My daughter.
That won’t fucking happen.
I’ll give Tricks time.
A month. Tops.
After that, I’ll be going to collect what’s mine.
My girls.
Twenty-Three
Grim
“It came out beautiful,” Marci says, standing next to me on the driveway. I’ve just finished replacing the shutters and windows. The entire house has been repainted, and new shingles line the roof. “You did a great job.”
“Thank you.”
“The inside, too. It’s never looked better.”
I shrug. “It needed a face-lift. I figured I was already at it.”
“I know exactly what you figured, Grim. You can’t fool me.” She wraps her arm around my waist. “She’ll love it.”
“If she comes back.”
It’s been weeks since Callum learned of Marco’s death and the end of the war. Either he hasn’t told her or she doesn’t want to come back. Either way, doubt has crept in shadowing my every move.
Sounds of tires on the pavement behind me. My instinct is to reach for my gun, but it’s not there. There’s no need for that now. The war is over. I turn around, and Marci takes a step back into the house with a ridiculous smile on her face just as a town car with blacked-out windows pulls up in front of the house.
The rear door opens and out steps Tricks. Or what used to be Tricks.
She’s filled out. Muscular. More…everything. My mouth waters, and my fucking heart stops. She’s wearing a pair of tight fitted faded jeans, ripped in all the right places and hugging her every curve. Her tits are bigger, straining against the thin fabric of her Debbie Gibson t-shirt that hangs haphazardly off one shoulder revealing a new tattoo I can’t make out from this distance. Her hair is down and hanging wild around her face, longer than I remember, well past her shoulders now. She pushes her sunglasses from her eyes up onto her head. Her blue-green eyes are bright and clear. A mixture of a wild green lawn and the bluest of skies.
Her eyes land on me. She smiles.
I don’t even know I’m moving until we meet in the middle of the lawn. For a second, I’m unsure of what I’m supposed to do. “You’re here,” is all I manage to say, as if I can’t really believe what I’m seeing.
She smiles wickedly, then changes her expression to a pout, pushing out her bottom lip. “Mister,” she begins, with a begging look in her big eyes. She rocks on the balls of her feet and produces a tiny kitten from behind her back. “I was wondering if you knew anyone who could take Mrs. Fuzzy here. She’s lonely and needs a home, and I swear she’ll be no trouble at all.”
I laugh at my girl and go to pet the kitten, who takes a swipe at my hand.
She giggles and then remembers her act. “See? Friendly as can be.” She bites her bottom lip. “So, can we keep her?”
“I think you're forgetting something about that day.” I say with wicked intentions of my own.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“The kiss,” I grab her hips and pull her close until my lips are on hers. She feels soft and warm and very much like home. The kitten meows, forcing us apart.
“So,” she says. “Can we keep her?”
“We can,” I say.
A throat clears, and I look up to find Callum Eagan standing at the curb with his wife who’s bent over the back seat. She stands and turns around revealing a baby cradled in her arms.
My eyes go wide, and it’s as if I really am meeting Tricks for the first time all over again because whatever defenses Tricks hadn’t crumbled that day shatter like glass all around me with one look at my baby girl.
Tricks squeezes my hand and leads me over to her mother. She takes the baby from her arms and places her into mine. My heart literally breaks. Pain like I’ve never felt and wanted more of strikes me like a dagger to the chest.
“So,” Tricks says, leaning in over my shoulder to smile at our baby in my arms. “Can we keep her?”
I look down at the blonde bundle swaddled in pink. Her eyes open, and she smiles up at me with shining gold eyes.
I clear my throat. “Absofuckinglutley.”
“Oh,” Tricks says, “One more thing.” She comes around to my front and holds up my wallet, the one that had just been in my back pocket. She waives it in the air. “You might want this back.”
I laugh and look down at my baby and up to Tricks. My pocket might be empty, but my heart has never been so full.
“What’s her name?” I ask.
Tricks smoothes a lock of curls from our daughter’s eyes. Her gaze meets mine. She reaches out and presses her hand to the base of my throat over my Bedlam tattoo.
“Rosey.”
* * *
“I have something to show you,” Grim tells me. He tugs me by the hand into the house and opens a door across from the master bedroom. I’m so overwhelmed with emotion at what’s before me that I sink to my knees while Grim rocks Rosey in his arms.
“Grim, it’s beautiful,” I whisper, taking in the large quote stenciled onto the soft pink wall above a pristine white crib.
Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move mountains.”
-Anonomous
On the other side of the room is a changing table, stocked with diapers, rash cream, even nipple pads. There’s a shelf above it stocked with children’s books.
What has me gasping in the mural painted around the window. It’s a castle with waiving pink flags at the top. Over it is a crown of flowers alternating between black, white, and pink roses.
“It’s us,” Grim says.
I turn back to find him staring at me. He’s even better looking than I remembered and after months apart the air in the room crackles and snaps. I can practically see it, flashing little lights exploding like firecrackers all around us.
“I know, it’s…I can’t believe you did all this,” I say, feeling every emotion pile up inside me. “It must have taken a long time.”
Grim nods. “I started the second the Chief told me about the DNA test.”
I grin feeling ashamed for not having told him myself. “I knew he’d tell you. That’s kind of why of all the labs I picked his. I wanted him to tell you before I had to. I’m sorry. I chickened out.”
“Don’t be sorry, Tricks,” he says, stepping up to me. The hand not holding Rosey tips my chin up so my eyes meet his. “I understand. I wish I was there for you. It must have been hard when you found out you were pregnant.”
“It was, but mostly I was worried about what you’d think of it. Of us.” I wave the thought away and look to our sleeping child in his arms. “You must have been so relieved when you saw the results.”
He looks to Rosey. “I’m seeing them right now, for the first time,” he admits. “She has your hair and my eyes.”
My heart stops. “You mean, you did all this,” I wave my arms to the walls, the beautiful white crib, the rocking chair, “before you knew she was yours?”
He shrugs casually as if it was a totally natural reaction to build a nursery and a life for a child you didn’t father. “Tricks, the second the chief told me you had a baby, she was mine. The rest didn’t matter.”
“I’ve been obsessing all this time,” I say with a sigh.
“Have a little faith in me Trick’s. I’m a monster, but you gave me a heart, and I’m giving it back. To both of you. She’s mine. Your mine.” His eyes drop to my breasts which are at least a cup size bigger since I had Rosey. Grim’s voice deepens. “All mine.”
Twenty-Four
Imogen
My parents and Gabby are staying at a hotel a few towns over. I saw the hesitation in my father’s eyes before he left, but after having a private talk with Grim, which I’m sure included threats to his life, they reluctantly left me and Rosey with the promise to be back first thing in the morning.
“When are they going back to Ireland?” Grim asks, as I step out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel.
I’m tired from the lon
g trip but a shirtless Grim has suddenly given me a second wind.
He’s sitting on the bed wearing a pair of tight black boxers, his back against the headboard, feet crossed at the angles. When he sees me his lips part and his eyes darken as he takes me in. A sly smile tugs at his lips.
My body feels warm all over and it’s not from the shower. “They’re not. They refuse for us to be separated again, so they’re all staying here. They’re already talking about buying a house to renovate.”
“It makes sense that they’re staying,” he says. He swings his legs over the mattress and pulls me between his spread thighs. His hands digging into my waist.
“It does?” I ask standing next to the bed.
“It does, because home is where you are.” He tugs at the towel and groans, burying my nose in my belly button his breaths me in, dragging his lips across my skin.
My arms wrap around his neck and I yelp when he lifts me up and sets me on top of him so I’m naked, straddling his waist. His growing erection swells against my sensitive skin, and I moan at the sensation.
“Shhh…our baby might hear you,” he teases.
I giggle as he lifts me with one hand, the other making quick work of the boxers in our way. When he pulls me back down he flips me onto my back and wastes no time pressing his full lips to mine.
The heat of his throbbing erection against my skin makes me groan as he nudged me legs apart with his knees.
He kisses me deeply, parting my lips with his tongue. He rocks his hips, rubbing his cock through my wetness. I lift my hips, needing more contact. More Grim.
“I’ve got you, Tricks.” he says against my lips. He reaches between us and positions his thick girth at my opening, nudging the head inside, stretching me open. “We can do slow next time, right now, I just need you.”
“Yes,” I moan my agreement.
He thrusts inside of me, fully seated deep inside. I contract around his welcome intrusion. He groans into the crook of my neck. “Fuck, Tricks. It’s so good,” he mumbles. “Feels so fucking good.”
“Please,” I hear myself beg, arching my back.
He lifts his chest from mine and reaches behind my knees, pulling my legs up over his shoulders. The position allows him even deeper inside of me. He pulls back and slams into me, his balls slapping against my ass cheeks. His eyelids are so heavy as he watches my breasts bounce with every thrust with appreciation and awe. Every movement in and out subs against my nerve endings. It’s only seconds before my lower stomach coils up so tight I’m begging for release. “Please,” I rasp again.
Grim growls and lifts my legs from my shoulders and folds my knees. Beads of sweat appear on his forehead. He presses into me again and again. “Come, Tricks. Co— “
The way my pussy clamps around his cock silences him. I don’t just come, I ascend to a height of pleasure I never knew possible. The tension releases in a spiral of pressure. A full body explosion followed by waves of sparks as I scream Grim’s name, digging my fingernails into his round muscled ass cheeks.
Grim thrusts into me one final time, his neck chorded tight as I’m thrashing underneath him in the throes of the strongest orgasm I’ve ever known powers through me like a derailed train.
He grows impossible hard inside of me. I feel his cock throb as he comes on a strangled groan, flooding me with his cum.
Grim collapses beside me, tucking me against his chest.
“That was—” I begin to say, but I can’t find the right word is my lust addled state.
“Nothing yet,” Grim interrupts with a laugh and a wicked gleam in his eyes.
For a few moments we relax in comfortable silence. After we both catch our breathes he turns on his side, propping himself up on his elbow. “We have one more thing to deal with.”
“What’s that?” I ask, reaching out to brush my hand over the rose tattoo on his throat.
He sighs. “Mona.”
Twenty-Five
Imogen
My parents came over in the morning with Gabby as promised. We ate breakfast with Marci and Grim’s brothers. Ma and Marci spent most of the morning passing Rosey back and forth between them, gushing over their grandchild. Callum and Grim discussed business while Sandy was oddly silent, glaring at Gabby from across the table when she wasn’t looking.
I’ve never felt more at peace or at home. It was natural, having us all there together.
Marci and Ma barely pay us any attention when we ask them to watch Rosey for a little while. They are both on the living floor clapping as Rosey crawls between them. They wave us off as if asking wasn’t even necessary.
“I think they’re in love,” I say to Grim.
“Them and me both,” he replies, tucking my hand into his, leading me to the garage. He places a helmet on my head and checks twice to make sure the clasp is snapped in properly. He sets me on his bike, and just like before, he positions me in front of him.
The ride is peaceful without the threat of flying bullets. There are people out and about. Children laughing as they play tag in an empty field beside the road.
The peace I feel is short-lived as we approach our destination.
Rollo’s cabin where he’s been keeping Mona since I left for Ireland. I’m surprised to find the cabin is on reservation lands.
“Rollo is a tribesman,” he explains, noticing my confusion as we dismount. He takes my helmet from me and sets it on the seat.
“I don’t know what I’m going to say to her. Or what I’m going to decide,” I admit to Grim as we stand on the porch. The front door is open, but the screen door in front of it is closed.
Grim raps on the aluminum with his fist. “You’ll know once you see her, and if you don’t, nothing has to be decided today. This is your call to make. I’ve been waiting for you to come back to make it, but just know that nothing has to be decided today.”
When no one comes to the door, Grim tugs on my hand, and we head to the back of the cabin where we find Rollo and Mona, naked. Mona’s riding Rollo on a plastic lounge chair right there on the back porch, his fingers digging into her hips, his eyes closed and his mouth open in ecstasy.
“What the fuck?” Grim grates.
Rollo’s and Mona’s heads snap to us. Rollo pushes Mona off of him, protectively shielding her with his large naked body.
Grim
“Go put some clothes on,” Rollo orders Mona, who rushes inside the house.
Tricks turns around while Rollo stands and pulls on a pair of basketball shorts. A few seconds later, Mona appears again, this time wearing an oversized black t-shirt that covers her knees. She looks frightened. I can see her lower lip trembling from where we stand more than twenty feet away.
They descend the steps and approach us. Rollo tucks Mona under his arm, not like he’s delivering a prisoner, but like he’s protecting her. “What the fuck is going on, Rollo?” I growl.
“Boss, I love and respect you, but I won’t turn her into you.” He hugs her tighter to his big body. “She’s mine.”
“No, she’s a prisoner of Bedlam,” I remind him. “And up until this very moment, you were my soldier, a loyal one.”
“She’s not a Bedlam prisoner anymore. She’s my wife. The tribe council…”
“She’s what?” I ask, genuinely shocked. I ball my fists. Rage burns in my throat. “Rollo, the bitch is a master manipulator. You don’t think she’s conned you into falling for her? That it’s all part of her plan to stay alive?”
“Oh, she tried to manipulate me. I almost killed her for it, too.” He looks down to an apologetic-looking Mona. “Almost.”
I try reasoning with him instead of beating sense into his thick skull. “It’s all bullshit, Rollo. Use your head. It’s not too late. Turn the bitch over, and let her suffer the consequences of her actions against Bedlam. Your family.”
“She’s my family now, too. I’d never go against Bedlam, but I’m hoping you’ll side with me on this, and I won’t have to.” Rollo stands straight, widening
his stance defensively, ushering Mona behind him. “Don’t ask me to kill her. I won’t do it.”
“Fine, then I’ll get Sandy to do it,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Then, I have to remind you that I’m of tribal blood. I’m under the protection of the tribe, and now, so is Mona. You can’t harm her. If you don’t believe me, ask the chief.”
“That’s why you married her,” I groan. “Rollo, you do realize what she’s done? To Tricks? To my family? To her own fucking sister? Do you know who it is you’re actually fucking protecting? Because I don’t think you do.”
“He knows everything,” Mona says, choking up. “Every horrible detail.”
“And she’s made amends, more so than you asked of her. She was your bait and almost your human sacrifice. Does that mean anything to you?” Rollo asks. “You’re ruthless, Grim. I know that. But I also know that your black heart beats, and as you’ve said, I’ve been a loyal soldier for years. I’ve never questioned Belly’s leadership or yours. Not once. I’ve fought for you. I’ve killed for you. I’m asking for this one thing in return. Let me deal with her. Let me take her away from Lacking. You won’t ever have to see her again.”
“Which means you’ll never see your brothers again. Is that what you want?” I ask, growing frustrated.
Rollo looks pained.
“Why didn’t you just come to me before?” I yell.
“I was waiting to see how it played out,” he responds then shakes his head. Maybe, I thought over time you’d just forget about her.”
I raise my eyebrows.
He blows out a breath. “Fuck, I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t feel like I had a choice. Maybe…” he looks to Mona. “Maybe, I just didn’t want to face it all before we had to.”
“We?” I ask with a laugh, although nothing about this situation is funny. “There was a choice, and you’ve obviously already made it. And it was the wrong one. This decision wasn’t even yours to make. It was Bedlam’s, and more than that, it was hers.” I point to an uncharacteristically quiet Tricks standing beside me, observing Rollo and Mona.
Permission: The Perversion Trilogy, Book Three Page 11