Salvage (Savages and Saints Book 3)

by C. M. Seabrook

  “Abbott?” she asks, trying to pull the mask away.

  I hold it to her face, my anger returning, threatening my happiness.

  “He’ll be dealt with,” I promise her. “Don’t worry about that.”

  “He was shot.” There’s genuine concern in her voice.

  The boat starts moving and I glance over at one of the officers who says, “We’re taking them to Harristown General.”

  I nod, catching a glimpse of another emergency boat approaching the scene. There will be a lot of questions. A lot of cleanup. And a lot of consequences for my brother.

  But Farkas is dead.

  As much as I wanted to be the one to put a bullet in him, it’s a relief that the man finally got the end he deserved.

  “You should check on Abbott,” she says.

  “Like hell I’m leaving you. And the man is dead to me for what he did. Bringing you out here like this. I am so sorry, Lorelei. I should have pressed him more when I knew he had a connection with the man. I just never thought...”

  That my own blood would betray me.

  Lorelei shivers, nestling deeper into the nook of my arm.

  “He had his reasons.”

  “There’s not one reason in this world that justifies him putting you in harm’s way.”

  She sighs. “Farkas threatened him. Threatened you. And the people he loves.”

  I shake my head and place my hand on the back of her head, drawing her closer. I kiss her forehead. “Nothing, Lorelei. No excuse.”

  Her fingers lace with mine and we sit in silence while the boat is driven towards land.

  Kade comes from below deck. “He’s busted up his shoulder, but he should live.”

  I grunt. Relief floods through me even though I don’t want to care.

  “Called Mom and Dad. They’re going to meet us at the hospital. Nolan is going to stay with Quinn. I figured you wouldn’t want him seeing any more than he has to.”

  “Thank you.” Lorelei releases a shaky breath, and I can still feel her body trembling.

  Kade rubs the back of his neck and winces. “Abbott asked to see you.”

  “No fucking way.”

  “Damon.” Lorelei squeezes my hand.

  “I can’t believe you’re defending him.”

  “I’m not. Just trying to understand. I’ve learned there are three types of people in this world. The truly evil. And the unselfish...” She places a hand over my heart. “People who were born with an innate goodness.” Her smile falters. “But then there are the rest of us who struggle through the gray areas of life, wanting to do right but messing up more often than we get right.”

  I rest my forehead against hers, knowing she’s right. But I’m still unable to bring myself to forgive my brother right now. And there will still be consequences. I’m tired of cleaning up after his mistakes, letting him bulldoze through life like he doesn’t have any responsibilities, or like his actions don’t hurt others.

  “I’ll talk to him. Just not right now.” Because I’m still slightly unhinged, and the need to protect is overpowering my most rational thoughts. “Right now, I just need to hold you.”

  Chapter 26

  Lorelei

  “It’s really over?” I ask, lying in Damon’s arms. Nolan is fast asleep in his bedroom, and my whole world feels like it finally makes sense.

  “The fight is over. The running.” He shifts, lying beside me, leaning on his elbow and staring down at me. “But this...” He strokes my cheek. “Us. It’s only just beginning.”

  It’s overwhelming how much I love the man.

  His lips cover mine. Soft. Gentle.

  And for the first time in my life, I know I am home. No more running. No more watching over my shoulder, waiting for danger to emerge from the shadows.

  Just love.

  And expectations.

  So many expectations.

  Damon’s forehead rests against mine and he lets out a shuddering breath. His grip tightens on me, and I know he’s reliving those few seconds when he thought he lost me again.

  I place a palm on his cheek. “I’m here. Safe. Because of you.”

  He kisses me again, this time more forcefully, almost desperately, and I can feel the ache in his words when he says against my mouth, “I just need to know you’re here with me. Can’t get the fucking nightmare out of my head. If...”

  “I know.” I’d feel the same way if anything ever happened to him. And I kiss him back, needing his touch. Just as desperate for it. Hungry for the feel of him, needing it to banish the darkness of the day.

  Abbott is still in the hospital, but his wounds will heal. His soul is another matter.

  Farkas is dead, and his men gone or locked up.

  My mother will most likely never open her eyes again.

  But I’m alive.

  Nolan is safe.

  And Damon...my protector, my salvage, my heart...he’s right here.

  An overwhelming feeling of complete absorption fills me, each touch laced with a rare combination of feral hunger and tender possessiveness. It is a push and pull, to both be present in the moment and yet let the moment consume me.

  Clothes are discarded, my hands finding warm, hard flesh. My own skin is an inferno of need as his callused fingers stroke along my breast, my hips, my thighs, his teeth nipping gently at my nipple before his tongue strokes it with a hungry lick.

  He moves between my thighs, and I moan, needing him inside me, filling me, completing me.

  His cock nudges at my entrance, then slides inside me with one hungry thrust.

  Stretching, blazing pleasure. I arch towards him, crying out his name.

  His movements match my own, a thrashing of bodies, intoxicating kisses, and I know he’s marking me. Claiming me once again. I feel it every time he takes me.

  Moans rise.

  Pleasure builds.

  I’m lost in sensation.

  I hold tighter to him, my release suddenly filling me in an eruption of ecstasy.

  “God, I love you, Lor.” He groans, thrusting deep before I feel his own release suddenly filling me.

  He doesn’t move. His breaths are heavy, his forehead pressed against mine.

  “Look at me, sweetheart.”

  I open my eyes, meeting his gaze.

  “I lose myself in you,” I murmur.

  “No.” He kisses me gently. “You find yourself in me. This is always where you should have been.”

  “I wish I could take back all those years.”

  He sighs. “Things have a way of working out the way they’re meant to.”

  “You really believe that?”

  He cocks one brow and grins. “You’re here with me now, so yeah, I believe it. Because right now is all that matters. And you saying yes.”

  My heart races.

  “Yes to what?” I ask, even though I know my answer to any question he asks.

  “Yes to expectations. To our future. To years of nights like this. To...marrying me.”

  Tears burn my eyes as I blink up at him.

  I nod, not trusting my voice.

  “Need to hear you say it, sweetheart.”

  “Y-yes. I’ll marry you.”

  His lips crash against mine, and I can feel all his emotions in his kiss. How did I ever believe I could live in a world without Damon Savage? I’d only existed.

  “I love you,” I murmur.

  His cock is still inside me, and it twitches, growing hard again. I moan.

  This is the dream. The one that had been shadowed by the nightmares of my reality. The one I’d never let myself trust or want. But I give into it. Give my whole heart. Give every ounce of my soul to it now.

  Damon. Me. Nolan. Our family.

  It’s a dream worth believing in. One I’d never stop fighting for again.

  Epilogue

  Lorelei

  “You look like a million rays of sunshine,” Damon says, pressing his mouth to mine as we stand on the dock in front of our house, fi
reflies starting to light up the bushes and weeds around the lake, a soft purple haze filling the autumn evening. “I mean it, Lor. You’re glowing.”

  “How can I not be?” I glance up at my husband, and the smile that stretches across my face comes from the very deepest part of my soul.

  We made it official today. Just a small ceremony at the courthouse with Damon’s family. Even his oldest brother, Jasper, flew in for the day. The only person missing was Abbott. But then, he hasn’t shown his face around here since he was released from the hospital.

  I know Damon is worried about him, even though I can feel his anger every time I bring up his brother’s name.

  “Have you talked to Abbott today?”

  “No.” He tenses slightly. “But he left a voicemail on my phone congratulating us.”

  “You need to talk to him.”

  His fingers thread through my hair and he cups the back of my head. “The only thing I need to do today is love my wife.”

  Wife. I still can’t believe it.

  “Today was perfect.”

  It was exactly what I wanted. I refuse to say it’s all I wanted, because saying it somehow decreases the significance. I didn’t need the dress, or the church, or a big party. Today was perfect for one reason alone:

  Because of the man in front of me.

  He brings my left hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

  “I do.” Because he’s shown me every single moment we’re together.

  I doubt life will ever be normal with Damon Savage as my husband, but our lives have settled down. Nolan is in school, and Damon signed him up for hockey, which starts next week.

  Plus, Damon put an offer in on Rita’s old bakery on Third street. We’ll know soon if we got it. With Quinn’s help, I plan on opening a Patty Cakes, Cookies, and Confections in honor of Patty, a woman who was more of a mother than the one who gave birth to me. I just wish she could be here, especially today.

  Construction has started on the renovations to the house, which Damon insisted on. Not that I complained. And after what I found out a few days ago, we’re going to need the extra space about eight months from now.

  “You’re hiding something.” He narrows his eyes, a grin tugging at his lips.

  “Maybe.” I shrug.

  “Are you going to tell me?”

  It’s been hard not to blurt it out, but I wanted today to be just about us.

  “I have just added a few more expectations to my list.”

  He chuckles. “I like your expectations.”

  “I hope you’re going to like this one.” A small sliver of nervousness races through me, because it’s not something we planned.

  “Tell me.” He grins. “But if you change your mind again about the bathroom paint chips, I may have to put my foot down.”

  “Actually, it is about the renovations.”

  He groans, but there’s humor in the sound. “What does my beautiful wife want now?”

  “I was thinking we could turn the third bedroom into a nursery.”

  “A nursery?” His brows shoot up. “You want to have a baby?”

  “I hope so, because I’m going to.”

  He blinks at me. “You’re pregnant?”

  “Yeah.”

  There’s a second when I can’t read his expression, but then his mouth crashes down on mine in a consuming kiss that leaves me breathless.

  “You’re happy?” I ask when he finally pulls back.

  “We’re going to have a baby. Damn right, I’m happy.”

  “I love you.” The words are easy now, but they haven’t lost even an ounce of meaning. I love him. How can I not?

  He kisses me again, and my soul soars. And I’m glad Damon had Quinn and Zee take Nolan for the weekend, because I have plans to show my husband just how much I love him.

  I blink back tears. “I have one more expectation.”

  “Anything.”

  “Love me forever.”

  “Sweetheart, that’s one expectation I have no control over. My love has always been yours.”

  Love doesn’t hurt.

  Expectations do.

  But they’re worth the risk.

  Expect happiness.

  Expect good things.

  But most importantly,

  Always expect love.

  And if it doesn’t come easy,

  Fight like hell until it’s yours!

  – C.M. Seabrook, Salvage

  About the Author

  Amazon bestselling author C.M. Seabrook writes hot, steamy romances with possessive bad boys, and the passionate, fiery women who love them.

  Swoonworthy romances from the heart!

  For more information:

  www.cmseabrook.com

  chantelseabrook@gmail.com

  Also by C.M. Seabrook

  Men with Wood Series

  Second Draft

  Second Shot

  Fighting Blind Series

  Theo

  Moody

  Wild Irish Series

  Wild Irish

  Tempting Irish

  Taming Irish

  Complete Series Box Set

  Savages and Saints Series

  Torment

  Gravity

  Salvage

  Standalone

  Melting Steel

  Preview of Torment

  Six years he’s been gone, and then he falls straight into my bed. Literally. And I know my torment is only beginning.

  I waited my whole life for Zee St. James to open his eyes and see me. But Port Clover’s official bad boy would never view me as anything more than his best friend’s little sister.

  He shattered my heart into thousands of pieces when he left. And I spent years trying to forget him. Trying to banish the memory of that one kiss.

  I thought I’d moved on. But when he comes crashing back into my life, or rather my apartment — the one he still owns — I'm defenseless against him.

  Just when I think I might finally get my happily ever after, a web of secrets and betrayal threaten to unravel the hope I finally found in his arms.

  And I’m faced with the soul—baring question: Is loving Zee worth the torment he inflicts?

  Prologue

  Quinn

  Eighteen Years Old

  A rumble of thunder in the distance has more than a dozen black umbrellas opening, and stoic faces glancing up at the sky. Darker clouds roll towards us as a storm approaches off Lake Erie.

  The weather is as volatile as the emotions that twist Zee St. James’ handsome face into a scowl. I watch the tick in his jaw as the Minister continues his unmerited praise of the man’s father. Zee’s lips, which are usually full and soft, a sharp contrast to the hard edges of his other features, thin, as his nostrils flare. All I want to do is wrap my arms around him.

  I’ve never seen anyone look so utterly alone.

  Green eyes with flecks of gold, a color I know from memory, are currently hidden by a pair of aviator sunglasses. Through the tinted lenses, I know when his gaze lands on me.

  As I hold that gaze, my skin burns hot, even when icy pellets of rain begin to fall.

  Zee swallows hard, then looks away. I want to beg him to look back again, desperate for even a morsel of attention, a hint of acknowledgement.

  God, you’re pathetic, Quinn.

  The St. James brothers have been part of my life since I was in diapers. They’re family, which should mean that I shouldn’t have the world’s biggest crush on the older of the two.

  But I do.

  Because who the hell wouldn’t?

  Zee St. James is gorgeous.

  In the dark suit that’s fitted perfectly for his six-foot-four frame, he looks every day of twenty-four-years, reminding me of the six years that separate us.

  He’s a man.

  Beautiful and damaged.

  And completely off limits.

  Scruff, a darker shade of brown than his hair, coats
his jaw. I follow the movement of his hand as he rubs his palm over it.

  A small sigh escapes my lips. A sound that must be louder than I thought, because my brother Abbott bumps me with his elbow and gives me a funny look, one that looks a little too much like, It’s a funeral, Quinn. Not the best place to fantasize over a man who you’ll never have.

  My cheeks warm, hating that anyone, especially my annoying brother, might know my feelings.

  More wind lashes around me, and I shiver, trying to keep my damn skirt from flipping up and my long hair from whipping around like Medusa’s snakes. Beside Abbott, my mom, whose hair and pressed black dress seem crazy glued in place, gives me a pointed look. And I can hear the lecture I know she’s dying to give me. One that would start with, “I told you not to wear that skirt...”

  But my wardrobe malfunction is the least of my concerns. Not when Zee is hurting the way he is. I wish I could go back to a time when he’d talk to me, rather than the sullen broodiness I get from him now.

  I don’t know what changed, other than me getting boobs. But from the rumors I’ve heard about him, he’s seen his fair share. Enough not to be intimidated by mine.

  Zee crouches, broad shoulders slumped forward as he reaches down and grabs a fistful of dirt, hesitating briefly before tossing it on top of the casket.

  Emotions storm inside of me as I watch him, feeling the torment that lashes through the man. Damaged in ways I can’t fathom. His edges cut sharper than any blade. Angry at the world and everyone around him.

  And yet I love him.

  Given a chance, I’d take every shattered part of the man and make it my life mission to repair him. Do anything to finally feel his strong, calloused hands on my body, to taste his lips, and give him every part of my body, heart and soul.