Heal (His Command Book 4)

by Piper Scott

  Gabriel let go of one last, shuddering breath, then filled his lungs and held the air inside. As his panic built and his world started to spin, he set foot inside Sir’s house and started to creep across the kitchen floor.

  39

  Cedric

  The back of Cedric’s thighs hit the arm of the couch, and he winced. The hand he’d wrapped around the lamp cord shot down to brace himself, but the cord went taut before he could reach, and he stumbled. The force pulled the lamp from his hand, and it swung down and clattered against the table. Cedric grabbed at the couch to steady himself, but by the time he’d regained his balance, it was too late. The familiar stranger was right in front of him, and the gun he carried nuzzled the underside of Cedric’s jaw to force his gaze upward.

  Leather and wood and something… off. Cedric gazed into the man’s eyes and remembered that smell.

  Five years ago, wearing nothing but a sheer black thong and Brittany’s collar, he’d seen those eyes leering at him from across The Shepherd. He’d tasted that scent on the air as Brittany brought him to his knees in one of the private rooms and ran the leather tails of her flogger across his back.

  Pain is the precursor to pleasure, Cedric…

  Those eyes, boring through him as the tips expertly bit into his back. That gaze, piercing him as Brittany struck again, never high enough to wrap around his shoulders, and never low enough to do damage to his kidney area. The surge of endorphins, and the way the world melted away.

  Let it take you. Let it heighten your experiences.

  There’d been so many who gathered to watch the fall of a young, virile alpha male at the hands of a beta Domme, but only one set of eyes stayed with him, their hunger unparalleled. And now, so many years after his last appearance at The Shepherd, Cedric looked into them again. The hunger had grown more wolfish over time.

  Eyes like those would eat him up.

  “Look at you,” the man murmured. The pistol pushed Cedric’s head up farther, and Cedric had no choice but to bare his neck for the man. “Five years older, but no less handsome. I wish I wouldn’t have waited so long. I can only imagine what it would have been like to have you by my side as you grew into the young man you’ve become.”

  Cedric’s lips twitched, but there was nothing he could say. With the muzzle flush against the underside of his jaw, he was afraid to speak.

  “But you’re lucky—I’m done waiting now. It’s time to pluck you while you’re in your prime. I won’t have you stray from me. Not again. Never again.”

  “Please, put the gun down,” Cedric said through gritted teeth. He closed his eyes as if doing so would erase the danger he was facing.

  “And what? Have you swing that lamp at me?” The man laughed. He reached out and glided the wrapped cord from around Cedric’s hand. The lamp clattered to the floor. “No. That won’t do. I’m not going to give you the chance. Until I have you where I want you—where I know you’ll be good—I’m going to use this to keep you docile. You’ve grown wild over the years without someone to look after you, haven’t you? Playing at Dom, pretending that you’re strong when deep down, all you want to do is submit…”

  The man brushed his fingertips along Cedric’s cheek. His skin was cold to the touch, and Cedric had to fight the impulse to yank his head away.

  “I’m glad I found you when I did,” the man admitted. His fingers found their way to the back of Cedric’s head to caress his hair. He’d drawn so close that Cedric could almost taste his vile breath. Alcohol, Cedric noted, and nicotine. “I knew if I was patient, you’d come back. The Shepherd is there to guide lost souls like your own—souls who need the stern, commanding hand of someone far more experienced. And what a coincidence it is that the second you came back into my life, you brought with you my beloved toy.”

  Toy? Cedric opened his eyes to search for meaning on the man’s face, but there was none to be found. The crazed look in his eyes overshadowed reason.

  “When I’ve got you where I want you,” the man explained, weaving his fingers through Cedric’s hair until his hand cupped the back of Cedric’s head, “then I’ll turn my attention on bringing him back, too. A full toy box. I know that you like him, Cedric. I’ve seen how you’ve looked at him—how he makes you forget who you really are.”

  Cedric’s pulse rushed in his ears. Gabriel. “You leave him out of this. He didn’t do anything.”

  “He did more than enough.” The man tutted. “I got bored trying to find you, you know. I thought after I killed Brittany that you’d come back to The Shepherd and look for comfort, but that never happened, did it?”

  No.

  For a second, the world stopped. Cedric looked into the bestial eyes staring him down as the dam burst, and every emotion he’d repressed over the last five years gushed back to the surface. “What did you say?”

  “You were supposed to find me,” the man murmured. His fingers tightened in Cedric’s hair. “What’s a sub without his Dom? Nothing. Alone, frightened, unable to cope… you should have come back to the club, and I would have taken care of you. I would have taken all your pain away.”

  “What did you say?” Cedric demanded, his voice warbling as it raised in pitch.

  “But you never came back for me, and then you moved, and I lost you. Can you imagine that? I lost you. The only one I wanted, and you vanished. Do you know what pain you put me through?”

  The gun didn’t matter anymore. Hot lead embedded in his skull didn’t frighten him. Cedric lurched forward with a strangled cry, but the man’s grip on his hair held him in place, and all he succeeded in doing was sending searing pain through his scalp. “You killed her?”

  No suspect. No known motive. No trail. The mystery of Brittany’s death had haunted him for years. All the nights he’d spent awake in bed, unable to sleep as his mind tripped over every “what if” and “if I’d only…”, were for nothing. It was his fault. Brittany had been killed because the psychopath crouching over him wanted to keep Cedric for himself.

  “Shh. Keep your voice down, Cedric. It’s not polite to yell. You don’t want me to punish you when we get home, do you? Not when you’re still so new, and my love is still bottomless. Let me spoil you. Let me make you feel good. Don’t give me a reason to make you suffer.”

  “Who the fuck are you?” Cedric snarled. Each breath he took was labored, and his chest heaved from the exertion of keeping still. “Tell me who the fuck you are right now.”

  “I’m your new Master.”

  The man twisted the hand in Cedric’s hair to redirect his head, then pushed the gun tighter against his jaw to make sure he followed through. Cedric had no choice but to tilt his head to the side and accept as the man leaned in close so their lips could brush. Sickness and anger rose as one inside of him, and Cedric sucked his lips into his mouth and bit down on them to keep the man from touching him any further.

  “That’s no way to treat me, you know,” the man murmured. He pulled back and looked Cedric in the eyes, and Cedric committed to memory every repulsive feature of his face.

  A bulbous nose, its large pores blackened with clogged sebum. A pronounced, square chin—deceptively handsome. Broad shoulders, powerful and muscular instead of hunched. A thick neck with pronounced tendons. Narrow, hungry eyes that devoured instead of appreciated. He was the same man Cedric had seen at the bottom of his driveway the day he’d heard the noise in the carport, and the same scent he’d smelled when he’d walked into the sun room with Gabriel’s blanket and had seen the shadows shift.

  All this time he’d been watching, and Cedric hadn’t clued in. He bit back on his frustration and remained silent. Until the gun wasn’t nudged against his jaw, there was nothing else he could do.

  “I want to treat you nicely, Cedric. I want to reward you. I saw you playing with my old toy, and if you’re good, I’ll bring him back so we can play with him together. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? To have a toy of your own to play with?”

  “No,” Cedric hissed th
rough his teeth. He kept his mouth shut, afraid of the consequences if he moved too suddenly or put pressure on the gun. “You leave him out of this. He’s innocent.”

  The man cackled. “Innocent? You don’t honestly believe that, do you? When I found him, he was wasting away in Baylor’s filthy brothel, throwing himself at whatever men Baylor wanted. When I took him home, he didn’t fight me. He was mine for a whole year, you know, before he ran away and found his way into your arms. There’s nothing innocent about him. A boy like that was made to be bred.”

  Nothing mattered anymore. Not the fact that the man was holding him by the hair, not the gun pressing against his jaw, and not the fact that he was confronting a confessed killer. With a roar summoned from the depth of his being, Cedric launched forward and swung at his aggressor. Blind rage dictated his movements, and he barely felt as his fist slammed into the man’s face. They toppled together onto the ground. Cedric had no idea where the gun was, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

  The monster that killed Brittany wouldn’t take Gabriel, too. He’d lost one lover to this scumbag—he wouldn’t lose another.

  Cedric’s fist connected with the man’s face once more. Spittle flew from the man’s lips as his head jerked to the side, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. This disgusting excuse for a human wanted to harm Gabriel, and Cedric wouldn’t stop until he wasn’t a threat anymore.

  He drew his arm back to strike again, but before the punch connected, the man lashed out and grabbed him. They rolled over so the man was on top, pinning him to the floor.

  “Don’t make me hurt you, Cedric,” the man rasped. The gun was a fraction of an inch away—the man had dropped it to pin Cedric’s wrists to the floor. “All I want is to take you home and make you mine. Can you imagine the life you’d lead? Free of responsibility, worry, and thought, you could indulge in submission all you wanted. No one else could tame an alpha like I could. You’d never be satisfied with another partner.”

  “I’ll kill you if you touch him,” Cedric snarled. He fought against the man’s hold, but failed to break free. “If you lay a hand on him, I’ll end you.”

  “He’s just a toy, Cedric,” the man said, saccharine regret tinging his words. “There’s nothing special about him. He’s a sad, broken, useless waste of skin that we’d be stupid not to play with.”

  “No, I’m not,” a voice said from just behind the man a second before a metallic clang echoed through the room. The man slumped onto Cedric’s chest, dead weight. Behind him stood Gabriel, a frying pan in his hand, his chest heaving with every breath. “And I’m never going to let you forget it again.”

  40

  Gabriel

  The frying pan was too heavy in his hand, and Gabriel cast it aside. It clattered on the living room floor, louder than it should have been. The world spun and his fingers were numb, but Gabriel didn’t let the terror win. As long as Sir was in danger, Gabriel would not give in.

  Sir shouted at him, but words had lost their meaning. The whole universe rang, like a gong had gone off in the distance, and its vibrations were everlasting. All Gabriel could do was trust his instinct, and his instinct told him to get the man without a name off his lover.

  Gabriel grabbed the man without a name and dragged him to the side, his task made easier by Sir’s eagerness to get up from the floor. When Sir was freed, Gabriel picked up the gun and lifted his gaze until he met Sir’s eyes.

  “Here,” Gabriel said. Even he heard his voice wilting.. He pressed the gun into Sir’s hand. “It’s not safe for me to touch it anymore.”

  The world grew small and frightening once more. Gabriel didn’t fight it. His knees gave out and he fell forward, but he never hit the ground—Sir caught him and held him close, and in his arms, Gabriel let his panic rob him of his senses.

  There were lights when Gabriel opened his eyes, red and blue against the cold night. He blinked several times. The last time he’d seen police lights, he’d been at his parents’ house, freshly returned from a failed expedition to find Garrison after escaping from the man without a name. Had everything else been a hallucination?

  Sir’s hand slid protectively over his thigh and shattered that possibility. They were perched on the sidewalk, Gabriel cuddled up against Sir’s side, as officers stormed the house behind them.

  “Sir?” Gabriel asked. His voice broke, and he cleared his throat.

  “Everything’s okay, Rabbit,” Sir promised. The hand once on Gabriel’s thigh wrapped around his shoulders instead. It brought with it a blanket—the same heavy kind that Gabriel remembered from the day he’d returned to the Lowe household. “You’re safe. I’ve got you. No one is going to take you away from me. No one.”

  Safe.

  Gabriel closed his eyes and let go of his fear. The man without a name was being apprehended by the police, and Gabriel was back at Sir’s side. No one had been taken and kept against their will, and as far as Gabriel could tell, Sir wasn’t hurt. Really, that was all that mattered. Against all odds, they’d come out victorious—he’d come out victorious. For the first time in his life, he’d gone up against an alpha, and he’d won.

  The screech of nearby brakes brought Gabriel to open his eyes. Adrian’s silver Lexus almost ran up on the curb. The second the car was in park, the driver side door flew open, and Adrian bolted from the car. Gabriel blinked, and as if by magic, Adrian had arrived at his side and dropped to his knees by the time he opened his eyes.

  “Gabriel?” Adrian took his arm, as if the only way to tell if Gabriel was real was to touch him.

  Gabriel managed a smile, but did not budge from Cedric’s side. “I’m okay.”

  “What the hell are you doing out here?” Adrian was breathless, his voice shaking with fear instead of darkened with anger. “You know you’re not supposed to see Cedric anymore. We talked about this.”

  “I needed to prove to myself that I could do it,” Gabriel murmured. “… So I did. I’m sorry. I took money from you that I shouldn’t have, too. I’ll pay you back.”

  Adrian opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off. Sir spoke, his words gentle but firm. “Gabriel saved my life.”

  There was a moment where the only sounds were police chatter and the heavy thud of boots on the sidewalk. Gabriel let that moment sweep away the rest of his anxiety. He was the cause of all this, both good and bad. What had been started, he’d put an end to. The man without a name wouldn’t walk free anymore—he would answer for the crimes he’d committed, just like Garrison. Gabriel didn’t care how many interviews and interrogations it took. The man without a name would not walk free. He would not let his fear or his inferior genetics stop him from seeing that man suffer.

  It didn’t matter so much that he’d hurt Gabriel, but the second he’d pointed that gun at Sir, Gabriel knew there was no way he could forgive him. No one would hurt the man who’d been so kind to him, even when he didn’t deserve kindness. No one.

  “Gabriel?” Adrian asked in awe. “Is it true?”

  “No.” Gabriel glanced at Sir. “I did what I had to do. That man… that man was the one who kept me, after the police raided The White Lotus. He took me from the room he was using me in and escaped with me through a back door, and he kept me in his house against my will. The things he did to me…” Gabriel closed his eyes and ended that thought. “He deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life, just like Garrison.”

  There was silence. When Gabriel opened his eyes again, he saw why. Adrian was staring at him like he’d seen a ghost, his eyes intense with confusion and his mouth open. Nothing more was said until an officer stepped forward.

  “Sir,” he said, speaking to Adrian. “I have to ask you to leave. This is a crime scene and you’re not allowed to be here.”

  “I’m his brother.” Adrian turned to face the officer, rigidity returning to his posture. “I need to be here for him.”

  “No.” Gabriel couldn’t stop, now that he’d started. It wasn’t that he didn’t want A
drian there, but he knew that all Adrian would do was worry, and that was pointless. There was nothing to worry about. The man without a name was being apprehended, and he would face the consequences of his actions. “I love you, but I can take care of myself. I promise.”

  Adrian didn’t argue like Gabriel thought he might. He didn’t even hum in disappointment. The officer gestured to the side, inviting Adrian to step away, but Gabriel shook his head.

  “He doesn’t have to leave if he doesn’t want to. He’s not disturbing me. But… but he needs to know he doesn’t need to be here for me. I know that I haven’t really been the most… I know that I’ve been through a lot, but I’m okay. I’m okay as long as I’m with Sir.”

  “If he starts bothering you, let one of us know,” the officer said in parting. Then, just as quickly as he’d appeared, he disappeared into the chaos of the night.

  Adrian sat at Gabriel’s side, and for a little while, all three of them were silent. Gabriel leaned against Sir, and Sir kept the heavy blanket wrapped around their shoulders. Dry leaves skittered across the street, stirred by the wind. Officers barked at each other, and Gabriel was vaguely aware that an ambulance had arrived. A little more chaos meant nothing at this point. He was numb to it.

  “I want to be with Sir,” Gabriel said into the night. He didn’t care who was listening. Whether anyone listened or not, he needed to get what he was feeling off his chest. “I know that I said I loved Garrison, but I never did. I know that now, because I know what love really is.”

  No one spoke. Leaves caught on the ridge by the sidewalk noisily. A stretcher was rushed into Sir’s house.

  “I know that I’m not normal.” Gabriel let his eyes adjust to the flashing red and blue lights. It was hard to admit that there was something broken inside of him, but he couldn’t keep burying his head in the sand. Denial was easy, but the truth? If Gabriel ever wanted a shot at the happiness he’d found, he’d have to embrace it. “I don’t know if I can ever be normal like you want me to be. I’m not… I don’t know if I can think that way. I might not ever be able to change, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t try.”