I don’t know why, but the name was like an arrow piercing my lung, the organ deflating like a tire and making my chest cave in.
Holding his wife, a very pale Henry stared at me, incredulous. “H-how did you know that song?”
The low rumble of thunder shook the room, and rain began pounding the skylight above. Glancing back as the storm rumbled the night, I watched Milly tug the cloak up over her head, hiding her face once again.
Like a shadow, she slithered out of the doorway, disappearing down the darkened hall. She didn’t say a single word, but I heard her nonetheless…
Come to me, child. Come to Mother.
Shouts erupted when I ran, but I didn’t look back. Gripping the violin, I rushed after her as she stepped out an exit door, becoming part of the storm.
53
Ethan
* * *
Dull pain made its presence known before I even opened my eyes.
“Ethan!” a rough voice insisted, but the hands shaking me were even rougher.
I groaned as my eyes fluttered, feeling heavier than ever before.
“He’s waking up,” another voice said.
The faraway sound of glass shattering broke into my stupor, and my eyes shot open.
“What the hell was that?” Beau said, his red head turned toward the ballroom.
The hands gripping the lapels on my jacket tightened, and my upper half was hauled off the floor.
What was I doing on the floor?
“Goddammit, Ethan, wake up right now, or I’m gonna put you out forever.” Earth threatened darkly.
Awareness rushed in, and the dull ache in my head turned sharp. Wincing, I pushed it away as I took control of my own body.
Milly is here. Fletcher is in trouble.
“Fletcher!” I called, scrambling up to my feet.
“Whoa,” Beau said, reaching out to steady my swaying frame.
Smacking his hands away, I looked imploringly at Earth.
“What the hell happened?” he demanded.
“Fletcher is in danger,” I said, already starting away.
Earth grabbed my arm, yanking me back. “We took the trash to the curb.”
I puzzled his words, then realized he thought I was talking about Preston. “Not him!” I yelled, shoving his hand off me. “Milly is here. She’s after him!”
Adrenaline spiked among the three of us, and they required no more explanation.
“Find Neo,” Earth told Beau as we rushed around the corner, stuttering at the darkness in the hallway.
Banging into the ballroom, I hollered Fletcher’s name. When I didn’t see him by the piano, I yelled again. “Fletcher!”
“He ran out of here a few moments ago,” my father said, materializing from the crowd. If I’d been more in control of myself, I’d have realized his pale face and wide eyes were an indication of things to come. “What in the hell is going on?”
Not wasting time, I ran off down the hallway, not even sure where I was going.
A howling wind blew, banging open a door leading into an alleyway outside. Pelting rain slanted inside, the back of the door already drenched.
“This way!” I yelled, charging forward, well aware that Earth and the others would follow my voice.
There wasn’t much light to lead the way because the outside was equally as dark as the hall. I went headfirst out the door, regardless of the torrential downpour and the icy-cold raindrops that felt like stabbing swords.
Blinking against it, I lifted my hand as the wind tore through my hair and water soaked my clothes.
“Fletcher!” I roared down the alley, my voice unable to echo in the downpour.
A dim streetlight flickered to life about halfway into the depth of the dead-end alley. The light was not a hopeful sign but a grim way to highlight a sight that could only be found in nightmares.
“No!” I roared, the protest ripping from the very depths of my core, so pungent I swear I felt my vocal cords tear.
There, ensconced in the dingy, orange-ish glow, was a man I loved more than my own life, drenched in rain but soaked in hate.
Three men dressed in the concealment of black surrounded him, delivering blows that I worried he could not withstand. But even in my doubt, he remained on his feet, giving back as good as he got, shaking off the exhaustion of a fight he could never win.
I ran forward, the pounding of my heart, the heaviness of my breath all drowned out by the sick sound of flesh smacking against flesh and the grunts of pain that somehow made the dim light seem even dirtier.
Fletcher’s head rocked to the side when a well-placed fist caught his adorably rounded cheek. Red tinged my vision as his head snapped back, and he recovered to bury his foot in the attacker’s middle.
The man went down, but the other two jumped him, one pinning him against the unforgiving brick wall while the other pulled back his fist to deliver a blow.
A sound I’d never made before ripped free, abusing my vocal cords once more, and I leaped between my life and the one who sought to end it, catching his fist in mine and squeezing until I heard the satisfying sound of small bones crunching under the pressure.
The man wailed but stayed on his feet, so I knocked him down. He hit the pavement with a grunt, and I buried my heel in his ribs, making him curl into himself.
Spinning, I grabbed the man who’d pinned Fletch to the wall by the back of the neck, yanking him back as he yelped. Fletcher charged forward like a bull, ramming into the man’s middle.
When I let go, he crumpled to my feet.
“Fletcher!” I gasped, starting forward.
“Watch out!” he yelled, pushing me out of the way. The blow meant for me landed on him, making him stagger sideways to fall onto one knee.
Raging, I grabbed the man who’d gotten back up and poured every ounce of the daily training I’d endured into making him wish he’d stayed down.
My entire body burned. Knuckles met flesh. Bones knocked against mine. I punched and kicked and buried my fist so deep into his middle I was sure his organs would bear the imprint of my hit for years to come.
He passed out before he even touched the ground, and I watched him fall with only mild interest.
Earth, Beau, and Neo charged down the alley as I turned toward Fletch.
“Stop right there.” Her voice was low, unwavering, and full of the wicked storm that waged around us.
“What do you want?” Fletcher called over the loud pounding of the rain.
Blood smeared his cheek, dripped over his lip, and darkened the front of his white shirt. His hair was no longer soft and fluffy but plastered against his head from the weight of the water.
His eyes weren’t glistening gold but filled with shadows and locked on the woman who’d stolen him as a child and raised him in hate.
“Why are you here?” he roared.
My skin crawled just having this villain near him. My skin crawled knowing he’d had to live with her all his life. A brief flash of him as a tiny newborn came over me, and I wanted to scream.
Ethan, meet Alexander. You two are destined to be great friends.
My shoes splashed over the ground as I rushed to put myself in front of his person. I might have been a child twenty-two years ago, but I was a child no more. I would protect him.
Slam!
Pain radiated through me, vibrating my organs and making me rock.
“No!” Fletcher screamed, the tortured sound the only thing strong enough to bring me back.
Numbly, I glanced down at where the woman had struck, the force of her swing only made more intense by the force with which I’d been rushing to Fletch. In her bony, darkly veined hands, the woman grasped his violin, the very possession he held most dear. It was the weapon she’d swung at me, the mere intensity of the hit snapping the strings.
The hood was blown back from her head. Dark curls waved wildly in the wind like poisonous snakes had formed a vile nest on her crown. Her skin was so pale it was nearly translucen
t, her eyes sallow and her cheekbones sunken. She appeared far older than I knew she likely was, her haggard appearance brought on surely by the hate she lived with every single day. Rain streaked her skin, plastering the dark fabric against her thin frame.
Just looking at her made my stomach tighten. The insidious energy she nearly choked on tried to strangle me as well.
I gazed at Fletch, momentarily struck. How had he survived this?
How?
Fletcher rushed across the distance between us, plastering his back against my front. The way he held out his arms wide, trying to create a bigger shield, was something from which I might never recover.
“I told you never to play this!” She snarled, anger vibrating her voice. “I told you this was forbidden. I told you!”
Fletcher winced and shook, but he refused to move from in front of me.
“And then you come here to a place you do not belong, you insipid, lying brat!” Her chest heaved as my palms curled around his sides to shift him out of the way.
“Don’t move!” she wailed, banging the side of the instrument on the pavement. The splintering of wood punctuated her order.
“No!” Fletcher wailed, rushing forward as if he would retrieve his violin.
My arms wound around his waist, hauling him back, refusing to let him get close.
“I told you no violin. I told you to never, ever play that song!” She smacked the violin on the ground once more.
“Why?” Fletcher screamed. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“Why?” she intoned, her voice suddenly dropping to an almost impossibly audible level.
The sudden change in her demeanor was alarming, far more than her violence moments ago could ever be. Holding on to Fletch, I slid a look to Earth, Beau, and Neo who stood nearby, watching with shock.
It seemed not even Fletcher’s brothers knew how toxic this creature was.
She paced forward, and I shoved him back, stuffing him behind me so she would have to go through me to get to him.
The brothers all lunged forward, but she held up the broken, ragged instrument like it was more destructive than a gun.
They faltered, staring between me and the woman, watching as she slowly advanced.
I felt the tremble in Fletcher’s legs, in his entire body, as he pressed against my back. He was soaked and cold, mentally abused far deeper than his physical injuries could ever show.
“I hate you because you are not mine!” Her voice rose in hysterics with each word she screamed.
The great quivering in his body silenced for a moment as he peeked around me to stare at the woman he’d thought his mother. “I’m not yours?”
“Emily.”
The new voice was familiar but oddly so foreign, as if it had reached through the past and made roots in the present.
The madwoman froze. Her entire body went still. The broken pieces and strings of the violin she clutched swayed when she turned to face the man this all began with.
“It is you,” Henry said, staring through the dark and raging rain. His clothes were soaked through, and as I gazed around, I realized this alley was packed with people, with the elite who, for the first time in my entire life, had forgone their appearance and comfort to charge out into precarious weather for the sake of morbid curiosity.
I couldn’t even blame them for staring, for this was a twenty-two-year-old scandal unfolding before their very eyes. Up until now, it had only been whispered about in the secrecy of homes and read about in old newspapers.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Henry asked, stepping closer. “You stole my son. You ripped him from his home. You took away his childhood, his life.”
“And what of you?” she bemoaned. “Tossing aside a woman who gave you everything, who bled herself dry until the only thing that lingered in her veins was the love she had for a man who betrayed her!”
“I didn’t betray you. I—”
“Lies!” she screeched, her voice so piercing that the crowd took a step back. “You made promises of love and marriage, and then you ripped it all away to give to a more suitable woman, someone befitting the Cossgrove name, someone who could never compare to me!”
“I fell in love with Samantha, Emily. I never meant to hurt you.”
She laughed and laughed. The evil, vacant sound stopped as abruptly as it began. “Well, I meant to hurt you. Tell me, Henry. How was it all these years, knowing your only son was out there, knowing he was being raised by someone you deemed unworthy to mother your child? How did it feel to listen to the so-called woman you love wail in pain day after day because the crime she committed was birthing your son?”
The hands that had been resting on my back suddenly slipped away. Fletcher stepped out around me, face pale and lips wobbling. “Y-you aren’t my mother?”
Both Henry and the woman turned to stare. Henry’s eyes were wistful, filled with pain. And Milly… Well, my gentleman’s handbook was not equipped with words to describe her brand of crazy.
“Alexander!” A new voice cut through the night. “Alexander!”
The crowd parted, and Samantha rushed through. She was clearly unstable on her feet, but determination shone in her eyes.
She stopped when she saw him. Not even the rain could hide the tears on her face. “Oh my God,” she wailed. “It is you. My son.”
Fletcher stood shocked as the blond woman started forward again.
“He’s mine!” Milly wailed, lifting the violin to attack.
Everyone rushed to form a wall in front of Samantha, blocking her from reaching Fletcher and also being attacked.
“The police are on their way!” my father announced, stepping through the crowd.
“No!” Milly screamed. “This isn’t over. You can’t have him. No one can!”
In a burst of energy, she rushed Fletch, violin lifted above her head, both hands preparing to swing the broken instrument.
I stepped forward, planning to block the blow. Milly’s eyes glinted, more than happy to go through me to get to him.
Completely panicked, Fletcher let out a wail. “Ethan, no!” Throwing his body into mine, he knocked me to the side.
An awful sad chord filled the air when the violin struck its target. The hollow, broken wood thumped heavily against Fletcher’s head, smacking him sideways into me.
I caught him, both of us going down, my body cushioning his fall.
The woman, still enraged, cackled maniacally and raised the wood again, staring down at both of us. Wrapping my entire body around him, I rolled, using my body as a shield, and waited for the blow… a blow that never came.
Milly landed next to me, her head smacking off the drenched pavement, and then lay there prone.
Staring around, I saw Earth standing there shaking out his fist. His upper lip curled in derision. “I always did want to coldcock that bitch.”
Sounds of sirens filled the city as the dirty, dim alleyway began to fill with flashing lights of red and blue.
Forgetting everyone around us, I worried over the man still wrapped protectively in my arms. The man who took a hit intended for me.
“Fletcher,” I said, sitting up while still cradling him in my arms.
My shirt had blood on it, a fresh red stain that spread quickly over the white fabric, the color diluted in the rain.
“Fletcher!” I said again. Despite the urgency in my entire body, I held his head gently, turning it to see the gash.
A broken sound left me, and I pulled him tighter into my chest. “We need an ambulance,” I yelled, drawing his brothers and Ivory close.
“Hang in there, puppy, okay?” I said, hunching over his body, trying to buffer the rain. “Wake up.”
His lashes remained heavy on his cheeks, cheeks that were all too white.
“My son! Let me see my son!” Henry burst through the group, dropping to his knees and reaching for the one I held.
“Don’t touch him!” I snarled, the sharp tang in the words a vicious p
romise to anyone who dared to disturb him.
Henry drew back, eyes wide. “Ethan…” He tried to reason.
I felt my blue eyes flash. “If you touch him, I will kill you.”
“Okay.” Neo interrupted, pulling Henry up by his armpits. “Take a step back.”
“But that’s—”
“Now is not the time, buddy,” Earth added, stepping alongside Neo.
Fletcher made a small noise, and I forgot about everyone else.
“Fletcher?” I worried, swiping some of the blood and rain off his cheeks. “Puppy, can you hear me?”
“Mmm.” His eyes fluttered, but the effort to lift his lashes was far too great. The absence of those honey-colored irises was truly gut-wrenching. “Ethan,” he whispered.
A sob ripped through my chest. “I’m here. I’m here. You’re going to be okay. Just rest. I love you.”
The tiniest of smiles curled his lips. “Love,” he murmured and then went silent once more.
54
Fletcher
* * *
The brush of warm lips brought awareness. The weight of them settling a little more firmly made butterflies erupt in my belly. It was those butterflies that encouraged me awake because, really, all I wanted to do was sink deeper into his kiss.
A small sound floated between us, and my eyes fluttered as he lifted his head.
“True love’s kiss,” I whispered, smiling. “I knew it existed.”
Ethan’s arm came down to gently rest above my head, caging me with his warmth and scent. Gentle fingers brushed over my forehead, and azure eyes gazed at me with relief.
“Thank God you’re okay.”
An echo of pain shot through my head and was followed by other whispers of aches, letting me know they were there.
Frowning, I tried to gaze beyond the very enticing view of Ethan’s face. “Where am I?”
His eyes darkened. “The hospital.”
Memories from the ball assaulted me.
Chasing her out into the alleyway, being jumped by men she’d hired to take me down.
“She didn’t think I’d be able to fight back,” I murmured, recalling her shock when I held my own against the three men coming at me.
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