by Celeste Raye
She heard a knock on the door, not too long after she had finally laid down. Her feet were swollen, and her back was killing her. She only had an hour-long break, and it was supposed to be for lunch, but really, it was just a time for her to recuperate enough to get up and do some more work later. It was a cycle, a vicious one that never seemed to end.
The door opened after she didn't respond immediately.
“Alexis, I swear, all you do is lay around. You need to come with me to the store. I have several things I need to get, and I can't be expected to carry them by myself, now can I?”
Alexis wanted to say something; she wanted to show her anger in some way. But she knew better. If she did, they wouldn't beat her—they would just take away her food. That was what had convinced Alexis that they wanted the baby and not her.
“Yes, let me just get my shoes.”
“It's yes, ma'am. You really need to learn some manners. You need to call me what I tell you to. If I want you to call me the Queen of England, that's what you'll do.”
Alexis just nodded her head because she learned a long time ago that there was no real sense in fighting with Rosario. She got her way one way or another, and the difference was only in how hard it was going to be on Alexis. Alexis thought Rosario liked to be cruel. She had a malicious smile on her face when she did things.
She went along with it, just as meek as ever. But inside, Alexis was waiting for the moment. There was going to be a time when she was left for just a few seconds by herself or Alexis was put too close to something sharp and pointy. Either way, Alexis knew that she needed to find that opportunity. It wouldn't be long before she would have the baby and Rosario would try to take it away from her.
After Dean left, there was a vote taken to see who the next leader would be. None of the other three brothers tried to run against Jake. Nobody did, actually, and it was unanimous. Whoever had been working with their father and helping him with the trafficking of humans did not come forward. Jake knew then that there were snakes among them, but he wasn't going to point any fingers or make any accusations until he knew for sure.
That meant that Jake had to talk to a lot of people. A lot had information, but it only came in in bits and pieces. From what he had been able to gather, they had been trafficking people for several years.
He also found a large stash of money in his father's house. Apparently, the club was not getting the money: his father was. His first order of business was to bring the money into the club, but he did not want it to go to normal activities. It was instead to be used to build a new clubhouse. It was going to be huge and state-of-the-art—better than anything they could have imagined.
What didn't match with the whole scenario, though, was when he was talking to one of Dean's closer allies. Saxon had most likely been in cahoots with Dean, but it was one of those situations where Jake didn't have any proof. He had a gut feeling that turned his radar on full blast every time he was around him, but that wasn't enough.
Saxon had asked him if he had gotten ahold of Alexis. Jake immediately asked him what he was talking about. He didn’t know if the guy was messing with his head or not. He hadn’t thought of Alexis being involved, and he wanted to know what it meant and what Saxon was talking about.
“I told you, Jake, I was just asking how she was doing. I know that your father had her up at his place for a while, but I'm sure that she's still not there. You've been down there, right?”
Jake had been to his father's place, and though there had been chains and an area to keep people, he hadn't thought about that being a place that Alexis would have ever seen. It wasn't like he had forgotten about Alexis, hardly, but she had left of her own free will. Jake had been happy, thinking that she was away from the mess that had become his life. The idea that she was in chains was a sucker-punch to the soul.
“What are you telling me right now?”
Saxon took a step back suddenly, realizing that what he was saying was pissing off the new leader. The very big new leader that, at the moment, looked like he would kill him.
“I thought you knew about Alexis. I thought that was one of the reasons your father was pushed out. You found out he had taken her, and you sent him away.”
Jake moved towards him swiftly, pulling the man towards him by the front of his shirt.
“Are you saying that my father had Alexis?”
Saxon agreed.
“Then where is she now?”
Saxon told him that he had no idea.
“Have you talked to Donovan about it?”
“Why would I talk to my brother about it?”
“He was the one that brought her to him. From what I heard, it was Donovan that took Alexis out of your room and wrote a letter telling you that she had taken off. I thought you knew about all of this. That was months and months ago.”
The feeling of betrayal was so strong, it threatened to rip his heart out of his chest. He could have imagined that his father would have taken Alexis. Kept her locked up in his other house.
What he couldn’t bear, though, was that Donovan could be a part of it. He ended up hitting Saxon several times before he realized what he was doing. He wanted to destroy something because that was the only way the pain flowing through his veins was ever going to be relieved. He had to hurt someone else, and at the moment, all he could think to do was find Donovan.
He was now the first one on his hit list. Jake also needed to figure out where she was.
Chapter Twenty-Six
It didn't take long for Jake to find Donovan. They had all been living in the main house together. It used to be Dean’s domain, but Jake did not want to feel separated from his brothers as he had before. He wanted them to all be together because he knew that it was the best way for him to lead. It was how it should have been to begin with.
That didn't help at the moment, though. Donovan wasn't expecting his brother to come in and smash his fist into his face. Which meant that Jake got a pretty good hit in. He was about to go towards him again when his other two brothers came to stop it.
“What are you doing, Jake? Have you gone crazy?”
He was not ready to talk about it. Alexis was still out there, hopefully, and it wasn't all Donovan’s fault. He had delivered her to the beast, though. Before he knew Dean was a beast, but still…
“You took her to Father! How could you do that, Donovan? How could you not tell me about it for all this time?”
He pushed Fred and Charlie off of him and descended upon the brother that still had not gotten up from the ground. He did not care about anything except making Donovan pay.
This energy had to be released, and smashing his brother in the face seemed like the best way to handle it. Eventually, several other people were able to help, and Jake was able to catch his breath. He was still mad, but some of the anger had finally gone away so that he could at least breathe again.
“What is he talking about, Donovan?”
“He is talking about the fact that I brought Alexis to Dad a long time ago. She didn't run away; she was made to leave. Dad wanted to get some information out of her, and he convinced me that it was for the best. I didn’t make the right decision back then. I am sorry, but honestly, I haven't thought about it.”
Jake started to come towards him again, and his brother corrected himself.
“I have thought about it, but I didn't know how to tell you.”
“Tell me that you at least know what happened to her.”
He told his brother that he wished that he could, but Donovan did not know what happened to Alexis. All he knew was that he took her to his father's other house and then he didn't hear anything else about it. A lot of things were going on back then, and it was only late at night with his guilt, that he thought about Alexis. By the time he had seen his father for who he was and what he was, it was already too late. Too much time had gone by, and he had known that his brother would not forgive him. They were in a different place now, but that could quickly be gon
e as well.
“I didn't want to do it. You know how Dean was. He convinced me that everything I did was always for the best.”
“How could that be for the best? What was it that made her such an enemy to the two of you? Why does she threaten you so much?”
“The only one that she threatened was Father, and this is why. He said that he could feel you slipping away and knew that it was because of Alexis. He was convinced, and he convinced me even, that all we had to do was get her out of the situation and then you would fall back in line.”
“Is that what you tell yourself?
He agreed.
“I have nothing else I can say. I am sorry, but I don't know where she is, and I don't even know what he would have done with her. You don't think…”
“What were you about to say?”
“Nothing, I just…”
He finally sighed and blurted it out.
“You don't think that he sold her off, do you?”
The idea of it had his heart palpitating. Surely not. His father was terrible, but surely, he wouldn’t do something like that, right?
Jake had to sit down. He was finding it hard to breathe all of a sudden. The anger of moments ago was completely gone. It was replaced with nothing but fear. How was he supposed to go on, not knowing what happened to Alexis? The only woman he had ever loved and cared about. She was the whole reason that he had been willing to risk it all, and now he found out that his father had probably tortured or even sold her. There was no telling what he’d done, but Jake had to find out.
It didn’t even really cross his mind that she was still alive. Jake knew what kind of lives the trafficked women would have. He knew what kind of horrors she would have to live through and he didn’t even want to conceive it.
“I just don’t understand, Donovan. How could you do this?”
“I’m sorry, brother, really, I am. You have no idea how sorry I am about all of it. I never meant for this to happen. I thought that he would let her go. He would ask her questions and let her go.”
Jake scoffed. It wasn’t like his father to ever let anyone go. That wasn’t how the Rebel Bears did things, and he knew right away that if his father hadn’t sold her, he’d killed her.
“Since it was you that delivered her and it was your letter that I’ve read a million times, trying to find some clue as to why she would just up and leave like that, you can help me find her, Donovan. I don’t care how long we have to look: we’re going to find out what happened to her and you’re going to be there next to me the whole time. You owe me.”
Donovan didn’t even try to protest. Jake knew that his brother had regret. It was written all over his face. He just hoped that it wouldn’t all be for nothing. He would have given anything to be able to take it all back, but he couldn’t There was no point in hating his brother like he hated his father, but he wasn’t going to forgive him right away, not until he knew the extent of what he was going to have to forgive him for.
He had to know what had happened to Alexis; he needed to know. It had been months and months since she’d left, been taken, and not a night had gone by, where he didn’t spend hours wondering how she was. Where she was. If she thought of him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Alexis could hear something behind her but she didn’t know how Rosario had caught up with her so quickly. Alexis was running for her life, and she couldn’t run anymore. She was hiding behind a tree, sure that she was about to be found and maybe the older woman would decide that she wasn’t needed any longer. Maybe the price for the baby wasn’t worth the trouble that Alexis seemed to cause.
“Alexis?”
The voice was deep and it took Alexis a minute to place it. It had been so long since she had heard that voice. She tried to call back to Jake, but then a sharp pain started in her stomach. It didn’t last very long, and she was hoping that it wasn’t what she thought it was.
Finally, she made a noise, but it was more a cry of pain than anything else. She tried to hold it in, but she wasn’t able to. It gave Jake what he needed, though. He immediately pulled her into his arms. It took him a minute to really see her. His eyes were too interested in Alexis’s face, taking it all in hungrily.
“You don’t know how good it is to see you, Alexis…”
He stopped when his eyes were finally on her large belly, and it hurt Alexis to see the expression that came over him. She didn’t have time to talk, though. Her pain was sharply increasing and she knew what it was. The baby was coming, in the woods, right after seeing Jake for the first time in months. It didn’t seem like a coincidence.
“I am so sorry this has happened to you, Alexis. I can’t believe this…”
He was just standing there, and she was starting to get irked. Pain had a way of making words short, and Alexis didn’t have many for him.
“This is your child Jake. I have been waiting for you, hoping you would take me away from this.”
“My child?”
“Our time together, so long ago…”
“How would you know if it’s mine? You were sold.”
“Not like that. I didn’t have the temperament, if you can believe it. I have been doing housework for rich people here. It’s not like that. Plus, I am pregnant”
She stopped talking, letting another wave of pain pass. Alexis was tired, and because of her living situation, she felt weaker than she should have. She didn’t want to have the baby there, but it was coming, and quickly. All she had to do was hold onto Jake’s hand.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to do that, Jake. I’ve missed you so much, and I hoped that you would realize what happened. Your dad said you would never know.”
Jake wasn’t talking; he was just holding her, kissing her, and then murmuring when she was in pain, holding his hand so hard.
“It’s time, Jake. You’re about to be a father.”
Alexis thought he was going to pass out. He certainly looked green, but he closed his mouth and pulled it together. Donovan was called over, and though Alexis remembered him well from before, Jake made sure that she knew it wasn’t going to happen again. Donovan apologized and then helped her deliver her baby.
“I can’t believe you’re here, Jake. I’m so happy you’re here.”
Alexis was mainly afraid that it was a dream she was going to wake from, and she held on to him a little tighter than she needed to. The truth was, she never wanted to let him go. The last eight or nine months had been horrible for her, and the only thing that helped her now was knowing that she was finally safe again. As long as Jake was there, he would keep her safe. Her and the baby.
The trio turned into a foursome very quickly and they waited a couple of days, until they went back to the compound. They were thousands of miles away from home, but Alexis had just had the baby. She needed some time, and the baby did as well.
Alexis was finally able to breathe again. At one point, she didn't think that she ever would again. Things had seemed so dire, and any kind of good ending had felt impossible. Now she knew the truth. Nothing was impossible.
She wasn't exactly excited to get back to the compound, considering what had happened the last time she was there. Alexis probably wouldn't have agreed at all if it wouldn’t have been for the fact that Dean was gone. She still wasn't sure how she felt about Donovan. He had caused a lot of pain for her, but it he was just following orders. Jake trusted him and was willing to forgive him, so she was going to try to as well.
They were almost to the compound when Jake stopped. He pulled himself up and he and Donovan shared a look. Alexis didn't know what was going on and when she asked, he shrugged a little bit.
“I don't know, but I can sense my dad here. Something isn't right.”
He looked over at Donovan and asked him if he felt the same thing.
“I do. I think that Dad is back, and since he did it while we were gone, you can imagine that he has started some shit.
Jake had to agree with the sen
timent. He had been given a chance to take his dad out, but he hadn't had the heart.
Now, his dad was back for revenge. That’s how Dean was. Dean was not the type of person to let it go. He was wronged, so he was going to do anything in his power to get back at the person who did it. And that was Jake. And Alexis. And Donovan now.
He looked back at Alexis and their new daughter.
“You need to stay here with Gisele.”
Alexis was alarmed. Here she thought that she was safe and now Jake had to tell her that she wasn't. They might not have a place to go now. They might not have a clan.
“What is going on?”
“I don't know, but I think Dean is back. And if that is the case, then Donovan and I are not going to be able to walk through the front door. We need to go around the side and see what's going on before we make our presence known.”
“What about your brothers? Would they just step aside and let your dad take over again?”
Jake didn't think that was the case.
“I doubt it; most likely, Dean has them locked up somewhere. I don't think that he would kill them, but he would certainly take them out of commission. I wouldn’t put nothing past him, though. Dean is capable of far worse than I could have imagined.”
Instead of fighting with him like he feared, Alexis just pulled him in close for a kiss and told him to be careful.
“I have lived long enough without you, Jake. I don't want to do it anymore. You come back to me. If something is wrong, don't try to fight everybody yourself. Come back, and we'll make a plan. We will do it together.”
