The American Soldier Collection 8: She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  He slowed his hands and then cupped her breasts as he sat up.

  She licked her lips as tears continued to fall. “You really did all of that stuff you said, for me?”

  He stared at her. She could count the number of breaths he took before he responded. Three, four, five. “Yes, all of it for you, for us, sweet little lover.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her lips. She wanted to vomit, to bite him, kill him, and make him suffer. “I’m sorry I insulted you. I should have been more grateful. Paul hurt me so badly. I’m still so afraid.” She pretended to shiver. He ran his hands all over her and she had to pretend it didn’t repulse her.

  “I’m sorry seeing him still upsets you, Ellie. That wasn’t my intention. He deserved to die. You shouldn’t feel bad. You should be grateful.”

  “I am grateful. I want to hug you and thank you.”

  He leaned down and pressed against her snugly.

  “No, I mean with my own arms, I want to wrap them around you and hug you tight, and let you know that I appreciate everything that you did.” She clenched her eyes closed and prayed she wasn’t making matters worse for herself. As he pressed lower, she could see over his shoulder and through the open window. There were men in black. Someone was coming to save her.

  “Please, Unc, untie me so I can hold you?”

  “You want to hold me?”

  “I want to, yes,” she whispered, tears flowing and out of her control.

  He sat up, reached behind him and clicked the switch blade in front of her. She gasped and closed her eyes.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked as he cut the first binding and then the other. She covered her face with her hands and willed herself to be strong, and she ignored the aches and pains from being tied up for so long.

  “No knife. Please, I hate knives. Paul used a knife on me. Please, Unc, please get rid of it.”

  “Of course. I forgot. I should have remembered that. It’s why I slit his throat for you. With this knife,” he said, showing it to her.

  He stood up and placed it into his back pocket. She knelt on the bed, deciding where to run to, when suddenly there was a creak, a noise outside.

  He grabbed her arm. “Someone is out there.”

  “No. I didn’t hear anything. No one is there. Stay here with me. Let’s talk. I want to know about all the plans and how you did it all. Stay here.”

  He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up. She was kicking and holding on to his arm trying to get him to release her. Unc was crazy strong as she kicked and tried to free herself from his hold.

  “You bitch. You’re a liar, just like the others.”

  She shook her head, felt herself losing her last breath and about to pass out or die, when the doors burst open. The place filled with smoke and he dropped her. She fell to the floor, landing on her hand. She felt and heard the crack, but she was too occupied with trying to breathe. She was having difficulty, as she lay on her side, hearing the commotion, the cry of pain and then gunshots.

  “Ellie! Goddamn it, Ellie!” Justice yelled out as he fell to his knees and pushed away her hair from her face.

  “Baby, talk to me.”

  She held her wrist to her chest and still tried to breathe short breaths.

  “She can’t breathe. The fucker was choking her,” Sam stated.

  “I need a medic in here pronto. Look at this fucking mess,” Gunny stated as he spoke into a radio on his bulletproof vest. There were men in black camo and bulletproof vests everywhere. Men in FBI jackets, police. The entire room was lit up. Justice picked her up and she cried, making it even harder to breathe.

  “Shit, her wrist looks bad,” Sam stated.

  “Let me carry you out of this mess. You don’t need to see any more, Ellie. It’s over now,” Justice told her.

  “Unc?” she said and coughed.

  “Dead,” Justice told her as someone took off their FBI jacket and placed it over her body.

  “Meet Gunner, Ellie. He’s an old friend from the military.”

  He smiled, but he was a big man, and quite intimidating. “The ambulance is outside. We’ll take care of everything. You take care of your woman,” Gunner told them.

  Justice gently picked her up into his arms and carried her out of the house.

  * * * *

  “Where the fuck is she? Do you think they were too late? Fuck, this waiting is killing me,” Seno said.

  “There. Holy shit, she’s alive!” Mace yelled out, and he, Seno, and Hunter hurried to Justice and Ellie just as the paramedics directed him toward the gurney.

  “Baby, thank God. Oh, thank God you’re okay. I’m so sorry that I let him get you. I’m so sorry,” Seno stated as he leaned down and kissed her cheek.

  “She’s hurt. Her wrist looks broken,” Justice stated.

  “And her neck? What are those marks on her?” Mace asked, looking concerned.

  “What is she wearing?” Hunter asked, as they all took in the sight of the teddy. Seno felt like killing Unc again.

  “I love you guys,” she whispered and then cringed.

  “We need to get her to the hospital.”

  “Let’s go,” Mace stated as they began to get the gurney up into the back of the ambulance.

  “I’m sorry, but only one of you can fit in here,” the paramedic stated.

  “Seno, you go in the ambulance. Stay with her, and we’ll meet you there,” Justice told Seno. He nodded his head and got into the back of the ambulance with Ellie.

  “Is it over, Justice? Is she safe now?” Hunter asked.

  “Unc is dead. Sentinel, if he lives, is going away for a long time, and Paul can’t ever hurt her again.”

  “Paul was in there?” Hunter asked.

  “Unc killed Paul. I guess he kept his body around to show Ellie.”

  “Jesus, she’s going to need us. All of us,” Mace stated.

  “And we need her. Let’s go be with the woman we love,” Justice said and smiled.

  Chapter 14

  Ellie opened her eyes to find Seno staring at her.

  The last few days lying in bed trying to recover from everything had been a blur. Riding in the ambulance, seeing the tears in Seno’s eyes, and knowing that he felt to blame for her abduction tore at her heart. Looking at him now, bloodshot eyes, a dark expression and lost look, she knew she needed to set the record straight. She had overheard Hunter and Justice talking about Seno wanting to write his resignation. He felt that he failed at his job and he failed her.

  Hunter was asleep behind her, and she didn’t know where Justice and Mace were. But she knew not far. They hadn’t left her side.

  “Okay, Seno, you need to get your shit together.”

  His eyes widened and he sat up on the side of the bed. “What do you mean?”

  She sat up, being sure not to disturb Hunter, but knowing her men were retired soldiers, they all seemed like light sleepers. There wasn’t much anyone could push past them.

  She lifted the cast on her arm and rested it on her leg.

  “I hope you weren’t foolish enough to hand in your resignation and quit because of Unc?”

  He turned to look at her. Well, more like glare at her. None of them liked mentioning Unc’s name. Well, she didn’t either, but this needed to be said.

  “I should have recognized the signs. I should have noticed his personality that night in Ray Ray’s. I ignored a gut instinct, Ellie. I’m a criminal analyst.”

  “Right. So in thirty minutes of meeting Unc, while we drank wine and joked around, you were supposed to look at him as a criminal? Sure, that makes total sense,” she stated sarcastically.

  He stood up and turned toward her, raising his voice. “You don’t get it. I should have followed my gut and said no when he called to take you to lunch. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want him to. I knew something was wrong.”

  She stood up, wearing only an olive-green, marine T-shirt of Hunter’s.

  “You didn’t want him to because yo
u were jealous and being protective of what’s yours. Listen, Seno, we all can go back and take a look at a lot of things we missed in many situations in our life. Hell, I knew the man for so many years and never once did the whole ‘creepy guy’ vibe go off. I trusted him with my life. Do you get that? He killed my uncle Brian. I had no idea. I never in a million years would have believed that, but it’s true, and Unc told me. We mourned my uncle together. Unc was there for me after Paul assaulted me. Even months later, after counseling and everything, I still never got any vibe from him. That’s not because I was naive, or blind, it was because Unc was that good at living a double life and deceiving all of us. You’re not the first criminal analyst by profession to not recognize the signs of a criminal in your personal life. So get over it, and stop blaming yourself. I don’t blame you. Your brothers don’t blame you. So cut the shit, tear up the letter of resignation, and start focusing on this relationship and how much I love you and need you in my life.”

  He stomped toward her, pulled her into his arms, and immediately covered her bare ass with his palms. Squeezing them, she stood up on tiptoes and held his gaze.

  “You sure you forgive me?”

  “There’s nothing to forgive, Seno. Now, take me to bed and make love to me. For some reason fighting with you guys makes me horny.”

  She heard the chuckles behind her as Seno lifted her up and brought her to the bed, laying her down on the edge.

  As he parted her thighs with his palms and began to kiss her inner thighs, she looked back toward Hunter.

  “Don’t look so smug. You’re next,” she teased, and Seno licked between her pussy lips, making her gasp.

  Despite her awkward cast, and her mental state of exhaustion, she felt reenergized and ready to make love to her men. Justice and Mace walked into the room, looking tired and asking what was going on, but neither she nor Seno answered as Seno continued to feast on her. As he thrust two fingers up into her cunt, she moaned and rocked her hips against them.

  Seno stood up, pushed down his boxers, and aligned his cock with her pussy.

  “Are you ready, baby?” he asked her.

  “Always, Seno.”

  He stroked into her deeply, then lowered down so they were chest to chest as he cupped her face between his hands.

  “I love you, Ellie, and my favorite place to be is inside of you, like this.” He kissed her sweetly, as the others gathered on the bed around them, making her feel safe and loved. She knew in that moment that everything was perfect between the four of them. They each had their moments of insecurities, fears from their pasts, or just their dominant personalities as soldiers. But in the end, when that love was tested, when her own fears of letting another man into her heart after being hurt so deeply, these four men came through. Her American soldiers, her lovers, her best friends, her everything, finally made her life complete, and gave Ellie more than she ever dreamed about.

  THE END

  WWW.DIXIELYNNDWYER.COM

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  People seem to be more interested in my name than where I get my ideas for my stories from. So I might as well share the story behind my name with all my readers.

  My momma was born and raised in New Orleans. At the age of twenty, she met and fell in love with an Irishman named Patrick Riley Dwyer. Needless to say, the family was a bit taken aback by this as they hoped she would marry a family friend. It was a modern day arranged marriage kind of thing and my momma downright refused.

  Being that my momma’s families were descendents of the original English speaking Southerners, they wanted the family blood line to stay pure. They were wealthy and my father’s family was poor.

  Despite attempts by my grandpapa to make Patrick leave and destroy the love between them, my parents married. They recently celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary.

  I am one of six children born to Patrick and Lynn Dwyer. I am a combination of both Irish and a true Southern belle. With a name like Dixie Lynn Dwyer it’s no wonder why people are curious about my name.

  Just as my parents had a love story of their own, I grew up intrigued by the lifestyles of others. My imagination as well as my need to stray from the straight and narrow made me into the woman I am today.

  For all titles by Dixie Lynn Dwyer, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/dixie-lynn-dwyer

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com