Mugs of Love

by Norma Jeanne Karlsson

  She licks me clean and then climbs to her feet where I attack her mouth intensely. When she rips her mouth from mine, she can barely breathe. I rest my forehead against hers as we pant and stare into each other’s eyes.

  She watched me too.

  “Never,” I grunt.

  Emily furrows her brow not understanding my caveman speech.

  “Never gonna let you go,” I growl.

  “Please don’t,” she says with love.

  I press a hard kiss to her mouth before shutting off the water.

  I pull her out of the shower and dry her body from head to toe before wrapping her in a towel. I barely do the same for myself. I’m on fire from her. I could use the quickly cooling droplets to lower my temperature before I combust.

  We get dressed in silence, watching each other hotly. I have no idea how I’ll make it through the day without her next to me. It’s been hard enough since we started this thing between us. Watching her is going to be torture now, knowing I have her heart. I’m completely fucked.

  Once she’s ready to go, I lead her to my ride and hold her hand the entire drive downtown. When we pull up in front of her shop, I don’t want to let her go. I want to turn around and spend days lost in her. She sees my hesitation to let her go and climbs in my lap like she has every other day I’ve dropped her off. Emily’s eyes bore into mine as she cups my stubbled cheeks.

  “You can watch me all day and know that I’m thinkin’ about you when I’m smiling. I’ll look down at your shop and know I’m safe because you’re lookin’ out for me. I love you, Garrett. Don’t question that,” she says ardently before pressing her lips to mine, waiting for me to take over.

  I take it. I kiss her until she’s moaning and rubbing her pussy against my dick, desperate to feel me again. When I finally release her mouth, we’re both breathless and panting.

  I push my door open and pat her ass. She slides off my lap and out of the car. Emily reaches her hand in for her purse, but I grab her wrist and pull her to me once again.

  “I love you so fuckin’ much,” I growl.

  “I feel it,” she assures me tenderly. “Have a good day.”

  “You too.”

  I press a kiss to her palm before handing her purse to her. She beams a bright smile at me and then floats up the stairs to her shop. I watch her until I can’t feel her anymore. Then I head home, waiting to find out how my little brother’s night partying like a teenager went.

  Emily’s out on a ride with Jordan. It’s a good thing she’s out because I’m fucking boiling. Cody hasn’t shown up and he hasn’t called. He’s also not returning my texts or answering his damn phone.

  I’m not a worrier. The kid’s been taking care of himself for a long time and doesn’t need me babying him. But I have a bad feeling, something in my gut telling me this is wrong.

  “Yello,” Clyde answers quickly.

  “Where’s the Donovan place?” I growl.

  “What’s wrong?” he retorts with concern.

  “Cody hasn’t shown and isn’t answering.”

  “He’s probably hungover. Sleepin’ it off,” he says dismissively.

  “He said he wasn’t drinkin’ and I can’t get a hold of Hunter either. Something’s not right.”

  “It’s about twenty miles north of Bluffside. Sits a mile off the highway up on a bluff. Can’t miss it.”

  “Thanks,” I grunt.

  “Let me know when you find him.”

  “Right.”

  I hang up and climb in my ride. It’s past noon at this point. I was actually hoping for a nice quiet Sunday with Cody and Emily. That’s such a foreign desire for me, I’m even more pissed that he’s not here. I can’t be mad at Emily for spending time with Jordan. I’ve completely monopolized her time for a week. She deserves a day with her friend.

  I wish I were a good enough guy to say I wasn’t bothered by it. I can rationally understand her need to continue her life with her friends and her business. My primitive brain doesn’t give a shit about rationality and wants to keep Emily at my side every breath she takes. Not that I’ll be telling her that.

  I speed up the two-lane highway and do my best to calm my anger. Cody’s sixteen. He’s going to do shit like this. He’ll get drunk and fuck up. He’ll forget to do the dishes. He’ll have a party and destroy my place at some point. He’s a kid and kid’s fuck up. I know that. I did that. I’m still fucking raging.

  I see a massive mansion hovering on a bluff in the distance and pull into the next gated driveway. There’s ornate ironwork surrounding the open gate displaying the Donovan name as I drive through. I don’t stop to announce my arrival. If you leave your gate open, don’t expect people to respect it.

  I stop in the circle drive next to a massive fountain littered with solo cups and other debris. The party clearly got out of hand. There are cars parked everywhere, including on the manicured lawn. One car is smashed through a set of sculpted hedges. I don’t spot the Mini though.

  I rub a frustrated hand across my stubble before climbing out of my ride. I ring the doorbell next to a massive double oak doorway and watch people scurrying away through the opaque glass panels nestled in the wood.

  I continue to ring the bell at an obnoxious rate. Finally, I see a figure striding toward the door. It’s a man. Not a teenager. I can tell by his size and gait.

  “Can I help you?” the man asks as he pulls the door open.

  He’s in jeans and a sweater with his almost black hair styled in a messy fashion. He doesn’t look hungover. He also looks way too old to be hosting a high school party and too young to be a parent.

  “Cody Matthews,” I grunt.

  “Nice to meet you, Cody. What is it you need?”

  Fucking idiot.

  “I’m lookin’ for my brother. Cody Matthews,” I growl.

  “Oh. I don’t know him. Have you tried callin’ him?”

  The douche in front of me doesn’t seem to want to let me in. He’s standing in the doorway holding the door closed around his body. What’s he hiding?

  “Yeah. I’ve tried callin’. Now I’m here lookin’. You gonna let me in or am I gonna move you?” I snarl, sick of this shit.

  “Look, I get you’re worried or whatever, but I’m not lettin’ you in my place,” he retorts, trying to buck up to me.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Brandon Donovan,” he says like that should mean something to me.

  “This is gonna go down two ways. You’re gonna move your punk ass outta my way and I’m gonna look for my brother without you bein’ a problem. Or, I’m gonna knock your ass out and look for my brother without you bein’ a problem. Make the smart choice.”

  I start moving toward him the instant I stop speaking. And there’s a gun in my face a moment later.

  “Motherfucker, you don’t know who you’re fuckin’ with,” he threatens, his pale grey eyes glimmering with power.

  A mistake.

  “I don’t give a fuck who you are,” I rumble before disarming him easily, grabbing the muzzle and cracking his wrist.

  Once his gun is in my hands, I throw it in the fountain and launch a fist into his face. Three more blows and he’s in a heap on the floor.

  I stalk through the house scanning every unconscious body I come upon. Many are naked or half dressed. Faces are smeared with fading paint and costumes are unrecognizable. I’m not finding a lot of teenagers either. What the fuck is going on?

  The women I’m passing look too familiar. Not that I know them, but I know what they are. Hookers are easy to spot, even high end ones. Whatever went on here last night wasn’t a high school Halloween party. My gut is spinning as I roam through room after room not finding Cody.

  I’ve cleared my way through the main floor of the monstrous house. Brandon is still in a heap on the floor as I climb the stairs to the second story. The bedrooms are full. Bodies tangled together some moaning as they go at it, others blissfully unaware I’m lifting their masks or turning them
over in search of my brother.

  He’s not here. I’ve covered several thousand square feet and he’s not here. I’m vibrating with rage when I make my way back down the stairs and find Brandon groaning. A swift kick to the back of his head has him out cold again.

  The basement is the only thing left. As I descend, I realize I’m entering something akin to a dungeon. The walls are black with only a handful of carefully placed recessed lights illuminating the space. I avoid taking in the torture and bondage areas riddled with more bodies and make my way to the doors at the back of the open space.

  I push the first one open and am met with a man getting his dick bitten hard by a chick with fangs dressed in black pleather. Neither pay any attention to me. I leave them to their kinky fuckery and enter the next room. It’s pitch black with no switch on the wall.

  “Cody!” I shout, pulling my phone out to use as a light.

  “Hunter!”

  I swing my phone around the room and find a door. I make my way to it, happy to find a switch on the wall outside of what I’m assuming is a closet.

  When I yank it open, fury can’t describe what unleashes within me. I drop to my knees and scoop my brother’s broken, mangled body up against my chest before hitting call on my phone.

  “What’s good, Sharp?” Devlin answers in a cheery tone.

  “Callin’ in my marker. Get to the Donovan place now,” I snarl.

  “What’re we lookin’ at?” He’s instantly cool and calculating.

  “Cody’s been fuckin’ worked over. Hunter too. I got a girl with ’em who looks about twelve.”

  They’re all three breathing, but it doesn’t look good. My brain’s working overtime trying to piece together the scene in front of me.

  “Ten minutes,” he grunts before hanging up.

  “Cody,” I urge him to wake up, running a hand over his buzzed head.

  His face is deformed from the beating he took. His knuckles look like raw hamburger meat from trying to fight back. I lay him back down on the ground and lift his shirt to find his torso black and blue. He’s covered in dried blood with a giant gash on the side of his head, barely breathing.

  For as bad as my brother looks, Hunter’s worse. The only reason I know it’s him is because of his bright green sneakers he always wears.

  The girl…she’s naked and she’s been whipped. There are long slashes along her back. I can’t bring myself to look at the rest of her.

  I tug my long-sleeved shirt over my head and cover her body with it before I climb to my feet. The problem with being a lifetime criminal is I don’t deal well with cops. I don’t call cops. I don’t let cops handle what’s mine. But these three need medical attention immediately. I have to make a decision. I have to decide how far into my past I’m willing to go to avenge my brother.

  I’m not doing shit until Devlin gets here. The only thoughts I have right now will have me back in prison sharing a cell with Daryl. And that feels like the right decision.

  I pace around the black room breathing. Taking one breath in and exhaling it, is the only thing I can do in this moment. I force my pulse to slow and my brain to calm with every breath until my phone chirps with a text.

  Devlin: Where you at?

  Me: Basement.

  I can hear screams from women and men alike as the Mayhem president makes his way to me. I step outside the room when the sound is close enough to announce his presence in the dungeon.

  He strides toward me, dragging a freshly beaten Brandon by the back of his shirt. Devlin’s face is a mask of murderous rage when he reaches me. Some of his brothers round up the people in the room, corralling them in the far corner at gunpoint.

  “Place is locked down. Where’s Cody?” Devlin snarls, kicking Brandon’s limp body after he drops him.

  I stalk away with him hot on my heels. When he sees the three kids, he launches a fist through the wall. I had outbursts like that once in my life. I’m in control of that rage now. It makes me a scarier opponent than Devlin. But we’re equally deadly.

  “They need a hospital,” he growls.

  “Yeah,” I grunt.

  Neither of us make a move as we both try to concoct a plan.

  “We get ’em outta here. Take ’em to the hospital. Tell the cops we found ’em in their car like this. Abandoned on the side of the road or some shit. Then we deal with this ourselves,” I talk out my plan.

  “I’m down with that shit,” he agrees.

  “Need your crew to find Emily’s car.”

  Devlin shouts for one of his guys and gets the search underway. Then he yells for another guy to help us move the kids. I want to carry my brother, but I feel a pull to get the girl out of here.

  Devlin must sense my struggle because he scoops Cody’s almost lifeless body from the ground and orders his man to get Hunter. When they’re out of the small space, I bend down and wrap my shirt further around the girl. Then I gently hold her to my chest and she begins to whimper in pain.

  “You’re okay,” I assure her as I move swiftly from the dungeon.

  “Hunter,” she rasps.

  “He’s okay too.”

  “Cody,” she mumbles before passing out again.

  Her ebony hair slides from her face as I reach the top of the stairs and get a good look at her for the first time. She looks just like Hunter.

  Alyssa.

  Fuck!

  I slide her body into the back of a van with my brother and Hunter before sprinting to my ride. I take off after the van, a few bikes in my wake.

  My phone rings a few minutes into our drive.

  “Found your woman’s car,” Devlin growls. “It was on the other side of the estate.”

  “Have your guys take it down the road somewhere and crash it into a ditch,” I instruct.

  “On it.”

  He hangs up and I continue to plot as we fly toward the hospital. With the state Alyssa’s in, I can’t swing a car accident as the cause. But I can play stupid with the best of them. I only need a day to get this shit dealt with. The sheriff isn’t equipped or quick enough to put together what happened before I get what I need. He can clean up whatever mess I leave behind. Because at this point, I have no doubt what’s about to happen is going to be violent destruction.

  Now I need to make the call that’s going to make this whole thing real.

  “Hey, Garrett,” her kind, loving voice filters into my ear.

  “Emily.” I can hear the emotion as I croak her name.

  “What’s wrong?” she’s immediately panicked.

  “Sugar, I need you to meet me at the hospital.”

  “Garrett, what’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. But Cody’s not.”

  “Oh my God! Jordan we gotta go to the hospital now!” I can hear her running and panting as she moves before his Corvette roars to life. “We’re on the way. Garrett, is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay,” she pleads.

  “It’s not good,” I grunt.

  “No,” she says quietly as her first tears fall.

  It breaks me. I roar like a feral animal and smash my fist into the steering wheel over and over until my knuckles split. I destroy my phone in the process like a fucking idiot. I don’t want Emily to see me like this. I don’t want her to experience pain. She deserves only good in her life.

  She loves Cody. It beams from her when she’s with my brother. This is going to wreck her. I have no idea what she’ll think about my plan. I won’t lie to her. I’ll be honest. And she’ll probably disagree and leave me for being the monster she believes is reformed.

  Tanya wasn’t the first person I killed. But she’s the only innocent life I’ve ever stolen. Wiping out scum isn’t an issue. If I’m honest, I feel something right now that I haven’t since before that night nine years ago. I’m excited. I’m excited to hunt. I’m excited to spill blood. And I’m fucking ecstatic at the prospect of taking the life of whoever hurt my brother. Because like Emily, I love the kid.


  When we pull into the hospital, I remember I need to fill Clyde in. I yank a burner phone out of my glove compartment. Old habits die hard.

  Me: Hospital.

  Clyde: On our way.

  Then I’m out of my ride grunting and growling at hospital workers to get the kids and to be fucking careful with them. Devlin’s my constant echo.

  They load up Alyssa and Hunter onto gurneys first, racing them into the ER. I hear the Corvette screech to a stop as Cody’s being removed from the van.

  “CODY!” Emily screams, flying to his side. “No, no, no,” she whispers over and over as she leans into his face.

  “Ma’am we need you to move,” some dude in scrubs says before placing a hand on her shoulder to push her aside.

  I’m about to rip his arm out of the socket when Emily shakes him loose and pins him with a murderous glare before turning back to Cody.

  “Cody, sweetheart, you’re gonna be okay. You hear me? You’ll be just fine. I love you,” she whispers, pressing a gentle kiss to his buzzed, bloody hair and steps back for him to be wheeled away.

  Jenna’s BMW almost hits us as she flies into the parking lot. She leaps out of the car and flings herself into Emily’s arms before I have a chance to get to my woman. Then Jordan’s on them, comforting both women in his arms.

  Devlin and I shoot each other a look that says we don’t like this, but we get it. Jordan’s softer than we are. Not weaker, softer. They need soft right now and I don’t have anything resembling softness in me in this moment.

  “Let’s go inside,” Jordan suggests quietly.

  Both women nod into his chest and walk into the hospital clinging to each other.

  “What the fuck happened?” Jordan demands, raking his fingers through his hair.

  “You want the truth or what we’re spinnin’?” Devlin responds.

  Jordan studies us each for a moment before I see the criminal that lives within him push to the surface.

  “Truth.”