AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes.” Even if I knew the answer, I needed to ask. “You trust me?”
“Absolutely, Sparrow. But—” He lifted his chin, watching me with absolute calm as he massaged my neck. His touch was infinitely gentle as he avoided the bruises. “When we get in there if I say go—you go, understood?”
“Protect Mom?”
“I will do my best, but you come first. If he loses it, which he might when she walks in there, I want you to take that step out.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I fought the shudder rocking my whole system. “Then I’ll go if you say to.”
He closed his eyes and rested his forehead on mine. “You are a fucking miracle, Sparrow. Never forget it.”
The kiss he pressed to my lips was both hungry and sweet. Longing unfolded within me. I just wanted—everything. There was nojustabout it. I wanted everything with them. WithmyVandals.
When he set me back on my feet, he traced his fingers over my throat. “Don’t worry about Doc. We’ve got him too.”
“I knew that…and I have Freddie.”
His grin grew. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “We’ll take care of each other.”
“Damn right, we will.” Tucking me under his arm, he headed for the door. “Now for the unpleasant part of the day.”
Mom stood with the guys in the office. Well, she sat there. Someone had given her a cup of coffee. She sat at the desk with the cup cradled in her hands. I wasn’t sure if she was hugging it for warmth or comfort.
Her expression lifted as I stepped in with Kellan. “This place is larger than I expected,” she admitted.
“They’re full of charm and secrets,” I told her.
“Are they?” Mom glanced at me and then at the guys. “Maybe sometime you can tell me about them?”
“Maybe,” I hedged. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to promise her. “Are you ready to do this?” Was I?
Now that we were here, my heart was racing and my palms were sweaty. Kellan’s measured look grounded me, and Freddie hooking his pinky to mine as he planted himself at my side, helped. Rome straightened from where he and Vaughn guarded the door to the fridge itself.
She nodded as she stood. It took her a moment to compose herself, but I recognized the steel in her manner as she schooled her features into something mild and disinterested. All emotions needed to be compartmentalized and tucked away. The best way to control a situation was to control your reactions.
“Let’s see Reginald and whether he can continue lying with me right there.” The barest hint of nerves wavered in her voice, and I held out my hand to her. She clasped it once. “I’ve got this, baby. Trust me…”
I genuinely wanted to. Glancing first to Vaughn, then Rome, and then Freddie before I met Kellan’s steady gaze. “We’re ready.”
“Keep your distance when we’re in there, Moira. I can’t promise he’ll be in the best of moods, but I can tell you he won’t lay a finger on either of you.”
The reassurance seemed to buoy Mom, but she held onto her coffee in a white-knuckled grip. Rome opened the fridge door, and Vaughn went through first, followed by Freddie. Mom and I were next, with Rome and Kellan right behind us.
The smell was pretty atrocious. The fridge was wet since they’d hosed it down—they’d hosed Sharpe down too. He hung from two chains, though his feet were flat on the floor. He’d lost weight and there was something almost hollow about his face and chest.
Thankfully, someone had dragged pants onto him. Although, like him, they were soaked.
“He looks…” Mom said slowly, no amount of manners burying the disgust in her voice or her expression.
All at once, he jerked his head up. “Moira.” Ragged didn’t begin to describe his voice. He sported a beard. Never, in all my life, had I seen him with a beard. It was scraggly, salt and pepper. His hair was showing more silver than it had before.
It was difficult to be away from your beauty regimen.
“Reginald,” Mom said. Mickey and Liam weren’t standing that far from him. There was an IV in Sharpe’s arm, and two huge bags of saline hung nearby. “What have you done to yourself?”
“Me?” he demanded in a harsh voice before coughing. It neutered him as any threat, that wet, thready cough. It shook his whole body, and when he spat out blood, I couldn’t disguise my own grimace.
