Frosted (Frosted Series Book 1)

by Taylor Rose

  Son of a fucking bitch.

  How had I not wondered why they were the way they were?

  I coughed. “What did he do to you guys?”

  Both Buzz and Mitch laughed.

  Fuck, it must have been pretty bad.

  “It’s wasn’t us that saw the worst of his anger, brother,” Buzz chuckled and he swept his free hand in the air. “The Vulgar Barber got his rocks off a different way. He only used us as punching bags when he didn’t have a sweet little morsel locked up in our cellar.”

  Saber snarled and shook Mitch around like a fucking rag doll.

  “Jesus,” I hissed. Were the blindsides never going to fucking stop? My mind was running a million miles a second just trying to keep up with everything.

  My eyes snapped to Figgy’s. She looked so tired, like she was going to give up fighting any second. I needed to fucking end this. NOW.

  The distraction I was supposed to be providing was failing. If anything, I was the one getting distracted by all of the information that had been thrown at me. Not that anyone here could blame me.

  They always say that knowledge is power.

  But sometimes knowing nothing and being kept in the dark was better than knowing everything in the light.

  The sound of glass shattering filled my ears, crackling and clinking as pieces of it hit the floor.

  Everything seemed to happen all at once.

  Chaos erupted all around me.

  “What the fuck!?” Buzz screamed as he dropped the knife he’d been holding against Figgy’s throat and grabbed his shoulder. Blood poured from between his fingers, spilling onto his clothing. The metal of the knife thudded against the floor, rolling away from where it had been just moments before.

  Sight grabbed Buzz in his arms and held onto him with a death grip. He nodded April over, who placed him in the only pair of handcuffs she had brought. Sight kept putting pressure on Buzz’s wound so that he didn’t bleed out. We wanted him to go to prison, not die. He deserved worse than fucking death, he deserved to rot in prison for the rest of his miserable life. Hopefully, getting fucked up the ass.

  I ran to Figgy to get her out of this fucking place as fast as I could. As soon as I reached her, I pulled the gag out of her mouth. Her lips quivered and she started bawling before I have a chance to untie her ropes. Looking down, I grabbed the knife Buzz had had pressed against her throat and cut the ropes off of her in one fell swoop. Her body fell off of the chair and sagged into me as she continues crying.

  I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly. Leaning down, I pressed a light kiss to her temple, needing to feel her skin on my lips.

  A crashing sound filled my ears once again.

  My head snapped up, and what I saw rendered me speechless for the millionth time today.

  Saber and Mitch were wrestling on the floor. Mitch was on top of Saber and looked like he had the upper hand, arms and legs were flailing about. Kai ran over to pull Mitch off of Saber, but before he could, Saber pulled a pocket knife from his back pocket and stabbed Mitch in the chest. Mitch screamed out in agony, but instead of pulling the knife out, Saber twisted the blade deeper into his sternum. Blood poured from Mitch’s chest onto Saber’s clothes, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  The world started spinning in slow motion again as I saw Mitch’s face drain of color and watched his body slump over and fall into Saber. Saber leaned in and whispered something in Mitch’s ear before kneeing him in the balls and shoving Mitch off of him.

  No one ran to Mitch’s aid as he bled out on the floor of the dirty warehouse. No one seemed to care that Saber had practically just murdered the sick son of a bitch. If anything, I was jealous that he was the one who ended his disgusting life.

  Mitch’s chest stopped rising as he stopped breathing. No one shed a single tear over the whole situation.

  Even Buzz showed no emotion over the fact that his brother was no longer breathing.

  Good fucking riddance.

  Figgy slumped in my arms, her body had gone limp, right in my grasp. My heart rate accelerated as I looked down and noticed her eyes had closed.

  She’d passed out.

  “Take him to the station for me, would ya Kai?” Sight asked his man as he bolted out of the warehouse.

  Picking her up in my arms, I practically ran out of the warehouse to the van. Everyone followed me as we made our way out of the nightmare that had been the last couple of days.

  Mitch was dead.

  Buzz was being taken into custody.

  Realizing I didn’t have to worry about them anymore, I let out a breath. Neither of them would be able to come after any of us again.

  I hugged Figgy to my chest, loving the feel her body pressed against mine.

  We all piled into the car. A resounding silence echoed in the van until finally, I spoke.

  “We need to go to the hospital,” I mumbled to Sight as he started the car.

  He nodded, agreeing with me.

  I cradled Figgy in my arms, rocking her like a baby. I was hoping that maybe it helped calm her, even though she was unconscious and didn’t realize what I was doing.

  Sight drove like a mad man to the hospital.

  I looked around the van. Aqua was still clinging onto Cooper for dear life, April was fanning over Saber trying to make sure he was alright, and everyone else in the car had their heads downcast.

  Everyone knew that they didn’t need to actually say anything to be heard.

  Sometimes, silence spoke volumes.

  I woke up with a start. My body jolted forward and blood was rushing through my veins at a rapid rate. A blinding light flooded my vision. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my eyesight.

  Machines beeped loudly, their sounds filling my ears.

  Free. We were free. We’d been saved.

  Tilting my head, I looked to my left.

  Aqua was laying in the bed next to me. Her eyes were open as she stared at Cooper who had fallen asleep in the chair right next to her bed. His fingers were grasping the sheets as if he was worried she would vanish again. Like he needed to touch something that she was touching for him to believe she was alright, that she was here. She was so focused on him, she didn’t even notice that I had woken up yet.

  Looking over to my right, I noticed Kieran was asleep with his head in his hands on the side of my bed. I stared at him, memorizing every angle of his face.

  He was so handsome when he was sleeping.

  Dread pooled in my gut, thinking about all that had happened while we were taken.

  Panic clawed at my heart, because there was no way I deserved this man lying in front of me anymore. Not after what I let happen to the only other person in my life I cared about. I wasn’t able to protect her. That was something I would have to live with for the rest of my life. But after everything he learned about himself and his family, there was no way I could drop my problems on him, too.

  He didn’t deserve that.

  He deserved better.

  Better than the hand he had been dealt in life.

  But more importantly, better than me.

  I picked up my phone from the floating table in front of me and snapped a picture of him.

  Slowly, I slid out of my hospital bed, making as little movement as I could. Once standing, I pulled the IV out of my arm and tiptoed over to Aqua.

  She must have noticed me move this time, because her head snapped up.

  “Figgy?” she hoarsely whispered. “What are you doing?”

  I tilted my head to the side, and took in her flushed face.

  “I have to go, munchkin. I…I just…I can’t be here when they wake up. It hurts too much,” I rasped lightly, hoping that my voice was low enough that the men continued to sleep.

  Her eyes widened in shock and her lips parted.

  “Why?”

  I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to explain it to her.

  “I just have
to go,” I explained, weakly and without any conviction. “Do you want to stay with them?” I asked her. After everything she had been through, she deserved a choice no matter how old she was.

  “No,” she said, her voice cracking. “I’ll come with you.”

  I nodded my head and waited for her to maneuver her way out of the bed. She dropped onto the floor and a small thud echoed from her weight hitting the ground. She stood there, staring at Cooper for a minute before walking up to him, and placing a light kiss on his lips.

  On his fucking lips.

  What the actual fuck?

  I wanted to ask. Hell, I fucking felt like I had to ask, but I refrained. I gritted my teeth together, and kept my questions and opinions to myself.

  She deserved to give her first kiss to whoever she wanted after everything she’d been through. Even if he was over a decade and a half older than her and fast asleep at the time of said kiss.

  Stepping lightly, she walked over and placed her small hand in mine.

  Before we made it out of the room, I chanced one last glance back. My eyes landed on Kieran and my heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest.

  I knew this was for the best no matter how much it fucking hurt to do it.

  We snuck out of the hospital room without causing a fuss or being seen.

  Once we made it outside, we jumped into a cab that was sitting in front of the hospital. I gave the cab driver Kieran’s address so that we could grab my car before we headed out of town.

  Where we were going, I didn’t know.

  All I knew was that we had to get away from all of this as soon as we could.

  Sitting in the cab, I looked out the window and watched all of the houses and businesses pass us by.

  I unlocked my phone and looked at the picture I had taken of Kieran before we left.

  A lone tear trailed down my cheek wishing that things could have been different but knowing that life wasn’t always fair.

  *****

  A tap on my right shoulder woke me up from my deep slumber. My body jolted awake and my head snapped up from its resting place. My eyes popped open and light flooded my vision. Using my hands, I rubbed my eyes, trying to will the sleepiness from them.

  “Ahem,” a random voice coughed out from behind me.

  I whipped my head around and saw a male nurse standing in the doorway of the room.

  “Where did they go?” he asked me, pointing further into the room I was occupying.

  Confused, I turned around. My eyes swept the room, but the girls were nowhere to be found. The only thing in my line of sight was Cooper, fast asleep in the chair next to the bed Squirt had been sleeping in before I had passed out from exhaustion.

  “Bathroom?” I asked him, hoping to god that’s where they were.

  I reached out to touch the spot on the bed where I had last seen Figgy. It was cold, as if she hadn’t been there in hours.

  Adrenaline started pumping through my veins.

  Because seriously? Were they trying to fucking kill me?

  I swear to god these girls were going to be the death of me. They were literally going to kill me one day. Each time they showed up missing or injured, they took ten more years off of my goddamn life.

  They had become my destruction.

  Self-destruction that is.

  Looking around the room, I noticed their shoes and clothes were gone. They must have grabbed them before they left. Damn it! I let my eyes roam around the room one more time and noticed something else.

  Her phone.

  She took her phone!

  Fuck me sideways.

  Pulling mine out of my pocket, I dialed Sight’s number. He answered after one ring.

  “Sight here,” he said, his voice deep.

  “Hey man, Figgy left. Can you track her phone for me?” I asked him, knowing it was a long shot, but needing to try.

  I just got her back.

  I wasn’t about to lose her again without even fighting for her.

  He sighed into the phone, probably done with all of my bullshit.

  “She left? Women, I fuckin’ swear,” he muttered. I heard him typing into something before his voice came back over the line. “I’ve got a lock on her phone. It’s movin’ pretty fast, though. I’ll text ya updates on her location.”

  I exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thanks, man.”

  “Good luck, dude. Looks like your gonna need it,” he quipped before disconnecting the line.

  I shook Cooper awake. “What? What happened?”

  I cursed.

  “They left while we were asleep,” I grumbled. He jumped up, fully awake and alert now. “Sight’s tracing Figgy’s phone. I’ve got her location.”

  He had already started walking out the door before I finished explaining.

  “Let’s fucking bring them home,” Cooper gritted out.

  “A-fucking-greed, brother,” I proclaimed as we both stormed out of the hospital and to my car.

  We were headed out to drag their asses back here.

  Women, I fucking swear.

  Can’t live with em’.

  Can’t fucking live without em’.

  After a day and a half of constant driving, we had finally caught up to them.

  Cooper was standing at the end of the hallway with his arms crossed over his chest, the muscle in his check jumping in irritation. He was pissed off at the world.

  After everything that had happened, everything we had been through, she up and left me.

  Not that I could blame her. After finding out about my family tree, I could see why she fled.

  If I was being honest, I didn’t understand how not one of my friends haven’t had an issue with it.

  Hell, I had a huge fucking issue with it.

  Walking down the hallway of the run down motel, I cringed. The place looked cheap. Paint was chipping off of the walls, trash littered the ground, bugs scurried their way around, and the place reeked of urine. The strong scent of ammonia burned my nostrils making me wince.

  I stopped in front of a door labeled ‘6’. The door my girls were behind. Glancing around, I took notice of just how cheap everything around me was. Thank god there were actual locks on the goddamn doors.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my inner rage.

  Lifting my fist, I pounded on the door.

  Thump. Thump. Thump.

  “I know you’re in there, Figgy,” I yelled, trying to keep the anger in my tone at bay.

  Anger that she left. Anger that it was my fault. Anger that just when I thought I finally had something that was mine, and mine alone, it was ripped away.

  Fucking cock suckers.

  Leaning over, I placed my ear on the door.

  Whispers sounded, which made my heart lighter.

  Knowing she was in there and safe made me feel a hell of a lot better, but it didn’t help my anger.

  I pounded on the door again.

  “Open this door, Figgy,” I demanded. “If it’s not open by the count of three, I swear to god, I’ll bend you over my fucking knee and spank your little ass so hard you won’t be able to sit for a week.”

  Shuffling sounded through the door.

  “One,” I growled, holding one finger in the air.

  Nothing happened, the door remained closed.

  “Two,” I ordered through clenched teeth, the anger starting to trickle out of my voice.

  Silence echoed throughout the hallway.

  “Two and a half,” I hedged, giving her a few more seconds before I snapped.

  I closed my eyes and took a breath, trying to calm the fuck down.

  “Three!” I bellowed, just as the door cracked open with a squeak.

  Light peaked through the crack of the slightly open door.

  Squeezing my hand into the opening, I grabbed ahold of the side.

  More shuffling echoed through the room.

  I tried to open it
further, but it was stuck on something.

  Bracing my body, I used my weight to push it open, giving myself just enough room to wiggle through the entrance.

  Once inside, I glanced around and noticed the dresser pushed up against the door. I guess that was what was keeping me from opening it all the way.

  The room was just as awful as the hotel was.

  Feeling something smack into me, I looked down. Squirt was clutching at my leg for dear life. Her little body was shaking, sobs tore from her throat.

  My heart leapt in my throat.

  I leaned down and plucked her off of my leg, pulling her into my arms.

  She cried harder, wailing something incoherent. Her tears sunk into my shirt leaving a wet spot in its wake. Her arms wrapped around my neck, squeezing me so hard she almost cut off my oxygen supply.

  “Shush, my sweet girl, you’re okay,” I cooed to her, while running my free hand over her back in slow circles.

  Hearing my voice calmed her until she was only hiccupping.

  Leaning towards the still open door, I called out for Cooper.

  In two seconds flat, he was standing in the small opening.

  His eyes landed on Squirt in my arms, and his eyes softened. Knowing that she was gone had wrecked him. Twice within a week she had vanished, with nothing he could do about it.

  I’ve known Cooper my whole life and I had never seen him so devastated.

  He reached for her, and then pulled his arms back as if he’d been burned.

  A look of longing took over his features, unshed tears in his eyes. He shook his head, and pulled his arms so that they were back to being crossed over his chest.

  Squirt’s head lifted off of my shoulder. I could feel the second her eyes landed on Cooper. Her whole body sagged in relief. Her sobs had stopped, but she was still upset. The second she saw him, she was finally able to relax. She wiggled in my arms until I let go of her.

  The second her feet hit the ground, she ran and jumped onto Cooper. She flung herself like a tree frog and clung onto him until he moved his arms so that they were around her little body, protecting her. She buried herself into him as if she wished they could merge together. Her legs had wrapped around his waist, her arms were twisted around his neck, locked in a death grip.