by L. A. Sable
“You act like you’ve never been shot before,” I tease as I lean down to press a gentle kiss on his forehead and place the flowers on the nightstand. I force myself to smile so that I don’t cry.
Jayden raises his arm to reach for my hand and then winces in obvious pain. He presses the button for his morphine drip and the deep lines of stress on his face relax slightly. “At least they give you the good stuff when you almost die.”
“Just make sure you don’t make the same mistakes I did.” My voice is wry, but there isn’t any embarrassment. These guys have seen me at my very worst and gone through things with me that no one else will. We’ve moved way beyond secrets or embarrassment.
“I am definitely not nursing you back to health, you asshole.” Kai grabs a nearby chair and flips it around before straddling it. “You’re gonna need to get over this shit on your own.”
Jayden laughs and then winces as the movement pulls at the stitches on his shoulder. “And I’m the asshole?”
Lukas stops at the end of the bed and leans forward to rest his elbows on the frame. “You are the one who decided to go run off first and get yourself shot.”
“Uh, that makes me the hero.” Jayden shifts in the bed and cast me an amused smile when I immediately lean over to him to fluff his pillows. “Now go get the nurse and tell her I’m ready for my sponge bath.”
“No flipping way.” I sit gingerly on the edge of the bed, close enough that I can feel the comforting heat of his body against mine, but not so much that I might hurt him. “But if you hurry up and get out of here, we can try playing doctor later.”
He grabs my hand and squeezes it as our gazes meet, the soft smile on his lips enough to break my heart. His eyes are full of heat, not just sexual, but an intensity of two warriors who’ve shared a battlefield and lived to tell the tale. That look says that we’ve been linked by this for the rest of our lives and no force on earth can sever it.
A knock on the door distracts us and I look up to see Detective Mabeley poking his head through the slight gap in the door with Detective Cicero standing behind him.
“Come on in,” Jayden calls, voice full of forced cheer.
“I know right now might not be the best time,” Detective Mabeley says as he enters. “But we really need to get an official statement from you about what happened.”
The guys and I exchange heavy glances before Jayden turns back to the detectives with a grim sort of look on his face. Even with the recording as evidence, the details of all this seem almost too fantastic to be believed.
We tell them everything that happened after Carter’s stabbing, including hiding out at the Ritz-Carlton and then getting the mysterious message that was supposedly from Asher threatening us if I didn’t meet him. Which meant we had to explain about the videotape.
Detective Mabeley’s eyebrows shoot up, but he’s nice enough not to ask for additional details. “What made you think the message wasn’t actually from Asher.”
“There was a hidden code that spelled out a totally different message,” Jayden explains, shifting in the bed as he tries to find a more comfortable position. “It was this stupid thing from when we were kids.”
“The Zach Zachary cipher,” I add. “You know, from the television show.”
Mabeley’s eyes widen. “You’re that Jayden Heart, aren’t you? My kids love your show, it gets rerun all the time on the Kid’s Zone Network. I have to admit that I’m a bit of a fan, too.”
Cicero clears his throat and shoots his partner a quelling look as to encourage the other man to stop fan-girling. “And did you know at that point that Frank Bellamy was somehow involved with all this?”
“Not until he shot me,” Jayden wryly comments. “That definitely spoiled the surprise. I don’t really remember much after that.”
“Of course not,” Mabeley says sympathetically. “Although I hope all of you understand just how dangerous it was to handle this situation on your own.”
“Speaking of that, you never told us how you guys knew to show up at the Bellamy house,” Lukas points out, voice curious. “None of us called the police.”
Cicero flips through his notepad. “According to dispatch, it was an anonymous tip.”
“It was Charlie,” I admit, feeling a little bad when the guys turn on me with widened eyes. “I texted her before we left the hotel that she should call the police if she didn’t hear from me in the next hour.”
“I thought we agreed not to bring anyone else into this,” Jayden says as he turns to me.
“If I hadn’t, you’d still be bleeding out on the grass.”
But he just shakes his head. “No more secrets.”
As much as I want to agree, I would do it all again if I knew it would save any of their lives. But right now isn’t the time to argue about it so I turn back to the detectives. “You have everything else that happened on the recording.”
“Yes, we do.” Cicero lets out a low whistle. “That was very smart thinking. With what you recorded and your statements, it should be enough to put Frank Bellamy away for a very long time.”
“What about Asher?” Lukas asks softly.
A strange sort of silence descends for several moments before the detectives respond. Up until hours ago, all of us had been convinced that Asher was a murderer. We’d all believed it of him, regardless of the years of friendship or the intensity of the relationship.
And that has to have hurt him because that’s exactly what I’d feel. Hurt. Betrayal. A loss so deep that it would be nearly impossible to recover from it.
“He isn’t under arrest and as far as we can tell, he hasn’t violated the terms of his bond.” Cicero snaps his notebook shut. “We have to get all of this in front of a judge, but based on what you’ve told us I would assume that the charges against Asher will eventually be dropped.”
“I think we have everything we need for now,” Detective Mabeley gestures for his partner to precede him through the door. “Thank you for giving us the time. Jayden, I hope you feel better soon.”
Jayden makes an agreeable sort of sound as the detectives gently shut the door behind them. “Where the hell is Asher, anyway?”
“Hiding from us,” Kai says, voice light despite the serious expression on his face. “Can’t say I blame him. Until about a few hours ago, we all thought he was a murderer.”
“He was arrested for murder,” Lukas points out. “What were we supposed to think?”
“Asher was trying to protect us from his father.” Even to my own ears, my tone sounds bleak. I can’t imagine a scenario in which Asher can forgive us for this. Part of me has already accepted that he’ll be out of my life from this point forward and the pain of that is difficult to ignore. “And we turned our backs on him when he needed us the most.”
“Asher Bellamy has been my best friend for as long as I can remember,” Jayden declares with a sigh. “But that doesn’t stop him from being one of the most infuriating people that I’ve ever met. He doesn’t tell anybody anything, that’s always been his way. There’s no way that we could have guessed what was going on.”
“He is infuriating,” I agree with a sad sort of laugh. “And mean. And sometimes a jackass because he just can’t help himself.”
And I sort of love that about him.
Kai laughs. “You definitely got the worst of that, Lily. He had a hard-on for you from day one.”
“Literally and figuratively,” Lukas adds with a dry smile.
With the hand on his good side, Jayden leans over and picks up the plastic water cup on the bedside table. He raises it over his head. “To Asher. That asshole probably saved all our lives.”
Before the rest of us can join in the impromptu toast, a sardonic voice speaks from the doorway.
“Nice to know how you fuckers talk about me when I’m not around.”
Asher stands in the doorway looking like he hasn’t slept in days and has been wearing the same clothes for even longer than that.
For a momen
t, we all freeze because the sight of him is just that surprising. Tension swells until it feels like enough to choke the air from our throats.
And then I make a decision.
Without saying a word, I get up off the bed, cross the room and wrap him in a tight hug. It’s the sort of hug that’s full of warmth and acceptance, the kind that acknowledges both of us have lost something.
Both of us have lost a parent.
It takes a moment for Asher to respond, but a shiver works down his body and then his arms come around me so tightly that it’s difficult to breathe. I don’t realize he’s crying until I feel the hot slide of his tears against my neck when he buries his face in my shoulder.
Grief and pain have been with us from the very beginning, but there’s love there too. I have these guys, all of them, to love and support me.
And that’s enough to convince me I can take on the world.
17
Epilogue
One Year Later
“If you don’t move that sweet ass, I’m leaving all this crap on the sidewalk.”
Asher nudges me forward with the box in his arms as I hesitate at the entrance of our new off-campus apartment. I just need a minute to take in the view because I never thought I would get here.
If Trish could see me now, she’d be as happy as she was the day that I was born.
And it’s nice to be at a school where none of the buildings are named after my boyfriend.
“You need to figure out how to stop and smell the roses,” I tell him pertly as I heft the moving box up in my arms. “All this rushing around is going to give you coronary.”
“I’m going to give you something in about five minutes,” he says with a lascivious smile. “But I’d like to get all these boxes upstairs first. Move it.”
It doesn’t seem real that we’re here and in college. My last year at Black Lake passed with lightning speed, completely uneventful compared to the one before. Things settled down after Frank’s arrest.
Although Mr. Cardill — just Liam now, I remind myself — left the school at the end of last year. I think being so closely associated with a murderer was more than he could deal with. Last I heard, he’s teaching at a public school in New Haven.
I managed to graduate with a high enough GPA to get into Hudson University. With the help of the Diamond alumni network, the Ivy League probably would have been in reach, but we all decided that it was better not to eat fruit from that poisoned tree.
We’re going to make it on our own, no matter where that eventually takes us.
Carter recovered well from Frank’s stabbing attack. He was laid up for a few weeks after getting out of the hospital, but almost immediately returned to the business dealings that take him all over the globe. Although, he did carve out the time to come to our graduation. Asher and I know that we’ll eventually have his money waiting for us, but we’re trying to live like that’s not the case.
Hopefully, we’ll be better people for it.
I follow Asher up the narrow flights of stairs, counting in my head with each step. Our apartment is on the fifth floor and I’m already imagining what a pain in the ass it’s going to be to carry groceries up four flights every week.
At least I’ll have four sets of hands to help me.
All five of us are enrolled at Hudson and living together. It’s like a dream wrapped up in a sex fantasy and every so often I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s real.
Sometimes, I wonder if being hit by that bus put me in a coma and one day I’ll wake up and realize all of this was a fever dream. Logically, I know that’s not true. But I’m going to enjoy every moment, just in case.
I have four boyfriends. It feels so crazy to say it that way, but so right that I don’t care what anybody thinks about it. Occasionally, we’ll get a little side-eye out in public when I’m holding hands with one of them and another has their arm wrapped around my shoulders. But I don’t care what anybody thinks and neither do the guys. There’s definitely something freeing about that.
Asher balances a moving box on his hip while he unlocks the apartment door with the other. I definitely take the opportunity to admire his ass. It might be his best feature, although I haven’t officially made a list. Definitely in the top five, at least.
Jayden is lounging on the couch when we walk in and he leaps up to take the box from my arms before I’ve even stepped over the threshold. “What took you guys so long?”
“There are about a dozen more still in the truck if you’d like to lend a hand,” Asher huffs as he sets the box he’s carrying down on the floor.
Jayden raises his arm with a feigned groan. “I’d love to help, but my shoulder’s been acting up today. You know how it is.”
Asher rolls his eyes, but a slight smile plays on his lips. “The doctor cleared you for full activity like six months ago, dude.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, man. Sometimes the pain is just too much.”
“You know, it’s a good thing you’re not acting anymore because you kind of suck at it.”
“Tell that to my Teen Choice award and then suck it.”
Their banter literally gives me life because it means we’re alive and healthy enough to give each other shit. “You guys can draw straws or something, but I am not taking those stairs again until I’ve caught my breath.”
“There’s a surprise for you in the kitchen,” Jayden comments with a sly look that definitely means he’s hiding something. “Go take a look.”
“I hate surprises, you know that.”
Jayden gestures toward the hallway behind him that must lead to the kitchen. “Just go, brat. You’ll like it.”
With a sigh, I step around the stack of boxes and follow the direction he pointed. When I enter the bright and airy kitchen, the first thing I see is the twins sitting at the small dining table in front of a breakfast nook with three cups of coffee on the wooden surface.
Then I turn and come face to face with Liam Cardill.
A startled sound escapes from my throat as I stare into his smiling face. “What the hell?”
“Guess who we found loitering at the dining hall this morning,” Kai drawl as he takes a careful sip of his coffee. “He swears he didn’t follow us here.”
“I decided to go back to graduate school last year after I left Black Lake,” Liam says, watching my face carefully for a reaction. “I planned to make a clean break, but I never thought I’d run into all of you here.”
“We’ve already explained that we’re a quintuple,” Lukas adds from the corner, amusement in his voice. “But he came up for coffee, anyway.”
“Actually, I said that I wanted to take you out for coffee sometime,” Liam wryly corrects. “Apparently this is the closest I can get without being vetted by the others first.”
Kai just grins when I shoot him a look. “It’s like Mean Girls, we all get to vote on any new members of the group.”
I just shake my head. “Pretty sure I’ve reserved veto powers, for all the good it’s going to do me.”
Liam reaches out and gently strokes his finger down my upper arm, making me shiver. “Do you want me to go?”
I want a lot of things, but that definitely isn’t one of them. “Let’s start with a trial period. You can start by unloading boxes from the moving truck out front.”
“You got it.” He shifts past me, pressing close enough that I can feel the heat of his body. “Although, I’ll be wanting more than a cup of coffee when I’m done.”
“Take a number,” Asher calls from the living room, where he’s obviously been listening in.
“You guys are too much,” I tell them, realizing that it’s true. They’re too much and not enough, plus everything in between. “Must be why I love you so much.”
A sparkling kind of feeling starts in my chest as I say the words. It might sound like a flippant joke, but I mean every word. My life no longer has to be defined by pain and struggle and there’s a bright future waiting for me. A fu
ture in which I never have to be alone again.
Today will be the best day of my life, until tomorrow takes its place.
Also by L. A. Sable
BLOOD AND DIAMONDS
Beautiful Dirty Rich
Gorgeous Nasty Luxe
Seductive Wicked Royal
MAFIA DUET
Their Mafia Bride
Their Mafia Captive (Coming Soon)
DARKEST SOULS
Fiendish Magic
Savage Heart (Coming Soon)
Infernal Soul (Coming Soon)
Writing as Lillian Sable
OMEGAS OF PANDORA
Ianthe and Legion
Omega’s Deception
Omega’s Capture
Omega’s Binding
Aura and Castor
Alpha’s Temptation
Alpha’s Corruption
Alpha’s Redemption
FERAL ALPHAS
Hunted by the Feral Alpha
About the Author
Lillian Sable writes erotic romances with ultra-Alpha heroes. She is a former office-worker who spent more time fantasizing and daydreaming than doing her actual job. She started writing her fantasies down and turned her dreams into reality. Lillian lives in Indiana with her husband.
Visit my website: www.lilliansable.com
Follow me on Facebook: @lilliansableauthor
