by Sarah Bailey
“I told him I was leaving and that he could do what he wanted, but I was going to protect you because you’re my daughter.”
I blinked. Then I leant back further into Eric. He dropped his hand from my shoulder and instead, wrapped an arm around my chest from behind.
“You’re okay,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ve got you.”
I didn’t know what to say to her but having the support of my boys gave me the strength to stay standing. Eric was always there when I was emotionally overwhelmed. Always. He knew what I needed.
Isabella stared between the four of us and then by some miracle, understanding formed across her features. Like she suddenly started to get it. Perhaps. I didn’t know if she could ever understand my relationship with them, but it didn’t matter. She’d done something I hadn’t expected. And somehow, I no longer felt so angry with her for what she’d done. Somehow, I started to realise perhaps she’d done everything she could to keep me safe from Frank.
I didn’t know if I could forgive her, but I did feel as though I needed to stop being angry about it. I needed to learn to let go of the past so I could focus on the future.
“Are you saying you’re going to help me going forward? You know Quinn wants to destroy Frank.”
She nodded slowly.
“And you know I want to destroy him too.”
She nodded again.
“Then maybe we can talk about this tomorrow.”
That’s when Quinn reappeared by our sides. He glanced at Isabella.
“It’s time we left before things go south,” he muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve done what I can, but I don’t know if it’s enough. I need you safe, little girl and I need it right now.”
Eric let go of me at the same time as Xav and my four boys directed me towards the door, ignoring Isabella and Gregor. I looked back at her, finding her eyes on me. They pleaded with me not to give up on her.
And I really didn’t know if I could do that or not.
Chapter 26
Having spent the last half an hour dealing with the families and their representatives, I was on edge. I had to get Ash home. That was the only way I’d know she was safe. I couldn’t tell who would be on our side or not, but at least we’d ripped the rug out from underneath Russo. He couldn’t keep telling them I had her kept captive because they’d heard from Ash herself that wasn’t the truth. At least, not any longer.
“What did she want?” I asked Ash when we were in the car and Xav was driving home us home.
“Isabella? She came to support me… and she’s officially left Frank, which I think is why Viktor let her come with Gregor.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Ash looked away towards Rory who was quiet, although that wasn’t unusual. She slid her hand into his, causing him to look at her.
“I don’t know, Quinn. I don’t know how I feel about any of it… only that I can’t keep being angry at her. I really think all she’s done is try to protect me the only way she knew how.”
Her other hand slipped into mine as she leant her head on Rory’s shoulder. The fact he let her without complaint showed how far Rory had come over the last few months.
“Can I stay with you tonight?” she whispered to him.
“Is that really what you want, little star?”
“Yes.”
He was silent for a beat, then he rested his head on hers.
“Okay.”
She let out a long breath as if she’d been scared he’d say no. I saw it then. I really fucking saw it. Just how much those two needed each other. Ash was like Rory’s balm. She gave him something no one else could. Love. And not just familial love like Xav, Eric and I did, but real all-consuming love. That love came without judgements. Without conditions or restraints. Ash saw Rory and she didn’t care about how dark he was or the depraved shit he liked. All she cared about was him. She wanted to make him happy.
“Hey E,” Xav hissed. “Get a fucking picture of that.”
Eric looked behind and saw Rory and Ash. His eyes widened at the simple display of casual affection between them. To be honest, it surprised me too.
“He will kill me,” Eric hissed back.
“Come on, man. That’s the cutest fucking shit I’ve ever seen Rory do.”
Rory looked at Xav and Eric, his eyes narrowing.
“If you take a picture of me, I will trash your rooms.”
“You’re such a spoilsport,” Xav complained.
Ash shifted a little, but neither she nor Rory changed their positions.
“What if I want a picture of us together?” she asked.
I think that stumped him. His hazel eyes betrayed how conflicted he felt. On the one hand, he wanted to do everything he could to make Ash happy, but on the other, he hated photos of himself.
“Xav, Quinn and E let me take pictures… Can’t I just get one, Ror?”
It was true. As soon as I got her that damn phone, she’d made me pose with her in bed on several occasions and had insisted on taking photos when I wasn’t paying attention. That girl seemed to want to capture her entire life in pictures at times. I didn’t mind so much since it seemed to make her happy.
“Also I’d quite like it if I had a picture of you all with me so I can have it as my wallpaper on my phone… and maybe frame it to go by my bed.”
I think the whole car was waiting with bated breath to see what Rory would say. If he’d deny her the one thing she’d asked him for.
“Fine,” he muttered.
I swear Ash vibrated with happiness.
“Oh good, we can take one when we get home, but E… go on… I want to see how cute we are together.”
I swear Rory looked mutinous until Eric got his phone out, then he smoothed out his features. A few pictures were snapped and Eric handed it to Ash so she could see. Her eyes lit up.
“Xav’s right… you’re cute as hell, Ror.”
He didn’t say anything, only scowling at the photos which she promptly sent to herself before handing the phone back to Eric.
“What do you know, Rory’s finally joining in on all the fun,” Xav said which only earnt him another scowl.
Ash let go of my hand and rubbed Rory’s shoulder.
“Thank you, Ror,” she whispered.
“Only for you, little star,” he whispered back.
When we got home, Ash didn’t let up, leading us all into the living room and gathering us together around her. Now she’d got the idea in her head, she wasn’t letting us back out of it.
“Do we really have to do this?” I asked.
“Yes and if you don’t smile, I will hurt you.”
The four of us crowded in behind her as she held the phone up. She took a few and when she checked them, even Rory was half smiling. She sighed contentedly and turned to us.
“Thank you… also, you all look sexy as hell in suits so I can’t think of a better time to have a photo.”
We were all silent for a long moment before springing apart. Then a cloud of discord descended over us as the elephant in the room reared its ugly head. We might have talked to the families tonight, but come tomorrow, our forty-eight hours from Frank would be up. And we all knew what would happen then.
“He’s going to send the rose,” Ash said quietly.
“Yes, he is, little girl.”
She looked at the floor.
“I suppose it’s only fair. He has been on my death list for a while.”
“That doesn’t make it any better.”
Her hand shook as she gripped her phone tightly in it.
“I think I just want to go to bed if that’s okay. Talking about this won’t change it. I don’t know what’s coming next, but I do know we have to stick together.”
I stepped forward and leant down, tipping her face up towards me.
“We’re going to get through this, little girl. All of us.
We have no choice.”
She let me kiss her, followed by Xav and then Eric. Then she took Rory’s hand and he led her from the room. There was a beat of silence between the three of us.
“Do you think she’s going to be okay?” Xav asked.
“I don’t know… she’s been through a lot yet again. It almost feels never ending,” Eric replied.
“This is going to end because we’ll make sure of it,” I told them. “I won’t let her live like this forever and we can’t keep doing it either. Aren’t you tired?”
“Of course I’m fucking tired,” Xav said, waving his hand. “This shit has gone on long enough. Fighting our way through life is no way to live. I’m ready to fucking settle down and not have to deal with any more bullshit.”
Eric nodded and slid his hand into Xav’s. He was right. It was time we all settled down especially now we’d found the right girl. This wasn’t the way we’d planned our lives. I didn’t care. Ash was our future. She was our hope. The thing which made us realise we had to end everything for good.
“Settle down with our girl for life?”
“Fuck yeah. Give her the life she deserves. I mean shit, even if we can’t marry her, she can still be our little wifey, right?”
I snorted and rolled my eyes.
“Only if she wants to,” Eric said.
“That girl isn’t going to leave us. Hell, Ash fucking loves us all, even Rory.”
“I’m not sure Ash would agree to be our ‘wifey’ as you so eloquently put it, but she can be our queen,” I said before I stepped towards the door intending to go up to bed myself.
“She already is.”
I smiled.
“I know.”
And with that, I strolled away. If we survived this shit, then we’d be set for life with our girl. Now I just had to work out how the fuck to get rid of that worthless piece of shit she used to call a father.
Frank Russo needed to die. And he needed to fucking die soon.
I’d make sure of it.
For her.
Always for her.
Forever.
Chapter 27
Ash was in her room getting ready for bed as she wanted to take her makeup off and unpin her hair. I’d already got ready and was sitting up in bed waiting for her. I wasn’t sure why she’d chosen me this evening. I’d expected her to pick one of the others to spend the night with. Especially when I’d already had her earlier.
My fingers itched, wanting to be full of her curves all over again. I had it fucking bad for Ash. With all the women I’d fucked before, I lost interest after one session, hence why Quinn had to keep finding more for me. A task I knew he didn’t relish. With Ash, my desire never wavered. If anything, it grew until I was desperate. And right now, I really was fucking desperate. Every part of me ached with the need to have her right next to me. Crazy to think I felt that way about another person when I’d spent so long hating human contact.
Maybe it’s what happened when you loved someone. I hadn’t had a chance to ask the boys since I’d only just come to terms with feeling this way. That love was something I was capable of. It seemed such a foreign and alien concept until I met her. Ash made everything fall into place. She made sense to me.
When she padded into the room, shutting the door behind her, there was an air of sadness surrounding her. Her hair fell in blonde waves around her shoulders and she was dressed in a tiny pair of shorts along with a baggy t-shirt. She crawled into bed next to me after I pulled back the covers. I reached for her, pulling her back against my front as I sat up against the headboard. I noticed she had a hairband around her wrist.
“Should I braid your hair for you?”
She looked back at me.
“You know how?”
I made her sit up and gathered it together, running my fingers through the strands. It was something I’d done with the women I’d before, mostly so I could hold on to the braid whilst I fucked them. It was like an anchor in a way.
“You asked me about my scars.”
“I did…”
I divided her hair into three parts at the top of her head and set to work giving her a French braid.
“The one on my abdomen happened when one of the other kids who was fostered with me cut me with a knife. I was only twelve at the time. When Quinn found me, he mopped up the blood and took me to A&E to get stitches. Literally putting me on his bicycle handlebars and riding it all the way to the hospital.”
“Why did the kid cut you?”
“He thought it would make Marian and Trevor happy with him… He’d seen the way they treated me. How they’d hurt me and laugh about it.”
Ash’s back stiffened, but I couldn’t hold this shit in any longer.
“The one on my eyebrow, that happened because Marian smacked me around the face and I fell over, knocking my head on the corner of the kitchen counter. It bled a lot and was really deep. I ran out of the flat straight to Quinn… he was so fucking angry, but we couldn’t do anything. We were just kids. It wasn’t the only time I ended up in hospital. I broke my arm when Trevor stood on it. I dislocated my shoulder after a pretty severe beating from both of them. You’d think with the catalogue of abuse I suffered social services would’ve done something, but I slipped through the net.”
Ash shifted as I got further down her head with the braid. I was being very careful and meticulous with it.
“Marian and Trevor were your foster parents.”
“Yeah, though I wouldn’t really call them parents. They had other kids on and off, but I spent my entire childhood with them… When everything went down with Julian, Quinn said fuck it and found somewhere for us all to live. It was a shitty one bed flat, but we managed somehow. I was only fifteen, but considering social services didn’t care, we got away with it. Quinn basically told Marian and Trevor if they tried to fuck with me any longer, he’d end them.”
It was probably the most I’d ever said to Ash, but it felt good to talk about it to her. Good to finally admit things in my life had been fucked up.
“That’s… awful, Ror.”
I finished up her braid and put my hand out. She took the hairband off her wrist and gave it to me. I tied off her hair and she turned to me.
“It was… the way they treated me made it hard for me to have anyone touch me. Fifteen years of it. I felt helpless most of the time as if it would never end.”
I slipped my hands under her t-shirt and wrapped them around her waist, running my thumbs across her skin. Her beautiful, pearlescent skin.
“Did Quinn…”
I stiffened. What Quinn had done about Marian and Trevor wasn’t something she should know about. Wasn’t something anyone should know about. Better left in the past where it belonged. They couldn’t hurt anyone any longer. That was all that mattered.
“Quinn did what he had to. That’s all you need to know.”
“Ror—”
“No, little star. You have to understand there’s only so much I can talk about right now.”
Her eyes clouded over.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to push you.”
I leant towards her, resting my head against hers.
“Don’t apologise. It’ll just take me time to tell you it all.”
“I know.”
I reached over and turned out the light before pulling her down under the covers with me. She curled herself around me, which should make my skin crawl, but it didn’t. Her hands brushed over my chest making me shiver. I loved this girl to fucking death. She pushed me, but she did it because she cared enough. She wanted to help me get better. To be free of all the pain and fucking strife.
“Ror?”
“Mmm?”
“Thank you… I think I understand you a little better now.”
I reached up and cupped her face, pulling her into me so I could kiss her. Her lips were so soft and she immediately melted into me, moaning a little as my tongue curl
ed around hers. Her lithe body made me feel things. Everything. I wanted her.
“Little star,” I breathed, hands drifting under her t-shirt.
“Ror, I can’t take any more brutality.”
“Shh, I won’t hurt you again.”
I didn’t know how I was going to fucking manage, but somehow I would keep the beast contained. Somehow I could give Ash a little more gentleness. I wanted inside her that much. I needed it.
She let me pull off her clothes, leaving her bare. My hands roamed over her, feeling her relax into my gentle touch. I pressed her onto her back before crawling over her. My hand was between her legs, coaxing and stroking her until she was soaking for me as I kissed her.
“Ror,” she whimpered.
“You want it?”
“Please.”
I tugged off my boxers and pressed against her, sliding into her inch by inch. Slowly but surely, letting her adjust.
“What else do you want from me?”
I almost froze at her words.
“What do you mean?”
“Sexually… what else do you want? Is there more you need?”
I gripped her hip and sunk deeper. There were many things, but only very few I’d never tried with anyone.
“You’re asking me this now?”
Her hands wrapped around my back, tugging me closer as our chests brushed together.
“You’re being gentle for me… So I want to know what you need.”
I buried my face in her neck, kissing her soft skin as I pulled back and thrust inside her again. I dragged one of her hands off my back and entwined our fingers together on the bed.
“I don’t need anything else.”
Liar.
“I don’t believe you. I won’t run. You know that.”
If you tell her, she might.
I thrust harder as her legs wrapped around mine.
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes… tell me.”
She arched into me, her body trembling. I took a breath. Ash had never run. She always stayed and listened. She understood.
“I want… to hunt you down.”
The truth was on the tip of my tongue. The truth about the fantasy I’d had for so long. One I never thought I’d ever act out with anyone. It didn’t seem right to want it.