The car was quiet…too damn quiet.
Nick scanned the rear-view mirror as we hauled ass from the farmhouse, searching the roads behind us for a glint of headlights. I didn’t know where we were driving, but he seemed to have some idea.
In the front passenger seat, Caleb silently stared out his window and beside me, Tobias was asleep. He was acting strange. Not screaming, not threatening. Not at all what I expected after what we’d just been through. I brushed my fingers down his arm and he opened his eyes.
“Princess.” He licked his lips, dropping his gaze to my breasts.
One carnal look and my breath caught. Desire followed as it always did with them, making my nipples tighten and my thighs clench. But he never made a move as we drove past farmhouses, skirting the outside of the city, just watched me for a while before he slept again.
I’d expected anger. I’d expected ranting.
But this silence was worrying, fraying my damn nerves. I forced my focus instead to the darkness outside. A low whine at my feet made me reach down and ruffle Rebel’s ears. She leaned into the touch, nuzzling my palm as dad pushed into my mind.
Whatever happens, I want you to leave with Caleb, sweetheart. Nothing good will ever come of you if you stay in that fucking place a second longer…
Tobias wanted me to trust dad, said that he’d gone in there with a plan. But I couldn’t stop the panic from gripping me tight. He’d just walked in there without a fight. I couldn’t shake the image of him being pushed by the guards toward the doors.
Were they hurting him?
I closed my eyes, were they killing him?
My hand clenched against the armrest on the door.
Trust…
It was hard to come by, especially where family had been concerned. But dad had come for me. I touched my cheek and winced, the tenderness still there from my own mother’s palm.
Dad had come for us. That meant more than anything. I dropped my hand to the leather seat of the car he’d hidden for this exact moment. The clothes, the guns, the medical kit, all stowed away in the trunk. He knew we were going to run at some stage, with or without him.
But run where? There wasn’t a place we could go where The Order didn’t reach? That question haunted me as we wound around the hills, inching closer to the city until, in the distance, the faint lights of an all-night diner shone in the dark.
“We’ll pull over.” Nick lifted his gaze to the mirror. “Get something to eat, find our bearings before we leave again, okay?”
“Sounds good,” Caleb answered carefully.
Still, Tobias was quiet, now staring out the window. I lowered my gaze to his hand, clenched around the armrest like a vise. Moonlight caressed his face, bouncing off the sheen of sweat across his forehead. It figured. Here I was, shivering with the cold, and he was hot as ever. I scowled, maybe too hot.
Nick slowed as the diner’s lights became brighter. Dust kicked up in a cloud behind us as we hit the shoulder of the road, pulled past a truck parked outside, and nosed the car into the side of the building.
“Everyone okay?” Nick glanced over his shoulder, but it wasn’t me he was looking at.
Still, I gave a nod. “Yeah.”
Caleb looked, too, his stare finding mine. “Just stay close to us, okay, princess?”
Tobias cracked open the door before I had a chance to speak, then the others moved, climbing out after him.
“Rebel,” Nick called, patting his thigh.
She followed his command, lunging between the seats to scurry out his open door. When she leaped out and landed on the ground, she whimpered.
Nick bent and ruffled her ear before checking her back leg. “Easy now, that’s a good girl.”
He was so kind with her, so careful, making my chest flutter. Empty booths were all I saw as I glanced in the windows of the diner. “At least it’s quiet.”
The car doors closed with a thud. I shoved my hands into my pockets as Tobias turned his face from me. That hurt. A lot. But Nick was already moving, heading to the front door of the diner, and Caleb followed. I hated leaving Tobias behind, but that pang of guilt in my chest told me he needed space. I didn’t like it…no, I didn’t like it at all. But I headed to the steps and climbed, following the others.
The bell above the door let out a chime, making me flinch. I glared at the thing before following my stepbrothers inside.
“No dogs.” The woman behind the counter snapped as she buffed the counter to a shine.
But Nick didn’t listen, just strode close and placed a hundred-dollar bill on the freshly cleaned surface, sliding it toward her. “We’ll sit in the back,” he said with the kind of tone that was dangerous. “You won’t even know she was here.”
The woman said nothing, just stared at the money before she slowly reached out, took the bill, and slipped it into her pocket. If she had been the owner, she might’ve kicked up a fuss, right before she tossed us out. But it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
A slow nod from her, and Nick turned. The lone truck driver watched us from the far end of the counter. He scanned us, wiping the corners of his mouth with his napkin before tossing it next to his plate.
We didn’t slow, just headed for the last empty booth in the row alongside the widows, like Nick had promised. He stepped aside and motioned for Caleb to slide in first, which he did. I listened to the limping thud of boots coming behind me, then lifted my gaze to the door of the women’s bathroom. My breaths were heavy, panic coiled in my stomach, desperate to come out. I needed a second…a second where I could think…
“I’ll be back.” I left them behind, forcing myself not to lunge for the salvation of a damn restroom.
My steps were silent, when all I wanted to do was scream. I pushed through the door, stepping into the gloom, and for a second I thought I was back there—in the pit of Hell, where the rooms were more like cells and the guards were sick men bent on your destruction.
But then the overhead lights of the restroom blinked on, causing me to stumble for the sink before I stopped, lifted my gaze to the haunted stare in the mirror, and whispered. “What the hell have I done?”
I didn’t have time to listen, only spin as the door squealed and that same limping thud of steps followed me in.
“This is the women’s—” I started, and froze, the words dying in my mouth.
Tobias’s threatening glare was fixed on me. My mouth went dry, my pulse raced. There was a tiny scowl…before he lunged.
He closed the distance between us in a second, his fist in my hair, yanking me backwards to show me who was in control here…and it wasn’t me.
My jacket gaped open and my t-shirt pulled taut across my breasts, drawing that savage stare.
“Princess…” He purred, reaching up to palm my breast. But the touch wasn’t soft or tender. No, nothing about Tobias was tender. I winced as he pinched my nipple hard enough for me to cry out, then raised that fierce glare. “I thought I’d fucking lost you,” he growled.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he didn’t let me, just slid his hand over my ass, gripped my thigh from underneath, and lifted, hoisting me onto the edge of the sink.
All the fear and the heartache I’d been holding inside tore free. “I thought I’d lost you too.”
His mouth was unforgiving and I welcomed it. Every gnash, every bruise, every clench of his hand around my breast. I let out a moan, needing his hard love like I needed air to breathe.
He yanked my jacket from my body and stared into my eyes. “Princess…” he whispered. “I’d crawl through fucking Hell to get back to you, don’t you know that by now?”
I melted with his words, lifting my arms as he dragged my shirt over my head. My nipples tightened under his stare. He lowered his head and licked a puckered peak before grazing it with his teeth.
“Oh, God,” I whimpered, my hands moving to his clipped hair. “Yes. Yes, Tobias…yes.”
Yes, to knowing that.
Yes, to this.
I craved his control, his cruel, manhandling ways. I craved everything about him, from the battle that raged in his eyes, to the torment he took out on my body. Run or fuck, that’s all there was. Right now, he was done with running.
His fingers worked the button of my jeans, then spread the zipper wide before he shoved them down. One hard yank and I slipped from the sink until my feet hit the floor.
“T,” I whimpered.
He spun me around until I stared into my reflection in the bathroom mirror. But it was his face I saw. His dark eyes that met mine. He slipped his fingers along my crease, yanking the elastic of my panties down.
One hand moved to the middle of my back and gently made me bend. “Spread your legs, princess, and tell me how much you fucking missed me.”
My chest pressed against the cold counter as his fingers pushed in. “I missed you,” I whispered.
“What was that?” He drove his fingers inside me, then slid them along my crease, reaching between my legs to find my clit. “I couldn’t quite hear you.”
The force of his body pinned me to the counter. I couldn’t move, even if I’d wanted to, and Christ, I didn’t want to. I clawed for a hold, opening my legs as far as the jeans and my panties around my knees allowed.
“I m-missed you,” I stuttered.
He thrust his fingers inside, stretching me, fucking me, stroking that part of me that made me tremble. “How much, princess?”
I gripped the counter as our gazes met in the reflection. “So fucking much.”
There was a twitch in the corner of his mouth. This was the punishment he wanted to inflict. Berating me with every thrust of his touch as he reached for his zipper with his other hand. “This cunt is mine, do you understand that?”
“Yes.”
“This heart is mine.” Those haunting dark eyes were fixed on mine as he grasped my thigh and yanked upwards, splaying my pussy wide. “You know what else is mine?”
My knee slipped, angled against the edge of the counter. He unbuttoned his jeans, shoved them down and, with one hard thrust, drove his cock inside. “Your fucking life. Your…” Thrust. “Fucking… life.”
I bucked with the invasion and shoved my hands out, desperate to grab anything as he rammed home.
“No one touches it,” he growled and slammed home again. “No one fucking gets to have it…only me…only…us.”
Us…
My stepbrothers. I grasped the faucets, driving my body backwards, meeting his thrusts.
I barely had a second to adjust to my stepbrother’s raw fucking before he pulled out. His eyes were wide. His breaths, savage. I’d never seen anyone so quietly unhinged. “You’re mine, Ryth. You’ve always been mine. No one, and nothing, will take you from me, do you understand that?”
I saw the fear in him then, fear that I’d be taken. Fear that I’d be killed. All he’d known was loss. He was stained with it, from his anger to his consuming need. He drove himself to the edge for me and beyond. Maybe there was no coming back for him…maybe there was no coming back for any of us. But I was here. I was here and there was no going back for me. Not now…not ever.
“Then make me yours.”
His breath stilled, and the whole world stilled with it. My skin prickled with the intensity of his gaze as he slowly looked down to my pussy on display, still clenching and pulsing from the brutality of his hunger. He reached out, splayed his fingers wide, and cupped my ass.
His touch was slower, softer and searching. As though I hadn’t been real until this moment. The muscles of his throat worked as he swallowed.
“They won’t take you from me,” he said with chilling certainty. “No one is going to take you from me.”
He slipped his fingers along my crease, spread my lips, then entered me again. I bit my lower lip and bent my spine, reveling in the feel of him.
“Do you hear me, little sister?” he urged, thrusting more slowly this time. “No one is taking you from me.”
I moaned with that slow, demanding stroke and drove back against him.
“Open your eyes, princess. Watch me as I fuck you.”
I did, finding that unfathomable stare in the reflection. He was the brother who’d hated me, the brother who’d gone out of his way to be cruel. Now he was the brother who’d kill for me.
The faint clutter of pans pushed in from outside. For a second, I’d forgotten the world outside this bathroom existed—in this moment there was just him—and this. I shoved reality aside, focusing on the feel of his big cock inside me.
He leaned forward and grasped my throat. “You like to be fucked hard, little sister?” he grunted, driving into me. “You like the way Caleb drives you?”
I nodded, jolting hard.
“Then consider yourself owned.”
“Yes…” I drove back hard against him, meeting his thrusts, driving him deeper and harder.
He owned me.
They all owned me.
He reached up and gripped my jaw, turning me to stare into my eyes. “Say my name, little sister.”
“Tobias,” I moaned.
“Again,” he demanded.
“Tobias.”
He bucked his hips, driving me against the sink. I had nowhere to go, no room to breathe. It didn’t matter anyway. His breath was my breath. His touch, my everything.
The intensity in his stare tipped me over the edge and as my orgasm quaked inside me, the door to the bathroom opened.
Tobias was an animal, reaching around his back to whip the sight of a gun at the person who entered the room.
But it was Nick.
“One second, brother,” Tobias growled, turning his attention back to me. “That’s it, princess. Take it. Take what you need.”
I lowered my chest to the cold surface as my pussy clenched. “Oh, God…oh, God.”
“That’s it, baby,” Tobias grunted.
I met Nick’s stare in the reflection as my world exploded.
The gun clattered as Tobias shoved it onto the counter, giving one long moan as he thrust once and stilled. His cock kicked. Warmth bloomed Inside me, making me whimper and clench tight.
“Fuck, little mouse,” Tobias gasped, the sheen of sweat on his forehead shining. “Fuck.”
His heavy breaths consumed the space as he stared at me. I’d brought him undone, I knew that now. I glanced at Nick.
No.
I brought all of them undone.
Just as they did for me.
“That was just a taste, princess.” Tobias drew my focus back as he slid his cock from me and looked down. His fingers went between my legs, sliding in the slick as he pushed his cum back inside. “Make sure you make yourself available to me, day and fucking night. Consider it your punishment for leaving me and don’t even think about cleaning this up. I will fucking stain every inch of you by the time I’m done.”
My pussy throbbed, the heartbeat clenching around his fingers. But that predatory stare said it all. I would have this. Maybe more than I was prepared for. This was my stepbrother’s punishing way.
Make myself available…
My knees trembled. My will was weak.
“Have something to say to me, little sister?” Tobias demanded.
I tried to control my panicked breaths. “No.” I licked my lips. “Not at all.”
A nod, and he reached down, shoved his cock into his jeans, and zipped up. “Nick?”
Cum coated the inside of my thighs. God, I almost whimpered when Nick stared at the mess his brother had made. “Not yet.” He licked his lips as he answered. “Although, seeing you bent over the sink like that is making me reconsider.”
Tobias leaned forward and braced his hand against the wall, earning a scowl from Nick.
“I came to tell you the food is ready.”
Tobias nodded, then met my stare. “You go eat, princess. I’ll be right behind you.”
“T,” Nick warned.
“I said I’ll be right there.” Tobias bared his teeth.
Something passed between them. Something I didn’t understand. I reached down, tugged my panties and jeans upwards. “What’s going on?”
Nick stared at T.
T just looked at me, shaking his head. “Nothing.”
But it didn’t look like nothing. It looked like a whole lot of something. But no one pushed Tobias. No one told him what to do. He was too damn stubborn for his own good.
“Fine,” Nick answered.
“Fine,” Tobias answered back.
“Men,” I muttered, buttoning up my jeans and shaking my head. “No, brothers.”
They both started after me as I pumped the soap dispenser and washed my hands, tearing off a piece of hand towel and eyeing them as I went. Nick followed me out, and the moment I did, the smell of food hit me.
I hadn’t eaten in that place and barely had anything to drink. But I wasn’t the only one. Caleb sat waiting, the massive plate of food in front of him untouched. Rebel chewed and gnawed a thick, raw steak on the floor as I slipped into the booth opposite him.
“Better?”
I met Caleb’s stare as he searched my face. I knew he saw the marks his brother had left behind. “Not even remotely,” I answered, lowering my gaze to the massive cheeseburger and fries waiting. “I’ll be better when we’re safe and I hear from my dad.”
He picked up his knife and fork and carved into his steak. He attacked his food with complete precision, carving, chewing, never once making a mess. I knew he must be starving. He hadn’t eaten himself after that one bite of the sandwich.
That place corrupted everything. Nick strode toward us, but instead of sitting down, he kept walking. I took a massive bite of the burger and moaned with the taste, licking the grease and sauce that dripped down my hand, and glanced over my shoulder, watching as Nick spoke to the woman behind the counter.
She lifted her hand and pointed to something in the shadows next to the door. I barely saw my plate as I reached, just grabbed two fries and dragged them through the ketchup before sliding them into my mouth and turned back.
It was a phone. One of those old landlines that stranded motorists with no cell phone reception used. But Nick’s phone sat on the table in front of us, with full bars of service.
I chewed, swallowed, and grabbed more, this time without even looking. Instead, I watched my brother as he punched in numbers and spoke into the handset, to who, I didn’t know.
“Who is he talking to?”
“Hell if I know,” Caleb answered.
I didn’t believe him. I met his stare, searching those hazel eyes for the truth. “What’s going on?”
One brow rose as he chewed and swallowed, then grabbed the napkin and dabbed the side of his mouth. “Do you want the long version or the short version, little sister?”
He was playing with me. I looked to the closed door of the ladies’ room. Tobias still hadn’t come out, and all of a sudden, I wasn’t hungry, I was worried and pissed.
“Here he comes,” Caleb muttered. “You can ask him yourself.”
Nick sat down next to Caleb. I didn’t wait, motioning with my head to the phone. “Who was that?”
Nick just smiled and glanced at my plate. “You’re not hungry, princess?”
“No.” I placed my burger down on the plate. “Are you going to answer me?”
There was a twitch in the corner of his mouth as he shook his head. “If you’re not hungry, then we’ll grab the rest to go.”
He waved the waitress over and this time she was only too accommodating, even smiling as she neared. He never once looked away, just held my gaze. “Can you wrap the rest of this up? Add in three more steaks for the dog and six bottles of water, and we’ll leave.”
She just gave a nod, then reached forward and grabbed my plate, as well as Tobias’s untouched food. “Sure thing.”
She’d barely left before the clatter of plates echoed through the doorway of the kitchen. Seemed like she was only too happy to get rid of us.
“You want to tell me what’s going on, Nick?” I demanded. “I deserve to know.”
“You do.” His smile was sad this time. “And I want to tell you, but first we need to get you somewhere safe. Somewhere where they can’t track you. Somewhere where they can’t find you. Only then will we tell you what’s going on, and why.”
The bathroom door opened and Tobias stumbled out, only this time he limped a little harder. That sheen of sweat was more obvious now as he made his way to the table. “Are we leaving?”
“Yes,” Nick answered.
“Good.” Tobias seemed pleased with that and kept on walking past the waitress as she returned, grabbed the two remaining plates, and left.
Barely a minute later, and she returned, carrying a plastic bag filled with containers of food. Nick reached into his pocket, slipped out another hundred-dollar bill, and left it on the table before sliding out. “Thank you.”
He grabbed the bag and motioned toward the door. “Ryth.”
He didn’t call my name like that. Not normally.
I grabbed a napkin off the table in front of me, wiped my hands, and left it behind as I slipped out of the booth and followed them outside.
Tobias had barely made it three steps ahead of us before we caught up. I stepped down onto the first step as he wobbled and reached for the railing.
Only he missed it.
“Tobias,” I cried out.
He took a step, and another, before finally, his knees gave way, sending him crashing to the ground. Panic surged through me as I lunged. “Tobias!” I called his name…
But this time, he didn’t get up.
