Until Nico

by Aurora Rose Reynolds

  I have been moving on autopilot since she was taken, just doing what was necessary to get her home. I know the minute I open the door that I’m going to kill whoever is in that room with her.

  Kenton nods to the room he just checked, motioning with his left hand to show me that he’s about to set off a distraction. It takes two seconds for the flash bang to go off. The door to the room I’m covering flies open, and one guy comes out. I shoot him in the head without a second thought. The second guy we heard inside points a gun at Sophie.

  “Drop the fucking gun,” I tell him, my gun aimed at his head, ready for the smallest opening.

  “You killed my brother,” he says, looking down at the man at my feet.

  I hear Sophie whimper and look at her for the first time. Her eyes are full of tears, she has a gag in her mouth, her face is pale, and she is tied to a chair. All I can think about is getting her out of here to somewhere safe.

  “I should fucking kill her. You killed my brother!” he yells, and I watch his finger tighten on the trigger.

  “Drop the fucking gun, David,” Kenton says this time from behind me.

  “Fuck you! I’m not David. I’m Dustin.” He looks at Sophie. “I fucking told him you weren’t worth it. You didn’t even know, did you? He’s my twin. We like to pretend to be the same person. It’s a fun game, and no one ever figured it out until it was too late.”

  “Eyes on me, fucker,” I growl, his eyes coming back to me. “You’re dead. There is nothing you could say or do to get out of this.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This is all your fault.” He points the gun at me. “You and your brother Cash’s fault. I thought I had chance at something real with Lilly, and then he came along and took her from me—just like you took Sophie from David.”

  “Fuck me,” I breathe.

  “You’re crazy,” Kenton says calmly.

  Before I have a chance to blink, there’s a loud explosion in the hall, and Dustin moves his gun towards us. I take my opening and shoot once, hitting him between the eyes. Blood goes everywhere, including on Sophie, who starts to scream against the gag in her mouth.

  I go to her side, carefully pulling the gag out before untying her hands and feet, wrapping her in my arms. She starts sobbing, her fingers digging into me, her face going into my neck. I pull her away, wanting to check her over.

  “I got you, baby. You’re safe,” I tell her, cupping her face. I check her over and see nothing until I reach her stomach, where the nightgown she has on is covered in blood across her lower abdomen. If those fucks weren’t dead, I would kill them all over again. “I’m gonna get you to the hospital, baby.” I put my arm under her knees and pick her up.

  “Leo’s here,” Kenton says, coming back into the room. Two seconds later, Leo and two other men I met recently walk in behind him.

  “Ambulance is en route,” Leo says, looking at Sophie, who is clinging to me.

  “We’ll get this cleaned up. Take care of her,” Kenton says.

  I nod, carrying Sophie out of the house and down the stairs, and as soon as I reach the front door, the ambulance pulls up.

  “I got you, baby,” I tell her, not sure if I’m reminding her or myself at this point.

  “Our girls?” she asks against the skin of my neck.

  “They’re at the hospital with Ma and Dad.” I kiss her temple. The ambulance door opens and I don’t even stop; I just carry her right inside, laying her down on the gurney. “She just had a C-section. I think her stitches are torn,” I tell the EMT, watching as they start to pull up her nightgown. “You wanna shut the fucking door and get a blanket to cover her first?”

  “I’m okay,” Sophie says, palming my cheek.

  I look down at her and shake my head. “You’re not okay.”

  “I am. You found me.” Tears start to fall from her eyes again.

  “I will always find you,” I tell her, kissing her forehead.

  The door to the ambulance closes, and a blanket is laid over Sophie’s lap. I sit back and watch as they lift her nightgown, showing her waist and the incision from the C-section. The wound is open, and I can tell she’s in pain. I grit my teeth, not wanting to flip out and make this harder for her.

  The guys clean up her wound as best as they can, and as soon as we reach the hospital, she is rushed back into surgery while I’m forced to wait for her outside. I call my dad and mom to make sure they’re okay with the girls up in the nursery of the hospital. Ma tells me that they are fine and that Kenton called as soon as we were in the ambulance to let them know that we were on our way back to the hospital.

  I feel like crying in relief that the situation is finally over, but at the same time, I know going through something like this is going to fuck with Sophie’s head when she just started getting over what had happened to her when she was younger. Hell, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it. I hate that I wasn’t able to protect her when she needed me. I vow right now that nothing else will ever touch her again. I don’t care how small or big—she will never be worried or scared as long as I walk this earth.

  Chapter 15

  Sophie

  "Nico, why is your mom calling to tell me you’re not letting anyone see the girls?" I ask, walking into the nursery where Nico is sitting, holding Willow.

  "The girls are too small to have everyone over right now," he grumbles then smiles over at Harmony, who is now awake and cooing at her daddy through the slats of the crib.

  "Honey, they’re old enough to have people over to visit." I roll my eyes.

  "They’re too small. Look, she fits in one hand," he says, proving his point by putting Willow in one of his hands.

  "Your hands are freakishly large," I argue.

  "You like my freaky hands." He smirks before looking down at Willow as he tells her, "Your momma is a dirty girl." He laughs when she smiles at him.

  "Nico, don't tell our daughters that," I growl. "This is getting ridiculous." He is so overprotective of the girls and me. I'm lucky if I'm able to go to the bathroom alone.

  "Baby, I'm not ready."

  "They’re family." I run my hand down the back of his hair, trying to get him to relax.

  "They’ve seen them," he grumbles sullenly, making me smile.

  "Call your family and tell them to come for dinner."

  "My mom talks too much." He looks up at me with puppy-dog eyes, making it hard to fight to do the right thing.

  “Your mom wants to get to know her granddaughters. There is nothing wrong with that,” I tell him, walking over to pick up Harmony, who sees me and begins to fuss.

  “I hate when they come over. They are all like, ‘Oh, just let me hold her for a couple of minutes,’ and then they don’t give them back when I tell them to,” he complains, looking completely serious.

  I shake my head. I want to laugh at how ridiculous he’s being about this, but I can’t. He loves his girls; he’s hands-on with everything. I don’t ever need to ask for help. He’s always there the second one of the girls starts to fuss.

  “Honey, you need to get over what happened. You can’t lock us away forever,” I tell him quietly. I hate that what happened to me is so hard on him. I haven’t even had one nightmare about it. He has woken up twice drenched in sweat. The minute he knows where he is and I’m there, he’s on me. I know it’s his way of reassuring himself that I’m okay, but I hate that he still thinks about it when I never really do.

  “I can’t get over it.” He shakes his head. “I will never get over thinking you were lost to me and our girls.”

  “I wasn’t, so please try for me and the girls to be reasonable about this.”

  “I want you guys to myself. I only trust us with my most prized possessions.”

  “As much as I love you for that, I know that, even if we were in a room full of the most dangerous criminals in the world, you could and would protect us. But, honey, the people who want to come over are not criminals. They’re your family. They love you, the girl
s, and me. They would never hurt us, and even if they tried, you wouldn’t let them.”

  “Fine. Dinner. The minute dinner’s over, I want them gone.”

  I avoid rolling my eyes in front of him and sit down in the rocker next to him, pulling my tank top down and freeing my breast for Harmony.

  “Four days,” he says under his breath, making me smile.

  I can’t wait until we can have sex again either. The next four days can’t come fast enough.

  *~*~*

  Nico

  “Ma, I don’t care,” I tell my mom, who has been hogging Willow and Harmony since she walked into the house.

  “Nico, go away. I’m their grandmother. I want to spend time with them.” She blows me off then smiles down at my girls, who are lying on the floor smiling up at their grandma.

  I shake my head and look at the clock on the wall, counting down until everyone is out of my house. It’s not that I don’t love my family or want them around; I just want my own little family to myself. I hate sharing them with everyone.

  “Son, come outside,” my dad says.

  I look at him, then down at my girls, then back through the house to the kitchen where Sophie’s sitting, talking to November, Liz, and Lilly. I nod, looking back at my dad before following him outside.

  “What’s up?” I ask, standing near the door so I can look inside through the glass window at the girls and Sophie.

  “Relax, man,” Trevor says, handing me a beer. I don’t even know how to relax anymore. My body is wired lately.

  “This is an intervention,” Asher says before taking a drink of his beer.

  “Yeah, bro. You need to fucking chill,” Cash says, and I wonder how the hell he could seem so calm when the same sick fucks who took my wife had wanted his.

  “You guys don’t have a clue,” I tell them.

  “I understand what you’re going through. The thing is, this is not healthy. You need to go back to work soon. You need to understand that the girls and Sophie will be okay at home without you.”

  I know they’re right, but a permanent, cold dread settled inside me once Sophie was taken. Knowing now what the men who had taken her wanted to do to her and that I would have been left with two baby girls to take care of—looking at my girls every day and knowing I had failed them—I never want to feel that kind of fear ever again.

  “We’ll all stop by and check on them while you’re at work so you can have some peace of mind,” Trevor offers.

  “I don’t know.” I rub the back of my neck.

  I have enough money to live comfortably for at least a couple of years, but I know Sophie’s ready to kick my ass if I don’t back off a little. It’s unbelievable to me how she acts like nothing happened, like she has no fears, while I spend every day worrying from the time I wake up until I go to sleep.

  “We’re all worried. You need to talk to someone about what’s going on,” my dad says.

  I look at my brothers and dad, seeing concern etched in their faces. I know Sophie’s worried, and now, seeing that everyone feels the same way, I know I need to get help.

  “Okay. I’ll talk to someone,” I agree, taking a swig of my beer.

  “Thank God,” Trevor groans and sits down, “I thought I may need to beat the shit out of you to get you to listen.”

  “When was the last time you were able to take me?”

  “I could take you,” he says, puffing out his chest.

  “I’m gonna let your mouth slide this time, but only because I don’t want to embarrass you in front of Liz. I doubt she would want to sleep with you anymore if you cried like you did the last time I kicked your ass.” I smirk.

  “Fuck you! You kicked me in the nuts. That shit doesn’t count.”

  “Whatever,” I mutter, fighting back laughter.

  “This is what I missed,” Cash says, sitting down.

  I take a seat as well, and when I look inside the house through the glass doors, Sophie’s eyes meet mine. She gives me a smile I haven’t seen in weeks. That’s the moment I realize how worried she is about me. I take a breath and mouth the words, “I love you,” before going back to talking to my brothers.

  “Why do act like nothing happened?” I ask Sophie, who is sprawled out on top of me later that night.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You act like nothing happened, while I relive that shit over and over again.”

  “I know you’ll protect me. I think about it sometimes, but really, I think about the girls and you and how lucky I am to be with my family. I know I could’ve died that night. I know what David wanted to do to me,” she whispers, clinging to me. “He told me about the other women he and his brother hurt. His brother, Dustin, told me what they had planned to do to Lilly, but when she got fired from the school because of Cash’s ex, it threw a wrench in their plan. I was afraid, but I knew you would find me, and I guess I deal with it because I know what I could have missed out on,” she says, cuddling closer.

  “Shit,” I whisper, finally getting it. I don’t know how I missed it before. I’m doing to her what she did to herself for years. I hate that I’m trying to shove her back in her bubble when she has a million reasons to be out enjoying life.

  “Yep,” she whispers back. “Now I just need you to start living life with me again.”

  “I love you, sweet Sophie.”

  “Love you too,” she mumbles, and I kiss her head.

  I think about my girls and my need to protect them and their mother, and then I think about being their father and what that means. I can’t be the reason they’re never able to experience life to the fullest. I would hate myself if my own fears stunt their growth or turn them into fearful adults.

  What I didn’t know was that, when my girls became teens, I would wish I had made them fearful of everyone, especially the male population.

  Epilogue

  “They’re grounded until they’re forty,” I tell Sophie as I watch both my girl across the football field. “Why did you encourage them to be cheerleaders?” I grumble as I watch one of the football players come off the field, giving Harmony a smile. “Yo! Hands off!” I stand and shout when another player picks up Willow and swings her around in a circle. His head turns my way, and his face pales when he sees me. “Yeah, you. Hands off,” I repeat. He drops Willow immediately, making her stumble and glare at him.

  “Honey, calm down,” Sophie says, pulling on my back pocket.

  “Calm down?” I glare at her. “This is your fault. Seriously, babe. Those skirts with your genes?” I shake my head. “Fuck no, I can’t calm down.”

  “So your daughters can’t talk to boys, but your son can do that?” She nods to where my seventeen-year-old son, Bax, has his mouth on some girl.

  “I never claimed to be fair, babe, but the shit with your daughters is getting ridiculous.”

  “They’re going to college at the end of summer, and as much as you want to, you can’t keep them locked up forever.” She shakes her head at me.

  “They’re not going away for college,” I tell her.

  “Whatever. Can you please sit down so we can watch the rest of the game in peace without you freaking out and scaring everyone?”

  “You need to tell the girls that flirting shit isn’t going to fly,” I growl.

  “Honey.” Sophie leans into me, her mouth getting close to my ear. Her breath hitting my skin makes me instantly hard for her. Even now, almost nineteen years later, I can’t get enough of my wife. “If you calm down, I will do whatever you want when we get home.”

  “You trying to bribe me with sex?” I ask, turning my face to look at her.

  “It’s not a bribe.”

  “What do you call it?”

  “A promise.” She winks.

  “I can get you to do whatever I want without taking you up on that offer,” I tell her with a smirk.

  “True.” She smiles.

  “You are so beautiful, baby.” I run my fingers down her cheek. “All that beauty…
You gave all that shit to our girls, and now I’m paying for it.”

  “We have good girls.” She pats my thigh.

  She’s right; I know she’s right. Both my girls are straight-A students. Actually, all my kids are good kids. Willow and Harmony are getting ready to graduate and Bax is a year behind them. Then there’s Talon, who’s in junior high, and our adopted twins—our son, Sage, and daughter, Nalia— just turned six. Sophie got her dream—her large house in the country that we filled with kids. If she hadn’t gotten sick after having Talon, forcing her to get her tubes tied, she would probably still be popping my babies out.

  “Daddy, can I be a cheerleader when I get big?” Nalia asks, making me grit my teeth.

  “You can be whatever you want when you get big, honey,” Sophie tells my beautiful little girl, making me cringe.

  “Do Daddy a favor, baby, and don’t be a cheerleader.” I pull her from the seat below me into my arms.

  There is nothing greater than being a father, but it’s also difficult watching your kids grow up. Having girls only makes it that much harder. Boys can look out for themselves, but girls need someone there to watch out for them.

  *~*~*

  Sophie

  “Grandpa!” Nalia yells, running across the backyard.

  I lift my head from Nico’s shoulder to watch my dad pick up Nalia and swing her around. My dad got out of prison and moved to Tennessee a few years ago. I love having him around. He has become good friends with Nico’s dad, and he even started working for Nico’s brothers doing construction. Before he got out of prison, we wrote letters back and forth. I think it was easier to talk to him through letters. I knew that I could say whatever it was I needed to say, and he could reply with whatever it was he needed to get off his chest.

  It helped that I was never alone when I got a letter; Nico and I would sit outside or in bed and read them together. I knew he would be there to hold me when it was all done, and that was all I would ever need. After a while, I started sending my dad pictures of the kids and opened up to him about my family and everyday life. He told me about himself and what he was doing each day. It was difficult to talk about the past, but we did. And we each shared some of our favorite memories of my mom. I loved that we could share that.