SweetHarts (5 Book Box Set)

by Kira Graham

  “At least they’re all asleep, for fuck’s sake. I’ve never met anyone more willing to go off half-cocked and loaded for bear than the Sweets,” Paris rasps, his eyes closing as he leans against the wall beside me.

  My stomach growls, demanding food, but I ignore it and just keep watching silently as people buzz around us.

  “They’re all just struggling, bro. This came out of left field. I can’t figure it out. Of all the Sweets to grab, why Tee? Mindy and Tee couldn’t stand each other on a good day, and the few times that I saw Tee dig deep and be nice were only for Sin. I’d have thought that she’d come after either Cleo or Sin,” I point out softly, sighing when he thumps his head back and groans.

  “That’s what Sinny said. She’s torn up, man. I don’t think we’ll survive it if we don’t get Tee and our babies back,” he says hoarsely, the pain in his voice causing a lump to wriggle up my throat.

  At least I’m not panicking anymore. I think that around hour four, I realized that I just didn’t have it in me to keep it going. Now I’m still, watchful and waiting as I pray for Luiz to get me some answers. Anything. All I need is one place to start looking, for fuck’s sake!

  Hours pass, and neither of us moves, but eventually, Ma becomes so insistent that Paris and I each manage to choke down a sandwich and drink some coffee. I’m flagging and almost ready to fall asleep when I hear a yell and turn to see Adonis stumbling down the stairs, his face covered in blood as he falls to his knees, collapsing forward.

  “They’re gone.”

  “What? What the hell happened to you?” I roar, jumping forward to catch him when he sways on his knees and almost falls face-first onto the marble beneath him.

  “Cleo, Alex, Rosetta…they’re gone! I got up to go take a piss, and when I turned around, there was someone there. He coldcocked me so hard that I must have blacked out. When I woke up…she wasn’t there. None of them are. Only Sin isn’t gone,” he yells, shaking so hard that he gags and brings up bile.

  “They’re gone!”

  Tee

  “This girl is on fih-eeeer! This girl is on fih-eeeeeer-herherherah.”

  I keep humming and singing, and by the time I’ve worked through my list of “Bad Breakup, Psycho Ex” songs, I’m calm enough to lift myself off the floor and waddle to the bed in the corner.

  My damn back is killing me, and I think that that greasy chicken isn’t sitting well, either, because I could puke. Seriously.

  After about an hour of screaming and hitting the glass over the door, I finally gave up, because sometimes, you just have to accept defeat. Now I’m alone, hanging on to my sanity by my fingernails, and so ready to lose it that I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that this room is soundproof. Screaming won’t accomplish a damn thing except make me pass out again.

  I’ve finally decided on the song that I’m going to be playing in my head when I wrap my hands around Mindy’s neck and squeeze until she turns a nice shade of dead. Ava Max, “Sweet but Psycho.” Seems as perfect as they come, I would say, and if I weren’t currently as helpless as a newborn baby, I’d find it funny.

  Fact one. I’m not going to get through to that evil biatch.

  Fact two. She’s going after my family, and I can’t do a damn thing about it.

  Fact three. I think I may have done a little more than not wipe when I peed at the church, because I reek of piss.

  Fact four. I need to go potty, but I can’t, because I can’t drop a number two anywhere but my own home.

  Fact four. This makes me fart.

  Keeping my mind busy, I try not to think too deeply about fact two because, as my bleeding right hand has discovered, I am not Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, or Jason Statham. Miraculous escapes and karate are not in my skillset.

  The sudden sound of a door has me sitting up quickly, and I gasp when the move makes my hip go off like a bomb, my cry cut short when I rise from the bed and waddle over to the glass.

  “I said fuck off, sphincter breath!”

  That is Rosetta’s voice, and the scream that I hear before she curses and whimpers proves it, because I’d bet anything that she’s just hit, kicked, or bitten someone. Next comes a screech that lasts so long and is so high that I instantly know it to be Cleo’s. And then I hear bargaining and outright dramatic acting, which I know is coming from Alex.

  I can’t see anything, not with the steel door shut on the other side of the glass, but in a minute, I hear more cursing followed by a clang, and then I watch with wide eyes as the steel door yawns open and the glass partition starts to rise.

  “Oh, my God!”

  I almost get bowled over when all three of them rush at me, and I don’t care how this makes me sound, but my God, am I glad they’re here. Rosetta practically crushes me, her belly bumping into mine before she adjusts herself sideways so that we’re able to hug. Cleo, ever the crier, falls on me like a dog on a bone, and Alex just hugs me with a sigh and this prosaic look that I return.

  “Well, this is a fine pickle,” she mumbles, her hand digging into her back as she leans back to take the weight off her middle. “What the hell are we gonna do now?”

  “What do you mean, what are we gonna do? We’re gonna get out of here!” Rosetta barks, her eyes going liquid when Cleo bursts into tears and drops her face into her hands.

  “They hurt Addy! I should have done more than kick that man in his balls.”

  “Oh, honey, Adonis is fine. His head is so hard and thick that nothing could damage it,” I say soothingly, giggling when she snorts and titters, her hands dropping to her waistband, where her stomach is protruding like a balloon.

  God, how she thinks that Honey doesn’t know what that is under her shirt is beyond me.

  “You scared the hell out of me when I went looking for you! What part of ‘stay with the priest’ did you not understand, Tee?” she yells, slapping at my arm until I yelp and slap her back.

  “Stop it. I needed to pee, Cleo. Excuse me for having four babies hopping around on my bladder twenty-four seven. Stop hitting me, you animal,” I scream, lunging forward until Rosetta gets between us and shoves us back, her huge belly taking up all the space between us.

  “Cut it out, you freaks. Now isn’t the time to turn on each other. We have bigger turds to fry, or have you forgotten that Madame Shit-for-Brains has much bigger plans for us?”

  Cleo shivers and calms down immediately, her lip trembling.

  “It’s so gross that she’s done all this just because she thinks that I’m hot and everything. Addy is going to shit a brick. You know how he feels about people wanting me, guys,” she whines, causing me to roll my eyes because we all know that she’s just bragging now.

  “Stop rubbing it in. I don’t think that it’s cool that Mindy is some closet lesbo who’s struggling with her internal crazy and her religious beliefs. It’s freaking weird and dangerous—”

  “I’m just saying, ya know, that I’m mortified that she’s gone all cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs just because of li’l ol’ me. Who’d have thought that her straight-laced ass was panting after some Cleo this whole time?”

  “Cleo! Shut your pie hole, you idiot. This isn’t funny,” Rosetta screams, grabbing her belly with a wheeze as she bends over. “Oh, shit. Oh, God.”

  “What? What the hell?” I gasp, my eyes going wide when something splats down onto the carpet.

  Four pairs of eyes look downward, and then I’m choking on my own horror as I see mucousy liquid pouring down in a soft stream and splashing up against her ankles.

  Oh God, I think that the chicken’s going to come back up and cluck again.

  “Oh, no! Oh, no,” Cleo whines, jumping towards the glass to bang on it. “Hey! Let us out. Her cork popped!”

  At that, I practically tackle her and slap a hand over her mouth, praying to God that Mindy and her minions didn’t hear that part, because…oh, shit. Oh, shit.

  “Shut up, Cleo. She wants us all to go into labor, you idiot,” I hiss in her ear, dragging her
towards the couch as Alex, pale and shaking, helps Rosetta to the bed.

  “Why?” Alex yells, her own eyes going wide when I shake my head and twirl my finger beside my temple.

  “She’s got some stupid idea that she’s going to kill all of us and raise the babies herself. That chick is off her rocker, and so out of it that all she keeps mumbling about now is finally being a Sweet. I swear to God, Rosetta, I don’t know how we didn’t see this sooner,” I huff, my nerves thrumming as she pants and then slowly releases a breath.

  “I think that we were hoping that she wasn’t as insane as all that,” Cleo mumbles, her wide eyes on Rose as she leans back against the headboard and seems to relax.

  I don’t know a lot about labor. I started reading about all that stuff, but it scared my poor pussycat so much that I ended up setting the book on fire.

  “Yeah, well, it’s worse than that. I don’t think that she’s insane. I think that she’s totally sane—or as sane as she can be, considering what she’s been doing lately. I hate to say this, guys, but I think…I think that she wants to be Cleo,” I whisper, giving Cleo a hard look when she starts to preen.

  “That sounds like she’s crazy to me,” Rosetta mutters, reaching under her dress and bringing her hand back up with a victorious whoop that startles me speechless.

  Especially when she produces a phone, a small gun that the state says that she isn’t allowed to own, and a smile that says…Rosetta is no one’s fool.

  “You have a gun!” Alex yells, hissing when I slap her boob and hiss at her to shut up.

  “Well, of course I do. I’m married to an ex-military badass who loves me more than life itself. If you think that Zeus Hart is going to let his wife walk around without protection, then you’re out of your mind. Now, shut up while I call my boo. I am not having this baby in this dump, and I am most certainly not letting you yahoos deliver it,” she mutters, her brow scrunching up when she turns the phone on and curses. “Dammit. There’s no signal here. Take it and walk around, Al,” she orders, gritting her teeth as she forces herself up and over to Cleo. “Where’s that necklace I gave you? You’d better be wearing it, ho.”

  I frown, as does Cleo, who reaches up to remove a diamond-studded chain with a pendant so big that I’ll bet Adonis almost had a fit trying to top it. When she hands it to Rosetta, I see her flick at the back until it rolls open, and something falls into her palm.

  “What is that?” I ask, leaning as close as my belly will let me.

  “It’s a tracking chip. I’m hoping that the thing will work underground even if the phone can’t catch a signal. How’s it coming, Alex?” she barks, looking back over her shoulder at Alex, who has the phone held up as she stalks around the room.

  “I don’t…not…gotcha!” she yells, jumping up and down until she groans and bends over sharply. “Shit! Oh, owie. I keep forgetting that I’m not supposed to do that,” she huffs, breathing roughly before she rises and squints at the phone. “There’s a signal. What do we do now? Do I call the cops?”

  “No. Just leave the phone there. My hubs will be watching for it if he knows we’re gone.”

  Alex snorts, and I see her blush a little.

  “They know we’re gone. My Chilli was ready to give me some TLC just before they took us. He went down to the kitchen to get some whipped cream—”

  “Gross. Don’t tell me that you do food sex,” I groan, my gag reflex working overtime when she shrugs.

  “I’m pregnant, lady. The only two things that make me happy at the moment are food and sex. Give them both to me at the same time, and I’m done for. My Chilli pepper knows how to play his cards right. I’ll bet he shit a brick when he walked in there and saw that I was gone.”

  “I thought you got sedated!”

  “Oh, puh-lease. Do I look like I was born yesterday? I told Chilli that if he drugged me, I was gonna let my water break on his dick while he was boning me. He just told everyone that I was loopy in order to save himself from future trauma. Unlike you idiots, I know when Rosetta’s got a bug up her ass. How deep did you sink your teeth into Beau’s clit?” she asks, causing me to sputter and exchange a look with Cleo.

  “Deep enough to persuade her that drugging me was not in her best interests,” Rosetta snorts.

  “Wait. I’m a little lost…”

  “Honey, if you think that I was just going to get hysterical and not think about what Mindy is up to, then you’ve got another think coming. Another good advantage that I have is my Brent, who works with me, not for the Harts or their security. His little nurse girlfriend helped him get into the hospital’s records, and I got to read a whole lot of interesting stuff in those files that Mindy’s shrink had had sealed. It seems that little Minds has been planning something like this for a long time.”

  “Kidnapping three pregnant chicks?” Cleo asks blankly, around a mouthful of donut.

  “No, you boob. Kidnapping us. All of us. See, the poor thing doesn’t know which way is up when it comes to us, and from the crazy-ass stuff that I read in her session notes, it’s obvious that she harbors a large amount of resentment and hero worship towards us all. Using my intelligence, I drew a logical conclusion based on all the data, and so of course I suspected that she’d try something like this.”

  “For me! She has worship for me,” Cleo snorts, her lip dropping when Rosetta slaps her a good one.

  “For all of us, you freak. She wants to be fearless like Tee, quirky like Alex, smart like me, and cool like Sin.”

  “Hey, what about me?”

  “Cleo, would you just shut up? This isn’t some popularity contest, you loser. This woman isn’t playing,” I hiss, a groan leaving me when one of the babies rolls and kicks up against my hip. “Are you sure that Zeus is going to come?” I ask, my eyes meeting Rosetta’s with a sigh when she nods.

  “He’ll be here. And if what I overheard from Ares is right, so will the Cortez cartel,” she says with a smile, giggling when my eyes go wide.

  “He called them?” I ask, hardly believing it.

  Ares doesn’t like them, and I’ve had to sit through my fair share of lectures about hanging out with criminals over the past year or so, so knowing that he’d go there, for me…

  “But until then, we need to at least try to get out. I read some of those notes that the shrink made during their sessions, and trust me, babe, that woman is not stupid. I don’t know if she’s nuts, evil, or both, but I want to get the hell out of here before she does something desperate.”

  “How? We’re locked in,” I point out, my hand going to the glass.

  Beyond it is the steel door, and beyond that, a few feet back, is another door.

  “Oh, Tee, Tee, Tee. You seriously underestimate how light Alex is with those fingers of hers. Al?” she calls, smirking when Alex waddles up and proudly produces a key.

  “One time, I put a pickle in Chilli’s pocket, and he didn’t even know until he went into a meeting, and someone asked if he was happy to see them,” she crows, her grin contagious.

  “Holy shit!”

  “Holy something. Now, all we gotta do is figure out how to get through that glass. Bulletproof glass. Any ideas?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Tee

  Sometimes, things don’t always work out the way you planned them to, and this time, I have to say that instead of being disappointed about things falling apart, I’m actually disappointed about things not falling apart and giving us a chance to get to Mindy.

  But to back up a little, we’re all still sitting there, stumped and out of options about how to get through the glass, when we hear a big commotion upstairs, several bursts of gunfire, and then the pounding of heavy feet.

  Rosetta, now fully in labor and screaming and cussing, starts to cry when Zeus appears in the doorway, types in something on a keypad, and rushes over to her before the glass panel has fully opened. The same thing happens with Cleo, who practically throws herself at Adonis and starts to cry, promising him everything under the s
un, from a wedding that she will go to this time, to a hundred babies—and also, to my horror, sex in places on her body where I don’t think that things should go.

  With Alex, I’m sickened to my stomach because Chilli practically humps her when he reaches her, and she doesn’t seem traumatized enough to resist him when he hoists her up and carries her out, kissing her and touching places on her body that make me vomit in my mouth. Literally.

  Of course, Sin and Paris burst in and almost fall on my stomach—not that I blame them or anything. These are their kids. But when I look around, expecting to see Ares there, I almost sob when he isn’t.

  “Oh, my God. I’ve never been so happy to see your face in my life!” Sin screams, kissing me all over while I sob, chuckle, and try not to take things too personally.

  I mean, what am I, a freaking disposable womb?

  And where the hell is Ares, dammit?

  I should just play this cool.

  “Gee, thanks,” I mutter through a clogged throat, my eyes turning away from the door because…dammit, where the fuck is that asshole? “Ares! I swear to God, if you don’t get your ass down here and do the obligatory romantic declaration of love, I will kill you!” I scream.

  Okay. So I’m not all that cool, and now I understand why Mindy called Sin the cool one. It seems that I’m not one hundred percent unaffected by my guy, and Jesus, when he comes through the door, with his shirt covered in blood and his eyes wild, I don’t want to be.

  “What the—”

  He snatches me up, practically holding all of my weight, and before I can cuss him out for ruining what should have been a slow-motion, “love of loves” moment, complete with a cheesy soundtrack playing in the background, he kisses me. Deeply. Savagely, and with so much heat that I stop whore-izing Alex in my head and kiss him back.

  Ares is shaking like a leaf but rock-solid when I feel him start to walk out of the room and up a flight of stairs. He doesn’t stop kissing me, not even when I moan and try to pull back for air, and by the time that I manage to shove myself away a little, we’re outside in the moonlight, with literally an army around us.