The UN Series Complete Box Set

by Shantel Tessier

  “So.” She tries to smile down at me. “Let’s start planning this wedding.”

  Angel pulls back from my dad wiping her eyes and smiling brightly. “Yes, let’s start planning our wedding.” She looks at me.

  “I don’t want to wait,” she says looking to me. “I also don’t want to be fat.” She giggles rubbing her belly.

  “How about in two weeks?” I offer. The sooner she is my wife, the better.

  “Two weeks?” We both look up at my mom who stands there looking at us wide-eyed.

  “I have faith in you, Vivian.” Angel laughs.

  My mom smiles as her eyes get soft. “Two weeks,” she agrees.

  I watch as Angel stands up and walks off with my mom as she rambles on about looking some stuff up on the internet. I turn and look at my dad as he watches them walk out of the room as well.

  “Thanks Dad,” I say getting his attention.

  He smiles. “No need to thank me. I was telling her the truth.” He reaches out and pulls me into a hug. “I love you son, and I’m very proud of you.”

  I pull away somewhat stunned. “You can be the most powerful person in the world, but nothing compares to having a woman who loves you.” He pats my shoulder. “And that woman loves you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  SAMANTHA

  I walk into our house with a smile on my face feeling much better. Just letting Slade’s parents know about the baby has lifted my spirits to an all-time high. They are just as excited as we are. Or as I am.

  I look over at Slade as we walk past the kitchen to head back to our bedroom. “I’m gonna grab a bottle of water. Would you like one?” he asks pulling his phone out of his back pocket as I hear it vibrate.

  “Yes please,” I say with a smile hoping he returns it. He doesn’t.

  He nods his head once as he looks down at his phone before turning around to walk off into the kitchen.

  I make my way back to the bedroom and go to the closet to get undressed and ready for bed. Once I walk in I spot the handcuffs lying on the floor on his side of the closet and I smile. We haven’t had sex since before the accident. Come to think of it, he hasn’t touched me in any sexual way since then.

  Bending down to pick them up, I walk back into the kitchen. With a big smile on my face, I hold them up and say, “Wanna play?”

  He looks up to me and my smile drops off my face. His baby blue eyes are dark and his jaw is tight. His nose flares as he looks to the cuffs and then back to me.

  He stalks over to me and yanks them out of my hand. “You want me to use these on you?” he asks in disbelief as he looks down at the marks that still cover my wrists.

  “It’s been awhile.” I shrug, nervously answering his question. “I just thought…”

  “We’re never using them again,” he snaps before he spins around and goes to throw them in the trash.

  What happened? Why is he so mad? “What?” I ask confused. He starts to pace back and forth in the kitchen as he frantically mutters to himself. “Is everything okay?” I know it’s not but I need to know what’s going on.

  I think he’s losing it.

  He gives a laugh but it holds no humor. “No. Everything is not fucking okay,” he rants before tossing his phone onto the kitchen island.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask getting more worried by the second. “Whatever, we can get through it together,” I try to reassure him with the same words he did to me in the hospital.

  “I can’t get over something that I can’t fucking forget,” he snaps, and I take a step back shocked by his anger.

  “I don’t understand…” I whisper. He was just fine not ten minutes ago.

  “Of course you don’t understand because you can’t remember.” He points a finger at his chest. “I remember everything.” He spits out the words.

  “Do you know I watched that bastard take you?” he asks catching me off guard.

  Huh? “How…?”

  “The surveillance camera showed all of it.” He waves a hand in the air.

  I place my hand over my mouth and shake my head quickly. Oh, God. I forgot about the surveillance cameras.

  He nods his head quickly wide-eyed. “Yeah. I saw him hit you. Drag you across the concrete. I spent three hours looking for you,” he bellows, “with my last memory of you lying unconscious in the passenger seat of your fucking car. With nothing else to go on.” His body shakes from his anger. “Not knowing where he was taking you.” He points at himself. “When I finally did find you, you were in a rundown house in the middle of nowhere. Your hands were tied behind your back along with your feet tied together,” he rants. “I held you in my arms as you appeared to be dead.” His voice cracks and tears start to well up in his eyes. “Then in the hospital,” he adds angrily, “I had to hold you down while you screamed that I was hurting you. Fuck, I probably was. Do you know what that did to me?” he demands.

  I shake my head as tears run down my cheeks.

  “You thought I gave you those marks,” he says in disbelief as he points to my wrists. “You honestly thought I did that.”

  I shake my head. “I didn’t know…”

  “You thought it was me,” he stresses, and I try to swallow the lump in my throat.

  He takes a step back and runs a hand through his hair. “I had you sedated,” he says more to himself than to me as if he can’t believe he did it.

  “What?” my voice cracks.

  “I had no other choice,” he snaps defensively. “Do you know what that did to me? Knowing I could hurt you or the baby?” he asks, and his voice shakes with fear.

  “We’re okay.” I place a hand over my stomach.

  “He made me take that chance,” he yells once again referring to Jax. “It could have hurt our child. I would have had to live with that.” His face is starting to turn red from shouting so much.

  I try to imagine the fear he must have felt. For me. For our child.

  I look down to his cell phone lighting up as it vibrates. He looks down at it and presses ignore.

  “I lie awake at night waiting for you to wake up.” He lets out a shaky breath and quickly wipes his face clean with his hands. “Even when you don’t wake up, you talk in your sleep. You mention Jax, and you beg him to stop.” He shakes his head and then his watery eyes meet mine. “You have no idea how much that breaks my heart. I don’t know what’s happening to you, and I can’t save you.”

  His phone rings once again, and he presses ignore before muttering a curse.

  “Why are you so mad at me?” I ask trying to understand the reason of his outburst.

  “Because you want me to fucking restrain you and then fuck you,” he fumes as if it’s an absurd idea. “What if halfway through you start to panic? Have flashbacks?”

  I shake my head. “That wouldn’t happen…”

  “You don’t know that,” he yells before he slams his hands down on the kitchen island.

  “Quit yelling at me,” I demand fisting my hands down to my side. “I remember things too, Slade,” I spit out tired of this shit. “I remember him saying you’ve been keeping secrets from me.” His body stiffens, and he sucks in a breath. “Wanna tell me what he meant?” I inquire, placing my arms over my chest.

  “He was on drugs,” he exclaims. “The motherfucker had no clue what he was talking about.”

  “He seemed to have known something,” I retort angrily. Was Jax messed up? Yes. But do I feel Slade is keeping something from me? Yes.

  “He was just trying to hurt you.” He rolls his eyes dramatically as if I’m the dumbest bitch he’s ever known. “He would have told you anything to be mad at me, and it pisses me off that you believed the son of a bitch,” he spits out.

  “Oh, and I guess you think me remembering someone else there was my stupidity as well?” I snap.

  “There was no one else there,” he yells.

  There had to have been. “I remember,” I cry as tears fill my eyes. “I remember his hands on the back of my neck
holding my face down into a mattress. I couldn’t breathe,” I shout furious at remembering. “I heard voices. Voices, Slade,” I stress. “There was someone else there who helped him.”

  He stares at me with hatred, and I stare back with narrowed eyes.

  The house phone rings, and he storms over to where it sits on the kitchen counter. He picks up the phone and yanks it out of the wall before he throws it across the room and it hits the glass cabinets, shattering them.

  The glass scatters into tiny little pieces on the tile floor. “I’m sorry,” I cry out, covering my mouth, and take a step back. “I’m trying to remember more. I know I would be of more help.”

  “I don’t want you to remember,” he thunders, throwing his hands up in the air more pissed than ever. “I don’t want you to go through this.” His voice softens, and he shakes his head as he looks down to the glass.

  His figure starts to blur as the tears well up in my eyes and I feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I blink a few times before I reach around and grab it. Parker lights up.

  I go to press ignore when Slade comes over and snatches it from my hand and answers. “Stop fucking calling. I told you I will talk to you about it later,” he snaps. “No. It’s not possible.” He shakes his head quickly to himself. “You said this wasn’t a possibility.” He spins around giving me his back as he runs his hand through his hair. “I don’t care what you have to do. Make it happen,” he yells before he hangs up, and then I watch him shut my phone off before tossing it onto the island beside his.

  He takes a few deep breaths trying to calm down his anger as he starts to pace once again.

  Make it happen? A possibility? I swallow nervously afraid that what I’m about to ask might have us going for round two in this screaming match. “What’s going on?”

  He places his hands on the island and hangs his head. He takes in a deep breath before he speaks. “Jax is trying to get immunity.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He looks up to me and my heart breaks at the sight of him. Of what I put him through. “Means he wants to make a deal,” he grinds out. “He wants to rat out someone else in order to make a deal for himself.”

  “The other guy I remember?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “Dallas.”

  Who the hell is Dallas? I remember hearing Tate and Slade mention that name at the hospital. “Can that happen? Will they release him?” I ask starting to panic.

  He shakes his head quickly. “Over my dead body,” he growls through clenched teeth.

  “Don’t say that,” I say walking over to him.

  I come up next to him, and he looks down at me. His blue eyes still hard and jaw tight. He swallows and then pushes away from the kitchen island. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me into him.

  I inhale deeply letting his scent calm my nerves. He kisses my hair and speaks. “I promise you he won’t get out.”

  I look up at him and give him a small smile. “I believe you.” I reach up and place my lips on his giving him a soft kiss, just out lips touching. He then goes to pull away, but I tighten my grip on him and try to deepen the kiss.

  He grabs a hold of my shoulders and pushes me away. “Stop,” he growls.

  “Why won’t you touch me?” I sigh.

  “I told you why. You’re not ready for that. Your body is still trying to heal,” he snaps.

  “I feel fine,” I argue. I’m a little tired but that could be due to the pregnancy.

  His voice softens. “Quit saying you’re fine when your body proves otherwise.” He sighs running a hand through his hair. “If I were to take you right now it would be for my own selfish reasons, and I won’t be that guy.” He shakes his head to himself. He then grabs the keys out of his pocket and his cell phone off of the kitchen island. “I have to go and see Parker. Don’t wait up.”

  He kisses my forehead before he walks out of the kitchen, leaving me standing there wondering how long it will take us to get past this. How long will Jax continue to affect us?

  *****

  SLADE

  It’s been three days since I had my outburst in our kitchen. I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I understand she remembers things but for her to want me to cuff and fuck her—I just couldn’t do it. I told her she wasn’t ready but the truth is, I’m not ready. And that fact makes me sound like a fucking pussy but it’s the truth. We are both not ready, each for our own reasons.

  Things are better between us. I came back home a few hours later that night and she was already asleep, only waking up twice with nightmares. Then the following morning to her making breakfast. She acted like our fight had never happened, and I’m okay with that.

  After my three hour conversation with Parker about Jax wanting immunity, I could have used some good news. Her pretending our argument never happened and the fact that she wants to plan our wedding has helped.

  Every day is getting better for both of us, and I know that all we need is time to get through all of it. I’m sitting on the couch with Parker and Micah at our house, as Angel and Holly are in the kitchen going over wedding stuff. That is all she has done since we figured out a date at my parents’ house. We had everyone over last night and announced the pregnancy. Well, everyone except Missy. She didn’t answer when Angel called her so she left her a message inviting her over.

  She didn’t show or call her back.

  My life has been replaced with wedding planning and baby stuff. When we are in bed her tablet is on while she looks for things. She will show me things and ask my opinion just like Micah said she would, but I find it refreshing. I love that she asks for my opinion.

  “I need a new beer.” Parker stands pulling me out of my thoughts.

  “Me too,” Micah says also standing.

  I get up and follow them into the kitchen. Angel and Holly are going through a few magazines that Holly had brought over. My eyes instantly go to her wrists. The sight of them still makes me sick. The bruises on her face are pretty much gone. The only one that remains is the one on her forehead from Jax shoving her head into the dashboard. Last night when we told our friends about her pregnancy, there were tears shed. Everyone feels bad for what happened to her. I think we all blame ourselves in some way. I even caught Parker staring at her wrists several times last night. I think he’s taking it harder than he wants to let on.

  After he arrested Jax, he called to tell me that her car was trashed. There was blood on the dash, and you could see that they had struggled in it. And he had found a baggie of drugs in her glove box. I told him I would pay to have it cleaned and then to fucking sell it. There was no need for her to see that car and have flashbacks.

  “Have you picked out flowers yet?” Holly asks her getting my attention.

  “Yes. They were the first thing I decided on.”

  “Hopefully you picked black roses,” Parker says bending over into the fridge to grab some beers.

  I also notice that he has been teasing her more lately. Like he’s trying to cover up the real emotion he felt when he found her in that basement and the terror in his eyes that I saw when he realized she had been drugged.

  “Why black?” Angel asks turning to face him. “Oh, because black is Slade’s favorite color?” she asks.

  “No.” He turns around and smirks at her. “Because marrying kills you.” He looks at me, and I don’t miss the wink he gives me. “You have totally killed the Slade I know. Now he is going to be a little bitch to a demanding pussy that has a hold of his balls forever.” He shudders. “It’s pathetic.”

  Holly gasps, thinking he’s serious, and Micah starts laughing knowing he just wants to get her riled up.

  Angel picks up the knife that sits in front of her with icing on it from when they had baked a cake earlier. She had been craving chocolate cake all day.

  She turns to face him and leans back against the island. “You know what, Parker? One day the right girl is going to come along.” He laughs at where her point is going. “And she is
going to grab a hold of you by the balls.” His laughter dies down. “And I am going to enjoy watching her squeeze the life out of you, as you so colorfully put it,” she finishes off before she slides her index finger down the knife picking up the leftover icing before putting her finger in her mouth and sucking off the icing.

  Angel doesn’t know that Parker was there, that he was the one to find her down in that basement. That he lied to the cops and falsified evidence to make sure Jax would spend the rest of his life in jail, or the fact that he was there at the hospital when she had her freak outs. And we all want to keep it that way.

  The drugs Tate left along with the beating he gave Jax… Parker took care of all of that and made sure it all went against Jax. I made a call about Dallas; who we had left back in his office tied to a chair and gagged. Tate made a call to give away Jax’s location, all anonymous of course. But Parker looks at her differently. He’s called every day and come over to check on her since he walked out of her hospital room after I had to have her sedated. And I know he’s just as terrified as me now that Jax is trying to get immunity but he’s gonna do whatever he can to make sure that doesn’t happen.

  Parker shakes his head. “Won’t happen, sweetheart.”

  “Oh it will. Look at all your friends. They all have someone.”

  “Tate doesn’t,” he responds with a smile.

  She rolls her eyes. “He’s the exception.”

  He laughs at her excuse. “Well maybe I can be an exception as well,” he offers.

  She shakes her head. “There can’t be two.”

  He goes to quip some comment to her but she turns away from him clearly ending their conversation. She speaks to Holly. “I picked yellow lilies because they were my mom’s favorite flowers.” Then she looks up at me. “But if you want to do black, we can.”

  Her mother’s favorite. I walk over to her and place a kiss on her forehead. “Yellow lilies sound perfect, Angel.”