by Janie Marie
She sobbed at the sight of his pain and tried to stay still as he stared into her eyes.
“You’re okay,” he whispered, pulling her in for a kiss. Her lip was cracked, but he licked it, sucking and making it hurt more. “It’s over.”
Nodding, she tried to hug him. She was still worried about him killing someone. Maybe it would be self-defense, but she wasn’t taking any chances. “Take me away from here.”
He held her cheek, tingles exploding from his touch. He was shaking against her as he said, “He took you.”
“And you found me,” she told him quietly, ignoring the chaos around them. But she felt David’s gaze burning her.
Ryder’s arms flexed around her. “I found you . . . You’re mine to keep.”
She smoothed his sweaty hair back. He sounded almost childlike, and it worried her. It was like he was struggling to process what to do: Kill . . . Keep.
“Papi,” he suddenly said, blinking as he shook his head. “Where the fuck is he?”
“Behind you,” she said, breathing faster when Ryder turned. She feared he was going to hand her to David so he could kill those assholes.
His expression darkened when he saw David had taped Dylan’s hands together. When he kept staring, Jane kissed his jaw, then his cheek. It snapped him out of wherever his mind had gone, and he hugged her, swaying with her like she was a baby.
“I’m taking her to Tercero,” Ryder told David.
A scorching hot hand ran down her back as he helped Ryder pull them up. “Let me see if I can find her clothes. I’ll catch up. The others can stay here.” He kissed the back of her head. “You did so good, baby.”
“Yeah, she did.” Ryder kissed her lips, a smile on his now. “You and Diane barely left anything for me to destroy.”
She grinned as David took a chance to kiss her cheek. His soft whispers of love and thankfulness that his prayers were answered washed over her.
“Jane.” It was Adam. He hobbled to her, darting his eyes between David and Ryder before settling on her. “I’m so sorry, honey. I-I–”
David cut him off. “Thanks for fighting for her.”
Ryder nodded at Adam as he hugged her again. “We’re going.” Then he asked Savaş, “You got this?”
“Yeah. Take care of your girl.” The big guy rubbed her head then stalked off, hauling Dylan to the pile of guys that Lance and Jason had bound.
David pressed another kiss to her head, and he too, walked off, using his phone to light the way so he could find her clothes. Diane went up to him, and David seemed to mutter he was looking for stuff.
“Don’t worry, babe.” Ryder tugged the jacket she was wearing down. “Papi is still yours. He just knows I need you.”
Jane closed her eyes, letting his presence consume her. “Tercero?”
“Archer is with him.” He nuzzled her. “He’s going to be so upset that he let this happen.”
“I was the one who told him to drink. It’s my fault.”
“No.” He kissed her forehead. “My brother has a bad habit of depriving himself of his needs, even eating and drinking. Some sort of punishment thing, I think.”
She had no idea Tercero would do that to himself. “Why?”
“Don’t know.” He stopped walking and exhaled loudly. “Did he—?”
“No,” she croaked, kissing him.
He returned the kiss, and it took her far away from the horror that she’d just escaped. “I can’t lose you.” He kissed her again and again. “I won’t lose you ever again.”
“I know.” She laughed sadly when he put her on a log and stripped out of his jacket and shirt. “Maybe we can save sex in the woods for another night.”
He winked at her as he opened the jacket she was wearing and proceeded to put his shirt on her. “Sex-in-the-woods, huh?” She sat still as he inspected the scratches on her legs and bare feet. “Don’t know how I feel about that. I stepped in a massive pile of shit earlier. Unless we get Papi to poop scoop the area before we pull you between us.”
Even after her ordeal, she felt her skin heat.
Tingles surged to his spot, and he leaned down, kissing it then her lips.
“I love you,” she told him.
He cupped her cheeks, looking like an angel sent from heaven, just for her. “And I love you, Sweet Jane.” One more kiss then he was lifting her up and carrying her. “You’re not leaving my side for a long time.”
“I figured.” Jane rested her head on his shoulder. “But I’m not leaving Tercero’s side.”
He smacked her butt. “Then you’ll be sandwiched between us. Papi can sleep at your feet.”
Twenty-Five
Blinking and flinching at the bright light, Tercero groaned, shielding his eyes as he turned his head to the side. Only, he froze as soon as he made out a face only a foot or so away. It was a face he knew too well.
Emerald eyes narrowed at him, but no words were spoken.
“I’m dead, aren’t I?” he asked, noting how parched he was and how heavy his tongue felt.
“Very dead,” his brother confirmed. “Jane’s devastated.”
Tercero closed his eyes as his chest tightened. “Did you find her . . . in time?”
A deadly blast of emotions washed over him as Ryder replied, “I found her. She’s waiting for your ass to wake up. I told her I wouldn’t let you after the shit you pulled. Any last words; maybe I’ll pass them along.”
“Ryder!” It was Jane.
Tercero opened his eyes, smiling though his heart crushed at the disheveled sight of the girl he adored as she crawled gingerly onto the hospital bed. The very bed his brother had squeezed onto with him.
He held out his arm, watching Jane's lips tremble at the sight of the I.V. line attached to his arm, but she curled up between him and Ryder. She wore a dirty, oversized t-shirt and a pair of hospital bottoms. She had a few band aids along her arms and a slightly swollen cheek, but she was his most cherished treasure.
Ryder smacked her butt. “He deserves a little death-scare.”
She shook her head against Tercero’s chest, hugging him tightly. “Be nice.”
Ryder grinned at him. “Babe, I am being nice by not prying you off this punk.”
Jane lifted her head, ignoring Ryder as she leaned down to kiss Tercero.
Her lips were soft against his chapped pair, and he forgot they were not alone as he kissed her back. She elicited the most intoxicating taste and sensations. She was the sweetest glow of warmth as it tingled and basked in even stronger heat. Then, just when she made him feel he would collapse under the incredible force she created, a shiver of ice would slide over the magic within her, steadying her so the forces around her could hold her tighter.
“This is actually kinda hot,” Ryder murmured as a grunt sounded from farther away. “Like watching one of our makeout sessions in 3-d. Well, if 3-d was as sexy as me.”
Jane smiled against Tercero’s lips, pressing a softer kiss before leaning away.
“Aw, you’re stopping already—I was about to join in,” Ryder said, tugging her back enough to kiss her head. He smirked at him. “You’re lucky we look alike. Same with Papi.”
“I do not look like you,” David said, striding to the edge of Tercero’s bed. He was wrong; David could be one of their brothers. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I have a hangover, perhaps.” Tercero didn’t drink often enough to feel hungover as his brothers sometimes did, but that was the best way to describe it without worrying Jane.
Jane smoothed his hair back. “You look so much better. We were worried.”
“I wasn’t,” Ryder said, hugging Jane as he dropped his head down. “These beds suck.”
“I’m certain you were not ordered to bed with me.” Tercero smiled as Jane reached over him, grabbing a cup of water and holding it to his lips.
“Damn, do I have to nearly die to get pampered, babe?” Ryder chuckled, squeezing her ass before getting off the bed.
Jane fussed
over Tercero, not paying attention to Ryder or David as they talked quietly to one another. Tercero needed to know what had happened, what she had suffered because he had failed to protect her, but at the shake of David’s head, he accepted now wasn’t the time. What he knew was that he’d never be trusted to keep her safe again.
He snatched her hand, kissing her scratched knuckles. His heart pounded, his fears rising for what she had been through. But she smiled down at him. No matter the darkness he saw clinging to her, she was still glowing. Faintly. But, yes, glowing for them.
“Babe,” Ryder called to her.
That light shimmered when she glanced at his brother. Beautiful. “Yeah?”
Ryder smiled at her. “You promised you’d get some fresh air after he woke up.”
She instantly tightened her hold on Tercero. “He literally just woke up. I can go out later. I don’t even have clothes.”
“Baby,” David said sternly. “You promised you wouldn’t argue. My dad should be here any minute with a change of clothes for you, and the doctors will want to talk to Tercero–that means Luc is going to be here.”
That had her tensing up, and Tercero knew she wasn’t ready to see Luc. There was no doubt in Tercero’s mind that his big brother would be volatile, as this was the second time he had left her and she’d wound up attacked.
“Go,” he told her. “I would like some time to clean myself up. And I feel a urinary catheter . . . I really don’t want you here for that.”
“I want to help,” she whispered, but he saw her anxiety about seeing Luc too.
Kissing her hand again, he motioned for his brother to take her. “Then I will be firm, cara. Go with your boyfriends. They can call to find out when it’s safe to return.”
“You’re my boyfriend, too,” she said stubbornly.
Ryder grinned, wrapping his arms around her. “But I’m husband, and I’m also going to be firm. You can see him in a couple of hours. I’ll show you my dick if you want to see one so bad.”
Her face flushed, but she let Ryder guide her out.
David lingered, his anger showing at last as his stare narrowed and his jaw tightened. “If you ever let yourself weaken like they said you had done—so much that you were not able to make good decisions that put her at risk—I will be the reason you’re in that bed.”
It was what he expected to hear, and he welcomed the threat. Jane had no idea her stepbrother was just as dangerous as they were. “I swear it, I will not make such poor judgment about her safety or mine.”
“Good.” David nodded, the rage simmering—barely. “Because she does that too. Starve herself, I mean.”
Tercero knew; it was part of the reason why he embraced it. It was a horrible way to connect with her, but he needed to change so she knew it wasn’t right. But that wasn’t the only reason. His first love had stopped eating when her illness took hold of her, and he couldn’t bear the thought of eating when she could not.
Shaking thoughts of Elise from his mind, because Elise was his past and he wanted a future, he focused on David. “How bad did they hurt her?”
“Bad,” David told him. “They had her stripped, bound, and they were about to rape her in front of my cousin then drug them both. But Ryder got there. Well, Diane made it there first—along with Lance and Jason. I helped them, and Ryder got Dylan. Jane didn’t want him to kill him.”
His heart ached, and his mind went somewhere very dark. “It was the group with Adam?”
“And Dylan.” David sighed, glancing down at his swollen fist. “The cops said he shouldn’t get out any time soon, but if there’s a chance he does get out–”
“I’ll take care of it,” said a familiar voice, interrupting from the doorway.
Tercero and David looked over to see Luc entering. He wore his usual business attire, all-white suit, hair combed perfectly, but he had dark circles under his eyes.
Luc walked closer, inspecting him with a slight tilt of his head. “I would see you suffer right along with that scum, but I would have to put myself in the same misery, little brother.”
“I am suffering simply knowing I was at fault,” Tercero said.
“As was I.” Luc glanced at David. “Where is she?”
“Being distracted from you,” David answered, not hiding his disapproval of Luc.
“Good,” was all Luc said to that.
“What exactly are you doing to ‘take care of it’?” David asked Luc.
For a small moment, Tercero saw the beast within his brother, and Luc had one of the worst out of his siblings.
With a flash of silver in his eyes, and a coldness that sent a shiver through both he and David, Luc said, “Sometimes a king must become a monster to save his queen.”
Before David could push Luc to elaborate, or worse, ask to help, a doctor and other hospital staff entered the room. But Tercero was content; Luc would finish this.
Ryder stretched his legs out, shifting Jane on his lap as she signed the statement in front of her. Kingston didn’t like that Ryder kept her glued to him, but he knew not to argue. Jane wasn’t leaving his sight. The only person he trusted was David, and he knew that motherfucker was itching to slide in with her for some alone time. No, Ryder was keeping his baby girl to himself for as long as possible.
“Will she have to do anything else?” Kingston asked the officer.
“If it goes to trial, she will,” the cop answered. “The DA may speak with her as well. She and your nephew are the main victims, as well the main witnesses: him”–he nodded to Ryder–“and the others involved in the rescue.”
Ryder rubbed Jane’s leg, hoping his strength would somehow fill her being. She’d gone through exactly what he promised her she wouldn’t.
He scanned her, as he’d been doing repeatedly since getting her back. She was roughed up, but she was okay. Kingston had brought her clothes, so she was changed now, but she’d kept his shirt on, feeling some weird need to be surrounded by him even more than she already was. He didn’t mind wearing the stupid hospital tunic under his jacket if it meant he was comforting his girl.
Those pretty hazel eyes lifted to meet his own, and he caressed her cheek. “You’re not in this alone. I’m with you always.” He ignored the stares from her stepdad and the two cops sitting with them, and leaned forward, kissing the lips that reminded him there was a heaven.
A throat cleared, but he finished kissing her, even licking her cracked lip when he was done.
Ryder glared at the cops. He’d forgotten they needed to speak to him too. “My turn?”
“Unless you’d like to come to the station.” The cop lowered his eyes like the weak-ass Ryder knew he was.
It was then he realized he’d have to let her go for a while. He’d have to tell them he saw his girl gagged, naked, with a fucking monster lining his dick up to her pussy as she struggled against that bastard, Stephen. His girl had fought as hard as she could, but if Diane hadn’t been the swift little bitch that she was, Jane would’ve . . .
He closed his eyes, exhaling loudly as his entire being roared for him to go finish what he should’ve when he had that piece of shit unable to hold his head up.
A firm hand came down on his shoulder as Kingston Leodegrance spoke to him. “Let me take her, son. She knows you came for her, and she’ll be safe until you come again.”
Ryder hadn’t been called ‘son’ before. Even his father had left him too early to really hold memories, but he knew his dad resented each of them. He stared at Kingston and for a moment, he felt like a little boy being told by Mr. Mortaime that Jane was his to keep.
When he didn’t speak or move, Jane kissed his cheek then whispered in his ear, “I knew my bad boy who is the sweetest, cutest guy in the world, all for me . . . I knew that boy would find me. Let me go. I’ll find David, and I’ll wait for you.”
Her words were like silk across his skin, but the rage he only felt whenever associated with Jane’s safety and happiness resisted her magic. “Babe, I don’t t
hink I can let you go.”
Even though he knew he must look pissed, and the shadows of last night were closing in on them, she smiled, lighting up in darkness. Then she pressed his hand over his spot. “Didn’t you say, I take you with me?”
“Damn, babe.” He kissed her as he massaged his spot. “You’re stealing all my lines, making me swoon and shit.”
She laughed, kissing him again and again as she crawled off his lap. “I really love you.”
He smacked her ass, his heart beating faster as she moved away with Kingston. “And I really really fucking love you, Sweet Jane.”
Kingston shook his head, though he had a faint smile as he wrapped an arm around Jane’s shoulders. “She won’t leave my sight.”
Ryder could barely pull his gaze from her as she peered over her shoulder. “Don’t let Papi steal you either.”
David appeared at that moment, opening the door with a scowl as Jane rushed to him. His former rival, now wingman, hugged their girl tightly as he received a pat on the shoulder from his father.
“Let’s get you both something to eat,” Kingston said, not showing any objection when David took Jane’s hand in his, kissing it.
David paused before leaving and locked eyes with Ryder. “Want us to order you something?”
Never had Ryder expected he’d join forces with David, or anyone, and especially for Jane, but David had become a new brother for him. A brother he wanted to love Jane because his baby deserved to feel the warm kiss of the sun as he made her tingle like crazy. “Yeah, bitch,” he said, shaking away the sentimental thoughts. “Whatever you’re getting, but double. You know, ‘cause I’m bigger than you.”
David flipped him off as Jane beamed at them like they were the best damn people on earth. Then they were gone.
“Isn’t that her stepbrother?” one of the cops asked. “He wasn’t staring at her like a brother.”
Ryder turned around, glaring at him. “Because he’s Papi, bitch. Now, let’s get this over with so she doesn’t forget who King Daddy is.”
David noticed his father watching every little touch between him and Jane, but he smiled to himself because there was only acceptance where there had been absolute disapproval and disgust before.
