by Sarah Bailey
Can’t remember the last time he slept this late.
Quinn was always an early riser. Perhaps everything had taken a toll on him. He got stressed easily, but he kept it all bottled up half the time. I’d been too busy taking care of Rory to notice what was going on with my man. The painful realisation I might have neglected Quinn when he needed me reared up inside me.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been here,” I whispered. “Everything has been so messed up. God, Quinn, this is hard… trying to find balance, but I suppose the circumstances we’re in aren’t normal.”
Leaning over, I pressed a kiss to his bare chest before gently lifting his arm and curling up against his side. He shifted in his sleep, cuddling me to him. I stiffened, worried I’d woken him, but his breathing settled again. I hoped me being here would help him in some small way. He’d told me on more than one occasion he slept better when I was there.
“I promised I’ll be a better girlfriend to you, sir.”
I glanced towards the door, realising I’d forgot to close it behind me and noticed someone leaning on the frame. Rory looked tired and run down, which made my heart ache. I reached out a hand to him. He padded into the room and came around my side of the bed, taking a seat next to me. Turning slightly, I pulled back the covers and he took the hint, sliding in next to me and resting his splinted arm on my side as he curled himself around my back, trapping Quinn’s arm between us.
“Did you need me to make you breakfast?” I whispered.
“No, not yet,” he murmured.
“Why're you up and about? You’re meant to be resting.”
“Couldn’t sleep anymore. I missed you.”
My chest tightened. All my men needed me and I felt hard-pressed to give them enough of my time.
“E and Xav needed me last night.”
“I know, little star.” He leant over me and kissed my cheek. “You’ve done so much for me already.”
It didn’t feel like enough. It’d take time for his wrist to heal and he was still suffering a few after-effects from his mild concussion, but he was on the mend. I just had to be patient.
“I’m worried about Quinn.”
“Why?”
“You know what time it is, right? Is he usually still asleep?”
Rory was silent. I stared up at Quinn’s sleeping face, surprised our whispering hadn’t disturbed him. My hand splayed out across his stomach, wondering if we should be in here when he was resting.
“Is that why you’re with him now?”
“Yes… he doesn’t like to show how stressed he is to anyone, but I can see it. He needs me and I haven’t been there for him.”
“Hey, little star, don’t do that. You’ve been taking care of me so he doesn’t have to, that’s what he needs so he can look after business.”
I sighed, hating how right Rory happened to be. It didn’t make me feel any better.
“This is why I wonder if I’m enough for you all.”
Rory shifted up on his elbow and looked down at me with a frown.
“You are always enough. Don’t beat yourself up. You were in the same crash as me, he knows that. We all know that. You needed rest too.”
Why did I feel so inadequate? They’d constantly reassured me how much they loved me and wanted me and yet here I was, still worrying.
“Why do I still feel like I’m not doing enough?”
“You were told that every day for years by Frank. It’s hard to break out of that mindset, Ash… trust me, it’s taken me years.”
Rory’s words rang true to me. Frank had fucked me up in ways I couldn’t begin to fathom. He needed ending. My heart lurched. He still had my mother in his clutches. It’s partly why I’d wanted to talk to Quinn, but now I felt as though it would be wrong to press him. Quinn didn’t need any added pressure.
“I just want to take this all away for you boys.”
He reached up with his injured hand and stroked my face with his fingers. The gentle touch soothed my aching soul.
“You already do, little star. Just by being you.”
He dropped his hand back down and settled behind me again. I felt Quinn shift next to me. My eyes flicked up to him. His were open, questions simmering in them.
“Quinn,” I breathed, reaching up to stroke his cheek. “We didn’t mean to disturb you.”
He said nothing, merely tucking his fingers under my chin and pressing my face up towards him. I let him kiss me, finding my anxiety melting under his touch.
“Why do I have you and Rory crowding my bed?” he murmured against my lips.
“Your invalids missed you.”
He snorted as he pulled away.
“You, I can believe, but Rory? When hell freezes over maybe.”
“That’s because you’re an interfering arse who never shuts up,” Rory muttered from behind me.
Quinn chuckled, tangling his hand in my hair and stroking his thumb down my cheek.
“I see you’re feeling better unless this is still grumpy Rory who wants us to go away and stop babying him?”
“Shut up.”
“You can leave if you don’t want me giving you shit.”
“Boys! Cut it out. You’re as bad as Xav and Eric,” I complained.
I already had enough of those two bickering like a married couple.
“Our girl is worrying she’s not doing enough for you,” Rory put in, ignoring me.
“Ror!”
“You don’t need to worry about that, little girl,” Quinn said as his eyes clouded over.
I huffed, wanting to glare at Rory for dobbing me into Quinn. I couldn’t though since he was right. My worries about Quinn’s well-being had started to get to me.
“But you slept in.”
“I was up late dealing with the fallout from yesterday, that’s all.”
I didn’t know whether or not to believe him. Quinn always took all of our problems on his shoulders. I shifted up on my elbow and cupped his face.
“You can’t stop me worrying about you. I know you get stressed and I haven’t been here for you.”
His eyes softened as his hand drifted from my hair down to my chin. His thumb ran along my bottom lip.
“You’ve been taking care of Rory for me, sweetheart. That’s what I need.”
“I told her that,” Rory mumbled.
“Quinn—”
“No, Ash, stop it. I would tell you if I needed more from you. I know better than to keep shit from you, okay? All I want is for you and Rory to be healed and whole again. That’s it. Do you understand?”
I nodded before falling on his chest and clutching him tightly.
“I am better… mostly. You can just ask E.”
“Are you saying what I think you are?”
I squirmed against him as his hand ran down my back. Eric and I had stayed in his room for dinner so Quinn and Rory had no idea we’d had sex until now.
“Rory… unless you want to watch me strip this little girl off and have my way with her, I suggest you fuck off.”
Next thing I knew, Quinn flipped me on my back and he was staring down at me with a wicked expression on his face. I glanced at Rory who was biting his lip and looked as if he was in two minds about leaving us be or not. He still wasn’t better, but he’d been doing so well for the past couple of days with minimal activity. His headaches had lessened and he could read in short bursts.
“You have to be gentle, sir,” I whispered, still watching Rory.
“I can do gentle, little girl,” Quinn said, leaning down to kiss my neck. “I’ll do whatever you want as long you let me have you.”
“I’m yours.”
Rory smiled at me before he slipped off the bed.
“I’ll make you breakfast after this,” I called after him.
“Take your time, little star. I’ll be waiting.”
And I did, letting Quinn take me under because hell, I’d missed this intimacy be
tween us so much. I’d walk through fire to feel this close to him and the boys. They were my everything and I was beginning to believe I was their everything too.
Chapter 14
“We need to talk about my mother.”
I’d known the topic of Isabella would come up sooner rather than later. The issue I had was by losing my eyes and ears in Frank’s inner circle, I had no clue where he was keeping her. Fabio had been shut out. Russo was closing his net, his circle of trust. This meant we might have to take drastic measures to extract Isabella. I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject with Ash.
“I know, little girl.”
It wasn’t the only issue we needed to talk about. I hadn’t forgotten what she said in the car on the way back from the accident. We might have all told her we wanted a future together, but what might that future entail? It was a matter we all needed to get out in the open. I didn’t know how I felt about it, in all honesty. Hadn’t considered her having a desire for a family given she wanted to be with all of us. Nothing about it sat well with me for reasons I didn’t know if I wanted to examine or not.
Perhaps it came down to never having wanted a family or to be with one person for the rest of my life. It hadn’t been a goal. My only focus was on keeping the four of us alive. It had been this way for so long, the possibility of anything else had never been an option. Another path beyond finally destroying the man who’d ruined our lives felt unobtainable. Now it was in our grasp, I had to think further ahead, to what we would look like when this was all over.
Ash cocked her head to the side, watching me with those damning eyes of hers. We were sat in the kitchen, all five of us, having breakfast. Now was a better time than any to have this talk.
“We can’t go storming Russo’s compound to go after her,” Xav said, waving his fork at me.
“We don’t know where she is,” Eric put in. “That’s our first problem.”
“Not to mention we’re a man down.”
Xav glanced at Rory who glared at him. We needed all of us at full health if we were ever going to end this shit once and for all. Hence my reluctance to make any plans. We still had weeks before Rory’s wrist healed, not to mention how he’d have to get his strength back with it. His concussion improved daily so I wasn’t as worried on that score.
“And a woman. Don’t forget our little tigress here.” Eric put a hand on Ash’s shoulder, squeezing it.
Ash didn’t say anything, just continued to watch me. Waiting for my thoughts on the matter.
“If Ash can fuck again, she can damn well help us go retrieve her mother.”
Eric flicked Xav’s ear, making him scowl as he rubbed it.
“No sex talk during business, you know the rules.”
“A stupid rule if you ask me.”
“You agreed to them.”
“Yeah, okay, teacher’s pet.”
I rolled my eyes as I settled my elbows on the counter.
“Do you two ever stop arguing?” I asked.
“On occasion, usually when one of us has a mouth full of cock,” Xav replied.
Rory snorted, looking away. Eric’s ears went red and I ignored Xav’s comment, preferring to get down to business.
“Our first task is to locate Isabella, only then can we devise a plan of action. So, how are we going to achieve this now we no longer have contact with Nate?”
All of them went silent. Xav, Eric and I had been trying to work this out for days but none of us had any good ideas. Well, ones that didn’t involve risking our lives. I knew for a fact Ash wouldn’t agree with those so there’d be no point bringing them up.
“I know where he’ll be keeping her,” Ash said. “Where he keeps all his prisoners.”
I put out a hand, wanting her to elaborate.
“In the basement of his building. It’s where he shot the video he sent us. I recognise the room. It’s where he conducts his killings not to mention all the other shit he does.”
She shuddered as if the memory of the place affected her deeply. We all had a good idea of the things Russo had subjected Ash to now. Reaching out, I stroked her arm, reassuring her we were here and she never had to go back there.
“It’s almost impossible to infiltrate. It’s safest to wait until he brings her back out in public again. He will at some point. He’ll want to provoke us into making a move. It’ll be a trap since he’ll know we have no other choice.”
“We don’t want to be waiting around for him to make a move,” I mused. “That gives him the upper hand rather than us.”
Ash leant closer to me as if she needed my touch. I’d already had her earlier. It’d been gentle and sweet, but by fuck had I missed her. The little breathy moans, the way she panted my name and told me how much she loved me. And whilst I loved sex with her, it was those moments afterwards where we were wrapped in one another I cherished the most. I’d never admit it to anyone else, but having her pressed against me, listening to the soft rise and fall of her chest and her heart thumping soothed me more than anything else in this world. I loved this girl to fucking death and beyond. That’s why I wanted to make sure I did everything in my power to give her a life away from the horrors she’d grown up with.
I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her against me and kissing the top of her head. My little girl. My world. My home. That’s what she was.
“Then we need to get his attention… and I think I know how.”
I glanced down at her with a raised eyebrow. Ash’s eyes had grown dark and her expression grim.
“I told you before… Frank values family above everything else. We fuck with his family, he’ll stop at nothing to come after us.”
“And what exactly do you have in mind, little girl?”
She took my hand and traced her fingers across my palm.
“You’re not going to like it.”
What on earth did she have going on in that head of hers?
“Ash…”
“He took Isabella… so we take someone close to him.”
The entire room went deadly quiet as her words settled over us. It’s not like we hadn’t kidnapped someone and held them against their will before. Ash was proof of that. Except she had become our girl rather than our captive.
Would this really get Russo to make a move against us?
“Who?”
“Carlo,” she whispered.
There was a growl from across the room. My head whipped up finding Rory looking practically murderous at the very idea of her cousin, who’d tried to kill both of them, being in our house. I could hardly blame him. Hell, I wanted to end the motherfucker myself for hurting my girl and my best friend.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Ash sat up, letting go of my hand and forcing me to drop my arm from around her.
“Do you have any better ideas? Only something drastic will force him out in the open.”
“Why would he care if we take your cousin?”
“Gianni will force him to care. They didn’t give a shit about you taking me since none of them wanted me as Frank’s heir, but if we take Carlo, he won’t have a choice. Besides, that idiot tried to kill me. I’d quite like to make him suffer.”
My little girl was beginning to show her ruthless side. And I couldn’t quite say I hated it. In fact, I found it hot. Seeing her worked up had always got me going.
“Okay, say we do take your cousin… What then?”
“We tell him if he wants to see Carlo alive again, he will return my mother. If he refuses, well… Carlo is expendable.”
“Are you really telling me you’d kill your cousin?” Xav interjected.
Ash turned to him, putting her hand on Eric’s shoulder as she leant closer.
“He’s not my cousin and he tried to kill me and Ror. Do you think I have any ounce of sympathy left for him? I’m done letting that family get away with the shit they’ve done.”
“She doesn’t have
to kill him. I will,” Rory put in.
“Jesus Christ, no one is killing anyone right now,” I said, wanting to get off the subject of murdering Carlo Russo. “We haven’t even agreed we’ll take him yet, so would you lot pipe down and let me think.”
What Ash had proposed could work. It would certainly piss Russo off. And his brother would put pressure on Frank to get Carlo back. It would be naïve to think we could achieve any of this without bloodshed. We already knew one of us would have to take down Frank Russo.
“I’m not one for advocating kidnapping,” Eric said. “However, if it’s the only way we get Isabella back, then I’m voting for it.”
Xav stared at Eric like he’d grown two heads.
“Wait up, hold up. You are agreeing to a kidnapping? Who are you and what have you done with the real Eric?”
Ash hid a smile and Eric shrugged like it was no big deal.
“I’m just saying we do what’s necessary to get our girl’s mother back. When this is all over, we never have do shit like this again.”
Xav shook his head. Rory nodded and Ash leant her head on Eric’s shoulder, making him reach up and stroke her face.
“It could work. We need to plan it carefully,” I said. “Any objections to us going ahead with this?”
No one said anything.
“Good… that’s settled one thing.”
Ash looked over at me with a frown.
“What’s the other thing?”
I took a breath, wondering if now really was the time to talk about this.
“The future… specifically the future we started talking about the day of your accident before everything went to hell.”
Chapter 15
I might have been seriously out of it when we were in the car on the way back from the car crash, but I knew what Quinn was alluding to. The little revelation our girl wanted a family in the future. The way Quinn was eying Ash told me everything I needed to know. He wasn’t comfortable with the idea at all. A cursory glance at Xav and Eric had me realising this entire conversation would not go down well with anyone.