by K. J. Dahlen
His arms wrapped around me, and I was moving. He carried me to the bedroom, laying me down on the bed. He continued to shout demands at whoever would listen as I blacked out every word he said.
“Talk to me, Bree. Say something, anything,” he pleaded, shutting the door to our room. What could I say? What would I say? I was numb? I was lost in the sea of lies.
Tears streamed down my face, making their own river.
“Are you in shock? What the fuck is going on, Bree? You’re scaring me.” I wanted to say good. Who could I blame? My mother was dead. John was dead. Mack was the only living evil next to Zerro, and though I was losing it, I knew my heart belonged to him. I stayed silent, replaying the letter over in my mind.
“Bree, fucking talk to me,” Zerro shouted. His hands dug into my shoulders as he shook me trying to get any response he could. Did he know? I had no way of knowing if he did or not. I had no way to know what was true and wasn’t.
“Lies upon lies. AND then more fucking lies. My whole life was one gigantic fucking lie. Selfishness got in the way of it all.” I cried, my anger shattering the air in the room. Zerro’s eyes grew large as he watched me sit up. He covered the remaining steps separating us before coming to stand in front of me.
“It’s a lie!” I screamed, shoving him with my hands. He stood there like a brick wall, which just added more fuel to my fire.
“She should’ve told me. She should’ve fucking said something. She shouldn’t have died and left me here without answers. She thought a fucking piece of paper would do justice…” I pounded my fists against his chest at his unemotional state, the anger inside of me swelling.
“Why are you just standing there, say something, or get out!” I growled glaring at him. I was broken. I was so fucking broken. The pieces of me shattered along with everything else that made me who I was.
“You’re hurting. You want something to take it out on. If you want to hurt me, then do it.” Those are the only words he said as he started at me, black opals shining in the light. The brown of his eyes were lost in the black.
“Hurt you? Who do you think I am?” I stood, pushing him back and away from me. I couldn’t handle the closeness right then. I couldn’t handle anything. I lied and said I had a grasp on things, but we both knew I didn’t.
“You’re Bree fucking Forbes. You’re having a meltdown, now pummel me to the ground. Work out this fucking anger and sadness,” he growled. He was feeding off me. I gritted my teeth, looking him straight in the eyes.
“You’re feeding off me, using me. You’re as bad as they are,” I said, taking the steps needed to get in his face. I felt his hot breath against my cheek, but I didn’t care. If I were broken, I didn’t want to be alone in the act.
“Stop twisting this into something it isn’t,” he seethed, anger just on the surface of overflowing.
“Oh, but it is. Twisting it would have to make it untrue. You knew, didn’t you? You knew all along?” I growled, smacking his face with the side of my hand. Bubbles of anger simmered within me.
His jaw clenched as he ground his teeth together. One of his hands snaked out, gripping my hair. It pulled tightly against my scalp, and I hissed, releasing a bit of pain. Leaning into my face, he tilted me up to look at him.
“Never accuse me of doing or knowing something you damn well know I could never keep from you.” His tone was off the rails, animalistic by nature.
Leaning even closer to him, almost causing our lips to touch, I said, “I didn’t accuse you of shit. I stated a fact!” The words spat from my mouth, and the second they left it, I was flying. For one moment, I was freighted. My body was airborne, and as I landed on the bed with precision, my breaths came in as pants and my chest heaved with anger.
“How dare you!” I growled, trying to get up but was only able to make it a foot before Zerro’s body leaned over mine, trapping me.
“Were going to play a game, Bree. We’re going to get rid of all of this anger, and the best way I see fit is to fuck. So tell me—top or bottom?”
9
Zerro
Her body quivered with a need for release. It wasn’t just the sex though; this was the mental kind of release. Her breakdown was coming, and it wasn’t going to be anything like when you came during sex.
“Get the fuck away from me.” She hissed like a cat. She reminded me of a trapped animal. Her eyes were empty and her anger was coming forth. You know what it’s like when you’re caught between wanting to give up and wanting to cry, but still hold onto hope? That’s where she was.
“The only place I’m going is inside of you.” I smiled like a prick, my arms trapping her so she was unable to move. Whatever was going on inside of that pretty head of hers had nothing to do with her and me. No, it solely had to do with the information she was given.
“Tell me, Bree, what was it that pushed you over the edge the most—your mother lying to you or me killing John?” It was a low blow, and if I were to cringe, even the slightest bit, she would call my bluff, but it was the only way I knew how to get her to acknowledge it all. She squirmed beneath me, trying to run I assumed.
“How could you even bring that up, you sick bastard?”
“Or maybe it was the lies. We all know there are tons and tons of lies. Your whole life was a giant lie. No answers were ever given. How’s that feel?” I sneered.
Her fists pounded against my chest, and her legs tried every move possible to get me off her, but I wouldn’t allow her to run from this anymore.
“Learn to acknowledge the hurt and pains in your life, Bree. At least you can fucking feel them. At least your heart is still beating. DEAL WITH IT!” I all but screamed at her. Her hits became more powerful, and as I pushed more weight on her, I could hear her cries growing louder.
“She lied. She fucking lied to me. No one gave me answers. No one cared, and now I have no one.” She huffed out her words.
“So she fucking lied. What do you want to do about it?” I growled in her ear.
“I want to hate her. I want to know why she lied. One note is meant to make up for close to twenty years of lies.”
“It’s a note, Bree, not your life story. I know you want answers, but there are none to be found.” My tongue darted out, licking a path directly to her ear. She tasted like cinnamon and sugar. My mouth began to salivate.
“I want revenge, I want madness and chaos. I want people to pay.” She snarled every word with a demand.
“Revenge only gets you so far. Killing John didn’t make me feel any better, Bree. It’s a temporary feeling really. It’s a false sense that maybe—just maybe, it will make you feel better to get even. Maybe it will bring back the person you lost—but it doesn’t. It makes you feel worse because you inflicted the same type of pain on someone else. Yes, John deserved to die, but not by my hands.”
“Death was still yapping at his footsteps, you just helped him along.”
“Stop this. This isn’t you. Don’t let this shit consume you. Deal with it.”
“I hate you. I hate everyone. I can’t handle this!” she barked, her chest rumbling with my own.
“You hate me?” I questioned.
“Yes, I hate you,” she roared.
“Good,” I said, pressing my lips against her firmly. She bit at them so hard I could feel the skin break. Blood seeped out of the wound and onto both our lips, but I didn’t care. I still wanted her. I wanted her to feel something more than what she was experiencing.
Her fists turned into grabby hands real fast as she pawed at my shirt.
“You want my cock? You want to take your frustrations out on me? Then show me, tell me what you want, Piccolo…” I purred against her skin. She whimpered, turning her face away from mine.
“Make me forget,” she begged. Make her forget? There was no forgetting. She needed to know it.
“There is no forgetting, Bree. It is dealing and then not dealing. I refuse to allow you not to deal—so you will deal.” Licking away the salty tears f
rom her cheek, I smirked.
“But I can make you remember. I can make you remember why you’re alive. I can make you heal. I can bring you to the crossroads, Bree, but you have to be the one to walk across.”
“You hurt me, you fucking broke me. You think John was a monster, but you’re no better. You hit me just like he hit my mother. If anything, you’re the same.” She sneered. Fuck! She was right, I was no better a person than John, but I loved her. I loved her with my whole heart and the difference was John had used her. I hadn’t. I never would.
“You have to know I never meant to hurt you. I’m sorry, Bree. I am so fucking sorry! Do you think I will forget? Because I won't. I will never forget the night in the cabin... never forget how I hurt the one person who saved my life. I fucked up. I was lost inside my head only wanting revenge." My mind drifted back to Mack… I would paint the motherfucking walls with his blood when I was done making him pay.
"I thought the one person I had finally fallen in love with betrayed me and I was hurt. All I saw was red and Mack... Mack sounded so fucking believable. I hate myself more than I have ever hated anyone for touching you in any other way than with love. DO you hear me? Understand me right now. I know I was a bastard for hitting you, and it will never happen again. No matter what the circumstance, I will never lay a hand on you again, Bree."
Her eyes told me she didn’t believe me, but her body did. She melted into my hands like chocolate. She wanted me as much as I wanted her. All the shit going on between us didn’t matter nearly as much as piecing us back together.
“I can’t handle the pain anymore…” she cried out, fresh tears running down her cheeks. She was doing something other than screaming and fighting. Wrapping both my arms around her, I cradled her head against my chest, rolling us over until I held her body against my own.
“You don’t have to. You don’t have to…” I whispered into her hair, holding her together as she fell apart.
“I miss her. I miss my old life. I just want it all to go back to the way it was…” she pleaded as if I could make all her dreams come true. The truth of the matter was, I couldn’t fix what had already been done, but I could make the future better than the past had been.
“I promise to take care of you, to make sure all your needs are met. I will make it all worth it, just stay with me. Hold onto who you are. Please.”
This is who we both were and it had never been shown to anyone. The rawest of all raw.
Kiss by kiss, I placed her back together. Our clothes were discarded, and as I mapped out every inch of her body, I could feel myself falling deeper and deeper into the hole with her.
I had never been a man of love, but I wanted her to love me, and me to love her—more than I wanted anything in the world.
“You’re my everything,” I said peering deeply into her eyes as I rocked into her. Sweat covered both our foreheads, and as I pushed back the hair sticking to her forehead, I knew she knew.
“I know,” she cried out in shallow breaths. Our bodies were connected in ways they never had been before. It wasn’t just about fucking anymore. It was making someone feel and see you for all you were. It was about emotions, and expressing them in the form of your body.
Gripping her hip with one hand, I pushed in and out slowly, savoring the feelings. The heat coming from us burned my soul so hot I thought I might die, and a beautiful death it would be.
Minutes passed as our bodies continued to push together.
“I love you…” she whispered as her pussy clenched over and over again. I couldn’t stop though. I knew one time, two times—hell, I knew any number below ten would never be enough.
“I love you, too…” I panted as I placed a kiss against her cheek. I handled her with the most tenderness, something I had never done for anyone or anything.
I felt my own release coming but pushed it away, forcing myself to give her more. I wanted her to have all of me. Gritting my teeth, I felt it coming.
“Come for me, Zerro…” she said biting her lip as her walls pulled from me everything that made me who I was.
My head went into the curve of her neck as I shoved into her deeply one last time. I had mended us. I had sewn us back together.
“Thank you…” she whispered into my ear as I held her against my body. My eyes drifted closed as her warmth surrounded me. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t me who had saved her, but she who had saved me.
Hours had passed. The pounding on the door pulled me from my blissful sleep. I looked over and took notice of Bree’s body slick against mine and I smiled. She had given herself to me for me to make her whole again.
“We need to talk NOW!” Jared said loudly on the other side of the door. I cringed at his voice. He sounded mad, and if I knew anything, when Jared was mad, something bad had happened.
“I have to get up, Piccolo…” I whispered, withdrawing myself from the bed and her body. I could’ve stayed there all day. All she did was groan, rolling over on the other pillow. Grabbing a pair of sleep pants from the armchair, I pulled them on and slipped out of the room. As soon as I opened the door, I was met by a scowl.
“Did you think fucking her was the best idea when her father is here? AND does it even bother you we’re being hunted by the fucking FBI.” I rolled my eyes at him. He must not know me as well as I thought. I looked danger straight in the eyes unless it came to Bree.
“I have a plan…” I said, pushing against his chest. I respected Jared for all he had done, but to push in my face what I had and hadn’t done, and to make it seem like I didn’t care, made my blood boil.
“Oh, one that doesn’t consist of fucking my sister into submission?” Before I could even stop myself, I reached out and gripped him by the scruff of his shirt.
“What I do with her is none of your business. She is nothing, but a liability to all of us if her head isn’t in the right place. I was giving her the comfort she needed. A lot more than you’ve been doing.” I didn’t want to have to fuck Jared up, but if he put Bree down one more time...
“Enough, boys,” James said from the entrance of the hall. Jared and I stared at one another, both of us on the verge of killing someone. With a shove, I released him, walking away and into the kitchen.
“I have a fucking plan. I just need to pull a couple strings, and I will have it all in order,” I said over my shoulder as they followed me into the kitchen.
“Well, it better be a good fucking idea because hiding out is getting old. We have been hiding for days.” He was getting antsy. It would be nothing but messy. I didn’t want to drag anyone else into this mess as it was. Jared wouldn’t be the one to put the bullet in Mack’s head though.
“It is… It involves a very old friend of mine…” I said pouring the coffee into a mug. I turned around, placing my cup on the table and was greeted with scowls on both faces.
“An old friend? Let’s hope it is someone worth trusting…?” Jared admitted. I was sure he was confused.
Smirking, I said…. “I’m sure we can trust Devon.”
10
Mack
“They killed John,” Miller said as I pushed the slut off my body. Fuck. This was bad and good news. It meant one last person to deal with when this was all over, but it also meant the one thing we had to use against Bree was gone.
“Anything else?” I asked, slicking my hair back. Miller looked nervously around the room before meeting my gaze.
“Well, tell me, boy…”
“Devon and Bree got into a scuffle and she ended up running.”
“Running?” I questioned moving from the bed, gripping him by the shoulders.
Yes, sir.” Fuck. Devon and Miller were the two I had in the cave. They dealt with the little bitch so I wouldn't have to. I couldn’t rely on these fucking people to do anything.
“And no one thought it was a good idea to tell me until now,” I growled. Releasing him, I turned around scanning the room for my jeans. Picking them up off the floor, I pulled them on and walke
d out of the room leaving Miller to hurry behind me.
“We already moved everything. You just told us not to notify you of anything unless there were major changes,” Miller stated.
Wringing my hands through my hair, I sat on one of the flimsy fucking chairs. This safe house was no good.
“We need to kill him. We need to kill all of them. If they get caught by the FBI, there will be no way to kill them.” At first, I was okay with Zerro getting years and years in prison, but now I was starting to think him being ten feet below my feet would be better. He deserved to be spat on.
“Where is Devon?” I asked, lighting a cigarette. I needed something to keep from wrapping my hands around these men’s necks.
“Right here, sir,” Devon’s voice sounded as he stepped into the small cabin. His eye was slightly black, and his lip was bleeding. Bitch had done a number on him. The biggest question was why the fuck did they let her out.
“Looks like the bitch did quite a number on you.” I smiled, blowing smoke out of my mouth.
“Yeah… kind of…” he commented, his eyes never leaving mine. He was one of the honest ones, so why the fuck had he done this. He used to work for Zerro before he was removed from the team and put in isolation. I stayed in touch with him for the moment when I knew I would take over. I just never planned on an actual distraction coming into the picture.
“Why was she out of the hole to begin with?” I demanded.
“I just wanted to rough her a bit. I wanted to fuck with her head. Plus, you know most of us men hadn’t had any company in a while…” Devon trailed off. I got what he was saying, but it didn’t mean it was okay.
“You fucking disobeyed my orders. John’s dead now. Bree is gone, probably back with Zerro, and you stupid fucks are responsible for it.”
“We didn’t—” Miller tried to say, but I reached out wrapping my hand around his throat.
