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Seth makes quick work in passing me his pair of sweats and a t-shirt while they pull on jeans and shirts, too. We greet my stone-faced mother just as she steps from her limo, hair coiffed and sprayed to within an inch of its life, her driver quickly closing her door and disappearing back inside the limo.
“Get in the car.” Cold as death. Her tone grates across my nerves.
I hold my ground. “I’m not a rebellious child anymore, Mother. I’m not going anywhere.” I can feel the force of banked masculine power at my back and I siphon from them fortifying myself for the battle ahead.
“You leave me no choice then. I leave here without you, you're as good as dead to me. Don’t think I’ve thrown away the proof I have of your perversions. I don’t care if you are my daughter. I’ll ruin you before you can do it to me.”
Yesterday those words would have struck fear into my heart. Today, they roll off me as empty threats. I wasted so much time being scared of the unknown. Now it empowers me because I realize something today. I hold the control of my life in my hands. No one else does.
Seth, Lucian, and Jacob proved that to me. I decide how and when and with whom. Funny thing is, I had the power all along, but it took a while for me to learn that. Stubborn old Thorne blood at work for you.
I take a half step forward, my feet crunching in the gravel. “You raised me, put me through school and saw to my health. I can’t thank you enough for that. But it gives you no right to lord your control over me as an adult. You nearly killed me by forcing me to do your will. I thought I had to stay with you because I had no other choice.” I offer a dry laugh. “I’ve found loyalty to be a double-edged sword lately.”
Claws come out. “You ungrateful bitch. Just like your hippy father. He is always trying to save the world, grow love, and all that horse shit.”
My brows climb a little at seeing the polished enamel that always held my mother together crack.
“You’d rather run off with three perverts than receive my fortune. My company? You don’t need these men to make you a woman. To make you powerful. Why don’t you see that? I should have gotten rid of you three the second I realized a connection was forming.”
My mother’s face turns a nasty purplish-red the longer she spews her hatred. I turn on my heel and walk back to my men. I slip my hands into theirs and for the first time in my life, I feel completely whole. I don’t have a lot of experience with the power of love, but I recognize it all the same.
“Unfortunate as it was, I’d hoped the kidnapping would force you to grow up. I saw the way you looked at these three. Disgusting. I refuse to let you ruin my protégé. I warned you to keep your hands and dicks to yourselves. Told you to stay away. I only gave you permission to bring her home safely. Not defile her.”
Seth breaks rank. “We saved your daughter before she could be raped and killed. Look, Thorne, you have your priorities fucked up. You cared more about keeping us apart than for her safety. More about money and the ideas of society than her happiness. Did you ever once stop and think she could be happyandwork alongside you.”
“Never. Thornes don’t need love. Men do nothing but betray and steal.” She’s practically foaming at the mouth.
“You’re speaking of my father?”
“Yes, he took everything I worked hard to build. Ruined me. Nothing but grit and my coldness toward others got me back on top.”
I feel nothing but pity for the woman she must have been at one time. “And what price did you pay for that steep climb?” I ask, tucked between my men. When she has no answer I offer one of my own. “I’m no longer interested in the CEO position of your company, Mother. I’ll have my resignation on your desk Monday after next when my vacation ends.”
I turn my back and lead the way inside, Lucian and Jacob following leading the way.
Seth, on the other hand, is staring at my mother like he’s considering the most vicious way to rid the earth of her venom.
“Seth, love, she’s not worth it,” I say and take his arm and wrap it around my shoulders.
“You’re right,” he growls, and together we leave the past behind us, turn and walk toward a future we all control. Together.
Epilogue
Justice
One year later
They kept their promise. Not once have my men left me alone. At some point, one or all three are always by my side. Being away from them nearly destroyed all of us. I don’t ever want to feel that level of emptiness again. Nor do they.
As for my mother, well, she found another stooge to take my place. Someone perfectly suited for her cold, money-driven ambition. I’m just glad I got out when I did. Another few months, a year maybe and I might have ended up as desensitized as she is to the world and people around her.
With a little help from my men, I established my own tech company and in the four years it’s been established, I’ve amassed a reputation and a wealth to rival my mother’s.
And all the blackmailing material, you might ask? Well, she kept her word. It hit all the media streams she could find willing to play out her side of the story and went as far as to sue Seth, Jacob and Lucian for breach of control. Which in the end, with a good lawyer, got tossed out on grounds of lack of proof.
At the end of all this, my mother wound up giving me freedom unwittingly.
Come find it out, the companies she thought would drop my men for their depravities—her words—happen to share some wicked tastes in extracurricular activities and ended up hiring their security company. Go figure.
