Damaged: The Complete Set Including DIRTY and FILTHY: A Dark Romance (The Damage Romance Box Set)

by Michelle Horst

  “Adam, just let them go,” River whispers.

  “Just let me handle it, River. Go check on my grandmother,” I say with finality. “Trust me,” I whisper.

  She nods, giving me one last look before she walks away.

  I turn back to Colby and Beverly. She’s crying and for once, I feel nothing at the sight of a woman crying.

  “Get up and into the truck,” I order them. Beverly moves quickly, but Colby is another story. I have to shove him into the truck before I get in, too.

  Beverly is a blubbering mess and Colby keeps pleading. I drive them away from the sanctuary before I say, “Would you calm the fuck down. I’m not going to kill you.”

  They both shut up, except for the sniffling coming from Beverly.

  “I’m going to drop you in the next town over. I’ll deposit money into your account as soon as I get back to the sanctuary.” I give them each a hard look. “You will fucking disappear. The next time I see you, I won’t ask questions. I’ll just put a bullet in you and dump you in the river. Do you understand me?”

  Beverly nods quickly and Colby looks like he’s about to piss his pants from relief. I hope the scare is enough to keep them away for good.

  “Thanks, man,” Colby starts to ramble. “We’ll disappear. I promise, man.”

  “Just shut up” I growl at him.

  I just want to get this done and get my ass back to the plantation.

  When I get back to the sanctuary, I first go check on Nanna. She’s lying on the couch, fighting with Doc. It’s clear she’s fine.

  “Nanna,” I kneel down next to her and take her hand. “How are you feeling?” I look up at Doc. “She’s gonna be fine, right?”

  Doc makes a snorting sound through his nose. “She just needs to rest for a couple of days, but the old woman is too stubborn to listen to me.”

  “Old woman,” Nanna shrieks. “I’ll show you who’s old!” She looks at me. “Adam, go fetch me a pan so I can knock some sense into the old fart.”

  I start to laugh. Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with my gran. “I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of Doc.” I kiss her forehead, then go look for Sophia.

  When she’s not at my place, I start to worry. I run to the stables praying nothing happened to her. I didn’t see her after I told her to stay away from the fire.

  My heart clenches painfully with fear. I’ve never felt this kind of worry before.

  When I reach the stables, I see her standing close to the smoldering ashes.

  “Sweetheart,” I say, rushing to where she is. I take hold of her face and inspect every inch of her. She looks so sad, that it feels like a physical punch to my gut. “It’s okay, no one got hurt.”

  “The wood,” she whispers. “It’s all gone.”

  Fuck, the stables meant so much to her. It’s where she finally found herself.

  I look at the rubble, and spot a few pieces of wood that can be salvaged. Letting go of her, I pick up a piece.

  “It’s not all gone. Look, there are few pieces that survived. I’ll come get them tomorrow.”

  “It’s not the same, Adam. They’re just pieces of burned wood.”

  I drop the piece of wood and close the distance between us. “Hey. I get that it meant a lot to you. Just because it’s burned and no longer offering shelter for the horses, doesn’t mean it can’t become something else. Give me some time and I’ll show you that a piece of debris can be turned into something beautiful.”

  “Okay,” she says, nodding.

  She takes my hand and we walk home.

  I get up early to gather the pieces of wood that I’ll be able to use.

  I’m just about to leave, when there’s a knock on the door. When I open it, I’m surprised to see Jack.

  “Jack?”

  It’s clear the man is losing it. He’s shaking and I almost reach out to him, but I don’t know how he will react to my touch.

  “I need your help,” he growls.

  I make sure Sophia hasn’t come out of her room before I step outside. I close the door behind me.

  “Let’s go look at the damage that’s been done to the stables and then we can talk.”

  We walk in silence until we reach the stables. I start to pick up some pieces of wood, then ask, “What can I help with?”

  Jack starts to help and then he says, “I want to go back to Cameron.”

  My head snaps up and I feel the shock hit hard.

  Jack quickly carries on, “The past few weeks I’ve been living in a trance. I need to go back and make them pay for what they’ve done to me. It’s the only way I’ll be able to live with myself.”

  Fuck, at least he doesn’t want to go back for other reasons. “So you want revenge?” I ask.

  “I’m going to go back and kill them. You can come with and help me or I’ll go by myself, but those monsters need to pay for what they have done.”

  I can understand where the man is coming from. I’d do exactly the same thing if I was in his shoes. Fuck, I want to kill them for what they did to Sophia and Jack. But what Jack is asking of me is huge. It’s a risk.

  “How do you plan on making them pay?”

  “That’s why I need you. I want to go when it’s one of Cameron’s busy nights. I want to get as many people as possible. You can take me as your slave. Just get me in and I’ll do the rest.”

  There is no way in hell I’m putting Jack at risk like that. River will have my balls on a silver platter.

  “You still haven’t told me what you’re planning to do once I get you in.”

  He points to the stables. “Did you see how quickly it all burned down?”

  I nod and my mind starts to race with ideas of how I can help Jack.

  “They burned my mother so I want to make sure every last one of them burns the same way.”

  I take a deep breath as another wave of anger hits. My heart goes out to Jack, but I need time to think this through. It doesn’t help if we rush into this and in the process, we get ourselves killed.

  We work in silence and when we’ve gathered pretty much all the wood that can be salvaged, I say, “I’ll do it.”

  I move close to Jack and whisper, “I’ll do it because I can’t imagine what you and Sophia must have gone through. But you need to understand what you’re going to be doing. You’re going to kill people. I’m doing it to stop them. There is no right reason for killing another human being, but when they are so far above the law, then it’s up to people like us to stop them. I want you to make sure that you can go through with taking another life. I don’t want to get there and you freeze up on me. We’ll be endangering everyone here if someone sees us.”

  I can see Jack’s thinking about what I just said. “If we’re going to a party or scheduling a meeting they will see us.”

  “We don’t have to attend the party. We just go, set the place alight, and make sure no one leaves alive. Then we get our asses out of there.”

  We have to be quick. The longer we take the higher the risk of us getting caught.

  “As long as they die.” Jack says with a hard bite to his words.

  “They will.” I wipe the sweat from my face and then look towards the manor. “We have to tell River.”

  “No.” Jack shakes his head.

  “She’s my business partner and best friend, Jack. I will not go behind her back. Secrets only destroy trust.”

  “Let’s go now and get it over with,” I say, not waiting to see if Jack is coming.

  We walk into the kitchen and I shake my head when I see Nanna is already back to work.

  River gets up and I can see she’s going to make a run for it so I quickly say, “We need to talk.”

  She stops and looks nervous when she asks, “We do?”

  I just nod, then we follow her to the study. I don’t want anyone else hearing about this.

  She leans against the desk. “Don’t you both want to go clean up first?” She’s trying to buy time, but there is no way. I want to
get this all over and done with.

  “Jack wants to go back.” I just spit it out.

  Her mouth drops open and she looks at Jack. I see the flash of worry and pain in her eyes. “You can’t go back, Jack.” One emotion after the other plays off on her face. “Cameron will kill you.”

  She pushes away from the desk and I quickly hold up my hand. “Hear the man out before you jump to conclusions.”

  Jack’s eyes are hard when he says, “I’m going back so I can kill every last one of them.”

  River’s eyes snap back to his and she shakes her head slowly. “You … what?”

  I feel the tension roll off of Jack. His breathing quickens and pain tightens his features. River reaches for him but he slaps her hand away from him.

  “Don’t fucking touch me,” he hisses. “Don’t ever fucking touch me.”

  I watch his movements carefully, readying myself should he lose his shit. He throws both his hands behind his neck and he starts to pace the floor. His body is wound so tightly with the emotions that are clearly overwhelming him right now.

  He stops and takes a shuddering breath and then he hisses, “They are going to fucking pay. I want them all dead. That’s the only way I’ll be able to live with myself.”

  River starts to cry and I feel my own heart breaking for this man. I can’t blame him for losing it. I would too if I had to go through half the shit he went through.

  “Why now?” River asks. “What changed?”

  “The fire,” he snaps. “I want them to burn the same way they burned my mother.”

  She covers her mouth, the words clearly hitting her hard. “It won’t bring her back, Jack.”

  He stalks right at her and I move fast. We all end up standing in a close circle. The tension in the room can be cut with a knife. I know the man is in a world of pain, but I won’t let him take it out on River. I send up a silent prayer that Jack can control himself.

  “I watched them burn her,” Jack hisses. He slaps his fist hard over his chest. “I was beaten. I was raped. I was fucking used and abused for any sick fantasy they had!” His voice keeps climbing with the rage that’s busy consuming him. I know that feeling all too well. This man is close to exploding.

  “I was degraded and betrayed. Not you.” He turns away from us and snaps, “They will pay. They have to fucking pay.”

  River chokes the words out, “Your brother too?”

  I open my mouth to give my piece of mind on that piece of shit, but Jack beats me to it. “Especially him!” he roars.

  He takes a step back and sucks in a breath. Then he whispers, “Especially David and Cameron. To them, I was nothing but a way to fill their bank balances. I want it all to burn down around them, and then I want them to die.”

  “Jack,” River whispers hoarsely. “Killing people, it’s not just flipping a switch and they’re gone. You’re killing humans, taking another’s life.”

  I look at River frowning. I really didn’t expect her to say that, to defend those fuckers.

  “They’re not human. No human will have a nine year old boy gang raped. They are monsters and they deserve to die like monsters.”

  The emotion in this room is thick and pulsing with Jack’s pain. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

  River starts to cry and as much as I want to hold her, it’s not my place right now – not while Jack is standing here spilling his heart out to us.

  She doubles over as her emotions tear through her.

  “I’m doing it. Nothing you can say or do will change my mind.” Jack says vehemently.

  “What about the other slaves that live there?” she cries out. “They are innocent. You can’t just kill people!”

  Jack shakes his head hard. “I would rather have died a thousand deaths than remain a slave. The slaves are just as bad as Cameron and David. I’ve seen them hurt each other. They killed the weaker ones! I’ve been raped and beaten by them so many times. They tried to kill me every time a guest would favor me instead of one of them. That house is filled with demons. They all deserve to die. I will do this with or without your help.”

  Jack storms from the room and I let him go so he can calm down.

  I pull River into my arms, holding her as she cries. We’re both upset but this is about Jack, not us.

  “Let the man have his revenge. It’s what he needs to feel that he did something to fight back. It’s the only way he’ll be able to have some self-respect.”

  I pray to God that I’m right as I tell River this.

  Sophia ~

  I can feel something is wrong. Adam has been keeping busy and at night he’s distant.

  I keep telling myself I just need to be patient with him.

  The days crawl by slowly. I try to do more in the kitchen so Miss Ella’s not on her feet so much. I can see where Adam gets his stubborn streak from because it’s impossible to keep her out of the kitchen.

  I plan on talking to Adam tonight. I need to know what’s wrong. I’m not prepared to lose him, not for anything.

  I sit on his bed, waiting for him to finish in the shower. When he comes out and he sees me sitting on the bed, he stops and just looks at me.

  “When is your birthday?” he asks suddenly.

  I frown and shake my head. “I think it’s in February. I’m not sure.”

  There is a flash of pain in his eyes and I quickly scramble off of the bed. I go stand in front of him.

  “It doesn’t matter. What matters,” I place my hand on his chest, hoping he’ll talk to me, “is that you tell me what’s been eating at you. I’m worried. You’ve been distant.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it right now.” He takes my hand and leads me back to the bed. “Sit, I have something for you.”

  The smile drops from my face and my lips part. My eyes are glued to him as he gets something from the cupboard. When he turns around, he’s holding something that looks like a box. He brings it over to me, and when he places it on my lap, I can only stare.

  It’s a wooden box. My name is carved on the lid.

  “I used the wood from the stables to make you this,” he whispers as he kneels in front of me.

  I brush over the lid with my fingers, overwhelmed by the beautiful gift. “You made it for me?”

  He smiles softly and says, “I was thinking you could write your bad memories down and then put them in the box. Once you’ve written the last of your memories we can bury the box.”

  Tears start to spill over my cheeks and I give Adam a shaky smile. “Thank you for making me a memory box.”

  He lifts his hand to my face and brushes a tear from my cheek. “Anything for you, Sweetheart.”

  “The tree might’ve died when it was chopped down, and the wood might’ve burned in the fire but look at it now, it’s been shaped into something beautiful.”

  “Just like you,” he whispers.

  My eyes find his and I feel consumed by my love for him. I pray that I never have to face a day without him. He’s my world.

  I place the box on the bedside table, and wait for Adam to rise to his full length. I look at his golden skin that spans tightly over his muscled chest.

  For a moment Adam’s intense gaze holds mine and then I whisper, “I am going to kiss you.”

  Standing on my toes, I press a kiss to his neck. Moving lower, I press another to his chest.

  “What are you doing?” he whispers.

  “I didn’t say which part of you I was going to kiss,” I whisper against his skin as I move a little lower.

  “Oh,” he whispers.

  “Lie down,” I demand, and when he obeys, a rush of adrenaline shoots through me. No man has ever obeyed me.

  As I get on the bed and crawl over him, he says, “Did you plan this?”

  “I hoped for it,” I laugh. I let my eyes drink in the sight of him beneath me and then I whisper, “I want you to be mine, Adam.”

  My stomach is filled with tiny flutters as I watch his reaction to my words.

>   When his fingers skim over my hip, my heart sets off at a wild pace.

  “I’m yours.” The words settle deep inside of me, giving me the courage to claim him.

  I straddle him and press a kiss over his heart before crashing my mouth to his. When his tongue slips into my mouth, my body melts into his. This must be what heaven feels like.

  His hand brushes against my side, then slips under my shirt and rests over my ribs. His touch is firm but gentle at the same time. No man has ever touched me like that. He has my full attention.

  “Sophia, I want you,” he whispers. “I want all of you.” His words are a low growl from deep within his throat and it makes my abdomen clench with need. “I want you to keep eye contact with me so I can see that you’re with me.”

  “Show me,” I whisper, hoping he’ll agree. I move off of him. Standing next to the bed, I unbutton the shirt. I only get to the second button, when he sits up. He starts on the third button, not taking his eyes from mine.

  He stands up and pushes the shirt back so it falls from my shoulders. His eyes don’t leave mine as I stand naked in front of him.

  His hands settle on my hips, and he moves me to the bed, then pushes me back. I lie down and hold my breath when he gets on the bed.

  I can’t tear my eyes away from his, as he lies down next to me.

  When his fingers brush against my stomach, my muscles clench. I experience the most sensual feeling, leaving me wanting so much more.

  “Have you had an orgasm before?” he asks out of the blue.

  I feel my cheeks flame up and I shake my head. “Slaves are not allowed to come, not that I would’ve – it hurt too much.”

  His arms wrap around me, and he pulls me right up against him. He just holds me, watching me as I watch him.

  I feel his hand slip down my body, over my abdomen, then he cups me. His movements are slow but intense, forcing me to focus on every single touch. He slips a finger inside of me, and whispers, “I’m going to make you come, Sweetheart.”

  His hand starts to move slowly, and I don’t expect the wave of sensations that ripple through my body. I’ve been touched so many times, but not once did I feel anything but pain.