Page 27

Delaney

Two Week Later

The last two weeks have been both hell and heaven on earth. I go through waves of emotions at the drop of a hat. My mood swings are harsh and sudden, but my men are not fazed. I’m starting to think they might be psychic because they can predict my every move with scary accuracy. They know exactly when I’m about to get mad, sad, happy, and even horny. Any of my negative emotions, they match with so much positivity that it’s hard for me to fight against them. Last week, I raged and kept throwing shit as I screamed at them to leave me alone. They simply treated it like a game and started throwing things with me. I was so dumbfounded that I started laughing. That quickly digressed into sobbing, but eventually, I did come back to baseline. My baseline is forever changing and I’m steadily feeling happier every day. My nightmares are riddled with Sergei and the atrocious bullshit that he put me through. Being away from him for this long has given me the chance to reflect on everything and see how he manipulated me. I’ve read back through my notebook several times, and the guys have as well. It’s interesting to see the breakdown overtime and it’s making me realize that I never stood a chance against his manipulation. From the time I was born, I was always taught to shut the fuck up and do as I’m told. I was never given a chance to stand on my own two feet until I met Talon. Even then, I was only with him for a short period of time before I was stolen.

I’m lucky to have survived Sergei, because not many victims of trafficking survive. I am also learning that there’s a difference between a victim and a survivor. All survivors are victims, but not every victim gets to be a survivor. Sometimes victims are not lucky enough to escape, whether that be because the manipulation was too intense for them to fight, or they had no one to help pull them out of the water. Either way, I am learning to navigate the world, knowing what evil lurks in the shadows.

We expected some sort of backlash from me killing Sergei, but everything’s been silent. We’ve been trying to find Grim and Sam. Grim is still lost in the wind, but Sam is a fucking idiot. He has a superiority complex and assumes that nothing bad will ever happen to him, but he has never met Talon. He has never met Jude, Chris, Tony, or Adam either. He has no idea what is coming to him and I can’t fucking wait to see it.

The Sons of the Reaper rallied together to find me, and now that I’m back, they are out for blood. They are seeking vengeance and retribution for what happened to me. The entire dynamic has shifted, and it is incredible to watch. I’ve spent the last two weeks in the house, too scared to leave, but today I am going to the clubhouse for the first time in almost seven months.

I am sitting on the back of Talon’s bike with my arms wrapped around his body. When we come to a stop in front of the clubhouse, Jude comes over to help me off. He pulls my helmet off before gently kissing me. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” I smile.

Talon and Jude take my hands, and we slowly walk inside with Adam, Chris, and Tony behind us. The moment they see me, happiness spreads across their faces. “Laney!” Ripper says cheerfully as he picks me up in a hug and spins me around.

“Hey, Ripper,” I laugh.

“They didn’t know you were coming today,” Chris laughs.

“I can tell,” I say when Ripper sets me down.

“So… we have some good news,” Ripper says. “I was actually about to call.”

“What?” Talon asks.

“Come see,” he grins and takes my hand to pull me toward the basement. I hesitate so he turns and looks at me. “You are safe, but…”

“What?” I ask with a frown.

“But Sam definitely isn’t,” he says before kissing my cheek. I squeal and hop up and down before throwing my arms around his neck to hug him. Everyone laughs as Ripper hugs me back.

“Thank you, Ripper. So much,” I say tearfully.

“Oh, don’t do that to me. If you cry, I’ll cry,” he laughs. “Come on. Come help us torture the fucker.”

“Okay,” I grin.

“I am slightly concerned that torture brings that big of a smile to your face,” Talon teases as we walk down into the basement.

I see Sam is butt naked and strapped to a table so that he is bent over. I bust out laughing and he snaps his head to me. I expect to see anger, but he is terrified. He knows what his fate is going to be. “How long has he been here?” I ask.

“A few days. We had some fun with him,” Ripper says. “It’s fun to see a man cry and come at the same time.”

“I’d love to see that for myself,” I smile.

“Wait. Wait. Wait!” Sam yells when Ripper unbuttons his jeans.

“Hmm,” I say. “I am recalling a moment where I begged you not to rape me. I begged. I screamed and cried as you took me. You stole from my body, and you have the fucking audacity to sit here and beg me? How fucking pathetic are you?”

“Please. I’m sorry. Dad. He…”

“He will get what’s coming to him,” I say. “For now, I want to hear you scream.”

“Condom,” Talon says to Ripper before turning to everyone else who has joined us. “You are all free and encouraged to fuck him. Use a condom and don’t kill him.”

An evil smile crosses the face of nearly everyone in the room. Ripper pulls his dick out and I giggle when I see he is big and thick. Ripper winks at me before sliding his condom on. “This is for Laney,” he says before surging into Sam. He screams as Ripper starts to fuck him insanely fast and hard while everyone laughs and mocks Sam.

“We love you, Laney,” Talon says as he wraps his arms around my body from behind.

“I love y’all too,” I say. “One left.”

“I think I might know where he is,” Ashley says as she walks over.

“Hey,” I say. “I haven’t seen you since we got back.”

“She’s afraid you’ll hit her,” Jude says.

“Why?” I ask. “You were there for him when I couldn’t be. You’re not trying to take him from me. You both regret it. I’m not concerned.”

“I cheated on—“

“No, you didn’t,” I say. “It had been over five months, Talon. It would be unrealistic for me to sit here and say that I expect you to wait around forever. I got fucking lucky that he was an arrogant piece of shit and sent that video. Otherwise, you might have never found me. From the very beginning, the only thing I wanted was for you to find happiness, even if that meant moving on. It would’ve fucking hurt to come back to you being with another woman, but I just want you happy.”

“I feel like I have to make up for it,” he says.

“Okay. If you want to make up for it, then do it,” I say. “Do what makes you feel better.”

My head snaps in the direction of Sam when I hear him scream as he cries. One of the others has a pool cue up his ass. “May I?” I ask.

“Please,” Ripper says with a grin.

I walk over and grab it by the end before pulling it out slightly. “I hope fucking me was worth it, Sam,” I say before shoving it back in as deeply as I can. I keep pushing as he thrashes and screams. I put all of my anger behind it. I here in audible popping sound as the resistance breaks and the stick disappears and I’m able to shove it deeper as blood leaks out of his ass. Talon recognizes what I am trying to do so he steps behind me and covers my hand with his. Together, we pull out again before Talon rams the stick into him. His body goes limp and blood leaks from his mouth and drips to the table.

“Well goddamn, girl,” Ripper chuckle, making everyone laugh with him. “Remind me not to upset you.”

“That was fun,” I say. “I kinda wanna play pool now.”

“What were you saying, Ashley?” Talon asks.

“I’ve been searching on the dark web, and I think I found him. Admittedly, it was from him, putting a hit out on Delaney and Talon.”

“What?” I ask.

“Literally no one is biting though. Everyone knows that you are back with Talon and we all know his reputation. No one is willing to go against that,” she says. “I pretended to be a hitman, basically. He is desperately trying to dig out of the shit he’s gotten himself into. He’s making a lot of mistakes and those have led Ned and I to finding his location. Ned has agreed to give it twenty-four hours. He lives out in the middle of the woods it seems.”

“Well, damn. Let’s load up,” Adam says. “Time to go hunting.”

We all went back to the house and prepared. Everyone made sure that they had weapons just in case he is prepared for someone to come looking for him. Once we had that taken care of, we changed clothes so we could hide in the dark, we are hiding in the wood line outside of the cabin. We can see Grim sitting on the couch and rage is boiling inside all of us.

“So?” I ask. “Do we have a plan?”

“Yep,” Talon says. “Do you trust me?”

“I do,” I say slowly.

“I just want you to walk up and knock on the door. Keep your distance so he can’t pull you inside, but he will run,” Talon says.

“Are you sure I’m safe?” I ask hesitantly.

“Absolutely. He knows if you are there, so are we. My goal is to get him out into the woods so we can hunt him down. There’s no one for miles and everyone is spread out enough that he won’t get far,” he says before kissing me.

“Okay,” I say. “Just… don’t let him grab me.”

“We won’t,” he smiles.

“I won’t lie. This feels like a trap,” I admit.

“I know, baby. I just need you to put a little bit of faith in me. Can you do that?”

“I can,” I say with a sigh. Before I change my mind, I turned and walked toward the cabin while keeping my eyes on Grim. I am shaking as I approach the front steps, but I keep pushing forward. I hesitate for a second and glance back at Talon. It’s too dark, so I just turn and knock on the door. I take several steps back so that I’m in front of the stairs in case I need to run.

The door opens and his face instantly goes pale as he turns and runs back into the cabin. He doesn’t even bother to shut the door. Everyone suddenly comes out from the tree line and Jude is with me now. “Time to play,” Jude says happily, handing me a hunter’s knife. I wrap my fingers around the hilt and tighten my grip. I smile up at Jude before we turn and walk off the porch.

“Grim!” Adam calls out in a sing-song voice. “You can run… but you’re only going to make it hurt worse when we catch you.”

“Griiiim!” Tony says.

I can’t help but laugh at them. “Y’all are hilarious.”

“Oh, there you are,” Talon says when he suddenly snatches Grim by his shirt when he abruptly comes into view. He is immediately slammed face first into the trunk of the tree before being dropped to the ground. Everyone swarms him and he is stripped and tied to the tree with his arms behind his back. They’re bent in an awkward angle and putting an incredible amount of strain on his shoulders.

“What do you want to do?” Jude asks.

“Beat the fuck out of him,” I say. “I want the five of you to put him through the same amount of pain that you experienced when he took me from you. Don’t be nice about it because he is not walking away from this. I want the very last thing for him to see is the five of you, but I want to be the very last thing on his mind.”

“Stand with Ripper and enjoy,” Talon says with a smile. He kisses me before the other four take turns kissing me.

“This is going to be fun,” Ripper says as he wraps his arm around my shoulder. The others gather around as Tony releases Grim from the tree. They surround him and he looks panicked as they circle him. They slowly step closer but just before Grim can sink down to cower, Talon swings and his fist connects with Grim’s jaw. His head snaps back and chaos ensues. As Grim hits the ground, all five set in on punching him. Tony is the first to kick him, which leads to all five of them kicking and stomping Grim. He is screaming and begging for his life, but I just watch in awe of the violence my men are bringing down on him. It’s right now that I can understand just how devastated they were by my kidnapping. They suffered similarly to what I did, only theirs was just the mental anguish that they experienced.

Soon, Grim goes limp. They all stop, but Talon hasn’t. He has stomped on his head so many times now that he no longer looks human. His head is cracked open, and his brains are splattered around as blood coats everything. I step up and gently touch his back. When he turns to me, tears are rolling down his cheeks. He grabs the backs of my legs to lift me up and I wrap my legs around his waist as he keeps a firm grip on my ass. I gently cup his cheeks and wipe away his tears. No one is saying anything, but they all come closer to support him. He tries to shy away so the others do not see that he is crying, but I stop him. “You are a human being, Talon,” I say softly. “You have seen and experienced horrific things. We both have. Be an example to others and show that it is okay to show that emotion. Keeping everything bottled up is like juggling grenades with no pins. It’s going to blow up in your face and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop it. You won’t know when it’s coming, but it will.”

“I just want to keep you safe,” he says. “I feel like I failed you. We shouldn’t have left you alone.”

“You had no way to know that going to work would lead to this,” I say.

“We… weren’t at work,” Talon says slowly. I frown at him, and he sets me down.

“Go ahead,” Jude smiles.

“What?” I ask. Talon pulls a small box from his jeans pocket, and I slap my hands over my mouth when he steps back and goes down on one knee. One by one, Jude, Chris, Tony, and Adam join him.

“Guys,” I say tearfully.

“Delaney Maddox, you are incredible in every way,” Talon says. “I want to do this the right way with you. We want Ripper to walk you down an aisle to meet us and we want to marry you. We all want to show you that we want forever with you, and we will do anything to have it… Even wear a tux.”

“You don’t have to wear a tux,” I laugh through my tears.

“We love you so damn much, Little Flower. There isn’t a thing on this earth that will stop us from loving you and we will walk through fire every day just to show you the love you deserve. Delaney… Will you marry us?”

“Yes,” I say as I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. He stands and continues to hug me before the others join in.

When we get back to the house, the first thing we do is go upstairs to shower. Talon and Jude go with me, and we take our time washing and relaxing. It makes me feel spoiled and loved limitlessly when they pamper me like this. They even go as far as helping me shave. They know I am mentally exhausted after today. We have more things to take care of, and some might still be dangerous for us, but having this time to just focus on resetting is vital for all of us. By the time we get done and are out of the shower, the others have joined us.

“Can I get a new tattoo?” I ask.

“You can. What would you like?” Talon asks, sitting me on the bed.

“You know how you call me ‘Daddy’s little whore’ when we fuck?”

“Yes.” A smirk tugs at his lips when he sees where I’m going with this.

“I want you to tattoo that above my pussy,” I say. “That way, no matter who sees it, they know that you guys belong there.”

“Shouldn’t it be ‘Daddys’ little whore’ then?” he asks.

“Hmm,” I say. “Yes. You can all be my daddy. You all take care of me in different ways. You spoil me and even punish me when I am in need of correction.”

“Daddys’ little whore it is then,” Talon says with a soft smile. I lie back on the bed as Jude goes to grab the kit while the others take a seat on the bed to watch. I am giddy as they prepare everything and I can hardly sit still when Talon gets ready to begin.

“Sit still, Little Flower. I’d hate to mess this up,” Talon commands softly.

“I’m sorry. This is just the happiest I’ve been since before I was taken,” I say. “Seeing him die… It healed something inside of me. It’s like my brain is finally able to see the difference between what I was made to believe and reality.”

“It has been an absolute blessing to see the way you’ve bloomed, Little Flower. The battle isn’t over yet, but we are prepared for the fight,” Talon says as he starts the first line. A calmness takes over and I relax into the bed when the needle sends jolts of pain through my skin.