Tobias strode out of the bedroom. His hair was still damp, his chest bare. A towel was precariously wrapped around his waist, leaving his thigh flashing as he walked.
He headed for me, and I could see the need in his eyes, a hunger that burned in the darkness, one I felt in the depths of my soul. He wrapped his arms around me, drawing me against his chest. I buried my head in his neck and inhaled his carnal, masculine sent. One I once loathed.
“I thought I’d lost you, little mouse.” His words were a moan in my ear, sending my pulse racing.
I couldn’t get enough of them. I couldn’t get enough of him. I tightened my arms around him, flattening my body against his. “Never.”
“We can stay here tonight,” Nick announced as he opened the refrigerator behind me. “But then we need to think about leaving. We need someplace secure, someplace where they wouldn’t dare come for us.” He glanced at Tobias. “Not unless they want a war.”
Tobias scowled. “You really want to hole ourselves up in a Rossi safehouse?”
“You have a better idea?” Nick responded. “Then I’m all for it.”
But no one did. Even if it was the last thing Tobias wanted to do, he’d ask his enemy for one more favor. And he’d do it for me.
He stared down at me with those bottomless dark eyes that were utterly terrifying to anyone else. His fingers curled as he brushed a strand of hair from the side of my face. “But we have tonight, right?”
I shivered at the words.
“No.”
I jerked my gaze to Caleb as he stood staring out the window. Tobias’ lips curled when Caleb turned and regarded him with a savage glare. “Not until she’s ready.”
Tobias dropped his hand and took a step toward him. “Not until she’s ready?” Rage seethed under the surface of his words. “Got something you want to share, C?”
Caleb’s brows furrowed with a wounded look. But not once did he look my way. He just held Tobias’ stare, that detached look growing even colder. My stomach tightened. Would he tell the truth? Or would he pretend what happened in that place had never happened at all? In the end, he curled his lips in a snarl and headed for Nick’s bedroom, yanking his shirt free as he went.
Tobias stared after him. So did Nick.
He was jealous and petty, wanting to ruin the moment, and he’d succeeded. Tobias lifted his arm and motioned me under. “Come on, little mouse. Surely you must be starving.”
But food was the last thing I wanted. “No.” I didn’t think I ever wanted to eat again, or sleep, or be alone.
“What did Caleb mean, princess?” Nick inquired, looking at me.
“What did they do to you?” Tobias’ words were strained. “That’s what C means, right?”
“Don’t push her,” Nick snapped at his brother. “You don’t have to tell us, not unless you want to.”
I didn’t want to. I wanted to forget that place and everything that happened within those walls ever existed. I wanted to pretend we were back in the days before I’d been taken. I wanted to pretend it was just us.
“Or we can forget all about that shit.” Tobias gave me a way out. “We start fresh, right now, in this moment. What do you say about that?”
I forced a smile. “I think I’d like that.”
“Then food.” Nick pulled a bunch of food out of the refrigerator and opened a cupboard. “I don’t have a lot to work with. But it could be a while before we have anything decent…and you need to make a phone call, right?”
He cast Tobias a sideways glance. There was a mutter and a pissed-off growl before my moody stepbrother turned and stalked away.
Nick busied himself with ingredients, pouring stuff into a saucepan. There was stock, some frozen chicken, and some type of frozen dim sum. I watched while I rubbed the puppy’s ears. “Where did you get her?”
“A dogfighting ring. They thought she was dead.” He looked up at me. “She fought and survived. I guess she’s tougher than she looks.”
I didn’t know if he was talking about the dog or if he was talking about me. Maybe it was both. Maybe that was the whole reason he’d saved her in the first place. Whatever that was, I was glad. “Does she have a name?”
“I was hoping we would pick one together, seeing as how she’s going to be ours.”
Ours…
While Nick cooked, I thought about a name for the dog. Nothing came to me, not at first. She was kind and sweet. Those big, sad, shimmering eyes made her look even sweeter. But under the gentle nuzzle of her cold nose and that happy spark was the heart of a fighter. “A dog fighting ring?” I whispered.
“Two full-grown pitbulls attacked her, and she survived.” Nick continued to stir the soup. “Even when those bastards threw her out like a piece of trash.”
A fighter…just like me.
“You’re a rebel,” I whispered to her. “Aren’t you?”
Nick lifted his head from stirring the pot that now had the most delicious salty scent. Even if I’d said I wasn’t hungry, my belly still grumbled.
“Rebel, that’s what I want to call her.”
Nick smiled and stepped closer. “Rebel, huh?” He looked at her. “She looks like a damn rebel to me. Nice one, Princess.”
“The shower’s all yours.” Caleb strode out of the bedroom, his hair and bare chest still damp, wearing a pair of Nick’s gray sweats.
My pulse raced at the sight, betraying me as I took in the muscles of his chest and hard stomach.
Can’t be tender. The memory of those words surfaced. I’m going to be a beast to you. You’ll fucking hate me and want me all at the same time.
That was the truth. I hated him…and wanted him still.
“I’ll find you some clothes,” Nick growled, glancing from me to Caleb before he disappeared into the bedroom.
“Are you ever going to forgive me?”
It was the first time he’d spoken to me, the first time he’d even acted like he saw me. “After what you did to me?” I stepped closer, staring into his eyes. “After what you let them do to me?’
“And what was that?”
I flinched at the dangerous tone in Tobias’ voice as he came closer. “Because I’m dying to fucking know, brother.”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I stepped closer, placed the puppy in Tobias’ arms, and muttered, “I’m going to take a shower.”
I couldn’t deal with Caleb right now, or the bloodshed that was sure to come. I stepped into Nick’s bedroom as he cast a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt onto the bed. He rose and looked at me. “What is it?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
But out in the kitchen, Tobias wouldn’t leave it alone. “You going to tell me, brother? Or do I have to beat it out of you?”
Nick flinched at the threat, but he didn’t move. It wasn’t just the Hale Order destined to destroy us. We were doing a perfectly decent job on our own.
“I’ll leave you, then,” Nick declared when the front door to his apartment slammed shut with a bang!
I grabbed the clothes and hurried into the bathroom, desperate to get the stench of that place off me. And my memories scrubbed clean, but the water wouldn’t be hot enough for that. I closed the bathroom door behind me and tugged off the sweater, then the negligee and the boxers, casting them onto the floor in the corner of the room. I’d never wear fucking white again.
My gaze went to the mirror, and to the tattoo on my abdomen, that was still red and painful, before I stepped into the shower and turned on the water. The spray was hot and stinging. I welcomed the heat, lowering my head as the faint sound of raised voices drifted in.
I tried to push their anger and rage to the side for a moment, and instead…I cried. Hard shudders wracked my body as I slowly crumpled to the floor. I’d left her…she’d protected me, tried to save me…and I’d left her alone in that place.
They’d hurt her. I knew that without a doubt.
They’d hurt her, use her, and break her.
All because I’d left her behind.
I wrapped my arms around my knees, drawing them up tight to my chest.
My chest tightened and pain flared in the back of my throat. I’d left her…I’d left her.
Agony turned to a scream. I bit down on my fist, rocking and moaning.
They had a man abducted from prison, for Christ’s sake. Viv’s voice echoed in my head. There’s a war between the man who runs this place and someone else.
I pulled my fist out of my mouth. The man they’d abducted had to be my father. Shudders tore through me at the thought. I shoved upwards, my knees shaking as I switched off the water and stepped out. Wet towels were discarded on the bathroom floor, and it was almost like everything was normal…except I knew it wasn’t.
I grabbed one that was still folded, using it to dry my body, then wrapped it around my hair.
“Princess.” Nick’s voice intruded as he opened the bathroom door and lifted his head. “I know you said you weren’t hungry—” he froze.
His gaze was fixed on the mirror…and the black tattoo inked into my skin.
There was a second when he didn’t understand what he was seeing. Until I turned around and lowered my hand to cover the marking.
“Those fucking bastards…” The words punched through on a harsh breath before he drew a lungful and roared, “THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS!”
