I gave him a grim smile and squeezed his hand in reassurance. “I can handle it.”
Alex got to work, easing the tweezers into the wound to remove the bullet. Fresh blood dribbled from the bullet hole, down Lorcan’s bare arm, and the sight of the metal digging into his shoulder made my stomach turn, but I didn’t look away. Lorcan gave a strange keening sound in the back his throat, but his eyes locked onto mine and his fingers held on tight. I held his gaze, wishing I could take some of the pain away, trying to give him strength through eye contact alone, however inadequate it felt.
“Got it.” Alex pulled away and held out the tweezers to display the bullet gripped in its metal tips.
Lorcan took his hand from mine and held it out to Alex. Alex dropped the bullet into his palm.
“I’ll add it to the collection,” Lorcan growled. He still looked in pain, but some of the color was returning to his face.
Alex used some Steri-Strips to hold the wound together, and then covered it up with a patch of gauze. “There you go, good as new.”
I sat back in my seat, thankful Lorcan was going to be okay, and that Clay and Isaac were safe in the car following us.
“Where are we going?” I asked Kingsley, glancing over at him as he drove.
“To a safe house. It’s only another hour or so.”
We rode in silence, the vehicle containing Clay and Isaac following close behind. Despite being comparatively safe, tension ran high. There was a chance we’d be hijacked at any moment, and I found myself constantly checking behind to see if any strange vehicles followed. The road was quiet, but that didn’t stop each of us tensing every time another car drove by.
Finally, we slowed, and Kingsley took a couple of smaller tracks, away from the main road and into what felt like the middle of nowhere. The asphalt ran out, and we bumped and jolted down the uneven terrain. I glanced around, trying to spot a sign to give me an idea of where this new place was, but there was nothing. It felt as though we were heading down an abandoned loggers’ trail, taking us right in the depths of the forest.
The trees cleared, revealing a single story log cabin. Kingsley pulled up in front of the property, and the second vehicle parked up beside us.
Kingsley killed the engine. “Here we are.”
The safe house was a contrast to the big, luxurious house we’d been in before. Not that it mattered, though I worried the whole time that Hollan’s men were going to find us.
I climbed out of the car at the same time Clay did. How I’d felt when I thought he’d been killed still remained fresh in my mind and heart, and I ran straight to him, throwing my arms around his neck and hugging him tight. He responded by looping his arms around my waist and pulling me hard against him.
“I thought you and Isaac were dead,” I said against his neck, his hair tickling my nose.
He pulled away and grinned. “Nah, it takes a lot more than armed men and an exploding house to kill us, sugar.”
I glanced over to find Isaac still watching me, his arms folded. I offered him a consolatory smile. “I’m glad you’re okay, too.”
His lips twisted, and he didn’t respond, causing something inside my chest to tighten.
Alex helped Lorcan out of the vehicle, but Lorcan already seemed stronger. His left hand clutched at his right shoulder, and he was able to move without needing further assistance. Together we all headed toward the cabin, and Kingsley did the honors of opening the door. The inside was basic but comfortable—a couple of couches, a kitchen at the rear, a few doors which led off to what I assumed were bedrooms and a bathroom. It was nothing like the house we’d left burning to the ground, but we were all still alive and back together again.
“What happened back there?” I asked, looking to Clay. “Who set the explosion?”
“We did,” said Isaac. “We were compromised. It’s part of our escape plan.”
Kingsley shook his head, his brow drawn down, lips pinched. “How did they find out where the house was? We’ve been there for years and never been compromised.”
Isaac turned to me, his stare cold and hard, and my stomach twisted. “What were you really doing last night, Darcy? You didn’t go downstairs to get a glass of water, did you?”
There was no point in lying. My eyes filled with tears, but I swiped them away, angry at myself. I had done this. I had gotten Lorcan shot. It was my fault for being a thoughtless idiot. “I’m sorry. I called my Aunt Sarah. I just wanted to let her know I was safe.”
“You called her? From the house phone?”
I nodded, feeling myself shrink in his icy gaze. He was furious with me, and I didn’t blame him. He had every right to be, and so did the others. They should have kept me down in the cellar. Everyone would have been safer that way. I hated myself for what I’d done.
“I’m sorry,” I pleaded again. “I knew she’d be worried—”
“Did it ever occur to you that Hollan might have been there? He most likely had the phones tapped, waiting for you to call. He was probably sitting beside your aunt as you spoke to her.”
My eyes widened. “No! She would have said something if he’d been there. She would have told me.”
“Not if she’d been told not to. If he made out like you’d been kidnapped, they wouldn’t have wanted you alerting the kidnapper to the presence of the FBI.”
I remembered how it had taken a little while for Aunt Sarah to answer the phone, and I’d assumed she’d been sleeping, but then she’d sounded sharp and wide awake. My hand went to my mouth in horror. Had Hollan been sitting beside her the whole time? The delay in her answering the phone had been them turning on the tracing equipment. They’d been waiting for me to call the whole time.
“No,” I said, shaking my head, but more in dismay at my own actions than denying what he said was true. “No—”
To my shock and surprise, Isaac grabbed me by both arms. “For fuck’s sake, Darcy! What the hell did you think you were playing at? Do you think this is some kind of game? We gave you an opportunity for you to show us you could be trusted, and instead you almost got us all killed!”
Tears streamed down my face. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking!”
He gave me a small shake. “We should never have let you out of the cellar. Lorcan could be dead right now because of you.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” I repeated, not knowing what else to say. There was nothing I could say to make this better. I had messed up, big time. I didn’t blame them if they never trusted me again.
His face was up close to mine, his body pinning me. I saw anger in the green depths of his eyes, but also something else, something that sent my heart racing for all the wrong reasons. “Why do you always insist on acting like such a little brat?”
I wanted to tell him I was sorry again, but what would be the point? I’d said it as many times as I could, and now it was falling on deaf ears. I needed to show them they could trust me. Actions were more important now.
“This isn’t all her fault,” Clay said from close behind Isaac’s shoulder.
Isaac released me and turned away to point a finger at him. “Stop sticking up for her. Just because you stuck your tongue down her throat, doesn’t mean she’s in the right.”
My face flamed with fire, and I exchanged a glance with Clay.
Isaac looked back to me, but something in his eyes had changed, a spark of an idea dancing in his gaze. “And you need to remember that the five of us work as a team. What one of us is involved with, the rest of us get to be, too.”
What did that mean?
He cocked a finger at me. “Come here.”
Meek and compliant, tears drying in salty tracks down my face, I took the couple of steps needed to close the distance he’d only just put between us. He was right. I’d messed up big time. I could have gotten one of us killed, or worse.
“We work together now, do you understand? No more creeping around. You put us in danger, and you put yourself in danger. Everything we’d done since this wh
ole thing started has been to try to keep you safe. I wish you would understand that.”
I nodded. “I do.”
I didn’t want to come between the guys. I wanted to bring them back together.
Isaac was so close to me, I could smell smoke and danger, and everything that shouldn’t excite me, but did. My heart fluttered like butterfly wings, my breath catching.
“Why can’t you see that everything we’ve done has been to protect you, Darcy?” he growled.
I was aware of the others all watching. Other than Clay, none of them made a move to defend me, but why should they? I was the one who’d done them wrong. I deserved whatever punishment Isaac planned on delivering to me.
He trapped my chin between his powerful fingers, tilting my face to his. My breath caught. The fury was gone from his eyes now, and replaced by something needier. They’d all done their part in taking me, and on some deep level I knew I belonged to them all.
I thought he was going to kiss me, but he didn’t. With a jerk of his chin over his shoulder, he beckoned Clay over.
Clay moved quickly, a few steps of his usual swagger, and he was behind me. His strong body pressed up against my back, and his arms looped under mine to wrap around my waist. I was trapped between them, with Isaac holding my chin and Clay supporting me from behind. My pulse quickened in anticipation of what was about to happen. Maybe I should be afraid, but I wasn’t. No, I was excited.
Isaac stared into my eyes, capturing me in his intense gaze. While one hand had hold of my chin, the other slipped down the front of my body. I still wore Alex’s oversized t-shirt, and my ancient jeans which had definitely seen better days. There was nothing sexy about me in that moment, and yet fire burned inside me at Isaac’s touch.
We could have died, Lorcan was hurt, I looked like shit, but none of that mattered. It was crazed and wild, and I’d never done anything like this before in my life, but I allowed Isaac to push his hand down the front of my jeans.
From behind, Clay took my weight, holding me up. A hardness pushed against the small of my back, and I knew this was exciting Clay as much as it was me.
My breath hitched as Isaac’s fingers moved lower, his fingers slipping beneath my panties, and through the small patch of curls at the juncture of my thighs. His other hand remained steadying my chin, forcing my eyes to remain on his as he delved deeper.
I let out a whimper.
He parted my most secret folds, and his finger slipped inside me. My knees buckled, but Clay held me up from behind. The heat of his skin burned against my neck, and his breathing became ragged as my own arousal began to build. My wetness made Isaac’s passage easy, and he moved his finger deeper inside me, the base of his hand pressing against my most sensitive spot, giving me something to grind against. I was aware of the others in the room, of heated breaths and mounting tension.
A familiar pressure built at my core, tightening and spreading. My breath grew shallow, and small moans crept unbidden from my throat. I wanted to reach out to Isaac, to touch him, to hold him, but somehow I knew that wasn’t what he wanted. He wasn’t doing this for me and him. This was for all of us, to bind us as a group. To make me understand that I belonged to each of them now, and watching me orgasm somehow connected us all.
As I ground down on Isaac’s hand, Clay’s hands moved up, cupping my breasts over the top of the t-shirt I wore. His thumbs and forefingers found the already sensitized buds of my nipples and he pinched both, hard. The material protected the tightened peaks, but it hurt enough to make me buck between the two men, letting out a cry of surprise and a hint of pain.
A second finger pushed inside me, stretching me. I was a shaking, shuddering mess, a film of sweat springing up on my forehead, chest, and upper lip. Unable to look into Isaac’s intense eyes any longer, or to acknowledge the three other men still watching, I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing inward. Isaac must have sensed how close I was, as his fingers curled inward, searching for the little pad of flesh on my inside wall that would propel me to the next level. My fists clenched and unclenched, wanting to grab Isaac’s biceps and connect myself to him in some way, but though he said this was to bring us all together, even with his fingers thrusting deep and hard inside me, I still sensed the distance between us. Instead, I held Clay’s forearms as they remained wrapped around me, and knew I was digging my blunt nails into his skin as I slowly lost control.
I came hard and fast on Isaac’s hand, leaving me gasping for breath, the little shock waves shuddering through me. I knew I’d have left his digits soaked, and a hot flush crept up from my chest, wrapping around my throat.
Isaac pulled his hand from my jeans and dropped his hold on my chin. Clay released me as well, and took a step back, putting space between us again.
“Do you do that to all the new recruits?” I said, my voice breathy, trying to use humor to cover my embarrassment.
The corner of Isaac’s mouth twitched. “Only ones who won’t accept what we are.”
I barely dared to ask. “What are you?”
“We’re a team, Darcy, and you’re a part of that now. We all want the same thing, we’re all working toward the same goal. Your defenses were so high I could barely see over them. I needed to break them down so you’d let us in.”
I figured Isaac’s defenses were at least as high as mine, but I managed to hold back the retort.
But he was right, and guilt tickled its uneasy fingers at my insides. I’d gone against them and done something they’d specifically told me not to do, and look where that had gotten us, but that wasn’t all. I’d been holding the most important thing of all from them, and now I realized everything I’d done had been wrong.
Clay stepped forward so I could see him, his head tilted to one side slightly, his hair hanging over his face. “What are you thinking, sugar?”
I could feel them all watching me. Were they all thinking about sex right now, about how I could smell myself on the air? About what Isaac had just done? Or were they straight back to business?
“You can trust us, Darcy,” Alex said.
Kingsley nodded. “He’s right. You can trust us.”
I looked between all their faces, even Lorcan, who’d remained seated on the couch, still looking pained, but engaged in the conversation. I caught his eye, and he gave me a small nod to show me he agreed.
“I’m thinking that I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
They exchanged glances.
Isaac’s green eyes narrowed. “About what?”
“When Kingsley hypnotized me yesterday and I said I couldn’t remember, I lied.”
Isaac frowned, and his expression was mirrored by the others. “What do you mean?”
“I did remember what my father said.”
“You remembered the numbers?”
These men had done so much for me, even though I hadn’t liked or appreciated it at first. They’d saved me from Hollan and his men when they’d first come to my house, and though they’d treated me roughly, my insistence at fighting them every step of the way hadn’t left them with much choice.
And with my heart-beating hard, I told them the code.
THE END
LIKE WHAT YOU’VE READ? Book two, Unraveling Darkness, will be released November 27th 2017! Keep reading for a sneak preview of the first chapter. And if you want to keep up with everything Reverse Harem from Marissa Farrar, then sign up to her Reverse Harem newsletter! https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/e2x3e1
Unraveling Darkness
Chapter One
“FOUR, NINE, TWO, ZERO, six, three, seven, one, eight, five.”
I stood in the cabin, with the five men in front of me, and told them the code which would unlock the memory stick my father had died trying to protect. As I spoke, each of the digits appeared in front of me, flashing with the luminescence I always saw when one number was trying to speak louder to me than another. I hadn’t yet told the guys about my spatial sequence synesthesia, but I figured ther
e was still time.
It seemed like such a simple thing to be able to work out, ten random digits between zero and ten, but there was a one in one million chance of anyone guessing the number. One million different variations of ten digits between one and ten landing in a certain order. And if anyone tried to input that number incorrectly, the contents of the memory stick would be wiped.
Fine lines appeared between Isaac’s brows and he pressed his lips together. “You’re sure?” he asked.
The white shirt that normally would have gone beneath a suit jacket, but which he’d obviously not bothered to grab when we’d been under attack at the house, was crumpled and blackened in places from the smoke. That morning’s stubble roughed up his jaw. He was normally so clean cut, and I thought I kind of liked this more rough and ready version of Isaac.
My body still hummed from what he’d done to me, but strangely I didn’t feel embarrassed or humiliated. Instead, a spark had been lit inside me, and I was filled with the sensation of being wanted, needed, of belonging to something bigger than myself.
I dipped my chin in a nod. “One hundred percent.” My lips parted, words dancing on my tongue. Would now be the right time to tell them about my synesthesia? It would convince them of my ability to remember the code correctly. But I had more pressing matters at mind. The reason I hadn’t revealed the code right away was because I’d worried about what would happen to me once I had. The only reason the guys had taken me in the first place, and then kept me safe, was to get that code. Now they had what they wanted, and I was no use to them anymore.
I glanced across the room toward the others. Clay stood with one ankle hooked over the other, and his arms folded across his chest. He gave me a small smile that told me I’d done good, then threw me a wink that I doubted any of the others would have noticed. Lorcan still sat on the chair. He’d put on his shirt after Alex had patched him up from the gunshot wound, but I knew the bandage was beneath the material. Lorcan had never been the chilled, easy-going one, and now the physical pain he carried with him had hardened his features even further, but he dropped his chin in a nod of acknowledgement to me.
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