by Jodi Kae
“What the hell are you doing, Liv?”
So much for in control John. “I need to use the restroom. Can you show me where it is?” That simple question calms him a little and he slides out and follows me down the hall. The walls in this place are as filthy as everything else and I feel as though I have walked right into the set of a horror film. I won’t be surprised if the cook comes at us with a hatchet, trying to chop us up into little pieces to feed us to the next guests. I have watched way too many scary movies but unfortunately for Ren, Tori and myself, our stories could be horror flicks all on their own.
I push open the bathroom door with my foot and see two stalls. John allows me privacy in the stall but not in the bathroom. It takes me a minute to line the seat with several rows of toilet paper although I plan to hover anyway.
“Liv, we don’t have all day. I have already had to stop several times and we are two hours behind schedule.”
I wash my hands and splash water on my face; then use the paper towels as a rubber glove of sorts to turn off the water and open the door. Not that it will do any good because I’m sure every surface in this place is infested.
“Quit acting like a snob, Liv. You are going to have to get used to getting your hands dirty. We live on a farm and you will have to help my mother out with her daily chores. Your mother is a snob and I refuse to let you turn out like her.”
Speaking of my mother puts a led weight in the pit of my stomach. I am in this mess because of her. Did she know that this was going to happen and she just went along with the plan? Did she know John was crazy and deliberately set me up? What would her betrayal get her? She hasn’t even spoken to me in years, so I highly doubt she even knows anything about my life after I left. Once we are settled back into our booth, I take a chance and ask John about her. “What connections do you have to my mother?”
“After my brother was killed, I went to Alabama to pick up all of his belongings and bring them home to my parents. I thought he was my last hope in claiming what’s mine until I went through his things. He had some information on your mother, address, and phone, etc., and I decided that she was my in. I figured if anyone had any influence over you, it would be her, so I paid her a visit but she didn’t even know of your location. I researched the police report and discovered that the FBI agents that assisted in your case were located in Boston, and since you were no longer in Atlanta, I decided to check there. I paid her to accompany me to Boston so she could help me win you back.”
Nausea instantly rises in my throat and I jump out of the booth to race to the bathroom. Before I reach the door, I am slammed into the wall by a hand at my throat cutting off my air supply. I grip his forearms to lessen the pressure but this only pisses him off more and his hand tightens. My vision is going blurry and my last thoughts are that I thank God that my son is with his father.
~Savage~
I am out of my ever livin’ mind. I haven’t heard from Jax so I have no idea if I’m still headed in the right direction or if they changed course. I have no service out here in the middle of nowhere so I can’t check my computer myself. My only option is to keep driving towards Lexington and pray that he calls me soon. I’m two and a half hours away and that is at a hundred mile an hour pace. Just then my cell rings and I almost run off the road trying to answer it. “Jax, what have you got?”
“We just landed in Lexington and have about a thirty-minute drive south to the family’s farm. Olivia’s car is located in Huntington, West Virginia and is about two hours away but hasn’t moved in the last five minutes since I first checked. That should give us an hour and a half to get in place and set up. Where are you?”
“I just passed Charleston, West Virginia so I’m only about forty minutes behind them. I don’t think I’ll be able to get in front of them before Kentucky and I don’t want Livvy to see me and give me away. The guy I saw two and a half years ago in Miami had a steroid use issue and his temper could turn volatile at any time. Plus, I don’t think he is playing with a full deck so you will have to take him by surprise. Especially when Livvy is out of reach, so she doesn’t get caught in the crossfire. If you have to act before I get there, take care of my girl, Jax.”
“Like my own, Mate.”
His promise put me at ease but just a little.
Chapter Twenty-four
Unstable:
*likely to change; not stable. *prone to psychiatric problems or sudden changes of mood.
~Olivia~
Waking up to screaming and a harsh slap throws my mind back into my nightmare with Jerry. My hands instantly fly up to protect my head, but one of them stops short because I am in handcuffs. NO, no, no, no, no.
“Look what you made me do, Liv! Stop making me angry and I won’t have to hurt you. Now I have to wait a few days to introduce you to Mom or she will question the bruises on your neck.”
The last thing I remember is running for the bathroom only to have John catch me and choke the life right out of me. He climbs into the back seat and un-cuffs me from the seat. I don’t even remember him handcuffing me again. Oh, that’s right, I must have been unconscious. The first thing I see when I sit up is a big red barn, like the kind you see in movies. John grabs me by my hair and pulls me from the car but I can’t get my feet under me quick enough so I fall to my knees.
“Get up! We have to hurry before they know I’m home.”
He releases my hair so he can grab my upper arm and drags me through the big red doors. Stalls for horses are to the right, but they are empty. To the left is a stairway that leads to a second floor. As I stumble up the stairs, I hear a woman call his name, so I stop moving. Maybe she knows he has lost his mind and would be willing to help me.
“Get up there, Liv! Now I have to deal with my mom.”
He jerks me through the door at the top and drags me to the bed, then attaches the other end of the cuffs to the headboard. I will not survive this again. “Please, John, please don’t do this.” Like his brother Jerry, he swings too fast for me to avoid the fist I see coming right before it connects with the side of my head. Please, God, not again.
~Savage~
I am driving like a bat out of hell while trying to listen in on the phone with Jax. He is hiding in the closet of John’s barn apartment and it has just become too damn silent. I know Jax can’t respond to me or tell me what is going on, but the silence is killing me. I whisper, “Five minutes,” and he knows that is my E.T.A. That abusive, steroid asshole better be unconscious or dead by the time I get there. I heard her begging and then nothing. He has probably knocked her out, so his parents don’t hear her scream for help.
“Come in on the north side and stay in the woods. Move in on foot to the backside of the red barn and I will hand her off to you from the back door. He just left the loft to go talk with his mother and she is going to try to distract him until we can get Livvy out of danger and arrest him.”
“Why the hell is it so silent, Jax? What did he do?”
“We’ll discuss this after we have her out of here, okay, Mate”
“Dammit! Jax, if you don’t kill him, I will.”
“Listen, Sav. This kid isn’t playing with a full deck. He is supposed to be taking serious meds and hasn’t been. I say kid because without his meds he has the mentality of someone ten years younger than his age. His parents want to get him into treatment and are willing to make sure he stays there. Let’s just get Olivia out of danger and we’ll stay behind and deal with this situation. Snake is waiting for you at the plane and is going to fly you two back to Boston; we will bring your cars home.”
As I pull to the edge of the woods, my heart is racing a hundred miles an hour. I have sped halfway across the U.S. to get her back but the silence of the last five minutes was more torture that the last eighteen hours. Nothing could have prepared me for seeing Jax carry Livvy out the back door of the barn, limp and lifeless. I burst from the tree line not even caring about being stealth or quiet. I can already see the bruise forming on
the side of her face and my urge to kill something slams inside my head.
“Mate, I can see by the look on your face that you are about to go off half-cocked. I’m telling you we have the guy surrounded, so he is going nowhere except to permanent residency inside a psyche ward. Take Livvy home. She needs to be somewhere safe and familiar when she wakes up.”
Laying her down on the passenger seat with her head close to the steering wheel, allows me to place her head on my lap when I get in. She still has not awoken by the time we get to Lexington and I’m tempted to take her to a clinic there, but I don’t want her to wake in a hospital again. Snake helps me to maneuver her into the plane and place her in the bed at the back of the private jet that Derek owns. I do pretty well for myself financially, but Derek is beyond wealthy. Some guys have all the luck but being his friend and part-time employee has its perks.
I grab an ice pack for her face and lie down beside her for the flight home, hoping she will wake up soon and diminish some of my stress. Two hours into our flight she finally starts to stir. I turn her face toward me, so I will be the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes. “What do you see, Beautiful Girl?”
“I see you, my beautiful Savage.”
Tears spill from her closed eyes, and her voice barely comes out as a whisper. As she opens her eyes, I see that her left eye is bloodshot, probably from the impact of the blow to that side of her face. “You are safe, Beautiful. Go back to sleep and I will wake you when we land in Boston.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Matrimony:
*the state of being married; marriage.
~Olivia~
The next few weeks go by in a blur. Tori and Ren are working like madwomen to pull off a last minute wedding and I couldn’t be more thankful. We have a guest list of about fifty people that we need to squeeze into our backyard. Most of them I don’t know, besides my new family that consists of George and Liz, Derek and Ren, Jax and Tori, Snake, Boomer, Case, and Jim. The rest of the people are business partners or associates of the three men who have come to mean the world to me. I don’t have any biological family that I care to invite because my mother chose money over the safety of her daughter and grandson.
“Hey, Beautiful Girl. What are you doing in here by yourself?”
My beautiful Savage wraps his arms around me as I stare in the bathroom mirror at a woman who has become someone else. The bruise on my face is finally gone, my eyes are bright, the dark stress circles under my eyes are no longer there and the man standing behind me has become my world. “Just making sure that I’m presentable for our pre-wedding dinner. Ren and Tori have done too much. I don’t know how I will ever thank them for putting this all together.”
“Letting them do it is thanks enough. Those women are obsessed with making this the perfect wedding celebration. Ren was married in the courthouse and was supposed to have a reception when Tori came home. Then Tori came home, and she and Jax decided to get married right away. They had their wedding in Costa Rica and the native people put everything together for them. Both women have adopted you as a sister and are so excited they get to plan a wedding since they didn’t get to plan for each other. Let them have their fun, Beautiful. Besides, as a thank you gift to both of them, I have a professional photographer that is going to take their family pictures when their babies are born.
“Oh Alexander, that is so wonderful. Thank you for thinking of them. Ren and Tori will be so happy.” I turn and kiss my incredible fiancé until we are both panting. “Come on, let’s go join the other’s.”
“Ummmm.”
I look down and giggle a little at his big problem with going out into public. Dropping to my knees, I show my soon to be husband my appreciation for everything he has done for me. We both walk into the yard hand in hand, with smiles on our faces, to greet our friends and family a half an hour late.
~Savage~
When I woke up this morning, my face was plastered in a perma-grin even before I opened my eyes. Now at noon that grin still hasn’t faded. Standing at the altar, holding my son’s hand while he jumps around draws several snickers from the crowd. We are both impatiently waiting for Livvy to walk down the aisle and join our family together. Yesterday we started the paperwork of adding my name to Alex’s birth certificate for a biological connection and today we form our family circle with a legal connection.
The music changes and the crowd of our family and friends stand up, blocking my view. Within a minute, she appears at the end of the aisle, hanging on to George’s arm with a beaming smile on her face. Her dress looks as if it is made of see-thru lace but Ren told me not to panic when I saw it because the fabric underneath is flesh color. The dress is form fitting to just below her perfect ass then flares out at the bottom like a mermaid tail. It is off the shoulder with short cap sleeves and shows her model figure perfectly. She is perfection. Her hair is piled on top of her head, with little strands of curls that brush her shoulders and back. I want to bury my face in her neck and breathe her in. The walk takes forever and the whispers of the crowd claiming how beautiful she is, has me puffing out my chest. Finally, after an eternity, George hands her over and shakes my hand.
“Welcome to the family,” George whispers.
He turns and joins Liz on the front row next to Derek, Ren, Jax, and Tori.
“Who gives this woman away?” The priest asks.
“I do, I do.”
Everyone laughs as Alex jumps up and down excited to say the part we rehearsed. Tears fill Livvy’s eyes and spill over. Luckily she is wearing waterproof mascara, thanks to Ren and Tori. Alex hugs his mom’s legs and hands her a tissue then runs to sit with Ren.
The Priest runs through his speech about love and marriage, but I don’t hear a word he says. My focus is on Livvy; the twinkle in her eyes; the blush to her cheeks; the incredible smile that graces her lips and I can’t help but be lost in her.
“Huh, umm. I understand you wrote your vows.” The priest interrupts.
I grab Livvy’s left hand and Alex runs up to give me the ring Livvy has been wearing for the last month, plus the added wedding band.
“On this day, I marry my soul mate. I knew you were it for me the day I saw you on Miami Beach Boardwalk and followed you like a stalker. I give you this ring as a symbol of forever. I’m never letting you go. I searched for you for over two and a half years and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to have found you again. I give you all that I am and all that I have. I will cherish you and Alex for the rest of our lives.”
“With this ring, I give you all of me. I give you my trust, my love, and my devotion. I give you your son, and we will cherish you forever. I have waited my whole life for you. Please don’t make me wait any longer. “
Her simple statement from the first night we met says everything in a few heartfelt words.
“I now pronounce you Man and Wife. You may now kiss your bride.”
I don’t wait another second to claim what’s mine. The crowd cheers and claps but I only hear background noise as I whisper to my wife. “I love you, Beautiful Girl.”
“I love you, Beautiful Savage.”
“Mommy, Daddy, I love you too.”
We both bend down and scoop up our son, then smile and wave to our amazing family and friends. Tears are shed by all the women, back slaps and one arm hugs given by all the men. Life is good.
Chapter Twenty-six
Ecstasy:
*an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement.
~Olivia~
“Close your eyes.”
We are flying on Derek’s private jet to somewhere that is a surprise, apparently, only to me. Snake just announced that we are landing in thirty minutes and Alexander doesn’t want me to see any hints of where we are going.
We will be alone for a week and then Derek and Ren are bringing Alex to us for the second week of our honeymoon.
“I’m going to slip this mask over your eyes, so you don’t peek and ruin my su
rprise.”
“I don’t recall ever peeking before, but I will play along for you, my Sexy Savage Husband.” He grabs my face and kisses me hard. We are both breathing heavy when we feel the touchdown of the plane and Snake announces that we have arrived.
“I love it when you say that, my Beautiful Wife.”
How everyone we came into contact with managed not to give away our location, is a miracle to me. It’s almost like Alexander convinced the entire population here to play along. My skin prickles with goose bumps as we move from the car to outside. The air is about 85° outside and a little humid, so I think we are by the ocean. As he moves me into a building, the air conditioning cools my skin again, sending chills down my spine. Once again, no one says a word. Not even a welcome Mr. and Mrs. Savage, which has a sexy ring to it. I feel as though he has taken me to an abandoned building and it is just the two of us here. The elevator dings and we step inside, but before the doors even close, he is on me. His mouth fuses to mine, and he picks me up to press me against the elevator wall.
“My God, Livvy. It has been too long. I wanted to take you in the elevator the night we met, but I was afraid you would run away. Now I can’t because I don’t want anyone else to see your passion but me.”
“I need you so bad right now.” His hand slams into the wall and the elevator jerks to a stop causing me to bounce a little on his body. He covers my mouth with his and swallows my cries
“Damn, Livvy, I can’t wait.”
He keeps me pressed in the corner, shielding my body as he makes love to me. The elevator alarm muffles my screams. Holy Shit! I can’t believe we just did that. I am tingly all over, and I’m not sure I can feel my legs.
The elevator starts moving just as he releases my legs and I slide down his body. I hear his zipper go up, and he grabs my hand as we ride the rest of the way in silence. I blindly follow him and hear him curse as he struggles to get the door open, just like the first night we met. The air whooshes out of the room to dry my damp skin, and I smile, knowing I won’t be dry for long. I feel his hands on my face as he kisses me softly while sliding the mask off.