Theirs to Pleasure: a Reverse Harem Romance

by Stasia Black

  “I swear, they’re all safe,” he pleaded for her to understand. “You know me. You know I love the boys. I’d never hurt them. They aren’t the target. Travis’s troops moved right past Jacob’s Well. They didn’t fight anyone there. Baby, please, you have to believe me.”

  She just kept shaking her head, more tears running down her cheeks.

  He looked to Travis to confirm everything he was saying but the bastard just sat there with a smug smile like he was enjoying the show.

  Henry’s jaw hardened but then he looked back to Shay and his chest felt scooped out by how miserable she looked.

  “I swear I’m telling the truth. He never wanted Jacob’s Well. He wants the capitol. That’s why he assassinated President Goddard. That’s where the troops were really headed. He was just using Jacob’s Well as a diversion to draw some of the troops away from Fort Worth and to get everyone’s attention off—”

  “You—” Shay gasped. “It was you who replaced the battery in my sculpture. Or cell phone. You made it so it could detonate.”

  Henry swallowed, looking down briefly. Yes, he had replaced the receiver. And he’d had a hell of a time getting it past security too. But none of that mattered now.

  He straightened, standing tall and looking her in the eye. “You saw what a despicable human being President Goddard was first hand. No one will miss that man.”

  “You killed him,” Shay whispered. “You killed a man.”

  But Henry just shook his head. This was bullshit. Why wasn’t she even trying to understand? “I did what needed to be done so I could give you and our family the life you deserve. Don’t you want to give your children the best of everything. All the things you didn’t have when you were growing up?”

  When she just kept looking at him, those damn tears still flowing, he pressed even harder. “You were almost as poor as I was. More than any of them,” he gestured around them without taking his eyes off her, “you should understand what it’s like. But we can have it all, don’t you see? The whole world will be at our feet!”

  “Henry,” she shook her head, horror and… was that pity, in her eyes? Pity, from her? He stumbled back a step. It hurt worse than a blow would have.

  No, no, she just didn’t understand. He had to make her listen. If she would just—

  “Henry,” she whispered again, devastation clear in her voice. “Didn’t you see the brand on my back? He’ll never let me go.”

  Wait. What?

  He paused, brow furrowing. He’d expected more accusations or tears, but—

  “She’s right, you know.”

  Henry’s eyes lifted to Travis just in time to see him move the gun from Shay’s temple to aim it at him.

  Then there was a noise that made his ears hurt.

  Something knocked him backwards off his feet and then his chest was on fire.

  What the fuck had just—

  He looked down.

  Red blossomed on his white shirt.

  Wait—

  No, this was—

  Wrong, this was wro—

  He looked up for Shay but she wasn’t there.

  Instead there was fire. Curtains. The curtains were on fire. Why were there curtains in a basement? Screaming. Bang. Bang.

  Shay.

  Where was she?

  His picture of his life. Shay standing beside him. So beautiful. So proud. His.

  Why wasn’t she beside him?

  This wasn’t how it was supposed to—

  Why was it so cold?

  He couldn’t feel his—

  Shay.

  Why didn’t she come?

  SHAY, he screamed.

  Shay.

  The picture. They both had gray hair. They were surrounded by grandchildren. So proud. She was still beautiful. It was the light inside her that made her beautiful. She made him warm when everything was cold. He never knew how cold life was until he met her.

  Until she made it warm.

  Shay.

  Please come. Come and make me warm again. Please.

  It was so cold.

  Colder than he’d ever been.

  Colder than the closet when Mama made him hide. Don’t lock me in with no blankets, Mama! Please, I just want to be warm.

  Mama?

  Shay?

  Please.

  Chapter 36

  SHAY

  Five Minutes Earlier

  Shay knew Travis would kill Henry.

  She knew the second she realized what Henry had done. That he’d been Travis’s Plan B all along.

  For one, Henry kept calling her his wife, which would have been enough all on its own to set Travis off—though Travis occasionally liked to humiliate her by letting his friends fuck her, he was insanely jealous. As soon as his friends left, he usually took out his jealous rages on her and sometimes, if the ‘friend’ was unlucky, on them too.

  But even without that, Henry was too ambitious. Too intelligent.

  Except when it counted.

  God, Henry, why? She thought of their last night together. Of how tenderly he held her. His kisses that made her melt. The fervent way he’d always made love to her.

  And she wept.

  There was no way Henry was making it out of this room alive.

  She wept.

  And kept asking Henry question after question, even knowing as she did it that it would egg Travis on.

  “Henry,” she whispered, her heart breaking. “Didn’t you see the brand on my back? He’ll never let me go.”

  Henry paused, looking momentarily confused.

  She cried even more even as she braced herself. Travis’s grip around her neck had loosened more and more as she and Henry talked. He always did love gloating when he bested someone. If ever someone loved pouring salt on an open wound, it was Arnold Jason Travis.

  “She’s right, you know.”

  The second the gun swung away from her temple, she threw the candle behind her toward the curtain. It was a flimsy organza and within seconds, whoosh, the entire thing was aflame.

  She heard the gunshot but she didn’t look.

  Couldn’t look.

  She took advantage of the momentary confusion to twist and knee Jason in the groin.

  “Ooof,” he coughed, doubling over.

  She grabbed his gun out of his loose grip, each of her movements executed just like she’d been envisioning over and over in her head throughout the last five minutes while she talked to Henry.

  After all, when a man’s clutching his balls, the last thing he’s thinking about is holding tight to his gun.

  She aimed the gun at Jason’s head. “Where are they?” she shouted.

  It was chaos all around her. There’d been more gunshots than just Jason’s and out of her periphery, she could see men fighting. Jason’s guards and her clan. But she couldn’t spare a second’s attention. More of the room was catching fire by the second and the smoke was only making everything more insane.

  “If I tell you, you’ll just shoot me,” he yelled back. “Not much incentive.”

  “Shay,” Charlie came up beside her, coughing. “We have to get out of here!”

  “Where are the children?” she screamed.

  And then she moved the gun, aimed for Jason’s kneecap, and pulled the trigger.

  He screamed and lunged for her. “You fucking bitch!”

  Charlie pulled her back and Jason collapsed on the ground, his face mottled with fury as he pushed himself up with his hands and yelled, “Stand down!”

  The scuffles around them stopped but still, Shay didn’t take her eye off Jason for one goddamned second. Even though she could see Henry on the ground right beside him. Unmoving, his shirt that used to be white now completely red.

  There was so much blood, Jason’s hands were slipping in it.

  Oh God. She forced her shaking hand steady and swallowed back the tears.

  Later.

  She’d mourn Henry properly later.

  “Get me up the goddamned
stairs,” Jason yelled to his men.

  “No,” Shay said, aiming the gun back at Jason’s head again. “Tell me where the children are.”

  “Go ahead, bitch,” he snarled, spit flying from his mouth. “Then we all die.”

  What? What did that mean?

  “Are they in the house?” Her stomach dropped through her feet.

  Oh God. What if they were in the house? She’d just assumed that since this had been a trap and Jason had known there’d be guns involved, he’d have sent the children somewhere safe.

  But if he hadn’t and they were in the house?

  The house she’d just set on fire?

  She handed the gun to Charlie. She didn’t know if he still had his or not. “Keep this on him and don’t look away from him for a second!”

  Charlie nodded and then she shouted, “Out of the way,” to her husbands. “Out of the way!” She spared the briefest glance for Jason’s guards—at least the two that were still left standing, both of them who had their hands up in surrender—before yelling. “What are you waiting for? Get him up the goddamned stairs!”

  She ran out of the room, pausing in the kitchen to look in the cabinets and living room. Okay, with the lights on, she could see, the kids definitely weren’t down here. But smoke bellowed out of the bedroom so thick, it was already hard to see down here.

  She ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  Jonas was right behind her and together they ran from room to room.

  “Matthew!” Shay shouted. “Nicky! Nicky baby, can you hear me?” Why the fuck was the house so big. Nobody needed a house with seventeen fucking bedrooms, two game rooms, a home theater, a mini goddamned ballroom—

  She ran back into the front room where Jason was standing, but only because his two guards were holding him up on either side. Charlie stood several feet away, gun trained right between Jason’s eyes.

  “Rafe’s looking upstairs,” Charlie said as soon as he saw her.

  Black smoke billowed out from the door to the basement and when she’d gone to one of the back bedrooms, she’d seen flames licking up the outside of the house. There was a small side of the basement where the soil had eroded over the years so that it was above ground. Enough for the fire to get through, apparently.

  She grabbed the gun from Charlie. “Where the fuck are my children?” she screamed in Jason’s face.

  Jason just laughed.

  Fucking laughed.

  For the briefest moment, Shay could only stare openmouthed. “Nicole is your daughter too.”

  Jason shrugged. “I can knock a chick up any time I want. Watching you squirm is worth it.”

  Shay dropped the gun, barely even bothering to aim before pulling the trigger again.

  “Fucking whore bitch fuck cunt!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

  She moved the gun back toward him and shook her head.

  “And to think,” she huffed. “For years I cowered in fear of you. You’re a fucking coward. Your power was just a lie.” She shook her head as she realized the truth. “You only had the power I gave you. All of us crouching in fear.”

  She leaned in. “Well I’m not afraid anymore.” She put the barrel of the gun to his forehead.

  He saw that she meant it. That he could be seconds away from his own life ending. For a man like Jason, it was a shocking revelation.

  And for the first time in her life, she saw what it looked like when Arnold Jason Travis was afraid. His eyes had gone wide and there was sweat on his forehead. The vein in his neck pulsed rapidly and each breath was a short, panting gasp.

  Shay’s voice was colder than the Arctic when she demanded, “So tell me where my children are before I blow your goddamned brains out.”

  “Th-they’re upstairs,” Jason stammered.

  “Where?” she demanded.

  “I-in the attic.” Then, blinking as if he just realized what he’d admitted, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

  When he opened them and some of the steel she recognized was back, she tightened her grip on the gun.

  He tried for a cocky smile, but it was tremulous at best. “Or the second master bedroom. Or maybe I locked them in the gaming room closet.” He laughed and it sounded maniacal. “With all this blood loss, it’s hard to fucking remember. Guess you better check them all before the smoke inhalation gets to the poor kiddies.”

  Shay’s jaw hardened and she wanted to pull the trigger more than almost anything in the world.

  Almost anything.

  She wanted her kids safe and sound more.

  “Watch him,” she shouted to Jonas, handing off the gun to him this time.

  “Come on,” she grabbed Charlie’s hand and together they ran for the central staircase that led to the second story.

  “Do you think they’re any of the places he said?”

  “The attic.”

  There was a second there, brief as it was, where Jason had been scared. Right before he’d put back on his armor of bullshit, he’d been scared. And he’d told the truth. She was mostly sure he’d been telling the truth.

  Not sure enough to end him just in case he was lying and the kids weren’t anywhere in the house after all. But pretty sure.

  Shay ran up those goddamned stairs faster than she had ever moved in her life. Once she reached the second floor, she dashed down to the end of the hallway where she yanked on a hanging string. A rectangle of ceiling dropped down, revealing a retractable wooden staircase that unfolded. The second the bottom of it touched the ground, she scrambled up the stairs.

  “Matthew!” she shouted. “Nicky! Can you hear me?”

  “Mom?”

  Oh thank God. A jolt of relief spiked through her at hearing Matt’s voice. His head appeared at the top of the rectangular opening in the ceiling overhead when she was just a few rungs up.

  “Matthew!” Shay said, almost crying with relief. “Get your sister. We need to leave. Now!”

  Matthew’s head swung away and when he looked back, his eyebrows were furrowed apologetically. “We heard noises. She got scared and went to hide in our special place.”

  Shay hurried even faster up the ladder. “Where’s that, honey?” She tried to keep her voice calm so she wouldn’t scare him but she knew every second they wasted, the fire was spreading.

  “Out there.” He pointed somewhere behind him as she finally got to the top of the ladder and pulled herself over the edge, up onto the plywood platform that made up the floor of the attic. She dragged Matthew into her arms.

  He was real. This wasn’t a dream. She really had her boy back in her arms.

  “Oh thank God.” She kissed the side of his head. “So where’s Nicky?”

  Shay looked around and didn’t see her daughter anywhere. The attic was unfinished. It was just meant for storage. There wasn’t even plywood flooring everywhere, just around the opening here. Further back, the beams and insulation were totally exposed.

  When Matthew pointed again, Shay was terrified he meant Nicky was hiding somewhere back in the recesses of the attic where there wasn’t any flooring.

  But then she realized it was much, much worse.

  “She’s out there,” he said, pointing to the crow’s nest window on the other side of the attic. “We go out on the roof sometimes when Dad’s in one of his really bad moods. We look up at the stars and I tell her stories. I said I’d stay in here to stand sentry in case anyone tried to come for us. I told her I’d protect her.”

  “And you did a great job,” Charlie’s deep voice said from behind Shay. She hadn’t even seen him follow her up the ladder. “But now you need to run downstairs and get out of the house where it’s safe.”

  Matthew’s brow crumpled in confusion and he looked back to Shay. She nodded fervently. “This is Charlie. You can trust him. He’s a good man. And there’s a fire honey, so I need you to go out to the yard where it’s safe.”

  Matthew looked at Charlie distrustfully. Understandable since the only men
he’d met in his short life had mostly been violent assholes.

  “Go,” Shay urged, giving him one more quick squeeze. “We’ll get your sister and be right behind you.”

  Charlie moved out of the way so Matthew could get to the ladder but Matthew didn’t move.

  “Matt,” Shay said, using her mom voice. “Go.”

  But Matt just stood up taller. “It’s my job to look after Nicky.”

  Shay couldn’t stand here and argue with him. She looked to Charlie. “Get him downstairs,” she said, then turned and headed for the window. After a few steps, she was forced to straddle her feet and walk on the beams. She moved as quickly as she could anyway.

  The window was still open and right before she got to it, she heard a scream.

  A girlish, high-pitched scream.

  “Nicky!”

  Shay ran the last few feet on the beams to the window, shoving her head out.

  Oh God.

  Her heart stopped. Literally stopped for a moment, she was sure.

  Because out there, huddled in the corner between the sloping A-line roof and the flatter roof of the extended deck, was Nicky.

  And behind her flames licked up toward the sky.

  Shay screamed, “Nicky!!!”

  But Nicky either couldn’t hear her or she was too terrified to move or respond. How on earth had the fire moved so quickly? She was supposed to have more time. There was supposed to be more time.

  “Wait, honey! Mama’s coming!”

  But right as she went to lift her leg over the low ledge, hands dropped on her shoulder and drew her back.

  “Wait, what—?” she screeched, half-expecting to see Jason. But it was Charlie. “What are you doing?” she screamed at him. “I have to go save my daughter.”

  But the resolute look on Charlie’s face didn’t change. He dragged Shay behind him and then he was climbing over the ledge and out onto the roof.

  “Get our boy to safety,” Charlie said, only looking briefly over his shoulder. “And tell him I’ll bring his sister down safe. I swear it.”

  And then Shay could do nothing but watch as he bounded across the roof to where Nicky sat wailing with her knees to her chest.

  “Mom!” Matthew exclaimed, coming up beside her at the window. “I have to go with him to get Nicky. I promised I’d keep her safe and—”