by Ford, Brynn
When Law’s hands landed on my knees and yanked them apart, forcing his body close to step between my open legs, I leaned far back into Vaughn. My body pressed heavily against my husband, feeling very wrong about letting Law spread my legs this way. But at the same time feeling so, so right about it as my panties soaked completely through with the dampness of my arousal.
Was Ris right?
Oh, God.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
When Law bent down, bringing his face closer to mine, I thought he was going to kiss me. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted to know what he tasted like, what his lips would feel like pressing hard, bruising mine, whether his tongue would be eager and swift or stroking and languid as it swirled with mine.
Kiss me.
Don’t kiss me.
I can’t let him kiss me.
My hand reacted and I had no control over it. I slapped him.
My hand covered my mouth in shock that I’d just done that as masculine laughter erupted from in front of and behind me. Law touched his hand to his cheek where I’d hit him and smiled in amusement through his laughter.
“Oh, my God,” I rushed, “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“What’d you hit me for, Blue?”
Neither Vaughn nor Law could contain their obvious amusement.
“I don’t know,” a smile of my own pulled at my cheeks, “I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t.”
“Baby,” Vaughn continued to chuckle behind me, “Babe, it’s okay, you don’t have to fight him off for my benefit. I’m the one that brought him over to you, remember?”
My cheeks grew hot with embarrassment, “God, I’m…shit…sorry.”
Vaughn spun my body around to face him instead and Law replaced his position at my back, pressing in too goddamn close. My body was rigid as a plank.
Vaughn stepped in between my legs, ducking down so he could meet my eyes. His thumb grazed along my jaw, sweeping gently back and forth.
“Relax, baby. Everything’s fine,” he pressed delicate lips to mine, holding me in place with his gentleness.
I opened for him, my legs and lips parting naturally at his touch. His mouth pushed harder against mine as his tongue darted inside me. I was leaning backward, falling easily against Law as his hands gripped my upper arms, holding me to him. I felt warmth and wetness surrounding me as my eyes fluttered closed, my body loosening for both of them.
Lips landed sweetly on the side of my neck as my hair was pulled out of the way.
“You’re not gonna hit me again, are you?” Law chuckled close to my ear.
I opened my eyes, turning my head slightly against Vaughn’s kiss to see Law bent down close to me, too. It was his lips on my neck. Not Vaughn’s, no, Vaughn was still kissing me.
Vaughn on my lips.
Law on my neck.
“Am I dead?” I breathed as Vaughn pulled back to look at me.
“Huh?” Vaughn looked confused.
“I think I’m in paradise.”
Vaughn smirked, “No, you haven’t died and gone to heaven, babe. Not yet anyway.”
Oh.
What do they have planned?
He stepped back and held out his hand, “Come on, Blue. Play time.”
I took his hand and hopped down off the stool, reaching down to adjust the hem of my dress.
Hesitantly, I asked, “Is Law coming with us?”
Vaughn nodded at the same time Law’s hand landed a swift, firm slap to my ass, reminding me of all the times he’d spanked me before. I yelped in surprise.
“Move, Blue,” Law spoke in the certain, unyielding tone I remembered and I felt like the luckiest fucking girl in the world.
Vaughn pulled and I moved, letting him drag me along to the hallway with the Semi-Private Rooms I’d become so familiar with.
As we made our way toward an open room, we saw a man and a woman come out of the room at the very end of the hall, near the exit I’d run away through the first time Law brought me to Black Ties. The woman was naked, wearing only the man's suit jacket that was oversized on her tiny frame. It wasn’t unusual to see naked people wandering around back here, but it was unusual to see the expressions of concern on their faces as they started systemically peeking into rooms moving down the hallway.
The man glanced our way and must have spotted Law, yelling down the hall at him “Law, someone was just screaming Red. More than once. Should security check the rooms?”
“Shit,” he said and rushed past me and Vaughn, moving quickly to the first occupied room, “Go tell the bartender to call my security team,” he told the man.
“Stay here,” Vaughn ordered and went after Law.
“Security check,” Law shouted into the first room, "Everyone check in.”
I heard no less than four people in that room respond to him with, “Green.”
My chest tightened with fear when we heard the safeword for ourselves. It was shouted just then from midway down the hall.
Then again.
And again.
It was muffled the third time, as if there weren't enough air for the entire one syllable word to force its way out of her mouth, out of Ris' mouth.
Ris.
There was no doubt in any of our minds it was her voice. Vaughn and Law glanced at each other before taking off, finding her room quickly. I knew I should stay put, let them handle it, but it was Ris. She would never say Red unless whatever was happening to her was really, truly horrible.
I remembered the new guy she’d just taken back with her. It seemed odd that he’d be doing anything to hurt her. He seemed so meek, complacent, a true submissive. I recognized that it all could have been an act, but that didn’t feel right.
I followed after the boys as they rushed into the room. For a split second, I saw what was happening before the world exploded in chaos. Ris was bent over the black table at the back of the room. Asher was there, standing behind her, holding her tight to the edge of the table with his body. His hand was on her head, pushing down hard while he pulled tight on the ends of a rope that was wrapped around her neck.
The younger man that she’d been with at the bar was hogtied and gagged on the floor, likely Ris’ doing. He clearly had no part in this and was helpless to stop it, wiggling from side-to-side, grunting through the ball gag held securely in his mouth.
Ris was fighting, but her movements were slow and weak.
How long had he been strangling her?
Law got to Asher first, grabbing him by the shoulders and tossing him away forcefully, carelessly dropping him to the floor. He went to Ris, quickly untangling the rope that I could now see was looped around her neck three times.
I was about to step in the room after them, ready to go help my friend, but was halted by the horrifying sight of Vaughn losing his control and launching himself at Asher violently.
“Vaughn, don’t!” I shouted, but it was too late.
Vaughn lifted Asher from the ground easily and all but dragged him out of the room. I stepped back as Asher kicked and fought his way through the doorway. Vaughn didn’t even see me. He didn’t hear Asher’s drunken voice cussing at him. He just saw red.
No, no, no.
He can't get in a fight.
He can't get arrested.
They'll give him jail time with his priors.
Vaughn pushed, pulled, dragged Asher down the hallway and out the exit door at the end. For a moment too long, I froze in disbelief, shocked that any of it was happening. Then my pulse thumped into high gear, scared for what Vaughn might do with Asher alone behind that exit door and I ran. Maybe I should've gone to Ris, demanded Law to go after Vaughn and stop him, but my feet carried me to my man automatically.
I pushed the exit door open and stepped out into the sunken alcove at the bottom of the outdoor staircase, the place where Vaughn and I had nearly fucked against the brick wall when he confronted me about cheating with Law the first time he found me at Black Ties. The same place where
he'd punched Law twice after sending me inside. I knew there were security cameras out here and they would be recording every second of this fight.
Evidence against my husband.
Asher was on the ground, flat on his back, covering his face while Vaughn pummeled him brutally.
"Vaughn!" I screamed, "Stop!"
"Creepy ass piece of shit!" Vaughn was screaming at him, "Tell me to stop," he spoke between perfectly timed punches, "Tell me Red, jackass. I'll show you what it feels like to hurt, to be scared. Tell me Red, motherfucker!"
I didn't know what to do. I knew if he could see me, if he could feel my skin against his skin, if he could hear my voice, I could calm him, reason with him to stop. But I knew he couldn't. He was completely lost to the rage that had taken control of him, the rage that he'd worked so hard to cage, the rage that had just escaped for the first time since his last arrest seven years ago.
I'd never seen him like this, so unleashed. It was terrifying. I wasn't scared of him and what he was doing. I was scared for him. He wasn't a bad guy, he wasn't a criminal. He was just protecting Ris like he'd had to protect Hazel. If the cops came, though, they'd treat him like a criminal.
They'd arrest him.
They'd charge him.
They'd likely give him jail time because of his priors.
I can't lose him like that.
Just then, the exit door swung open. Law and Ris appeared with Law's two security guards right behind them.
"Law, stop him! He'll get arrested!"
Law quickly observed the scene taking place, Vaughn completely oblivious to any of us there with him, and swiftly took action. He went for Vaughn, boldly grabbing his right arm mid-swing.
Law was succinct with his words, knowing Vaughn was deaf with his rage, "Cops are coming. Stop."
It was too late for a warning.
Asher stilled, unconscious, blood spattered around his head.
Blue and red lights drew my attention up the staircase and an unseen vice gripped my heart, aching in my chest. Vaughn yanked his arm from Law's grasp and threw one more hit to the side of Asher's head.
He stood slowly, climbing off him and stepping back, his chest heaving as he worked to breathe in calm and breathe out anger. I ran over to him and grabbed his face, pulling him toward me fearlessly, forcing him to look at me.
"Why did you do that? Vaughn, the cops are here."
I knew it was just an illusion of poor lighting, but his eyes looked black, as if the tiny gray flecks that always floated in the sweet honey color had exploded with his rage, washing out the light and hiding it in dark.
He wrapped his bloodied hands around my shoulders, pulling me close as he tried to center himself. I squeezed him tight as two uniformed officers came through the Black Ties exit door into the freezing cold space.
Thank God for Ris and Law, moving to stand side-by-side between us and the cops, giving me the brief time I needed to calm Vaughn. He had to snap out of this before they talked to him. Ris told them she needed to press charges against Asher, that he attacked her, trying to keep their attention away from me and Vaughn and the unconscious man on the ground behind us.
I felt him blow out the last breath of his anger as he softened in my arms.
“I fucked up, didn’t I?” he whispered, “I’m sorry, Des, so sorry.”
I dug my fingertips into his sides, desperate to hold onto him, “He deserved it. He was hurting Ris. It will be okay. She’s a lawyer, she’ll take care of it, I know she will.”
One of the uniformed officers, a middle aged white man who looked like he didn’t really give a shit must have only just noticed Asher laying unconscious on the ground at that moment.
Fucking unobservant asshole.
“You two.”
He pushed through the space between Law and Ris who had formed a borderline between us with Law’s two security guards. The cop came to us with his hand on the gun in his holster.
“I need to see your hands. Now.”
“Just do what they tell you, okay?” Vaughn said into my ear.
He tried to pull away from me, lifting both his hands so the cop could see he wasn’t a present threat, but I held on. I was scared. I couldn’t just let go of him knowing what was likely to happen next.
“Ma’am, hands, now.”
“Des, let go,” Vaughn urged, trying to step back again, “Law,” his voice pleaded when I refused to take my hands off him.
No.
What will happen to him if I let go?
“Law. Please,” Vaughn’s voice was weak, begging, desperate, “Get her off me.”
Law’s hands landed on my shoulders and pulled, dragging me away in one forceful yank.
“Don’t!” I yelled at him.
Vaughn turned toward the officer with his hands up, “I’m responsible for that,” he inclined his head toward Asher who was starting to regain consciousness with a groan, “None of them are involved.”
“Vaughn,” my voice was so quiet, I doubted he could hear me.
“Turn around, hands behind your back.”
My husband complied without any resistance. The other officer radioed for an ambulance as Vaughn’s hands were cuffed behind his back. They started to guide him toward the staircase and reality fell down hard on the top of my head, crushing my spirit to the concrete beneath my feet and hammering it down.
Vaughn's being arrested.
He's going to jail.
They're taking him away from me.
“Law, go tell them, go tell them he didn’t mean it. It was…it's self-defense. Right? He was just trying to help Ris.”
Ris pulled me away from Law, hugging me close. I felt her head shake with her response, telling me I was wrong though her voice tried to convince me everything was okay.
“I’m gonna help him, sweetie. I will."
It wasn't until Vaughn disappeared from my sight at the top of the stairs that I realized Ris wasn't okay either. She was just attacked. Strangled. She was probably hurt.
“God, are you okay, Ris? Are you okay?”
No one is fucking okay.
“I’m fine. Just a little bruised and breathless. Listen."
She was shaking, either from the cold or from the trauma of what she'd just been through, or both. Regardless, her voice didn't waver, keeping the same confident and powerful tone she always had. She grabbed my shoulders and looked at me with full eye contact.
“They’re gonna take him in. You and Law need to go find out which station they're taking him to. I need to go get my kick-ass clothes on so I can demand a bail hearing as soon as possible. I’ll meet you both there, okay?"
That’s when the tears that had unknowingly formed behind my eyes finally fell, “I can’t post bail. We don’t have the money.”
“Don't worry about that, Blue,” Law said, grabbing me by the elbow, “Let’s go.”
“You’re okay?" I sobbed, "You swear you’re okay, Ris?”
I had to be sure.
A small smile appeared on her face, “I’m good, sweetie."
Her grin broadened as she looked over at Asher on the ground, groaning in pain, “Seeing that helps. Text me when you find out which station they're taking him to and I’ll meet you there. Go.”
Law dragged me up the stairs. We reached the sidewalk at the top just in time to see the back door of a cruiser slammed shut on my husband. He saw me through the small window and I watched his jaw drop as he took a good look at me, surely seeing the sad, sobbing mess I'd become at the turn of events.
I didn't want him to worry for me, so I straightened, pulling my shoulders back to stand tall in feigned confidence, just for his benefit. I gave him a small smile and blew him a kiss. He winked at me, pretending everything was okay.
Nothing was okay and we both felt it.
That was the last time we saw each other before we were divided, separated, taken away from each other, just when we’d finally found our happiness together.
Chapter 33
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br /> Vaughn
I'd just done the one the thing that could truly threaten my chance at a happy future with Desi.
I'd lost my shit when I saw that creep, Asher, with a rope tightened around Ris' neck. It took me just moments to figure out what was happening in that room. The sound of a woman in distress, choking out a strangled syllable, took me from happy to livid in seconds.
The word, Red, slipping out of her as a breath, it colored the world around me in the same shade. All the hues were tinted crimson in rage at the sight of a man hurting a woman he once claimed to love. My mind had snapped, flipped like a switch, and I didn't think rationally for a second until Law said something about the cops. He gave me a moment of clarity in my madness and that moment was enough for me to feel her nearby.
Her presence is what brought the color back to my world.
Desi.
My Holly Blue.
I may have just fucked up our future.
Something had to be done about that guy, though. He couldn’t go on thinking it was okay to do what he did. Maybe I shouldn't have dragged him out of Black Ties. Maybe I shouldn't have beaten him to a bloody pulp. To me, it was all justifiable in the name of saving an incredible woman who deserved a hell of a lot better than that. To the justice system, however, I didn't have a fucking clue how they would see it.
Yes, you do.
You're a repeat offender.
You're getting jail time for this.
Fuck, fuck, FUCK.
I was being kept in a holding cell, told that they would be charging me soon.
Whatever the hell 'soon' means in a place like this.
I'd been sitting there alone for forty minutes since the last time any cop or detective had come around, watching the clock tick slowly, minute by fucking minute. The time alone was great for contemplating how much jail time was too much before Desi decided to call it quits and leave me.
Jesus.
I stood up and paced, three steps from one gray cement wall to the other, back and forth.
I felt agitated.
Restless.
I wanted to see Desi. I needed to see her.
I didn't know where she was, whether she was okay or falling apart over my stupid fucking impulse control issues. We were finally falling together, figuring out who we were as a couple, we were starting to talk about our family and recommitting to our future.