Page 22

Twenty-one

“ D on’t,” Knox warns. “The more you try to fight this, the happier I’m going to be to tie you up.”

I shudder as I look through the three guys.

They’re rough with each other, they banter, tease, push each other’s buttons.

They’re sharp, but there’s something warm between them, and being part of what they share in common feels good.

Especially when they’re not picking on me, shoving me, or hurting me.

Maybe there’s something right about Knox’s cruel, aggressive words. The past is the past. Unchangeable. But the future… there are options there, and whether I want these three to be a factor or not, it doesn’t seem like they’re ready to let go of those options.

“What are you doing?” I ask as my brows furrow.

“What do you mean, sweetheart?”

I shake my head as I hold up my hand. “Stop calling me sweetheart. I’m not yours. We shouldn’t… I know we will always be tied together in some way, but…”

“Hope, don’t lie. Don’t make us,” Dimitri says.

My hands ball into fists. “There it is! If I keep saying no, you’re going to do it anyway, aren’t you?”

He huffs and steps closer. “You can never get rid of us. Get that into your head!”

There’s a truth in that, I know there is. I also know I want to keep saying no, I want to keep pushing them away because who am I if I give in?

How will the little girl of my past react seeing that I gave in to the men who used me, who claimed me in ways that I can barely wrap my head around? It wouldn’t be right.

But since when is anything in my life right ?

I grit my teeth. “I forgot my phone,” I say and turn to head back inside. I need air. I need to breathe. Anything that keeps the distance between me and them.

I hate it when they’re mean to me, but I hate it almost more when they’re being nice to me. It’s confusing and fucking me up because I can’t possibly be nice back, right? I shouldn’t even grace them with a smile .

“Don’t take too long,” Knox warns me, suspicion glinting in his eyes as I look over my shoulder at him.

My stomach twists into knots as their gazes pinpoint on me, trailing my every move. I wish I hated having all their eyes on me, but underneath the nervousness, there’s a tremor of excitement that thrums through my soul. How messed up am I?

“Just give me a minute,” I say with a strained voice, hoping they comply. I just need a moment to myself because my mind is a cluster of conflicting thoughts and feelings. If I can just sort through them, maybe I’ll know the right thing to do.

Or maybe there’s no right thing.

When they nod, I turn and hurry off to go inside, leaving them out on the sidewalk for who knows how long they’ll stay.

My steps are the only sounds I hear when I round the corner to my office. The training room is dark, other than the lights above the doors showing the exits. I push open the door and breathe in relief when I see my phone waiting for me on my desk.

As my fingers curl around my phone, the door behind me closes. The sound of the lock turning in place sends goosebumps over my back.

Of course, they’re here. What else did I expect from giving orders to men who believe they own me?

Is this it? Is this the moment where their patience is gone and they take what they want, what they believe they deserve?

Should I stop them? Or should I give in? Letting them use me as a deep and dark part inside me… wants them to .

Warm hands run over my arm as my body tenses beneath the touch. The tension swirls lower, and I want to loathe what it makes me feel, how my core reacts in a way it shouldn’t. Even the gentle fanning of his warm breath against the back of my neck makes my heart pound.

“Don’t do this,” I say, but even I don’t believe the words, the lie.

Perhaps it’s okay to have this need for lack of control. Perhaps there is control in that. Or am I just crazier than I thought I was?

He steps closer, his body morphing against mine, and the tension inside me builds. But it isn’t the one that forms my pleasure. No, it is one that tells me that the body that’s pressed against my back isn’t one of my tormenters but another.

I can never forget how their bodies feel, even after all these years. Even with how much they have grown, I’ll always know how they feel as they are carved into me.

I try to move away, but my desk in front of me blocks my movement. The soft touch on my arms strengthens almost painfully, and then a warm breath teases over my ear.

“This is how you want it, right?”

The voice should bring some relief, some hope. But as I feel his hard cock pressing against my ass, I wonder if he would stop.

“Jared, what are you doing?” I say while I try to worm out of his grip that only seems to tighten with every breath I take.

“Doing what you want, right?” he questions, but there isn’t any doubt in the sounds that roll from him. He’s doing exactly what he wants.

“I don’t want this,” I grit as panic pounds through my veins and seizes my heart in a vise grip. “Let me fucking go!”

I manage to turn, or maybe he’s letting me. The lines are blurring and so is the grip on my own choices.

“I tried to be nice. I was always nice, Hope, and then these three come and just grabbed you,” he starts, and with his right hand he tries to tuck my pants down, but my thighs remain strained together, not wanting him to have even an inch.

“They don’t just grab me,” I counter, but I know that isn’t completely true as I remember how it must have looked when Jaxon took me to Dimitri’s room.

“I’ve seen enough, Hope, to know what you want from me. I believe my own eyes before I trust what comes out of your mouth,” he grits and forces my legs open with his knee.

I whimper as my hips strain, trying to push back as best as I can, but I’ll never be a match for a man as strong as Jared.

Is this what my life is supposed to be? A life where men part my legs with force because they want to? But when I start dating and ask for it, they look at me like I’m crazy. So, does that mean that moments like this are all I get?

I clench my jaw shut as I don’t want to believe my own thought, don’t want to hide in the safety of my mind like I did with my father.

It should be my choice to do this when I want!

So, I slam my fists on his chest, I scream at the top of my lungs until there isn’t enough air inside me to make another sound. I push, I pull on his hair, ripping out a few strands and clawing his scalp hard enough to make my nails hurt .

But all it does is give him space as the strength on my hips and thighs weaken and he slots his leg between mine, rubbing it against my crotch while he rips my shirt open, revealing the carving on my skin.

There’s a pause in both of us as he stares at it, his lips moving as he tries to read it.

And then, a strong hand grips his shoulder and flings him off me likes he weighs nothing.

My vision is hazy as the tears brim my eyes, but I know who it is.

Warm, callused hands cup my cheeks and dark eyes stare into mine. Eyes that haunted me for so long but now bring me relief. I hardly believe my own emotions, but every cell in my body yearns for him to pull me into his arms, to shield me from unexpected danger.

“Knox,” I whisper, and his touch vanishes, but his voice quickly fills the void.

“You touched her?” Knox’s voice echoes in the room.

I blink away the blur and try to close the shirt Jared ripped apart, my chest quickly rising and falling with anxious breaths.

Jared tosses up his hands quickly. “Nothing happened, man.”

Knox’s gaze finds me again, a question lingers, and I swallow hard, knowing all too well what my answer will unleash.

My fingers tighten around my broken shirt and I shake my head.

That’s all he needs before his face whips back to Jared and his fist slams into Jared’s jaw .

Jared grunts in pain and flails backward, not expecting the blast to his face. By the time he steadies himself, Knox drives a punch into his stomach, making him wheeze as the air leaves his lungs.

With a furious shout, Knox strikes him in the face again, knocking Jared onto the ground before lunging at him with his fist raised once more.

I flinch with every pound, with every toss of Jared’s body.

“Please stop,” I whisper as Jared’s body fades away beneath Knox’s.

I edge closer, reaching with my hand for Knox’s right shoulder, hoping he will stop. But even as my touch grazes over his skin, even as I hold down his shoulder, he doesn’t even feel me.

All he feels is his own rage, his need to destroy who hurt what’s his. He probably doesn’t even feel the blood splattering on his knuckles or his face.

Dimitri, Jaxon, they can stop him.

Before he kills Jared.

I rush out of my office and run through the dimly lit hallways, only hearing my own rapid breathing and the sharp, quick sounds of my sneakers hitting the floor. Air breezes up through the gap in my ripped shirt, blowing over my bare skin and making a chill race up my spine.

In a time when I’m so exposed, I don’t feel like that. Strangely, I feel more protected than ever before.

Just as I round the corner, I catch Dimitri standing in the lobby on his phone .

“Knox!” I yell out with tears brimming my eyes. “You have to stop him!”

Dimitri’s head snaps up and Jaxon comes in sight. With one glance at me, they run up to me, but I keep backing as I try to catch my breath.

“What happened? Who did this?” Jaxon is the first to ask as he pinches the fabric of my shirt between his fingertips.

“He’s going to kill him,” I breathe out, and they both look over my shoulder before they take of in the direction I was coming from.

The adrenaline fades, and even though I try to keep up with the guys, I wonder if they can stop Knox. Jared could already be dead for all I know. Because Knox is the definition of vicious when it comes to a fight, and the others know that.

There’s this scary silence when I finally make it back to my office and I carefully step inside. My desk is broken in half, my laptop smashed to bits, and there isn’t a single piece of furniture that has survived.

Goosebumps trail over my arms as I stare at Knox. His eyes are on me. Blood coats his cheek and hands. He’s holding Jared down by his recovered shoulder, and all that comes from Jared are soft whimpers as blood drips from his lips to the ground.

His eyes are swollen shut and there’s no strength left in his body. He coughs, and blood flecks his bottom lip and chin. All the work I’ve done to rehabilitate him is all gone. All for nothing because he decided that he could make me his .

“Let him go, Knox,” I plead, and Jaxon and Dimitri step closer to Knox. Just because he has stopped now doesn’t mean he won’t get another wave of rage and continue.

“What happened?” Dimitri asks Knox.

And Knox answers. “He touched her. She didn’t want it.”

“Okay,” Jaxon says so simply and turns to me, grabbing my arms and pushing me out of the room.

“Jaxon, don’t,” I say, but as the door closes, a cry that hits my bones echoes.

I know I shouldn’t care what happens to Jared, but still, a sob breaks free from me. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, not in the way they can. Why does so much pain surround me?

“I’m not yours to protect,” I say.

Jaxon pushes me at arm’s length. “When do you get this? You’re ours.” He rips my hands aside, letting my shirt fall open, and presses his finger to my chest. “We’re carved into your soul and skin. And there’s no way we’ll ever let you go again.”

I rip myself free and shake my head. It isn’t right.

I shouldn’t be marked, and I shouldn’t find a tiny flicker of comfort in knowing that they’re bound to me.

If they hadn’t been here tonight… I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened.

Jared is obviously more unpredictable than I ever could’ve imagined.

“Just…” He sighs and takes off his jacket, tosses it around me, and closes up the front before he wipes away the tears from my cheeks, his fingertips lingering on my flushed skin for a second longer. “Go home, Hope. Don’t worry about this. ”

My lips part to stop him, to say anything, but it’s already too late as he disappears into my office.

I grip his jacket tighter, daring to breathe in his cologne that lingers on the leather patches on my shoulders. It warms my stomach, scaring off the goosebumps on my skin as it encompasses me.

But what I don’t dare to think about is…

What does this mean? Does this change anything, to watch the ones who haunted my dreams turn into the ones who protect me?

In the most twisted way.