Steele Hearts Redemption (3 page)

However, nothing prepared me for the shock
that overcame me when I first laid eyes on her, forcing me to fall
back through the crowd that gathered around her where she sat
cradled in Connor’s arms. This was the woman I spent my entire
adult life looking for, but instead of looking for Tessa Matthews,
I was looking for Tessa Riley, my stepsister. I never got the
opportunity to talk to her that day but the elation of having found
her and knowing where I could contact her had me speeding home to
my dad, well, technically my step-dad, Tessa’s biological dad and
the only person I considered my real family. He was overcome with
joy when I told him I finally found her but instead of rejoicing
like I hoped we would he suffered a heart attack that night barely
managing to make me promise that I would get her and bring her to
him.

My mother, Bethany, married Sebastian when I
was ten and my sister Alexis was twelve, quickly changed our last
name to Riley after Sebastian legally adopted us and severing all
ties I had to my biological father and his family. My biological
father wanted nothing to do with us anyways and even when my
parents were married, I would often hear his family refer to my
mother as a money grubbing whore, whose main goal was to be at the
top of the social ladder in Iowa. Being too young to understand any
of their grown- up bullshit I surrounded myself with things I
liked, being outdoors and playing sports, which pretty much
distanced me from everyone around me. My mom and Alexis were like
two peas in a pod. Where I preferred to get my hands dirty and
engage in physical activities they preferred to remain dainty and
well kept. They saw me as being different, treated me as if I was
and would often torment me about my unkept state. My mother took
every opportunity she got to criticize me. My father finally had
enough with her and her selfish ways when I was five and divorced
my mother and I guess his kids as well because he barely made any
attempt to see us after that. We had a good life with the
outrageous divorce settlement my mother received and when she met
and married Sebastian, she was determined to maintain the lifestyle
she surrounded herself with. When I first met Tessa, she was shy
and reserved but she looked at my mother with hope in her eyes. I
could tell after sometime when the disappoint of being ignored by
both my mother and Alexis wore off she was disgusted by my mother’s
bold attempts to alienate her father from her. With her head always
stuck in a book it was difficult for me to get to know her
considering she was an intellectual and I was a tomboy but I tried
and before long I had a real sister. We had a bond that was strong
and no matter how much my mother and Alexis tried to come between
us we held strong. I knew they were jealous of Tess, especially
with her being a genius and Alexis barely getting by in school.

Tragedy struck when Tessa and I were sixteen.
She was leaving for Stanford, having gotten an early acceptance to
their law program. It was the weekend before she left when Alexis
invited her to a party. Always one to try and create good memories
with her family with every given opportunity Tessa hastily agreed
but I had my suspicions when it came to Alexis. I tagged along with
Tessa and Alexis to the party and made it a point to stick to Tess
only leaving her side once, when I needed to use the bathroom.
Someone locked the bathroom door from the outside while I was in it
and I was stuck in there for almost thirty minutes. When I finally
got out and found Tess, she was slurring her words and could barely
stand. I confronted Alexis and she admitted giving Tess Vodka mixed
with a soda to drink, claiming she needed to loosen up a bit.
Disgusted, I grabbed her keys from her and took Tessa out to the
car where she passed out on the backseat. Tragedy struck on our way
home while Alexis was driving like a maniac at top speed. She
slammed into another car, which resulted in the deaths of a mother
and father and their two kids from the car she crashed into and her
friend who was in the car with us. I lost consciousness and when I
woke up hours later in the hospital, I had no memory of what had
happened the entire week. Tessa suffered a broken arm but Alexis
only had minor scrapes and bruises. The shocking news was Alexis’s
account of what happened. She claimed Tessa was drunk, grabbed her
keys from her and insisted on driving. She was going so fast no one
saw the other car coming until it was too late. I had no
recollection of anything so I could neither deny nor corroborate
her story but some of her friends who were driving behind us did
corroborate everything she said. Tessa was subsequently arrested
and sent to a juvenile detention center where she awaited trial
because my mother somehow convinced Sebastian not to post her bail.
A year later and still no recollection of that night but a budding
suspicion from the way my mother and Alexis behaved, I was elated
when I found out that all the charges were dropped against Tessa
due to lack of evidence and uncooperative witnesses. My elation was
however short lived when Tessa arrived at the house and my mother
told her in no uncertain terms she was not welcome back there.
Unknowingly, I said goodbye to my best friend and sister that day
because she never contacted me again. After months of waiting I
eventually accepted that she was not going to contact me but vowed
to myself I would reconnect with her some day.

When I left for collage, I moved away from
the toxicity of my mother and sister and settled down in Chicago.
What surprised me was a few months after I left Sebastian divorced
my mom and moved to Chicago, buying a house a short distance from
my school. I soon moved in with him and not long after he and I
developed a father-daughter relationship I never had. Just like me,
he had completely cut Bethany and Alexis from his life.

After collage, I immediately joined the
police academy where I excelled and upon graduation, I was
instantly scooped up by the FBI. I worked my butt of to become a
good agent and when I wasn’t working, I used my resources to try
and find my sister Tessa. It never occurred to me that she changed
her last name and all the searches I did of her online proved
futile. The suspicion I had of my mother and Alexis still lingered.
Almost two years ago, I was shot while on the job. I fell and hit
my head pretty hard but somehow that fall jarred my memory. It
began coming back in bits and pieces and within a month, I had my
recollection of the week I lost.

I saw it all clearly, Tessa drunk, Alexis
admitting she gave her Vodka and Alexis driving when the crash
occurred. I remembered the video camera on me when Alexis admitted
she gave Tessa the vodka and her friend filming her while she sped
on the highway. I told my dad about what I remembered and my plan
to prove once and for all that Alexis was responsible for the crash
and clear Tessa’s name. It was simple, I knew Alexis had a fetish
for filming everything and I knew she kept the tapes. All I had to
do was play the part of the repentant daughter, gain some trust
from my mother and sister and gain access to their house. It was
easier than I thought possible, all it cost me at the time was a
quick trip back to Iowa, a cruise for both of them and I had the
house to myself. I eventually found the videos and more and had all
the proof I needed, my next order of business was finding Tessa.
What I didn’t realize at that time was the repercussions my
eagerness to learn the truth would have on my job as an FBI agent.
It took me almost a year and a half to find her but Faith smiled
down on me in somewhat of a tragic way when I saw her the day of
the hostage situation.

After settling my dad in at the hospital and
promises of bringing her home I went to New York in search of Tess.
New York was more difficult than I expected. Seems as though Tessa
kept her past a secret from Connor who was undoubtedly in love with
her and it all blew up after my mother and sister, who still had a
hard-on for Tessa decided it was in their best interest to destroy
anything good in her life and try and claim Connor as their own.
Connor was livid after he found out about Tessa’s past having being
touched by death through a drunk driver who killed his brother Jake
and his wife Emily in a crash similar to that which Tessa was
accused of. Using my badge I got my meeting with him, but after the
true nature of my visit came to light he refused to listen to
anything I had to say. Fortunately, common sense prevailed with the
presence of the ever kind and caring Conrad Steele, Connor’s dad. I
got my say. With everything out in the open and proof of Tess’s
innocence Conrad took me to Tessa. After a tearful reunion filled
with a world of truth I told her about dad and with the love and
support of the people she surrounded herself with Tessa and I
returned to Chicago.

My dad died almost six weeks after being
reunited with Tessa and I found myself surrounded by the same love
and support of the people who rallied behind Tessa. They accepted
me, no questions asked. It was the day of the funeral when I first
met him. I heard so many stories from my sister and his family
about his infamous life and just like most of the world I’ve seen
most of his movies but nothing prepared me for the overwhelming
attraction I felt towards him when I first laid my eyes on him.
Later that day I looked at him with his two brothers, Connor and
Tyler, and saw the great similarities in all three of them but
neither Connor nor Tyler made my body tingle the way Gabriel did.
What was even more unnerving was the way he constantly stared at me
as if he could see within the depths of my soul.

I avoided him at all cost, even when I moved
to New York to be closer to Tessa, trying to deny the overwhelming
attraction I felt towards him but the more I saw him the more he
began consuming my thoughts. I looked forward to the day he left
New York to go back to his home in California but when he left the
anticipation of his return devoured me.

The night of Tessa and Connor’s engagement
party at his parent’s house I was hiding out in a bedroom dealing
with a call from work when he entered. I tried running, something I
became very good at whenever he was within close proximity but he
stopped me. He confronted me face on and there was no more denying
my attraction to him. The surprising thing was he felt the same
thing I did. Throwing all my reservations aside I finally said fuck
it and gave in to my basic instincts. The feel of his lips on mine,
his touch on my body, his warm breath caressing my face ignited the
fire that burned inside me.

**********

“Miss. Miss, we’re preparing for landing now,
I need you to fasten your seatbelt please.”

My eyes fixated on the pleasant flight
attendant whose hand was gently shaking my shoulder snapping me out
of the reverie I immersed myself in throughout the flight.

“I’m sorry,” I smiled pleasantly at her, “I
was just lost in my own little world.

She smiled and left. The nerves that were
eating away at my stomach retuned with the thought that he was
somewhere out there, close by, waiting for me, as the plane
descended. Last chance to lecture myself before I was face to face
with him. He was technically not my family but I intended to treat
him as such. I was here to work not fuck around and go falling in
lust or love so the sooner he realized that I was all business the
easier it would be for me to try and come to the bottom of his
little shitstorm and get the hell out of Los Angeles. My head was
pretty much convinced of my reasoning but my panicked heart told a
different story, a story I was intent on dismissing. I took a deep
breath as my feet touched the ground. It was time to face the man
himself.

Coming down the escalator I scanned the eager
faces of the group of people gathered at the waiting area, all
searching the new arrivals for their intended pickups. Amongst the
faces I couldn’t find Gabriel. Getting off the escalator I slowly
walked the area surveying the crowd, searching out his handsome
face. I texted him my arrival time and gate before I left New York
and he texted back with the reassurance that he was personally
going to be there to pick me put, but now he was nowhere to be
found. He was more recognizable than the Pope so what did I expect,
for him to be here waiting for me with flowers without a mob around
him? Flowers? Where did that little deviant thought escape from? My
body tingled whenever he was around and since there was no mob and
no tingling in my body it was safe to assume he was nowhere near
the airport. I quickly dug into my bag searching for my phone. It
was then my eyes fell on the handsome young man, no more than
twenty-one holding up a paper sign with the name Ally Riley printed
on it. How many Ally Riley’s could there be in the airport at the
same time as I was. I made my way towards him, stopping short when
he turned to me and greeted me with an infectious grin.

“Hi, I’m Ally Riley,” I said, hoping he was
there to pick me up.

“Yeah? What’s your full first name?”

“Alexandria.”

“Okay Ms. Alexandria, looks like I’m here to
give you a lift. I’m Jonah Jacobs. Mr. Steele asked me pick you up
and to bring you straight to the house.”

He really had a friendly and infectious grin.
Now exactly where did Mr. Hotshot Movie Star expected me to go if
not directly to his house?

“Jonah Jacobs, would you mind calling me Ally
instead of Ms. Alexandria?”

“Sure luv, as long as you call me Jonah.”

“Jonah is everything okay with Gabriel…sorry
Mr. Steele?” I asked as we made our way to the car.

I had reason to be worried considering his
situation.