Butch’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have any relationship with Flick other than the fact that I care about her. And I get that you needed to talk with her, tell her there was never gonna be anything between the two of you. I get that, because there is no way you fucking deserve her.”
“Butch,” Alec said in a warning tone.
“No, let him speak,” West said. “It’s obvious he’s got something he wants to say.”
Butch got up in his face. He raised his hands and shoved West in the chest. West was braced, his good leg behind him taking most of his weight so he didn’t stumble back. “We could all see she had a crush on you. It was sweet and innocent. Like Flick. We knew it was doomed because there’s nothing gentle or kind about you, and that’s what she needs. You could have let her down easy. But you didn’t do it like that, did you? You fucking laid down the law West style, which means blunt and nasty and caused Flick to shut all of us out.”
“Shut all of you out? What the fuck is this? You all adopted her or something?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Mia said quietly.
“News flash, West. She’s been ours for a while now. And if you didn’t spend so much of your time trying to avoid her, you’d know that. She goes fishing with Jaret. She races that huge stallion of hers against Maddox and Beau. She shoots pool with Tanner. She likes to play strip poker with all of us—and the little brat is good. Last time we ended up in our boxers and she was still fully clothed.”
“What?” West asked dangerously. Not liking the sound of that.
“Tanner was prepared to go full Monty, but she pulled out before that could happen. Thank God cause I’ve seen enough of little Tanner to last me a lifetime.”
“Eew,” Mia said. “TMI.”
“Sorry, babe.” Butch grinned at her. “She’s been ours since she’s been coming over almost daily to shoot the shit with Mia. Bake stuff. Laugh with us. She’s one of us now, West.”
“Why the hell am I only hearing about all of this now?”
“Because you’ve been ignoring it,” Mia told him. “Every time she appears, you run off to do something on the opposite side of the ranch.”
He couldn’t argue that fact.
“If you’d wanted me to let her down easy, you should have told me,” he grumbled.
Butch scowled. “I thought it would have been obvious that’s what you had to do since she’s Flick and it’s pretty damn clear she’s had zero experience with men. If she did, she’d have known to steer clear of you.”
He clenched his hands into fists. Butch was seriously pissing him off now.
“You have no idea what I said to her. Maybe she only ever came here because of me.”
Mia snorted.
“Think that much of yourself, do you?” Butch replied.
West had had enough. He pulled his arm back, his hand already clenched into a fist. Then a hand of steel grabbed his elbow, holding him still. He looked over her shoulder at Alec with a glare. “You know the rule. No fighting inside.”
It had become a rule ever since Mia came to stay with them because Alec worried she might get caught up in a fight and get hurt. God help anyone that hurt Mia. Alec would rain terror down on their ass.
“Fine,” West said. “Let’s take this outside.”
“Good,” Butch replied, turning and stomping his way outside. West followed him.
“Or how about we just don’t fight?” Mia called out as she followed them.
“Kitten, don’t you dare leave this house,” Alec commanded.
“Alec!” Mia complained.
“I mean it. One toe goes over that threshold and you won’t sit comfortably for dinner tonight.”
West heard this as though it was coming from a distance. His anger was burning too brightly to take the words in. All he knew was that he needed a way to get rid of the fury riding him. And Butch had provided a way to get that out. As they moved into the yard, Jaret walked up. “What’s going on?”
“Gonna teach him that you should treat a woman like Flick with more care,” Butch told him.
He waited for Jaret to try to talk them down. Jaret was usually the voice of reason. Alec was the one who handed down the law, but, after him, Jaret was probably the least hot-headed of the lot. And since he’d caught his skanky ex fucking around on him, he’d become far more serious. In fact, Butch couldn’t think of the last time he’d smiled.
“Good,” Jaret replied then just stood there, arms crossed over his chest.
West turned to glare at him. “Not you too. What is wrong with you people? Since when do we start adopting little strays? We don’t let people onto our land, and definitely not into our family. Your loyalty should be to me.”
And that was what really pissed him off. That they’d chosen her over him.
Alec just glared at him. “Don’t be an idiot. Of course our loyalty is to you. She fuck you over?”
“You know she didn’t.”
“She do something to betray us? Hurt you?” Jaret asked.
West growled.
“She lie? Cheat? Steal?” Alec shot out.
“You know she did none of that. Little Miss Ray of Sunshine wouldn’t know how to be anything but sweet.”
“Blind as a fucking bat,” Butch muttered. “Why the hell did she ever set her sights on you?”
“If she means so much to you, why don’t you make a move on her?” West snarled at Butch.
“Maybe I will, dick head.”
He moved a step closer when he heard a vehicle pull up around the front of the house. A door slammed shut, and a bad feeling came over him.
Without a word, Alec started moving fast around the house. West and the others followed close behind. They reached the front porch to see Mia fly out of the house towards the big, black truck, where Beau was currently opening the passenger seat. The windows were tinted so West couldn’t see in, but he wouldn’t be opening the door for Maddox.
“You got her?” Mia called out.
“Damn it, Mia, I told you to stay in the house,” Alec growled.
“It’s just Beau.”
“Just Beau? Darlin’, I’m crushed.” Beau’s words were teasing, but the tone was strained. And West didn’t have a chance to wonder why before Beau reached into the cab of his truck and lifted out the small female from inside. He kept her bundled against his chest and West felt his heart hammer.
What. The. Fuck?
He could see the dark curls. He knew it was her. But she wasn’t moving. Didn’t speak. Just lay in Beau’s arms.
What. The. Fuck?
West strode down the steps, but then Alec was there, holding out an arm across his chest.
“Back off, Alec,” he snarled, fury riding him hard.
“Last person she’ll want to see is you,” Alec replied bluntly. It was no less than the truth. But he didn’t like it. Not one bit.
Shit.
Had he made a huge mistake?
You know you did. That’s why you’ve been in such a shitty mood these last few days. You went too far.
He’d hurt her. He’d justified it by telling himself it was for her own good, but that didn’t mean it was the right thing to do.
“She okay?” Alec barked out as Beau got closer. Mia was walking with him, her face pale and shocked.
“No,” Beau told him. When he looked up at him, his eyes were hard. Cold.
He climbed the stairs, and that’s the first opportunity West had to see her face. He sucked in a breath.
“Who. The. Fuck. Hit. Her?” he roared.
Felicity flinched then moaned in obvious pain from the movement.
“Shut your mouth, man,” Beau snarled at him. “She doesn’t need this right now.”
“Beau,” Felicity said in a low voice.
“It’s all right, darlin’,” Beau said soothingly. “You’re all right. No one is ever going to hurt you again. I promise.”
It should be him saying those words to her. Holding her. Reassuring her.
<
br /> “Who?” he barked out.
Beau gave him a grim look. “Her brother.”
“What the fuck!” West roared.
“Ease up, West,” Beau told him.
“Was he there when you got her?” Alec asked tensely.
“Nope. She was on her own,” Beau replied.
“Bring her upstairs,” Mia said immediately. “Bedroom next to ours. I’ll call Doc.”
Felicity whimpered.
“I promised no doctor,” Beau told them.
Why the fuck would he promise her that? But before West could ask, Alec moved in. He stepped in front of Beau, looked down at Felicity then gently cupped the side of her face. The side that was covered in a purplish-black bruise, her eye swollen shut.
“Flick, honey, you’re safe now. I promise,” Alec told her.
“I can’t stay,” she whispered. “He won’t let me stay.”
“He’ll have to get through all of us if he wants to get to you,” he promised her.
How the fuck could her own brother have done this to her? Wasn’t he in a wheelchair? Frustration bit at him as he realized he knew absolutely nothing about her life beyond the basics. Because he’d made a point of not learning anything about it.
“You’re going to stay here. With us. Okay?” Alec had injected firmness into his voice.
West wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Alec had always been the head of their family, but he wasn’t Flick’s man.
Neither are you, asshole.
“He’ll try to create problems,” she warned. “He can get nasty. Really nasty.”
“You let me worry about that,” Alec told her. “That’s my job, you just agree you’re moving in here with us.”
“Flick, please,” Mia begged.
“I just don’t want any of you to get hurt.”
“Not your problem to worry about, darlin’,” Beau reassured her. “We can protect ourselves and we sure as shit can protect you. You already mean a lot to us, soon as I saw you lying in your bed, curled in a ball, beaten to shit, you most definitely became ours. You aren’t going anywhere. Which means, you accept Alec’s rules. Got it?”
West turned his glare to Beau. He barely bit back a rebuke.
Not yours. Not yours.
A moment of silence. “Beast can come?”
“She’s worried about her horse,” Beau told them. “Maddox is riding him back, because she thought that bastard might hurt the horse to get to her.”
What. The. Fuck?
Alec nodded. “Beast can stay.”
More silence. What was there to think about? How could she possibly want to go back to a situation where her bastard brother beat the shit out of her? And he knew from the way she held herself that her face wasn’t the worst of it. She was cradling her right arm. Her index finger looked swollen. Was it broken?
“You’ll be protected here, Flick,” Mia told her quietly. “You can trust these guys; you know you can. They have their own moral code. They can be wild and they will drive you insane, but if you’re theirs, you’ll never be safer. I promise you that.”
Flick let out a little breath. “Okay, I agree.”
“Good girl,” Alec murmured. “Beau is gonna carry you upstairs, and Mia will help you get settled. Once you are, you’re going to tell me what’s going on. Everything. Then we’ll know what we’re up against. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“And this bears repeating so I’m sure you get it, you are safe here. My brothers and I are going to see to that, okay? You’re here, under my roof, my protection, and I don’t take that lightly. Once you become a Malone, there ain’t no getting out. And nobody fucks with the Malones.”
“I’m not a Malone.”
“Baby girl, you are now.”
And with those words, words he felt deep in his gut, words he should have spoken, West knew he was lost.
Beau moved through the house and West followed, aware the others were doing the same.
“Jaret,” Alec ordered. “Call Tanner and Raid. Family meeting in an hour. Butch, when Maddox gets here, get ready to go back to Flick’s place to collect her belongings.”
“Beau, this bedroom.” Mia moved ahead and opened the door of the bedroom next to her and Alec’s.
Nope. That wouldn’t work for him.
“Other end of the hall,” West commanded.
Mia turned to frown at him. “I need to be able to hear her if she needs me.”
“Other end of the hall,” he repeated himself.
Alec gave him a warning look.
“West, she could have nightmares,” Mia whispered. “She might need me in the night.”
“And you need your sleep, not to be getting up and down all night,” he countered, glancing meaningfully down at her stomach.
“It will be good practice for when the baby comes then, won’t it?” she retorted.
“Mia, he’s right,” Alec told her. “You won’t be getting up to help her.”
West relaxed slightly, knowing he’d won that battle. Not that he intended her to be alone to fight her nightmares. Nope. That had just become his job.
He wasn’t sure when the mind shift had happened. But it had been clinched by the look on her face. Scared and in pain.
She needs us. She needs me.
He would be there for her. He figured she was probably too hurt and in too much shock to put up much of a protest right now. And by the time she got around to it, he’d be firmly in her life. And he’d go from there.
She needs us.
He’d failed someone who needed him once. Someone he’d loved. Someone he was supposed to take care of. He wasn’t going to fail Felicity.
“I’ll be doing it,” Alec stated firmly.
“What?” West barked. Alec looking after her was not part of the plan. At all.
Felicity groaned. Her good eye darted from him to Mia to Alec.
“Sorry, sunshine,” he murmured soothingly to her before he turned to Alec. “You’re not getting up for her.”
“Alec, I don’t think that will work,” Mia told him.
“Why not? Helped you with your nightmares.”
“Yes, but, well, you . . . you’re not exactly soothing,” Mia told him.
“I need to be soothing?” he asked, looking surprised.
West barely managed not to roll his eyes.
“Nobody has to get up with me,” Flick told them. “I’ll be fine.”
“You will be, because I will make sure of it,” West told her. He looked over at Alec. “She goes in the bedroom down the hall. I’ll be next door. I’ll get up with her.”
This time four pairs of incredulous eyes hit him. Well, three pairs and one single eye.
“I take it back,” Mia blurted out. “Alec, you’ll do.”
West glared at her. “I can be soothing.”
They were all silent.
“Alec,” he warned in a low voice.
Alec studied him. “You won’t fuck this up.” It wasn’t a question but a warning.
West nodded.
“All right.”
“I don’t know about this,” Mia worried.
Alec placed his arm around her shoulders. “It will be all right, kitten. Bedroom down at the end, Beau. Mia, get her something to sleep in.”
“You sure?” Beau asked, looking at Alec.
Alec looked indecisive for the first time in his life. Then he gave a firm nod. “Yeah, he’ll take care of her now that he knows he fucked up. He doesn’t, he knows he’ll answer to the rest of us.”
Christ. What the hell was he getting himself into? He wasn’t really sure; all he knew was that it had to be him taking care of her.
5
Flick was in a world of pain
She knew she should pay attention to the conversation going on around her. But, frankly, she didn’t much care. She’d thought she’d been dreaming when Beau had appeared in her bedroom. After all, how many times had she dreamed about some white knight turning up to res
cue her? Foolish dreams.
If you were stronger, you’d rescue yourself.
She wasn’t. She was weak. Stupid. An idiot.
So, when he’d said she was coming with him, she’d let him pick her up. She was still in the dream, after all. It wasn’t until the pain had slashed through her body as he’d shifted her, that she’d realized maybe it wasn’t a dream.
There was nothing she wanted more than to get away from Spencer. But she knew he was going to be furious.
What if he took that fury out on the Malones? They didn’t deserve to be punished for helping her. She shouldn’t have agreed to stay here.
She wished Beau would put her down. While it was nice to be touched by someone who wasn’t intent on harming her, she was still in a lot of pain. A nice, soft bed and some painkillers sounded like heaven right about now.
“I need to lie down,” she croaked out.
“Course you do, darlin’,” Beau said soothingly. He’d been that way since he’d burst into her room. Quiet, subdued, sweet. Not the teasing, flirty rascal she was used to. But she was too tired to ponder that.
He carried her into a bedroom and her breath hissed out of her as he laid her on the bed. She’d managed to change out of the clothes she’d been wearing the other night, the same night West had slashed her insides while Spencer had done his best to beat her down physically. The day from hell. But it had been painful as heck. She’d only managed to change into an old, worn, loose T-shirt and some sweatpants. She didn’t even have panties on.
“Okay, Flick, we’re gonna let Mia get you more comfortable,” Alec told her firmly. “Then I’ll be in for a chat.”
She’d never experienced Alec Malone in bossy mode. She knew he was a Dom, but he’d never used that voice on her. He always seemed a bit aloof. Except around Mia.
“Is that your Dom voice?” she asked before she thought better of it.
Mia let out a startled giggle.
“Whoops, ignore me.” She could feel herself blush.
“What do you know about a Dom voice?” Alec asked. But his voice was gentler this time. She thought she heard a hint of laughter. Great, she’d amused him. She hunched her shoulders slightly.
“I read.”
“Hmm, must be some interesting books,” Alec surmised.
How West Was Won (Haven, Texas Book 7) Page 5
