Intertwined (Redemption #2)

by Sasha Brümmer

  “Rot in hell.”

  “Ah, I’ll see you down there, brother.”

  It takes every ounce of strength that I have to turn and walk away from the fucked-up son of a bitch and toward my future. I won’t allow him to break the best part of who I’ve become. I won’t let a single soul have that kind of hold on me again.

  I’m led out of the room that contains the malevolent darkness of my life and across the warehouse into one that holds my light. I had no goddamn clue that I was following a repetitive pattern that Grady was laying out in front of me for years. Fuck, the ones that he and Chloe were plotting out. The only good thing about it is the fact that he brought those who killed Chloe to justice, and I fucking hope that he made those pieces of shit suffer.

  Do I forgive Chloe for sinking into the world of hell if what he said was true? I do not know. It would mean that she delved into the world willingly and probably did as much unspeakable shit as Grady did. How do I forgive her when she was one of the brutes of the underground world that I’ve been fighting against?

  Do I still mourn who she was? Of course, but right now, I’m not sure of whom she truly was, and I won’t get the opportunity to find out. The thought of that video planted within my organization is already haunting me.

  As we walk through the abandoned warehouse, I send a quick email to Gage and my security heads who I instruct to pull the office apart until they come across something that does not belong there. Out of the two of us, Gage will be the one who has his head on straight about the situation when I may be too emotionally involved.

  All of the years of searching seem to all boil down to Chloe’s selfishness, but throughout it, I’ve been able to pull out an obscene number of women who needed me to find them because others are too afraid or apathetic to go looking in the dark.

  I won’t fault Chloe for her mistakes, but I also will not change what I’m doing. I will continue to fight for those women who are unable to fight for themselves, and I’m hoping that it may come easier now, without having someone constantly plotting against my every move.

  The invisible scars that cut deep into me may not heal completely, but I’ve let the past go. Scars fade over time, and with Isla’s help, that healing process is well on its way.

  “Liam?”

  I’m broken away from my inner thoughts as I step over the threshold of another door, and into a well-lit yet dank room. Fuck, Isla’s voice is a pure fucking sanctuary, and I could live in it.

  “Are you all right?”

  I can hear the concern in her voice. I’m able to physically feel the nervous energy radiating off of her in the small space as I close in on her. This woman grounds me when not even the most potent cocktail of drugs would do it for me. The second I lock my arms around her petite frame, the majority of the world fades to static gray.

  The endless cargo of shit that has been weighing me down seems to be supporting me right now instead of imploding. Her arms latch around my neck as I lift her up and off of her feet to carry her out of the room and then out of the warehouse in silence.

  The negative space between us is the only thing that’s keeping me upright as I walk into the cool air.

  “I love you,” I say into her ink-black hair as I hold her close to me.

  She wraps her body around mine as best as she can as I stand beside the rental vehicle and take the moment to breathe in everything about her. My battered fucking soul might not be able to handle the truth of the past, but it can revel in the truth of the future. This woman owns me, and that malevolent force that I was burdened with is losing its power after Grady’s words, more than I thought it ever would.

  If his words are true, then he’s freed me. If he lied, he freed me as well, but the truth will be revealed once that video is found—if it’s found.

  I groan as Isla runs her fingers up the column of my neck and into the back of my hair. Isla Jensen makes me feel again, and she’s been here the entire time. I just didn’t give a shit enough to look around and see what I had.

  “Liam?”

  “Yeah, baby doll?” I answer her in a hushed tone while my face is still buried in the crook of her neck.

  “I need to tell you something that happened when I was down there.”

  I pull back and look at her as a nauseating sensation settles over me.

  “It’s nothing serious, but I’d like for you to know.”

  “All right.”

  “Grady . . . well, when he first took me, he called me his doll. He continued to call me your nickname for me the entire time I was down there. He kept degrading me and referring to me as a plastic bitch. I think that he was pushing me to see just how far I could go without breaking, but instead of that name becoming something cruel and menacing, it’s what made me pull through some of the tough times. Especially when I was alone in that concrete cell. You’re all that I could think about. I just wanted to hear you say it again.”

  Every muscle in my body tightens up and squeezes at the misery that I know I’ve inflicted on her by continuously calling her my doll. I place my lips against her neck and tighten my grip on her. “I’m sorry. I’ll learn to stop saying it.”

  “No,” she almost shouts as she pulls the back of my hair with her fingers so that I’ll look up at her. “You’ve always called me that, and I don’t want you to stop. It’s our thing, and I won’t let him take that away from us.”

  I don’t know how I got fortunate enough to share the life I do with this indomitable woman, but I never plan on taking her for granted. “Are you sure? I have no doubt that I can come up with something else.”

  “I am, and nothing else would ever be the same. I won’t allow myself to be a casualty of my own mind.”

  “If anything else that I do evokes anything from that hell, I need you to swear to me that you’ll tell me about it. I want to be the one to help you work through it and not cause you any more damage. I know that we see the therapist for that kind of shit, but I need to know that you’re okay a lot more than the two times a week we sit down on a chaise together.”

  “You have my word.”

  “All right, thank you. Now, I’m going to need your help with some things before we leave Australia.”

  “Wait, why are we leaving?”

  “I need to, babe. I’m going to sell the house, and I’ll buy you another wherever the fuck you want, but I need to be away from the reality of what Grady just confessed to me. I don’t want to be surrounded by anything that had to do with Chloe.”

  She scrunches up her face as I hold onto her and reveal what he told me. She offers up so many apologies that I’ve lost count of them. She tells me the same thing that I’ve thought—that he lied—but somehow, something deep inside of me knows that he’s telling the truth about this shit. I’ve decided that I won’t fault Chloe if it’s what actually happened, but I need to put it all behind me instead of overanalyzing every ounce of information. The second we find that video and I get to see the truth, I won’t need anything else. I just want this outlandish bullshit to be over with. I’ve given too much of myself to live in a hole of lies.

  Isla seems to sense my mind running away from me, and she pulls me back in with her spell. “Will you take me on our honeymoon afterward?”

  I raise my eyebrows at her unexpected request. I know that she’s internally cringing at her own words, but I’ll save her from it all. “Where would you like to go?” I ask as I lean my forehead against hers.

  She shrugs her petite shoulders and kisses me leisurely. It’s a kiss that’s filled with too much passion, but yet not enough. I gradually move one of my hands to the underside of her thigh as I’m consumed in her heady presence. Her compassion is otherworldly, and she has extended so much of herself to bring me back to the place where I should have been living in all along. Our tongues slide against each other as we live in the kiss that seems to heal the parts of us that have been taken advantage of.

  She pulls away from me and runs her thumb over my lips in
an attempt to remove the painted streak that she always seems to leave behind. “Take me anywhere. I just want it to be the two of us for a little while.”

  A vision of her on the beach in a bikini and pregnant comes to mind, and I know exactly where I’ll be taking my wife. I agree with her. We need to be untouchable for the time being.

  “Do you trust me?” I ask against her harlot-red lips.

  “Implicitly.”

  I move my lips up her jaw to her ear before replying. “Good,” I murmur against the shell of her ear and tongue it once before setting her on her feet. “Let’s get this shit going, and we can leave. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  Isla is asleep on the couch as I sit beside her and slowly strum the individual notes that together make up my baby girl’s lullaby. My fingers move along the strings of the guitar like second nature as I play a piece that I’ve been writing out for the last month. It’s the one thing that has been able to soothe me after dealing with Grady.

  Once the song ends, I move my hand over to the side of her stomach, loving how she’s grown. “I cannot wait to meet you, little girl. I know that the moment we meet, the gravitational pull on my world will move to you, but don’t tell your mother that just yet. She’s been known to be a bit covetous a time or two before.”

  Isla draws in a deep breath and stirs underneath my hands. “Liam?”

  “I’m here, baby doll.”

  “Mmm, I was dreaming that we were far away and on a beach and naked underneath the sun.”

  She pushes herself up, and I can’t help but chuckle at the crease that the pillow left on the side of her face.

  “We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning to an island that I’m sure I’ll have to drag you off of.”

  “I cannot wait. Do you need to do anything else with the house before we go?”

  “Nah. The movers will be here later this afternoon, and it’s already listed on the market. Now, tell me, if you could have a house wherever you want, where would it be?”

  “Anywhere?”

  “Anywhere.”

  “I think a place in the Keys that we can take our little dewdrop to whenever we want without the hassle of staying at a hotel would be great. I’m sure that Connor would love to be involved in her life. Other than that, I like the idea of having a house like this somewhere far away from Chicago. It would give us an excuse to get away from life and enjoy each other’s company.”

  “Like where, babe?”

  “Uhm, I’m not sure. Somewhere in Norway would be ideal.”

  “Norway? I didn’t know that you wanted to go there.”

  “Well, I went with Wade on a business trip once, and I fell in love with the country as well as the culture. I’d really like to go back.”

  I shift her onto my lap and move my hand underneath the fabric of her shirt to touch her naked stomach.

  “I’ll get us a house in the Keys to be closer to my fucked-up family, but I’ll also cave and get you your dream vacation home in Norway. However, you have to allow me to extend our honeymoon and take you house hunting in Norway after a week or two of staying where I currently have a hotel reserved for us.”

  She chews on the inside of her lips as if she actually has to consider my proposal.

  “It seems to be a win-win situation, dickweed.”

  “Good because I would not have taken no as an answer. Now get your pretty ass naked so I can kiss you in places that I know you constantly dream of.”

  “Oh yeah? Prove it.”

  “With pleasure, baby doll.”

  I spend the next two hours meeting her darkest sexual fantasies on every surface that we’re able to get to before our bodies implode in mind-numbing orgasms.

  No boundaries, regardless of their geographical limitations, could stop me from loving Liam Jensen the way I do. Everything about him is infectious, and I cannot wait to spend a lifetime of dedication with him. He’s the cage that surrounds my heart, which protects me from the world around us with a self-sacrifice and love that I never knew was possible.

  This man will not let me down, and he’ll keep me grounded when I start to lose myself. Do I believe that life throws shit at us until we’re able to grow and accept our own situations enough to thrive in them? Being what I’ve been through now, I can say yes with a certainty that wasn’t there before.

  I would go through every nightmare that I’ve lived through again if it means that I get to end up here with Liam. With this life. With this baby girl.

  I run my hand over my stomach as I stare at myself in the mirror. I’ve just gotten out of the shower, and I cannot help but feel that every time I look in the mirror, I see the growth of my little girl in some way.

  I’m pulled from my trance by both Liam’s guitar playing and the sudden frantic movement in my belly. I stare at my reflection and dart my hand down to my stomach.

  “Holy shit,” I say under my breath. “Liam!”

  “Yeah, babe?” he calls out from the bedroom.

  “Get in here!”

  I watch him charge into the bathroom with wide, worried eyes before taking me in. “What’s wrong?”

  “I felt her. She just kicked. I think that she did at least.”

  “What?” He takes cautious steps to get to me as if he’s going to scare her off. He reaches his hand out, and I take it and place it around the same area that she kicked a moment ago.

  “Give her a minute. I’ve never felt her do it before.”

  Between the two of us, we remain silent until a whirlwind of movement occurs beneath our hands.

  “Holy shit. That was her?”

  “Yes,” I sob out and lightly push down on my stomach. “Hi, little girl.”

  Liam chuckles and smooths his hand over my swollen belly.

  “I cannot wait to meet her.”

  “Neither can I.”

  He places a kiss on my lips before walking out of the bathroom to take a minute for himself. I stare at my stomach and internally beg for her to move again, but I think that it’s all that she’s going to give me at the moment. Stubborn little thing.

  I walk out of the bathroom while towel-drying my hair to find Liam, who is naked, strumming away on his guitar on the bed again.

  Fuck, my husband is gorgeous.

  “Are you going to miss this place?” I ask to distract myself from my now-throbbing sex.

  He stops playing and sets the acoustic guitar down before looking up at me. “I think that a part of me will, but I’m ready to move on and beyond it with you.”

  “And you’re entirely sure?”

  “I don’t have a doubt in my mind, Mrs. Jensen.” He gets up and stands to his full height, and it’s a wonder that I don’t simultaneously combust into an orgasm on the spot. I hope that he’ll always look at me the way he is now with such an extreme longing. A sweltering desire breaks out over my skin as I take in his dark eyes and slightly flawed skin.

  The bullet wounds have mostly healed, but it’s the jagged scar from the knife that will always have an effect on me. He surrounds me in his bare skin in a warm hug before stepping around me to grab a towel to dry off his still slightly damp hair before we both get dressed. Once we’re ready to go, I step outside and give him a moment to say goodbye. Not to the house, but to the memories that live within those walls. Once he emerges, we leave the keys to his Sydney house behind us and go. Soon we’re on the plane and the jet lifts us swiftly into the air and into a horizon filled with lavish colors.

  I fucked around and got attached, falling in love with a valiant and resolute beauty. I do not regret a fucking second of it either.

  All I can think about while watching Isla walk toward me on beach of the Centara Grand Island Resort and Spa in the Maldives is that I want to fuck that tight little body in the sand. If I allow myself to imagine it, I can see the sand sticking to her wet skin as I bury myself to the hilt. She’d be gripping onto the grains of sand instead of sheets, and I know that I need to make it happen at least once while we
’re here.

  She joins me on the double beach lounger and runs her hand over her midsection. I know that she’s yearning to feel our little girl kick again, and I don’t blame her.

  “I’ve been thinking . . .” I say as I take a drink of the Isabella’s Islay whiskey that Isla brought over from the States. The liquid treasure explodes in my mouth as a campfire burns across my taste buds and then down my throat, the authoritative combination of flavors seductive. Light suggestions of peat and campfire smoke linger on my tongue, and it’s the closest I’ve gotten to the shores of Islay without actually being there.

  “Do I even want to know what that involves?”

  “I believe that this will interest you more than you know, but first, how the fuck did you score one of these bottles? There weren’t that many produced.”

  “I have my ways,” she says with a smile. “Actually, Waylon gave it to me as a gift when he first opened Blended. I haven’t opened it until now because I was saving it for something.”

  “Something?”

  “Yes. Something that would make me realize just how much I love life.”

  “And that something is me?”

  “It became you a while ago, Jensen.”

  “Thank you for sharing it with me. Do you want a taste?”

  “Always,” she says as she moves over me to straddle my lap. She leans down, and I take her mouth, allowing her a taste of this awfully rare vintage.

  “So good,” she moans and comes back for more. After a solid minute of her drowning against my lips, I pull back and smirk. It takes her a moment to find her balance after her libido disturbs it, and when she does, I try again.

  “Now, let me tell you what I was thinking about.”

  “Oh Jesus. Spill it.”

  I chuckle as the sun starts to set on the horizon in front of me while Isla has her back to it. “I was considering names.”

  “Names? For her?” she asks as her hand covers her midsection again.

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me? Please? Everything that I’ve come up with just doesn’t seem to fit.”