Her men hadn’t said the words yet. But she knew they loved her. She loved them, too. The rest didn’t matter.
“Colleen.”
Rob’s voice drew her attention. Dr. Becker approached. He nodded. “Colleen, if you’d like to come back to my office, I can give you an update.”
She looked at the four men with her and then nodded. “Tom, we’re all family. If you don’t mind a small crowd?”
“Not at all.” He led the way past the reception desk to a corridor with many doors. Some were treatment rooms, and some were conference rooms. Colleen was as familiar with this area as she was her OR. She often met her patients for the first time right here in the emergency department.
Tom waited until they were all in the small conference room and closed the door. “First of all, she’s awake, a little groggy, but I think that’s the result of whatever sedative is in her system. She knew her name, and where she was, and asked for you—as well as Damion and Chance.” He looked at them. “I take it that’s you two?”
They both nodded. Colleen thought they looked relieved at the news.
“There are no broken bones,” Tom continued. “She has bruises to her face and has a slight concussion. Mercy also suffered several lacerations. The deepest ones we stitched, the others we’ve just treated with antibiotics and butterfly strips.” Tom looked at her, and she had the sense he was bracing himself.
“I guess this kind of report is harder to give when you know the person you’re speaking to. It’s all right, Tom. Just say it.”
“Mercy has been raped, vaginally and anally. Brutally and repeatedly.” He looked down for a moment but not before she saw his anger. “We’ve processed the rape kit and taken the photographs. I hated doing it, but…”
“You did what you had to do, Doctor. I can tell you the bastard who took her, who hurt her, is dead.” Damion’s tone was flat, but the anger was there. “He was shot by police when they arrived on scene to rescue her.”
“I’m not supposed to feel relieved when a human being dies. I’m a doctor, and I have taken an oath to treat everyone who comes to me. But I’m also a man.” He seemed to get hold of his emotions. He inhaled and then looked at Damion “Knowing her attacker is dead will certainly help Mercy overcome her ordeal. We’ll be admitting her for a few days, mostly for observation. We’ll revisit that decision after we get back all the toxicology screens. The HIV test came back negative, and that was the one I was most worried about.”
“Me, too,” Colleen said.
“I’d also like to recommend that Mercy receive counseling.”
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” Colleen said. “But she is a grown woman and will make her own decisions.” Colleen managed a small smile. “My sister can be a bit strong-willed and obstinate.”
“What we call a brat,” Chance said.
“Oh, definitely.” Colleen wasn’t one hundred percent sure what a “brat” was in the lifestyle these four men lived, but judging by the smiles they wore, it wasn’t anything bad.
“Is there anything else we should know?” She asked him.
“Sometimes the worst damage a person can suffer during this kind of ordeal isn’t anything you can easily see. But I have a feeling she’s going to get a lot of support.”
“I think between the five of us—and Ellie, of course—we have that covered.”
“I think you do, too. Reception will tell you what room she’s in.”
Colleen got to her feet. She extended her hand. “Thank you, Tom. I’m grateful. We all are.”
Each of the men shook his hand and then they followed Colleen back to reception—and then up to Mercy’s room.
Chapter Eighteen
“You don’t have to talk about it. I’m just so glad you’re here, and alive.” Colleen held on to her sister’s left hand with her left while her right held a fistful of tissues.
When they’d reached Mercy’s room, the men unanimously insisted that Colleen go in on her own, first. She knew how badly Damion and Chance wanted to be with Mercy. She understood, at least a little, how a Dom would feel in these circumstances. She simply couldn’t imagine how Daniel or Rob would react in their shoes. They’d be desperate.
So she’d thanked them and asked them to give her just a few minutes.
“I should have told you what I suspected. You would have stopped me. I should have told you where I was going. But I thought I could do this, no problem. I thought I was so smart, so clever, so capable. What was I thinking? I was breaking the law. I never should have done it.”
Colleen wanted to reassure Mercy that she was all of those things and would have supported her if she had known. She sensed something beneath Mercy’s lament. Not just sorrow at the consequences, but a presumed response from her.
“I owe you an apology. I think there was a part of me that thought your being a reporter wasn’t a worthy career.”
Mercy’s eyes widened. “I did feel you believed that. I mean look at you. You’re a surgeon. You save lives!”
“And so do those who bring to light crooked practices, those who call those in power to account. If that medication is dangerous, and you expose that, why, how many lives will you have saved? Potentially, far more than I will ever save in my entire career.”
“There’s no proof.”
Colleen shook her head. She’d made too many mistakes where Mercy was concerned. “There’s no proof yet. I believe in you.”
“Thank you, Colleen.” Mercy fell silent for a moment. Then she sighed. “I guess I should explain about those two big hulking men who I figure are waiting out in the hallway to see me.”
Colleen met her sister’s gaze, grateful to have something that put them on equal footing. “You mean those two Doms of yours?” She’d surprised Mercy for a second time. “They’re not alone out there. There are actually four big hulking men out in that hallway waiting to see you. I’ve met yours—the least I can do is introduce you to mine.” Then she grinned. “But you already have met them.”
“I was only gone about a week, right?”
“It felt like forever.”
“It did feel like forever.” Her face clouded, and Colleen could have kicked herself for putting that look on her sister’s face.
“Honey, I already consider Damion and Chance as brothers because they never quit working until they found you. But that’s your business, your relationship, and I’m on your side, whatever you decide to do. I love you, Mercy. We’re family.”
“I love you, too. And I guess I can see how you might be more like me than I knew.”
A knock on the door announced the end of sister time, and that was fine. Mercy probably needed her guys more than she needed her sister right now.
Without understanding the relationship dynamic involved, she might have preferred Mercy be left alone, with no Doms—no men—hovering in the background.
Colleen knew she had a long way to go and hopefully, in time, would be fully versed in this dynamic herself. But she knew enough to understand that Damion and Chance would move heaven and earth to see that her sister recovered, emotionally and mentally.
Hands on her shoulders and a gentle squeeze told her Daniel stood directly behind her. A gentle stroke down her arm announced Rob at her side. She released her sister’s hand, acknowledging it was someone else’s to hold now.
Colleen sat still and kept quiet because Damion walked around to the other side of the bed with Chance on his heels. Mercy’s gaze and attention was fixed only on them, and tears flooded her eyes. She cried in earnest when Damion bent and wrapped his arms around her.
He was so gentle and careful of her IV. The power of his emotions brought tears to Colleen’s eyes. Then Damion moved so Chance could greet her, as well.
Damion sat on the edge of the bed and took Mercy’s hand in his. “Brat. When you’re recovered, you are so getting spanked.”
Colleen’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth but said nothing because two things happened simultaneously. Daniel squeezed
her shoulders—and Mercy laughed.
It was a weak laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.
“We were scared to death, Mercy.” Damion swallowed hard. “When we found you…the glazed look in your eyes…”
“Scared the crap out of us.”
“I went away. I couldn’t…what he was doing to me…I began to think of you, and then I just…escaped.” Her tears flowed, but no sound of crying emerged. “I couldn’t hear your voice in my head anymore, Damion, so I went looking for you.”
Colleen’s heart broke for this small insight into only some of what Mercy had endured. She handed the box of tissues to Chance and sat quietly for another moment.
“It’s over.” Chance said. “We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere.”
“Damn straight.”
“We’re going to give the three of you some privacy.” It was, in some ways, the hardest decision Colleen had ever made. But in the last couple of minutes, she’d come to understand something.
Yes, she’d raised Mercy, and she loved her deeply and would do anything for her. But these men were what her sister needed the most right now.
Mercy turned to her and seemed to notice, for the first time, that she wasn’t alone. Damion re-introduced Daniel and Rob. Mercy recognized them, of course, from her one and only visit to the Lyon’s Den. He explained how Colleen had hired them since they were private investigators and they, in turn, had called Chance and him.
Colleen kissed Mercy and then hugged both Damion and Chance. She turned to face her men and nearly stumbled at the look of love and pride they wore.
She promised Mercy she’d visit her the next day. And then she turned herself toward the two men who’d come to mean so much to her in so short a time.
Daniel took her right hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. Rob repeated the gesture with her left. Then, as she really wanted them to do, they took her home.
* * * *
“Are you all right, love?” Daniel waited until they’d returned to their house and were settled in the living room, glasses of brandy in hand. Rob had lit the fire because they’d both noticed Colleen shivering. He knew Rob felt as he did. There was nothing more they wanted than to sink balls deep into her after sending her on a little visit to subspace. But first, they needed to talk.
“I’m getting there. I’m glad we came back here to your house. And thank you for lighting the fire.”
It wasn’t withdrawal, exactly, but it was close. Daniel looked over at Rob. His brother’s pointed stare kicked him in his conscience.
It was time for him to open up. How could he always expect Colleen to share how she felt if he didn’t do the same? The very essence of the relationship they were building depended on solid, honest, three-way communication.
The emotions raging through him were painful, a reawakening of sorts. He stood at the very edge of fully returning to the land of the living. It was time to put some ghosts to rest. Colleen deserved to know his soul.
“I want to tell you a story.” He turned to meet Colleen’s gaze.
“All right.”
It took him a few moments to begin. “My last tour of Afghanistan was difficult.” Damnit, man up. “There were things I saw there that no human being should ever see. War can scar more than the human body.”
Colleen didn’t speak, but she leaned her head on his shoulder. How had she known it would be easier for him if he didn’t feel her gaze on him?
“While I was there, I met a woman. Her name was Fereshtah.” Daniel sighed. “Her name translates to Angel, and she was that. Her family supported our side, giving aid in different ways. Her brother, who spoke English, helped us as a translator. Fereshtah would bring water and bread that her mother baked. She, too, spoke English. We never made love, but I imagined myself in love with her.” If he’d deigned to tell this story even two weeks ago, he’d have asserted that he was in love with her. But now, with the distance of space and time, he understood he’d wanted to be in love with Fereshtah. She’d been everything that the life he’d been in at that time was not. “We discussed the future—I wanted her to come here, with me. I had it in my head she’d take to the lifestyle because she’d been raised in a patriarchal society. Of course, she told me I would have to speak to her father, but if he gave permission, she would marry me.”
What had he really been thinking? He couldn’t say now. Now, he mourned the loss of someone innocent, a young woman who’d died too soon.
“I received word Fereshtah was missing. We didn’t have to wait long. I found her body while on patrol two days later. I took her to her brother.” He swallowed hard. “And then I went to the encampment of the rebels, the ones who’d murdered such an innocent soul, and I killed every last one of them.”
Daniel closed his eyes. He’d never been one to share, but once the words had begun, he couldn’t stop the flow.
He felt a pressure on his shoulder and opened his eyes. His friend—his brother—met his gaze as he gripped him. Daniel saw his own pain reflected there. Rob’s hand on his shoulder meant more to him than a thousand flowery words.
Colleen wrapped herself around him, and he felt her tears through his shirt.
“I’d convinced myself that it was my fault. I was never going to let myself fall in love, never going to risk that kind of loss, ever again. I left the army, I came home, I started a new life…but I brought my past with me. I let it have too large a piece of me.”
“It wasn’t your fault. The blame lies at the feet of the murderers. And no, you are not one of them.” Colleen lifted her head and looked at him. “You’re thinking there’s no difference? I can see you are. The difference, my love, is simple. It was war, and war has different rules. Those men had preyed on the innocent and broken those rules. In return, you didn’t seek to kill their families or their friends—the kind of actions they’d taken. You went after the men who were the combatants.”
A simple truth, and one he’d known. But until Colleen’s words lay upon him, a truth he’d been unable to feel.
“Thank you for not turning away from me.” Daniel picked up her hand and kissed it. “Thank you for your compassion and your understanding. But mostly, thank you for your love. Because of your love—your trust, your surrender—I understand now what that elusive emotion, love, really is. It’s…everything. I love you, Colleen Duncan, with all that I am.”
Her beautiful eyes teared, and he knew he’d surprised her. Rob took his cue, picked up Colleen’s left hand, and kissed it.
She turned toward him, her head tilted. Waiting.
“I love you, Colleen. I think I have from the moment I set eyes on you.”
“I love you both so much. I never knew what love could be, either. I never even knew myself until you came into my life. I’m…I’m centered now, when I never was before. I thought I was happy, but it was a one-dimensional happiness. Thank you for recognizing me and accepting me.”
“Colleen? Will you marry us?” Daniel asked.
“I…I want to. How can I marry you both?”
“Daniel will be your legal husband and, as far as I’m concerned, the head of our family.” Rob looked at Daniel. In that moment Daniel felt as if Brian was looking on and smiling. “And we’ll have a collaring ceremony, where we’ll collar you together. Two Doms, one sub.”
“Rob will be your husband every bit as much as I will be. We’ll both consider you our wife.” Daniel reached forward and lifted her chin. “This will be forever, love. No going back, not for any of us.”
“Forever,” Rob echoed.
Colleen looked from Rob to him. Her smile started slow but was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“Yes, please. I want very much to marry you both.”
“Thank you.” He kissed her and then released her to Rob. When Rob lifted his lips, Colleen turned her attention back to him.
“What is it, pet? You can ask us for anything.”
“Thank y
ou, Sir. I need you. I need you both. As my Sirs and as my lovers. I…I want to have you in me at the same time. I need that.” She closed her eyes, and Daniel had the sense she was bracing herself. “Sir? I’m too stressed. I want to cry. I need to cry, but I can’t. I need my Doms to help me.”
Daniel had known it, of course. He and Rob had both seen the need in her. How miraculous that already she recognized that in herself and turned to them—as any submissive should. “Yes, pet, you need that. And as your Doms it is our privilege, and our pleasure, to give you everything you need.”
Chapter Nineteen
Had it only been just a handful of days? So much had happened in so short a time it was almost impossible to wrap her head around it all.
Never a woman to deny reality, Colleen took a moment to think about the major change in her life. Looking back, she saw how the trauma of her sister’s kidnapping had been the proverbial straw that had broken the camel’s back. While she’d managed, all the years after her parents died, to be the alpha of her small pack, it had never been a comfortable fit. Likely, it was the shock of Mercy’s kidnapping, at a point in her life when she was finally getting used to only having responsibility for her own life, that had become that straw. She’d gone to the Lyon’s Den in desperation, the only move she could see to try and find her sister. And there she’d found her destiny.
I need this more than I’ve ever needed anything in my entire life. Colleen removed her clothes, folded them, and then slipped to her knees. She lowered her head, laid her hands on her thighs, and took a deep, cleansing breath. This was better than any meditation she’d ever tried. This calmed her and excited her at the same.
She heard them enter, and in response, her nipples hardened into tiny buds and her pussy became moist.
“That’s lovely, little subbie. Thank you.” Rob and Daniel both laid their hands on her head. She felt the connection and knew, no matter what happened from here on out, they were there to take care of her.
Daniel offered her his hand. She looked up and met his gaze, placing her own hand in his. His smile rewarded her with a sense of rightness.
Collaring Colleen [Tales from the Lyon's Den 2] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) Page 16