Theirs To Protect: a Reverse Harem Romance

by Stasia Black

  Jeffries was so fucking unimaginative, he’d attacked in exactly the same way.

  He wasn’t the only one who could take advantage of the element of surprise. She couldn’t waste a second, though.

  She angled her body slightly to the side, pulled her elbow forward, and then jammed it backwards as hard as she could into his kidneys.

  He gasped in pain but still managed to keep hold of her.

  Okay, then Plan B.

  She went completely limp and lifted her arms all the way up, slipping down like an eel out from underneath his grasp.

  Then she scrambled forward, crawling and then stumbling to her feet and trying to run. She’d barely gone two feet before Jeffries grabbed her arm and swung her around.

  He’d grabbed her arm.

  She knew what to do when someone grabbed her like this.

  The thousands of drills she’d run with Charlie and Uncle Dale back in the bunker were so ingrained, it was muscle memory to lock his hand in the crevasse of her elbow.

  And then to strike the back of his elbow with the flat of her palm.

  The snap of his bone breaking was only drowned out by Jeffries’s roar of pain.

  Audrey sprinted back toward the front of the shop when a wall suddenly appeared in front of her.

  She was about to attack again when she realized it was Wayne.

  “Oh thank God,” she said, breathing out in relief. “He just attacked m—”

  Wayne gripped her shoulders in a crushing hold. “You tell anyone a single word and we kill one of your husbands. You think that pile of bricks just happened to fall on that idiot husband of yours’ friend? The guy who died in the hospital later that day? Your husband was standing in that exact spot where the bricks fell just five minutes earlier.”

  Audrey couldn’t help a small cry of anguish.

  Nix trusted this man.

  Just like he trusts Jeffries.

  “Get your fucking hands off me,” she growled.

  “Keep your mouth shut or Danny won’t be an innocent bystander next time,” Wayne said coolly.

  “You’re gonna pay, you fucking bitch,” Jeffries snarled from the ground behind her. “And when I get my hands on you again, you’re gonna give me exactly what I want.”

  Audrey jerked away from Wayne and he let her go. She bolted for the front of the building.

  The music that had seemed so jovial earlier now sounded like a screaming cacophony. There were too many people in the square. Too many strangers. Too many potential accomplices who could be working with Jeffries.

  She could barely hear Sophia calling after her, the trumpets and saxophone were blaring so loudly. And Audrey didn’t stop or slow down to explain her sudden departure.

  Because she’d just realized a horrible, horrible truth.

  There was only ever one solution to the threat Jeffries and his thugs posed.

  And next to losing her father, it would be the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.

  Chapter 36

  CLARK

  Two Weeks Later

  “You want to do WHAT?” Clark shouted, shoving his chair backwards as he got to his feet. “No. Absolutely fucking not. Nix. Tell her.”

  But Nix just sat calm as could be on the living room sofa, eyes on Audrey. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

  What the fuck?

  “Look,” Audrey said, leaning forward and clasping her hands over her knees. “I’m not running away. I’m trusting you. All of you. I’m coming to you and asking for your help.”

  Clark couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  She wanted to leave.

  Everything had been going so great. She’d been happy. Really happy. At least he thought so. Then, a couple weeks ago, she got withdrawn again. It wasn’t like the first time, though. She didn’t lay around in bed all the time. No, she kept on going out. Volunteering. Staying active.

  But she started locking the door to the master bedroom at night.

  Locking all of them out.

  At first he just thought she was having her monthly. But then even at meals, she barely spoke. Not even to Mateo, and that guy had the patience of a saint. He’d sit with her for hours, neither of them saying a word.

  Nix said to give her time. That women had moody spells.

  So fine. Clark had been waiting.

  But then she came downstairs today, sat them all down to talk, and announced that she wanted to leave them and go to Nomansland.

  Fucking bullshit.

  Audrey shook her head and looked down into her lap. “I just…” She took a deep breath and looked back up at them. “I can’t stay here anymore. I thought for a second…” But then she shook her head decisively. “But I just can’t. I know the coastal colony exists. If you can just help me get there—”

  Clark couldn’t listen to this for another second.

  “Are you fucking insane?” he shouted, shooting up off the couch across from where she sat on a chair by the fireplace. “You could be pregnant with our son or daughter already.”

  Her mouth dropped open for a second but then she said confidently, “I’m not,” she shot back.

  “And how can you be so sure?” Clark asked, all but getting up in her face. “You could be carrying our son our daughter in there,” he gestured toward her stomach.

  “I’m not,” she bit out.

  “How do you know?” Clark objected.

  “I just had my period, okay?” She threw her hands up.

  Clark swallowed and he could see some of the other guys reacting just as hard to the news. She wasn’t pregnant. He didn’t even have the brain space to process that at the moment or why he was so disappointed.

  He shook his head again. “It doesn’t matter. Nomansland is a fairytale.”

  He looked at the rest of the guys.

  And saw Nix and Graham exchange a look. A significant fucking look.

  “What?” Clark demanded. “What the hell was that look?”

  Graham looked to Nix. Who sighed and then nodded.

  “Nomansland is real,” Graham said.

  They could have heard a pin drop.

  “What?” Clark said at the same time as Mateo and Danny. Audrey just nodded.

  “Tell them,” Nix said, his voice toneless.

  “After Audrey ran away… tried to run away. I looked into it. Searched the dark web. It was like she said. There’s a video of a woman. You have to be a woman if you want to contact her. But then she’ll supposedly send you a set of coordinates. You meet. If you’re legitimate, her team will take you back with them to Nomansland.”

  “How the fuck could you keep this from us?” Clark’s blood was so hot he felt like he was going to erupt.

  “I didn’t think it was…” Graham swallowed, looking at Audrey, “—applicable information anymore.”

  “But Audrey,” Mateo asked, brow furrowed in pain, “Why? I thought you were happy here with us.”

  “Why?” She blinked, like she couldn’t understand the question. “How can you even ask me that?” She looked around at all of them. “I’ve always wanted to leave. From the very first moment I was dragged unconscious into this town. You thought that had changed?”

  Silence.

  She looked at each of them, one by one, and shook her head with a dark, disbelieving laugh.

  “I never wanted this. But no one gave me a choice, did they?” She stood up so quickly, her hair flew out around her.

  “None of you gave me a say in any of it. So fine. I tried to make the best of it. I tried to…” She swallowed hard and looked toward the window. “…forget.” The word was a raspy whisper.

  Clark hated the pain in her voice, but she wasn’t being fair. “We never made you do anything you didn’t want to. We didn’t force—”

  Her eyes flashed. “What else was I going to do? It was made very clear to me. I had three months to consummate this marriage. I decided to make it on my terms.”

  Clark took a step back. Was she trying to
say that— Did she think they’d— The whole reason he’d settled in this town was because they didn’t force women. And now she was—

  “I made the best of a bad situation,” she said, her voice shaking. “But I never had a choice. Several of you have told me you love me.” Her whole body was trembling now and every instinct in Clark’s body screamed at him to pull her into his arms.

  Even as the words coming out of her mouth were knives in his chest.

  “But how could I ever love you back when I was never given a choice in any of it?” Her words were an anguished cry. “How could this,” she waved her hands at the space between herself and them, “ever be love?”

  Yes,” she swallowed hard, nodding, “you made my prison bearable for a little while.” Her jaw clenched and her eyes went hard. “But that’s all this will ever be.” She waved at the house. The town.

  Then, she put the final nail in the coffin.

  “And that’s all this marriage ever was. A prison. And you’re the prison guards. Who occasionally like to fuck the inmate.”

  Mateo flinched. He wasn’t the only one.

  Danny was outright crying.

  Nix’s clenched his jaw so hard he was probably about to crack a tooth.

  And Clark?

  He was only ever in this for the sex. He’d just wanted to fuck with a clean conscience. He’d certainly never told Audrey he loved her.

  So why the hell did his chest feel squeezed in a vice so tight it seemed like he’d never pull in another full breath again?

  Danny stepped forward, looking around at all of them. “I know I’m not as smart as all y’all.” He swiped at his cheek and dripping nose. “But I say loving someone means giving them the freedom to stay with you or not. What we did was wrong. She should have the choice.” He swallowed and then coughed, like he was barely holding his shit together. “Even if it means she chooses leaving us.”

  Mateo was shaking his head but Nix took a deep breath and stepped forward to stand by Danny. “If it’s safe and it’s what you want, we’ll get you there.”

  What? What the fuck?

  “Audrey,” Clark said, her name barely coming out as more than a whisper. He shook his head. He’d never begged for anything in his life before, but he was begging now. “Please. Don’t go.”

  When she turned her face away from him, the heart he never knew he had shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.

  And her next words ground whatever was left into dust. “We leave as soon as possible.”

  Chapter 37

  AUDREY

  Just a little longer. Just a little longer and then you won’t have to see the hurt in their eyes anymore. God, she’d never forget the look on Clark’s face that night. Like she’d destroyed him.

  He’d gone out after that and three days later, he’d only come back with bloodshot eyes and skin so sickly looking she wondered if he’d been on a three-day bender. As Assistant Trade Secretary, he was one of the few people who could get his hands on enough booze to do so.

  The last three days had been among the worst of her life. Comparable with the days after losing Dad and Charlie. Except this time she didn’t make herself numb. She let herself feel all of it. And she relished every last moment in each man’s company, even if she couldn’t show it.

  She had to keep up the act, the façade that she wanted nothing more than to be rid of them and this place.

  You’re saving their lives, she whispered to herself a million times a day.

  She refused, she refused, to get someone else she loved killed. Much less five someones.

  Still, it didn’t make it any easier when Danny sidled close to her, his eyes a mix of confusion, hurt, and love. Or Mateo with his determination to predict and provide for her every whim. She couldn’t count the cups of tea and soup and pieces of bread he’d brought her the past few days. Somehow, last night, he even managed to produce a bowl of chocolate pudding for her.

  He must be stealing from the kitchen supplies and she wanted to chastise him for it, knowing he could get in serious trouble for doing so. She didn’t, though, because she knew it was his way of showing love when she was denying him every other avenue.

  Graham had been holed up with his computer. He’d arranged the face-to-face interview for her and the Nomansland rep. Suffice to say the woman was shocked to see Audrey three months later again after she no-showed the first time.

  “These stories rarely have happy endings,” the woman, Mara, said, an exhausted knowing in her eyes. “It’s good to see this one will.”

  Audrey nodded, barely able to manage a smile as her mind screamed, This is not a happy ending. It’s a tragedy.

  New coordinates were set. Audrey was to meet a woman named Jade, who Mara briefly introduced on screen so they’d be able to verify each other’s identification at the meet.

  She only gave Graham a perfunctory thank you and then left.

  No one else will get hurt because of me.

  Nix made it the most difficult out of all of them.

  Not because he got mad or yelled or had any of the hundred reactions she would have expected of him. He was quiet and calm, going about all the tasks that needed doing before they left.

  Closing up the house. They’d be going back to their quarters they had before she’d come. Without her, they would no longer be a clan. Talk about driving a knife through her chest.

  Nix was also working closer with Mateo to get the helicopter prepped.

  Yep, the helicopter.

  Mateo had officially gotten permission from the Commander to take it out on its maiden voyage.

  The trip that would have taken her and Charlie weeks on foot would only take a little over an hour and a half by helicopter.

  But Nix. She didn’t understand why he was acting the way he was. How was he staying so calm? Nothing in her relationship with him would explain his current behavior.

  She constantly felt like she was walking on eggshells every time she was around him. She kept waiting for it. Where was the eruption? The screaming? The accusations?

  It was midmorning and Nix was helping her put together a backpack of stuff to take with her.

  Totally silently. He hadn’t said a word for the last fifteen minutes.

  She couldn’t take it anymore. She slammed the backpack down on the bed and swung around to face him. “Okay, what’s the deal? Where’s the shouting? Why aren’t you calling me a selfish bitch for hurting everyone?”

  She expected to see the usual spark that lit in his eye when she challenged him like this. And it’s not that it wasn’t there—it was. His nostrils flared and his eyes went dark. But it was like— He didn’t seem angry. She blinked in confusion. He just looked like he did when he was about to grab her and ravage her.

  Her breath caught in her chest. Yes. Oh God, yes. One last time. Or maybe a thousand last times.

  She felt her bottom lip start to tremble and she bit down on it hard. She wrapped her arms around herself, forcing herself not to reach out for him.

  Still, his eyes were locked on hers, and he seemed about two point three seconds away from pulling her into his arms and grabbing her leg to lift it up and around his hip like he’d done so many times—

  “Guys!” Clark’s shout came from downstairs as the front door slammed closed. Both Audrey and Nix jerked to look toward the door as Clark continued calling out, “Nix. Audrey. Time to go. Right now!”

  “Shit,” Nix swore, running a hand through his hair. Then he was a whir of action, throwing a few more pairs of underwear and socks into Audrey’s backpack, zipping it, and pulling it over one shoulder. “Let’s go, babe. It’s time.”

  Audrey frowned in confusion as Nix put a hand at the small of her back and ushered her toward the door. “I thought I wasn’t leaving till tomorr—”

  Clark met them in the hallway and gestured them impatiently toward the stairs. “Chop chop. We don’t have all day.” He looked down at his watch. “Literally. We have about an hour until the Commander
gets back, so we gotta get gone.”

  Audrey let herself be hurried down the stairs but she was still so confused. “I don’t get what the rush is. Does the Commander need the helicopter for something later?”

  Nix and Clark exchanged a look.

  Audrey let out a huff. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Well, the Commander might not have exactly acquiesced to our requisition request,” Clark said as he took over for Nix, steering her toward the back door.

  “What?”

  “Just speak plain English,” Nix growled. “We asked for the helicopter to take you to the coast. The Commander said no.”

  Audrey gasped, swinging Nix’s direction as Clark pushed the back door open.

  “What are you talking about?” Audrey cried. “I thought you asked him if we could take it.”

  “More like you assumed we asked.”

  “But,” Audrey sputtered.

  “No buts,” Clark said.

  “I don’t know,” Nix smirked. “She might need a boost over the fence. I’m happy to provide any and all derriere support.”

  Why wouldn’t they be serious? “So we’re going to steal the helicopter?” she asked, still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. “But I’ve heard you talking.” She looked at Clark. “You said President Goddard himself was interested in the helicopter restoration. Wouldn’t stealing it be…” she threw her hands up in exasperation, “I don’t know, treason or something?”

  “Not stealing. Borrowing,” Clark said, arranging his knee and putting his hands on it as a base to boost Audrey over the fence. “We’re borrowing it. Now. Up.”

  When she didn’t move fast enough, Nix grabbed her leg, almost knocking her off balance, and lifted her foot into Clark’s waiting hands.

  Before she could say anything else, they were boosting her up and there was nothing to do except grasp the top of the fence and swing her leg over.

  “Careful,” Nix hissed when she grunted in pain, scraping her arm on the rough wood at the top of the fence slats.

  She rolled her eyes and managed to lower herself over the other side far more gracefully than the last time she’d attempted this.