Page 39 of Recovering Ivy (Red Team #4)

Zane

“Come on, motherfucker. You said you liked to hear begging. So beg.” I waited for Lance to respond but it never came.

I suppose the fact that he was now missing most of his teeth and his mouth had already swelled, it was a little hard for him to speak.

In the last twenty minutes or so I’d heard him beg enough.

However, I would think a man who was getting ready to have his cock removed from his body would try to say something.

With my gloved hand I squeezed his tiny dick harder and with my free hand flicked my knife open, the shiny metal blade reflecting the overhead light of the small motel bathroom.

I situated myself over Lance, straddling the bathtub the best I could, and I pressed the serrated edge at the base and leaned in.

“You think raping women is fun?” I dug into his flesh, pulling a scream from him.

“I heard what you said to my woman. You like ‘em to fight, huh? Does it make you feel like a man when you take a woman against her will?” Lance had snot and tears mixing together and dripping down his chin. I was almost through the soft member when I stopped and pulled my knife back. “You’re the worst kinda scum hurting innocent women.”

“Please don’t,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry.”

Lance’s head snapped back against the plastic insert of the tub from the force of my punch. If he’d had any teeth left from his previous beating, they were gone now. One more jab for good measure had the sickening sound of bones crunching.

“Too late for sorries, motherfucker.” And with that, I lowered my knife and finished. Lance’s dick was severed.

His eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body slumped. I dropped the bloody piece on his chest and closed my knife. “You’re lucky I couldn’t stomach holding your dick a moment longer or you’d be gagging on it.”

“Clean up is two minutes out, we need to leave,” Jaxon called from the doorway.

With one last look at the man who’d attempted to steal Ivy’s innocence, I pocketed my knife and walked out of the bathroom. Seeing the man bloodied and left for dead did nothing to calm my racing heart, nothing to quiet the echo of Ivy’s screams.

“Zane?” Linc called out.

“Not now.”

“She’s safe, brother. He didn’t touch her.”

“He did. He tore her clothes from her body. He had her on her stomach. He terrified her,” I seethed.

“But you got to her in time. All she needs is you. She’s safe.”

I ignored Linc’s last statement and got behind the wheel of the waiting SUV.

Jaxon and Linc got in and I drove around the motel to the exit, happy to see the police hadn’t been called.

It was a goddamned miracle no one had called in a noise complaint.

Soon, someone would come and fetch Lance’s dead carcass and dispose of his disgraceful ass.

No one spoke for the first hour of the drive.

It was both welcomed and a curse. The silence allowed me to run through all sorts of alternate scenarios in my mind, scenarios where we didn’t get to Ivy in time and Lance was able to hurt her.

The images of her broken were so vivid in my mind I had a hard time differentiating them from the truth.

Linc’s phone dinged and I glanced at him as he read the incoming text.

“They pulled off at a rest stop fifteen miles ahead,” he informed me.

“Tell them to continue on.”

“Ivy’s asking about you.”

“Tell them to continue,” I repeated.

“The fuck, Zane. Your woman is half-naked, sobbing in Declan’s arms, and you want me to tell them to continue?”

“I’m not ready to see her.” My grip tightened on the wheel and my head started to throb. She could’ve been raped. A second later, she would’ve been. The image was replaying over and over.

“Fuck that noise. Man the fuck up. Your woman needs you now. Not in five hours, now.”

“I’m covered in blood, Linc. What the hell? You think I want her to see me like this? Touch me when I have another man’s blood on my clothes and hands? I killed him. She doesn’t need to see me like this.”

“Yes, she does. Pull the fuck over, Zane, and go to your woman. You need her,” Jaxon said from the back seat.

“That’s rich coming from you. You had Violet taken out of the country while you beat Ortega half to death before you gutted the bastard. ”

“I did. Then I went straight to her.”

“I fucking can’t!” I yelled.

“Why not?”

“Because she’ll know who I am and what I do. She won’t be able to deny what I am. Then she’ll leave me.”

Both men were silent.

“She’ll leave me,” I repeated. “I can’t live with that.”

The sign for the truck stop mocked me as I approached. I couldn’t risk her not loving me. I promised her I’d keep her safe. I failed – again.

“Zane, listen to me. You have to go to her. I guarantee you need her right now just as much as she needs you,” Linc whispered.

The exit was coming up. All I had to do was switch lanes and I could pull Ivy into my arms.

“She loves you.” Jaxon placed his hand on my shoulder and for once the contact was welcome.

Maybe they were right. All I needed was Ivy.

She always quieted the guilt and demons.

Not that I felt guilty for cutting that prick’s dick off and letting him bleed out, but there was something stirring so deep inside of me I couldn’t get it out.

I veered right and took the exit. The other SUV was parked around back, and I pulled next to it, not bothering to cut the engine. We wouldn’t be here long.

I exited the car the same time Declan climbed out of the back seat with Ivy cradled in his arms. Her pretty face was red from crying and she was wrapped in the motel blanket. Thank God, they’d thought to cover her before they left. In my anger I hadn’t seen them leave.

Without a word, Declan placed Ivy in my arms.

“Thank you,” she cried.

I went to my knees; Ivy’s arms wrapped around my neck and I buried my face in her hair. Her tiny body shook in my arms and I wondered for the thousandth time how I’d gotten so lucky that this strong, beautiful woman could ever love me.

“I love you,” I whispered, not taking my mouth away from her head.

I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t mad at me. We’d argued constantly about how over the top I was about her safety, a lotta fucking good that was. She’d been taken right out from under the protection I’d promised to provide.

“I should’ve been more careful.”

“Nothing is your fault, Ivy.”

Jax was right, I did need this. I needed to feel her weight in my arms, and her heartbeat close to mine. She was the cure.

I stood and took in the men surrounding us, providing cover so I could tend to my woman, each and everyone always having my six. No matter what, no matter where, no questions asked.

“Thank you.” Declan’s only acknowledgment was a chin lift before he climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV Leo was driving.

Jaxon held open the door to the back seat and shut it after I was situated with Ivy on my lap.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you, too, baby.”

“I was so scared.”

“Me, too.”

“You were?” Her eyes widened in shock.

“Of course, I was. I didn’t know where you were, who took you, if you were hurt. I’ve never been so fucking scared in all my life. I wouldn’t know what to do if I lost you. I might as well die right alongside you. My life does not work if you’re not in it. ”

“You saved me.”

“No, Ivy, you saved me, and every morning when I wake up and you’re lying next to me, you save me all over again. You make me better, stronger. I’m nothing without you.”

“Will you marry me?”

“What?” Now it was my turn to stare at her in shock.

“Marry me. I want to be your wife. I want to wake up every morning next to you. I wasn’t living until the night I met you in the bar. Hell, I wasn’t even existing. I was going through the motions because I had to. I want this, us, a future with you. I promise you, I’ll be a good wife to you…”

“You better bet your ass you’re gonna be my wife.”

“So that’s a yes?”

“That’s a we’re getting married.”

“You really won’t answer, will you?” She smiled.

I couldn’t believe after everything that had happened over the last eight hours Ivy was in my arms, smiling. I closed my eyes and thanked God for my good fortune.

“Would you please give me this, Mr. Bossy?” I looked down at the precious cargo in my arms and realized I couldn’t deny her, even if it meant letting her propose to me in the back of a car with my brother and Jaxon in the SUV, too.

“Yes, Ivy, I will marry you.”

I heard Jaxon and Linc chuckle from the front seat before Ivy placed her hand on my cheek, pulling my attention back to her.

“Where’s Lance?”

Fuck. Here it was. The moment of truth. How quickly life could change. One second, I’m flying high at Ivy’s desire to get married and now, she very well may take her words back. I wanted to tell her there were no take backs, but she deserved to know who she’d just asked to be her husband .

“He’s at the motel in the bathtub, either still bleeding out or dead.”

“How?”

“It was me. I killed him.”

Ivy shook her head. “No, I mean, how did he die?”

“Does it matter?” When she nodded, I continued. “I cut his dick off after I gave him one hell of a beating.”

“Is that how you got these?” she asked, lifting our entwined hands and inspected my bruised knuckles.

“Yes.” She brought our hands to her lips and kissed each one.

“Thank you.”

She dropped our hands back down and rested her head on my chest.

“And my mother?”

“She’s next.”

“Good.”

I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath until my lungs burned in protest. She hadn’t pushed me away, she thanked me. I hoped like hell she’d feel the same way tomorrow after a good night’s rest and some distance.

“I love you, Zane.”

“I love you, Ivy.”