Page 19 of Treasured by Them (Rose and Dagger #3)

Edmund

T roy parks about an eighth of a mile from Danica’s cabin. I send him a questioning look.

“She sent us a message in code.” He kills the lights and opens his door. “Whatever’s going on, whoever’s with her, she doesn’t want them to know she sent a clue. Best to go in with the element of surprise, yeah?”

It makes perfect sense. “Remind me to tell my grandfather to give you a raise.”

He gives me the ghost of a smile. “Let’s save Dani, first.”

We climb out, carefully ease the truck doors shut, and hurry to the cabin. We can see it from the end of the driveway. The lights on the lower floor are lit, but there’s no movement inside.

A woman screams. Then a shot rings out, echoing in the otherwise quiet night.

“Fuck, where’d that come from?” I keep my voice low, but I can’t hide my tense note of panic. What if someone shot Danica? Are they hurting her? If she’s okay, are they trying to scare her?

Troy’s expression is grim. “Around back, let’s go.”

I have a Glock. So does Troy. We don’t usually carry firearms, but tonight it’s necessary. No doubt.

Blood answers with blood.

We ease around the side of the house, our footsteps silent.

“Here!” Danica’s voice blazes with anger. “I’m fucking here, okay, you psychopath?”

What the fuck? She’s taunting the attacker? Why is she calling attention to herself? Troy and I peer around the corner and into the back yard. Now I see why—and whatever this is? It has nothing to do with the Vorsongs.

That’s her family friend. She showed me photos from a party at her parents’ house. Malcolm Something-or-other. He has his girlfriend in a chokehold, a gun held to her head. What the fuck is going on? I never would’ve thought this guy was a threat. He’s a friend of Danica’s father.

The gun to the girlfriend’s head explains why Danica is stepping forward. Her clothes are wet, plastered to her body. It’s hard to see in the near-darkness, with the only light coming from a half-moon, but she seems to be shivering, too.

She was hiding in the water, I realize. And Malcolm is using his girlfriend to get Danica.

My Danica. My angel. Who is shivering and scared.

My heart pounds in a dark, murderous rhythm. I will rip him apart and throw pieces of him in the lake. I will do it while he’s still alive, so he can watch the fish feast?—

“Calm down,” Troy whispers. “Go around to the other side of the house.”

“Got it.” No need to say anything else—I know exactly what he’s thinking.

I shake myself from my macabre fantasy. First, we have to save Danica. Then I can deal with Malcolm.

Hands steady on the Glock, I retrace our steps.

I hurry across the front of the house, around the other side to the opposite back corner.

Slowly, I peer around the edge. Across from me, Troy’s bulky form is barely visible among the shadow of some pines.

At the back of the yard next to the lake’s edge, Danica faces Malcolm and his hostage.

“You want to kill us both?” Danica asks, sounding way too full of attitude for a woman facing down an armed antagonist. “What’s your plan after, huh? You’ll say Zora and I both got lost in the woods? Will someone find our bones in fifteen years like what happened to Britney?”

Fuck. Holy shit. Malcolm, her family friend, is the guy behind that other young girl’s murder? He recently came to San Esteban, too. When the serial killings began.

No more time to think, no time to figure this shit out. There’s a guy with a gun, and Danica’s in his sights.

I step around the house, holding up Troy’s handgun. “Drop your weapon. Right the fuck now.”

Malcolm turns to the side to take in the new threat—me.

He doesn’t hear the approaching threat behind him. Troy’s on him before Malcolm even realizes it. With a loud thud , Troy clocks Malcolm in the temple with a rock.

Malcolm folds. The struggling woman in his arms falls with him, but she immediately pulls free of his grasp and scrambles out of his reach.

“Edmund! Troy!” Danica rushes forward, but pauses, like she can’t decide who to reach for first.

Troy and I solve that problem by running to her and meeting her at the same time.

We throw our arms around her. She shakes against us—likely from cold and adrenaline. I rub my hands up and down her back, trying to warm her.

“Is he...is he dead?” she whispers.

He better be. I will feed him bullets if he isn’t.

The girlfriend, Zora, reaches over to press her fingertips against Malcolm’s neck. In a raspy voice, she says, “No, just out cold.”

Danica pulls away to crouch next to Zora. “Are you okay?”

“I will be.” Zora rubs her neck where Malcolm had held her. “But I don’t know if I’ll ever get that confession out of him.”

“I...I might not be the most reliable witness,” Danica says quietly, “but I started to remember witnessing Britney’s murder. He nearly killed me for it that night. Then he revived me, convinced me that he was saving me instead.”

I stand next to Danica and continue to rub her back. “Do you know where we might find some rope?”

“I have zipties in the truck,” Troy says. “But I’d rather kill this motherfucker.”

“Troy!” Danica says, aghast.

Troy shakes his head. “I won’t kill him. I just want to. I’ll be right back. Watch this asshole, make sure he doesn’t get up.”

He takes Malcolm’s gun with him as he strides out of the back yard.

“That was mine—” Zora says, then her shoulders fall. “I don’t want it anymore, though.”

“We’ll have to call the police,” I say. “Although Troy had the right idea.”

“Not you, too.” Danica turns her big, gray eyes to me.

I press a kiss to her forehead. “I am holding back some very violent impulses right now. Especially because that asshole is the reason you don’t want people touching your neck,” I guess.

She presses her fingertips against her throat. “He held me down by my neck and tried to drown me.”

“I’m so sorry, angel.” I hold her tightly against my side. Partly to comfort her, partly to keep me from stomping on his unconscious face. “He won’t be able to hurt you going forward.”

In a small voice, she asks, “Do you think my shitty memories will be enough to convict him?”

I nod, but it’s a lie, because I don’t really know. But if he ever walks as a free man again, he won’t be walking for long.

* * *

Troy

Edmund and I take credit for bringing down Malcolm. We come up with a basic explanation to give the cops—Dani didn’t check in like Edmund expected, so he and I rushed to Danish Lake to make sure she was okay. We found Malcolm losing his shit on Zora and incapacitated him.

SEPD is thrilled as they connect current crimes with Malcolm’s presence in the city. If the evidence continues to pile up, he’ll be going down for Britney Gardner’s murder and the recent, twisted deaths throughout the city. After this, all we have to do is get rid of the Vorsong threat.

Dani and Zora don’t want any recognition. They’re the true heroes of the story, but they don’t want the hassle or the fanfare surrounding it.

Edmund and I are used to the hassle. Law enforcement headaches. The endless hoops, the endless questions.

The fanfare? Not so much.

Naturally, the media outlets want the story.

No fucking way. With the right amount of money placed in the right hands, the Layton family is able to keep our part away from the public eye. Later, if Dani is needed for testimony, she won’t be able to hide. But for now, she’s safe from the media circus.

Two days after his arrest, Malcolm still hasn’t confessed.

But Edmund and I know some people who might be able to help him along on his road to redemption.

I’m doing my best to distract her. With Edmund’s help, of course. And only five days until the wedding. We’ve been giving her plenty of space. Except at night. The three of us end up in Edmund’s room, Dani sleeping protected between us.

No sex. She’s been through a lot. We don’t want to rush her, or push her into being physical after everything that’s gone down.

Edmund knocks on my doorframe around noon on Tuesday.

“Where’s Dani?” I ask.

He grins. “Making cookies and getting flour all over the kitchen. Relax, you know I’m not going to leave her alone for long.”

“Yeah, until tomorrow when she leaves for her grandfather’s house.”

His grin fades. “Yeah. Well. That’s not up to me, is it?”

Dani decided to spend the three days before the wedding at home. She wanted to stay at her old place with her roommates, but Edmund and I argued hard against it. In the end, we compromised—Sergey’s place. It’s gated, with guards. She can sequester herself there while we wait for the wedding.

“Anyway.” He steps into my room and lowers his voice. “Have you thought more about proposing?”

“‘Course I have.” I step out of my jeans and into a pair of workout shorts.

“So why haven’t you done it?”

I scoff. “I don’t know, maybe because of all this other shit going on? After the ceremony, we’ll figure it out.”

The way he shrugs means he disagrees, but for once he doesn’t say anything.

* * *

Danica

After dinner, I storm off toward my room.

“Dani, do you want to watch a movie?” Troy calls after me.

“No.” I close my door. I don’t slam it, but I’m not exactly careful with how hard I shut it, either.

Why won’t they touch me? It’s like they think I’ll break or something.

We only have tonight left, then I’m off to Granddad’s for the few nights before the wedding. Maybe it’s a stupid idea, but I feel like we shouldn’t sleep together right before Edmund and I get married. Make the wedding night special. Romantic.

I’m such an idiot. They don’t care about that stuff.

Also, we haven’t talked about the wedding night. I want Troy there, as well as Edmund. Is that weird? I don’t want it to be, but…none of this situation is normal.

This whole marriage is a bad idea. But the thought of breaking things off makes my eyes prick with tears. It’s not like I could break things off, anyway—Vorsong Circle is still very much a concern.

If I could just turn off my feelings, that would be great.

“Danica, can I come in?” Edmund knocks on my door.

“No.”

Ugh, why am I crying? This is so annoying.

“Dani.” Troy’s deep voice reverberates through the door. “We want to talk to you.”

“No.” I gather Cackle in my arms.

He purrs for five seconds before squirming to escape my hold.

Does nobody want to touch me or be with me?

I throw myself down on the bed and cry.

* * *

Troy

I can hear her crying in there. I want to break down her door, but that won’t help any trust grow between us.

I look over at Edmund, who shrugs.

“She’s crying.” I lean back against the wall next to her door.

“Yeah.” He mirrors my pose. “I don’t think she’s cried since everything happened at the cabin. Maybe it’s all hitting her now.”

“But why won’t she let us comfort her?” I glare at the polished wood floor in front of me.

The door opens suddenly. Edmund and I whip around to face our little girl.

“Because you won’t fucking touch me .” Danica’s gray eyes blaze with anger and hurt. “Like I have some kind of disease.”

Ah. Fuck. Edmund reaches for her and grabs her in a hug. She sputters out protests before melting against him.

“I’m sorry, baby girl.” I come around behind her so I can hug her, too. “We were trying to be respectful.”

“Fuck respect. I need you.” She sucks in a huge, shuddering breath. “I need you both.”

Edmund tilts her chin toward him and takes her mouth in a brutal kiss. She moans against him.

He pulls back with a smack, his eyes hooded. “If you need us, then you shall have us. Come to bed, princess.”