by Sam Crescent
“As thrilling as this is, I want to take Ashley back home.” Earl got to his feet.
They’d overrun a hotel building. No one was allowed to take a room while he was there.
I was about to say something to piss him off when the door opened. Ashley stood with a smile but soon frowned when she saw me. “When did you return?”
“Just now. Our final building was a bust. They’d burned it down to nothing. It’s going to take a lot of money to do some rebuilds.” I was only grateful that so far, my father was happy to irritate me, not to kill any more of my men.
Ashley shook her head. “Wait, what?”
“What is it?” Earl asked. He went to Ashley’s side and I saw the way she tensed and his jaw clenched.
What the hell did that mean?
Ashley looked from me to Earl. “Emily got a letter with a single white rose. It told her to meet you at the family graveyard.” She looked between us. “She’s been gone an hour. “Tell me you were there.”
My blood ran cold.
“Show me this letter,” I said.
Ashley rushed out of the room and I followed closely behind her. She handed me the small rectangular letter. It wasn’t my writing, but I recognized it instantly.
“Where’s Drake?” I asked, already heading toward the door.
“He got a call before Emily saw this, from you.”
“I didn’t fucking call him.”
They had her and because I’d been too damn focused on finding them myself, I’d put her in fucking danger.
I was an asshole.
Chapter Twenty
Emily
Pain.
That was all I felt.
In my head. All over my face. My back where he’d landed a blow.
They’d also stripped me down to my underwear. So far, they hadn’t gone far, but I’d curled up in a ball, hating myself so damn much.
When I got the rose and the letter, it had confused me, but rather than question it or wait for Drake to return, I’d followed the directions.
Big fucking mistake.
The moment I walked into the graveyard, Daniel and Dean had been waiting. They’d slammed me against a tree, I’d been punched in the head, and then dragged to this crypt. I’d never seen the family graveyard before. It was nearly a ten-minute walk from the house, and that was if you were speed-walking.
Crypts and graveyards freaked me out in a big way.
“I wonder what they will think when they find your body,” Daniel said. “What I can’t decide is if I should cut you up, fuck you, and then slit your throat.”
“It has been years since I’ve fucked someone covered in blood,” Dean said.
“You were always a sick and horny fucker.” Daniel looked toward his friend with affection.
“Takes one to know one.”
Daniel crouched down on the floor next to me and ran a finger down my body, going from my neck, sliding down toward my thigh. He grabbed my thigh, his fingers digging in so deep that I whimpered.
He enjoyed this. Relished my pain. I couldn’t stand it, but I put up with it. Not making a sound. Accepting what he was doing to me. I’d been too dazed from the blows to the head.
This wasn’t me. I knew this. I was a fighter. I didn’t quit, and yet here I lay as if I’d given up. As if I’d given them the key to my soul.
I closed my eyes as he released me.
If they didn’t find me soon, I was going to die. I knew that.
The sound of metal on stone forced me to open my eyes. Dean approached. He carried a blade in his grip and he smiled at me.
“You know, River was taken once. He was held in a similar place to this, bound, tortured. All because your fucking dad ordered it! I should do to you what was done to him. Make you pay for your father’s sins. I should have killed you when I had the chance.” The tip of the blade pressed against the skin of my stomach. I tried not to breathe but panic began to build within me. I was terrified, and as he pressed the blade to my skin, I released a whimper.
“I wonder if seeing you all cut up will remind him of what happened to him.” He pushed the blade against my skin, not stabbing me but nicking my skin so it hurt so damn badly.
Tears filled my eyes. “Please,” I said.
“Are you going to beg us to stop, is that what is about to happen?” he asked.
I’d begged my father until I’d stopped. He never did. The beatings came regardless and even now, if I begged them, pleaded with them, offered them whatever it was they wanted on a silver platter, I knew they wouldn’t care. None of them would. They wanted to see me hurt. To watch my pain.
I couldn’t give them the satisfaction.
All I could do was accept the pain.
Endure the suffering.
I stilled as he moved to another part of my body. The blade pierced my skin. I screamed. I didn’t know how long I’d be able to take this.
Fight!
I didn’t have to lie down.
They were going to kill me regardless. Why not surprise them in the process?
With my screams, I kept them distracted. I used my hand to try to find something to hit them with. I reached out, trying to grab something, anything, and when I felt a rock, I grabbed it and slammed it against Dean’s head, knocking him backward. In the process, he dropped the knife. Before Daniel could get it, I had it within my grasp and I got to my feet, glaring at them.
“I bet you weren’t expecting that.”
I felt the blood from my wounds dripping down my flesh. It made me want to vomit, but somehow, I kept it all inside and glared at both of them.
I waited. Desperate for one or more of them to attack me.
Daniel came in first, but I was no match for him. I was able to swipe him with the blade, but as I went left, he moved right, grabbing me around the waist. His grip was too tight, and Dean came at me, backhanding me as he took the knife from me. Before I knew what was happening, he’d stabbed me in the shoulder.
I yelled.
If anyone was near, they had to have heard it.
He pulled the blade out and Daniel tossed me to the floor, kicking me in the back. I tried to scramble away, but he grabbed me by my hair, pulling my head back. “I don’t mind fucking a corpse,” he said.
He tilted my head back more and Dean handed him the blade. It came close to my neck and then a gun went off. The blade dropped down to the ground, and me along with it. I shivered as the sudden cold filled the room.
I didn’t exactly know what happened next as warmth surrounded me.
After everything I’d just been through, I closed my eyes for only a moment, but when I opened them again, I saw the sky.
Was I dead?
I didn’t know.
It was okay to close my eyes.
To go to sleep.
The pain would kill me soon.
****
Gael
I sat in our woman’s private hospital room.
She’d lost a great deal of blood.
For at least an hour, my dad and Caleb’s dad had been beating her, hurting her. She had bruises, missing clumps of hair, and knife wounds.
Caleb and Earl had gotten to her first. Leaning forward, I put my elbows on my knees and prayed. That was all I did. I didn’t know if anyone listened, but I hoped they wouldn’t take our woman away.
I couldn’t stand it.
Drake was in the other room. We’d tracked him through the GPS on his cell phone to a bar in town. Our dads’ final contacts were waiting. They’d beaten him up good. He’d been strung up and used as a piñata.
He had internal bleeding and so far, he hadn’t regained consciousness.
There was a time I didn’t think I could trust him, but now, I knew without a doubt, he was loyal to us. We would take care of him.
He’d never be a Monster, but he was family.
“Any change?” Vadik asked, handing me a coffee.
“No.”
“Ashley’s been given a sedative
,” River said, coming into the room. “She can’t handle this at the moment. She feels responsible because she didn’t tell Emily to wait to speak to us.” He ran a hand down his face. “How is she?”
“No change,” I said. “Is Caleb dealing with the paperwork?”
“Yep,” Vadik said. “They always want to make sure they get their money, don’t they?”
“Do you think she’s going to want to stick around and marry us?” I asked. I didn’t want to speak the words out loud, but I didn’t know what else to say. I loved my woman more than anything. Had been in love with her all this time. I knew to the outside world, this was fucked up and there was no way it could work, but I said fuck them. They didn’t know us. They didn’t know what we were capable of. If I said we could make this work, then that was exactly what we were going to do. No one could stop us.
Emily belonged to us.
“I hope so,” Vadik said. “She knows how we feel about her. That’s never going to change. We all love her.”
“And our dads are out of the way. The threat to her life is over.”
“The threat in Crude Hill never ceases.”
“No, but it doesn’t matter where she goes, does it? We’re the ones who love her. Everyone else, they couldn’t protect her like we do.”
I wanted to dispute River. We hadn’t exactly done a good job in protecting her today.
“Let’s wait until she wakes up and deal with whatever she has to say when it happens,” Vadik said.
The voice of reason.
I sipped at my coffee and watched her. She looked so peaceful, but with each hour that passed, more of the bruising came out even worse than before. I couldn’t stand to see her in pain. I wanted to take it away.
There was nothing I could think of that would do that.
Seconds passed until Caleb finally arrived. “Everything has been handled.” He took the last seat. Two of us were on each side of her bed.
“What happened to the graveyard?” I asked. I had to talk or do something. I couldn’t handle this.
“I’ve arranged to have it torn down,” Caleb said. “Their bodies have already been taken care of, burned. The ashes will be left in an urn, along with Ace’s and Marshall’s.”
“We’re not keeping their ashes,” I said. “Throw them into the dirt where they belong.”
“Already plan to. I figured we could have a nice little ceremony.” Caleb smiled.
I didn’t feel like smiling. Our woman was hurt and for me, that was no matter to laugh at or rejoice. I hated it. We’d caused that.
“She’s going to wake up,” Caleb said.
“I know she’s going to wake up. What I care about is what she’s going to want to do when she does wake up. What if she doesn’t want us?” I asked. “What if she can’t stand to be around us?”
“Not going to happen,” Emily said.
At first, I didn’t even realize she’d spoken, then, along with the other three, I got to my feet and moved toward the bed. She was awake.
She offered me a smile but then winced. “My face.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I took her hand within mine, kneeling beside her bed. She turned her head toward me.
“Please don’t worry, Gael.”
“I can’t lose you.”
“You’re not going to.”
I didn’t want to put my fears into words in case they gave her an idea. That was the last thing I wanted to do. If she hadn’t thought about leaving, then I certainly didn’t want to give her the idea.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” She gave my hand a squeeze. “Are they gone?”
“Yes,” Caleb said. “All you have to do is rest.”
“I can’t rest while you’re all worrying over me. I’m fine.”
“We know,” we all said in unison.
“No, I mean I’m not going to leave.” She turned her head back to me. “I heard you, and I’m not going to go anywhere. You think I don’t know the risks involved with belonging to you guys? You’re going to upset a lot of people, and I may be a target, but as I’ve told you so many times, I can’t walk away from you. What’s more, I don’t want to. This is a weird setup, but it’s our setup and I love it.”
I couldn’t help it, I got to my feet and I leaned down, kissing her lips. “Did I tell you I love you?”
“Not enough. You need to tell me every single hour of every day,” she said.
I laughed. “You can count on it. I promise you, you’ll never go a single day without knowing how I feel.”
“How we all feel,” Vadik said.
I agreed with them.
“I hate hospitals,” she said.
“Soon, you can leave,” Caleb said.
She nodded and sighed. “I’m starving. Do you know where Ashley is?”
I held her hand as Caleb filled in the blanks. He told her about Ashley’s upset and Drake’s beating. Like a true Monsters’ Queen, she handled it. From this day forward, I promised myself I was never going to underestimate her. She could handle whatever we threw at her.
Chapter Twenty-One
Emily
I’d been given the all-clear to go home, along with some interesting news, which I got to share with my guys. Vadik was cleaning my room and Gael waited outside while Caleb and River had gotten the car. They weren’t trusting anyone with my safety, and I stood in Drake’s room, which was why Gael was outside.
My men had seen fit to keep me in the hospital for a week. I didn’t need it, but they felt they had no choice but to keep me in for as long as possible. In that time, Drake had woken from his coma. The moment he did, he’d freaked out. My room had been right next to his, and the nurses had no choice but to sedate him.
“I know you’re in my room,” Drake said.
His eyes were closed.
I thought I’d taken a beating, but nothing to this extent.
He had two broken legs, a broken arm, cracked ribs; I thought I heard a ruptured spleen, internal bleeding, and two bruised eyes. I saw when he opened at least one. I understood the pain in them.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey. I bet you thought I was still a traitor, huh?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t.” I moved toward the bed. “May I?” I asked, pointing at the chair. I’d been tempted to sit on the bed, but I knew if I moved it, I’d only cause him pain, and I couldn’t do that to him.
“Be my guest, I wouldn’t stop you.”
“If you don’t want me here, tell me to leave.”
“Emily, you hated me, not the other way around. I don’t have a crush on you, nor do I want to get into your pants, but you know that.”
I laughed. “They showed me what was happening to you. I’m so sorry I couldn’t help.”
“It’s fine. I’ve always been told I need a beatdown. Just didn’t expect to explode with candy.” He winced.
“You don’t have to move.” I put my hand on top of his. “I’m so sorry.”
“Emily, your men gave me the job to protect you. I know to many it would be seen as a babysitting job, but over the years, I knew how important you were. I wasn’t given a job that I saw as less. I was given the ultimate job. I take your protection seriously and the fact I…” He stopped and his jaw clenched.
“Drake, you didn’t cause this. None of this was your fault.”
“But I shouldn’t have answered that fucking call.”
I started to cry. My emotions were going to get crazy for the next nine months. “Hindsight is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? It makes us question ourselves all the time, but we can’t stop what happened. There’s no way to change it. We can only learn from our mistakes.” I stroked my thumb back and forth across his knuckles. “Thank you so much for being loyal to my men. For giving them a chance, for being there for them. They don’t have anyone like you, and for that, you have all of my trust. I have faith in you, Drake. Thank you so much.”
“I don’t cry.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll cry for the both of us,” she said.
He looked at me. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
“I’m pregnant. The doctors took a blood test. I’m going to be a mom and my men are going to be dads.”
“I’ll feel sorry if it’s a girl,” he said.
I burst out laughing and he groaned.
“Enough,” she said. “We have to stop talking now. Enough is enough.”
For the next ten minutes, I sat with him, listening to the machines beep around him. A nurse came in to check on him, and Drake’s pain took him to sleep.
I stayed with him, not wanting him to leave him alone.
Time passed until Gael, Vadik, Caleb, and River entered the room. None of us spoke. Drake was still fast asleep.
“You know, I thought you were crazy hiring him,” I said.
“We all did,” River said.
I glanced toward my men. They were all staring right back at me. “He’s loyal to you guys. We’ve got to take care of him. Make sure he’s safe and protected. We can’t let anything else happen to him.” I needed to make it up to him so he knew I trusted him. I didn’t know if Drake even cared about my thoughts, but I felt the need to make it right.
“Drake will always have a job, Emily. Always,” Caleb said.
“Good.” I laughed. “I don’t think I’ll be fixing him up with a girl anytime soon.” I was so not a matchmaker. My body had started to heal, but still, all I wanted to do was get out of here. I hated hospitals. “Can we go?” I asked.
Gael came to me, helping me up.
“It’s time for us to go home,” Caleb said.
I stilled, looking at the door then at my men. Home. It was such an innocent word, and yet, it was entirely what I needed to hear.
****
Vadik
One week later
We found the perfect spot for the ashes.