Theirs to Pleasure: a Reverse Harem Romance

by Stasia Black

Slower.

  Slower.

  Finally, they rolled to a stop.

  Then she heard voices.

  Shay couldn’t hear perfectly, but she got enough. Someone was asking what they were hauling. Where they were going.

  And then Henry’s strong, confident voice answered in return. The back window of the truck was open so she could hear him better than the other man.

  “We got reassigned while the boss is gone. It’s like a ghost town around here, huh? All hands on deck.”

  The other voice said something Shay couldn’t make out.

  “Yeah, I hear ya,” Henry said, laughing. “All right. Stay outta the sun. Looks like we’re gonna be roastin’ today.”

  The voice responded and Henry laughed again, then clapped his hand on the side of the truck before pulling forward again.

  Only after they were going at a good clip did Shay relax, letting out a huge breath of relief.

  “Holy shit,” Charlie whispered.

  “Yeah,” Shay said with a shaky laugh. She turned her head to look at Rafe. He didn’t say anything, but she looked down and saw he was palming a huge knife in the same hand he was using to hold the tarp down.

  Her eyes popped wide open again before she decided, you know what? How about she just kept them shut for the rest of the ride?

  One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four— She counted to sixty. Then did it again, over and over again. How long did it take to drive up to Jason’s? Five minutes? Ten? How fast were they going?

  God this was torturous. The waiting before they got there and she could finally hold Matt and Nic—

  The truck slowed down again and her entire body went rigid. Shit. They’d gotten off easy with that last stop. They hadn’t even tried to check the back of the truck. No way they’d get that lucky a second time.

  Shay only barely stifled her shriek when the tarp was ripped back.

  “Shhh,” Henry said, his head suddenly appearing in the too bright sunshine. “We’re here.”

  Shay blinked, covering her eyes as she sat up. They’d stopped on an empty stretch of road. The mansion was about a quarter mile’s walk up ahead.

  “Jesus, I almost sliced your face off,” Rafe muttered.

  Henry stepped back once he saw Rafe’s knife and Jonas chuckled. “Aw, pretty boy’s face might have been ruined. Tragedy of tragedies.”

  “Do you always have to be obnoxious?”

  “The answer to that is obviously yes,” Jonas quipped back.

  “Quiet, all of you,” Rafe snapped, keen eyes looking up and down the road. “Move out.”

  Henry just lifted his chin and shook his head at Jonas. Then he held out a hand to Shay. “Let’s go.”

  Shay took his hand and Charlie moved to her other side, a hand at her back, eyes moving left and right, as alert as Rafe.

  He was so laid back most of the time she forgot that he’d lived a whole life before she met him.

  They moved into the woods and approached from around back of the house. No one else said a word and Shay tried to walk as quietly as she could but every branch that cracked underfoot sounded as loud as a gunshot in her ears.

  Yes security would hopefully be less than usual, but there was no way Jason would leave his house completely unguarded.

  Especially with the children there. He might not care if Matthew lived or died, but Nicole he had a certain fatherly pride for. It helped that she had a lot of his features, something Shay had thanked God for more than once over the years. No matter how many times Jason had lost his temper with Shay and beat her and Matthew, he’d never laid a hand on Nicole.

  Finally the woods stopped and there was a brief clearing before the fence line that marked the back of the property.

  Rafe pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked through one of the warped slats in the wooden fence.

  “All right, it’s like you said,” he whispered. “I see one guard patrolling the west side of the house. And Jesus, does that pool actually have water in it?”

  Shay didn’t bother responding. Jason had the roof covered in the biggest and best solar panels. Wasting energy on things like a pool pump meant nothing to him.

  “Okay,” Shay breathed out. “If he hasn’t changed anything, then there’ll be another guard on the other side of the house.”

  Rafe gave one sharp nod, then he and Charlie went right up to the fence and propped their knees against it for Shay to use as stepping stools. She used them to climb up and boost herself over the sturdy wooden fence.

  As soon as her head popped over the top of the fence, the barking started up.

  “Hurry,” Jonas whispered.

  She bit back her annoyance as she pulled her body up and hiked one leg over the fence. Did he think she was moving anything other than her fastest? For Christ’s sake.

  She ignored the dark blurs streaking across the back lawn toward her. Okay, she had one leg over.

  Now the other.

  Almost.

  Almooooooooost.

  There.

  She dropped to the manicured lawn just as the two Dobermans reached her and leapt.

  “Who’s a good boy?” she asked, giving Tito a good scratch behind his ears as he climbed all over her, almost knocking her off her feet.

  “Oh I’m sorry, Killer, are you feeling neglected?” Shay turned to the other dog and rubbed underneath his chin. Killer immediately flipped on his back and exposed his belly for her to scratch.

  Shay gave him a good belly rub, careful to keep her voice relaxed and easy. “You boys haven’t changed at all, have you. You’re still such big softies.”

  She continued showering attention on the dogs while the others came over the fence. Killer only flipped off his back and went into his attack stance once, growling and showing all his very sharp teeth at Rafe.

  “Killer,” Shay admonished sharply. “No. These are friends.”

  Killer whined and turned to her, nuzzling at her hand like he hated her displeasure. “It’s all right, boy,” she said more softly. “That’s a good boy. You’re still mama’s good boy. Here.” She pulled out homemade beef jerky from a little pouch they’d brought with them and fed him some.

  Not to be left out when it came to treats, Tito was immediately trying to nose Killer out of the way.

  She briefly looked up and met Rafe’s gaze. He nodded and then he and Charlie were off, running swiftly across the lawn.

  Shay kept cooing to the dogs and scratching them while Rafe went and… did what Rafe did. Even one armed, she suspected the man was far more lethal than anyone had a right to be. Probably better if she never knew the details.

  “All right, all right,” Shay said, keeping her voice light and pulling more jerky out. “There’s enough for everyone.”

  ***

  Ten minutes later, they were in the house. It was just as cold and forbidding as she remembered. A huge central staircase led to the second story, with banisters branching out to both sides. To the left, another staircase led up to the third floor. There were rooms up there that sat empty for years. It had always been way too much house for the four of them, but Jason demanded the best.

  A quick search of the first floor revealed an empty house. Rafe went to head up stairs, but Shay grabbed his arm and pointed to the door that led down to the basement.

  To the apartment she and the children had always shared.

  Charlie was ahead of them and reached for the door handle.

  It didn’t budge. It was locked.

  Locked from the outside.

  Were Matthew and Nicky down there? Had Jason locked them and whoever their nanny was in while he went off to fight? It would certainly be in character.

  “Open it,” Shay whispered, hating the thought of them down there, afraid and confused by their father’s whims and rages.

  Charlie nodded and pulled out a Leatherman, quickly going to work on the door. While the house was flooded with light from the mid-morning sun, Shay pulled the candle and li
ghter out of her back pocket and lit it, then shoved the lighter back in her pocket.

  She hoped Travis hadn’t been cruel enough to lock them down there without any source of light… but he’d done it before.

  It wasn’t that the house didn’t have electricity, because yeah, the solar panels. There was energy to spare. It was just another means of psychological warfare for him.

  She remembered endless hours in the dark, clutching Nicole and Matthew to her side. She’d tried to make a game of learning to guess what things were by using all their other senses than sight.

  “What do you think this is, baby?”

  “A ow-ange!” little Nicole squealed.

  “Okay, what about this one?”

  “It’s a— It’s a— Um… What do you think, Matty?”

  And then Matthew’s confident voice in the dark, always so sure and strong even though he was still just a boy. “It’s a deck of cards, silly. Can’t you smell the old paper smell?”

  The lock finally clicked and Shay all but barreled down the door in her eagerness to push it open and rush down the stairs.

  “Wait,” Rafe called but Shay had waited long enough.

  The basement was dark. Pitch black except for her candle. Jason was such a fucking bastard. Cutting the lights while he was gone on his military victory was just plain spiteful.

  “Matt?” she called. “Matty? Nicole? Honey? It’s Mommy.”

  She swung the candle around as she hurried across the living room. Everything was so familiar.

  Travis hadn’t changed a thing since she’d left two years ago. There was still the overstuffed tan couch with those horrible orange throw pillows. The knitted afgan blanket with the cows on it crumpled and hanging haphazardly off one side, like Nicky had just been curled up on it while Matt read to her for an hour each morning.

  “Matt?” She hurried through the small kitchenette. There was a bowl of half-eaten cereal on the counter. With milk still in it.

  Oh God, where were they? Did something— Had Travis—

  “Shay, wait—” Charlie called from behind her.

  “Matty?” Her voice was on the edge of hysterical as she shoved open the door to the bedroom where they all used to sleep.

  And breathed out a huge breath of relief.

  Because her two little angels were right there. Asleep in their beds. She couldn’t help her cry of relief.

  It happened sometimes during the dark days. They’d lose track of day and night and sleep on and off at odd hours.

  The room looked the exact same as always. Shay held up her candle. The mural she’d painted on the wall of a window looking out on a bright meadow hadn’t been covered over. She’d hung gauzy curtains to complete the illusion and they were still up too.

  How many hours had she and the kids spent in front of that painting, daydreaming about the life they’d one day have outside this prison?

  Now they could start that new life.

  Shay hurried over to the closest bed. “Matt. Nicky. Guys, wake up.”

  She went closer to Matt’s bed and reached for his shoulder to shake him.

  “Matt—”

  She screeched as soon as her hand made contact.

  Because it wasn’t a warm little boy’s shoulder.

  It was a pillow.

  She ripped back the blanket and saw what she’d first mistaken for her son was just artfully arranged pillows.

  “Shay,” called Charlie and Rafe. They were just outside the bedroom. Any second they’d come in.

  But Shay was frozen.

  Because suddenly the room was flooded with blinding light. And right beside her, Jason himself stepped out of the closet with a gun trained on her.

  “Run,” she screamed. “It’s a trap!

  Chapter 34

  SHAY

  The room flooded with light and to her horror, Shay saw that it wasn’t just Travis.

  Four guards stood up from where they must have been crouching at the same time as her clansmen barreled into the room—

  “No!” she cried, uselessly holding up the candle when she saw that everyone in the room was pointing a gun at one another.

  Oh God, oh God, oh God, what had she done?

  Jason won. Always.

  Good didn’t triumph over evil.

  Life wasn’t a fucking fairytale. In the real world, the strongest, most devious, evil motherfuckers won.

  She’d known. She’d known there was no point standing up against him. What had she done? Now they’d all die.

  Everyone she loved. Because of her.

  Oh God.

  “Drop it,” Travis demanded.

  “Like hell,” Rafe said, moving his gun from pointing at a guard to directly at Travis’s head.

  Then all of the sudden, Travis moved, jerking Shay in front of him like a shield. She screamed and fought his hold. At least until she felt the cold barrel of a gun against her temple.

  “Well hello there, baby,” Travis growled into her ear. She went stiff with revulsion at his voice and the feel of him behind her. He ground the tip of the gun into her skin until she cried out again. “Fancy finding you here. I thought I ordered you to plant my little boxes and not to say a word of our arrangement.

  “So imagine my disappointment when a birdy told me you were doing the exact opposite of my instructions. And to think, I actually believed you when you said you’d learned your lesson last time.”

  He grabbed her shoulder, digging his thumb painfully into the spot where he’d branded her.

  She gritted her teeth, determined not to give him the satisfaction of another reaction.

  “Where are the kids?” she asked.

  He laughed. “I’m standing here with a gun at your head and you think you get to be the one asking questions? You’re a faithless bitch. I’m not telling you anything!”

  He looped his arm around her neck and squeezed, cutting off her air supply. She turned and twisted, her free hand going to his arm.

  But it was no use.

  “Colonel Travis!” Henry yelled. “Let’s be reasonable. We can all walk out of here.”

  Henry held up his hands and then slowly, carefully, lowered his gun to the floor.

  No. He couldn’t give up!

  “What are you doing?” Shay gasped with the little breath she had left. And even as she said it, she realized she believed it. They couldn’t give up.

  It didn’t matter if Travis was always destined to win. If the weak never had any chance against the strong.

  Some things were worth fighting for, even if it meant fighting to the end. The bitter, bitter end.

  Shay ignored the tear that dropped down her cheek.

  “Go! Find— the— kids.” She could barely get the words out, Travis’s grip was so tight. Black spots started dotting her vision, but she fought them. She wrestled against Travis’s arm enough to say, “I don’t care if he kills me. Find them—”

  “Stop it, Shay,” Charlie snapped, gun moving back and forth between several guards. It looked surprisingly natural in his hands. “We’re not going anywhere without you.”

  “You have to,” Shay rasped. “Just promise. Promise you’ll save them.”

  “Enough of this melodramatic bullshit,” Travis said, tightening his grip. It was only when he did that Shay realized he hadn’t really been holding her with real killing intent before.

  Oh God.

  It was really happening now.

  She was going to die.

  She felt her grip around the candle loosening as her strength ebbed.

  And then her eyes widened.

  The candle!

  Why hadn’t she thought of—

  “Enough,” Henry shouted, taking a step forward. “Arnold, enough. Put the gun down. We had a deal.”

  Chapter 35

  HENRY

  Dammit, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

  Shay was never supposed to know.

  But Travis was obviously a fucking lunatic. Henry s
hould have known making a deal with him would bite him in the goddamned ass.

  But at the time, when Travis had first approached him last year while he was on a diplomatic trade mission to West Texas, he’d dangled everything Henry had ever wanted in front of him.

  A wife—and not just any wife, but the most beautiful wife Henry had ever seen.

  Luxuries beyond anything that could be bartered for by traditional means.

  No more democratic allocation of resources like Commander Wolford so stubbornly insisted on in Jacob’s Well.

  Shouldn’t the new world be a meritocracy? Men should enjoy what they earned. What they deserved.

  Henry had worked hard his entire life for the American dream. Only there was no more America. But there was Texas.

  And Henry had been around long enough to know that it was men like Travis who would be writing the future history books.

  So what was he doing hitching his wagon to a backwards thinker like Commander Wolford when here Arnold Travis was, offering him a place in the new world?

  It had all made so much sense at the time.

  “What are you talking about?” Shay asked in a raw, shaky voice. That meant Travis wasn’t cutting off her air supply. Thank God.

  Henry breathed out, his entire body shaking.

  Okay. Okay. He could still salvage this. It had all gone tits up but he could fix it. He’d been in worse spots before.

  It was time for damage control.

  “Baby, it’s not what you think,” Henry said.

  “You’re not working for him?” she asked, eyes full of hurt and hope. Hope that he’d tell her he wasn’t working for Travis.

  “Just listen a second. It’s not like that. I’m just trying to give us the best future, okay? We have to think about this long term. For all of us. You, me, the kids—”

  “What about everyone in Jacob’s Well—?” she cried, her voice breaking. “What about our stepsons?”

  “No, no,” Henry shook his head rapidly. She wasn’t hearing him. She just needed to listen. “They’re fine. Everyone in Jacob’s Well is fine.”

  “How can you say that?” Tears rolled down her cheeks and more than anything he wanted to go over, shove that fucking bastard off her, and gather her in his arms.