I step over the fourth dead body down in the basement following the blood trail. Sin wasn’t wrong. Kash is currently on a killing spree. He may be the joker, but when you piss him off, he is ruthless. It just takes more to get him there than it does me or Haidyn.
The thought of our brother in the morgue makes my chest tighten and hands fist. I’m going to get answers, and whoever did this to our family will pay. I’ll make sure the last word they speak is Haidyn’s name before I carve it into their chest.
But I’ve got to calm down Kashton first. He’s obviously not asking any questions before he kills them.
We come to the pits, and a man crawls across the concrete floor, dragging his broken legs behind him, sobbing.
“Kash?” I say, getting his attention, but he ignores me and walks over to the far wall. He grabs a meat hook, his fingers curling around the handle.
“Please…noooooo,” the man sobs, trying to move in the opposite direction, but he’s too slow.
Kashton walks over to him as the guy rolls onto his back. He raises his hands to defend himself, but Kash leans over, shoving the hook underneath the man’s chin and yanks him to his feet. Kash pulls the guy into him with the hand still gripping the hook while the other starts to punch the man in the face. The position has the hook cutting into the man, splitting the guys neck and chin. Blood squirts out and the guy makes gurgling sounds.
Tyson and Ryat stand to the side watching. Ryat looks impressed, but Tyson looks worried. Ryat and Sin knew Haidyn, but they weren’t as close to him as me and Tyson were. Sin comes to stand next to me.
“Kash?” I walk over to him and place my hand on his arm. He lets go of the meat hook and the guy falls to the ground with it still stuck in his neck. By the way he gags, he’s not dead yet. “What are you doing?” It’s a stupid question because I know he’s hurting, but this isn’t going to get me what I need.
He’s breathing heavily, and his eyes are wild. He’s covered in blood.
“Did he know anything?” I ask, pointing at the man flopping around like a fish out of water.
Kash runs both his bloody hands through his hair, pushing it off his face. “He wasn’t going to tell us anything anyway.”
“You don’t know that,” I growl.
His eyes narrow on me. “I know that it was an inside job and the only way we’re going to fix the problem is to kill them all.”
I take in a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. I’m about to lose my shit, and if we burn this place down, it won’t do us any good. “We’re—”
“You’re right. It was an inside job,” a male’s voice states, but it’s distorted like in the video.
My stomach drops when I see Ashtyn enter the room with Jasmine by her side. They both have duct tape over their mouths. Jasmine’s hands are tied behind her back, and Ashtyn’s are zip-tied in front.
“What the—?” Kashton steps forward but two men dressed the same as the video are behind them, holding both girls by their hair.
Coming to a stop, the girls whine as they’re forced to their knees, guns cocked and placed at the back of their heads.
The blood rushes in my ears. I’ve seen this. My worst nightmare. Both men are dressed in black pants, long-sleeve black shirts, and bulletproof vests. They’ve got gloves on and have guns strapped to their thighs. Matching masks cover their faces. Not an inch of skin or hair can be seen.
“What do you want?” Kashton yells, stepping forward, and the guy behind Jasmine yanks her head back, making her scream into the tape.
I hold my hands out when Tyson steps up next to me. Technically, we could take them. It’d be five against two, but it will only take a second for them to kill the girls, and I won’t take that chance. I can’t lose her again.
The guy behind Ashtyn pulls out a cell, and a second later, the phone rings as he places it on speakerphone. “Hello?” a man answers. Again, you can’t make out who it is.
“We’ve got them. In the pits.” He hangs up, and I curse that they’ve got their voices altered.
I look at Ash, and her head is down. She’s dressed in blue scrubs and tears run down her face. How did they get to her? Was the bomb their plan? Get everyone to one part of Carnage while forcing our attention down here? It left them sitting ducks.
She sobs, her shoulders shaking, and I hate what I’ve done to her. I brought her back here. She was happy without me. She had moved on, and I couldn’t accept that because I was too selfish.
“You’re okay, Ash,” I tell her. She raises her bloodshot eyes to meet mine, and they plead with me to save her. To be the man I was trained to be and fucking do something.
Kash steps forward, and the guy yanks Jasmine to her feet, wrapping his arm around her neck from behind. She screams out into the tape before he wraps his arm around her neck and begins to choke her while she kicks her legs out, struggling in his grip.
“Alright! Alright!” Kash raises his hands and takes two step back from them.
The guy lets go of her, and she falls to her knees, bowing her head and trying to catch her breath.
“Gentlemen.” We turn to see a third man—guessing the one they called—enter behind us and my heart races. He’s their twin. Dressed the same except he has ACE written across his vest.
I go to rush him, but his words stop me. “Did you like your gift?”
I tense at the way he laughs.
“I brought her back to you.” He points at my wife on her knees, and I look at her confused and then back at him. “See…it took me some time to figure out how to do it, but here we are.” He raises his arms out wide. “As much fun as I had whipping and raping your wife for the past four days, I thought I’d let her go and run back to you. Now you get to suffer the way that I did.”
I haven’t had the chance to speak to Ashtyn about what happened while she was away. But she didn’t have to tell me. Devin read me the results. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I bark.
“Ashtyn is pregnant, right?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I avoid his question. One, because I don’t know who the fuck this is. And two, because I don’t know why he would think that. I mean, could be just a guess. She’s a Lady, and we’re supposed to reproduce.
He chuckles. “I thought she taught you better than to lie.”
I look at Kashton, and he’s white in the face. After Ash left and our training began, all staff was removed, and hers was brought in. Because she didn’t want anyone favoring us. We were no longer Lords, just prisoners until she was done with us. He had to have been one of them. They were always dressed in cloaks and masks.
He looks at my wife. “You see, sweetheart, your precious Lord made sure he would get you pregnant.”
She shakes her head, not believing it.
“Isn’t that right, Saint?” He doesn’t let me answer. “But no worries. I’m here to repay the favor. An eye for an eye.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. What eye? What fucking favor?” As much as I want to slit his throat, the more he talks, the more time he gives us to come up with a plan. And that just keeps him busy. If he’s talking to me, he’s ignoring her.
He steps toward me. “I’m going to let you watch her lose yours, like I watched her lose mine.”
Kashton looks at me like “what the fuck,” and I start to laugh. “She’s never been pregnant.”
He looks over at Ashtyn. “Tell him, Ash. Tell him how hard it was on you when you lost our son.”
I look at my wife, and her watery eyes are on the floor. “Look at me.” Her shoulders begin to shake as her mumbled sobs fill the room. “Ashtyn!”
The man standing behind her grips her hair and yanks her head back. Her tear-filled eyes meet mine before they close and fresh tears run down her taped face.
The man laughs. “Not only did she keep that from you, but she had help.”
She begins to sob.
That part doesn’t surprise me. I knew that Laura had helped her.
“But don’t worry, I took care of that for you too.”
Laura? Did he kill Laura? I look at Sin, and he’s confused as fuck. He has no clue how much Laura was involved in our lives in the past. I promised him I’d take care of her until the baby was born. “If you killed her…”
“Her?” Ace laughs. “Your brother, Saint. I killed your brother.” He looks over at Ashtyn. “Haidyn knew she was pregnant with my child, and he also helped her escape.”
ASHTYN
Four Years Ago
I run out of her office, not caring that Laura’s calling out to me. I can’t hear anymore. So many lies. So much betrayal. And now a baby?
Sucking in breath after breath, I round a corner and run into someone. I scream as hands grab at me and lift me off my feet. I kick and fight, but they drag me into a room. It’s one of the fathers. She called them to come get me and take me downstairs. They’re going to kill my baby, force me to have a hysterectomy, and then throw me in a cell.
Saint won’t protect me, not after what he finds out. A hand slaps over my mouth, muffling my screams, and I buck wildly since my nose is so stopped up I can’t breathe through it.
“Shh, Ashtyn, calm down.” A familiar voice growls.
My body instantly goes limp, and he releases my mouth. I sob as he sits me in a chair and kneels in front of me. “What the fuck is going on?” He places his hands on my shaking thighs and rubs them over my legs.
“I’m…pregnant,” I cry, knowing I can trust him.
“Shit.” He sighs, running his hand through his hair. “Does Saint know?”
I shake my head, tears spilling from my eyes, and I run my hand under my runny nose.
“I’ll call him.” He stands and removes his cell from his pocket, and I slap it out of his hand. “Ash—”
“No, you can’t,” I cry out, and he grabs my trembling shoulders.
“It’s okay,” he assures me softly.
He’s so wrong. “No.” I shake my head quickly. “He cheated.”
His brows pull together. “What? No. He’d never—”
“He cheated.” I gasp, trying to breathe, but my throat is closing on me. “You…can’t.”
“Ashtyn.”
“Tell him.” I grip his T-shirt and bury my face into it. He wraps his arms around me, and I begin to sob, repeating over and over that he cheated, hoping that he’ll understand what I mean because I can’t form a fucking sentence right now.
“I know what to do,” he assures me. “Trust me.”
I nod, knowing that Haidyn will help me. He takes my hand and rushes me down to the morgue. We go out through a back exit, and he’s pulling me through the trees.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“There’s a tunnel back here that leads to a road. There aren’t any cameras out here, so no one will see that you’ve left.”
We come up to a hillside, and there’s an old steel door. He lets go of my hand and removes a key from his pocket. He opens it up and pulls me into it.
“Hai-dyn?” My voice shakes as I stand in complete darkness. The sound of dripping water echoes. Then, seconds later, he turns a flashlight on and takes my hand, pulling me through the tunnel. There’s already a car waiting on the other side. He helps me inside, and I bounce my knees, trying to figure out what to do.
Everything that Laura told me. I don’t want to believe I’m pregnant and it not be Saint’s.
He pulls up to a hospital, and I turn to face him. “Someone will see me.”
“It’ll be fine,” he assures me, giving me a hoodie.
I keep my head down and let him guide me inside and to a room. I’m on autopilot. Numb. I’m Saint’s wife. He married me. To be pregnant with another man’s baby isn’t allowed. Let alone he wouldn’t want me after this. What will their dads do?
I stand in the room, my eyes on the floor as Haidyn undresses me from the waist down. He then lifts me to sit on the table. “Look at me, baby girl.”
His hands are on my face as my watery eyes meet his.
“It’s going to be okay. You’re okay.”
“Saint…”
“We’ll figure it out,” he says and then kisses my forehead. But we both know that even if Saint wanted to stay with me and raise another man’s child, the Lords would find out that he cheated. He went against his oath. He’d be stripped of his title and killed. Or worse, sentenced to Carnage for the rest of his life. I’m not worth that.
The door opens, and my breath catches in my lungs when I see the man enter. Pressing myself up on my elbows, Haidyn grabs me and pushes me down. “It’s okay. You’re safe here.”
I shake my head, eyes wide. Is he crazy? “No…”
“This is Gavin,” Haidyn tells me. “He’s here to help, Ash.”
“Haidyn.” He nods to him, and I can’t help but wonder why he looks identical to Devin at Carnage. Are they twins? Surely not.
He grabs my legs to put them in the stirrups, and I jump, Haidyn gives me a soft smile. Taking my hand, he keeps his eyes on mine while I lie down, shaking as Gavin pulls me to the edge of the table.
Tears fill my eyes and fall to the sides as Gavin starts talking me through the vaginal ultrasound until the only sound we hear is the heartbeat of my child.
“Bullshit!” the sound of Kashton’s bark makes me flinch. “Haidyn wouldn’t do that.”
My watery eyes look up to see Saint glaring at me. I’ve never been more thankful to have duct tape on my face right now. So I don’t have to explain what I did or tell him what Haidyn did.
“No.” Saint shakes his head, also refusing to believe it. “She was never pregnant.”
“Oh, she was.” Ace laughs, and my chest squeezes. “Ashtyn’s mother came to me. Said her daughter was a whore. Addicted to sex. She showed me a picture of her. Then she offered me a job. To fuck her daughter. It wasn’t hard. She liked to party. So I went out, had a friend of hers drug her…” My breathing grows heavy. I wasn’t sure how I never knew it happened. I was sore for days, but I wasn’t sure why. “She bled all over my cock.”
Shame washes over me as I kneel in front of all these men while they talk about me and what I allowed to happen. How stupid I was. Tyson has seen firsthand what the Spade brothers have done to me. No one cares about a woman who spreads her legs for fun. That’s why we’re taught to serve. It’s not about us. It’s about the Lords. My mother tried to explain that to me, but I refused to listen. Thought I’d be different.
“Then Luke fucked everything up when he had that hit put on Adam.” Ace goes on growling. “And you guys brought her to hide her out here.” He shakes his head. “Thankfully I had someone on the inside to keep me updated. Otherwise, I might have never found out she was pregnant.”
Four years ago
“Congratulations, Ashtyn. You’re pregnant.”
I stare at her, my breath getting caught in my lungs. It can’t be. I don’t believe her.
She tosses the test into the trash can next to her and places her forearms on top of her desk. “What are you going to do if Saint finds out it’s not his?”
“It’s his,” I whisper. I’m a hundred percent sure of that.
She arches a brow at me.
A fresh tear runs down my cheek, and I sniff. “I haven’t been with anyone else.”
“Ashtyn… we need to talk.” Laura sighs. “I didn’t want to tell you this, but you were raped.”
I frown. “No.” I shake my head. “Everything Saint has done to me has been consensual.” I allow him to have his way with me. Even when I fight him, it’s because I want him to overpower me.
“Not by Saint. But a man raped you. In your house before the vow ceremony…”
“No.” I interrupt her. “I bled.” I saw the blood. I was even worried about Saint going down on me afterward.
“I promised your mother I would look after you, and I’m afraid I’ve failed her. I thought…I thought not telling you was the best thing, but you need to know that this baby may very well be from that night.”
Tears burn my eyes, and I drop them to my lap. “I…Saint…”
“He cheated the Lords, Ashtyn. And he will be punished if anyone finds out what he’s done.”
I didn’t want to believe her. I ran out of her office and into Haidyn. He immediately took me to see Gavin, and the dates lined up. There was no way it could have been Saint’s.
My eyes lift to Saint’s and see he’s facing Ace.
“You’re lying.” Kashton is still in denial. “We were there the night of the ritual. She bled at the ceremony. She hadn’t been with anyone before Saint.”
“That’s what I never figured out…” Ace trails off. “How did you know that I fucked your bitch?” He laughs, and I flinch.
A silence falls over the pits, and the blood rushes in my ears, waiting to see if Saint answers. I never knew how he did it. I never got the chance to ask, and when he brought me back here, I never cared to ask.
“Altus had cameras in her house,” Saint finally answers. “He recorded you raping her and showed it to me.”
What? Cameras in my house? That’s how Saint knew what had happened? Laura said that Saint knew but didn’t tell me how. And that he had cheated at the vow ceremony. That if the Lords knew that I wasn’t a virgin and Saint set it up to look like I was, he’d be stripped of his title. I couldn’t take that chance.
“No.” Ace shakes his head.
Saint fists his hands down by his sides. “I watched it. She was lying on her kitchen floor, begging me to fuck her. Calling out my name while you held her down pretending to be me and fucked her.” Saint shouts, making me flinch, and I cry harder. “I made him a promise that I’d take care of it, and I did.”
