Avery's Game Of Revenge
Chapter 112: Handkerchief.

Chapter 112: Handkerchief.

Partly because she’d forgotten about the anklet by the time she got into the bathroom and partly because she had been in an hurry, Avery hadn’t been able to properly check out the anklet earlier that morning. She had also pushed the conversation between Archie and herself to the back of her mind as soon as she got to campus, thereby obliviating the presence of the jewelry.

But now, the string of carefully cut pink diamonds glittering in the dim light the car was offering, had successfully attracted her attention. And not only hers, but also those of the men sitting in the front seats.

Subconsciously, the tip of her fingers went to trace the angles of the precious stones, while her eyes admired the way it complimented her skin perfectly. She was so caught up in studying the piece that her noticing a bunch of strange letters distinguishing each stone from the next, caused a furrow in her brows. That was...

A...

M...

She recognized the first two initials as hers—and an ’M’ was supposed to be next—but then...

Donovan.

A.M. Donovan?!

This wasn’t hers; the realization dawned on Avery all at once. Ah...maybe she shared the same initials as the owner of this anklet. Archie’s wife.

But then, if he’d had the anklet custom-made for his wife then why did he have to gift it to her? She had already taken more than enough from the woman and had barely given anything in return. Not like she’d be able to since the woman was dead but still, she decided could not keep taking everything he offered without even bothering to refuse. Especially when she wasn’t giving anything in return, at least to him.

"You are bleeding," Ian was the first to break out of the anklet induced trance, thereby breaking the silence in the car. "You think we should go to the hospital or something? I don’t have a first aid kit in here."

Avery shook her head.

"Nah, it’s alright. I can get to it as soon as I get back home. If..." she hesitated, turning to look around the car’s interior before proceeding, "If I could just get a small kerchief to wrap—"

She wasn’t able to conclude her request before Orion whipped out an handkerchief from his pocket, handing it over to her immediately. And she would have accepted it if Ian didn’t snatch the cloth out of his brother’s hand immediately.

"Are you insane?!" he snapped, his dark eyes widened in genuine shock as they stared straight into Orion’s similar colored ones.

"What?" the latter asked, "She needed one and I happened to have—"

"Just keep it in. Will you?" Ian interrupted him sharply. He turned to look in the back seat where Avery’s eyes was alternating between the two brothers, wondering what the hell was going on. "Sorry about that," he apologized, a polite smile on his face, "We will get around to a store soon and get one for you. A brand new and perfect one."

With Avery nodding in agreement, he turned around and started the car, heading straight towards the highway where they would join the night traffic.

Leaning back into her seat, she asked, "Why can’t I just use the one Orion offered though?"

"Uhm...that was just a safety measure, I guess. What if it infects the wound?"

Avery didn’t bother saying the small cut wasn’t enough to be described as a wound. She simply shrugged, lowering her eyes to her phone while ignoring the feel of Orion’s eyes on her from the rearview mirror.

~

Minutes later, she was limping into the living room of the penthouse, flinging her bag and her phone onto the couch while she slumped down beside the objects. From the still quietness that enveloped the building, she couldn’t tell if Archie was home or not. He rarely spent time in the living room, anyway.

Wincing in pain, she leaned down to untie the handkerchief she’d wrapped around her toe while remembering the promise she made to Ian and Orion few minutes ago, to take off the piece of cloth as soon as she got into the building and to dump it immediately in a nearby bin or something.

Contrary to what Ian had proposed back on the church premises, the traffic had been so bad on their way home that they couldn’t get the chance to stop over and get a napkin from the luxury stores that lined up the roadside. They couldn’t risk veering off the tightly packed lane when there were countless other cars ready to take their position anytime and anywhere.

Therefore, after minutes of hesitation, Ian finally agreed to let her borrow his brother’s napkin, reminding her every single minute until his car slid into an empty parking spot in the building’s underground garage, to discard of the piece of fabric as soon as she could. If possible, before getting into the presidential elevator that led straight to the penthouse.

"I thought you were coming up with me," she’d asked as she alighted from the car, "You said you wanted to have a quick discussion with him."

"Oh...yeah. We were already on the highway when I remembered he wouldn’t be taking any work for the rest of this week. In his words, he’s supposed to be out of the country but only returned because he missed his wife, not his work," was Ian’s candid reply, before a last minute reminder to get rid of his brother’s handkerchief.

Though bothered by his insistence on the handkerchief issue, Avery was successfully able to push the matter to the back of her mind, replacing it with a different thought entirely.

... returned because he missed his wife...

Ian’s voice echoed in her mind, followed by a deeper, desire ridden voice.

’...I missed you...’ that was from last night, and the same voice, ’I missed you’, from this morning.

He missed her?

Presently, as she held the bloody piece of cloth in one hand while holding her toe up with the other, she didn’t expect the elevator doors to slid open and her ’husband’ and his ’brothers’ stepping onto the foyer. Lake hurried straight past the sofa she was sitting, headed to God knows where while Thorne took its time in following the younger dog; its patience truly a testament of its old age.

"You are back," the humans in the room said simultaneously.

However, only Avery ended up affected by that as Archie’s attention had been snatched by something else that wasn’t her face and the sync they spoke with just now.

It was the toe.

As he advanced towards Avery, his face deepening into a frown with each step he took forward, the girl in question was all but listening to the questions that escaped from his lips. Instead, she was totally enraptured by the view in front of her. Well...by the view of the man advancing towards her.

The normal Archie was already hot and stole her breath everytime he approached her with fiery blue eyes that were burning with such intensity, such flaming intensity that wasn’t hindered by the glasses he wore. The Archie with wet hair falling over his forehead? The Archie after last night? Let’s just say he got rid of all the oxygen in the room and sent her jaws slacking, so she wouldn’t die of suffocation and could at least pant for breath.

He didn’t seem to notice what was going on; what his face was doing to her, as the first thing he did on getting to her was lowering himself to his knees and taking her bruised leg in his hand.

Heavens! He was kneeling.

Avery shook her head, dispelling all the memories and pictures that pushed their ways into her mind at the sight of his kneeling self. She hated to admit it, but she could feel a certain part of her...

"Ava!"

His call, laced with either annoyance, impatience or a mixture of both, prompted her to reply immediately, "Arch..." she whispered, her eyes now fixed on his messy hair—as his head was bent to properly examine her leg—while her fingers ached to—

"I almost thought you were dead," his snarky comment cut through her thoughts, halting them in that very instant. "What happened to your toe?"

"It was a small rock I didn’t see," Avery replied, pulling her leg out of his grip immediately, "I am alright. And why would you think I’m dead when my eyes are very very wide open?"