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“ T his is where you grew up?” Jameson asked as they all stepped out of the Uber.

She’d wanted to take the tube, but for some reason none of the men looked happy at that idea.

Silly, overprotective idiots.

God, she was so glad they were here.

“Yeah. Why?” It wasn’t the nicest neighborhood. But it wasn’t the worst either. It was a terraced house and was well-looked after.

A woman walking a dog looked over at them. Maggie winced as she recognized Mrs. McCauley from down the road.

“Hey, Mrs. McCauley,” she called out.

The older woman glared at her. “Maggie! Fancy you showing your face here. Look at the shame you’ve brought to your poor mother and father. I can’t believe you’d show up. And with them .” The older woman glared at her men.

Maggie hunched into herself. She could feel the embarrassment filling her cheeks. She’d known that her parents would be upset. Her brother and sister. But she hadn’t even thought about the neighbors, her colleagues.

God, could she do this?

“Why don’t you bugger off, you old bat! Go spread your doom and gloom somewhere else. Like a cemetery.”

The weird thing was that didn’t come from Jack.

It came from Jameson.

She stared up at the sexy doctor in shock. So did Ian and Jack.

“What? She’s a bitch.” Jameson glared at Mrs McCauley who huffed, but quickly walked away. “I don’t like judgmental people.”

“Yeah . . . but I’ve never heard you talk to anyone like this. You usually charm the bitter old biddies,” Ian said.

“As far as fuck-offs go, it was a touch sad. From you, though, it was epic.” Jack slapped his back.

Maggie threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Gratitude filled her. It felt so good to have people willing to take her back. “Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me for sticking up for you. It’s my privilege.” He hugged her lightly back.

Darn it. That was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her.

“So, you’ve added someone else to your harem? When does it stop? At ten? Fifty? A hundred? Funny, I never knew what a slut my sister was.” A familiar voice reached her and Maggie stiffened. Then she drew away from Jameson just as Jack took a step toward her sister, a dark look on his face.

“This. Fucking. Bitch. Is. Dead.”

Oh fuck!

Maggie moved in front of Jack as he headed toward her sister, who was standing in the open doorway.

“Jack, no! That’s my sister!”

“So? No one talks to you like that. No one.”

“Oh great. They’re violent too? Couldn’t you have at least gotten some with some refinement?” Rachelle said snootily.

Maggie turned to glare at her. “Oh, shut the bloody hell up, Rachelle. No one cares what you have to say.”

Rachelle gaped at her.

Maggie never talked back. She never stood up for herself. But she was over that. She was tired of being her family’s doormat.

“Jack, please,” she whispered. “I need to find Uncle Willy and this won’t help.”

He grunted, but didn’t take another step forward. She guessed that was as good as she was going to get.

“I need to talk to Mum. Is she here?” Maggie asked. She was proud of how calm she sounded.

“Why would she want to talk to you?” Rochelle sneered. “You humiliated the family. Again. Why do you have to be such a disappointment?”

“Call her a disappointment one more time. I dare you.”

She was so busy trying to get Jack under control that she’d failed to notice Ian reaching that edge and toppling right over it.

Monkeyballs.

He was now looming over Rachelle and she’d finally grown a brain cell and realized the danger she was in.

“Jameson? Some help?”

“With what? I want to see the little bitch sweat for what she just said to you,” Jameson stated.

Great.

So everyone had left the rational station and taken the train to nutsville.

Perfect.

This is what she got for being with men who were utterly obsessed with her. It was hard but someone had to do it.

Urgh. She was already at nutsville station.

“If you touch me, I’m calling the police,” Rachelle said in a high-pitched voice.

“I wouldn’t touch you if my life depended on it,” Ian snarled as Jack drew Maggie against him, holding her tight.

When she tried to get to Ian, Jack held her back. “I don’t want you anywhere near her.”

“She’s my sister, she won’t hurt me.”

“She already has,” Jack replied.

It had been that obvious, huh? She hated being called a disappointment.

“Will the two of you stop providing the neighbors with gossip for the next century?” Her mum stepped into the doorway and glared at her. “Get inside.”

Swallowing heavily, Maggie walked up to the house where she’d grown up. Her mum moved away and Rachelle entered first, giving Ian and Jack worried looks.

“Can’t they leave?” Rachelle whined, gesturing at her men.

“No, we can’t,” Ian said, following her sister inside.

Jack strode on in as though he owned the place. And he was actually whistling.

Ian took her hand in his and glared at Rachelle who turned away to scurry ahead of them.

When they walked down the hallway to the larger kitchen and dining area at the back, she was unsurprised to see her brother and dad there.

“Finally, she turns up,” Ronny said with a sneer. “Took you long enough.”

“Do you even care that your sister was kidnapped?” Jameson said in his poshest sounding voice. “She was held by people who beat and starved her and you haven’t bothered to ask her how she is.”

“What?” her dad asked. “No-one . . . no-one told me this? Heather? Did you know this?”

“It’s probably just a story she made up for attention,” her sister said. “She was always doing that as a child.”

God.

She hadn’t realized how much she hated her sister until that moment.

Ronny let out a laugh. “Yep, she’s such a liar, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Really? Would you like to see the bruises?” Jameson moved over to her, placing his hand on her sweater questioningly.

Without thinking about it too much, she raised her sweater and T-shirt up to show off the bruising on her ribs. It actually wasn’t too painful anymore, but it looked terrible.

Her dad sucked in a breath. “Maggie! Why did no one tell us?”

“I tried to call you both after William was hurt,” Ian told them. “Your wife hung up on me.”

“I didn’t want to talk to you,” her mother said, glaring at Jameson.

“W-what?” Her dad looked at her mum like he’d never seen her before. “Who did it? Have they been arrested?”

“They’re searching for them,” Maggie replied. Part of her felt better that her dad hadn’t known anything. And worse because her mum didn’t look like she even cared. “It was the same people who released those photos to the press.”

“Yes, those photos,” her father spat out, looking from Ian to Jack. Then he turned to Jameson. “And who are you?”

“I’m Doctor Jameson St. Bede.”

Lord, she loved it when he got all snooty.

“Are you with my daughter too? The two of you were in those photos. Are you in some sort of harem like those people who live in Escana?” her mother asked looking like she’d tasted something revolting.

“Actually, I am. And these guys are my boyfriends.” She’d ask Jameson’s forgiveness for lying later.

“I don’t approve of this, Maggie,” her mum said. “You’re not getting involved with these men. No daughter of mine is going to be a slut.”

Maggie was tempted to curl in on herself. To just take the verbal battering and walk away. But then she looked at Ian who looked like he was about to explode. Over to Jack who’d gone blank, his body held tight. Then over to Jameson who lifted a finger to her mum.

“How dare you!”

Her mum jolted as if she hadn’t expected them to talk back to her.

“Your daughter is sweet and kind and smart. She deserves to be showered with love and affection and all you can do is spew hate at her. You don’t deserve her.”

“Well . . . how rude! Hugh, aren’t you going to defend me?”

Maggie’s dad just looked shell-shocked.

“Call her a slut again and I will end you,” Jack said in a low voice.

“You can’t threaten me! Get out of my house.”

“Gladly,” Ian said. “As soon as you tell us what we want to know, we’ll leave and you will never see your daughter again.”

“Your loss,” Jameson said. “But rest assured, we’ll take very good care of her.”

She expected to feel sad at the thought of never seeing her family again. But it was actually a relief. And she wasn’t on her own anymore. She’d survived being fucking kidnapped. She could survive this too.

“I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t need your approval,” she said quietly. “My relationship isn’t up for discussion. It’s none of your business and it’s not why I’m here. I’m here to talk to you about Uncle Willy.”

Her mother’s face grew cagey while her dad looked away. Rachelle glared at her until her gaze met Ian’s and then she backed down. Ronny was just staring at them all in shock.

“That’s none of your business,” her mum said.

Um, what the hell?

“What do you mean? Of course, Uncle Willy is my business,” she replied.

“I’m his sister. I’m taking care of his affairs.”

“His . . . affairs? What . . . what have you done to him?” Her heart raced and she felt ill.

Ian squeezed her hand, while Jack placed his hand on the small of her back.

Her mum looked offended, but there was still something in her gaze. “All I’m doing is taking care of him.”

“No. The two of you haven’t gotten on in years. You hated Aunt Lia. You hated that he was successful and you’re not. Where. Is. He?”

Her mother started to grow red. “Get out of my house! Now!”

“Where the bloody hell is he?”

“After everything we did for you,” her mother said. “All of the lessons we paid for. Chauffeuring you around. Going without so you could skate. And this is how you repay us?”

“So you’re saying you were parents to her and now she owes you something?” Jack asked.

“You know that I appreciate everything you did for me,” she said quietly.

“Do we? Since you threw it all away!” her mum screeched.

“Threw it all away?” Ian said in a low, dark voice. “She was in a fucking car accident and shattered her hip. And you’re blaming her?”

“She should never have been in that car. She wasn’t supposed to have a boyfriend!” her mother said.

“What? Was she just supposed to stay at home and skate? Never have a life but the one you had mapped out for her?” Jameson asked in a calm voice. “I suppose you were hoping that she’d get a medal at the Olympics, and then what? Sponsorships? Money? Or was it just the idea of being able to lord it over the neighbors?”

“This is none of your business!” her mother snarled.

He wasn’t wrong, though. They’d likely been hoping for all those things. All of their hopes had been pinned on her. And for so long she’d borne the brunt of their disappointment and anger. But no more.

“It wasn’t my fault. Yes, I got in the car. But I didn’t know we’d crash. I just wanted to be normal. To have fun. I was never allowed to do anything but go to school and train.”

Her mother reared back. “So now you’re saying we’re bad parents?”

“I am,” Jack told them.

“I’m just saying that you had high expectations. I’m sorry I couldn’t make you proud, but I’m tired of you calling me a disappointment. If you won’t tell me what happened to Uncle Willy, then I’ll have to find out on my own.”

Turning, she walked toward the door.

“Leave this house and you’re dead to me, Margaret!” her mother screeched.

Maggie sucked in a harsh breath. It hurt more than she thought it would. But she didn’t stop. They weren’t her family. Not anymore. Now, she had her men. She had Uncle Willy and Indie. They were her family.

She walked outside with her men behind her. She didn’t realize she was shaking until Ian drew her into his side, rubbing her back. Maggie buried her face in his sweater.

“I hate this. I hate it.”

Jack moved in behind her.

“You did so well, Maggie,” Jameson told her. “We’re so proud of you.”

Turning her head, she gave him a tremulous smile.

“I’m going to get us a ride to the hotel,” Jameson said, bringing out his phone. He’d just put it away when the door opened and her dad walked out.

She pushed her way out from between Jack and Ian. Although Jack wrapped his arm around her shoulders as Ian took hold of her hand. Jameson shocked her by stepping in front of her.

She gaped at him for a moment, then shook her head to clear it.

I am not turned on by his protectiveness. I am not.

Such a liar.

“Jameson, it’s all right.”

Jameson grunted and moved slightly to the side so she could see her dad.

“Dad,” she said carefully.

“Your mother will come around.”

Maggie shook her head. Truthfully? She didn’t much care. She was done. Totally done.

“Not this time, Dad. It’s too late. I just want to know where Uncle Willy is.”

Her dad nodded, looking sad and old. “I understand. I wrote down the place where she had him admitted. He wasn’t in a good way when he got here. Another knock to the head on top of the one he’d had . . . it wasn’t good. He spent several days in the hospital before your mother had him moved to a long-term facility. I have no doubt that when he’s feeling better, he’ll come back swinging.”

“Thank you,” she said, taking the piece of paper.

“It’s the least I can do. These . . . these men are protective of you.”

“They are.”

“Good . . . good . . . take care of my girl.”

None of them answered and her father awkwardly nodded and walked back inside.

And that’s when her legs gave way.