by Taylor Rose
His arms pulled her close, his muscles tight and tense. His head was curled into the crook of her neck and his body shook with what I assume to be silent tears. Without looking at me, he carried her out of the disgusting room and to the car.
Cooper would take care of Squirt. He always would. Whatever bond formed between them was strong. So strong it crippled my friend to the point of no return. She was his whole fucking world as weird as that sounded. But I knew I could trust him. He would protect that little angel with his life.
Turning my head, I changed my focus. Standing against the far wall of the hotel room was Figgy.
Her eyes were hollow, almost lifeless.
Tears streaked her face. Some still silently fell from her eyes as if she had no control over them. Dark spots were visible under her eyes as if she hadn’t slept in days. Exhaustion was written all across her body. She looked as if a slight wind could knock her over. Her hands clung together, over her chest. Her lips were slightly parted, but she had yet to say a single word.
I growled.
She had let herself go. It had only been a couple of days and she looked like a wreck. Taking care of herself and Aqua should always be her number one priority.
Blowing out a breath, I tried to relax, at least until I heard her side of the story.
“Figgy,” I murmured. Her eyes dilated at the sound of my voice, her hands unclenched until they hung limply by the sides of her body. “Baby, you’re safe. It’s just me. Kieran.”
Her body seemed to relax at the sound of my voice, but her eyes were still far away, void of anything. She was staring right at me, but not actually seeing me. It was as if she was looking through me.
That would not fucking do.
“Figueroa,” I growled. I snapped my fingers, trying to get her attention. Her head bobbed until she met my eyes once again. Her eyes widened once she recognized me, life poured into the souls of her irises.
I took a step forward. Wanting, needing to touch her, but not wanting to scare her further.
“Baby, why did you leave me?” I asked, my voice cracking with emotion.
Her leaving me hurt. It fucking gutted me.
But I knew I couldn’t let her go without a fight. I needed to fight for her because letting her go was not an option.
Her head dropped to the floor and she mumbled something incoherent.
“Eyes,” I growled.
Her head snapped up, her frightened blue eyes met mine.
Uncertainty was swimming in their depths.
“I…Um…Well…” she trailed off, not finishing her sentences.
Anger pooled in my gut, she wasn’t even able to say it.
“You just…And then I…But you’re…And I didn’t…” she continued to mumble, her eyes were again staring at the floor.
“Fuckin’ eyes, Fig,” I snapped angrily.
Her eyes snapped to mine again.
“I am not a weak man, Figgy. I’m all fucking male. Opinionated. Strong. Loyal. Hardworking. Just because I treat you with care, which is exactly what I do, doesn’t make me a pussy ass bitch. It doesn’t mean that you can just walk all over me and expect me to keel over. Never gonna fucking happen. When I feel, I feel fucking deep. Deep in my bones. Deep in my heart. Deep in my soul,” I snarled, my upper lip curled with my words. “You do not get to just run away from me. You have a problem, we talk. We fight and you don’t wanna see me? Tell me and I’ll give you space. You find out something that you don’t like? Ask me. But you don’t get to just fucking run away like none of it mattered to you. Like I don’t matter to you.”
Her eyes widened and her lips parted as if she was about to speak.
I held my hand up, stopping her. I still had more I needed to say.
Taking my eyes off of her, I paced the room.
“You’re disgusted with me right?” I asked her. “After finding out I was related to those sick ass psychopaths, you realized you didn’t want me anymore. Not that I can blame you. I get it, baby. I’m disgusted with myself.”
I spat on the ground.
“No, no, no!” she screamed at me. “How could you think that? You saved me. You’re always saving me!”
I scoffed.
“There’s no point in lying, Figgy,” I reasoned. “I only want the truth.”
She sucked in a huge gulp of air. Her hands shook as she pulled them up to her chest, as if she was clutching her heart. She shook her head from side to side frantically.
Steeling her body, she took a step closer to me, one foot after the other, until she was standing right in front of me.
Her eyes shone with unshed tears, her lips quivered.
She reached out with her hand until her fingers connected with my bare arm.
A jolt traveled through my body.
Her fingers curled around my arm, clutching me. Her nails dug into my skin so much, she was leaving indentations in my skin. My skin stung, it burned. Tilting her head, she looked at me.
I sucked in a deep breath.
“Baby, what happened while you were there?”
A shield formed over her eyes, pulling her away from me.
“Stay here with me, baby,” I murmured.
She blinked, clearing her vision once again.
“Once I tell you, you won’t want me anymore. I’m soiled,” she whispered, her voice wobbling as emotion swelled through it.
“That could never happen. I will always want you,” I reassured her. I pulled her small body into my arms, cocooning her in my warmth.
She shook her head against my chest.
“I’m sick. Nasty. Soiled. Selfish,” she mumbled to herself.
“Just tell me what happened, baby. I can’t help you until you tell me.
She sharply nodded her head once.
“They were sick. Delusional. After they took us, we were bound and gagged. But I could still hear them talking. Over and over they talked about all of the stuff they wanted to do to me. Nasty, horrible stuff. I can still hear their voices in my head,” she whispered, her eyes trailing off into the past. “They wanted to hurt you. So they hurt me to get to you. But the only way to get to me, was through Aqua. Buzz had already learned that truth.”
My arms tightened around her.
She took a deep breath.
“They waited less than a fucking day. They spent a little time arguing about what to do and who would do it. Finally, they had decided. They pulled the blindfolds off of our eyes. Buzz was standing over Aqua and Mitch was in front of me. At first they were asking me questions about you. Personal questions. At the time, I didn’t understand why they wanted to know,” she babbled. “After a while, they started asking me questions about how you were in bed. Aqua was sitting right there, I didn’t want her to know, so I kept quiet. Wrong fucking move.”
“Buzz smacked Aqua across the face so hard her head whipped to the side. They were using her to control me,” she gritted out.
Her nails dug deeper into my arms causing my blood to spill.
I clenched my jaw, my teeth ground together inside of my mouth. I wanted to yell. I wanted to scream. But I had to keep quiet. I had to stay in control.
I ignored it all and let her continue telling her story.
“After answering their questions, they wanted more. Knowing wasn’t enough. They wanted to touch, too,” she whispered. “First, my shirt came off. They cut it off of my body and just stood there staring at my bare front. Buzz was hypnotized by his “art work”. They were both speechless as they stared at my scars. It was as if they had this unspoken understanding about them which I didn’t understand at the time. It made my fucking skin crawl. Next, they pulled my jeans off, until I was completely exposed. My hands were tied around my back, I... I couldn’t stop them.”
Nausea swirled in my belly.
“They… They tried to make me enjoy it. What they were doing to me. They wanted more than anything for me to enjoy myself. But, I didn�
�t. I couldn’t, so they got angry.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
My heart was being brutally ripped out of my chest.
“They said that tomorrow Aqua had to watch and that if I didn’t enjoy myself, that they would move on to her.”
My blood froze in my veins.
Oh my fucking god.
Figgy started sobbing uncontrollably, her body shaking with a fierceness in my arms.
I whispered words of encouragement. Words of strength. Words of love.
“They came back the next day, smiles and fucking rainbows. I hadn’t been able to sleep all night. All I could think about, was that I needed to enjoy myself. I needed to, no matter what the circumstances. I couldn’t let them taint her, too,” she cried, her tears were pouring down her cheeks again. “They both tried again, but I just couldn’t. I tried. I begged. I pleaded. I wanted to so fucking bad, but I just couldn’t. My body wouldn’t let me.”
My entire body went stiff.
I was so angry, but no words would form.
“The last day we were there, they hit me. Slapped me. Punched me. Kicked me. They held my face and made me watch them with her,” her voice broke. The look on her face shattering my heart into a million pieces. Both of these girls were innocents. None of this should have ever happened, and yet it did. Anger pooled in my gut for them. “I… It’s just killing me inside, knowing that this was all my fault. It could’ve been avoided if I hadn’t been so blind to the truth, if I hadn’t fallen for his lies.”
She sobbed into my chest. She sobbed harder than I had ever seen anyone cry before, as if she wished she could die.
I had no words. Nothing would come out of my mouth.
But one thing was for certain.
None of this was her fault.
I pulled her tighter into my body. Running my fingers through her hair and mumbled soft, encouraging words into her ear. She needed to calm down. To relax.
“Why didn’t you just tell me in the first place?”
She sniveled and hiccupped a few times, still clinging to me with all of her might.
“You would have left me. It was all my fault,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
“Oh baby, none of what happened was your fault,” I murmured into her hair.
“I let them touch her!” she screamed, her voice breaking at the end of the word “her”.
Figgy was broken when we met.
Pieces of her were scattered around, here and there.
Putting her back together the first time was easy.
Effortless.
All I had to do to gain her trust, show her that I cared.
Her pieces were large and fit right back together.
This time, putting her back together would be difficult.
Time consuming. Frustrating. Crippling.
This destroyed her.
But I was a patient man. Putting her back together again would be a privilege, one I was happy to have.
She was worth it.
She was worth everything.
“He will fucking pay,” I vowed. “I promise, baby. He. Will. Pay.”
She nodded against my chest. She knew who I meant, because only one of the men that took them was still breathing.
I picked her up and cradled her body in my arms, continuing to hug her to my chest.
“I love you, Figgy. Nothing that ever happens will change that,” I murmured as I placed a kiss on her chapped lips.
She nodded her head against my chest.
In acceptance or in surrender, I wasn’t quite sure.
“I love you too, Charming,” she whispered to me lightly, her eyes locked on mine, showing me herself again for the first time since I stepped through the door.
This was my Figgy.
Thank fuck.
“Let’s go home,” I muttered before pushing away the dresser that had been holding the door in place. I walked out of the door with her in my arms, into the hallway, and out to the car without a second glance.
Once I reached the car, I took a deep breath.
My anxiety and anger were finally gone. They had dissipated, leaving me tired and weak.
But I was happy I had Figgy back in my arms.
She was mine, and I was hers.
Everything was right once again.
What the future had in store for us, I wasn’t entirely sure. It would be a long and painful journey, but I didn’t want to take that journey with anyone other than her.
My Figgy. My love. My life.
Three months had passed since our kidnapping.
Three fucking long, hard months.
Every day was a struggle, but every day was easier than the last, which made moving forward more bearable.
Piece by piece, I was being fused back together. There were still some missing pieces scattered around, though. Kieran brought each piece back to me, dusted it off, and melded it back to my soul.
Why did I ever think I could make it without him?
He was everything to me.
My rock. My cheerleader. My confidant. My savior. Everything I needed all wrapped up into one delicious package.
He held my hand when I needed support and pushed me when I needed to spread my wings and fly.
Over the last week, our little family had finally found some kind of normalcy again.
Every other day, Aqua and I were both dragged to counseling. One hour to ourselves, and one hour together where we worked through the dark thoughts that plagued our minds. Kieran had been going to therapy, too. He stopped every day after practice to talk to his counselor for thirty minutes to work through the demons that had been haunting him since his childhood, on top of the ones that were haunting him now.
After all of the horrific events that had happened to us in the last six months, it was something that really helped us move forward.
Skating had become part of my daily routine again as well. The familiar repetition calmed my mind, which relieved most of my stress.
Both Kieran and I had our skating to ground us, but Aqua didn’t have anything she loved doing yet to stabilize her. Every week, she was trying something different, hoping to find something that sparked her interest. So far, nothing had stuck out to her. But I hoped that she would soon find her thing, the thing that called to her. She needed something to love.
I felt a tug on my hand and glanced to my right.
Aqua was sitting next to me, her blonde hair had grown out all the way down to her ass. She refused to cut it, loving the way it cascaded down her body. She’d grown two inches and now almost came up to the swell of my breasts. Even though she looked young, she had matured well past her years. When you looked into her deep blue eyes, you could see the wisdom that had found its way into her soul.
She turned seven last week, but instead of having a party, she wanted a fucking cell phone. She got what she wanted. Kieran mentioned something about it having GPS, which was the only reason I caved to her wishes. She got her way most of the time, having the guys wrapped around her little fingers and all. I was the only one capable of telling her no.
I rolled my eyes.
“There he is,” she squealed as she pointed out the center of the rink.
My head snapped straight and my eyes scanned the rink until they spotted him. Number eleven. The love of my life. Kieran Kingston.
We were sitting in the very front row, pressed against the glass by the opening where the Zamboni entered the rink. The icy air chilled my body, causing goose bumps to form on my skin under the jersey I was wearing. His favorite jersey. The one he had been wearing the night we first met.
My eyes glazed over as I watched him skate around the ice, warming up with the rest of his team. He was electric out there, his blades cutting through the ice with such precision, it blew my mind.
Hockey skates were no fucking joke. I tried skating on them a few weeks ago and fell flat on my ass. I had a massive bruise that
still hadn’t fully healed yet.
Everyone in the stadium stood up as the national anthem blasted through the speakers. Holding my right hand over my heart, I proudly pledged to the flag that gave me my freedom.
“Would everybody BUT Figueroa Ryan please take a seat,” the announcer declared through the loud speakers.
I froze with shock, because what the hell?
“Figgy,” Kieran’s deep and gritty voice rasped through the speakers. My head swiveled back and forth, trying to find where he was, to catch a glimpse of him, but I was coming up short. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I could only hear him. “I knew from the second I saw your picture displayed on this very screen that I was a goner. Your haunted eyes pulled me in. You had snared me into your trap, and I hadn’t even met you yet,” he chuckled huskily and my heart jumped into my throat. “A wise woman once told me that some people get lucky enough to feel so deeply, that your souls blend together. A rare, soul-deep connection, she called it. At the time, I called bullshit. I didn’t believe. But now I know without a shadow of a doubt that what she said was true. Because I feel it, deep in my heart, deep in my soul, that you are my lifeline.”
Tears burned my eyes. I blinked them back, trying to remain strong. But every time he added something else, another one of my walls came crumbling down in front of me, turning into rubble.
“You are mine, just as I am yours. Would you do the honor of becoming my wife?”
My hands slammed to my chest as I gasped.
My head swiveled around frantically until my eyes landed on him. Standing ten feet away from me, down on one knee with a ring box in his hand. His eyes were locked on me, a smirk plastered across his gorgeous face and I could tell he’d been watching me through his whole speech.
I choked back a sob as my heart thudded against my rib cage.
“Yes!” I screamed before I barreled my way towards him, tears of happiness streamed down my face.
I pounced on top of him, catching him off guard, the force from my body crashing into his causing him to lose his balance. We both landed on the floor, arms wrapped around each other.
No longer caring if I looked strong, I started sobbing into his chest. My tears soaked into his jersey as he feathered small kisses into my hair.