Page 27 of Give Me Peace

“Morning.” Lochlan and Roan step from the hallway, both looking more rested after a good night’s sleep. I bite into my bacon, groaning at the crispiness and overall goodness. Four sets of eyes watch me as I shovel the whole strip down, barely savoring the taste. Kash spins around and adds stars beside crunchybacon on my ‘likes’ list, then proceeds to underline it. Twice. I laugh, shaking my head at the man as he adds more syrup to his already sopping stack of pancakes.

“You do realize that the syrup didn’t disappear, right? It just got soaked up.” His finger lands over my lips as he shushes me. Lochlan stiffens, watching me for any sign of distress. I’m amused more than anything, because, as I’m quickly learning, Kash has no sense of boundaries. He’s like an overactive puppy who needs constant attention.

“We don’t discuss those sorts of things over breakfast, Saylor. It’s impolite. I like to save all the diabetes and cholesterol talk for my annual check-up with the doctor,” Kash states, sounding dramatically serious.

“Right.” I nod, playing along. “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.”

“Exactly!” He snaps his fingers and points at me. “If we don’t acknowledge it, it doesn’t exist. You just get me, Snickerdoodle.” Kash braces his elbows on the counter, his chin resting in his hands, and flutters his eyelashes at me. I look at the other three, wondering if they see the crazy, too, or if they’ve just grown so used to it, they no longer notice. They roll their eyes, but it’s clear as day they have a soft spot for Kash and his theatrics.

“Saylor, are you up for having a talk with us this morning?” Lochlan asks, changing the conversation and the overall mood of the room.

“Sure,” I respond, hoping the slight shake in my voice isn’t too noticeable.

Roan gathers the dirty dishes, waving off my offer to help. Before I know it, we’re seated in the living room and Krew has joined us. I take one corner of the sectional, while Roan grabs the middle. Lochlan is across from me on the opposite side and the twins are lounging on the floor. Havok chooses to lean against the wall closest to me, his arms crossed and face hard. My palms are damp from nervousness and I can’t quit toying with a loose string on Kash’s sweatshirt.

“First off, I’d like to say how sorry we are for what happened yesterday. It was never our intention to keep Kade a secret. We had planned to explain everything before he got here,” Lochlan admits. “We met three years ago, when Ro and I were in Pike’s Bay for a different assignment. Kade approached us and asked for help with your case.”

“More like demanded,” Krew scoffs. Havok shrugs, neither confirming nor denying the claim.

“We looked over your file, spoke with the local point of contact at the time, Sergeant Hannigan, and ended up offering Kade a job. His need to find you became a focal point for the group, something we all grew fixated with rather quickly. We got to learn about who you were, through statements taken by the sheriff’s department and FBI, but also from Kade.” I feel completely lost. I don’t understand why Havok would have been involved at all. It’s not like we were friends.

“It took us three months, but we finally found something useful,” Krew jumps in. “Given how close Pike’s Bay is to the coast, it wasn’t farfetched to think you might have been trafficked.” My heart stutters. I’d wondered what everyone thought, what conclusions might’ve been drawn, but that had never been one of them. I assumed people thought I was dead and my body just hadn’t turned up yet.

“We found a picture,” Kash whispers. When I look at him, his eyes are glassy and I get the strangest urge to stop them from saying any more.

“A picture?” I question robotically, my brain taking the lead, whether I want it to or not. That internal warning blares to life, begging me to turn around because there’s nothing but danger up ahead.

“It was taken shortly after you were abducted. In the room we found you in,” Lochlan answers, his honey-colored eyes finding mine.

The camera.

“And you saw it? All of you saw it?” I look at each of them, searching for any indication that I’m wrong, but all I find is guilt. When I land on Kash, his gaze drops to the floor.

“Oh, God,” I whisper hoarsely, horrified they’ve seen me in such a vulnerable state. Bile rises up my throat and it takes everything I have to force it back down.

“I’m so sorry, Little Fighter.” Roan’s voice breaks through the static in my mind and I open my eyes, wishing I could erase the last five minutes and not know any of this.

“The image was tagged with a starting bid of five hundred thousand. You were listed in an auction, Saylor. We’ve been under the impression that you were sold, but it appears Liam only orchestrated it to look that way. No one had any reason to believe you were stateside, much less so close to home. If it weren’t for the CNA who spoke with Liam’s mother, I’m not sure we’d have ever thought otherwise.” I flinch from bluntness of Lochlan’s words. The picture they paint—my body bound and bared with a price tag attached, giving anyone with enough money and evil inside them the option to own me—has me sprinting towards the trash can.

I barely make it in time, my knees connecting with the floor painfully as I empty my stomach. So much for breakfast. It sounds like a stampede behind me, but I pay it no mind. Tears are streaming down my face, and then a sob wracks my body. It hurts to cry this hard, but I can’t make myself stop. They just keep coming, forcing their way out.

“Fuck this.”

Arms band around me and tug me closer. I bury my face against their neck, but the wetness clouding my vision leaves me clueless as to who I’m clinging to. All I can see is that room, the bright light and recording device. I want my mom. I need her and she’s not here. So, I cry. I cry until I exhaust myself completely and that blackened piece of my soul is nothing but a void.

Chapter Fifteen

Kade

I sit there on the cold marble floor of our kitchen until my ass is numb, but Saylor continues to shake. She finally passed out, but I’ve been too afraid to move. Her mind and body need the rest too much for me to risk waking her. Just as I predicted, I couldn’t stand there and watch her fall apart. I risked fucking her up even more by grabbing her the way I did, but I couldn’t take those agonized sounds a second longer.

I fully expected her to pull away, but I had to try something. When she pressed her tear-stained face against my neck, something shifted. That gaping hole inside me felt a little smaller. Her tiny hands gripped my shirt like a lifeline, and I knew there and then, no matter what it takes, I’ll make her forgive me. I’ll fix the pieces I broke, because there won’t be a day between now and the one I die that’s spent without her. Her and I, we’re tethered for life, whether she realizes it or not.

“Kade,” Lochlan warns as I get to my feet, holding Saylor as tight as I can without aggravating her injuries.

“Fuck. Off.” I growl, stomping toward her bedroom.

I’d put her in mine, but I think it’d terrify her to wake up somewhere unfamiliar, and it’d torture the shit out of me to have her sweet scent all over my sheets. I kick her door closed behind me, then gently lay her on the bed. She looks so small, her body barely taking up a quarter of the space with how she’s curled in on herself. I want to be mad at Loch for delivering the blow that got her to this state, but it’s not his fault. She needed to know, deserved to, no matter how difficult it was to hear.