Fractured Hearts (Shattered Lives, Book Three)

by Blakeley, Rissa

  I looked back at the woman. The sadness enveloped her like a perfectly tailored dress. The tears ran down my cheeks while I tried to keep my own sadness tucked deep down. Elaina reached and wiped them away.

  “She was looking for you for five years. Roger kept you hidden from her. She wasn’t allowed contact. He forced her to watch some of the things they did to you. She wanted to save you, but she couldn’t. He has beaten and raped her for years. Henry, she didn’t abandon you. She didn’t sell you. She did not throw you away. She loves you. Always has. It was him that took her away from you.”

  “Please, my son, I beg you. Listen to her. I love you. I have never stopped trying to get you free.” I slowly reached my hand to her face and touched her, checking to see if she was real or some sick hallucination. “I begged and pleaded for your release from that prison. I did what I could. I tried so hard. I tried for you…for us.”

  “Mum…,” I whispered.

  She nodded. “That’s right, baby boy.” I grabbed her and held her tight. I was so much bigger than she was that I thought I would hurt her. She stroked the back of my neck like she used to, making me cry like a motherfucking baby. My mum… Christ Almighty. “I’m so sorry, my beautiful boy. I’m so sorry. Shh… It’s all right. I love you so much.”

  After all she had been through, she pushed it all away to comfort her broken son. Elaina held her hand over her mouth to try and stifle her sobs, but it didn’t help. She was crying as hard as I was.

  I pulled away slightly to grab Elaina, but my mum reached up and held my face. “You are an amazing man. I am so proud of you. Look at your beautiful woman.” I turned. “She loves you so much. She held strong that you would save her. And you did.”

  “I do love her more than anything, and would do anything for her,” I said roughly.

  “I know. I am so proud you didn’t end up like him.” She nodded her head toward Roger. “Thank you for saving us from his wrath.”

  “I have so many questions,” I whispered.

  “I know you do. But let’s get out of here first, yeah?” I smiled softly and nodded. She rose to her tiptoes and kissed me on my stubbled cheek, then wiped the tears from my face. “Come on.” She led me out of Roger’s quarters.

  I watched as Chris picked up Josiah’s lifeless body. He spoke softly to Savannah and headed up the stairs to the deck. We all followed behind them, my eyes focused on the trail of blood being left behind. My heart ached. I had a feeling his death was going to hit Josie hard.

  We all met on the deck and walked back to the dock together. There were bloodied, true dead bodies everywhere. We dumped the bodies overboard and decided a few of us would come back later to raid for supplies.

  “Oh, Henry… I almost forgot.” Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. I smirked and caught them when he tossed them.

  Truck keys. I was so thankful for that. My ass was dragging. We piled in, Elaina making my mum sit shotgun. She held my hand the entire way as I drove us back home.

  When we pulled up to the school, we carried Josiah’s body over to our cemetery. Elaina fell to her knees when she saw Thomas’ body. I comforted her as best I could while Chris and Jake lay Josiah right beside him.

  I watched Savannah fuss with his hair and touch his face, then I grabbed her chin. “Savannah, I’m so sorry. He was a great kid.”

  “He was.” Her tears dripped on his face.

  I took her hand and offered my most sincere voice. “I meant what I said. He’s a hero to me.”

  “Thank you,” she cried.

  I know she and I weren’t best mates, but I liked Josiah. He always brought an air of happiness whenever he walked into a room with his jovial, carefree personality. “Would you be all right with waiting until tomorrow to bury him? We can do a nice service for both him and Thomas.”

  “Will anything happen to his body out here?” Her eyes darted around the perimeter of the area.

  “I think he’ll be safe. I’ll see if I can get a few people to dig the graves today and place him in one.”

  “I think that’ll be fine,” she choked out.

  I pursed my lips and slid my hand down to her elbow, gave her a quick pat, and stood. When I turned, I pulled Elaina up and held her while she continued to cry for Thomas.

  Walking her over to my mum, she mumbled, “I can’t believe we lost Thomas.”

  “I know, love. It kills me.” I nestled my face in her hair.

  Knowing she was back in my arms and safe had me feeling more love for her than I ever had before.

  “This is the first time I have felt safe in a while,” she murmured.

  “I’m so fucking glad you feel that way.” I kissed her forehead and turned to my mum. “Well, Mum, this is home.” It felt so weird to have those words run through my head, let alone out of my mouth. “Sorry it’s not a big, beautiful palace. Hopefully, someday we’ll have proper housing.”

  She patted me on the back. “It’s perfect,” she murmured with a smile. “Anywhere with my son is perfect.”

  “Let’s head in. We’ll have a meeting, then I need some sleep. It’s been a while since I slept more than an hour or two here or there. After tomorrow’s services, I’ll gather a few from the community and we will go back and raid that ship. There’s food, linens, clothing, and medical supplies, yeah?” I asked, hoping she had knowledge of what was on board.

  “Yes. There’s plenty of that.” By the looks of my mum’s frail body, I suspect she wasn’t fed very often. That made me angry all over again.

  After I dropped the crew off in the cafeteria, I left and came back with the rest of our family, ushering them inside. They all kept looking at my mum, trying to figure her out. She rubbed her arms, obviously feeling uncomfortable from all the unwanted attention. Then they were all staring at us because most of us were covered in blood. And, of course, they were all excited to see Elaina.

  “Have a seat everyone. All right. Settle down, please,” I commanded. I took a deep breath and waited for everyone to calm themselves. “If you don’t already know, we lost Thomas last night.” The sorrow I felt was pure and evident, so I paced in front of the group, trying to control my emotions. “He was a brilliant lad. I cannot say that enough. And earlier today…” I was still pacing back and forth, running my hands through my hair. “Fuck,” I said to myself. “We lost Josiah.” People broke out crying. Elaina grabbed Josie as her body sagged. “Both were brave young men and I was honored to know them. To be a part of their family.” I held my fist to my heart. James held Savannah as she sobbed. “We will bury them tomorrow. Chris, Jake, or anyone who wants to help… Can you dig the graves after this meeting?”

  “Yeah, of course,” Chris murmured.

  “Thank you. Also, I want to thank everyone who assisted in the rescue of my beautiful wife.” I smiled at her. I walked up to my mum and took her hand. “Come on,” I whispered as I brought her to the front. “It’s okay.” She nervously looked around. “And this… This is my mother, Anne Richards.” Low whispers circulated around. “Only a few of you know the tainted story of my life. Someday, I will share the entire tale with all of you, but I just wanted to introduce her to you.”

  She smiled and wrapped her frail arm around my waist, beaming with pride while looking over the small community I led. That felt so good. I walked her around and personally introduced her to every person.

  The last was Gunther. She stepped away from him and hid behind me.

  “Mum, it’s okay. He’s not going to hurt us. I promise you.”

  “I watched him hurt you for years. He would beat you. He almost killed you! How can you stand here with this monster?!” she raged. He looked away from her anger, the emotional pain blazing in his eye.

  “Mum, listen to me.” I turned around and took her by her arms. “He has changed. Trust me. The only reason I came to this place was to kill him, but we realized that we are cut from the same cloth and we needed to stand united in order to defeat Roger.”

&n
bsp; “Ms. Richards…” Gunther took one step forward, bouncing a fussy Grey on his shoulder. “I beg for your forgiveness. I apologize for everything I have done. Henry has accepted me and forgave me. I found my true self thanks to Quinn, who has now passed because of those bastards. Look at this little joy right here. I could never hurt anyone again.” Tears formed in his eye. “I beg you to forgive me. It would mean the world to me. I will show you that I’m a changed man. I want to prove that to you.”

  Examining Gunther—severe facial injuries, obvious upper body injury—trying to bounce a rather large baby, she asked, “May I hold him?”

  Gunther smiled. “Of course.”

  Reaching up, she took Grey from Gunther’s shoulder, rocking back and forth, singing to him. In a blink, he calmed down. I watched, knowing she must have cared for me in the same manner.

  “He’s beautiful,” she murmured, lips to Grey’s ear.

  “Thanks. He’s my saving grace.” Gunther smiled, looking away once again. “I’m a very lucky man to have received such a gift.”

  I scratched at my hair, feeling nervous about what I was about to tell Gunther. I felt he needed to know. “Uhh… Listen, mate. There was a recruit on the ship. Late teens, maybe even as old as twenty…”

  “Yeah?” Gunther asked expectantly.

  “He looked just like you. Face, coloring, body structure… It was eerie.”

  He blew out a breath. “Is he…?”

  “True dead. Did you know of any kids?”

  “No. I want to go see him,” he said in a whisper.

  “We threw them all overboard. I’m sorry.”

  “That’s okay. Thank you for telling me.” His hand quickly wiped a tear from his face.

  Redirecting the conversation in a flash, my mum turned toward me. “Do you have babies?” I shook my head. “Well, I hope my son will give me a grandchild someday.” She turned and smiled at Elaina.

  I wrapped my arm around my wife’s shoulders. I hoped so, as well.

  Opening the door to our room, I murmured, “Love, I’m beyond exhausted. I don’t even know if there is a word that describes it.”

  “You’ve barely slept in ages.” She looked at the bandage that was peeking out under my sleeve and touched it with shaking fingers.

  “It’s okay, love. Knife wound. Cora stitched it the best she could. I haven’t looked at it yet. All I know is it hurt like hell. Still does. I passed out from the pain. I will look at it later when I change the bandage.”

  “That’s why you screamed. I thought they killed you.”

  “I fought to stay alive for you.”

  “I’m so glad you found your mom and now you know the truth.”

  “Me, too. I don’t know about Sophie’s kids, though. I want to ask her about that later.”

  “I need to tell you something…” I hoped with every fiber of my being that Roger didn’t hurt her. With fear, I nodded, awaiting her news, my hands covering my face to brace for the worst. “I know how they found us. They have been watching you and Gunther the entire time.”

  I lowered my hands. “How? We cut out our tracking devices.”

  “Not all of them.”

  I looked at her. “What do you mean?” Elaina tapped me on my head. I ran my fingers over where they repaired my fractured skull. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Henry, your mom told me. When they operated on you, they put one in there.”

  “So Gunther has one, too?”

  “Yeah.” I shook my head and scrubbed my face. What’s one more thing? Fuck me. “No matter what’s in here, he doesn’t own you anymore.”

  I’ll let the demons be the judge of that, but there was ample hope the voices would be gone now that I put a bullet in Roger’s head. “I don’t want to think about anything right now.”

  I leaned in and kissed her undamaged cheek. Pulling away, I examined the cut on her face and the split in her lip. Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad. It was more like a scratch, but the split was a bit garish. It made me so fucking angry to see what Roger did to her beautiful face. “Are you all right? He didn’t hurt you?” My hands trembled as I touched her face, tracing the line of her cut, then touching the split in her lip. “Please tell me he didn’t harm you in anyway besides this? I don’t think I could handle knowing…”

  “I’m fine,” she said with confidence.

  “He never…”

  “No. You blew through the door just in time. My hero.”

  “Oh god, Elaina. I thought I lost you forever. I don’t…” Tears filled my eyes and ran down my cheeks. “I was so fucking scared,” I croaked.

  “It’s okay, Henry. You didn’t and will never lose me. I’m right here, lover.”

  “I need to rest,” I whispered.

  “Come on. Let’s get you into bed.”

  I stripped out of my dirty clothes. Before I crawled into bed, I said, “I’m sick about Thomas.”

  “Me, too,” she murmured.

  “I just…” I covered my face.

  She pulled my hands away, holding them in a firm, reassuring grip. “Henry, don’t do this to yourself. You did everything you could for him.”

  “He was such a good lad, Elaina.”

  “I know. I loved him like a brother, but he knew what he was getting into standing guard with you. You did well by him. He would have never survived as long as he did if you didn’t take him under your wing. Tomorrow, we will have a nice service for him and Josiah.”

  Once we snuggled up, Elaina played with my hair and smiled at me. Regardless of our losses, it was the most content I had been in my life.

  Chapter 53

  It had been about a month since we rescued my mum and Elaina from Roger’s filthy grip. Things had finally calmed, and the community had settled into a routine.

  Everyone’s injuries were healing nicely. Gunther and I both still had some ill-effects from ours, but the important thing was Elaina’s and my mum’s facial injuries had healed.

  Elaina was trying to wake me, but I wasn’t ready yet. Between cleaning up the grounds and the killer workouts I had been doing, I was exhausted. Not to mention the mind-bending orgasm from an epic blow job before we went to sleep… My wife was amazing.

  “Henry?” She ran her fingers over my lips. “Wake up.” I groaned. “Please. I have to show you something.” I jacked one eye open. “You awake?”

  Sleepy grit took hold of my throat. “Yeah.” I sat up on my elbows and rubbed my eyes. According to the dim moonlight coming through the one window, it wasn’t even dawn yet. “Why are you so bloody perky this early? Go back to sleep, woman.” As I nestled back down in the blankets, Elaina held up a white stick. I squinted my eyes at it. “What’s that?”

  “A test.”

  “A test for… Wait.” Then my eyes opened wide. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? For real?”

  “Yes. We’re going to have a baby!”

  I grabbed her and held so tight. “I can’t believe this,” I murmured in her ear. “I love you so much.” She pulled out of my arms and I had the biggest smile on my face while touching her abdomen. “There’s a baby in here?” I was in shock.

  Teary-eyed, she smiled at me. “Yup. You’re going to be a daddy.”

  “Can we tell my mum?”

  “Of course, but she’s probably still sleeping.”

  “I don’t care. She’d want to know right away.” I jumped out of bed and dressed, grabbed her hand, and dragged Elaina out of our room and down to my mum’s.

  She was staying in Nick’s old room. Elaina had finally allowed us to move his stuff out and someone else to use it. I felt honored that it was my mum.

  “Henry, are you sure you want to wake her?”

  “Yes. She’d be bent if I didn’t.”

  I pounded on her door and Elaina waited next to me, the stick in her hand.

  She cracked it open and looked confused. “It’s quite early, son. Is something wrong?”

  “No. Can we come in?” I bounced on the
balls of my feet. “We have news.” She opened the door and waved us in. I was so excited, my mum looked at me like I was a nutter. “Go on… Show her.” I pushed Elaina forward and she laughed because I was being so overzealous.

  Without a second to spare, I grabbed Elaina’s arm, holding it up to show my mum the test stick.

  She gasped. “Congratulations!” She embraced both of us. “I am so happy for you!”

  “Me, too. We’ve talked about this and how it hadn’t happened yet. It must have been bad timing, but now… I don’t know. I’m just so happy and scared,” Elaina rambled.

  And that’s when it hit her, and she started bawling.

  “Oh, honey. It’s going to be okay.” My mum pulled her into her thin body.

  I was confused as to why Elaina was crying. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she cried. “I’m just so…”

  “Never mind her tears, Henry. Get used to them. Hormones.”

  “Ohhhh, I got you. I suppose I will need some words of wisdom from Gunther on how to deal with this. Well, we’ll leave you be so you can go back to sleep.”

  “Do you honestly think I can go back to sleep after you told me I’m going to be a grandmother?”

  “No, probably not.” Shoving my hand through my hair, I laughed. “I should get someone back to bed, though.” I raised a brow at my pregnant wife.

  “Don’t you dare treat me like I’m porcelain, Henry!” Elaina vehemently yelled at me.

  My eyes grew big, then I looked at my mum. “Hormones, son. Hormones,” she chuckled, patting me on the back as we left the room.

  I met with my mum later in the day. Elaina wasn’t feeling all that hot and decided to spend the majority of the day in bed with a book and, just in case, a bucket.

  After lunch, we were chatting about the baby. “I’m so excited for you. I can’t even begin to tell you.” I nodded, but then my thoughts grew distant. “What’s on your mind, son?”