AllFreeNovel
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Our girl is hardly with us as it is.
She’s ice cold to the touch as I wrench the skull masks off both of us and toss them into the empty backseat beside me. Stroking her face, I try to draw her eyes to mine. Right now, they’re way too glazed over for my liking. But if that’s what she had to do to cope with what she just went through, then we’ll have to deal with it.
“I’m here. I’m right fucking here, baby girl. You come back to me whenever you’re ready.”
Fox blinks a couple of times before burying her face in the crook of my neck.
As I run long strokes up and down her back, my eyes meet Thorne’s in the rearview mirror from his position in the driver’s seat. He looks fucking wrecked. Ven is a black hole in the passenger seat next to him. The chunky silver rings on his fingers gleam as he drums furiously on the car door.
“I should have slaughtered the lot of them.” He barks out after we’ve been driving for a good fifteen minutes in stony silence.
My chest aches for him, knowing what he had to do in there like some sort of lap dog. The way that asshole clicked his fingers and demanded his services was the worst kind of penance. Forcing him to be their death dealer, when I know how much it would have devastated him to show Fox that side.
“You’ll get your chance.” Thorne’s voice is steady, but I see the remorse pouring off him. This goddamn plan of his was all well and good when Fox was just a name and a vengeance we were due to collect on paper…but now…
Jesus, now, she’s part of us. We’re all embedded in each other’s DNA, and hers binds us all together in a way none of us ever anticipated.
Tentative fingers play with my hair at the nape of my neck, and at least I know she’s in there. Even if it’s somewhere far away for the time being.
We make it back to the compound, and follow each other inside. I don’t know where we go from here, but this needs to be dealt with right now. And I’m not letting anyone leave this room until we figure out which fucking way is up.
“Both of you. In the lounge.” I point at Ven and Thorne, as I guide Fox to walk in front of me. When we reach the first of the large couches, I settle her down and crouch in front of her.
“Fox, you gotta talk to me. Tell me what we can do.” I cup the side of her face.
Her gaze lands on me with a fire raging deep within. She glances over at Thorne, who hovers by the big windows, and Ven, who leans on both hands against the back of the couch.
“Whatever it is, you name it. Rake those claws of yours down all our faces and make us fucking bleed if you want.” I don’t care if that’s what this girl needs to do. “Baby girl, I’ll gladly shed blood for you. It can’t make up for what happened in there, but if it can do something—anything—to fix this, then I’ll willingly slice open my veins if that’s what you want.”
For an agonizingly long moment, Fox looks at me, then shakes her head. “I thought about it. I honestly did. But no, I don’t need that from you.”
“Anything. Just talk to us.”
She takes a deep inhale through her nose.
“You know what I thought about in there? Was how you were right. You were right about everything. That man was exactly the kind of evil who would have eventually laid a claim, if you hadn’t come for me.” She covers my hand with her own, and my heart beats a harried rhythm. Fox isn’t screaming or trying to murder any of us with her bare hands. Even though she’d have every right to, the energy coming off her now is calmer than any of us deserve.
“And to make it worse, if it wasn’t him, it would have been a man like Miles Crane. And if it wasn’t that slimy asshole, it would have been Massimo Ilone.”
Thorne crosses over and crouches down beside me. Resting a forehead on her knee and gripping tight to her hip. “I didn’t know what it would entail—” He murmurs against her skin.
Fox runs her fingers through his hair. “I know you didn’t.”
“How do I fix this, when I didn’t properly protect you?” His voice is layered with guilt.
“I’m yours…and that’s what I need.”
I tilt my head up to look at her and make sure of what she’s saying.
“Gonna need you to be really specific for us right now.”
“Being in there, it confirmed for me what I already knew. I don’t want to be owned by anyone but you.”
Thorne lets out a shuddering breath, and he presses a kiss to her thigh. Ven’s fingers tighten against the chair. He’s still bristling with so much violence, I don’t know if he’s going to be able to give Fox what she needs, or if he’s going to collide into her with a cataclysmic force demanding release.
She senses that he can’t, or won’t, move—deciding to close the gap between them like she always fucking instinctively knows how to do. Fox gives Thorne and I both a quick brush across the sides of our faces and then gets to her feet.
Fox starts to tug on the tie of her dress, wrenching at it until the entire thing comes free, and she balls it up in her hand. Standing before Ven, she holds the scrunched-up material out. Our girl is so fucking perfect, all of her curves and tattoos and strength on show as she finds a way to bring us to our knees for her.
