Hexed (Never After #6)

50. Venesa

FIFTY

VENESA

Fisher is still standing silently next to my pookies’ aquarium with his head hanging, his hands in his pockets.

He really is nothing but a pathetic guppy.

Hurts to admit, but here we are.

“Why would I make a deal with you? You don’t have any power,” Aria says, drawing my attention back.

My fingers twitch, and the chains rattle against the metal table. “Power’s in the eye of the beholder. The only reason you think I’m powerless is because you’ve got me chained down. Aria…you don’t know the things I’m capable of.”

“Like what?”

“Like getting you out of Atlantic Cove without tying yourself to Uncle T.”

She rolls her eyes. “You’re just trying to trick me.”

“Believe what you want.”

Aria looks at me from her periphery. “And why would you help me anyway?”

“Self-preservation, obviously. I don’t want to die, and if that means we have to work together, then so be it.”

Her gaze narrows. “What are you planning to do, kill Daddy?”

A smile spreads across my face. “Now, I can’t tell you everything. Where’s the fun in that?”

Aria looks to Fisher. He’s stone silent, still staring at the ground, and a small part of me, beyond the hurt and anger at his betrayal, wonders if he’s letting me try to talk myself out of this because he cares. Maybe. Just a little.

“With me, you’ll be free.” I purse my lips, going in for the kill. “And I can get you back to Enzo. Back in his good graces.”

She lifts the knife again. “How?”

I laugh. “Sweet Cousin, that’s what I do. Getting things done? I live for it.”

She narrows her eyes before glancing over her shoulder at Fisher. “Is she telling the truth?”

He finally glances up, meeting Aria’s gaze head-on, and I ignore the way my stomach feels like it’s turning itself inside out.

At least he doesn’t have a problem looking at her. But then again, I guess that was his problem.

He was always looking at her.

“Venesa’s a lot of things, but a liar isn’t one of them.” Fisher clears his throat. “If she makes you a deal, then she’s good for her word.”

Aria gives me her attention again. “I don’t want you to hurt Daddy.”

“Life’s full of hard choices,” I reply.

Her brows draw down, but so does the knife in her hand, and my heart levels out, just a little.

She cocks her head. “I want you to promise me you’ll stay away from E. Forever.”

My heart cracks, his name sending a mix of heat and angst through my system.

Well, he hates me and will never forgive me, so that’s the easiest deal I’ve ever made.

“I’ll stay away from Enzo. Forever,” I confirm, my voice catching on the final word. “As long as you hold up your end of the bargain.”

I can feel it in the air that she’s about to agree, her mouth popping open, and then…

The door slams open, the sound of it crashing on the wall grating against my eardrums.

“Bastien,” Aria gasps.

Hope flickers to life like a burning candle inside me. Bastien’s here. By Aria’s surprised voice, I’m assuming he isn’t part of their plan, although I hope he is still playing Uncle T to gain information. I assume so, since he apparently knew I was down here.

I hear his footsteps as he moves farther into the room, but it isn’t until he’s standing next to Fisher that I can see him fully.

“Hey, Bas.” I grin at him.

I’m not really in a smiley mood, but everything at this point is a tactic to throw off Aria. She’s an amateur, and it’s honestly a little insulting Uncle T sent her and Fisher to do his dirty work, especially after waxing poetic for years about how he wanted to keep her away from this side of the business. But maybe all that was a ploy to make sure I never knew he was using her to begin with.

To the average person, Bastien looks calm and collected. But I can see the tense shoulders and the way his jaw muscles are twitching. He’s on edge. Nervous.

“You got my text, I take it?”

He gives a chin jerk, confirming he followed me home.

“How fortuitous of you to show up right on time,” I continue. “Aria and I were about to make a deal.”

Bastien lifts a brow and looks at Aria, then at Fisher, and then back to me. “What deal?”

“She’s going to switch sides. A good ol’ coup d’état, if you will, against my uncle.”

“What’s a coup d’état?” Aria asks.

I grin. “Overthrowing of the power, darlin’. Don’t worry your pretty little head about the specifics. All you need to know is if you side with me, you gain your freedom. You can take those long legs of yours and run away forever with your man.”

She sneers. “You have no power without Daddy.”

Bastien steps forward now. “Technically, she has all the power.”

Aria points the knife at Bastien now, which is laughable. He doesn’t even flinch. “Explain,” she demands.

“The back of that family painting? There’s an irrevocable trust inside. One even your daddy doesn’t know exists. One he thought he got rid of. And it leaves everything to Venesa’s mother, Adrina Andersen. And in the event of Adrina’s death, everything goes to her.” He nods toward me.

Aria’s mouth drops open as she glances back and forth between us. “Is that why you tried to get me to hand that ugly thing off to you?”

I smile. “Guess you’ll never know, will you?”

But inside, I’m reeling, the same way I was when Bastien told me the truth back in New York. I didn’t even know there could be something hiding inside the painting. I just wanted it because I promised Momma.

Bastien steps forward. “I can prove it to you. You have the painting, don’t you? Take me there; I’ll show you.”

Aria’s face is conflicted.

“You’ve got your loyal little fish boy here to keep watch over me,” I say, my eyes cutting to Fisher with a glare. “You don’t even need to unchain me until you get back.”

“Better hurry and decide, though, princess,” Bastien warns. “I have it on good authority E is on his way, and I know you like to play up that innocent act around him.”

My heart skips at the thought of Enzo showing up.

“Pass,” she snips. “I can just get them out and destroy them myself.”

“You could,” Bastien says. “But I’ve already made copies. Several of them. You sure you want to take that chance?”

Aria’s silent for a few moments, and the room is quiet beyond the pounding of my heart, hoping she’s naive enough to fall for our simple parlor tricks and twisted words.

She points the knife at Bastien again. “You come with me, and she stays here.”

“Of course.”

She spins to Fisher. “Don’t let her out of your sight until I’m back. Do you understand? And if Daddy calls, you stall him.”

He nods, and I scoff out loud, because if I don’t, then I might have to focus on the gaping wound he’s caused in the center of my chest.

Pathetic.

Aria softens her features and walks over to Fisher before pressing her palm to his cheek. “Remember what’s at stake, Fisher. If you fuck this up, there’s no chance for her.”

Now that piques my interest.

While she’s talking to him, Bastien takes the opportunity, catching my eye and mouthing one word.

Cabin.

Aria turns and lets Bastien lead her out of the room. And as they leave, Bastien’s shoulders relax, and he looks back at me one more time with a pointed look.

There’s no need. I know what he’s telling me.

He’ll take care of Aria, and it’s my job to take care of Fisher.

Somehow.

If only I could get out of these goddamn chains.

After they’re gone, neither Fisher nor I speak, and the silence is so overwhelming, it makes me want to scream.

I have a thousand questions running through my mind, a broken soul and a shattered heart and the burning need to ask him why , even though he probably won’t have the guts to tell me.

Fisher sighs heavily, the toe of his shoe going back to work scuffing against the linoleum floor.

“Is it because you love her?” I ask.

Now his head finally snaps up, and his gaze meets mine.

There’s that fire. Pity I’ll have to snuff it out.

The thought makes my chest ache, so I shove the words from my brain, centering myself so I can stay in the moment.

“Have you been working for Uncle T this whole time and just pretending to be my friend?” I continue my rapid-fire questions, but my voice cracks on the word “friend,” and I hate that I just showed him a vulnerability. I want to go back to the Venesa who felt nothing, who couldn’t shed a tear even if she prayed for one. It was easier that way.

“You don’t understand,” he says lowly.

“So why don’t you try to explain it to me?”

“I didn’t have a choice. When Aria came back…” He pauses and shakes his head. “Before she left, we were?—”

“Can you unchain me?” I interrupt. “It really is uncomfortable.”

He looks from my wrists to my locked-up ankles. “I don’t trust you won’t kill me.”

“I’m the only one who’s ever understood you, so don’t come at me with that condescending bullshit,” I spit back at him. “I was loyal to you for years. I’ve been nothing but your friend, and this is how you repay me?”

I jerk my limbs, making that god-awful clanking sound again. “I know you two had your thing in school. But God, Fisher. Is she really worth all this?”

“Did you know Aria was pregnant?” he blurts. “When she left town…she was pregnant with my fucking kid, Short Stack. She didn’t run away because she hated it here. She ran away to save our baby. Aria’s not the devil you make her out to be.”

I suck in a breath, trying to fit together new square pieces into round holes. “She’s lying.”

He shakes his head sadly. “We found out together, and she promised things would be different. She said she loved me, and I…”

A bit of understanding flows through me. “And you loved her.”

He lifts a shoulder, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets. “She’s the only one I ever have.”

Ouch.

“So you were only my friend to what…try to stay close to her?”

“No, nothing about our relationship was fake or forced.”

“Except at the end, apparently.”

Pain flashes across his face, and he swallows audibly. “It was a few days before Aria came back. You were…somewhere, doing something for your uncle, I’m guessing, since he showed up to the Lair knowing you wouldn’t be there. He took me aside, told me I needed to give him information.”

My mouth runs dry. “What kind of information?”

Fisher shrugs. “About you. What you were doing, whether he could trust you.”

I scoff. Was everybody backstabbing me this entire time, and I was just a blind fool?

Fisher takes a step forward. “I refused. I swear to God, I told him to get fucked.”

“Clearly,” I drawl.

“He pulled out pictures. Pictures of a kid, and I… She has this bright blond hair and freckles just like Aria’s. He said if I didn’t, then he’d kill her, and I…I may never get to know my daughter, but I’ll be damned if I live in a world where she doesn’t exist.”

Now it’s pity that fills my chest, and I relax my shoulders, trying to keep my arms still because the metal chains around my wrists chafe like a bitch. “He’s lying to you, Gup. They’re lying.”

“No,” he says vehemently. “I saw the pictures, Short Stack.”

“Don’t call me that,” I bite out. “You don’t get to call me that anymore.”

Fisher takes a giant step toward me. “If I didn’t give him what he wanted, they were going to kill my kid. That’s my kid!” He smacks his chest.

“Well, you’ve always been pretty fucking gullible,” I snap back. “There is no kid, Fisher. God . Don’t you think they could find a random girl? Or manipulate a photo?”

I scoff and turn my head to the other side of the table. Because of course it was him. I told him so much on that phone call when I was in New York, and it wasn’t even a day later that Enzo’s father showed up to tear us apart.

It was Fisher who told them I was there. Where I was staying. Everything…was all Fisher.

“They’re lying to you,” I say sadly. “I know you want to believe them, but, Fisher…they’re using your vulnerability to manipulate you.”

“Oh, and you’re not?” he spits, moving until he’s right next to the table. “You don’t tell me shit. You have me here running things for you, but you never tell me the whole story. Just bits and pieces that suit you, that cater to you, that make you look good.”

“I was protecting you, you moron!”

“I don’t need your protection.”

“Clearly.” I shake my head again. “I’m telling you right now, Fisher, if Aria was pregnant, if she was truly pregnant, your kid isn’t out there. There’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And Uncle T didn’t send her away.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do, actually. I was there when he lost his mind over her being gone, and I was sent to check in on her all the goddamn time. I saw Aria just a few months after she left, and for the record, she was very much not pregnant and very much there on her own accord.”

He grits his teeth, nostrils flaring. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

I exhale heavily, hurt piercing through my chest, because how can he ask that? “Maybe I’ve left some things out for your protection, but I’ve never lied to you. They’re playing you, and you know what hurts the most about it? You just took them at face value, threw away years of our friendship, threw away my life, without even making sure it was worth it.”

His eyes well up, tears lining his lower lids. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice, Gup.” A sudden thought hits me. “How long?”

“What?” he asks.

“How long were you feeding information to my uncle? Since Aria came back like you said or longer?”

“Since Aria came back. Daddy T had you…” He swallows and looks down. “He was setting you up. Having you spend time with E in case things went south. They could still kill him and pin everything on you.”

My mouth pops open, a short burst of air escaping. Of course . That’s why he had me on babysitting duty. Insurance.

And Fisher knew the whole time. Was betraying me the whole time.

“So you had plenty of time to verify things, to come clean to me…and you didn’t.”

A tear escapes his eye, and he wipes it away. “I wanted to, so many times, but I…I just couldn’t take the chance. They put me in an impossible situation.”

I hate that I understand, because as soon as he says that, I’m filled with regret over all the things I didn’t tell Enzo when I had the chance. If Fisher’s a coward, then so am I. Doesn’t make it hurt any less, though.

“You told Uncle T about New York,” I confirm.

He nods and looks down at the floor again.

“And he told Carlos Marino.”

Another nod.

I think back, trying to remember everything I told him on the phone. I kept it vague, but one thought keeps repeating in my mind. A single line.

There are going to be some changes.

Panic for Enzo whips through me like a storm, because if they have me here, who knows what his father’s doing to him there?

“Fisher, listen to me. If you ever cared about me at all, even a little bit, you’ll let me go. Unchain me.”

He lifts his chin, trepidation in his stare. “How do I know you won’t kill me?”

I give him a sad smile. “I guess you’ll just have to learn to trust the right people, Gup.”