by Honor James
She nodded and understood, very much so. How many months did she sit at the graveside doing nothing but crying after she had finally been released? It was a hard thing to see, a hard thing to know. “We will get through this, together. Right?”
“Absolutely,” he told her. Passing off the blade to Cutter, Bryce took her jacket and held it so she could slip her arms into the sleeves. “All right, let’s get this show on the road.”
Cutter stepped aside and waved them out of the house. He set the alarm system and joined them, locking the front door before the three of them headed to the SUVs sitting, already running.
Sadie climbed up into the SUV and settled in beside Bryce. She saw that Keagan was driving and reached out to touch him. When he was more mobile and after the danger was gone, they would come back just for him. That was then, though, this was now.
He caught her hand and gave it a squeeze. “You ready?” he asked softly. At her nod, he pressed a kiss to her fingers, and let go. “We’re a go here,” he said. “Copy, on your six.” Putting the truck into gear, he pulled out right behind the other vehicle, with one more behind them.
* * * *
The drive to the cemetery had been quiet, solemn. They all knew what they were doing, and all knew just who the fathers were. Two men that had never even known she was pregnant. They were all quiet, and when they arrived where the cemetery was, Sadie directed them to the back and the large area that had been purchased for her children, and one day herself. It was quiet, secluded, and had multiple trees and shrubs surrounding the private fenced-off area where the Green babies were buried.
She grabbed the flowers in hand, and when Bryce helped her out she started for the graves. She had just rounded a large tree when she saw it. The damage to the tombstone was hard to miss. A strangled cry came from her throat and she sobbed. The marble was shattered, the grave had been dug up, and the cement vault had been broken. She fell to her knees. “Holy Christ, why?” She began to sob, she couldn’t help it. Someone had desecrated her children’s grave. It was unconscionable.
Bryce was right there, his arms around her, and pulling her back to her feet. “Careful, love,” he whispered against her cheek.
“Son of a bitch,” Cutter said. “Who the fuck would do this?”
She could feel Bryce shaking against her, and knew instinctively he was mad. Beyond mad, likely. “I don’t know, but when I find out, I’ll fucking gut the bastard for going so low.”
She felt Bryce picking her up. She couldn’t move. Every inch of her body hurt, not physically but emotionally and mentally. Whoever had done this had known the blow that would damage her the most. Her children, their graves, were sacred and they should never have been tampered with. She was emotionally devastated by this blow and wasn’t so sure she would recover from it.
“Get her to the truck, I’ll see what I can find out about this,” Cutter said. “Go.”
Bryce scooped her up in his arms and carried her away from the grave. At the truck he put her in the front passenger seat.
“What’s going on?” Keagan asked in confusion.
“You don’t want to know,” Bryce told him in a hard tone. “Hold her, I’ll be back in a minute or two,” he said. The door shut soon after, closing her in with Keagan.
“Sweetheart,” he crooned softly. She felt his hand stroking her hair. “Come here, Sadie. Tell me what’s going on, love.”
“They destroyed them,” she whispered and moved easily into Keagan’s arms. “They destroyed the tombstone, shattered it, and if that wasn’t enough, they dug up their graves and damaged the crypts that they were kept in, the concert vaults. Why?” She was sobbing, her words coming out in gasps.
“Son of a bitch,” he breathed out. His arms tightened around her, pulling her over into his lap where he held her cradled to his chest. “I don’t know, Sadie. God, I wish I did, but I don’t know.”
“They are monsters, whoever did this. Monsters. They were babies, not even lived a full month in this world and they desecrated their graves.” She was sobbing, pain wracking her as she held onto Keagan.
He didn’t say anything more, he likely didn’t know what to say, and neither did she. He held her, rocking her gently, his hand stroking over her hair.
A door opened a time later. “Timmons is getting into the feed, but it doesn’t cover this section. He’s looking for any clue as to who may have come this way in the last few days,” Cutter said softly. “Before we leave we’ll get it all cleaned up and sorted. I’ve got the groundskeeper coming out to arrange for a stone to be remade. We’re also going to wire up cameras out here so this never happens again.”
“I never dreamed that I would need to ensure that there were cameras up around here. I had done everything that I possibly could in order to ensure that there was privacy for our children, but this.” She shook her head, more tears sliding down her face. “This is too much. Jesus,” she whispered in a sob. “We will do whatever is needed to ensure that our children’s graves are put to rights once again. Right?”
“Absolutely, love,” Keagan told her. “Cutter, Harker, and the others will make everything right that they can today. The rest we will attend to as quickly as we can, I swear it.” Taking a deep breath, he gave her another squeeze. His lips brushed to her forehead gently.
She nodded, that was all she could do in that moment. Finally, she spoke. “I know. We will get their graves back to rights as soon as we can. We will ensure that they are well taken care of so that this never happens to them again.”
“Count on it.” It was Cutter that answered her. “You two stay put. Markham’s on overwatch, and Connor’s taken up a secondary position. We’ll be quick, but considerate and thorough in our cleanup. We’ll see about having someone posted out here until we can get the cameras and other bits into place to protect them as they should be looked after.”
“Thank you.” She was more grateful to these men than she could express. It was as if she had lost them all over again and she hated it. “Okay. We will handle this. Do I need to hire guards to come out and watch over the graves so that you guys aren’t spread so thin? If so, I can have my former firm come out and watch over their graves.”
“No, don’t worry about it,” Cutter told her. “Markham will stick around for a couple of hours. By that point we’ll have the gear we need. I’ll come back out with Timmons, and we’ll get it all set up. It’s only an hour or so, Sadie. We’ll keep watch over the little ones, so you can rest easy in knowing they are protected.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly and took a deep breath. “I appreciate everything that you guys are doing. I just can’t believe someone would do this. It’s so low, beyond low.” It was sacrilegious to desecrate a grave like they had done, especially the graves of babies.
“It was meant to hurt you, hit you where it would do the most damage,” Cutter said. “I’d say it succeeded, for the moment anyway. We’ll find them, Sadie. You can damn well believe that,” he muttered. Closing the door again, he walked off.
“It did succeed. What they did will haunt me forever,” she admitted. “They destroyed what should never have been touched. Something that will live with me for the rest of time. I am just—” She sighed and closed her eyes. She once again leaned against Keagan because she could. “I just can’t get over them doing this. When we find them will you please make damn sure they pay for this?”
“I will,” he said quietly. She felt his fingers brushing lightly over her face, pushing off strands of hair and drying her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Sadie. Maybe if I’d tried harder to get them to agree to come sooner, we could have prevented this.”
“I have a feeling that should we have come earlier we would have been harmed. I think that it might be a good thing that we came so late. I just hate that our children’s graves were damaged as they were.”
“I’d rather have been here than to have let that happen to them, Sadie.” His lips brushed to her cheek lightly. “Fucking hell, I should have
pushed harder,” he muttered, more to himself, she was sure.
“You couldn’t have known,” she assured him. “If so then we would have been here. There was no way to tell what these monsters would do. I hate it, that they did this, but sometimes we have to roll with it. Right?” But her children’s graves. These people needed to be shot when they were found. Period.
“We should have considered it,” he said. “We should have considered the fact that they couldn’t get to you, having proven that a week ago, and would strike in some other way. What’s bugging me is the why. Timmons has been digging into the accident, and he managed to find one other witness from that day. The guy is working overseas for the next six months, but agreed to go to a sketch artist to describe everyone that was there, police included. If we can narrow down who our potential suspect is, maybe we’ll finally figure out what the hell is going on.”
“I hope and pray that you are right. Tell him to do whatever he needs to do, okay? It doesn’t matter, whatever he has to do and we will do it. I don’t care what it costs, if you have to fly the sketch artist to him then we will do it. I just want this person found sooner rather than later, please?”
“You’re not paying for any of this,” he told her. “Shut up, Sadie. I’m not even kidding, you are not paying a dime for any of this. We have him going to see the best sketch artist in the area, so we’ll have something early to mid next week. Then it will be a process of elimination, with the hope this asshole’s in the system, anyone’s system.”
“If we are lucky he will be in systems. I’m hopeful, at least. Whoever it is has to be somewhere in someone’s system, right? Because no one is this big of a monster without having done something in their lifetimes to get them into the system.”
“Unless they are good enough to never have gotten into one, which is my fear,” he admitted. “It’s entirely possible, Sadie. There are guys and gals out there that were trained in different parts of the world that for all intents and purposes do not exist. A lot of Cold War spies are still hiding out, waiting for their orders to come through, and we’ll never know who they all are. Hell, some of them likely have died, and no one up the chain of command even gives a fig because that plan sorta went in the drain.”
“Well I’m hopeful that whoever did this aren’t those people, then,” she said calmly. She was sad still but she needed to focus on moving away from this moment in time and processing her grief later when she was alone. She then would figure out everything, she hoped.
“Me, too,” he said. He shifted slightly, reaching for something in the back. Keagan passed her a wet wipe, and then he straightened with a bottle of water in hand. “Give your face a wipe, sweetheart. It’ll help you feel a little better.”
“I hope so.” She took a deep breath and wiped her face. Once that was done, she took a sip of water and leaned her head back against his shoulder once more, shifting slightly on his lap as she did so. “Okay then. Now we just wait for the guys to get back in here, right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he told her. Rubbing his hand over her arm, he rested his cheek to her forehead. “For now we sit and wait. Which is the one part I truly hate. I’ve never been very good at it, sadly.”
“Neither have I.” She typically would fidget, she would shift and move because she really hated to have to simply sit and wait. “Once this is all over, can we please go on a very, very long vacation? All of us?”
“I’ll agree to taking Harker, but the others are shit out of luck. No way am I taking all of them with us anywhere. But I’m down for a vacation. I haven’t really had any downtime unless you count the hours I’ve sat on my ever-widening ass. Fuck,” he muttered. When she looked to him, he was making a face. “I have a doctor’s appointment this week.”
“I will go with you,” she assured him. “And as for your ass, it’s not getting any wider baby, promise,” she said with a grin. “All that I know is that I want a vacation with you and with Bryce. Just the three of us alone somewhere, okay? With that, I will be a happy camper.” Some time to decompress from what they had all endured.
“Agreed. You pick a spot, and we’ll get it all arranged. We won’t be going for a while yet, though, I’m not allowed to fly for a little longer. They didn’t even want me flying back when my tour was up, but the General made it happen. Don’t remember much of it, but I think they may have had me nicely doped up, though.”
“I’m sure that they did. And we won’t do anything until you are able to, promise,” she assured him and hugged him as best she could. “For now, though, I’m thinking that we should possibly get shifted so that the others can get in with us and we can go. Right?”
“Probably a plan, but you don’t have to move yet. They’re still working out there, and I happen to like where you are. Though your butt has to be hurting, given you’re likely sitting on the top of the brace. How are you not complaining if you are sitting on it?”
“Nope, butt’s not hurting at all. In fact, I’m happy where I am.” She liked being able to be that close to him, truth be told. “As long as you are holding me, I’m good. Promise. For now I’m just happy to have you holding onto me like you are. Okay?”
“Okay by me. You sure you’re not sitting on it?” He rolled his eyes when she looked up at him. “Well I can’t tell. With the brace on I actually don’t feel a lot of anything pressure wise on the leg. I think, maybe, fuck if I know. I’ve never had anyone sit in my lap since I got it. So as long as you’re comfortable, that’s all that really matters, I suppose.”
“No, honey, I’m not sitting on it. If I were I would tell you. All that I’m sitting on is your lap. Yes, I feel it at the edge of my ass, but it doesn’t bother me like you think that it would. I promise. If it did I would tell you, I can assure you of that.”
“Okay, you’re right, of course,” he said. He scraped the edge of his thumbnail against her knee then began to drum his fingers. He started to hum, likely wasn’t even aware of it given it was so soft and slightly distracted in nature. Keagan’s attention was outside the vehicle, looking in the direction of the grave site.
Sadie was watching the grave site area as well. Her heart was heavy, and she knew that when they found whoever had done this, she wanted full retribution for the sacrilegious acts that they had heaped upon them.
Keagan caught the hand she’d twisted unconsciously into his shirt, and eased her fingers. “Hey, we’ll find the one responsible, Sadie. I don’t want you worrying about that, love. You have more than enough on your plate without more stress. We’ll find who did this, and ensure they suffer in ways so few can ever imagine.”
“Same goes for you. So make sure that you keep those words in mind for yourself, mister. You are the one that needs to heal here.” She was mostly healed and what she wasn’t, they were working on healing for her. They were very good for her. Pure and simple.
“Is that a hint?” he asked. He gave her a big grin, his eyebrows wiggling up and down. “‘Cause if you’re thinking to entertain me, I’ll entertain you, and we can stay out of everyone’s way. You, me, some quiet little corner of the house.”
“Oh, I love how you think. Do you think that you are able to keep me busy, though? If I were to ride you, would you be okay with that?” She wanted to have Keagan inside of her, wanted to give him more than just a blow job, dammit.
“I’m thinking we could get creative about it. I’d have to keep the brace on,” he said slowly. Pausing he chewed on his lip a moment, his brows lowered in thought. “Maybe a pillow over my thighs to keep you from hurting yourself on it, and as long as you didn’t lean back over my legs, I think we could make it work. And as long as we didn’t get overly energetic right off, best to go slow and figure it out on the fly.”
“I think that would be doable.” She moved so that she could press a kiss to the side of his neck and sighed. “Goodness, I love you. With all that’s going on I don’t think that I would have survived it, mentally let alone physically. Thank you for coming back into
my life.”
“Technically you came back into mine,” he said softly. “I was the one that wouldn’t let you run off again, even though I was seriously pissed at you. Shit, have I apologized for my attitude that first day? If not, I am truly sorry for being such a shit to you, Sadie.”
“Water under the bridge,” Sadie assured him. “Don’t even think about it. We are together now and that’s all that counts. In my mind, that’s honestly all that matters. We are one once more.” In the end that was all that mattered. They were all together once again and she was happy, they were happy, and life was where it should be.
“Okay,” he agreed. Moving his arms, he hugged her close and pressed kisses all over her face. “Love you, love you, love you,” he said with a kiss after each “love you”. “You are my favorite out of everyone I know,” he told her.
That had her giggling and she pulled back to look into his face. “And you are one of my favorites. You and Bryce are neck in neck on my favorite people in the entire world. I think that you are both super special.”
“Bryce who?” he asked. Batting his lashes at her, he chuckled when she poked him on the end of his nose. “I won’t tell him you like me more. It’s okay, I can totally keep a secret. Unless of course he gets all obnoxious about something, then I might have to reveal this and rub his nose in it a little.”
That had her laughing. “Oh, you are so bad.” But in the best of ways. “It’s a very damn good thing that I love you as much as I do or else I might have to smack you upside the head every now and again for being so silly. I love the silly, though.” Which was true. She loved the playfulness of the men a great deal.
“Yeah but you know me, and know I’d view that as foreplay.” Pressing a kiss to her lips, he gave a squeeze then let his arms relax and fall down around her waist. “Though since you know that, you would know the reaction you’d elicit from smacking me, so therefore you must have a plan already in mind for what to do to me when I finally corralled you near a bed.”