No. Not pulp. Red fucking mist.
As I neared the trees, I could hear Ash and Wyatt telling the thugs to fuck off. Hannah had grabbed Sarah’s arm and was pulling her and Beth back behind my brothers, but the guy who’d grabbed Sarah was advancing. Ash pushed him, hard, on the chest, and he pushed back. Wyatt was right there in his face, fists clenched, but I knew the two of them couldn’t take on four guys that size.
Three of us, however…
“The fuck is going on here?” I roared as I approached, nearly shoulder-checking Ash out of the way. “I know you, fuckface. You’re the bastard who grabbed Sarah at the carnival. Is this what you do, huh? Creep around, grabbin’ girls?” I put my face right in his. “You some kind of pervert?”
“I’m here on business,” Fuckface rasped, without even flinching at my proximity. “But what that is, is none of yours.”
“When it comes to my woman, you bein’ an asshole is definitely my business,” I replied, shoving him back. Dude was like a wall of pure muscle, but I tried not to let the effort I had to exert show. “The hell could you want with her? She’s Amish, for Christ’s sakes!”
He glowered. “I’m well aware of what, and who, she is. That’s why we’re here. And if you don’t get out of our way, we’re going to have to stop playing nice and make you.”
“Tough talk, coming from a man whose momma should’ve swallowed,” Wyatt chimed in, and I had to stifle a dark chuckle. “Beth—dial 911 on your phone.”
I raised a brow at him. Really? I thought he’d have wanted to handle this himself. But something in Wyatt’s eyes spoke volumes about how he really felt. He was angry, sure. But he was also scared. Did he know about the real reason Ash had gotten us involved with these girls? Did he know what was at stake better than I did?
From the corner of my eye, I saw Beth take out her phone, another cheap piece of shit like the one Hannah had given Sarah for our trip out into the woods. The moment she flipped it open, the guy in front lunged for her.
“You’re not calling anyone,” he snarled.
Ash grabbed the guy by the back of his shirt. “And you’re not fucking touching her.”
I don’t remember who threw the first punch. I’d love to say it was me. After all, that was what I’d come here for—to beat the ever-loving shit out of these fuckers.
But I honestly couldn’t tell you, because as soon as Ash grabbed Fuckface, the rest became a blur.
Sarah was screaming. Hannah was yelling at Ash to fucking stop, and Beth was a silent spectator, her blue eyes wide with fear and awe. Four of them against three of us—the odds might’ve been in their favor, were they not a bunch of thugs who obviously weren’t used to dealing with marks who fought back. Brodys were fucking warriors.
I grabbed one of the dudes with a shaved head and slammed his face into my knee until I heard his nose go crunch. It was more than enough to stun him, to make him vulnerable to the next swing I took at his jaw. Fucker wouldn’t go down, though. Not that easily.
I could have killed him. I could have killed all of them. Especially when I ended up with a busted lip and what very much felt like a broken nose for my trouble. I wanted to unleash the beast inside me on all of them, to plough through each and every one until there was nothing left but dust. For once, I understood the kind of fury that consumed Wyatt so often… and part of me fucking loved it.
But I couldn’t let it win. Not with Sarah standing there, watching me. She was my muse of temperance, and I couldn’t betray her. Not even to save her.
I sure as hell could use necessary force, though.
Wyatt was like a demon from hell, wailing on two of the other bastards while Ash took on old Fuckface himself. As much of a monster as Wyatt was, though, Ash proved way worse. He definitely wasn’t pulling any punches, and even when Fuckface was on the ground, Ash refused to let up.
I watched him straddle the guy’s chest and start raining down punches. I heard cartilage shattering and teeth snapping free of Fuckface’s gums. I heard the wet gurgling noise of a man beginning to choke on his own blood. I realized then that Ash was taking things way too far.
“Dude,” I said, grabbing Ash’s shoulder. “That’s enough, man. Get off him.”
With a cry, Ash pushed me off him and brought down another blow onto Fuckface’s skull. I grabbed the back of Ash’s jacket and tried to ease him off again, but it was clear that I was going to have to use brute force, unless we wanted to end up with a dead body on our hands.
It took me and Wyatt to pull Ash free, and he was practically foaming at the mouth like a madman, kicking and flailing and trying to claw his way back to Fuckface, lying on the ground with what looked like a broken everything. It took a long series of minutes to get Ash to calm down enough to stop speaking in tongues and four-letter words again, and even longer than that to get the red out of his face and the murderous trembling out of his hands.
“We got ‘em,” I said as Ash paced, raking his bloody fingers through his hair. “All right, man? We got ‘em.”
“Yeah, Ash,” Wyatt said softly, holding up his hands. “Breathe, okay? Calm down.”
“I can’t,” Ash said at last, though his voice was still something of an inhuman growl. He turned and faced the carnage all three of us had left near the tree line. “I can’t fucking calm down while that piece of shit is still breathing.”
Wyatt and I followed the direction of his gaze. But while they might have been seeing the aftermath of one hell of a beat down, all I could see were Sarah’s eyes. They were all I ever wanted to see again, for the rest of my life.
And that was when I knew. Sarah Miller was it for me. And I would go through hell itself to get her back.
22
Sarah
I could barely put into coherent words the bloodshed I’d just witnessed.
I had never before seen anything so violent; not in my entire life—and I never wanted to see it again. My stomach was still flip-flopping when it was all over. I still didn’t quite understand what had happened, and part of me wasn’t even sure that I wanted to.
I looked to Hannah for guidance, but her face was tight, pale, and drawn. She looked just as disturbed as Beth and I were. I couldn’t blame her, but I also couldn’t help feeling like she knew something about this that we didn’t. That there was more to this story than just four crazy thugs showing up to give us a hard time.
Especially when one of them had tried to pull me into God-knows-where a few days ago.
Ash stalked over to her. Maybe we were thinking on the same wavelength, because he hissed in her ear none too quietly: “What the fuck, Hannah?”
“I don’t know, okay?” she whispered in reply, her teeth muffling the sound. “I don’t fucking know…”
But it was clear from the look they gave one another that they both knew something about why this had happened. They just weren’t giving it up. There were so many lies and secrets between all of us. Ever since Beth and I had come here, that was all we’d run into—people trying to hide their intentions. I’d had enough of it. Especially if disasters like this were what I had to look forward to.
“I can’t,” I said, pulling away from Beth. I wasn’t sure who I was speaking to—maybe just myself—but the words came anyway, unbidden, from my throat. “I can’t right now.”
And then, heedless of running straight into more danger, I walked straight into the woods where Beth and I had nearly been assaulted just moments before.
I needed to think. I needed peace and quiet. I needed somewhere I could suss out everything that had happened over the past several days—a respite where I could listen to my heart, my soul, and my mind all at once.
For a second time, I was denied that—Reid came crashing through the brush behind me, his mouth swollen and bleeding, his nose turning purple along the bridge.
“Sarah—Jesus, are you nuts? You can’t just walk off like that after…”
“You can’t be serious,” I murmured, cutting him off. It was just
too ludicrous to imagine—the very idea that Reid might think he could tell me what to do, after all he’d done to me, was the most unfathomably stupid thing I’d ever dreamt up. “You can’t really think you have any right to dictate what I can and can’t do.”
“If it keeps you safe?” Reid said, snorting at my silence. “Then fuck yeah, I do.”
“You’re not my caretaker,” I reminded him, trudging further between the trees. “Not anymore. You won your stupid, heartless bet—or was there more to it than I overheard? Is there a second goal, like… like seeing how pissed you can make me?”
I heard the grin in Reid’s voice, even though I couldn’t see him. “Pissed, huh? Damn, Sarah, profanity sounds downright angelic comin’ out of your mouth.”
I turned over my shoulder and scowled at him. But before I could indulge in some serious filth, he held up his hands disarmingly. “You know it’s not like that. I called the bet off. I never should’ve made it in the first place. That was a mistake made by a different man than who I am now, about a girl he didn’t even know. And I said I was sorry…”
“No, actually, you didn’t,” I reminded him, stopping near a tree to catch my breath. I could walk much longer distances than this, but I was dizzy and my heart was pounding from watching seven men beat each other half to death. I put my hand on my stomach, finding my center of gravity, willing my knees not to buckle. “Not really. In fact, if I’m remembering correctly, you told me this was never a long-term thing for you. That I had the wrong idea from the beginning—even though you were the one who’d put that idea in my head.” I felt a spark of anger rise up inside me, stinging my eyes with hot tears. “You were a complete and total ass, and—”
“I know, Sarah,” Reid said softly, lowering his hands. “You’re right, I totally am. Saying that was the biggest pile of bullshit that has ever come out of my mouth, and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
It took me a moment to fully digest those words. At first, I thought I might be hallucinating. Surely, I couldn’t have heard him correctly. “…wait, what?”
Reid took a few steps toward me, sighing as he wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his wrist. “You’re right. About me and about everything else. You can see right fucking through me. You’re as innocent as a lamb, and yet…” He shook his head. “You read me like an open book. You don’t put up with my shit, and that’s not just something I want in a woman—that’s something I need to be a man.” He took a deep breath. “And there’s something else, too.”
Slowly, Reid closed the distance between us until there was only a foot of space left. I felt compelled to back away, but at the same time, this closeness between us… I’d missed it. It had only been a few hours since I’d held him in my arms, and yet it felt like decades. Caught between fear and desire, I hesitated. It gave Reid all the time he needed to reach out and take my hands in his.
“I am sorry, Sarah,” he said, looking into my eyes. “For all of it. For everything I said and did. For all the lies I told. For the way you had to find out. For making that stupid, ridiculous, childish bet in the first place.” He brushed his thumbs across my knuckles. “But you have to know… I also meant it when I told you things had changed. That I… have feelings for you. I want you around, and not just because of the sex—though that’s a pretty damn good reason to want you by my side.” I blushed, and he chuckled a little. “The most important thing, Sarah, is that you make me a better man. And there’s nobody else in all the world who makes me feel the way you do.
“It’s true, the way this relationship started was based on a horrible lie, but you know what? Because of who I used to be, just a few days ago, if it wasn’t for that bet I probably would have never even spoken to you in the first place. So I can’t regret it completely. Even if you never want to speak to me again, no one can take away the last few days we’ve spent together, and those were all completely true. My feelings for you are genuine, and I’ve learned that I’m a much better person with you in my life.”
Something in his eyes told me that everything he was saying was true, but I still couldn’t believe that they were being said about me. I wasn’t sure what to say, but he wasn’t quite finished.
“So here I am, telling you I know I was stupid and groveling at your feet. No pride. No ego. Just us.” He squeezed my fingers. “I know I don’t deserve it, but I have to ask anyway. I won’t let you go without a fight. So… can you forgive me? Please?”
This man was different from the Reid I’d first met—the Reid who’d made a bet about me and my virginity, as well as that of my sisters. The Reid who had possessed no qualms about ruining my reputation for the sake of his own. That Reid seemed a distant memory now. Here, before me, was the man I’d always known he could be. The man whose glittering eyes had drawn me in and whose arms had promised to never let me go. The man I wanted to be with more than anything else in the world.
I’d thought, for a moment, he was an illusion. But now I saw that the old Reid was the imposter. This was the real one. This was who he was when all his walls came crumbling down.
“Yes,” I said, surprising even myself. “I can forgive you. I do forgive you.”
Reid stared at me a moment, licking the blood off his lips. He’d taken quite a beating for me—to protect me. He said, “Can you give me another chance?”
I nodded silently. Then I leaned up on tip-toe and lightly kissed his mouth, tasting his wounds. He grunted softly, but didn’t pull away from me. He just bent down to press our foreheads together and held me close, like I was the most precious woman in all the world. And when I was with him, that was exactly how I felt.
“I missed you,” I said. I knew it hadn’t been long. I knew that it was silly. But it was the truth.
Reid placed his chin on the top of my head. I heard the rumble in his chest when he told me, “I missed you too.”
I let out a sigh of relief. Sure, I had it bad for Reid Brody… but evidently, we had it bad for each other. And that was something I could hold on to.
We walked back to the common area hand-in-hand, and for a few moments, all the pain and torment was forgotten. When we broke through the trees, however, we were abruptly reminded of what had come to pass—the men who had attacked us were gone, and so were Beth and Wyatt.
I looked over at Hannah. “What’s going on?” I asked her.
She was standing near Ash, neither of them touching, their body language tense. When she turned to me, it was only her head that moved. Her green eyes were glassy and far away, but I noticed them flick down to take in how tightly I was clutching onto Reid’s hand and for a moment I thought I saw a brief smile flash across her face, but it was gone before I could be sure. “The guys dragged their leader off, and Beth and Wyatt are in the house. She’s… she’s upset, Sarah. We all are.” She closed her eyes. “We’re all shaken up.”
“I don’t blame you,” Reid said, squeezing my hand gently. “And that’s why I think I should take Sarah back to my apartment for a while. If those assholes come back, splitting up will make you and your sisters harder to find.”
I frowned, thinking of Wyatt’s suggestion back before the fight began. All this talk of those men coming back for us made me wish Beth had been able to call the police.
Hannah said, “To be honest with you both… I don’t think they’ll be back.” She chewed on the inside of her cheek. “I know those guys. Sort of. They were sent by our father, Sarah. They were meant to bring you and Beth home. That asshole leading the charge was the same dickhead Father sent after me when I ran away from home. I barely got away. Guess he brought friends this time.” She shook her head, staring up at the sky. “They always think it’ll be so easy. But now they know it’s not, and the last thing Father needs is to draw attention to his little community. I’m pretty sure that’s the last we’ll see of them. And the last we’ll hear of Father, too.”
I blanched and felt woozy again. “Wait—Father sent them? How does he even know men like t
hat? They weren’t Amish, were they?” Hannah slowly slid her gaze to meet mine, though she didn’t provide me with any answers. “Wh-why would he have sent them to grab us? And… and does this mean we can’t go home again? Answer me, sister. Please!”
“I can’t,” she said softly. “Not right now, okay? But I promise, Sarah, someday—soon, I hope—I’ll explain everything to you. Why those men were here. What they had to do with Father. Why I can never go home.” She looked at Ash. “Just… not today. Okay? Today, you just need to trust me. Even if I don’t deserve it.” I could see her eyes were filling with tears. “There’s nothing I have done in my whole life that hasn’t been about protecting you, and that’s not about to change now.”
Ash’s hard gaze softened. He wrapped his arms around Hannah’s shoulders, drawing her close to him and kissing her hair. There was a tenderness about them in that moment that I hadn’t expected to see, a warmth between them that told me there was more to their relationship than just sex. I was happy for them. Really. But I was also scared and confused.
“You should go with Reid, anyway,” Ash said, still enveloping Hannah in his titan embrace. “Just in case. We’ll go talk to Beth and make sure she’s okay. For now, let’s play it safe and make sure that if those assholes do come back, we don’t make it easy for them. Sound good?”
Reid nodded. He looked at me. “You on board, darlin’?”
I looked up into his face. The last time we’d spent any time together in close quarters, we’d ended up making love. Twice. Among other things…
Was that something I could risk doing again? Was that kind of intimacy something I was ready for, after all we’d been through?
After a moment’s hesitation, I nodded at him. “I’m in. Let’s go.”
23
Pranked Page 67
