“I once told you that I loved your strength, your resilience. I had no idea how much you truly embodied those qualities, Rem.” His fingers trace the contours of my face, allowing himself to re-familiarize himself with me. “Now that I know the truth, none of that changes things for me.”
My body seizes, his words and actions confusing me. If the truth doesn’t change anything… If he still hates me because of the lies, even though he understands now…
I try and push him off of me, turning my head so that I don’t have to stare at what I almost had. He gently pushes me back, turning my face to stare at him, holding me against him.
“I won’t treat you like you’re fragile or breakable. I don’t plan on treating you like you can’t handle what I know you like. What I know you need.”
His lips infuse themselves with mine, and realization dawns on me, understanding what he means. As one of his hands slides up my legs, gripping my ass harshly, I know that he understands.
He understands why my therapy sessions are so important to me. He understands why I relish the feeling of overcoming pain. He knows why the trust I’ve put in him to push me as far as I can go without hurting me, turns me on so much.
Because every time he touches me, it’s out of love.
He taught me how to turn pain into strength.
He turned restraints into sensual caresses meant to keep me drowning in him worshipping me like the queen he’s convinced that I am.
He turned all the hurt into healing.
And he helped me own it.
So here he is, removing my jeans, knowing that I need him to drown out the memories. Drown out the bad and replace them with good. Replace them with care, with love. With one of the only things in my life that matters.
Him.
“The bar is full of customers.” I moan, as his fingers thrust into me, eliciting a rumble from my throat.
“Let them know who you belong to.” He growls.
“Music, something. Drown me out through the walls.”
I don’t want to give him up, but I don’t want Henry, the only father I’ve ever known, to hear Brody screwing my brains out either.
With the hand that isn’t currently buried inside of me, making my eyes roll in the back of my head, Brody picks his phone up. His thumb slides down the screen several times looking for a song.
“Pick anything, it doesn’t matter.” I say, growing impatient, wanting more than he’s giving me.
A wicked smile plays on his lips as he adds another finger, thrusting them into me with such force that I scream out as the first orgasm lights up the back of my eyes.
“Greedy, greedy, Little Wolf.” He laughs.
Fireworks of all different colors light up in my mind, fizzling around me, matching the pace of the tremors that are overtaking the rest of my body.
Brody finally selects a song, turning the volume all the way up as he sits his phone down next to me on the bed. He bends his head down and happily licks up the juices that are still dripping from my body.
“It does matter.” His voice rumbles against my sensitive slit, where his fingers are still buried to the hilt.
The song blares in my ears and a single tear leaks out of the corner of my eye as understanding dawns on me as to why it mattered so much to him to choose a specific song.
Hozier’s voice sings out as Brody uses his free hand to quickly undress, never breaking contact with me. Never allowing himself to stop pleasuring me. He climbs up my body, removing his fingers, and lining himself up with my entrance.
“I don’t care about a condom. I don’t care if you get pregnant again, a part of me hopes you do.”
I swallow, nodding, unable to speak.
“And I’m clean. I’ve never been bare with anyone but you. It’s always been you, Little Wolf.”
“I’ve never been with anyone but you.” I admit.
At my confession he slams into me, growling as he does. Staking his claim over me, as if it was ever threatened in the first place. I arch off the bed, forgetting how big he is, my voice choking out foreign, unintelligible sounds.
One of his burly hands slides down from my shoulders to my thigh as he wraps one of my legs around his back. I clench around him with the new angle as he slams into me with a ferocity that feels like he’s trying to meld us into one being.
He buries his face in my neck, and drills into me with so much passion, that my body fills with warmth from head to toe.
Fuck, I’ve missed him.
I missed us.
He leans into my ear and whispers the lyrics, scraping the shell of my ear with his teeth.
‘I’m so full of love I could barely eat. There’s nothing sweeter than my baby. I never want once from the cherry tree. ‘Cause my baby’s sweet as can be. She give me toothaches just from kissin’ me.’
His breath in my ear, the rumble of his words, matching beat for beat with the lyrics, sends me spiraling, tumbling into the abyss that is Brody. I bite back a scream that wants to unleash itself, loud enough that the entire bar could hear.
And maybe the rest of Deacon Hill.
All it does is spur Brody on, making him wrap my second leg around his back so he can shift us and allow his cock to hit every sensitive nerve ending inside of me.
He feels so good that I can’t comprehend the amount of pleasure such roughness can bring me. I should be the girl that needs soft and sweet, but I’m not.
I’m not fragile like a flower, I’m fragile like a bomb.
And as his teeth scrape, tug, and bite me all over, covering me in marks that I will wear with fucking pride, I detonate around him.
‘When my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold dark earth. No grave can hold my body down. I’ll crawl home to her.’
My hands slide up his muscular abs, chest, and eventually circle around his neck as I bring his face to mine, latching onto his lips with my own. He chose this song because he meant what he said. To him, loving me is worth dying.
He’d rather die than be without me.
“I love you. I missed you.” I confess, whispering into his mouth.
He traces my lips with his tongue, and my words make his cock swell inside me. One of his hands clasps around my throat, squeezing lightly, making my whole body fill with electric tingles, my walls clenching around him so tightly that I can feel it pulsing inside of me.
“Say it again.” He demands.
“I love you.” I croak out.
“Again!”
“I love you, I love you, I love you.” I scream, the words falling off my lips like a mantra.
My words shatter him, causing him to roar out, filling me with every drop.
“You’re my everything, Remi.” He tells me, kissing me with shaky breath. “I won’t lose you again.”
“I love you.” I whisper.
“Not half as much as I love you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Brody
B: Family Meeting. 9-1-1.
I fire off a text to everyone in our group chat. With everything my girl has told me, we’ve already wasted enough time without making a plan.
Max: We can do it at our house. The girls are already here.
I nod to myself at the message as Remi throws her bag in the back seat of my truck. We’ve spent three years apart, but I won’t let another night pass without us under the same roof. That’s one thing I wasn’t budging on and thankfully she was all too happy to pack a bag,
I’m strapping my holster in place as Remi climbs in the front seat. Her RP45 is snug against her thigh, a combat knife tucked in her boot, and a shit ton of ammo takes up the majority of the duffel bag that she packed.
If I wasn’t already in love with her, that would have won me over in a fucking heartbeat. I’m hard as a rock even though I already fucked her three times in the back of the bar.
I hate that we had to get dressed again.
“Is Bree gonn
a be there?” She asks, chewing on the corner of her lips.
“She’s family, love. Yeah, she’ll be there. Why?”
“She knew I was in town before you did. She um… well she attacked me at the grocery store.”
“She what?” My voice raises in anger.
Bree mentioned that Remi was back in town after I ran into her at the motel, but the little she-devil forgot to mention that she attacked her.
“She was being a family warrior, I can’t begrudge her for that. But I think you might want to give her a heads up that I’m coming with you.”
Before I can respond, my phone goes off in the cup holder, my Bluetooth booms through the cab, announcing Brooke’s name loud and clear. Remi stiffens beside me, knowing exactly who it is.
“You should get that.” She says in a clipped voice.
“I think you should answer it.” I say, pushing the button on my steering wheel, answering the call.
Remi’s face screws up in a panicked confusion as Brooke’s voice looms through the speakers.
“Hello?” She asks when she’s greeted with silence.
I smile at Remi, nodding my head, encouraging her to talk.
“Um, hi?” She says while holding her hands up in a silent question, asking me what the fuck I’m doing.
Remi, my yellow-eyed wolf. The woman who has blood on her hands and faced a hell on earth that no one should ever experience, looks terrified right now. It’s damn near comical.
“It’s Remi right?” I can hear Brooke smiling on the other end of the phone.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“Oh gosh, I’m so glad. I was just calling to make sure Brody pulled his head out of his ass and came to you.”
“I’m gonna need a little context here.” Remi replies, raising her eyebrows at me.
“Look, I don’t know there’s history between you guys, it’s none of my business, but anyone with eyes can see that he’s in love with you. I was calling to pester him, making sure he was heading my advice and was doing what he could to patch up whatever was broken between you two.”
“Oh…” Is all Remi says in response to that loaded bit of information.
“Well, now that I know the answer to that question, I’ll let you go. I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up on. I’m happy for you guys.”
Brooke hangs up before Remi can respond, and I know she’s genuinely happy for me. For the first time since her husband died, I think she’s experiencing a little bit of peace, dare I say happiness, right now.
“You wanna bring me up to speed?”
I tell her everything there is to know, being as honest with her as she was with me. I know it’s gotta hurt hearing the truth, but I won’t lie and pretend that what happened when she was gone doesn’t exist. And I know that she needs to hear me tell her that it wasn’t serious. That it meant nothing. And I need her to believe that it’s the truth.
“That’s really weird, Brody.” She says with slight amusement in her voice.
“Which part?”
“The part where you went to a sex club with one girl and she ends up telling you to run after the girl you went postal over.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a fucking mess.”
“Preaching to the choir on that one.” She laughs.
I pull into a vacant spot on the curb of Max’s driveway, noticing that I’m the last one to arrive.
“You ready to do this?” I ask.
“Not really, no. But it needs to be done. I need to check in with Liz real quick but I’ll meet you in there, okay?”
I lean in and claim her mouth, earning a satisfied moan and a smile before I climb out of the truck, giving her some privacy, as she puts her outdated flip phone to her ear.
Making my way to the front door, I steel myself for the conversation that’s about to take place. This isn’t the kind of thing you casually drop in someone’s lap on a blistering Saturday afternoon.
Bree’s giant pregnant belly greets me at the door, Dex and Sonya leaning over her.
“What’s this about? She asks before I can even walk through the front door.
Before I can respond, Bree is trying to push me inside as she grabs my gun out of my holster, pointing it out the front door.
“I fucking warned you, Remington!” She shouts, gun poised at the perfect height to put a bullet right through Remi’s forehead.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I ask, jumping in front of the gun I know for a damn fact is fully loaded.
Bree has the gall to look at me incredulously, her finger moving away from the trigger as she does, malice dripping off every word she speaks.
“I warned her if she ever came near you again that I’d kill her. I wasn’t fucking kidding. And she dares to show up here where your fucking family is?”
I grab the gun from her grip and holster it with a quickness, shaking my head at the chaos that seems to be around every fucking turn. I take the few steps to where Remi is standing on the walkway and touch her all over even though I know she wasn’t hurt.
“I told you warn her.” She whispers.
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?” Bree screams just as Abel comes up behind her.
“What the hell?” He says, pulling his sister into the house.
A commotion breaks out inside the house, reminding me of how much has happened in such a short amount of time.
“Will everyone just calm the fuck down?” I yell, trying to break through all of the voices.
Max appears, a vicious look on her face. “If you wake my kids up, I’ll end your life. They haven’t let us sleep through the night in two days, Brody. Do you hear me? Two days!”
I laugh at the sternness in her voice and the way one hand perches on her hip as the other stabs an accusatory finger at me.
“I won’t wake them but we need to take this inside. It isn’t safe out here.”
Everyone balks at my statement, not understanding the severity of my words. They have no idea what’s coming.
We all gather together in the massive den that we use for all of our family meetings. Although Sonya’s husband’s band has become part of our family, they’re not here because they’re off on some press junket thing. Even Max’s massive dog, Ollie is here, staking claim over his family, never too far away from the twins. He’s taken his protective role over them very seriously since the day Abel and Max brought the girls home.
So much has happened in this room, so many steps made to ensure the safety of our loved ones. It’s damn near poetic that this is where I will give them the rundown of Remi’s current situation.
“First and foremost, for those of you that already know Remi,” I say, making eye contact with Abel, Dex, and Ryan. My eyes land on Bree last and they linger there as I continue. “You’ll soon learn why, but we are putting what happened in LA, and what you think you know, behind us. She’s mine and she stays that way. You accept that, you accept her, or I walk out that door.”
“No.” Bree says, folding her arms across her chest, not backing down.
“You’re awful fucking judgy about some shit you know nothing about, Breelle.” I say, using her full name with a sarcastic lilt of my voice. “Especially considering your fight or flight tendencies have landed more on the flight side for most of your life. If you can’t move past your own shit to hear me out then I’ll leave and never come back. This isn’t up for discussion.”
The four of them exchange glances and although Bree still looks unsettled by my accusations and the fact that Remi is here at all, they all unanimously agree.
“Good. Now for the reason that I’m here.” I take Remi’s hand in mine, locking eyes with her before I go on. She nods her head, letting me know she’s still okay with me telling them the truth.
“Uh, there’s really no delicate way to say this, so I’m just gonna throw it out there.” I clear my throat. “Rem
i didn’t just walk away from me in LA you guys. She’s been in Witness Protection for most of her life and has to run when the people that are after her find out where she is.”
A chorus of gasps and breathy ‘what’s?’ leave everyone’s mouth as all eye come to rest on Remi.
“It’s true.” She says.
“The people that are after her, they kept her caged and sexually abused her for all of her childhood. They treated her like prey then, and they’re treating her like prey now. They won’t stop hunting her until she’s dead. And Remi can’t stop running until they’re dead. So, there’s a war headed straight for Deacon Hill and I plan to be smack dab in the middle of it.”
Breen runs over to Remi, enveloping her in a tight apologetic hug. A stark contrast to pulling a gun on her just moments ago.
Pregnancy makes women crazy, I swear.
“What do you need from us?” Abel asks, fists clenched at his sides.
“I need you guys to get the hell out of town. Get yourselves and your kids out of here.”
Ryan, Abel, Dex, and Jake all jump to their feet arguing with me just like I knew they would. They’ve been there through the pain we all fought through when the other girls were in danger, but this time it’s different.
“Last time we were up against one person, you guys. We’re talking about a fucking army of criminals and gang members. We’re talking about rapists and murderers. Half of you are either already parents or about to be parents. You can’t put your family at risk like that.”
“You are our family too, jackass.” Dex says.
“Erasing the last three years means Remi is family too.” Abel says.
Remi sucks in a breath next to me, realizing that I’m not the only one who understands why she had to make the hard decisions, no matter how much they hurt.
“We’re stronger together, we’ve proven that.” Ryan says, joining in.
“What if we make a compromise?” Max suggests, causing all heads to turn to her. “I mean, I would like to be the boss bitch that stands up and says hell yeah I’ll go to war with you. Before I got pregnant, I was that girl. But now, as a mother, I have to put my kids first. What if all of us girls all went away with the twins and the guys stayed here to help? I’m not naïve enough to think any of them would walk away from family like that, but I am smart enough to understand basic math skills. Having six people ensures better odds than just having two.”
Absolution Page 16