Atticus: Secret Lies: Adair Empire Book 4

by Donn, KL

  Charles sobs, “I just wanted to check on her.”

  “Do you know a man named Thomas McCray?”

  McCray?

  I know that name.

  How does he?

  “No,” Charles responds, shaking his head.

  “I believe you,” Atticus tells him. “Why are you here?”

  Charles pauses before answering this time. I almost don’t want to know his reply because there is no reason in the world for him to be out here. Especially in this storm.

  “Your intent was to rape her, wasn’t it?” I can feel the color drain from my face.

  “You wanted to rape me?” I finally speak, stepping forward. I make the mistake of looking down and see his hand has broken out in blisters. The skin is bright red from the heat.

  “No,” he says, but I don’t believe him.

  “You’re lying.”

  “She’s right, you are. I grew up around men like you. You take pleasure in hurting those weaker than you. Shitty for you, I’m much stronger. I’m also meaner. You see, I’m mostly psychotic, and my morals are bent. I make the rules as I go, and right now, I’m thinking your dick needs a bath in this water so you can never try this on anyone again.”

  “Oh god.” I’m horrified at the picture that enters my mind. I know if I don’t intervene, Atticus will follow through with his threat. Stepping between the two men, I break the contact of Atticus’ hold on the man’s wrist. “Not for me,” I tell him.

  “Always for you,” he insists, his deadly stare meeting mine.

  “You’re a killer.”

  “One of the worst,” he confirms, and I don’t know how I feel about it.

  “You’d kill for me.” It’s not a question. I knew it from the moment he walked through my door.

  “Yes.”

  “Even when I ask you not to?”

  “Especially then.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s when I know you’re in the most pain. You won’t show it, not now, but the mere idea of a man you know coming here with the intent to do you harm hurts every part of your soul.”

  Silent tears stream down my face.

  He scowls, and I can see him getting angrier.

  “You’re fucking dead, Manning,” he hisses. “Get the fuck out, and if you ever come back, I’ll do to you what we did to the man who hurt my friend’s girl.”

  Fascinated, I ask, “What’s that?”

  “Lit him on fire. Alive.”

  I blink.

  “Shit,” Charles squeaks seconds before the door opens and slams shut behind him.

  Atticus’ gaze locks on me, hot, heavy, hard. He’s deadly right now, and I’m not scared for even half a second. I know he won’t hurt me.

  “To your room. On the bed. Naked, now,” he instructs, and I run to do his bidding.

  Atticus

  I need her out of my sight. I’m full of pure rage, and I know if she stays a moment longer, I’ll do something she won’t like.

  Heading out the door, I follow Manning. I want to know what he’s going to do. In fact, I want to kill him still. I want his blood on my hands for even thinking he could have Catalina.

  She’s mine.

  Seeing him near the road that leads up to the cabin, I watch as he struggles to climb on his four-wheeler.

  I step on a branch, and it sounds like a shot in the night. His head whips around to meet my cold stare as he sits frozen like a deer as I approach him.

  “I’m leaving like you said.” He blubbers like a baby, tears spilling from his eyes.

  I circle him like the predator I am. I have no reason to let this man live. I could kill him right now, and no one would be the wiser. People may know I’m in town, but they certainly don’t know where I am. They have no idea I intend to steal Catalina away just as soon as this storm passes. They’ll never know what happened to the sad girl in the mountains once I leave with her.

  “I want to kill you,” I tell the man. He cries harder. “I want to spill your guts from your sternum, so you don’t die quickly. I want you to suffer for thinking for even a second that you could have a piece of my woman.”

  “I wasn’t–“

  “Don’t be a fool. We both know you were going to spend the time this storm was around raping her repeatedly. Maybe even kill her. For that thought alone, your life will end.”

  “You said–“

  “I told a lie to keep her happy. She’ll never know your existence from this earth has perished. She’ll never know I plan to leave you in these woods to be eaten by any wild animal that passes you by.” Just the thought of his suffering has a smile flitting across my hard face.

  “You can’t do that,” he protests.

  “Except I will. The only question is, how much pain do you want to suffer before I do.” I pause for effect as his face pales further. “There’s another man in town. The man I mentioned before. I want to know where he is.” His eyes widen. “This storm is supposed to end in three days, maybe less. By the time it passes, you’ll have the information I want.” I turn to make my exit, knowing he’ll dig up what I want by the time we’re ready to leave.

  “What if I can’t find him?” he calls to my retreating back.

  “You will.”

  As I hit the first step on her porch, I hear the retreating sounds of his vehicle. Stripping my coat as I enter, I head straight to her small room.

  “I thought you left,” she comments as I enter. A blanket is wrapped around her naked body.

  Reaching behind me, I grab the back of my shirt, pulling it over my head and dropping it to the floor. My knees hit the edge of her bed, and I grasp a fistful of the blanket and yank, revealing all her creamy flesh for my viewing pleasure.

  She gasps as the cool air hits her skin, pebbling her nipples into hard peaks. I remain quiet as she struggles not to squirm in my presence.

  “Atticus?” she finally questions, fear written in every line of her body. Crooking a finger at her, I coax her to come to me.

  When she’s just a hairs-breadth away, I graze my fingers up her arms, touching her lightly. I want her soft and supple for me. “I’m not a man that follows the law, lamb. I’m never going to be your prince charming. I am dark; I am death.” Her eyes are glued to mine as I speak, and I don’t see the repulsion I expected. “I am loyal and am claiming you now, tonight. That means you are solely mine. I will never allow any harm to come to you. I won’t ever give you a sliver of doubt about how I feel for you.”

  I watch as she swallows harshly. “That’s an awfully profound commitment for knowing someone only a day.”

  My lips tilt in amusement. “I don’t fuck around when it comes to the things I want in life. I see, I want, I take. It’s as simple as that.” Catalina hesitates as a thought crosses her mind. “Say it. Never hide anything from me.”

  She bites her bottom lip in a way I’d like to be doing right now. “You said Thomas McCray.”

  Just like that my libido has died. “What of him?” Everything we have on her says she’s never met the man. Likely hasn’t heard of him. I’m curious how she knows his name now.

  “What does he want?”

  “Put a shirt on,” I tell her. I can’t talk of this piece of garbage while she’s naked, waiting to take me into her body. I walk out to the living room as she does what I say, wondering how to explain what he’s done, what he wants to do with her.

  Sitting on the couch, I hear her soft steps approach. She stands in front of me before crawling into my lap.

  “You hate him,” she comments. I don’t deny it. I’d like to slaughter that son of a bitch for what he’s done to me, to Lilith. To us all.

  Grabbing her hand, I bring it up to the wound in my shoulder where his bullet landed only a few short months ago. “This is not my first bullet wound. But it is the most impactful.”

  “He shot you?” she asks, inspecting it with her gentle fingers.

  “He ordered the shot when he ordered the kidnapping of Lilith.�
��

  “Who is she?” Jealousy creeps into her voice, and I have to remind myself she doesn’t know who we are, what Lil means to us.

  “I am part of an organization—the Adair Empire—and Lil is King Adair’s queen.” I feel her freeze at the mention of who I truly am. “You’ve heard of us.”

  She looks me in the eye as she speaks. “I have a cousin, Steven, he has mentioned Thomas over the years. Told me of his family. Warned me to steer clear of the man.” Little lamb looks down briefly before connecting our eyes once again. “He also warned that the men of the Adair Empire were killers. Unjust, torturous men.”

  Most women would show an ounce of fear speaking of us. Hell, most men would. Not my lamb. No. She meets me head on and dares me to prove her words true.

  “We aren’t good men. We have our own rules. Some bound by blood. Until lately, we weren’t what he’s said. We run a tight business. And when, if, we decide someone needs persuading to give up information, yes, we do torture. We bring death swiftly, quietly, bloody if necessary. But only ever to those who betray us.”

  “I don’t”—she takes a deep breath—“I don’t know if I can live like that.”

  Smoothing my hand up her back, I take a fistful of her hair and pull roughly. “You’re my heaven, Catalina,” I whisper in her ear. “And maybe I’m your hell.” Running my nose along her throat, I lift my other hand to wrap around the column of her throat. “Have no doubt, you, little lamb, are a warrior. You are fierce, and you are mine.”

  “You won’t let me go, will you?”

  “No.” No sense in lying to the girl. “Do you want me to?”

  Her eyes widen, clearly not anticipating me to ask her that question. “I don’t know.”

  “What scares you?”

  “You’re a killer.”

  “I don’t kill women. None of us do. If anything, Lilith would skin a woman alive for thinking to cross us before we would.” She relaxes marginally.

  Her mouth opens and closes as she processes my words, gearing up for her next argument. I’m fucking done.

  “Enough of this. There is no argument you can make to convince me to let you go. I would rather cut off my own hand than harm a hair on your head, and that’s all you need to know.”

  “Okay.” That was easy.

  “You say this now…”

  “I say this because if you wanted to kill me, you could have done so easily when you had your hands wrapped around my throat. You took me to the edge and nothing more.” Damn. “I don’t know you as a person, but I know you as a man.” There’s a difference? “Except…” I wait for the bomb to drop. “You can’t kill for me, Atticus. I won’t have another’s life, or death, on my hands.”

  Agreeing to that isn’t as easy as she’d like, but… “I’ll try. No promises.” It’s the best I can do. I’ll always want to slay her dragons.

  “Good.” Instead of picking her up, I tear the shirt off her body and suck one of her puckered nipples into my mouth. Inhaling her tit as her fingers run through my hair, pulling when I do. “Atticus,” she moans, “I need you.”

  Unbuckling my jeans with my other hand, I’m past caring that she may need slow and gentle due to her untouched state because I want in her cunt, and I want in right fucking now.

  I can’t…

  I shouldn’t…

  He shouldn’t…

  Oh, but it’s so sinful.

  I barely know this man. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. He’s confessed to being a killer, began torturing a man right in front of me, and like some two-dollar hooker, I’m ready and eager for him.

  There’s this pull between us. I’m dragged from my comfort zone into this alternate universe where it’s okay to want Atticus, to give myself to him.

  “Why am I letting you do this?” The words leave my mouth without permission.

  His hard gaze bores into me with the intensity of a man about to claim his prize. I see so much; clarity is right there for me.

  Lust, need, possessive intent.

  I know without doubt he doesn’t mean me harm. He wants to ring every ounce of pleasure from my body he can before he takes his own.

  “You’re letting me do this because even if your mind isn’t sure, your body knows you belong to me. You are mine, Catalina, and there isn’t a fucking thing I won’t do to keep you.” His eyesight lasers into me. “Including fighting you about it.”

  Gripping his dark locks tight in my hands, I pull his head back in the same fashion he’s done to me as I slowly lower myself over his hardness. “I’ve never done this, Atticus.” My confession is loud in the room, only masked by the crackling fire.

  “That’s okay, little lamb, I’ll only make it hurt for a moment.” It’s the last warning I get as he slams me down on his cock.

  A scream rips through me, and my dogs howl as they race around the couch. I don’t have the energy or mindset to command them to stop, but Atticus does. “Enough! Bed,” he yells, and both do as they’re told. “Fuck,” he hisses. “Feel that tight little cunt rippling around me like a sweet girl.” I moan as he moves my hips slowly. “You’re just trying to suck the cum from my body, aren’t you? You want me to fill you up, plant my baby inside you, huh?”

  I can’t say anything. The air is lodged in my throat as his thrusting slowly morphs into bliss. “Atticus,” I mumble.

  “I got you, little lamb. All of you is all of me.” Standing with me in his arms, his hardness buried so deep inside me, I don’t know where he begins and I end. He leans my back against the closest wall.

  With a tighter grip on my hips, his bruising force drives into me over and over again until I can’t think straight. Pain slices through me when one of his hands lets me go, and I feel blood flowing through me again. Gliding the arm up my chest, he twists one nipple, a devilish grin on his face as he does the same to the other.

  It’s not until I feel his fingers wrap around my throat that my body truly comes alive. “There she is,” he whispers. “You want my control, don’t you, Catalina? You want me to force every orgasm out of you. I get it, lamb.”

  “Please,” I reply huskily. This, us, we shouldn’t be, yet, we couldn’t be more perfect than what we are.

  Atticus didn’t just come for me, he came to bring ruin to my mountains. My sanctuary. Yet, somehow, by the grace of God, he’s chosen for us to be. Weariness should flow through me instead of lust and desire.

  I never want these feelings to end.

  Atticus

  She’s fighting this. What we’re meant to be. The harder I push, though, the easier it becomes to make her yield to my ministrations. I see the leeriness lurk in the back of her gaze as she struggles to welcome the pleasure I want to impose on her.

  “Atticus.” Her eyes close as she moans my name like a prayer. Her cunt tightens to the beat of my fist around her throat. Her breaths stall in her chest for the smallest of seconds as she explodes into serene bliss.

  “That’s a good, little lamb.” I kiss up her neck, her flesh smooth as I nip and suck on her skin, marking her for the world to see. From this day on, Catalina is mine.

  My woman.

  My other half.

  My property.

  Should McCray choose to show his face here, touch her the way he’s done to Lilith, I’ll snap his neck and leave him in the woods for the bears to dispose of.

  For me, there’s no hunt for more information. I don’t care about his motives. I only want one thing in this world now. His death.

  “Tell me, Catalina, would you abandon this mountain for me? Would you follow me home?” I flex my cock inside her even as she continues to convulse around me.

  “Would you live here with me?” she counters. “Would you give up your glamorous life for one of solitude and simplicity, for me, Atticus?”

  Pulling her head back, I wait for her eyes to meet mine. “I would give up heaven and earth to have you. Whether you come or I stay, you belong to me now, little lamb.”

  Sucking in a
sharp breath, Cat’s eyes bore into mine, searching for answers to a question she has not yet asked.

  “Then, yes.”

  “Good.” I nod. “Once this storm lets up, we’re leaving. Back to the panhandle of Florida. You can make arrangements for the animals to be sent later.”

  Her sight clears, and a storm begins to brew. “I can’t just leave at the flick of a hat. I have responsibilities here. This is my home, Atticus.”

  I have to remind myself that she has no idea the amount of danger she’s in simply because she shares the same blood as a sadistic asshole who gets off on hurting those weaker than himself.

  “Your cousin, did he ever tell you how he knew McCray? Why you should steer clear of the man?”

  “No.”

  Pulling the blanket off the back of the couch, I wrap it around her shoulders as my cock slips free of her warmth. Experience has shown this conversation will not be easy. Especially for her.

  “McCray.” I pause. I know it’s a moment she’ll never get back. “His mother fled Scotland when she discovered she was pregnant with a third child, nineteen years ago.” I can see the expression on her face; she’s trying not to connect the dots. “She ran to Alaska. Away from a husband who beat her, and two boys who tormented her with what they planned to do with her unborn child.”

  “That’s horrific.” Tears are on the brim of her eyelids.

  “Catalina…that woman? She was your mother. The baby is you.” Fuck do I hate this shit. Steven thought he knew everything, but his timing was off. Cat’s mother met her dad sooner and let everyone believe the baby was his. Other than a doctor’s record in Scotland, no one outside the immediate family knows.

  How can one intense moment of pure beauty turn into such horrific nothingness so quickly?

  In the blink of an eye, everything I ever knew about my life has been shattered into a thousand pieces.

  Atticus.

  He ruined everything.