Page 23

23

FAWN

I woke to a commotion downstairs, voices I didn’t recognize, and the sounds of multiple people moving about.

It was dark outside, and I was horrified to realize we’d slept the entire day away, even though logically, I knew we’d needed it.

Zane slept warm beneath me, the whole front of my body blazing with the heat of being on top of him all night.

But neither of us had moved. One of his arms had fallen to the mattress while he’d slept, but the other rested on my lower back, his fingertips grazing the swell of my ass. His cock was still buried deep inside me.

Hard.

I gasped at the feel when I moved, pleasure sparking to life between us, and he groaned, eyes fluttering open.

“We need to get up,” I told him. “It’s dark. There are people here, and we can’t waste another day. We need to come up with a plan. We need supplies, and we need to get Otis, and I need—”

He flipped our positions, so I was beneath him. He hovered over me, his weight supported on his forearms. “Your brother and sister are already downstairs doing all of that. What you need is for me to fuck you.”

I wanted to argue, except he was right. My pussy clenched around his hard dick, and my hips moved against his like they had a life of their own. My body needed his. Craved his. My brain whirled a million miles a minute until he slowed it down with gentle thrusts that evened out my breathing and sent calm through my limbs.

He whispered in my ear, telling me how good I felt, how beautiful I was, how hard I made him. And I reveled in his praises, drowned in them, sucking them in and storing them away because I hadn’t had anyone say a single nice thing to me in years, and I craved it like I craved air.

He was gentle but fast. He made me come with nothing more than penetration, aided by the fact he’d been in me all night so my body was primed and ready for him, even though I hadn’t been aware of it.

He got dressed quickly, pulling on clean clothes from the closet in the spare room. Zane had little else here, but he and Augie were the same size, and his clothes were a much better fit than the things he’d worn of Eddie’s. I had clothes shoved into a backpack, but now that I was away from the little house of horrors in the clearing, I couldn’t bring myself to wear any of them.

“I want to burn these,” I whispered, taking each dress out, my skin crawling at the sight of the shapeless material Eddie had always bought for me at dollar stores and garage sales.

He'd never made any effort to find something I would like. Or even something that would fit.

Zane held up a pair of jeans. “There’s women’s clothes in here too.”

“Probably the overflow from Ophelia’s closet. She always did have too many clothes.” I took them from him. Ophelia and I had been the same size before everything had happened, but now her clothes hung off my bony hips.

Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. Even without a mirror, I knew how unwell I looked. How badly I needed healthy, nourishing food to get back to the weight I’d once been. I didn’t like the gaunt hollows of my cheeks. Or the way my ribs stuck out. My body was a constant reminder of everything I’d been through, and I just wanted to change it all so I never had to be reminded of it again.

But how could I forget when I couldn’t even get a pair of pants to fit properly? Everything reminded me of him and what he’d done to me.

Zane glanced over from where he was pulling on a shirt. One that fit his healthy, muscled body perfectly.

He didn’t ask me what was wrong. He could see it.

Instantly, he abandoned what he was doing, leaving his jeans open to rifle through the closet again. A belt appeared in his hands, and then he was kneeling at my feet, threading it through the loops on my jeans and fastening the clasp so they didn’t slide down my ass.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He placed a kiss to the indent of my hip and went back to dressing himself.

We both dragged on hoodies, and when we were ready, he wrapped his fingers around mine, squeezing them reassuringly. “Let’s go get our boy back.”

I peered up at him. “Our?”

He brushed the backs of his fingers down the side of my face, sweeping back my hair. “Is that okay? I know I haven’t known him long, but that doesn’t stop me from loving him.”

It was so very okay. And I knew exactly what he meant.

I’d loved Otis from the very moment I’d felt him inside me. I hadn’t needed to see his face or hear him cry. I hadn’t needed time. It had been instant, born from a connection of knowing he was mine. Just yesterday I’d instantly fallen in love with two little girls I’d never met, just because they were my brother’s children. Without ever meeting them, I’d known in my bones I’d lay down my life for theirs.

Just as Vincent and Ophelia were about to do for Otis.

This was what family was.

Unconditional and instant love.

My hand in his, Zane and I walked downstairs.

A hush fell over the room as we reached the last one, and everyone turned to look at us.

Nerves suddenly erupted in my belly. Augie and Ophelia and Vincent were all there, the three of them discussing something over a portable table that had been brought in and was now covered in papers, food, and somewhat more disturbingly, knives and guns. I still hated both. Hated the destruction and devastation humans could cause with one of them in their hands, but I was also no longer na?ve enough not to realize that Eddie wouldn’t fight fair.

So neither could we.

My heart stuttered at the sight of Lyric’s long hair. She talked with a man I vaguely recognized, a cross tattoo taking up half his bicep, and I was about to call her name when a strangled cry came from the other side of the room.

“Fawn.”

Something inside me broke.

I would have known that voice anywhere.

I spun on my heel, spotting Eve through the crowd, desperately weaving her way between the broad-shouldered men who seemed to fill the house.

I let go of Zane and ran to the woman, the two of us colliding almost painfully in a tangle of arms and legs and tears and excitement. She crushed me to her, hugging me so tight I couldn’t breathe.

And then she wouldn’t let me go. She cried into my shoulder until I realized it was me holding her up and not the other way around.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’m okay.”

It wasn’t true. I wouldn’t be okay until I had my baby back in my arms, but Eve needed to hear it. She’d been some sort of combination of mother, sister, best friend, and boss before I’d left. And nothing had changed. I could feel it in the way she held me. The way she said my name over and over, like it was a prayer or a wish that had just come true.

She pulled back to look at me, her cheeks streaked with tears. “I’m pregnant.”

Ophelia’s head whipped around so quick. “What?”

Eve clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God. That is not what I planned to say. I’ve been pacing around all day, ever since Augie called me, practicing what I was going to say to you. I had a whole speech prepared! And then I just go and make it all about me.”

But it was the best thing she could have said. I put my hand on her belly, knowing that even after five years apart she wouldn’t mind. “You’re pregnant? Is this your first?”

I hated that I didn’t know what had happened to her in the years we’d been apart. It didn’t feel right, and yet it was the reality we had.

She nodded. “We’ve been trying. But we just had another round of IVF and we only just got the news yesterday…” She swallowed hard. “And now it feels like I know why. Like all this time, this baby was just waiting for you to come home.”

The lump that rose in my throat nearly choked me, and I hugged Eve tight, Ophelia’s arms coming around us, and then Lyric’s, Augie’s, and eventually Boston laughed when Eve waved him over to join the huddle.

Something broken inside me knit itself back together. These people weren’t my blood, but they were the family I’d once chosen for myself. And they were still here, ready to welcome me home.

Vincent cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to break up the reunion. I know you’ve waited a long time for it. But we need to do this. We have some new information…”

I instantly knew from the tone of his voice that whatever he’d found out, it wasn’t a good thing. Despite all the people I loved around me, it was Zane I reached for, clutching his fingers between mine.

My brother looked none too happy about it, but he didn’t comment, for which I was grateful. I knew getting them to like Zane would be a tough ask, but he was what I needed. He’d been there with me. The only light in the darkness I’d had, and it was what I clung to now while the rest of the world still felt out of control.

“Just tell me, V. Whatever it is.”

He nodded. “When you said Eddie was mixed up with the Guerras, Ophelia and I both recognized the name. We’d hoped it wasn’t the same family we’re acquainted with here in Saint View. It’s a common enough last name, and where we found you is so far away, we figured it would be a different group.”

The name didn’t mean anything to me that I could remember, though so much of the past few years was a blur of details I’d forgotten.

But Zane stiffened at my side. “You think Guerra is… Wait, as in Luca Guerra?” He swore beneath his breath. “Fuck, I didn’t even consider it. I haven’t heard that name in over five years.”

A man I didn’t recognize stepped forward. “As in Luca’s father, Carlos, actually. Luca is out of his father’s game. He took his sister, and they’ve disappeared.” He held a hand out for Zane to shake. “I’m Hayden, by the way.” He glanced at me. “I’m Liam’s brother. I own a club that used to be part-owned by Luca Guerra, which is why your brother asked me to come in. I know a bit about their family.”

My head spun, trying to fit all the pieces together, but I remembered Liam. He was an old childhood friend of Eve’s, and he’d come to family night at the club a few times. Staring at his brother now, I could see the family resemblance in the kindness of his expression.

But the stiffness in Zane’s posture had worry quickening my breaths. I looked between him and Hayden and Vincent, waiting for someone to tell me what was going on.

Ophelia was the one who filled me in. “Amongst the Guerras’ legal businesses, like the club Hayden runs, they’re also into human trafficking. Women, mostly. But…”

I shook my head, not wanting to hear the rest of what she was going to say. “No. You have the wrong people… You said yourself the name was common. They’re probably just into guns or drugs… Eddie never tried to sell me. He would have, if he was involved…”

Hayden pulled out his phone and scrolled through a few apps before turning the device around so I could see the screen. “This is Carlos Guerra’s third and current wife, Audrina. Is this the woman you saw him with?”

Nobody needed me to say yes. They already knew it was.

I doubled over, putting my hands on my knees. “You think they want to sell him?”

Ophelia rubbed my back soothingly. “I really hope not. I hope Eddie just took him to hurt you, but…”

I lifted my head. “But what would hurt me more than selling my child so I never get him back? Eddie doesn’t care about him! He never has! He’s only ever used him as something to torture me with.”

Ophelia looked like she wanted to cry just as much as I did. But I refused to let tears form. Instead, I let a red-hot, blinding rage take their place, and once it was there, I held on to it, gripped it with everything I had so I didn’t fall apart.

I refused to be weak when my son needed me.

Vincent was less emotional, his feelings forever tucked away deep inside him where few could reach. The only sign he was agitated was the way he played with a switchblade, flicking the steel in and out with his thumb.

A habit I recognized from when we were younger. One he’d started as a coping mechanism for dealing with our parents. Ophelia had gotten in fights. Vincent had fidgeted with his knives. While I’d just tried not to be noticed.

But I’d spent too long trying to hide. Trying to be good and quiet and never drawing attention to myself.

That had to end.

I’d thought I’d realized that when I’d taken the job at the strip club. I’d thought swinging around poles and taking my clothes off was the way I broke free of the shell I’d built for myself.

But I’d slunk straight back into it the moment things had gone wrong.

I couldn’t do that again.

I turned to Vincent. “What do we do? And don’t you dare baby me and tell me you’re going without me. That’s my child out there, V. Do not tell me I’m sitting out.”

He blinked at my outburst and glanced at my sister.

I glared at her too.

Zane’s mouth lifted at one corner, and Eve broke out into a wide grin.

“That’s my girl,” she said proudly. “You tell ’em.”

Ophelia’s surprise turned into a nod of respect. “Okay then. Seems like we’re all going. Some of the guys from the MC have been watching the Guerra property in Providence all day. No one has come in or out, but they don’t know who’s inside.”

“A silver Jag?” Zane asked. “That’s what Audrina was driving. Eddie’s truck was still at the house, so they have to be in her car.”

Vincent shook his head. “No report of any visible vehicles, but Guerra was spotted playing tennis earlier today and hasn’t left since. You said their plan was to kill Guerra and take over his business, yes? So if that’s the case, they have to go there eventually.”

“And hopefully Otis is with them when they do,” Ophelia added. “But I want you to prepare yourself. This might not happen tonight. It might be a few days before we see any movement.”

She said it in the matter-of-fact way only a person without kids could.

A few more days without my baby was unacceptable. I couldn’t do it. “No.”

Lia sighed. “I know it’s not ideal, but it’s our only shot. You have to trust me. We’ll intercept them when they try to make the attack—”

I shook my head at my sister. “I know you mean well. And I know you’ve spent your whole life watching over me. And I know I look weak and pathetic to you.”

“You don’t—”

But I cut her off, not needing to hear her assurances. I was well aware of my capabilities and my limits. I would have been a liability if we’d had to walk from the house I’d shared with Eddie to the nearest neighbor. I would have needed to stop and rest and I would have slowed us down. I knew I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with whatever Ophelia and Vincent were planning.

But nobody loved that kid like I did. Nobody had spent five years caring for him, holding him, showing him kindness when there was so little of it around us.

And nobody was going to fight harder for him than I would.

“It’s not our only shot.” I straightened my shoulders. “Take me to the Guerra house. I need to meet with the man my husband wants to kill.”