by Helene Gadot
But she had to remember the danger. She had to remember she didn't know them, not really. And they didn't know her. They might not believe her story if she told them who she was hiding from. No one but Malia ever had.
And why would they believe the woman they'd known less than a month?
She sighed and looked at the grease staining her skin, heat filling her cheeks at the memory of Cormac telling her what she smelled like. He fucked with her mind big time the night before. The bastard.
The same things kept running through her mind, over and over, driving her crazy. She had to make a choice and live with it. She either let them pull her into their world and tell them what they were getting into with her. Or she finished the job and cut ties with them.
Why did the thought of never seeing them again hurt so much? She'd never been tempted to share her past before except with Malia.
She needed to take a long drive on her bike. That's what she needed. It would clear her head and help her make her choice. She'd take the long route back to the North Shore.
If she did decide to leave them behind, she was damn sure going to get Malia to help her switch out her shitty mattress for the glorious one in the room they'd given her to use.
Her phone rang, the tone shrill over the rock song she was singing along to. She wiped her hands on a rag and answered it.
"Hello?"
Screams and weeping came through the phone.
She turned off the music. "Who is this? What's going on?"
A sobbing woman spoke. "Ridley? It's Beth. He's here. Help us."
Ridley leapt to her feet and strapped weapons on her body. "OK. Are you at your house?"
"Yes. Hurry. He's almost through the door."
"I'll be there in ten minutes and I'll call the cops, hopefully they can at least slow him down."
The phone went dead before Beth could answer.
"Shit." Ridley raced for her bike, shooting off a message to Malia and one of their cop friends. What a horrible day for her to need a damn cleaning. Shit. She grabbed her thigh holster and wrapped it around her leg, snapping her gun into place. She wasn't taking any chances with this asshole. Not this time. She'd put him down if she had to. Her spare mask was in her saddle bag and she yanked it over her head.
She threw her leg over her bike and sped off, heart pounding, praying she didn't make it there too late.
26-Ridley
Ridley made it to Beth's in less than ten minutes, breaking every speed limit on her way. She hoped a cop would chase her so she'd have backup, but of course when you wanted to get caught, they were nowhere to be found.
No cops were at the front of the place either. She'd called them seven minutes ago, where the fuck were they? She shouldn't have told them it was a marvel. They'd probably called the Legion in to handle it and washed their hands of the whole situation. The Legion would take forever to respond and when they did, Ridley would be stuck in the middle.
Fuck.
She should have called the shitheads instead of the cops.
The front door hung off the hinges and screams came from inside. They were too isolated out here for anyone to come to their aid. She should have dealt with this sooner. She should have accepted the help that was offered. She shouldn't have gotten sidetracked with a new target.
She raced inside the house, her eyes taking in the massive damage already done to what was once probably a lovely living room. She followed the screams into the backyard where she found Beth crawling towards a crumpled Sarah.
Immediately, she threw up an illusion, camouflaging herself against the house as she pulled out her gun. With his speed powers, she couldn't take any chances.
She fired at him, but he heard it and fled before the bullet cleared the chamber. She made it look like he was on fire, starting at his pants and sweeping up to his middle.
He screamed and beat at the flames, then sped around in a circle, trying to get his speed to turn them off. But they would'nt go anywhere. She controlled them.
It gave Beth the time to haul the barely conscious Sarah into the house. As they passed, Ridley hissed at them to get the hell out of there. Beth's wide eyes searched for her, but the camouflage held.
He stopped again and tried to pat out the flames. Ridley took advantage and built the illusion of four walls around him. She could still see him and watched him freak out and throw a burning tantrum. She'd find it amusing if she wasn't so furious at the condition she found Sarah and Beth in. The piece of shit canker sore. He thought he was safe. She'd make him understand he'd never be safe. Not from her.
Just in case, she kept the camouflage illusion in place. Not a moment too soon. He burst through one of the walls and they and the flames disappeared.
Her mind whirled, and she tried to create the illusion of a lightning strike, but he moved too fast. He slammed into her with all his speed, crushing her against the side of the house so hard cracks appeared in the bricks.
Pain shattered through her and she was sure a few things broke. The world tilted as she crumpled to the ground in a broken heap. Every part of her vibrated with pain.
His foot slammed into her stomach and she moaned as her vision wavered.
"You think your little mind games are going to work again on me? Your powers are nothing compared to mine. They're cheap tricks." He punctuated his words with another kick.
Something inside her gave. Something important.
She reached for the tendrils of her power, gathering all of it to her, what little she had left.
With a muffled cry, she threw every last bit out of her. She made it look like the shitheads arrived to save the day. It was the most amazing illusion of her life.
The fake Cormac appeared right behind Tyler and slammed his fist into the jackass's face. Tyler rocked back and the fake Reese swooped down from the sky to kick him in the chest.
Maddox made the earth rumble beneath Tyler and then threw fireballs at him.
This time, he didn't see through the illusions. She made it real enough, he believed it.
He tried to use his speed, but her illusions trapped him. Wind, wings, fire, and fists attacked him, surrounded him. She kept it up until he was curled into a weeping ball on the ground.
She could feel her power wavering, she didn't have much time.
Ridley rolled onto her stomach, crawling away from the rubble littering the ground caused by a Ridley-shaped hole in the house.
It took everything she had to drag herself to her feet, stumbling over to him, gun in hand. She wasn't even sure how she'd kept a hold on it. She should have used it on the bastard while he was kicking her.
She wanted nothing more than to sink a bullet right between his eyes. But if she did, there would be questions from the Legion. Dammit.
So she shot him in the kneecaps and then kicked him in the head to stop his screaming and crying.
Her illusions wavered and there were two of each shithead. What the hell was wrong with her powers? She tried to make them disappear, but one set remained, racing towards her for some reason.
She collapsed beside Tyler, no longer able to stand on her feet. The four of them hovered over her, looks of horror on their faces.
"I wish you were really here." Black cut off their faces, a welcoming black embracing her into unconsciousness.
27-Beckett
Beckett swallowed hard, trying not to vomit at the broken woman in front of him. He could already tell she had multiple fractured ribs, a broken leg, a dislocated shoulder, and was covered in blood.
"Oh hell, what has she gotten herself into?" Reese whispered the question, kneeling beside her in a pool of her blood.
"Why didn't she call us?" Maddox swelled, fury raging through him with nowhere to aim it.
Cormac cursed, staring down at her. "You know why. She's as stubborn as the lot of us and thought she could handle it on her own."
Reese ran a hand over his face. "Which she did. She just sacrificed herself to do it."
Be
ckett slid his hands carefully over her. "We need to get her out of here. I can't fix her here."
"Are you going to be able to fix her?" Maddox asked. "She looks bad."
"She'll be fine. I'll make sure of it."
Maddox nodded shortly and barked out orders. "Cormac, you and Reese get this filth out of here and over to the Legion prison. I'll let Malia know what's going on and she can help those women wherever they are."
Cormac didn't move. "Somebody needs to bring her bike to the house. We can't leave it here."
Reese stood, his pants soaked in blood. "After we drop off Tyler, we'll double back and pick it up."
Cormac and Reese grabbed Tyler, slapping power dampeners on his wrists while Beckett lifted Ridley as carefully as he could.
She flopped in his arms, not even a flinch at his touch. Fuck, she was bad off.
Maddox went ahead of him opening the door to the back of the SUV and helped him slide her inside. Beckett climbed in beside her to keep her steady.
Once Maddox got them on the road, Beckett sent his healing powers into her. It was easier and safer to do it if she wasn't in a moving car and he had somewhere to crash, but he worried if he waited, she wouldn't make it.
"Fuck." Maddox hit the steering wheel. "We shouldn't have left her alone."
"We all agreed, Maddox. She's a grown woman. A powerful one. And we weren't going to get on her good side by babysitting her like she wasn't. There's no way we could have known what would happen today." Right then, Beckett wished one of them had the gift of foresight.
"But it's our fault that rancid ham sandwich was still free and felt like he could come back and do whatever he wanted without consequences."
Beckett reached out and clapped his leader on the shoulder. "Again, there's no way we could have known what was actually going on that night. The only thing we saw was a woman torturing a guy with snakes and spiders. And I'm pretty sure she just taught him that there are consequences for being a rancid ham sandwich. Speaking of, you definitely need to use that insult in front of Ridley. She'll love it."
Maddox snorted. "Yeah, she will."
"You really care for her, don't you?"
"You don't?" Maddox met Beckett's eyes through the rear-view mirror.
Beckett returned his attention to the crazy woman bleeding all over him. "She intrigues me. Definitely. And I like her. And she's hot and hilarious and a bit crazy and smart as hell. So yeah, I guess. But I barely know her really, and you got first dibs."
"I don't have dibs. If any person makes her own decisions, it's her. I'm hoping she won't have to choose at all."
Beckett looked up with a confused frown. "What are you talking about?"
"Just a stupid idea I talked to Cormac about. The more I've thought about it, the crazier I am." Maddox sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
A light clicked on in Beckett's brain. "You want to share her? All of us date her?"
"I don't know, dude. Right now, all I care about is her being okay. We'll figure out the rest later. I just wanted you to know where my mind was and didn't want you holding back out of some loyalty to me."
"I'll keep that in mind." Beckett didn't know what to think or feel. Sure, the idea intrigued him, and hell, they shared everything else.
But she could barely stand them. He highly doubted she'd be interested in dating all of them.
"Are you interested?" Maddox couldn't seem to help himself.
"Is now really the best time for this conversation?" Beckett wasn't entirely comfortable talking about it yet. Not until he thought everything through on his own.
"Yes. I need something to take my mind off everything right now so I don't drop you two off and go break something."
Beckett blew out a breath. "Then yes, I'm interested."
"That surprises me."
"Why?"
"You have to think through everything from all angles and then think them through thirteen more times."
Beckett let out a humorless laugh. "True. There's something about her, though."
"Yeah, there is."
She blew into their lives like a hurricane, all scowls and darkness, calling to the pain in his own life. In his team's lives.
They arrived back at their house in record time, and Maddox leapt from the car to ran around to the back door, easing Ridley into his massive arms, and carried her inside, Beckett right on his heels.
Maddox laid her on her bed and stepped back, his hands curled into fists at his sides. "She doesn't look any better."
"I know. I focused on stopping her bleeding on the drive here. We need to get her cleaned up and then I'll take care of everything else." Beckett paused, uncomfortable with stripping her while she was unconscious.
Maddox bit his lip. "What if I hold a blanket over her while you take her clothes off?"
"As long as I'm careful that should work."
Beckett pulled out his pocket knife and felt beneath the blanket, trying desperately not to grope her as he cut and pulled away her bloody and torn clothing. There was so much blood and he didn't want to hurt her more.
He stopped with a curse. "You know what? This is stupid. She isn't going to hurt us and we're not being disrespectful. It's not like we're being gross."
"Nothing hot about a wounded unconscious woman." Maddox tossed the blanket away and helped Beckett remove the rest of her outer clothing.
Maddox ran into the bathroom and came back with a couple wet washcloths. They wiped the blood and dirt off her, his throat clogged with fury at seeing her this way. She was usually always moving, even when she sat, her legs jumped, her fingers fidgeted, her eyes searched for exit points and read expressions, even the energy around her jumped and sparked.
Once they had her as clean as they could get her, they covered her back up and Beckett sat beside her, her hand in his. He closed his eyes and focused on her broken bones, fusing them back together, putting them back into the proper place and order.
She started to wriggle and moan, but still didn't wake up. He wasn't sure that she would until she slept the healing off. It took him half an hour to fix everything that shitstain broke inside her. It was one of the hardest healings he'd ever done. He was surprised she held on as long as she did. She was amazing and strong as hell.
He finally opened his eyes and stepped back from her, swaying a little on his feet. Maddox was by his side in an instant, steadying him. "I'll take you to your room."
"No. I want to be close in case I missed something. I'm fine."
"Here." Maddox grabbed the chair from the corner desk and dragged it over to the bed. "Rest here. I need to check on everyone else. You good?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Before Maddox even reached the door, Ridley let out a scream.
28-Maddox
Maddox's heart dropped into his stomach at the sound. He spun around and dropped to his knees beside the bed. "Ridley? You're safe. You're back with us at the house. Beth and Sarah are fine. You saved them."
She moaned and thrashed against the bed, beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead. "No. No. Get off her, Dad. Leave her alone."
Maddox shared a pained glance with Beckett as they tried to hold her down without hurting her. She would hate this, knowing they saw her this way.
"Mama? Mama, are you okay? I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't stop him. Please, Mama. Open your eyes."
Fuck, whoever her father was, Maddox wanted to kill him. Everything made so much sense now. What she was running from. Why she was so guarded. Her scars they'd seen when she wore her bikini.
"Shh. You're safe. You're okay." He caressed her head, grief and rage clogging his throat.
Tears tracked down her face from her closed eyes and Maddox wanted to put his fist through a wall. Or through someone's face. She finally stilled and sank back into a calmer sleep.
The front door slammed closed and Beckett looked up. "Go. She needs rest. I'll keep an eye on her. You have enough to deal with."
It physically hurt
him to leave the room. He wanted to be there with her, protect her from her monsters. But it wasn't what she wanted. He wished she did. It wasn't like he didn't believe her capable, but he wanted to have her back just like he did with the rest of his team. She had wormed her way in and become part of them. But he was going to have to let her go. He couldn't force her to stay. He just had to hope she'd decide she wanted to.
Cormac and Reese barreled over to him. "Where is she? Is she okay? We heard a scream."
Maddox wasn't sure who asked what. "She's fine. It was a nightmare, and she's sleeping now and Beckett's in there with her recovering from the healing he did on her."
They slumped into each other, some of the worry dropping from their shoulders.
Someone pounded on the door and Cormac turned to open it. Malia burst inside, eyes wild. "Where the fuck is she?"
Maddox held up his hands and told her the same thing he told the others.
Malia paused and breathed long and hard. "Okay. Okay. What happened with that stupid son of a bastard?"
Reese gave her a hug. "He's locked up, and we made statements over what he's done. They want to talk to the women to get a statement from them too. Were you able to track them down?"
She hugged him back for a second before pushing him off. "Yeah. They're both in the hospital recovering, but they will be fine. They didn't make it far. They said Ridley set him on fire so they could get away."
"We're not sure what happened. When we got there, he had bullet holes in his kneecaps and was knocked out. Ridley was a bloody and broken mess and was barely conscious when we arrived. It looks like she used illusions of us to get him still enough to shoot him."
"Sounds like her. I'm surprised she used illusions of you guys, though. That's intricate and powerful work. Something that specific is harder for her."
Cormac came back in and held out a mug. "She's pretty badass when she's pissed off."
"That she is." She accepted the coffee from Cormac. "Thanks."
"Thanks for calling us. I wish she had." Sparks flew from Cormac's eyes, but Maddox recognized anger masking guilt when he saw it.
