Page 123

Story: Shattered

He told me that when he took the assignment, it was a couple years ago. He had no idea I was going to be involved until Aaron married my mother. He was left out of a lot of the planning in all of that.
And when he did find out, at that point it was either go with it and try to keep shit from happening or blow his cover and kill the case he had been building.
It was actually his idea for him to go to school with me. Aaron had gotten him in. He figured if he could get close to me, he could keep an eye on me.
He thought Xayden, Seven, and Dekker were in on their father’s bullshit, but he soon learned that wasn’t the case. So, then he tried to push me to toward them. Figuring they could protect me better than he could. But then even that went to shit.
He told me he had no idea the bitches from the sorority were also pulling strings to make me leave. Which was what he was supposed to convince me to do once he gained my trust. Get me to move back to Vegas. Convince me that living with my new family wasn’t going to work and that I should do things on my own. Only, once I got there, what happened a couple weeks ago would have happened then.
Aaron knew I didn’t want to be in Texas but that my mom wanted to be wherever he was. They all figured that by getting me away from her, getting me to move back home, it would be easier access to me. That she could give up the money if they held me for ransom.
What they didn’t know at the time was that she had no access to it at all. She had always told Aaron that she did. When he found out that she didn’t, that was when they disappeared.
I straightened out my black dress and then tucked my black hair behind my ears. I went and saw my hairstylist, Ramona, a couple days ago to just to dye everything all black.
“Firefly, you ready?” Seven comes into the room dressed in a black button-down and slacks. The last couple weeks have brought us all closer.
All four of us struggled with the loss we all faced that night. The betrayal of people that were supposed to love us. We turned to each other, got lost in each other, started to fall in love with each other.
Xayden opened up to me about a lot of the things that happened over the last several months. How he felt toward me, his actions to keep me at arm’s length and how he didn’t give a fuck anymore. He hasn’t stopped apologizing, either. He wakesup every morning saying that he is sorry and will spend all his days making up for it.
Every day I tell him he doesn’t need to keep apologizing, that he is forgiven, and yet he still does.
Dekker didn’t seem so phased by the death of his dad, not even that he pointed a gun at him. He was more worried about what would happen to his mother if he was killed. I have repeatedly told him that him dead is something I don’t even want to think about.
Seven isolated himself for a bit, getting lost in some new computers and programs he bought himself. When he finally did break from it, he came over to me and spent a whole night with his body wrapped around mine. He would whisper how perfect I fit him, or how his world quieted when he was with me. He would trace his lips down my neck, or his fingertips tracing along my skin. He was also the first one to tell me that he loved me.
“I knew it the day I walked you back to your dorm. Something pulled me to you. When I kissed your cheek, it took all my strength to walk away. Because the minute my lips touched you, I was addicted. I love you, Rory. I was so scared at the casino. I thought I was never going to get to tell you.” Seven’s leg is wrapped around my body, my head laying on his arm as our chests are touching. He had a hard time sleeping last night, so I tugged him to bed for a nap.
My mouth drops open at his confession. He loves me. He fucking loves me. “Seven…” My lips quiver. “I love you, too.”
“Good, because now we will have the rest of our lives to say it over and over until we make Xayden gag from the lovey dovey shit.” Seven breaks out in a chuckle.
Dekker and Xayden both told me that they loved me in their own ways. Dekker took me out for a drive to the Grand Canyon and told me as we watched the sunset.
“There really is nothing like a beautiful sunset.” I say as I sit in his lap. Suddenly I am lifted in the air and turned around, straddling him, his lips dangerously close to mine.
“Angel,” he drawls, his voice low and husky.
“Dekker,” I respond back.
His eyes meet mine and I see his chest rise up as he lets out a shaky breath. “I’m completely in love with you. Like you are all my suns and moons. I fucking love you.”
I break out in a big grin, my eyes watering from his confession. “I love you, Dekker.” I let out a giggle.
“What’s so funny?” He narrows his eyes at me.
“I didn’t know you had it in you to be such a poet.” I purse my lips together to keep from breaking out into a fit of laughter.
Dekker says nothing. He just growls at me, a growl so feral I feel it in my lady bits. His lips seek out mine as he kisses me with a bruising force.
Xayden was a bit more, well, Xayden. The other two were out at the gym when he found me in the kitchen of the AirBNB we had rented.
“Princess, what are you doing?” He says from behind me.
“I made some brownies.” I turn around to see him stalking toward me. His lips turned up slightly, his eyes fixed on me. He doesn’t care what I’m doing. He just wanted my attention. “What are you doing, Xay?”
He’s on me in a second, his hardness pressed up against me. My body instantly vibrating at his touch. His hands find my hips and he lifts me up onto the counter top. I open my legs and he settles between them.