Page 22

22

FAWN

I n a crappy roadside diner, empty of anyone but us and a bored-looking waitress, we spilled everything to Ophelia and Vincent. He’d swapped back into the dominant personality as soon as Scythe had calmed down, though Vincent was no less deadly. He just let his emotions out in a quieter manner, listening to every word of my story, while quietly stabbing his blade into the padding of the seat beside him.

None of us stopped him, the waitress too busy scrolling on her phone to even notice, and by the time I’d finished speaking, the cushion was nothing but fabric ribbons and a pile of fluffy white stuffing.

Ophelia simply threw an exorbitant amount of money onto the table as we left, more than enough to cover the cost of the damage our brother had made of the booth.

In the car again, I wrung my hands until they were practically raw, only stopping when Zane covered them with his.

Vincent eyed him touching me. His jaw twitched, but he said nothing.

“I need my son, V,” I whispered. “Please.”

He gave a curt nod, like it was already done. “I’ll get him. You don’t need to worry. Ophelia—”

She raised an eyebrow. “Ophelia is coming with you.”

Vincent shook his head. “No.”

“Excuse me? No isn’t part of my vocabulary.” She held a hand up, one finger raised. “And don’t try switching with Scythe to get your own way. That won’t work either.”

“You take Fawn and…” He glanced at Zane. “ Him home.”

My sister looked ready to rip Vincent’s knife from his fingers and turn it on him. “I know you didn’t just give me babysitting duties. After all these years. Need I remind you I came back from overseas to rescue your scrawny ass once upon a time.”

“That didn’t work out so badly for you, Ophelia.”

Vincent’s manner was always quiet and to the point, but there was something else in his tone. Something I didn’t quite catch.

But clearly, Ophelia did.

She closed her mouth, pressing her lips together tightly, and shot a glance in my direction. I cocked my head to one side, silently questioning her, but her teeth dug into her bottom lip, and she turned away.

It had been a long time since I’d seen my sister. A lot had changed. But I still knew her. And she was hiding something.

Something that was eating her alive with guilt if her expression was anything to go by.

But it wasn’t my way to push, and so I let her and Vincent argue until they agreed they needed backup and a well-thought-out plan.

I wanted to argue. Wanted to demand we go after Eddie now, and that his disappearance had to have something to do with Guerra and his wife. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to just storm the Guerras’ house and force them to tell me where Eddie had taken my child. My mama heart just needed my baby back in my arms.

But I also knew that while once upon a time, I’d wanted nothing to do with the two people in the front seats of the car, arguing back and forth about storming houses, taking captives, threatening murder and mayhem and violence and destruction, now they were my best hope of getting my child back.

And I needed to let them do what my parents had trained them to do.

Even though I was terrified they wouldn’t succeed and Otis would be lost to me forever.

The very idea sent a chill of panic through my body that was only chased away when Zane put his arm around my shoulders, and in the darkness of the back seat, held me close.

Ophelia shot us worried, disapproving glances in the rearview mirror, but I couldn’t bring myself to care what my sister thought.

I needed Zane. His touch steadied the nervous, frayed edges inside me, the low rumble of his voice comforting as he mumbled reassurances to me that some deep-rooted, fearful part believed.

In the back seat of that car, it wasn’t my siblings who talked me off the ledge. It was Zane’s touch, soft and gentle against my skin, that lulled me into sleep.

“ F awn.”

Zane’s voice cut through the fogginess of sleep, and I peeled my face from the crumpled mess I’d made of his shirt. I peered up at him, blinking, taking a second to realize we were still in the car but no longer hurtling along freeways in the dark. The sun had risen, and the sky was splashed with pretty pinks and golds.

Outside, the streets were familiar, the sign for Saint View High flashing by as my sister maneuvered the car through town. I sat bolt upright.

“We’re in Saint View?” Panic speared through me again and wiped out the last remains of the calm, deep sleep Zane’s embrace had lured me into. “We can’t be in Saint View! Otis—”

Ophelia glanced back at me. “We got all the details we needed out of Zane while you slept, and we have a plan. There’s a team headed to Eddie’s house now to do surveillance, but that’s just me covering all bases. He’s not going back there. He knows you’re going to come to us, and we know this whole thing is all about hurting you. We need to be where he can find us. And I’m not cocky enough to think we don’t need backup. We might only get one shot at getting Otis back, and for that, we need more bodies. I need you to trust me.”

I shook my head, fighting back tears. “He’s just a baby, Lia. We’ve never spent a night apart.”

She parked in front of a house and then twisted to look at me properly. Her gaze was as solid and dependable as I remembered. It was the big sister face she’d made when I was little and kids at school had picked on me. It was the expression she’d worn when our parents had tried and failed to make me more like her. Tougher. Stronger. Ruthless.

Ophelia had always been the one to stick up for me. To protect me. When I’d wanted out, wanted to leave the family behind, she’d been the one who’d stopped our parents coming after me.

She’d always been on my side. She’d been the one who’d set me free.

And she was asking me to trust her again.

I nodded. “Okay.”

She reached a hand back to me, and I clasped it, taking note of the surety in her expression and letting it wrap around me reassuringly.

If Ophelia said this was what needed to happen for them to bring Otis back to me, then it was.

“I need to tell you something.” She squeezed my fingers, capturing my attention.

I nodded, but the street outside was distracting. It took me a minute to work out why. I screwed up my face and shook my head slowly. “Why are we at Augie’s place?”

Ophelia’s expression slipped into uncertainty. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. Augie and I… We…”

Exhaustion and fear still clung to my brain, making it foggy. “You and Augie what?”

“We…”

My brother rolled his eyes in a way that instantly gave away which personality was currently steering the ship. Because Vincent would never. “What she’s trying to say is she and Augie are making whoopie.”

Ophelia smacked him with the back of her hand. “Scythe!”

“What? You are!”

“You don’t have to just blurt it out like that. Jesus fuck, you have no filter.”

I couldn’t follow their conversation. It made no sense. “You and Augie are… You’re what?” I’d heard. I just couldn’t understand it.

“They’re bumping uglies,” Scythe explained. “Knocking boots. Planting the parsnip!”

My mouth dropped open. “You’re sleeping with Augie?”

Augie was one of the guys I’d worked with at the strip club. One I’d had a huge crush on, despite the fact he’d been way too old for me and had only ever treated me as a little sister. It felt like a whole other lifetime ago.

Ophelia shot Scythe the dirtiest look I’d ever seen, right as Augie stepped out of his house. He’d barely changed at all in the five years I’d been gone. He was still all blond hair, blue eyes, and just-stepped-off-the-beach vibes. His eyes had a few more lines around them, and he had a short beard he hadn’t had the last time I’d seen him.

But he was still the same Augie I remembered.

Only the way I felt about him was so incredibly different.

It was me who’d changed. Been forced to grow up.

Ophelia glanced between us, a worried expression on her pretty face. “I’m in love with him, Fawn. I have been for years. We tried to fight it, because I knew what you felt for him. We thought you were dead. We bonded over losing you…”

I squeezed her hand, a small smile pulling up my mouth. “You’re in love with him?”

She nodded, tears welling behind her brown eyes.

“And he loves you?”

Her answer was barely above a whisper. “Yes. We met searching for you.”

That sent a warm feeling through my body and wormed its way around my heart. I loved them both. At least something beautiful had come from what had happened to me. “He’s a good man.”

Few people saw that in Augie, but I always had.

And now my sister did too. She agreed quickly. “He’s the best.”

“He might be the best, but I think he’s going to run down here and break a window if we don’t get out,” Zane added.

I reached for his hand, and he took it, little sparks of pleasure racing up my arm from where he touched me. He put one hand on the door and then glanced over at me, waiting for me to give him the go-ahead.

I nodded.

He opened the door and held it for me as I slid out.

Augie took one glimpse of me and sank down onto his haunches, scrubbing his hands over his face. His shoulders shook with quiet emotion.

Ophelia bit her lip, clearly wanting to run to him, but she glanced at me. “He’s missed you almost as much as I have.”

Zane gave my hand a squeeze and then let it go, a silent encouragement.

I looked over at the man my sister loved, and a smile spread across my face. My footsteps got quicker, each one coming faster until I was running up the path and throwing myself at him.

He caught me at the last second, his blue eyes filled with tears he didn’t even try to hide.

He just engulfed me in strong arms, burying his face in my neck and lifting me off the ground.

I laughed, my feet dangling, and hugged him back. “You even smell the same,” I whispered in his ear.

“Are you really here?” he choked out, pulling back and looking me up and down. He ran his hand over my head in the way he used to.

I’d been so desperate to see something more in the action that now I knew was nothing more than brotherly.

He let out a slow breath. “Shit, you’re so much like Lia with your hair this color… I never realized…”

I smiled up at him. “I hear you’re dating my sister.”

He eyed me. “You gonna give me shit about that the way your brother does?”

Scythe cleared his throat. “I’ll have you know it’s only me who is witty enough to give you shit. Vincent is too polite.” He glanced over at Zane with a murderous glare. “But don’t worry, Augie. You’ve just been promoted to my new favorite brother-in-law.”

I sighed, and Augie followed Scythe’s line of sight to Zane, his gaze darkening before he turned back at me. “You’re not…he’s not…” He crossed his arms over his chest with a near identical expression to Scythe’s. “Nope. Not a chance in hell.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Scythe threw in.

I sighed.

So apparently nobody liked Zane. I could hardly blame them, but after years of Eddie making every decision for me, I wasn’t about to let my siblings do the same. Even if their intentions were good.

Zane squeezed the back of my neck. “It’s okay. I can get a hotel.”

The thought of him leaving sent panic whipping through me. “No!”

I faced off with Scythe and Ophelia and Augie. “It’s been a long night. None of you have slept. But if you’re sending Zane away, then I’m going with him.”

Scythe and Augie both seemed like they wanted to argue, but Ophelia shook her head.

“You’ll stay here.” She sighed. “You’ll both stay here.”

Zane shifted his weight uncomfortably, but a sense of relief settled through me. I needed them.

But I wanted him.

I hugged my brother and promised I’d see him later that night after we’d all slept, and then I followed my sister and Augie into the home they’d made together.

I’d been to the little house in one of the worst parts of Saint View a handful of times back when Augie and I had been friends. Back then it hadn’t been much more than walls, a couch, and a TV.

It had been a bachelor pad, with a feeling of sadness that had been practically palpable every time you walked in the door.

It was anything but that now. The couch was still the same one I remembered, but now it was decorated with cute floral cushions, and a thick rug covered the floor. Plants grew in colorful pots, and family photos hung on the walls, Augie and Ophelia posing together in front of various international locations, and a few kids with big, cheesy smiles beaming at the camera.

I stopped to inspect them all.

“That’s Lexa and Mila.” Ophelia pointed at two little girls. “They’re Vincent’s girls.”

I touched my fingers to the glass gently. “I have nieces?”

“And a nephew,” Augie added. “Ridge. He’s only a few weeks old, so we don’t have a printed photo of him yet but…” He pulled his phone from his pocket and brought up an app. “Here’s a photo.”

I blinked at the image. A beautiful auburn-haired woman sat in the middle of the couch, baby in her arms, and the same two small girls from the photo on the wall either side of her. Three men rounded out the photo, my brother being one of them, the other two vaguely familiar. Not in the sense I knew them, but that maybe I’d seen them around town somewhere. “Who are they?”

Ophelia leaned over to peer at the screen. “V’s partners. His relationship is…unconventional.”

I gazed down at my brother’s face in the photo. “But he’s happy.”

Ophelia nodded. “He is.”

I nodded. “You both are.”

She had that almost guilty look on her face, like she wanted to apologize. But instead she glanced at Zane before dragging her eyes back to me. “You will be too, Fawn. I promise. We’re going to get Otis back for you.”

I bit down on my lip so I wouldn’t cry again. “I know.”

And the thing was, I believed it.

I had to, or I’d fall apart. And I didn’t get to do that. Ever since I’d first felt that tiny baby moving inside me, so desperate to live even though he was born into the worst of circumstances, I hadn’t had the luxury of giving up.

Because he needed me.

We’d needed each other. He’d been my reason to keep going, every day, to keep putting one foot forward, even when those steps caused me pain.

They were all leading me here. I closed my eyes, imagining a world where Otis ran around happily, playing with the two girls in the photo on the wall. His cousins.

A sense of peace and calm fell over me. I hadn’t come this far to fall apart now.

I was getting my son back.

But Ophelia and Zane were dead on their feet, and all of us needed showers and some proper sleep. Ophelia and Augie led the way up the stairs, and I smiled at their backs, and the way she melted into his side the moment he put his arm around her. He kissed the top of her head on the upstairs landing, then pulled open a linen closet, taking out two soft towels and passing them to Zane.

Augie still didn’t seem very happy about the man standing behind me, but I shot him a “please be nice” look.

He grumbled something that sounded like, “I never could say no to you” beneath his breath.

“You can have Banjo’s old room.” Ophelia pointed across the hallway. “Bathroom is right there. I’m prioritizing sleep, so you two have it all to yourselves for at least a few hours. Help yourself to anything else you need. Food’s in the kitchen if you get hungry.”

She pushed Augie into their room, and a second later, their bedsprings gave a telltale squeak of her getting into it.

Zane and I were suddenly alone. Nerves lit up in my belly, the adrenaline I’d been living on exhausted and only raw feelings left in its place. I didn’t know what to say or what to do. We’d done things, said things, but all of them under the veil of fear and forced proximity.

Nobody was forcing us to do anything right now. It should have been the most freeing feeling in the world, and yet it was somehow also terrifying.

But Zane’s hand slid to the side of my neck, and he tilted my face up. His lips landed on mine softly. I melted into him the exact same way Ophelia had with Augie. I let him catch me, let his touch fuel my tired body, even though he was clearly just as exhausted as I was.

But his kisses weren’t. They were warm and sweet and held a feeling of safety we hadn’t had before.

In the bathroom, he broke away, turning on the faucet to fill the bathtub. But then he went right back to kissing me, and I let my head swirl with the feel of his tongue in my mouth and our bodies connecting in a new way. One that wasn’t driven by adrenaline or the threat of being caught at any moment.

His fingers found the zipper on my dress, and he drew it down my spine, twisting me in the process to follow it with his lips. The fabric fell at my feet, a puddle on the floor, my underwear quickly joining it.

I stood naked before him, in the warm light of the morning, nowhere to hide, his gaze taking in every broken part of me.

As well as all the parts his touch had started to heal.

He kissed my shoulder. “Get in.”

I did, well used to having someone watch me bathe, but this felt entirely different than when Eddie leered at me, roughly groping my tits and pussy whenever he felt like it.

He’d never gotten to his knees the way Zane was now, and soaped up his hands with fruity-smelling body wash, ready to lather it over my skin.

I closed my eyes as I sank into the hot water, every inch of it a blissful delight I hadn’t felt in so long. I sank right beneath the water, letting it wash away the fear, if only for a little while.

When I surfaced, Zane’s soaped-up hands slid over my back, gently massaging with every swipe of his palms.

I brought my knees up to my chest and laid my head down on them, twisting to watch him wash me. “I’m sorry about my brother and sister.”

He shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry for. They’re protective of you. I get it.” He sighed. “I’m not innocent in this whole thing. I deserve their anger. And I need to earn their trust.”

But I knew my siblings better than he did. “They might never give you that. It doesn’t come easy to them. It’s not their fault, my parents raised them to only ever rely on themselves, and that trusting anyone else was foolish.” I trailed my fingers through the water. “Maybe they were right. I rebelled against that so hard I trusted the first man to ever pay me any attention. Look where that got me.”

Zane paused, his fingers on the back of my neck. “None of that was your fault. It’s not a character flaw that you have an open heart, Fawn. No matter what your family says, or my brother did.”

I wasn’t so sure I believed that. But I also didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so I changed the subject. “Do you know what I’ve missed? French fries. I haven’t eaten French fries in years. Eddie never let me even make them.”

“He was probably scared you’d throw the hot oil at him.”

“It would have been tempting, that’s for sure.”

He ran his hands down my arms. “What else have you missed?”

“Besides my friends and family?”

He nodded.

“TV. Movies. Books. Entertainment of any kind really. All I’ve had the last few years is the stories I made up in my head or told Otis at bedtime.” I thought on it a bit more. “I missed dancing. I missed holidays, especially Christmas. And going on hikes. Augie, Eve, and I used to walk a track along the Saint View bluffs. It was always miserable and hot for the first mile or two, but then it turned inland and opened up into this shady glen with a waterfall and a swimming hole.” I sighed, remembering the feel of the cool water on my skin, blissfully washing the sweat away. “The best birthday I ever had was spent there. I went back a bunch of times, always hating the walk but loving the end destination.”

“Sounds nice,” Zane said quietly. “I’ve never been there.”

“When we get Otis back, I’ll take you.”

His thumb grazed over my bare skin. “I’d like that.”

My breath hitched a little. “I would too.”

He leaned in to kiss me, and I brought wet hands up to the back of his neck, fingertips sliding into his hair, holding him to me. He groaned into my mouth when I scratched my fingernails against his scalp, and then his hands were in my hair too, him taking control of this kiss in a way that made my heart beat fast.

“What else did you miss?” he asked, voice hoarse with need.

“This,” I mumbled. “I missed being kissed.”

He lowered his mouth to mine again, taking his time, tasting me, exploring me. He kissed slow and soft, letting the heat between us kindle until I was a fiery ball of need that wanted so much more than just kisses.

I’d missed sex. Orgasms. Feeling wanted.

Zane gave me all those things, and I clung to all of it. I clung to him.

When he picked me up out of the tub, I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him there, letting him know exactly what I wanted from him.

He moaned at the way I sucked and bit him, letting my teeth just graze the sensitive skin that turned him on. With one hand supporting me, he used the other to grab a towel, dropping it onto the bathroom countertop and sitting me on top of it.

Instantly he got to his knees, spreading mine wide so he could fit in between.

The first splice of his tongue into my pussy was divine. My eyes rolled back, and I shifted my behind right to the edge of the countertop so he had better access. His tongue rasped over my pussy, sucking and licking me like I’d just done to his neck.

But this was so much better. The feel of his lips wrapped around my clit sent needy shock waves of pleasure through my system, my body aching for more.

Like he’d been working my body for a lifetime instead of just days, Zane knew what I needed without me telling him. His fingers slid into me, stretching me just a little, plunging deep and angled just perfectly so he hit my G-spot with every thrust.

I moaned his name, not caring Ophelia and Augie would hear. I was so tired of being silenced. So tired of being quiet. So tired of being a shell when all I wanted was to be a woman.

His woman , a voice whispered in the back of my mind. Not just anyone’s woman. Zane’s.

Darker thoughts slunk in though, reminding me what I felt for him wasn’t real. That I wasn’t falling hard and fast for the man he was, and instead I was living a delusion, transferring withheld feelings to the first man who came along.

It was what I’d done with Eddie. Clung to him because I’d wanted to escape.

And now I was doing it with Zane as well.

But I was powerless to stop it. I couldn’t. Not when he made my body feel things no other man ever had. Not when he held me so gently, his soft, reassuring smiles all for me and no one else.

Zane was easy to get lost in. Gentle. Safe. And that was exactly what I needed right now.

So I gave myself up to the pleasure of his mouth on my most intimate parts. I let my body relax enough that every stroke, every lick drove me higher and higher until I was coming, thighs wrapped around his head, squeezing shamelessly as the orgasm gripped me and threw me over the edge.

I fell, drowning his face in my arousal, him lapping up every drop like it was heaven.

When the quivering in my thighs finally eased and released him, he stood, kissing his way up my belly to my tits, taking one nipple into his mouth and worshipping it while his other hand tweaked my breast, squeezing the tip between his fingers, rolling and playing with it until it was just as desperate for his mouth as my pussy had been.

He swapped sides, lavishing attention on every inch of me while I tugged at his shirt, pulling it over his head.

In the bright morning light, my gaze rolled over every inch of his sun-kissed skin. It was clear to me he worked with his shirt off in the warmer months and his job required a lot of manual labor. Because he was perfectly sculpted, all long, lean muscle and smooth skin. A light dusting of hair across his pecs, and another trail of it that started beneath his belly button and disappeared beneath his pants.

I dragged them down over his tight ass and thighs, freeing his thick, heavy cock.

I clenched at the sight of it. Ached for him to fill me.

He opened the top drawer of the bathroom cabinet and snagged a condom. “We should…”

But what was the point? I already knew I couldn’t get pregnant again. My body was too wrecked. I’d never gotten my period properly since Otis had been born, and Eddie had never been careful. I knew in my heart more babies weren’t an option for me. I was okay with that because I had Otis, and he was all I ever needed.

Zane and I had already fucked bare, so the STD ship had sailed.

And if I was being plain irresponsible, I wanted to feel him. To have the heat of him inside me. To be skin to skin, no barriers, the two of us in this bathroom with the real world just outside but not ready to join it yet.

I gripped his cock and stroked him, setting a slow but steady tempo and using the precum beading at his tip to lubricate his dick.

He groaned, thrusting lightly into my hand, until I brought him to my entrance, guiding him inside me.

We both moaned as he sank in deep, filling me, his warmth mixing with mine.

He was perfectly shaped to fit my body, and when he withdrew, I let out a quiet cry of need that continued until he was back inside.

Back where he belonged.

He kissed me again, making out while we fucked. We groped for each other, getting as close as we could, connecting as much of our bodies as possible until the sex became more of a sensual grind that was a full-body experience. My clit stimulated by the drive of his pubic bone. My tits massaged by the press of his chest. My skin alight with a fire that blazed in every place he touched me.

Our hips moved in time, and we clung to each other like even this close wasn’t enough.

My second orgasm was slower. Quieter. I came without a sound, but my gaze locked with his, my heart hurting in a way that somehow also felt good. “Don’t leave me,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “I can’t, Fawn. Even if I wanted to…I can’t.”

He kissed me deep, the two of us wrapped around each other, falling into something neither of us could control.

Something that wasn’t healthy, because we were both so damn broken, but uncontrollable, nonetheless.

We’d both come, but like when we’d been out in the woods, neither of us wanted to break that connection. He warmed his cock inside me, not thrusting, just being together, breathing, drawing comfort from being as close as we could be.

I wrapped myself around him, and he lifted me easily and walked us across the bathroom, his dick still buried. He opened the door a crack and looked out into the hallway, but then he was pulling it wide and slipping out of the bathroom.

I clutched a towel around us, but it was with one hand and did little to provide us with any privacy. Augie and Ophelia’s door was closed, and it was less than three steps to the spare bedroom they’d indicated could be ours.

Zane had us enclosed in a room in seconds, and he sank down onto the bed, careful not to break the connection between us.

And that’s how we slept. Me on top of him, my head resting on his chest so I could hear his heart, his cock inside me.

And the knowledge that even though I suddenly had other people back in my life, he was something I could lose if I didn’t hang on tight.