by Hazel Grace
“You know damn fucking well that—“
“You don’t come back from those.” I shake my head and gaze up at him with a million apologies. “I won’t let you die on my watch.”
“You done?”
I release a defeated sigh. “No.”
“Be done for a minute then because we need to get out of here.” He guides me out of my shitty apartment, where Kyson is waiting for us by the front outside.
Everyone else is gone.
The men, Alexander, the rest of B723, like nothing happened.
“I told Lucien where to be.” Kyson won’t look at me, stiff as a board, and his jaw ticks. “I’ll meet you there.”
My brows furrow when he pivots and walks down the street but Bishop wastes no time, putting me into the front seat of Mill’s car. Police sirens blare a mile or two away and we dip out of this crummy neighborhood.
We don’t speak.
He actually puts the radio on to keep me from doing so.
He’s shutting me out again.
Lucien leaves the bedroom after cleaning our wounds and bitches on his way out. I don’t hear what he says—don’t care—all I can do is sit idly by as Emmy gingerly puts another clean t-shirt on.
I watch her white hair hit the sun, and it reminds me that we could be anywhere else but here. We could leave everything behind.
She turns her neck to look at me, worry frowned in her features as she takes a few slow steps forward.
I can’t stand to look at her lips.
My stomach has been knotting just remembering that vision of Alexander with her on her knees.
We’re not done, not by a long shot, but not only do they have unfinished business but, he shoved his dick in her mouth.
I’m surprised she didn’t bite it off, but I guess that was to save my ass.
“Bishop,” she starts, but my hand is already up and demanding that she stop. We have shit to talk about before we walk in that front room and kill Alexander together. We need everything, and I mean everything out in the open.
“I was raped when I was ten,” I tell her, watching her face pale and widen in shock. “By a man who used to deal cocaine to my mother. It went on again with his buddies, but Kyson saved me from most of them that time. It never happened again, but it didn’t mean that Hardy and Scarlett weren’t in danger. I guess you can say I shut down for everyone that wasn’t in my life at that moment. Camilla became my everything when Scar and Hardy were taken back by their dad. I needed…a crutch, I suppose, someone to look after. She was pretty and smart and wanted to get out of the trailer park as much as I did.”
Emmy closes some distance between us, but she remains silent and doesn’t make a move to touch me. She just waits for me to get my past off my chest for her to know, deal with and understand.
“She got into drugs, as you know, and I…tried to save her. Kyson tried to save her. She was deadweight, someone that just didn’t want to be free of her vices. So, I left. I never looked back. I loved her, and I abandoned her for my own well-being. Then you came along…and I could not not pay attention to you. You were incredibly gorgeous and headstrong, and something Camilla never was.”
“What was that?” she whispers softly, tears forming in her honey browns.
“Courage. You dealt with four asshole dudes and didn’t become one of them. You stood for your own identity and strengths. You loved even though it wasn’t welcomed sometimes and annoyed the shit out of us, but you kept doing it anyway. You wore everyone down, especially me…I swear to God you chipped away at me every day until we were in Vegas.”
“I tend to annoy people into liking me, yes.”
“I loved you. I hated that I loved you. I denied that I cared for you so deeply and truly that I pushed you away. Then, well…it was the perfect opportunity to make you mine if only for one night of happiness, to call you my wife. And even then, I couldn’t let you go.”
“I love you too, Bish. But—“
“I can’t deal with this anymore,” I quake, clutching my hands into fists. “I can’t worry about you to death, and what will happen if I’m not there in time. I’m a wreck for you already, Ems, and you almost annihilated me once with dying, please…don’t do it again.”
Her brows knit. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to quit, baby. I don’t want you here anymore. I need this to be the last thing you do to finalize everything so you can move on.”
“Move on?” She narrows her eyes. “Without you? Are you breaking up with me? Are you ending this?” Her palms land into my chest, shoving me hard against the drywall of her room before I get to tell her no.
It’s not what I want.
I just want her amongst bullets flying and men who are clearly off their shit.
“Fuck you,” she seizes out then, her teeth visible as she spits out the words. “You can’t do this if you want us. Alaric, Atlas, and me. You can’t just go.”
“I don’t want to. You’re—“
“Don’t tell me how much I mean to you, show me. I want you to fight for me.”
“I’d kill everything and everyone in your path, Emmy,” I profess. “Don’t you see that? I’d take out God for you. I want you to quit B723 with the physical shit, but I can’t. I want to be selfish as fuck because it’s how I deal, but I can’t deal with you being there—here. Not like this. Not with the kids. And not with my undiagnosed high blood pressure that I’m sure I have. I don’t want to take my hurt out on you anymore, so I will on other people. It’ll always be there, embedded in my brain. Fuck, I had to watch you take another man’s dick to save me.”
“So the fuck what?!”
My nostrils flare and I clutch my fists tighter. “Are you serious? Do you think I want that for you? The mother of my children, the love of my life to be used and fucking molested like that? I will do anything to keep you from that fate. To suffer another ounce of what I have.”
She puts space between us, and I believe she’s going to bitch at me some more, but she remains quiet.
That’s when I know something’s wrong.
Again, silent Emmy scares the shit out of me.
The imagination on this woman is astounding, and God fucking knows what she’s cooking up in her head. What she believes I demand for the future.
“I’ve already thought about…quitting,” she says, staring into my chest. “With the kids, I can’t be doing this.” I bob my head up and down because it’s what I want her to do, selfish or not. “But you’re not leaving me.”
“Fine.” That gets me a punch to the chest this time and a very angry blonde within an inch of me. “Stop hitting me. You’re gonna fuck up your side.”
“I want more than a fine. I want that you’re not gonna pull this shit on me every time we fight. That you’re not gonna run away from me.”
“I’m not gonna run away from you.”.
Emmy sets her jaw then steps away from me again, her fingers clasping over the hem of her new shirt, and she tosses it carelessly aside. “Last chance…”
“For?”
She undoes her bra and lets it fall to the floor, exposing her beaded breasts. “Me.”
“We’ve already accomplished that I want you, Emmy.” My cock twitches and stirs willingly like it’s game time, and she’s ready to play.
“This is us about to enter war. You choose now if you come out with me after it. When Alexander is gone, I’m free…from everything.”
I shake my head. “Not everything.” Leaning in, I smell her peachy scent mixed with blood. It makes my cock rock hard with lust and need that if not for her wound, I’d tackle her ass to the ground. “Not from me.”
Emmy reaches for my jeans and quickly undoes the button. I snatch one of her wrists, but she uses the other to jerk down and expose my cladded cock in boxers.
“I want to taste you,” she croons ever so softly. “I need to be washed away of—“ I hurl her forward, so she hits my chest, and my gun wound slams into the wall. I
grit my teeth against the pain and peer down at my beautiful little warrior.
The strongest of us all.
She stands up on her tiptoes to slowly close the distance, but I’m too impatient, doing it for her when our mouths mesh and fight.
We battle to forget and move on. To be united but our own person.
Picking her up by her ass, I lean against the wall and welcome the sharp burn of pain from her weight on my bad leg and the pressure on my shoulder.
I grip the edges of the sweatpants she changed into and yank them over her ass. I get them to the middle of her thighs and use one arm to keep her up while I tear the rest of one off her legs.
Emmy moans into my mouth, tasting me with her tongue as I pull her panties aside.
She reaches down between us, wraps her warm hand around my cock, and positions me.
I don’t wait.
I can’t.
I thrust inside and welcome myself home.
I grunt as the discomfort trails down my chest but also at how wet and tight Emmy’s cunt is. To die like this, it’s the perfect case scenario.
To be Emmy’s is a dream.
“Your gunshot,” my woman mutters against my lips. “I—“ Her lips clamp shut as I hit a deep part inside her that makes us both growl and moan in response.
“It looks like we get another honeymoon, baby. You still gonna marry me?”
She bobs her head. “Yes.”
“We gonna let everyone know this time?” I thrust hard to make sure I get that point across.
“Fuck…yes.”
“Fuck yes to my dick, baby, or fuck yes to the family part?” Her fingers lace through my hair and she yanks hard. Exposing my neck and settling her face between my fucked up shoulder and column of my throat.
I spread her ass with my palms and Emmy’s lips clasp around the side of my neck. She sucks and licks then whispers in my ear, “Are you going to come inside me?”
“Geezus fucking Christ.” My cock practically spasms inside her, and my balls tighten so hard that I’m less than a minute away from ending this.
I can feel Emmy’s shaking breaths as I impale her over and over. My bad leg begins to tremble, and Emmy brings her face back to mine.
She opens her mouth, probably to tell me to stop so I don’t hurt myself, but I propel mine into hers.
I’m not stopping.
Especially when my girl just told me to bust my entire load inside her.
My jaw locks, and she bites down on my lower lip, my orgasm creeping up so fast to where I’m going to finish first if she doesn’t hurry.
I slam my head into the drywall behind me to give me some sort of distraction when I hear Emmy giggle.
“Bish?”
“What?”
“Look at me.” I do, falling on lust-filled eyes that do nothing to help me. “I love you, present tense.”
I bob my head, feeling her squeezing me like a vice and I’m trying to chill the hell out.
“Always fuck me until you can’t see.” Her lips come up to the corner of my mouth and to my cheek. “I can’t wait for you to get me pregnant—“ I come so hard that I barely hold on to her and myself against the wall.
I repeatedly plunge inside her until I can’t breathe right and she follows me, milking my cock dry.
“Fuck,” I roar against her cheek.
“Again?”
“Baby,” I warn, gently placing her down. The moment her feet hit the floor, we hear an agonizing male scream from her living area.
Emmy jolts and I pull her into me. “The boys are having fun first, let them. They’re upset and they can’t fuck you so let them fuck him up.”
She nods. “Okay.” She lifts her chin. “Can Lucien come in now?”
“Not until you put your clothes back on.”
She smiles at me, puts on her bra and shirt, and opens the door to call out for the doc.
He comes back in, bitches at the fresh blood on her side, and glowers at me.
He knows what the hell I did.
And I don’t give a fuck.
There is so much blood on the black tarps that I can actually see the deep color contrast against it. Alexander is half-conscious; the boys had already done a number on him while Lucien was half-ass operating on Bishop’s shoulder, getting the bullet out and stitching him up. To Bishop’s utter displeasure and qualms of “being a waste of time”.
He wants this done and behind me.
I’m anxious as all hell.
The scene outside my bedroom was the darker side of B723. Each member leaving their signature mark on his flesh.
Marty’s waterboarding and a deep gash to his gash to Alexander’s bicep where he’s cut the sleeve of his shirt off.
Kyson skinning his forearm, neck, and collarbone to where I don’t see any skin remaining.
Mills and a car battery. Add that with Marty’s water, and you have what he calls his Pikachu lightning bolt or some shit.
Then Blue, the girl is a mess with the crap she likes to pull, but Alexander has a gunshot and a few stab wounds to the other leg. The end of her knife still poking from his thigh.
Bishop walks out with me, fingers laced in mine, capturing the immediate attention of the room. Four pairs of eyes fall on us, each holding a different emotion.
Rage.
Bitterness.
Sadness.
And proud.
Mills steps forward first, his face solemn until he stands in front of me, cracking his boyish smile. “We left a little bit of him for you, Lou Boo.”
I open my mouth to tell him thank you, but I choke on a sob.
Bishop squeezes my hand tighter, and Mill wraps his arms around me, letting me take comfort in his chest for a moment.
“Let’s end this and move on,” he mutters against my temple.
Prying myself away, I give him a nod before he steps to my other side and allows Blue to stand up to me.
“Make him cry like a bitch, Emmy Lou,” she conveys, not holding the same frisky and teasing tone she always carries. It’s anger and full of disdain. Even a little bit of guilt.
Marty is third up.
Damn, I feel like him and I just rescue his whole life, and now he’s doing it for mine.
His hazel eyes glue to my browns, and he’s so angry he can barely contain it. His face is flushed, not being able to allow it to pass and relax.
“We’re a family,” he says with grit in his tone. “No matter what happens next…we’re a family.”
“I know.”
“Fuck him up, and let’s go get some fresh air.” He kisses my forehead and bro-hugs it out with Bishop before falling in line with the rest of us.
Then Kyson comes in.
The man who has barely spoken to me since I faked my own death. The guy who is like a big brother to me. The kind you can tell shit to, but don’t dare let him on the shady dealings like having a one-night stand because he’ll kill, filet, or tell you hell no.
Then the person you slept with would be put on the endangered species list.
“Little Ems.” His voice is gentle, just like it always is. He towers over me as Bishop does, almost the same height, brothers since kids, the one who still can’t hide his disappointment in me. “We’re all here. You say the word, and we’ll take care of the rest. No judgment, no questions, no speaking of this ever again.”
“Kyson…I—“ He jerks me out of Bishop’s hold and hugs me so tightly I can’t breathe.
However, I’m content here.
“I barely kept it together,” he verifies in my hair. “I felt like I failed you.” I violently shake my head, his nose rubbing my locks. “We want this done for you. Bishop is going to be right behind. No one fucks with family. Kill the fucker, protect your kids, and let’s go home.”
“K.” He gently gives me back to Bishop when a familiar arm wraps around my waist and leans in to whisper in my ear.
“A month from now, you’ll be my wife for real, for real. Rings and every fuck
ing thing. You, Reagan, and Stormi can plan it out. I’ll do whatever you say and want as long as I get to kiss and fuck you goodnight.” He kisses my temple. “This is retribution. Let’s defend our kids. They’re waiting for us.”
With a lot of hesitation, I flick my eyes to Alexander, who is an absolute mess. But his brown eyes bore so much hatred into me that everything I’ve learned in B723 is gone.
There is no courage that runs through my veins, no bravery. I feel battered and broken—just as extreme as him—when I stand at a distance face-to-face with him.
“Our kids,” Bishop whispers. “And I’m going to show you how to do this Bishop style since you’re gonna become one.”
His bow shows up in front of me, and I take it, feeling the slight heaviness of it as Alexander’s grim tone sears through me.
“You’re gonna kill me, Emmy?” he challenges, his dark brown eyes clenching deeper. “What will you tell our kids?”
“What kids?” Marty taunts back for me. “You’re a little boy who deflected his temper on the wrong woman.”
Bishop sets up an arrow, black with red flares at the back, ignoring him and focusing on me.
“They’ll never forgive you,” my ex snaps angrily through his teeth that are crimson with blood. “You’re gonna keep him around to raise my fucking kids!”
“Lean against me,” Bishop croons, pulling me back harder into his chest. “I got you, baby. He’s trying to sike you out.”
“The dude shit his pants, Ems,” Mills points out. “Who’s really scared here?”
“Why do you think we’re all standing on this side,” Marty adds as Blue chuckles down the line.
“And to stand behind the fiercest female we know,” Kyson voices from behind us.
“Grip the bow firmly, but don’t squeeze too hard,” Bishop directs me. “You don’t want the tension on your right hand.”
I loosen my hold a little and Alexander startles me, jerking forward like he’s going to jump out of the chair and beeline straight for me.
“Bitch!” he shouts. “I have a whole life planned out for us. I fucking told you that I loved you!”
