Beyond Revenge (The Ransom Series)

by A. T. Douglas

When the house finally comes into view, I can’t help the smile that widens across my face and the tears that cloud my vision.

  We’re home.

  It’s a small brown house with worn siding and white shutters around the windows. It’s square in shape with a pointed roof and is surrounded by trees and bushes. It provides all the seclusion we could ever want in a home so far off the beaten path that I’m completely comfortable that no one will come looking for us here.

  “It’s perfect,” I say in disbelief as we pull up beside it.

  I step outside and close my eyes as I breathe in the fresh air of early fall and take in the sounds of nature around me. It’s an invigorating feeling, almost like breathing life into me, cleansing me of all the bad that has happened in the last year and helping me appreciate the good.

  When I open my eyes, I catch Leo staring at me with a grin on his face. I can tell he’s just as excited about this as I am.

  In fact, I’m too excited. I can’t stop myself as I run around the Jeep and into Leo’s waiting arms.

  “We did it,” I exclaim, barely able to contain myself. “We’re actually here, together as a family. They won’t find us.” I stop as the realization of my words hits me directly in the chest, causing a pained lump to form in my throat. “We’re finally free.”

  Leo’s grasp of me only tightens. I can hear him struggle to find his voice. He clears his throat for a third time before finding the right words. “I want to give you so much more than this, and I promise I will someday.”

  I immediately pull back from Leo and give him a playfully scolding look. My brain has words to say, but my body has something else in mind first. My hands pull his face to mine, and I kiss him, gently but with intensity, letting him feel the warmth and strength of my love for him.

  “You’ve given me more than enough, Leo. I have everything I’ll ever need right here in my arms and sitting in that car seat.” I don’t want him to dwell on these thoughts any longer than he needs to, and to be honest, I’m too damn excited to get inside. My grin at Leo widens as I nod toward the house. “Let’s go.”

  It takes a moment for my words to sink in, but Leo finally nods and beams a smile back at me.

  I grab Dante’s car seat out of the back, the adorable little thing fast asleep for the arrival at his new home, while Leo works on opening the key lockbox on the front door. When he gets the key out and turns it in the lock, we step inside.

  It has a rugged cabin feel to it, but that’s exactly what this place is. There’s a woodstove in the small living room with a worn couch and a wooden coffee table made of material reminiscent of the brown plank siding on the outside of the house. The floors are beautiful aged but unstained hardwood. There’s a small round dining table next to the kitchen that has antique-looking appliances that remind me of the apartment that Leo and I shared back at Mark’s headquarters.

  I’m overwhelmed by the feeling of home in this place. It’s perfect for us.

  I set the sleeping baby’s car seat down on the floor and slowly pull Leo into my arms. He seems about as speechless as I am as he snakes his arms around my back and returns my embrace just as tightly.

  We hold each other for some time, breathing with each other, finding peace in this new place after leaving the chaos and pain behind. It’s our new beginning. It may be a difficult and isolated journey, and it won’t be as perfect as we wish it could be, but it will be ours. We can embrace it and nurture it and turn it into something amazing, because we’re together and that’s all we’ll ever need.

  Somehow in having everything taken away from me, I was given something even more beautiful. This is what life is all about, what I’ve been missing, and despite the trials and tribulations and difficult decisions that led me here, I managed to survive. I have Leo with me. We have Dante. We have it all.

  I was lost well before I was taken. Standing here now, I don’t feel that way anymore. Everything has changed since then. Leo saved me.

  I am found.

  28

  Her Freedom

  ∞

  I look at her and wonder.

  How does one keep smiling

  when one’s life has been ripped away?

  The pull of raging current

  impossible to deny.

  Fate may choose a path for us.

  But it’s what we make of it that matters.

  The way we grow as a result.

  Turning tragedy into triumph.

  Releasing the light to overtake the darkness.

  Conquering that which would destroy us.

  Until we are finally free.

  ∞

  Warm lips on mine. Smooth skin against my leg. Firm breasts against my chest. Curious fingers combing through my hair.

  The best way to wake up in the morning.

  “Morgan,” I say, barely able to squeeze the word through her wild kisses.

  She drags her bare chest against mine as she pulls herself up to a sitting position on top of me, straddling my waist and bringing my sole focus to her beautiful naked body perched above me. Through the cascading waves of hair enshrouding her face, I can see the sly smile on her lips and the hungry look in her eyes. She bites her lower lip and runs her fingers down my chest until she reaches the band of my boxers.

  “Six weeks,” she breathes out.

  Her hips rise up for only a moment to pull down the front of my boxers before she drops herself back down on me, taking me inside her until we’re perfectly connected. I can’t help the groan of pleasure that escapes me when I fill every last bit of the warm space inside her for the first time in over six weeks.

  Morgan begins to move on top of me, painfully slow at first, making sure I feel every movement within her. My hips find a rhythm with hers and begin to take control in this beautiful pleasure we’re creating together.

  There’s so much to take in when I look at her naked body moving on top of me. My eyes are inevitably drawn to her rapidly bouncing breasts, but she’s too amazing to watch. I have to look away and focus instead on grasping her hips and directing my cock to just the right places within her.

  It doesn’t take long before I have her gasping for breath and pressing desperately against my skin anywhere she can grab it. Her body tightens around me as she orgasms, and it takes all the willpower I have not to join her in that uncontrollable state of pleasure and bliss. I keep moving inside her until she’s slapping my chest and telling me to stop even though I know she doesn’t mean a word of what she’s saying.

  She collapses her chest down on top of mine, giving me an ideal opportunity to flip us so that she is underneath me on the bed, exactly where I want her.

  “I love you,” I whisper before assailing her neck with kisses. “You’re my perfection. You and Dante are my entire life.”

  A warm smile grazes her lips before she finishes my thought for me. “We’re complete.”

  I sit up enough to find her wrist and pull it to mine, bringing our tattoos together at the missing pieces in each circle, and I repeat the word that truly represents what we are to each other. “Complete.”

  There’s no holding back now. My desire and longing for Morgan is too strong. I’m all over her body, kissing every available place on her skin from her cheeks and lips to her neck and chest until I’m licking the very core of her pleasure between her legs. I relentlessly tease her with flicks of my tongue and soft kisses from my lips until she’s begging me to make her come.

  The moment my fingers graze her nipple, she loses it. Her orgasm comes hard and strong, and I keep it going for her until she can barely seem to breathe through it anymore.

  While Morgan tries to catch her breath, I dig out the condom that has been patiently waiting for this day. I quickly put it on and climb back on top of her, observing the exquisite naked woman sprawled out on the bed beneath me and wondering for a moment how I can be so lucky to have her in my life.

  She’s still breathing at a rapid pace, her lungs struggling to catch up with he
r need for oxygen, but I can’t wait a moment longer. I need to be inside her. Now.

  “Breathe, Morgan,” I say just before sliding into her. “I’ve got you.”

  Her face turns into a pleasured grimace as a whimper of a moan escapes her pursed lips. I move gently inside her but with precision, making her moan again each time I press back into her.

  “More,” she whispers breathlessly.

  My cock instantly hardens even more at hearing her plea, and it’s happy to oblige. The calm thrusts quickly become more intense until we’re both so lost in the pleasure of it that I’m groaning uncontrollably with each movement inside her and she’s screaming my name and clawing at my back.

  When her body arches with a strong gasp and I feel her reach her peak, I completely let go. In the moment of our shared release, it feels like there is nothing else in the world but the two of us connected as one. All the bad that happened up until this point doesn’t matter. We made it here and we’re happy and together and sharing in the beautiful promise of life and love with our son. It’s our moment of triumph, of freedom, and no one can take it away from us.

  I don’t even know when I fully came down from the high of making love to Morgan, but I realize that I’m lying down next to her now, holding her hand in mine and nuzzling my head against hers as we both try to catch our breath and fully return to reality.

  Morgan turns to me with a satisfied grin. “If I knew how amazing that was going to be, I would have done this weeks ago. I’m never following the rules again.”

  I can’t help laughing at her, though the sound still seems strange coming out of my mouth as often as it has been these last few weeks. Since we arrived at our new home hidden away in the woods in Maine, there has been almost nothing but laughter and smiles in our lives, and I’m inclined to keep it that way for a long time.

  “We may have to do this again later,” I not so subtly suggest.

  “I’m here all week,” she replies with a tiny kiss on my nose and a brilliant smile across her face.

  Her hand lingers to my chest, tracing the designs of each tattoo as well as feeling the raised lines of the scars on my skin, all marks of my former life. After a few moments of being lost in her contemplative state, she comes back to me, her eyes meeting mine and her curious hand abandoning its exploration to fully grasp me around the waist. “I love every bit of you. You know that, right?”

  I nod to her with a genuine smile of understanding. There’s no doubt in my mind that what she says is true.

  “No matter what happens, we’ll always be a family. Nothing is going to change that,” she says, and suddenly I realize where this conversation is going, but I’m not worried or afraid.

  The past six weeks have taught me that there’s not enough time in life to let things hold us back or be bogged down in fear and concern. We can only make the best of what we’re given and find the good in what we have, then embrace it for all it’s worth.

  We have to live.

  “Dante is my son, regardless of the outcome of the test.” They are perhaps the truest words I’ve ever spoken, and the smile on Morgan’s face lets me know that she believes them.

  Morgan’s hand around my waist pulls me, coercing me to my side so that I’m facing her directly. Her hand moves to my hair, her fingers feeling through it and threatening to start a whole new wave of desire within me.

  “Let’s go confirm what we already know, then,” she whispers before pulling me out of bed with her.

  By the time we’re somewhat dressed and out in the kitchen making coffee, Dante is awake and ravenously hungry. Morgan sits with him at the small dining table as he drinks from her breast, and I can’t help being both a little turned on and jealous at the sight of it.

  When I bring two cups of coffee to the table, I try to keep my focus on the beverages or my family or anything other than the phone call I’m about to make. It’s impossible to deny the dread that intermixes with my excitement about making this call.

  “You ready?” Morgan asks.

  I take a deep breath and nod. “I’m ready.”

  I pick up the cell phone and the card with the lab’s phone number from the kitchen counter and take a seat at the table next to Morgan. My heart races within my chest as I dial the number and the phone rings on the other end of the line. Morgan takes my hand in hers just as the receptionist answers my call.

  I’m put through to one of the lab technicians, and then the wait begins. It takes a few agonizing minutes, but a man’s voice finally comes alive on the other end of the line.

  “Okay, sir,” he starts out, and I can hear the paperwork he’s fingering through over the call. “Let’s take a look at the results.”

  They are the longest ten seconds of my entire life. There is nothing but silence on the line. No breathing. No page turns. No background chatter. Just silence.

  When the man gives a loud sigh, my heart starts to disintegrate a little in my chest.

  “We can say with ninety-nine percent certainty that you are the father.”

  “I am?” Why am I questioning this? What’s wrong with me?

  “You are indeed. I expect this is good news, so congratulations.”

  I’m speechless. If I was standing next to the man, I’d hug him. Hell, I’d even kiss him. I’m over the moon and completely amazed and blown away by this reality that I’ve wanted to believe all along but can now truly accept.

  Dante is my own flesh and blood. He’s my son. I have a son!

  “Thank you. Thank you so much.” I can’t manage to say a word more than that as I end the call and drop my head into my hands, because I can’t control the emotions overtaking me, and I know if I look at Morgan and Dante I’m going to lose it.

  “He’s mine,” I whisper, but it’s already too much. My throat clenches and tears sneak out of my eyes, and at this point I’m ready to say fuck it and lift my head anyway because I want to look at my beautiful girl and our perfect son.

  My gaze meets Morgan’s, and I see the relief and joy in her tear-filled eyes. She nods her head, but she can’t seem to find any words to say. It’s my turn to squeeze her hand and give her comfort and support, because I know that despite the tough exterior she put up the entire time about this paternity test, she worried about the result just as much as I did.

  “I’m so happy he’s yours,” she finally says, holding back a sob.

  I’m immediately to standing, fueled by the need to hold her and be as close to her as possible. I reach around her from the back, leaning my head on her shoulder and embracing her and Dante in my arms. “I’m so lucky you’re both mine.”

  Within moments Morgan’s emotions crumble into heavy sobs. I hold her tighter and kiss her cheek and nuzzle her hair. If I could take all her pain and bear it myself, I would do it in an instant. I would do anything to erase all the horrible things that happened to her in the last year and still have us end up where we are now.

  The truth is we both went on long and painful journeys to get here, and all that matters in the end is that we’re here. We made it and survived and ended up with a beautiful son and the promise of a long and happy future together.

  I watch Dante resting happily in Morgan’s arms, and it’s almost like I’m looking at him for the first time. I knew he would always be my son regardless of the result of the test, but knowing that he’s actually mine just makes it all that much better. Dante is the new beginning for the Marini family, a fresh start untainted by the evils of the life I left behind and the man who put me there.

  My life has been all about the twists and curves, the cliffs that I almost plunged off and the bumps along the way, but I see a clearer path ahead. My entire being now revolves around these two people in my arms: Morgan, incredibly strong and loving, and Dante, the representation of our future. They are both living proof that the extraordinary and beautiful can come out of absolute darkness.

  We can only make the best of it. We can only fight to survive along the way and come out stron
ger in the end, otherwise what’s the point? Why are we here if not to show the world that we can endure and do better and achieve amazing things?

  We will never give up or give in. We will continue to survive and thrive and be happy and thankful and never take for granted that which we’ve been given. We have so much to live for, and we will take full advantage of it all.

  We may never live a normal life, but we’re together, sharing in our love.

  We are finally free.

  Author Notes and Acknowledgements

  And so ends my 2013 NaNoWriMo journey.

  I hope you’ve enjoyed this crazy ride of a two-part series that started completely on a whim to write a story that I’ve had in my head for a long time. When I signed up for the National Novel Writing Month challenge, I never knew that this story would grow and develop into what it did.

  That’s the beauty of writing. It’s always fluid, constantly changing, taking authors in directions they never expected and opening their eyes to things they never saw when the first seeds of a story were planted in their heads. Characters and stories have their ways of making decisions for the authors who write them, something I experienced repeatedly while writing Beyond Ransom and Beyond Revenge.

  Writing will never get old to me. I could do this for the rest of my life and still never get enough of it. There will always be stories brewing in my head but never enough time to get them all down on virtual paper.

  At least I’ll have NaNoWriMo to push me once a year to do nothing but write. I hope to make this an annual tradition for me and to encourage other authors and aspiring authors to join me in this crazy quest that comes in the month of November every year. It’s a daunting task to strive to put at least fifty thousand words of a novel down in one month, but it’s also really rewarding.

  I can’t stress enough the importance of the blogger, reader, and author community to myself and the other indie authors out there. The support I see among those groups of people on social media every day continues to amaze me. It’s an honor to be a part of that community. I find great comfort in knowing that there are other people out there who enjoy reading and writing as much as I do.