by Bella Jewel
And there he is.
Cuffed to a damned drain pipe, missing a shirt, pants undone, blindfold on his eyes and a gag in his mouth. This fucking crazy bitch. I barrel past people, without thought, dropping to my knees and jerking the blindfold off as Slater tries to uncuff him. Then I pull the gag from his mouth. He looks up at me, those fucking eyes meet mine, and I want to scream with happiness.
He’s okay.
I can see he’s okay.
I take his face in my hands, cupping his jaw, “Finn Knight, did you go and get kidnapped by a girl?”
He chuckles hoarsely, like he’s been doing a lot of yelling, “Never goin’ to live that down, am I?”
I smile. “Are you okay, honey?”
“Will be when you lean in here and give me a kiss.”
I do just as he asks, I lean in and I kiss him, hard. My hands still on his face. My heart still racing. Then, when Slater frees his hands, they come around me and he holds me. He holds me so tightly it burns, but I don’t care. My body explodes with relief and warmth. He’s okay. My Finn is okay.
My Finn.
I pull back and a tear rolls down my cheek.
“Are you crying, Erin?” Finn teases lightly, swiping the tear away with his finger.
“No, I got dust in my eye. This basement is nasty,” I smile and then ask, “Did she hurt you?”
“No, she didn’t hurt me. I’m fine. But, my pride isn’t so well.”
“Not only did you get kidnapped by a girl, you got saved by a girl,” Slater chuckles, slapping Finn on the back lightly. “Glad you’re okay, brother.”
Finn flips him the bird, and then takes my face in his hands, “Next time, let it be me saving you, yeah?”
I giggle and kiss him again. “I don’t know, I didn’t mind being the knight in shining armour, it felt kind of nice.”
“The only knight around here, sweetheart, is me.”
We all get to our feet, and the other officers check out the scene, while we walk out of the basement and back up to where Peter is holding Indi. When we all appear, Indi’s eyes flash to Finn, and she cries, “Tell them Finn, tell them we were just role playing!”
She’s honestly not going with that, is she?
Yeesh.
“No, Indiana. We weren’t role playing. You took me against my will. You tied me up. You were goin’ to force me to have sex with you against my will, also. You need help. You need it now. Sorry, but I’m charging you for your actions.”
She wails and jerks in the cuffs.
Peter pulls her towards the front door, “The other officers will finish up here. You’ll need to come in and make a statement.”
Finn nods.
Peter takes the wailing Indi out.
For a second, I do truly feel bad for her. Only because she’s clearly unwell. But still, she needs to take responsibility for what she did. If it was the other way around, and a man kidnapped and attempted to rape a woman, they wouldn’t get off lightly. Neither should she. I have no doubt Rose will ensure she gets the help she needs.
“Goin’ to call the others, tell them we found Finn,” Slater says, walking outside.
I turn to Finn, tucking my body against his, putting my arms around his waist.
“Anyone would think you were worried, Erin,” Finn murmurs against my hair.
“I wasn’t, not at all. In fact, I was having wild fantasies about what she might do to you, and laughing the whole way over here about it,” I say against his chest.
“Fuckin’ liar. You’re into me. Just admit it.”
I squeeze his waist. “Finn Knight, I’m more than into you.”
He squeezes back. “About fuckin’ time.”
~*~*~*~
“So,” Lucy says, sipping her drink and leaning forward, “You’re telling me that she stole Rose’s pregnancy test?”
“Yep,” Finn says, running a hand over my shoulder. He’s sitting on a chair, and I’m sitting on the ground between his legs. Every now and then, his hand glides over a different part of me, making me feel light and giddy inside. It’s a nice feeling. “Her sister found out she was pregnant just before she left but hadn’t told anyone. Indi must have gone over there, found the test, and came up with a plan.”
“Rose forgot she still had a key,” I add. “Poor girl.”
“Yeah,” Finn snorts. “I didn’t even know the test wasn’t fresh. I just looked at the plus symbol, and that was enough. I wasn’t getting any closer to it. Smart girl, really. She would have been snoopin’ around Rose’s place, found the test, and thought hmmm, this’ll work. Then she took it too far, I guess.”
“You think?” Ellie mutters, shaking her head.
“What about the sonogram picture?” I ask. “Did she say where she got that?”
Finn shakes his head. “Na, I didn’t even ask.”
“Probably google,” Lucy tells her, “It’s always google.”
“Fucking google,” I laugh.
“So, all along,” Slater chuckles, “You had your very own little stalker.”
Finn must flip him the bird, because Slater chuckles again.
“She was fuckin’ into me since school,” Finn murmurs, “apparently, I rejected her when she asked me out at a party. Fuck knows, I can’t remember shit from back then. I would have been drunk. Or stoned. Or some-fuckin’-thing.”
“That’s a long time to carry a crush,” I add, feeling a little sorry for her, still.
“Then I went and dated her sister, unintentionally, of course. That only made it worse.”
“It’s not a wonder she reacted so badly,” Lucy laughs. “Finn, you asshole. Then she saw you pick Erin. She must have felt like crap. Nasty man, you are.”
I giggle, and Finn grabs my hair and tugs it, making me tip my head back to look up at him. “What are you laughin’ at?”
“You, handsome,” I grin. “Breaking all the hearts.”
“Only one heart I care about,” he murmurs, leaning down and kissing me.
Man.
I’m going to attack the shit out of him later.
His cock and me, we’re going to become great friends.
“Ew,” Lucy crinkles up her nose, “look at you two suddenly all lovely dovey and shit.”
“A near death experience has that effect on you,” I tease.
Finn tugs my hair again. “What can I say, it pushed us in the right direction.”
Lucy grins. “Yeah, okay, fine. It’s cute, I’m happy for you two.”
“Yeah, second that, brother,” Slater says, slapping Finn on the back.
I smile, a big smile. It feels good. I mean, it sucks it took all of this for us to push our shit aside and actually give this a real go, but really, deep down, we always knew it was going to happen. It was just getting all the mess cleaned up before we’d truly let it happen, and also, it was getting us past the hesitation. Finn getting taken, that was enough for me to clear away any hesitation.
I guess it was for him, too.
It feels good to know we’re going to build something.
Together.
The way it should have been for a while.
Finn and I, we fit. It’s a nice fit, too. Not perfect, definitely not perfect, but a fit all the same.
That’s something.
“Lucy!”
Shania’s voice echoes through Slater’s house, flowing out the back where we’re all sitting, in an angry whip. A tone I’ve not heard come from her. A tone, that, honestly sounds like she’s about to come out here and murder Lucy. I turn and glance at Lucy, and she’s staring at the door, face slightly pale.
What the hell?
Shania appears, with Lincoln and Damon following close behind her. She has tears streaming down her face, which is bright red. Her fists are clenched, and she growls, “Is it true?”
Whoa.
What?
Is what true?
Lucy stands, and says, “Shania…”
“Is it fucking true?” Shania screams. “Tel
l me the message I saw when I was at Nicolai’s house come through on his phone, wasn’t you? That it was another fucking Lucy! That you’re not fucking the man who ruined my life!”
Oh.
My.
God.
I look to Lucy, and she’s really pale, her face blank. She stares at Shania, and her bottom lip trembles, “I was going to tell you. I…I never meant for it to happen.”
“Nicolai!” Shania screams. “You’re fucking Nicolai!”
The whole room goes dead silent.
Did Shania just say Lucy is fucking Nicolai?
As in the man who took her kid?
As in the man she was obsessed with, so much so that it nearly ruined her?
That Nicolai?
No fucking way.
“It was once,” Lucy croaks, “it was once, and I’ve tried to stay away. I’ve tried…”
“How could you?” Shania screams, her tears falling harder. “You’re supposed to be my sister!”
“Shania,” Lucy pleads. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, you have to know that. Please…”
Shania shakes her head. “I don’t want to see you! I never want to see you again!”
Then she turns and charges out the door, Lincoln following after her.
Damon comes over, grabbing Lucy and pulling her into his arms.
I’d bet he knows.
“It’s okay,” he tells her. “She’s just upset. It’ll be okay.”
I glance at Finn, and he gives me an ‘uh oh’ look. Then I look back to Lucy. “Luce, are you okay?”
She pulls away from Damon, swiping at her eyes. “No, I’m not okay. I’m the worst fucking human there is.”
“Nicolai?” I whisper. “You’ve been seeing Nicolai?”
She looks to me, her eyes hurting, which makes me hurt. Lucy isn’t a bad person, gosh, not by a long shot. Which means this must be killing her, and it must be complicated.
“I didn’t mean to, Erin. I honestly didn’t. It happened…and I tried to stop it…I know I’m a monster. I know. But he’s…”
She shakes her head and then drops it, tears falling down her face.
She cares about him.
I can see it written all over her face.
This is what she’s been hiding all this time.
It makes sense now why she didn’t want Shania to know.
Poor Lucy.
Poor Shania.
It doesn’t get much messier than this.
Hell no it doesn’t.
Nicolai.
Lucy and Nicolai.
Things are about to get very, very messy.
THE END
Knights Lady
COPYRIGHT BELLA JEWEL 2019
PROLOGUE
LUCY
I’m a shitty sister.
There, I said it.
I don’t deny this fact—hell, I haven’t even tried to.
I know what I did wrong, what I’m continuing to do wrong.
The worst part? I’m hurting the only person in the world I have left. Shania. My sister. My best friend.
So why the hell do I struggle to stay away?
Even though I know she’s hurting.
Even though I know I have to stop.
I’m still staring down at my phone, at his messages, trying to come up with a way around it. To figure something out. Maybe we can all talk about it? Maybe we can just keep it secret and I can say it’s over? Maybe with time she’ll get over it? Maybe, maybe, maybe.
So many maybes, and yet I know the only real answer is to shut it down and move on.
Why is that proving to be so damned difficult?
There are plenty of fish in the sea, right?
I don’t have to keep talking to my sister’s ex-lover and the father of her child.
No, I certainly don’t.
Yet here I am, still fighting with myself to find a way around it.
Still desperately searching for an answer.
And at the same time, my heart is breaking.
Because I hurt her, and I never wanted to do that.
What I feared the whole time is coming true.
What I dreaded is now a reality.
And I’m stuck right in the middle of it.
How did I get here, you ask?
Well, let me tell you...
1
LUCY – EARLIER
“He’s having friends over,” Shania murmurs, her hands clutched in her lap, fidgeting every now and then.
I can’t say I blame her.
She must be nervous as all hell.
After all, this is her first night with her son since he got taken from her a few years back. She’s scared, she doesn’t know if she has it in her to do a good job, but I know she does. She’s been to hell and back again. After working as a stripper and falling for the club owner only to find he’s not into her and was just sleeping with her. To top it off, she got pregnant, the relationship between her and the father, Nicolai, went sour, and he took her son.
It took her years to find them.
Now she has, things are going okay. Not great, but okay.
The two of them, they have a rocky past. She despises him, deep down inside, but she’s respecting him for the sake of their son, Tommy. She knows she has to, she knows they need to make it work. To do that, she just has to go along with things. I feel for her; it can’t be easy. She wants to take her son and just disappear forever, but, to be fair, Nicolai has been a great father, and for that reason she knows Tommy doesn’t deserve to be torn from him.
So they have to make it work, this civil partnership.
“It’ll be fine,” I reassure her. “We’ll get Tommy and leave.”
“What if I know some of them? What if Yana is there?”
Ah, Yana. The woman who made Shania’s life hell. The woman who was seeing Nicolai back in their stripping days and made it her mission to get rid of Shania once and for all. She was horrible, to say the very least, and the poor girl went through a lot while she was there. Yana has been trying to weasel her way back into Nicolai’s life again, only this time Shania’s son is part of it.
She wants her nowhere near her son.
I can’t say I blame her.
“I doubt Nicolai would invite Yana knowing how things are between the two of you. Besides, he said there is nothing going on, and he’s made that clear. She’s probably long gone.”
I hope for Shania’s sake she is.
“You’re right, but what if some people from the club are there? I don’t really want to face them.”
I reach over while keeping my eyes on the road and say, “It’ll be fine, I know it will.”
She nods as we round the corner and turn into Nicolai’s driveway. There are many cars around, all parked on the grass and up the street. He’s having a big party it would seem. Makes sense that he’s giving Tommy to Shania for the night. At the very least, he has the sense to be a good father.
I never liked Nicolai, no doubt about it.
The moment I met him, I knew he was no good.
Okay, that’s probably a little dramatic. I knew he was a player. He was one of those men that made your panties wet and your heart beat fast until he fucked you and left. That was Nicolai. Gorgeous, powerful, and a player.
I knew it.
I made sure he knew I knew it.
And that was that.
I didn’t like him. I told Shania I didn’t like him. And I probably tried to interfere a little too much, but what can I say? I knew what path she was going down, I hated that she insisted on stripping to keep us afloat, let alone getting her heartbroken by a player, which is exactly what happened.
Anyway, that’s in the past and all that.
I stop the car and look to Shania; she’s slightly pale, but she’s strong. Stronger than most women I know. She looks to me, takes a deep breath, and says, “I’ve got this. Let’s go.”
I nod and we get out of the car, walking toward the house. There are people sort of lingeri
ng everywhere. It’s a nice place, without a doubt. Nicolai always did do well for himself. I mean, he owned a strip club, it’s hard not to be holding your own. We walk through the front door, and I get more than one dirty look from the people standing around.
I suppose since they’re all dressed up and I’m in my short shorts, tank top, and Reeboks. What can I say? I like casual wear.
“There he is,” Shania murmurs, and I follow her line of sight.
Nicolai is gorgeous, don’t get me wrong. He’s the kind of man that holds the power and strength to stop you in your tracks. It’s like when you stare at him, for a moment—just a moment—your world stops at his utter beauty. He’s perfection, every inch of him from head to toe.
Tall, well-muscled, always dressed impeccably. Olive skin, dark hair that curls just slightly at the base of his neck, and always has a messy, yet well-groomed look. How he does it, I don’t know. His emerald green eyes practically shine against his skin. He’s every woman’s wet dream times a hundred. He’s in every spank bank in the country. Nicolai is out of this world.
He turns, as if hearing my thoughts out loud, and his eyes scan over Shania, then over me. I don’t miss how they dip to my shorts, then to my shoes, and then he focuses on Shania again. I’ve never known whether Nicolai likes me, I’ve never really cared, if I’m being honest. Striding over, he stops in front of us.
“Shania, Lucy, good to see you both.”
I want to snort but that would be rude so, instead, I nod and look around. I see my little nephew, the perfect blend of Shania and Nicolai, playing with a tall, beautiful woman. I have no idea who she is, but the boy clearly knows her. When he sees Shania, he smiles and comes running over. He’s still confused about the whole thing, but over the last few weeks, Shania has been spending her days with Tommy. He knows she is his mother and is getting better and better with every passing day.
“Hi, buddy.” Shania smiles, squatting down and ruffling the adorable little boy’s hair. “Are you ready to come and have a sleepover?”
Tommy nods and holds up his red truck. “Bring this?”
He’s still young, so his words are muffled and freaking cute.
“Of course!”
He smiles.
Beautiful.
“I’ve packed all his things, but he’ll be fine, you know what he needs,” Nicolai says.