by Taylor Rose
But her, I couldn’t fucking handle what they wanted to do to her. Not to her.
She was helpless. She was innocent. She had done nothing wrong, except be alive. She was just a fucking child.
If someone didn’t find us soon, I feared for both of our souls.
There were some things you couldn’t get back from. Some things that changed you forever, whether you wanted them to or not.
Sometimes, life left you with hard choices. Those always seemed like the worst, but they weren’t. The hardest things to live with, to deal with, were the things that you had no choice in. The things that were forced upon you.
I wasn’t afraid for me.
I was terrified for her.
Sleep eluded me last night.
I tossed and turned on my mattress all night long, unable to get comfortable. I was unable to rest up for the long day I knew was waiting for me.
When my alarm went off, I was already awake and ready to go. I had already showered, gotten dressed for the day, and eaten breakfast.
I turned the alarm off so the continuous annoying beep would stop. Sitting up in bed, I stretched my tight muscles. First my neck, then my arms and back, and finally my legs. I was trying to release as much tension from my body as I could, needing to be as relaxed as possible.
I blinked slowly, trying to clear the haziness from my vision. I needed to see clearly, to fucking focus. If not for me, for them.
They needed me to be strong.
They needed me to fight for them.
They needed me to find them.
To bring them home.
To fucking save them.
And I just needed them. Only them.
In the short time that I’d known them, they had become my world. My life. My fucking heart.
Everything that I had ever wanted or needed in life, they had given to me.
Which was why I was going to find them.
And I was going to make sure that the sick fuck who took them from me paid in fucking full.
But first I needed to get my ass out of bed and head over to Anderson Inc. That was the place where I was needed. That was the place that would help me get them back, and then help me exact my revenge.
Standing up, I walked over to my closet and plucked a jacket from a hanger.
I quickly walked out of my house and locked the door. I just couldn’t be inside of it any longer. It felt empty, almost like it was dead inside without their laughter and love. Without them.
A shudder took over, shaking me all the way down to my bones.
I tried to shake the horrible feeling, but I couldn’t. Ice started to make its way through my veins, freezing me from the inside out.
I shivered.
Once I was in my car, I turned the heater on full blast. The hot air washed over my skin taking the chill out of my bones.
Stepping on the gas, I made my way to Anderson Inc, hoping and praying that they had some good news. Even the tiniest piece of good news would do.
I just needed something to go on, any kind of information about them, something to keep me going, to give me the energy I needed to continue with my search. I had to keep fighting this uphill battle that seemed determined to defeat me.
Pulling into the parking lot, I put the car in park and sighed.
Please.
Fucking please.
Once out of the car, I made my way over to the entrance of the building. Before walking in, I took a deep breath in hopes of being able to calm my frazzled nerves.
I was not a fucking pussy.
I needed to man the fuck up and grow a pair of fucking balls. I used to have a pair of those. They were supposed to be hanging between my goddamn legs.
I was not a cry baby.
I was not a fucking quitter.
I was Kieran fucking Kingston. The best center in the NHL. The most stubborn son of a bitch on the planet.
I was a goddamn fighter, through and through.
I was not some pussy ass bitch, even though this situation made me out to be a real pansy asshole.
But sometimes even grown men needed to cry. They needed to let out their emotions. Not often, but sometimes.
Just in private, without an audience.
I opened the door to Anderson Inc and walked into the building. Anderson Inc was a huge brick building on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The town which I called home for the last four years.
From the outside it looked like a plain old building. Faded bricks lined the outside wall, some graffiti had even been placed in spots to draw attention away from it. When you walked inside the double steel plated door, the interior was bare. A few rickety old lamps hung from the ceiling that casted an eerie glow on the whole room, while a few crates and old wooden doors were scattered around, making it look ordinary.
If someone broke in, they would see just a plain building. Nothing special. Nothing extraordinary.
Sight had seriously thought of everything when he had this place created. If I had stumbled on this place by myself, I would have left and never thought about it again.
The only thing that made you think was the small logo of Anderson Incorporated that had been etched into the handles of the steel door. That was the indicator that this was, in fact, not just an ordinary building.
I walked up to the faded green wooden door on the far side of the room. Pulling the handle in my hand, I opened it. A shiny, steel plated door appeared embedded into the wall behind it. There was a touch screen monitor and a finger print scanner above the door handle which was used for extra security purposes. You either needed the correct code or correct fingerprint to be granted entrance into the actual office area.
Luckily, I had the code which I typed in, number by number, until I heard the resounding unlocking click. A green light flashed, letting me know I was authorized to proceed.
Grabbing the handle of the door in my hand, I twisted the knob and pulled it open. This one took a little bit more effort than the others because it weighed a shit ton, but it slowly opened. I followed the descending hallway of steps that opened into a huge reception room with burgundy colored walls with hanging pictures, dark mahogany hard wood floors, and gold plated sconces. There was a set of waiting chairs and a table filled with coffee, hot chocolate, and other delectable items.
I walked through the room where their receptionist, Sutton, looked at me with pity. She arched her perfectly shaped eyebrow at me as if asking me what the hell my problem was but buzzed me through without any actual questions. She wouldn’t understand if I explained myself anyways.
The sliding glass doors opened and the light squeaky sound of metal on metal filled my ears. I stepped past them towards the back of the building where more employees worked in the actual offices. I walked briskly past office after office, my gaze fixed on the end of the hallway.
Head after head popped out of their offices and I could feel their gazes stick to my back as their eyes followed me, thinking I was some kind of ticking time bomb. Well let’s face it, I kind of was.
I upped my pace, my arms pumping at my sides while my legs moved faster and faster until I was finally standing in front of Sight’s massive oak office door. It had to be eight feet tall by five feet wide. The Hulk could literally fit through it with ease.
Lifting up my fist, I pounded on the door with one loud thump. The sound from the impact of my hand hitting the wood echoed throughout the entire area.
Twisting my head, I looked down the hallway I had just walked through. As soon as my gaze hit them, every person who had their heads sticking out of their doors retreated, vanishing into thin air.
The door creaked open, loud and long. I grabbed the wood in my hand and pulled it open, the crack just enough to fit my body through, and I closed the door once again.
A familiar muffled laugh sounded and I snapped my head towards the culprit.
Cooper, Saber and his wife April, Eight, and Sticks all st
ood in the far right corner. A few of them had their hands over their mouths, trying to muffle the sound of their laughter.
Seriously, I needed better friends. These guys were assholes.
I glared at them and flipped them the bird before making my way to where Sight was standing. He was talking on the phone while staring through the glass windows in his office. He had a view that overlooked the pit filled with the new employees, which was the easiest way to keep tabs on them. He watched them whenever he had the time.
As soon as he saw me, he hung up the phone and waved me over to him, a slight smile on his face.
Once I reached him, a smile had completely taken over his face.
The fact that other people could be happy when I was so miserable pissed me off. The fact that the world worked like that blew my mind and I fucking hated it.
“Pissed off, man?” Sight asked me with a chuckle, his eyebrow arched, taunting me.
I scoffed and scuffed my boot on the ground in front of me, the sound of the impact echoed through the office.
“How’d you guess that, Sherlock?” I mocked him, while my eyes glared a hole through his head.
He laughed, “Maybe the scowl that seems permanently placed on your face?”
I faltered. I had a scowl on my face? Like right now?
Twisting my head, I glanced at my reflection in the double sided window. We were able to see outside, but no one was able to see in. I did have a scowl on my face, and bags under my red rimmed eyes, and a ketchup spot on my fucking shirt. My hair looked like a rat’s nest, all tangled up and knotted together. But the worst was my beard and mustache, they had grown so long that my mustache hairs tickled my lips and went inside of my mouth a little bit.
I looked like a total and complete wreck.
I shrugged my shoulders at him, letting him win this round because honestly, he could make fun of a lot worse than my fucking scowl right now.
A laugh bubbled out of my mouth, unexpected and unstoppable.
No fucking wonder Sutton looked at me as if I was a fucking lunatic. I looked like one right now, and worse, I felt like one too.
A dark cloud settled over me, stealing the small bit of light I had left in my life. An eerie feeling settled in my gut, one so bad it caused me to double over right where I was standing. I started gagging, but tried to keep the bile from rising up my throat. My eyes burned with unshed tears and my hands shook slightly.
April must have noticed because she rushed over and pulled my arms around her neck. Short pieces of her pixie style golden blonde hair tickled my skin as she dragged me out of the giant office and into the private bathroom. She placed me in front of the toilet where I dropped to my knees. My stomach heaved, expelling its contents, my body stayed double over while I continued to puke.
April pulled my hair into one of her hands and used the other to rub circles into my back. She cooed in my ear and whispered words of hope.
“Everything’s gonna be okay, everything’s gonna be okay,” she whispered over and over again until both my body and mind believed her.
My body sagged back and slammed into the wall behind me. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes tightly. My hands balled into fists at my sides, and my fingernails dug into my skin.
“It’s okay… You’re okay,” April cooed while she ran her hands through my hair, trying to get some of the knots out.
I opened my eyes and blinked rapidly at the ceiling. Tilting my head to the side, I locked eyes with April. Her gaze seemed so humble and wise beyond her years as if she knew all of the secrets the world held in her mind.
I wanted to ask her why that just happened, what it even was, because I wasn’t sick. I hadn’t puked since the night I got my scars, and how it hit me so hard. I decided against asking.
As if she knew what I was thinking, April bit into her lower lip and took a deep breath.
“Sometimes Kieran, people are connected on such a deep level of the soul, connected so much that some of their energy, their soul, their thoughts and memories, even their feelings, can bleed into one another. A connection that deep is rare and coveted. I’ve only seen it one other time in my life, and that was when I was a little girl. My grandparents had one. They had this sixth sense about the other, it was actually creepy at first,” she lightly laughed, remembering a memory from her childhood. “But once you know what it is, it’s fucking beautiful to watch. Two people so in tune with each other, it’s hard to distinguish where one starts and the other ends. I have a feeling you and Figgy have that kind of connection. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes not everything can be explained rationally.”
A soul deep connection. No way. That wasn’t actually a thing.
But fuck, if something like that was even possible, it would explain a fuck of a lot.
Who knows, though? Maybe it’s just some far off story of a crazy women who couldn’t stop rambling. Maybe she was trying to help me, make me feel better about acting like a pussy.
Looking up, April was beaming at me. Her hazel eyes sparkled and she had a smile on her face. I was about to say something, when a pounding shook the door.
“He found em’! Kai fuckin’ found em’! Get out here, goddamn it!” Sight bellowed, his voice rattled my bones.
April’s eyes widened and her mouth popped open.
The second his words sunk in, I scrambled off the floor and threw the door open. April jumped out of the way as the door thudded against the wall.
My eyes wild and frantic, I swung my head from side to side, taking in the facial expression of everyone in the room. This was not a joke. Kai had found them. He’d found my girls.
A huge weight lifted off my shoulders and the muscles in my body relaxed for the first time in three, long days.
Putting one foot in front of the other, I made my way out of the bathroom and started walking out of the office, only to be stopped by a huge arm blocking my way out of the room.
My head snapped up to see who in their right mind would try to stop me after the news I’d just learned. Sight was standing there, a foot taller than me, probably about two hundred and thirty pounds of solid muscle, like a wall.
I quirked my head to the side. “Really?”
His eyebrows flew to his hairline. He nodded his head and then pushed a clean black t-shirt with the logo of Anderson Incorporated embroidered on the top left breast.
“Do ya really want the first time ya see your girls in days, to be lookin’ like a homeless man wearin’ a shirt stained with a huge red dot and vomit?” he asks me with an amused smirk on his face. “Really?”
I cursed because fuck no, I didn’t want to look like a walking disaster when I saw them again. They were going to need comfort, not to feel like they had to try and comfort me.
Fuck, I guess I had to change my goddamn shirt. Pulling my shirt over my head, I dropped in on the ground next to me with a light thud.
April gasped, which caused me to turn my head around and remember that there were other people in the room with me.
She whimpered and shoved her head into Saber’s chest. His arms tightened around her body, while the muscles in his body were rigid. He didn’t say a word. The hollow look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.
“Jesus fuck,” Cooper hissed as he clenched his hands into fists at his sides. His whole face had drained of color and he looked like he was about to faint.
“Holy shit,” Sticks cursed loudly, shaking his head back and forth as if not believing what his eyes were seeing.
“You have got to be shitting me,” Eight growled and cracked his knuckles, readying for a fight. He continued to shake his head and mutter curse words in Spanish.
I shrugged my shoulders, not even caring that they finally saw. I let their comments roll off of my back, even though I knew they came from a good place, I didn’t need their pity. I never had. I was more pre occupied with getting to Figgy and Squirt, and with making myself presentable for t
hem. So pre occupied in fact that I had forgotten that none of them knew my secret. None of them had ever seen me without a shirt on, I always made sure I was alone when I changed in the locker room, getting there super early just to be certain.
I snatched the shirt out of his hands, as fast as I could and pulled it over my head. But before I could pull it all the way over my back, Sight twisted my body around and held my shirt up to get a glimpse of what freaked everyone out so much.
Not that I blamed him. If roles were reversed, I would want to know.
“Son of a bitch,” he gritted out. The sound of his teeth grinding together filled my ears.
I tugged the shirt down and out of his grasp so that it now covered my body and walked through the door.
This would have to be a story for another time because right now we all had somewhere important to be.
Turning around, I cocked my head to the side. They all stood in place, unmoving in shock. “Chop, chop guys. Let’s go fucking get my girls back,” I demanded, my voice raw and gritty.
They snapped out of it and started rushing around the room, grabbing anything and everything they needed.
I locked gazes with Sight and an understanding passed between us. He clasped his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go get em’,” he agreed.
We walked out of the building and into one of their surveillance vans. All of us fit in one, with enough room left for both Figgy and Squirt. Sight drove like a mad man, running all sorts of red lights, breaking all sorts of traffic violations. He didn’t seem to give one fuck.
Looking around the van, I realized how lucky I was.
The people sitting around me weren’t my friends. They weren’t acquaintances or teammates.
They had become my family. When, exactly, I wasn’t sure. But I knew deep in my heart, they were my family.
Here they all sat, risking themselves, and one of them even risking his wife, all to help me get the most important people in my life back.