Page 31 of Love Me in the Dark

“And Knox?”

“I… assumed that because he was mafia that he was guilty. I should have gotten more information before doing anything,” I say. “Are you in the mafia?”

“Yeah,” he smiles. “Mom and Dad were too. I only found out because they got themselves killed.”

“I thought it was a wreck?” I ask.

“Oh, it was. Someone nicked the brake lines, so when they were coming down the mountain, their brakes went out,” he says.

“Who?” I ask.

“Someone who is no longer a problem,” he says vaguely.

I gasp, and he laughs. “Is murder hereditary?” I ask.

“Apparently,” Callum laughs.

“Are you okay?” Cade asks me. “Seriously? I have no problem killing them.”

“You’re like a feisty wiener dog,” I say, and Knox laughs. “Don’t laugh. You’re like a Jack Russell. You’re just loud, and you never stop.”

“That’s… you didn’t have to put it that way,” Cade says.

“Cade, as creepy as this might sound… all of you have seen every part of me. So… you’ll be okay knowing that it wasn’t traumatic this time,” I say.

“I would love an explanation on that one,” Tripp says.

“That… requires me to start from the beginning,” I say.

“Tell them,” Cade says. “I should have told them. Maybe if you had known about what Mom and Dad were into, you never would’ve been attacked.”

“Don’t blame yourself. I am the one who refused to use the inheritance and ended up living in an apartment on a block that those fuckers run,” I say.

“I need to know what that means, so start from the beginning,” Knox says. I sigh and turn on the bed to face him. Tripp and Rook sit as well.

“Almost eight months ago, I was out getting milk. On the way home, I walked past an alleyway, and I was attacked by three men. The less gruesome version of that is that they beat me with a belt, cut me all over, violently raped me, and then slit my throat. A homeless lady found me, and I was ultimately taken to the hospital. I was in a coma for a week. When I got to leave, I moved in with Cade. I had well over five hundred stitches. Callum started staying with us pretty quickly after that because my nightmares were so violent that I was having to sleep between the two of them to keep from getting hurt. For a while, I couldn’t do anything on my own. I was in so much pain all the time. I was weak from all the blood loss and dying twice, apparently. Cade and Callum literally had to do everything for me, from helping feed me to bathing me to helping me in the bathroom. Outside of my throat, the worst injuries were a pretty severely torn perineum, and I had significant damage to my rectum. I’m really fucking lucky I didn’t have permanent damage from that. I think the injury that pissed me off the most was the fact that he bit my titty. A little over a month ago, I moved into the cabin that is in Cade’s name, and I finally went back to work. The entire six months I had thought so much about what I could do, and everything led back to getting rid of people like them. Ultimately, my goal is to find out who they are and make them suffer for what they did to me. I got mad at you for calling me ‘Birdy’ because that’s what they kept calling me when they were raping me. I named myself that on the dark web because it’s the only thing I could think of that no one would know.”

“But them,” Cade says.

“Nyx, honey. I would put money on those three men being the ones that sent you to me,” Knox says. “They would haveknown that you are alive. The moment those men started turning up dead with that name attached, they would have known it was you. My theory is that they were trying to get rid of you, so they took advantage of my past to do that.”

“Well… that sucks,” I say. “I mean, I guess it doesn’t entirely suck that I ended up with you guys, but… the moment you addressed knowing that I was there, I knew I’d fucked up.”

“They played on your emotions. Anyone who does what you do for the reasons that you do it would fall for the same thing,” Rook says.

“So, what now?” I ask.

“A few things,” Knox says. “I’m going to say something, and I just want you to listen for a moment. I’m about to throw a lot at you, so I just need you to hear everything first.”

“Okay?” I question.

“I want you to marry me,” he says. I can’t help but smirk at him for that, especially when my brothers do not react. “Being married to me will automatically grant you protection. Everyone allied with me will protect you. With this, you are not going to be going after random people anymore. If you want to do this, then you are going to go to the source. We are going to find them, confirm the accusations, and fucking kill them. Okay?”

“Just you?” I ask.

“No,” he chuckles. “As far as anyone is concerned, you would belong to all of us.”

“Oh, the visuals,” Cade groans dramatically.