by KL Donn
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he sent a text to both of his brothers with a simple 911 to the hospital. He knew they would understand what he meant. There was trouble, and they needed to get there. Next, he called Frank. Two rings later, and the older man was answering. “I’m already on my way. Keep calm and don’t break nothing.”
“She’s fucking gone, Frank. I told her she would be safe here, and doctor no-dick made me a fucking liar.”
“That’s some strong language from you, boy.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Frank, not now. My girl is gone, and I know I’m not getting on that compound without some kind of backup. The question is, will that be with you or just my brothers?” He wasn’t going to fuck around with some investigation bullshit. Not now.
“I’ve got warrants set to go already. Judge Talbot is real interested in what’s happening out there. State Troopers are meeting us at the gates, so get your ass downstairs while my officers come up there to talk to staff and hold doctor no-dick for questioning.”
Hanging up, he headed out of the room just as two uniformed officers were entering. Rushing past them, he saw the hallway was teaming with law enforcement.
“Get her back, Lochlan,” Kirsten encouraged as he ran past her. Nodding, he kept on his way, down the stairwell and out to the parking garage.
“I’ve already called your brothers. They’re making sure the girls are secure with some special forces fella then meeting us out there,” Frank told him as he climbed into the cruiser.
Frank’s statement pissed Loch off even more. The fact that Nox and Levi felt the need to make sure the girls were safe was a fucking problem for him. Not because he thought they were wasting time but because it was even an issue to begin with.
“This would sure be a lot easier if you’d have married the girl,” Frank half-joked. “Then she’d really belong to you, and I wouldn’t need no pesky warrant to just barge in there to check on her well-being.”
Loch sat up straighter at his suggestion. Marry her. She would legally be his. No one could take her from him then.
“Now boy, you listen here, don’t go getting foolish on me. I was only kidding. I’d still need the warrant; it’d just be easier to get.” All Frank was doing was making the decision easier on Loch.
“But, if she were my wife, they couldn’t keep trying to make her marry this other guy. She would legally be mine. By law, she couldn’t marry anyone else.” Loch reasoned.
“Shit. Your Ma is going to skin me alive,” Frank muttered.
The rest of the ride was tense but quiet, and soon enough, they were approaching the land her compound occupied and cruisers with lights flashing lined both sides of the highway. An ambulance stood off in the distance, and Loch remembered the last time he was there.
“If she’s anywhere near that snake pit again, I’m going to kill him.” It didn’t matter which him it was. Someone would be losing their life.
“Fuck.” Frank’s muttered curse as they climbed from the vehicles went unheard by everyone around them, as the Troopers were cutting the gate locks with bolt cutters and a negotiator was on the phone with someone.
Loch waited impatiently while the law decided what the fuck they were going to do.
Until he heard it.
Heard her.
“Lochlan!”
So many flashing lights heading towards the gates had brought everyone from their homes as the van Sage was in came barreling down the driveway. Relief unlike anything she’d ever known had swamped her upon seeing the vehicles screeching to a halt almost as soon as the gates had been locked.
Morgan hadn’t stopped fondling her legs and arms, even once getting brave enough to run his fingers along her exposed collarbone. She’d begun heaving at that point, and had he not stopped his movements, she wouldn’t have been able to stop the acid rising in her throat from being expelled.
“Get her inside,” her father snapped as her siblings came running out the front door of their home.
“Sage!” Jossilyn gasped. Excitement lit her eyes, but terror rang through her voice.
“I’m fine, Joss.” She tried to be reassuring. Even though Joss was the older of the two, Sage had always been the one to care for her.
“You have to let her go,” Porter tried to reason with Gideon. “She’s eighteen now. It’s her choice.”
It hit her then. She had missed her own birthday because of the abuse bestowed upon her from her “family.” It was so trivial that it shouldn’t matter, but it did. It was huge, and she was a clueless girl. Of course, that was why Loch felt comfortable enough to kiss her. To touch her. She couldn’t imagine another moment without his caress. She needed his strong hands to replace the repulsion from Morgan’s grip.
Not understanding how or why, her heart just knew her white knight was there. He had to be.
“Lochlan!” She screamed as loud as she could, startling Morgan into letting her go, and she ran. For the gates, for freedom, for Lochlan. Sage moved as fast as her still weak body would carry her.
“Sage!” Loch’s voice was a balm to her erratic heart.
“Please,” she whispered out of breath. The lengthy driveway seemed longer than any other time she’d run up and down it before. Her legs grew weak with fatigue. Her lungs strained to take another breath.
Just as she thought she would make it to the gates—only feet away—she heard heavy breathing behind her as Loch yelled angrily at someone to hurry up and open the gate. She saw Frank, too, shouting, getting red in the face. As she was about to lunge for Loch’s out-stretched hands through the bars, she was tackled from behind, hitting the ground so hard that air was knocked out of her, and her head hit the gravel with enough force that her ears rang.
Lochlan’s rage-filled threats could not be mistaken as she was hauled to her feet. “Let her the fuck go, you son of a bitch!”
Morgan laughed at him.
“I’ll fucking kill you if you hurt one hair on her head.” The menace in Loch’s voice should have frightened her.
“Like this?” Morgan taunted as he grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked so hard her feet left the ground, and she cried out from the pain.
“Stop it,” Sage whined. The hospital gown she was still wearing loosened, and she was terrified it was going to fall off.
“Listen now,” Frank tried to reason, “we have a warrant. We are coming in. I suggest you let the girl go and make it easier on yourself.”
“You have no right to come to my home and make threats. Bringing trash with you. She is my child, and I can do with her as I please.” Her father stood his ground just feet from the fence.
“In fact, you can’t.” Frank seemed to smirk as she was dragged further away. “You see, this is America, and she has every right as me. I’ve heard her repeatedly ask that man to stop. What he’s doing now is assault. I’ll arrest him for that.” Frank’s finger swung from pointing at Morgan to pointing at Gideon. “You, I’ll arrest for unlawful confinement and kidnapping.”
“Don’t forget the child abuse.” Lennox, Loch’s oldest brother, had shown up with Levi, and they were holding onto Lochlan as the chains began to crumble beneath the saw now being used.
“Get your fucking hands off her!” Loch screamed as she was pulled away again.
Jossilyn’s sobbing could be heard from her position between their brothers, and Sage made brief eye contact with Tru. He was enraged like she’d never seen. With everyone’s emotions running so high, Sage became overwhelmed and soon found it increasingly hard to breathe. “Can’t breathe,” she muttered, hyperventilating, trying to get every ounce of air into her lungs that she could.
“Shut up, whore,” Morgan hissed in her ear as he continued his trek.
Reaching deep down inside her heart, Sage knew she had to muster the strength to fight back. She had to be strong for Lochlan because he was falling apart while plotting murder and mayhem.
Digging her feet into the ground, Sage pulled away from Morgan’s bod
y with all her strength, knocking them off-kilter and crashing to the ground again. Pain assailed her already battered body.
“Sage!” Loch’s scream could be heard from the fence.
“Loch, wait a fucking minute!”
“Don’t do it, Loch!”
“Son of a bitch!”
“Dios mio, Loch.”
All these protests could be heard as the creaking of the gates gave way to an opening. Sage couldn’t move from the weight of Morgan on her back and the ground at her front. “Get off me.” Her grunts went ignored.
“I said…” She heard Loch’s voice as the weight from her back was lifted. “Get the fuck off of her.” The sound of knuckles cracking and flesh splitting hit her ears as she rolled to her side. Lochlan was on top of Morgan pounding his fist into the other man’s face.
Heavy feet ran past where she was lying on the ground to pull Lochlan off of Morgan, preventing him from giving the vile man precisely what he deserved.
“Loch, you gotta cool it. Sage needs you now,” Lennox told him firmly.
“Here I thought you were against violence,” Levi joked.
Lochlan’s breathing was heavy, harsh, drowning out all other noise around them as dozens of people filed onto the compound. A place Sage had once felt safe. A place she now feared more than anything else in the world.
“Go to your girl.” Asher, she thought his name was, encouraged Loch as the paramedics approached her.
Fear once again grabbed a hold tightly and wouldn’t let go as the two men reached for her. “No!” she screamed, unable to stop herself.
Loch’s head whipped around so quickly, she thought it might break. “Don’t fucking touch her.” His growled words were fierce as he stormed over.
His body covered hers as he lay on top of her. From head to toe, she was shielded. Her legs between his, his arms bracketing her head. Sage was…safe. There was no other word for it. Having been sheltered her entire life, never once did she actually feel safe. Not like Lochlan made her feel.
The hardness in his gaze was circled with concern for her. “Did he hurt you?” He still hadn’t lost the ferociousness from his tone.
“No.”
“Did he touch you?” His teeth ground together with the question.
Unable to look him in the eye, for fear of the disgust he would surely feel, Sage could only nod her head.
“That fucking son of a bitch is dead.” He was seething at this point, getting ready to climb to his feet.
Her hands gripped his sides tightly as she begged, “Please don’t leave me.” He was torn for a second before settling back down on top of her. His own emotions shining bright like stars on a dark night.
“I’m so damn sorry, Sage. I promised you’d be safe, and I let you down.” His face was buried in her hair. She could do nothing but comfort the anguish he must have felt upon learning she was gone.
“You can’t control everything, Lochlan. This isn’t your fault. It’s theirs.” She could never blame him. Not for this. Not for her selfish parents. Not for Morgan’s sick fantasies. He wasn’t at fault.
“Maybe not, but Angel, you’re mine to protect. How can I do that when I’m not even there? When you aren’t mine fully?” His voice was bleak in her ear.
“I am yours, Lochlan,” she insisted. No matter what happened in her life, she would always belong to him.
Pushing his body upwards, his gaze searched hers before saying, “You’re not. Not in the eyes of the law. I want you to for my own, Sage. Completely.”
“I don’t understand.” His words were genuine but confusing.
“Marry me. Be mine, and I’ll be yours, and no one can ever take you away again.”
Speechless, she didn’t know what to say. They barely knew one another. In their hearts maybe they did, the calling so powerful that nothing would keep them apart. But were they compatible?
“I–I–I don’t know what to say,” she finally whispered.
Before he could respond, Nox was whispering in his ear and pointing to the paramedics. “Fuck. Fine. But she’s not leaving my sight.”
“It’ll be alright,” she reassured him again as he helped her to her feet. His arms wrapped around her like he was afraid to let her go. “Lochlan,” she whispered.
“No.” He growled again as the EMTs came closer again. “You’re mine, and the last time I let you out of my sight, they took you.” The last couple of words were so caustic she almost couldn’t understand.
“But you have me now, and I’m here. Frank is arresting them. We can move on.” Trying to comfort him made it easier on Sage. She was terrified to overthink on what would have happened had they not shown up when they did.
“How can you be okay with all this?” The confusion mixed with his pain and anger softened her body into his hold.
“I have very few things in my life I can count on, Loch.” She waited to continue until his gaze met hers. “I have faith. I have to believe in that. And I have you. You more than anything else on this earth, I will always believe in.”
Sage could feel the emotions bleeding from his body as he took in her words. “You can always trust in me, Angel.” His rough fingers gliding through her hair worked to soothe him more.
“I do. But please, I just want to go…” She almost said home. Only to realize she didn’t have one. Sage had nothing.
“Home.” He finished for her.
“I guess I don’t have one anymore.”
He didn’t say anything for so long, she became nervous that she was acting clingy again. Placing his hand on her jaw, he lifted her head. “As clichéd as it may be, home is where your heart is, Sage. It’s not just a roof and four walls. It’s not just a shelter. It’s where you’re happiest. It’s where you feel safest.”
He was right, so very right. And she knew all of that. Always had. Sometimes hearing it from someone else worked better than telling herself, and that’s exactly what he had done. “I guess that makes you my home then.” Her murmured words were barely above a whisper. Afraid of rejection, her gaze shifted to the side. However, he wouldn’t let her hide.
Not a word needed to be said as his lips met hers softly. A gentle placement meant to convey their vulnerabilities. A meshing of their hearts without the words.
Gripping his shirt tightly in her fists, Sage pulled herself up more firmly into his kiss, seeking a deeper connection. The world melted away as Lochlan made her feel invincible and took her to another plane.
Emotions swirled around them like a tornado on the heels of a storm, whipping frantically through a rainbow and becoming so much stronger than the wind. Her body was aflame with the need to be with him. To have him consume her in the most intimate ways a man could know a woman’s body.
Forced to break their connection for a much-needed breath, his eyes turned a deep cobalt with his passion. A storm brewed behind his hooded lids, and Sage craved to know more about it. She wanted to feel all that emotion with him.
His words from a few minutes before burst from his lips again. “Marry me, baby.” He didn’t question, simply demanded.
“Are you sure you’re ready for that, Lochlan? It’s a huge step.” For her, marriage was so much more than a piece of paper and having the same names. It was the binding of two souls into one. It was eternal.
“She’s right, kid,” Levi said from beside them, breaking into their bubble.
“Piss off, Levi.” Loch shot his brother a glare.
“No. This isn’t something to just jump into, and you, of all people, I would have figured knew that.”
“I do know that.”
“Then what’s the rush?” Nox interjected.
Police still milled around questioning everyone. Her siblings, her mother who was crying with Anastasia and Kaidence consoling her, their friends. Her father and Morgan were sat in the back of two separate police cars near the gates.
Extracting herself from Loch’s strong embrace, Sage tried to put distance between them. If his brothe
rs didn’t accept their union, then it was only a matter of time before he agreed with them. “I’m just going to go with the medics and then talk to Jossilyn.” She smiled.
He reluctantly let her go as his brothers and friend circled around him.
“Miss, were you hurt anywhere? Touched where you shouldn’t have been?” The older of the two men was undoubtedly trying to be sympathetic to her situation, but she still cringed.
“Only when we fell. Nothing else happened.” She wasn’t so sure she could have admitted it even if it had.
As they placed a blanket across her lap and another around her shoulders, Porter walked closer with one arm wrapped around Joss’ shoulders. They wore matching expressions of fear and uncertainty.
“If you want to leave, now is the time,” she said to them, knowing they wouldn’t be presented such an opportunity again.
“Where would we go?” Joss worried her lip with her teeth in one corner.
“There are shelters,” the paramedic offered as he cleaned the cut on her head.
“I would go with you,” Sage offered.
“I thought you were staying with Lochlan?” Trusen questioned.
Shaking her head, her stare roamed over to where he was standing and watching her. A sad smile played on her lips as she answered. “I don’t think that to be wise.” Even though just moments before, she’d felt terrific about being with him, being together, knowing love would come just as quickly as their attraction, Sage didn’t want to be a regret for him. With his family convincing him a marriage to her wasn’t a good idea, being around him would quickly become agonizing in ways the pit wasn’t and couldn’t ever be.
Loch didn’t like the look on Sage’s face right now. She was sad in a way he hadn’t seen her previously. Her gaze was flat and the life that shone in them moments go had vanished like smoke on a rainy day. Her shoulders were slumped in defeat, and every time he tried to remove himself from his brothers, they would block his path. Since she broke free of his hold, he hadn’t heard a word they said to him. She was his only priority. Nothing else mattered.
