“My mother’s name was Caroline. My father doesn’t deserve a name. He was a wife beater, rapist and child abuser. I had my very own monster under my roof, and I was too small to stop him from torturing my mother. I couldn’t protect her. I couldn’t destroy the nightmare we existed in. The only thing I had was my ability to make her laugh. My lame one liners worked every time.”
My mother’s face flashed inside my head. The sweet stolen seconds of happiness we had managed to find. I remembered her smile, the way her laugh sounded when I said something funny or sarcastic. She had loved my sense of humor. She would always tell me I was her light in the darkness. That despite all the bruises, silent tears and hurt she wouldn’t trade a single day with me.
Case’s thumb started to brush back and forth against my hand, soft points of comfort I clung to as my memories turned from haunting to full blown specter.
“I loved the sound of her laugh. Full, rich and filled with joy. Her laugh never revealing the horror she survived every single day. I still hear it sometimes.” My voice cracked over the lump in my throat. My mother’s face coming through clear as day.
“You don’t have to continue.” Case’s voice said softly, but I couldn’t stop now wanting freedom from my ghosts so tired of the chase, tired of battling nightmares in my sleep.
“I want to keep going.” My voice pushing back what was closing in.
Case nodded, her fingers still brushing soft and steady over my skin.
“I was fourteen when we finally escaped. I decided to fight back refusing to watch my father hurt my mother one more time. My father was drunk like always, and I was bigger. We left him bleeding on the floor never looking back. Spending time in a shelter for battered woman and children until we got on our feet. I met a girl named Alice there, and she became my best friend and then my first love. I asked her to marry me at the end of our senior year. She died three months later in a car accident. My mother died a year later from cancer.”
Case stiffened in my arms as I waited for her to say something, anything. Telling Case about my mother and Alice had stripped me of my last defense. Case might not know all my secrets, but I had given her the most important ones.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I went still in Thorn’s arms. His words seeping in, coldness striking my core like a bitter breath of winter. Dancing snowflakes colliding with my skin leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.
Finley. My sisters face settled in my mind, striking against my heart with painful blows. We had both lost people we had loved. That bitter wind burning out the light of my sister and parents as it took Thorn’s first love and his mother as well. They were here and then gone. I sometimes wonder if my sister was ever here at all.
“You shared some of your secrets, Thorn. I want to share mine. I had a sister. One day she was there, and the next day she was gone, taken on her walk home from school. I had been sick that day, so she had to walk to school alone. She never made it. I remember the sound of my mom’s voice on the phone, desperate and frantic as she called the police. My father quiet and still on the couch. The calm to my mother’s storm. He told her we would find her.”
My throat tightened, lungs constricting allowing only shallow breaths to escape my lips. My eyes watered, threatening to spill fresh tears.
*
Unshed tears clouded the blue in Case’s eyes, her lashes dotted with translucent drops. Like a sucker punch straight to the chest, every bullet I had taken felt like a kiss next to those torturous tears.
Case ripping her past and heart wide open. The past unraveling before us leaving us raw and bleeding. Exposed we had nowhere left to run. I recalled Alice’s face. The way she smiled banishing the nightmares to the dark. Youth can make you believe in the impossible. The promise of a future making you seem invincible. Alice wouldn’t recognize me now. Life replacing the boy she knew with a broken man.
I brushed away Case’s tears, my thumb wiping away the wetness trying to steal away the pain. Blue eyes met mine, wide and unsure. I saw myself. The Joker finding his match in morning-glory blue. My heart stuttered, breath bottling up inside my chest.
“You can stop sweetness anytime.” My mouth brushing against hers, tasting the chill brimming on her lips.
Case shook her head sending blonde wisps of hair flying.
“I can’t.” More tears sprung forward as her arms tightened.
“I had been so close to forgetting. Her face. Her laugh. I wanted to erase it all. Our looks had been so similar it hurt every time I caught my face in the mirror. My parents hadn’t been able to look at me either. They avoided my face like it was something deadly. I cut my hair, dyed it a different color hoping to not see her in my reflection, hoping I could be their daughter again. I never knew how broken they truly were. Not until the fire. Not until they burned everything away except for me. I came home, and everything was gone, Thorn. They found my parent’s bodies after the fire was put out. I refused to put their ashes in urns. I didn’t want a reminder of what they had done, of what was left of them. I put nearly empty silk lined caskets in the ground; their names etched on black marble over where their bodies should have been. The story made every newspaper. I couldn’t escape it. I was nothing but the poor girl whose sister had been abducted and whose parents had killed themselves. I fled Thorn, changing my name as I tried to outrun my past. I ended up in Connor Price’s office, broke with nowhere to go. He saw me for what I was. Easy Prey.”
I shot up, taking my body away from the safety of Thorn’s arms. In them I was Case Bennet, out of them, I was the girl I had left behind. I didn’t want to see his face. I felt like a liar, a fraud. I knew a name was just letters. Simple things yet they defined who we were. Would my real name change things between us? I didn’t want it back. To me, it was nothing but worthless letters. That girl was dead. There was no bringing her back.
Fingers found my shoulders, spinning me around to face Thorn’s dark eyes. My neck bent slightly as my shoulders curled forward. My lips drew tight as a sour taste formed inside my mouth. I had started this, and I couldn’t go back now. I dragged up a small bit of courage and raised my eyes. Mahogany met morning-glory, the truth burning behind my lips.
“My real name is Paige Ward. My sister’s name was Finley Ward, and she was sweet and kind. I still remember the night she went missing. I crawled out of bed in my pajama’s, wrapping the comforter around me as I ran outside. My bare feet hit the pavement as I screamed out her name. My parents found me huddled sobbing in the street. My dad carried me back to bed telling me everything was going to be okay.”
I trembled in Thorn’s grasp as I went quiet. Our secrets strung between us like delicate webs, sharp, intricate patterns left gleaming in the dark. One breath would blow them away. Like blowing dandelions in the spring, making wishes in the sun. My heart faltered. The knife twisted as I realized we didn’t have any more wishes left.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
SELENA
“Are you planning to stand in there all day?” My voice dripping with sarcasm rolling my eyes at the king of Bound and Bared. Looking like he would catch fire if he crossed over the invisible line separating the hallway from my room. I hated the way he watched me his eyes pinning me to the bed, chaining me to it with thought I was now helplessness. Washing over him in waves, lapping against my skin threatening to break into the dark place I had crawled into.
Miranda. Thorn. Case. Val. They all wanted something from me I didn’t own any longer. The Selena they were looking for had vanished in those minuet seconds between life and death, where every drop of pain fled leaving me beautifully hollow.
“I wanted to check on you, see if you needed anything.” Val’s voice crashed against me turning gentle waves into a battering ram. The walls shaking around me, sending my heart racing beneath my chest as Marcus’ hands wrapped around my throat once again. Phantom fingers dragging me back to hell.
I longed to scream, to pull Val close and fall apart in his arms. He had saved once. Brin
ging me back to life and letting me work my way into his heart. He was an asshole, but he had always been my asshole.
“I’m fine V. Stop worrying. You are as bad as Miranda. I don’t need a mommy. I’ve made it this far without one.” I flashed a sarcastic grin, the corners of my mouth pushing the nightmares back into the box.
My mind was now my jailer and savior. I refused to reach out, to be the black hole that would drag the ones I loved into my sea of darkness. I would play the game. Smile and nod. Then when the time came, I would leave. I had nothing left to offer. I couldn’t hold this place, these people together any longer. When part of the roots become poisoned, the only thing you have left to do is cut it out. My smile grew a little wider causing Val to relax with the thought I was the same Selena I had always been not knowing I was poison and I would cut myself out before I hurt the only family I had ever known.
VAL
“How’s she doing?” Miranda asked lacing her fingers through mine, and I locked on where our hands a rush of disbelief washing through me. I didn’t think I would ever get used to the way she touched me. Simple points of contact transforming man from beast.
“She’s pushing me away and thinking I don’t know what’s she’s up too. I am afraid if I call her on it Selena will only withdraw further.”
Sighing my fingers held onto Miranda’s a little tighter as she guided me to my desk.
“Sit.” The command from her mouth had me raising an eyebrow. I had created a monster. A blonde, green eyed sexy as fuck monster.
“Please?”
One word had my ass hitting my chair without hesitation.
Miranda’s arms slipping around my neck as dropped onto my lap. Leaning in close her head found my shoulder before her arms tightened their hold around my neck, hugging me without a second thought.
A shudder rolled over me. The way her body pressing into mine both soothing me and giving the all call for my demons to come out and play.
“Selena’s pushing all of us away not just you. Whatever happened to her changed her V. A person can only take so much, can only be strong for so long. Selena’s not superwoman even though she likes to think she is. I wonder who she gets that from?”
Miranda lifted her head off my shoulder, narrowing her eyes in my direction.
“We might have to use drastic measures V.” Her voice soft, my nickname rolling off her tongue causing my dick to rise to attention. Miranda’s breath falling faster feeling my hard length under her ass.
Miranda shook her head, “Down boy. This is serious.”
Gripping her fingers, I pulled them down until they met my cock.
“This is very serious.” My mouth found her neck, targeting her the spot where her pulse pounded out a fast rhythm as her body responded. Tracing my tongue over the beat before nipping her pale skin. Miranda gasped, grinding her ass against my cock making it grow even harder.
Her mouth sealing to my mine, capturing my lips and biting down hard. I jerked back her emerald eyes gleaming with pride. I stifled a groan trying to hide the fact my control was near its breaking point.
“You’ll pay for that princess.” My voice coming out raw and harsh, but no fear sparked in her eyes. They only darkened further another wave of lust roll through them.
“I’m counting on it, but first we must find a way to help Selena. I have an idea, but you aren’t going to like it. I think we should call Law.”
The lust cooling in my veins hearing his name. My body tensing under hers at the thought of that man getting anywhere near Selena.
“You are right princess I don’t like it. He doesn't deserve to be near her. Fuck he doesn’t deserve to breathe the same fucking air she does.”
Keeping the violence in check knowing Miranda was only trying to help. She didn’t know what I saw when I found Selena on my doorstep the night we met. Miranda didn’t know the sight of a tiny thin girl covered head to toe in blood and bruises. She didn’t hear the death rattle in her lungs or feel her ribs pushing through her skin when I carried into the club. My mind playing back that night in brutal color, dragging things to the surface as suddenly it was Miranda’s face I saw instead. A basement turned torture chamber. Finding the I loved most in this world battered and broken.
Suddenly I wondered if Law felt the way I did the night I had carried Miranda from that hellhole? Did he count Selena’s every bruise, hear every weary breath in her body adding a black mark to his soul for everyone single one?
Law came looking for her, but Selena refused to see him. She swore to me that he wasn’t responsible for what had happened to her, but she couldn’t bear to see him making me promise to keep him away. Tears spilling from her eyes, the first and only time I ever saw her cry.
I hadn’t known shit about love. Then I saw Miranda. My life changing in an instant. Remembering the day Law had come for her, I now saw the same thing in Law’s eyes burning in mine every time I saw Miranda.
My heart dropping as sweat gathered at the nape of my neck, every hair rising in protest that Law could be the only thing who could pull Selena back from the darkness. Whatever was between them was far from over and leave it to Miranda to catch on before I had.
Allowing myself to relax I cursed under my breath. Was I thinking about allowing that piece of shit near Selena? And if I did would Selena ever forgive me?
Closing my eyes, I admitted, “I think your right princess.”
Miranda tipped her head staring at me like I had grown other head. “Say that again? You think I’m right? Who are you?”
“The man who loves you more than my life. The man who would be still be battling nightmares in the shadows if it wasn’t for a small blonde who offered me a deal. The man who got the ass kicking needed to wake up and see I had been granted a miracle. The man who would have died if I would have been too late the day I found you in that basement.” My voice breaking letting her see the truth. I didn’t hide from Miranda. Not anymore.
Miranda’s arms tightened as her lips met mine. The kiss was slow and sweet, a talent of hers that shattered my walls leaving me in awe.
“Law came to the club the day after Selena arrived looking like the walking dead, frantic and lost. Selena refused to see him begging me to keep him away. I did what she asked. Looking back now know why Law showed up the way he did. I know what’s it like to fall in love and then come so close to losing them. Law loves Selena, and I guess she feels the same. Selena is stubborn, but she’s broken, and I know I can’t fix her this time. I don’t know how.”
Miranda’s fingers slipped into my hair as she smiled sweetly.
“Maybe Law does, and even if he doesn’t, I can guarantee she will fight him like hell and maybe that will be the way she finds her way home.”
“How did you get so smart, princess?”
“I’m not sure, but you can’t deny my brilliance. I fell in love with you after all. The great and mighty kind of Bound and Bared. Val Knight himself.”
Throwing my head back I laughed. “If the crown fits. Speaking of crowns, I think my queen needs the punishment I told her she would receive. Don’t think I have forgotten Miranda.” My voice dipping low as all the delicious things I planned to do brought my cock back to attention.
“Your queen will be eagerly waiting in her chambers for whatever punishment her king decides to deliver. But first, he needs to make a phone call.”
Miranda stood up heading for the door. “Make it quick V.”
Miranda swayed her hips on the way out, and my eyes fixed on the sight of her perfect ass and just how much we both would enjoy painting it red. Grabbing my phone, I punched the numbers hoping this would be the shortest phone call I would ever make.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SELENA
“My beautiful Ma Poupèe.”
My eyes had to be lying. My ears were wrong. Law wasn’t here. He couldn’t be here.
“I’m real Ma Poupèe.”
Law stepped through the doorway; he strides even and sure. A p
redator stalking prey, his eyes narrowing on me and I knew which one he thought I was. He was a fool. The eighteen-year-old girl he found on the sidewalk was long gone. I slowed my heartbeat and calmed my breathing.
“You need to leave. I’m in no mood to play Dominare.” I stood, ignoring the shooting rush of pain tearing through me. I had been created in pain. It wouldn’t stop me. I advanced, my steps slow and calculating. Mere inches separated us, tilting my head I made eye contact, offering a direct challenge.
“Dominare. Have I ever told you how I love it when you call me that? I’ve never let anyone else use it. Only you Ma Poupèe. Only you.”
His eyes softened, seeming unaware of his reaction. The simple action causing me to sway slightly. Strong hands shot forward catching me within their grasp. His hold was gentle, ever careful of the bruises littering my skin.
“You are no longer my Dominare. Old habits are hard to break.” I broke free from his grasp, stepping back. I was done playing whatever new game he had created.
His eyes darkening, it was the look he used to give me whenever I disobeyed. For a spilt-second I almost dropped my gaze and apologized. The conditioning so engrained it was like breathing. I longed to obey. A physical feeling. Like a dormant link reawakening and tugging within me. I took another step back trying to break the hold, sever the tie before it was too late.
“Why are you here Law? I told you I never wanted to see you again. It’s over.”
“It will never be over Ma Poupèe.”
I should have taken those words as a warning.
His hand shot out dragging me closer as his other arm swept under my legs lifting me from the ground. Pressed against his chest, his cologne teased my nose. The smell woodsy and masculine, memories rolling through me. Me on my knees, head bowed. The scent always letting me know he was home. Back then it comforted me. Now it filled me with dread.
Unraveled (Bound and Bared Book 2) Page 11
