Redemption (Iris Series)
Read Redemption (Iris Series) Online
Authors: Rebecca Lynn
REDEMPTION
Book 2 in the
Iris
series
Rebecca Lynn
Also by Rebecca Lynn
Iris
Series
RELEASE
(Book 1)
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by Rebecca Lynn
Cover image © S
hutterstock
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the above author of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Table of Contents
REDEMPTION, n.
1. an act of redeeming [making up, making amends], or atoning for a fault or mistake.
2
.
deliverance; rescue.
dictionary.com
Thank U
by Alanis Morissette
...how bout me not blaming you for everything
how bout me enjoying the moment for once
how bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
how bout grieving it all one at a time...
...thank you india
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
thank you nothingness
thank you clarity
thank you thank you silence
Thirteen Years Earlier
High school freshman Ayanna Sarin examined her reflection in the mirror, humming along to Alanis Morissette’s
Jagged Little Pill
album playing in the background. She flipped her long glossy black hair over her shoulder and leaned in to inspect her eye makeup, touching up her already long eyelashes with mascara, then swiping the lip gloss wand along her full lips.
Ayanna was one of those girls in high school who the other girls wanted to be, and the boys wanted to fuck. After all, she’d developed breasts early, was mature and well liked, a brilliant student, dated older guys from other high schools, had a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude, and intimidated the shit out of most of her peers.
These attributes just made her all the more alluring.
Tonight she was getting ready to meet up with Tony Castaldo, the senior quarterback from the neighboring town’s football team. She looked at the clock next to her bed and noted the time. 9:06pm. She would be sneaking out of her house momentarily to meet him at the Pit, a local park where kids sometimes met up to make out in the quaint New Jersey suburb where she lived with her overbearing parents and her sweet younger brother.
At the ripe old age of 14, she had figured out two universal truths. One: if a pretty girl played her cards right, she could get any hot blooded male to do whatever she wanted him to. And two: hard work and determination would take you as far as you wanted to go.
The first truth she’d learned at 11, when she’d gotten Jason Cather to punch Travis Marsh in the nose for hurting her best friend, Ryann Campbell. The promise of ‘
seven minutes in heaven’ was all it took.
The second truth she’d learned from her parents at an early age. Immigrants from Sri Lanka, her father was a heart surgeon, and her mother was a high powered attorney in New York City. They worked hard to fulfill their dreams in America, and they expected Ayanna to follow in their footsteps, to achieve riches and glory. Setting them straight a few years back, she confessed to them she was neither going to be a doctor, nor a lawyer. She wanted to be a chef. Or maybe a writer. She hadn’t decided yet.
They scoffed and absolutely forbade her to be either. She was to choose a career that would enable her to be a powerful professional, one that helped her to attain success in this country, one that made her an excellent living, and one that was respectable like her parents’ career choices. Otherwise there would be no money for college. Period.
So every chance she got, she worked at odd jobs, babysat, and worked at local pizza joints. She saved her big pennies, all behind her parents’ backs, and worked her ass off in school so she could obtain scholarships to pave the way for her future.
She’d also begun to sneak out of the house to see the handful of older guys she dated. And every once in a while, she would make noise upon her return, just as a ‘screw you’ to her parents who had begun to tell her she was going to amount to nothing and bring shame to the family name.
So she planned and strategized, determined she could use the two universal truths she’d learned to achieve her career goals. If there would be no money from Mommy and Daddy, then she would do it her own way and get out, get away from them and their critical judgmental ways. Hard work and determination would take her far. And the farther, the better.
And the string of guys? How would they help her achieve her goal? Well, what girl
didn’t
love the powerful feeling that came upon her when a guy wanted her and thought she was hot?
Pissing off her parents was just an added bonus.
And for now, that was enough.
Present Day
Assholeshitmotherfuckerpussbucket...
Ayanna swore in frustration, always ready with a creative swear word. She unpacked the first of the kitchen boxes on Monday evening, only moments after she had moved into her new apartment. How on earth was she going to survive living in the same apartment complex as that gorgeous pain in the ass?
She was eternally grateful to Ryann, her best friend of 17 years, for renting the one bedroom apartment in Chelsea to her. Finally she had her own space,
and
her own kitchen
.
After years of living with roommates in New York City, having her own kitchen was probably the best part of all.
But Jonathan White, a.k.a. ‘gorgeous pain in the ass’ as her neighbor? That beautiful, intelligent, serious-minded, judgmental
asshole? She swore again in frustration.
Ryann, who’d only recently purchased the apartment, had fallen madly in love with a phenomenal guy
. Just the week before she’d moved herself and all of her belongings in with him. Ayanna couldn’t be happier for her. Mainly because a few years back, Ryann had lost her first husband of only a year and a half to a tragic car accident and had since been trying to get on with her life. So, when Jeremy swept her off her feet a couple of months earlier, Ryann didn’t stand a chance.
Jeremy McCallister was perfect for Ryann, not allowing her to analyze too deeply and teaching her how to live again. Even though they had only dated a short time, Ryann had almost lost her
own
life three weeks back and the incident had pushed their relationship to the next level quickly. Both of them had realized neither of them wanted to live without the other.
Ayanna’s stomach flipped when she remembered hearing the news that Ryann had been shot. Ryann had been completing her summer internship at the Manhattan Institute for Art and Design, the same Institute Jeremy’s family had founded. She had walked in on the robbery of a loaned Mackenzie Renault painting and was shot by the thief in the process. Now fully recovered and living with Jeremy, Ryann had insisted that Ayanna move into her old apartment since Ayanna’s two former roommates had moved to San Francisco, forcing her to find a place of her own.
The only downside to the apartment was the neighbor who lived two floors above her.
That neighbor was
also a good friend of Ryann’s. Jonathan, or ‘Johnny Be Good’ as Ayanna liked to call the self-righteous ass, was a former colleague of Ryann’s from Westside Academy, a private high school for the privileged youth on the Upper West Side. Jonathan was currently a teacher of Business and Finance at the Academy, and as a member of the co-op board of the apartment complex, was also the one who had told Ryann about the availability of this particular apartment when it had gone up for sale.
Ayanna sighed.
To her knowledge, he was the only man in the universe who had ever turned down her sexual advances, the scum sucking pig, and as much as she hated to admit it, it had bruised her ego something fierce. She was used to chewing up men first thing in the morning and spitting them out before breakfast.
And the guy wasn’t even her type
, she grumbled.
I mean, who the hell cared whether he liked her or not,
she sighed. The problem was she
wanted
him to be her type. He was smart and sexy, and truth be told she was a sucker for a good brain even though all of her past boyfriends had been duds.
But that was another story.
Jonathan didn’t want her. Maybe that was why she wanted him so badly. He was a challenge. She just needed to fuck him and get him out of her system, right? Not as if she could, though. She was only on Day 23 of her 40 day fast from sex.
She muttered another curse. Her crazy journey had begun nearly two months earlier on the first night Ayanna had met Johnny Be Good.
She remembered every detail vividly, like when a person recalled the entirety of a tragic event in their life: the smells, what they were wearing, what day it was, where they were at the time...
It was the Sunday night Ryann had moved into this very apartment. They were in the midst of unpacking when he had unexpectedly shown up at the door. The moment came back to her as if it were happening in real time.
……
Ryann opened the door to the unknown visitor who knocked a little after 6pm in the evening, and when Ayanna looked around Ryann to see who it was, she simply blinked.
And stood there, stunned. Drinking in the man standing there holding the pizza box.
Listening to their exchange at the door, Ayanna could barely believe her ears.
This
was Jonathan White? The same man who Ryann had been telling her about for ages? He’d been helping Ryann with investing her late husband’s life insurance money and Ayanna had been hearing about him for over a year, but they’d never been introduced.