Finding Me: Dominant Devils Book Three

by H. M. Stewart

  Tank stood looking down at me with the look of disgust and pity was all over his face. I cried even harder as he lifted me from the back seat and began carrying into what I think was the house. I wasn’t sure because I buried my face in his chest as I cried as hard as I could. I cried because everything hurt. I cried because I was scared. I cried because I was so freaking stupid for not waiting to take out the trash. Most of all, I was crying because Tank saw me like this. He would never want anything to do with me now after seeing me this way. Even though my attackers didn’t get as far as they wanted to, Tank would always believe that they did. I would be tainted in his eyes. Every time he looked at me he would remember me just like this.

  I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore. At some point, Tank had carried me in a bedroom and was sitting on a bed with me in his lap. I could hear him whispering to me, but I was too zoned out to understand what he was saying. I stayed like that until Carrin snapped me out of it. At first, it seemed like she was talking to me through a tunnel, but slowly it sunk in that I needed to pull myself together and explain just what I endured the hour before.

  Chapter 3

  Carrin

  I woke to Zeus standing over me breathing way too heavy for my liking. When I was finally able to focus, I saw he was standing next to the bed with Tivie cradled in his arms. All I could think was how I was going to kill his ass if he woke her up. I was still feeling the effects of all the shots we did earlier and was in no shape to get her back to sleep.

  I reached over and flipped the bedside lamp before snapping at him. “Care to tell me what’s got you bringing baby girl to our room tonight,” I asked before getting a good look at his face in the light. He was quiet and had a blank look on his face. My Greek god of a man never looked unhinged. Mostly he was the most laid-back person I knew, yet he could be the biggest dominant over-protective asshole too. At this moment, he was neither. The unreadable look set my nerves on high alert, and I instantly regretted being snippy with him. I was going to apologize but decided to wait until he responded. After a few moments of staring at each other in silence, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I finally spoke up less snippy than before. “Babe, you’re scaring me a little. What’s going on? Was there something to all those alarms going off earlier?”

  He remained silent, although the look on his face seemed to change. It showed he was thinking hard about something. I rose out of bed to get closer to him. I found, in the short time we’ve known each other, you had to get in his face and look him in the eye to get him to open up. I placed both hands on the sides of his face tilting his head ever so slightly, so he was looking straight at me before I spoke again. “Honey, tell me what’s going on, please. You can’t come in here in the middle of the night with Tivie in your arms watching me like a serial killer and not explain yourself. Talk to me, baby, please.”

  Zeus moved pulling his head free of my hands and turned to lay our daughter in the middle of our bed. With Tivie snuggled comfortably in between a massive mound of pillows, Zeus turned to pull me into his arms before he could speak. “I didn’t mean to scare you, baby, but I’m a little freaked right now. When I saw those fucking surveillance tapes earlier, I couldn’t get over here fast enough. That shit triggered all those fucked up memories of when they snatched your ass a few months back.”

  I tried to comfort him, but he wasn’t making much sense. “Okay, so something triggered all the bad shit, care to tell me what it was you saw? Maybe if I knew, I could tell you if you were overreacting.”

  “I don’t care what anyone thinks, I wasn’t overreacting. I needed to see with my own damn eyes that my girls were safe. I can’t feel like that shit again. I can’t deal with feeling the way I did when they took you and Athena,” he said before taking a minute to collect his self again. “It wasn’t a false alarm per say with the gate. Yeah, nothing was tampered with, and it seemed like they were just doing the shit to fuck with us, but those assholes were there.”

  “Who, baby? Who is ‘they’? It’s like you’re talking in riddles, love. Tell me who was on that camera,” I asked feeling myself getting a little frenzied?

  “There was an asshole in a Grizzlie cut that looked scared shitless, but then his partner decided to rile us up. The fucker gave us the middle finger at the same time he fucking smiled at the camera.”

  Zeus must have seen that he still wasn’t making sense to me, so he went on to explain a little more. “Honey, Zeke was the cocky fucker smiling in that damn camera. That asshole was close enough to get to you again. I can’t get thoughts of him getting his hands on you again out of my fucking head,” he said flooring me. He noticed the change in my mood instantly. He moved to pull me tighter against his chest.

  I couldn’t say that I was scared, just numb. There’s no doubt in my mind that if that fucker decided to try his luck again at kidnapping me, he would have a fight on his hands. That asshole wouldn’t be taking me by surprise again, that’s for sure. However, it still didn’t leave me with a clear head knowing that asshole was so close to where my entire family has been sleeping for the last few weeks. I remained quiet and let my Oldman hold me. We stood like that next to the bed for a while, only breaking apart to look out the window to decipher what the noise was coming from the driveway. At first, the army of bikes coming through the path in the woods was a comforting noise. It just meant the guys were moving from the clubhouse back over here for the night. What had both of us jumping into action was a similar noise coming up our driveway. Someone was heading towards the house from the road.

  Both Zeus and I pulled back the curtain to get a closer look. It all happened in a blur. The guys raced to park their bikes and pulled their glocks pointing them at the ruckus coming up the driveway full speed. I stood frozen at the window unable to breathe until I noticed a man jump off his bike pulling his lid off to address Axle. It was Hawk I realized as I stood frozen at the window in my room. Zeus had already darted out of the room to head outside leaving me to watch from the window. I couldn’t make out what was being said between Hawk and Axle, but whatever it was, Tank must have heard loud and clear. He ran to the back of the strange truck throwing the rear door open and pulled someone out wrapped in a large jacket. The next thing I heard was Tank rushing through the back door yelling for Doc. By the time, I managed to carefully scoop my little diva off the bed to move her back to her bedroom, it sounded like the whole house had come to life. Before I could open the door to get my daughter upstairs to her bed, Doc was clearing the way for Tank to bring a lifeless Breeanna in my room.

  “Sorry sweetheart, but I’m going to need a little privacy for this one and your room is the closest, darling,” Doc said in a panicky voice.

  “No worries do what you need to do. I’ll be back down to help as soon as I get my girl upstairs. The big first aid kit is under the sink in the bathroom,” I said as Doc moved quickly to the bathroom while Tank held Bree. He looked up at me with a look letting me know he was out of his element. I just nodded and moved quickly out the door and up the steps. After getting Tivie situated, I hastily moved towards the stairs only to meet my mother in passing. As I was coming out of the kid's room, she was heading in. Mom gave me a quick nod letting me know to go on down, and she would stay with the kids.

  When I made it back downstairs, I was met by the rest of the crew. The girls looked just as pissed as the men except they had angry tears streaming down their cheeks. I wasn’t sure what the hell I had missed, but I needed someone to explain just what the fuck went on in the matter of a few hours I was asleep. As my brother spoke up, I found my nerves subside only to be replaced with overwhelming fury.

  “Alright, girls listen up. Not exactly sure what went down but Breezy was attacked out behind the bar after we left. It seems someone was waiting for her to take out the trash before they jumped her. Axle wants all of us in the den for church, which means you ladies stay clear. You all bitches need to keep your opinions to yourselves. The last thing we need is the female emotions wreaki
ng havoc. It’s time to pull your shit together and bury it. No time to fall apart or trying to take matters into your own fucking hands. Let us take care of shit,” Wall spit out before turning his attention directly towards me. “Carrin I think you need to check in with Doc. You’re the nurse of the family; he might need some help with that shit. That girl seemed pretty shook up.”

  I couldn’t form words without screaming them, so I just made my way towards the bedroom that had now been overtaken to treat Bree. I paused by the door, taking a second to collect myself, before knocking. Doc came to the door with a dark scowl on his face, so I wasn’t sure what to think. “Wall thought you might need some help. How’s our girl?”

  Doc remained silent but moved out of the doorway to allow me entry. I found Tank sitting on the bed, his back to me, with Breeanna curled up in his lap clinging to him for dear life. Tank was whispering to Breeanna, assuring her that Doc wouldn’t hurt her, that he wasn’t going to let anyone near her ever again. After minutes of Tank repeating the same thing repeatedly, Breeana still hadn’t moved. I carefully moved around the end of the bed to get closer. I walked up in front of Tank and knelt to Bree’s level. I could see that her arms and legs were covered with bruises and cuts. I couldn’t see her face, but her long brown hair was matted and had leaves sticking out of it. I didn’t want to spook her, but I needed to get her pried away from Tank long enough to clean her up and get her looked over.

  Testing the waters, I softly laid my hand on her back that was wrapped up in an oversize thick winter jacket. I waited for her to jump but she never did. I took that as a good sign and tried to rub small circles on her back before I tried to speak to her. “Breezy, I know your scared honey, but I need to get you checked over. Can you let Tank put you on the bed, sweetheart? You’ve got some nasty cuts we need to look at.”

  Breeanna didn’t move for what felt like forever but eventually shook her head that was buried in Tank’s neck. “Okay honey, Tank’s going to have to stand up and turn around, so he can lay you down on the bed. No one here will hurt you, honey. We just wanna get you checked out and get you feeling better babe.”

  Tank stood with Bree in his arms and turned around so that Bree was now over the top of the bed. That big muscled man was so gentle with her as he leaned down to place her on the mattress, but Bree was still reluctant to take her arms from around his neck.

  “You're doing so good, sweetie, but I need you to let Tank go. Let me see that beautiful face girl.” Again, she clung to Tank like her life depended on it but finally relented, letting her head fall back to the pillows. Tank continued to stand over her promising to not leave the room until she told him too. He bent over and placed a soft kiss on her forehead making her wince, but Tank kissed her again. It was like he was reassuring her of something. When Tank finally got out of the way, I was finally able to take everything in. The poor girl’s face was bruised just as bad as the rest of her body. Her left eye was almost swollen shut, and her bottom lip was split. There were bruises in the shape of fingertips around her neck and her shirt was torn in two.

  Bree looked scared to death which made me say something that may have seemed a little harsh, but I needed her to snap out of this if the guys were going to get any answers tonight. I only hoped it wouldn’t get me into trouble afterward. “Breezy, I’m so sorry this happened to you, babe, but now is not the time for you to hide away. You’re a strong woman, honey, and I need you to focus on that. You need to pull yourself together and talk to me, sweetheart. I need to know what happened, so I know what I’m looking for. After that, you can lock yourself in this room for eternity if you need to, just not yet. You think you can do that for me?”

  Breeanna seemed to think over what I just said, while the men in the room were staring daggers at me. I knew they’d be pissed at me for telling her to suck it up, even if it was put nicely, but babying her wasn’t going to help her. My words must have gotten through to her because her shaky voice began rehashing her brutal attack.

  “I need you all to let me get this out, not sure if I’ll be able to get through it if you stop me,” Bree pleaded in a tone just above a whisper. I stayed quiet to let her continue. “It’s my fault. I should have waited for Bobo or Dylan to take the trash out, but I was on edge when everyone left in a hurry earlier. I knew something wasn’t right, but Bobo reassured me it was normal. Then later, when Hawk and Dylan showed up to close the bar early, I freaked. I just wanted to get things done and get the hell out of there. Hawk was counting out, and Bobo was putting the chairs on the tables while Dylan swept the floor. I was standing around twiddling my thumbs, so I figured I’d take the trash out to help them. I should have known. I had that feeling in my stomach as soon as I step outside. I tried to move as fast as I could, but it took everything I could to drag those heavy bags. I had just made it to the dumpster when I felt hands wrap around me from behind. There were three of them. One of the guys use to hang around with you all and the other two I had seen float around the bar a few times.”

  Breanna stopped to take a breath when I noticed tears begin to fall. I wanted to comfort her, but I knew if I said or did anything she wouldn’t continue, so I stayed still. Once she got her bearings again, she went on with her story. “They drug me behind the dumpster away from the security light. One of them had my legs pinned down, and another had my arms pulled back over my head. The one you all know climbed on top of me. He ripped my shirt making comments about my breast and cut my bra off. I freaked out. I tried to get him off me, but I couldn’t budge him, and it seemed to only make him mad. He started punching me over and over in the face to get me to stop. It hurt so bad, and I couldn’t move because of the pain, so I tried to scream. That’s when he started to choke me. He told the other guy holding my feet to get my panties and stuff them in my mouth to gag me, so they could finish up,” Bree said growing quieter. She was quiet for a few before starting to talk again barely above a whisper. “I was stunned that they were planning to gang rape me, so it took a minute for my fight or flight instincts to kick back in. The man holding my legs had let go long enough to get my underwear down. When he was standing over my legs, trying to pull one free, I landed a swift kick to his man parts with the other. It caused the one on top of me to loosen his grip when he turned around to check on his friend and that’s when started screaming as loud as I could. It spooked them enough to scare them off. The one at my head let go of my arms and jumped to join his friends. They all took off towards the woods behind the bar,” the brave girl explained.

  I couldn’t stay quiet anymore. I had to know. “So, you’re sure they didn’t get the chance to go any further? You weren’t raped, right?” The room was silent at my words waiting for a response from Breeanna.

  “No, they didn’t get that far, but I know that was what they were thinking. The whole time they were holding me down they made threats of doing just that. They kept calling me a club whore. Said I was just like my mother. The one on top of me promised to treat me just like the whore I was; promised me, that when they were finished with me, they would be taking me back for the rest of their crew to be able to try a piece.”

  No one moved. We just stood still and listen to the poor girls’ story. I wanted to question why they were insinuating that her mother was a club whore or why they thought Bree was. Yeah, Bree worked at the bar, which was a little weird because she didn’t have any club ties, but everyone around our town knew that. I buried my questions for another time. Right now I needed to help Bree get cleaned up.

  “Breezy, I can assure you that Doc would never hurt you honey, but he does need to get you checked over. Just as a precaution. If you’re sure those assholes didn’t get the chance to take it any further, I’m sure he’ll skip out on examining of your lady bits, but we do need to check the rest of you over. Do you want Tank and I to leave while he does?”

  Bree looked at Tank before lowering her head; it was like she was embarrassed. “I’m not comfortable with any man seeing me naked. I would much
rather have you check me over, Carrin. Do you think maybe you could be the one to look me over? I’m sure Doc will need to look at my face and jaw, but I don’t think anything else is wrong with me other than being a little shaken and scared.”

  I looked to Doc for his opinion. I wasn’t going to agree to anything that would make this turn into an argument in front of our shy beaten beauty. Doc had been silent since I came into the room and it took him a minute to answer Bree’s request. “Tank and I will go out and catch the others up with your story, Bree. I’ll leave you and Carrin to clean up the cuts on the rest of your body, but I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.” Doc turned to look directly at me as he continued, “Carrin if you see anything out of the way, I need to know. I’ll try to give her the space to be comfortable, but if there’s something I need to address we’ll have to figure something out.”

  I shook my head in agreement and waited for the men to leave the room. Tank stayed put at the foot of the bed staring at the battered Bree for a few moments before he left without a word. I could tell he was struggling with leaving, but she wasn’t his. They weren’t even dating for all I knew. I know they flirted, but Tank does that with everyone. Maybe the big fucker was sweet on Bree, but I’ve seen never him act on it. Bree was a sweet girl and very naïve to our world. She took it in stride, though, but I’m not sure if she could pick up the possessive vibes Tank sent just now. Again, something I needed to bury for another day. I’d hit him up for the low down once this shit was over. For now, though I’d be a friend to Bree and help her get herself cleaned up.