch from the corner of my eye, because my focus is on Alex.

“Oh, thank god.” Momma Kay rushes over to me, reaching for my face.

I grab her hands gently. “I’m okay. Let me handle this.” Then my attention turns to Alex. “What are you doing here?”

My voice is scratchy and dry, but I can only imagine what I look like two days after an Ashton Rose beating.

Momma Kay is moving around the kitchen collecting medicine and medical supplies, I’m sure.

Alex pushes past Nathan, walking over to me.

His hands go to cup my face, and I watch the rage take over his expression.

“Who did this to you?” His voice is low and restrained.

The concern on his face has tears pooling in my eyes again. There’s nothing I want more than to lean into his comforting touch, but I can’t wrap my mind around how he’s at my house right now.

“Don’t worry about it. She doesn’t need anyone to defend her. We have the situation under control,” Nathan calls from behind Alexander. “You’ve seen her, you can leave now.”

“I’ll kill him.”

Alexander turns to face Nathan, ready to make good on that promise. I quickly move between them.

“Nathan, shut up. Go back down the hall.”

He listens, but not without glaring on his way past us. As soon as Nathan is locked away in his room, Alex has his arms around me.

“Kennedy, if he did this to you . . .” He doesn’t finish the sentence, but he’s shaking with anger on my behalf and that makes me hug him back.

“Alex, why are you here?”

He takes a deep breath, running his hands through his hair. “When Tori told me you canceled your reservations, I tried to reach out to make sure you were okay. I called so many times, but you weren’t answering. I needed to see you.”

He looks at me with pleading eyes, but I just wrap my arms around myself to keep from going back to him for the comfort I crave. It’s incredibly dangerous for him to be here right now.

“I appreciate your concern more than you know, but you can’t be here.” My voice comes out much stronger than I feel.

“I couldn’t hear your phone go to voicemail one more time.” He takes a step towards me.

My chest squeezes at the pain in his voice. I close my eyes and let my head drop down, chin to chest.

“Alex, you need to leave.”

“Kennedy, I’m sorry I just showed up. Please know that I was worried about you, and I didn’t know what else to do.”

The look on his face almost breaks my resolve.

“I believe you, but that doesn’t change anything. You can’t just show up at my place without warning. I’m not safe to be around.”

I walk over to the door and pull it open. He steps over to me, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. I close my eyes, wanting nothing more than to walk out of this apartment with him. He places a soft kiss on my cheek that isn’t injured.

“I’m only a call away, Kennedy.”

Alex releases my hand before walking over toward the elevator. He gives me a small wave before he’s gone from my sight. I shut the door, leaning my head against it, and think about how fucked my life is.

“Kennedy, what the hell was that?”

Nathan is ready to explode, and I don’t have the patience for it, so, I ignore him and walk back to my bedroom, intent on getting the hell out of this place.

“Why does that dick think he can show up here making demands? Has he even been vetted?”

I reach my bedroom, intending to give Nathan a piece of my mind, but Mrs. Kathy beats me to it.

“Nathan, stop this instant! Can’t you see she’s hurting. Give it a rest.” She steps into the room after me and slams the door in his face.

My arms go back around myself. “Thank you.”

“Come here, my Kenny.” Her arms open wide, and I move into them, craving whatever comfort I can get. “I don’t know who that handsome devil of a man was in there, but you should’ve left with him, baby girl.”

Her honesty pulls weak laughter from me, but she’s right—there is no way I’m staying in this apartment another night. Pulling away from her, I snatch my duffle from the closet and begin packing clothes.

“I’m not staying here, and I don’t know when I will be back.

” Then I proceed to fill her in with everything that happened while my father was in town.

“You should disappear while you have the chance. It’s clear Ashton doesn’t have an allegiance to me, or my mother, and I don’t want you caught in the crossfire. ”

“You don’t worry about me. Find you a safe space and take time to evaluate what needs to be done. There is more to this entire situation that has been kept from both of us, I just know it.”

She takes over putting stuff in a bag for me as I move to my nightstand to check my phone and see that I have a ton of missed calls and messages from Cary, Alex, and Tori.

I feel the regret of sending Alex away creeping in.

After texting Cary back, letting him know that I’m fine and will catch him up soon, I throw my phone in my purse.

Nathan is no doubt waiting on me to come out and talk through everything, but my emotions are too raw to handle another unwanted opinion on my life.

I can hear the TV in the living room as soon as I step into the hall.

I enter the room with Momma Kay following behind me, and Nathan’s focus snags on the bag slung across my shoulder.

“I’m leaving. Don’t know when I’ll be back, but I need to get away.”

To Nathan’s credit, he doesn’t go into overprotective mode. He takes a good look at Momma Kay and then me before saying, “Are you carrying protection in that bag?”

My shoulders sag with relief that he’s going to let me walk out the door without a fight.

“I’m protected and will call Cary.”

There’s a look of defeat that falls over Nathan’s face. “You know you can call me too.”

“I know, Nathan,” I whisper.

The feeling of my best friend being miles away while standing in front of me is another wound I carry. This person that I’ve grown up with is no longer my source of comfort.

With a nod, he turns those sad eyes away from me. I don’t have time to wonder if he thinks I’m being weak. My only focus is holding myself together until I can figure out where I’m going.

Momma Kay and I decided we will leave together to make Nathan believe I’m going with her. As we reach the lobby floor of my building, we go our separate ways, and I wait out on the street for my Uber to arrive, my mind clear enough to not allow Nathan to track my car.

I spend the Uber ride into the city watching the landscape pass and listening to the rain pound against the roof of the car. Is this what being at rock bottom feels like?

The car pulls up outside the hotel and I ease onto the sidewalk. I have my fingers crossed that rooms are available as I approach the front desk.

“Welcome to the Westin Peachtree Plaza. Do you have a reservation with us tonight?”

Her voice is sickly sweet, as her eyes roam over my appearance, analyzing what to make of me and my injuries.

“No, unfortunately, I don’t have a reservation. Do you have any rooms available?”

“Just one moment, let me check.”

Her nails click across the keys, in search of room, when my phone dings with an incoming message.

Alexander Carter: Please know that I’m here to help with whatever you need.

There are tears running down my face because I don’t want to be alone tonight, and I know I should’ve let him take me away. My fingers move across the screen, sending Alex my location and a text.

Me: Can you pick me up?