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From the hall, Gareth shouted, “I’m not a fucking kid, goddamn it!” But Rick didn’t seem to care too much, because he just shrugged and wandered out into the hall, giving Alistair and me some privacy.
Not much, since the door was open, but enough.
I was slow in sitting up, and I stared at Alistair’s face. He’d watched Rick go, so I stared at the side profile of his jaw and his nose. Even from the side, he was a good-looking man, a definite panty dropper. And the way he could flip a switch and go from cold and emotionless to daddy dom was sexier than hell.
My voice came out low when I asked him, “Why’d you ask the others to leave?”
“First, I didn’t ask. I told them to leave,” Alistair clarified, slow in turning his blue eyes to me. In the beginning, I’d been nervous when that stare turned in my direction, but now I could see their true depths, the emotion he had, waiting to be unleashed, just beneath the surface. That emotion he only let out with me.
“Second,” he paused, and he reached for me and pulled me closer to him. One of his strong arms wrapped around me, firm, holding me against him… as if I’d ever pull away. I leaned into his side when he continued, “I wanted to speak with you alone. There is… something I want you to hear.”
Okay, my heart skipped a beat right then. Deep down, I was pretty sure I already knew what he was going to say.
“I never cared much for stating one’s feelings aloud,” he whispered, and the arm that was currently draped around me tightened as his fingers danced up and down my arm. “I never really meant it, when I said it to my family—except when I said it to Veronica. I meant it then. She was everything to me. When he was born, Gareth became everything to me, and years later I lost her.”
His chest rose and fell with a single breath, his skin warm against mine. “But then I found you. You are everything to me, Brianna. You’ve become everything. All I think about, all I dream about, all I want. If a man like me can love, I can say without hesitation that I love you.”
Wow. At first, I wondered where the heck he was going with all that. Leave it to Alistair to tell me that he loved me in the most roundabout way—and yet, I think it was the sweetest way he could’ve gone about it.
I grinned, leaned up, and kissed him. “I’m tempted to say it back,” I told him, still grinning even after our kiss, “but I’m sure the guys are waiting in the hall outside, eavesdropping.”
Alistair wasn’t a man who ever smiled, but I swore I saw the faintest hint of one right then. “You’re probably right.” His arm dropped, and he let me go. “Get dressed. There is something I want to show you, a surprise. Consider it an early graduation present.”
He did tell the others to wait in the pool house, so whatever present he had for me had to be in there—which I found a little odd. What on earth could be in the pool house? That was where Gareth painted with a locked refrigerator and a cold room to drain bodies.
Eager to find out what my present was, I crawled off the bed and slipped on some clothes. Alistair did stop dressing himself to tell me, “Be sure to wear something you don’t mind losing.”
What the heck could that mean? I wondered, but I didn’t bother asking, mostly because I’d find out soon enough. With anticipation rife in my veins, I walked with Alistair out of my bedroom once we were both fully dressed, and together we headed through the house, to the pool house.
And, yes, in case anyone was wondering, I was one sore girl. I didn’t think certain parts of me had seen a workout like that in, well, ever.
Rick and Gareth waited for us just inside the pool house. Gareth wore a glare, while Rick acted like he was busy scrolling his phone, but I knew. They’d definitely lingered in the hall close enough to eavesdrop on everything Alistair had said. It had to be why Gareth glared at him so hard and why Rick had suddenly taken such a keen interest in his phone—the man didn’t give two shits about social media or anything like that.
“So,” I spoke, standing amongst my three guys, “where’s my surprise?”
“How ‘bout you close your eyes for us and we’ll lead you there?” Rick suggested as he slipped his phone into his pocket.
I liked his idea so much I immediately closed my eyes after that, no further convincing required. Right after I closed my eyes, I felt someone take my hand and pull me along, guiding me through the pool house. If I had to guess, based on the way he held my hand, so tight and fierce, I’d say it was Gareth. Nothing with Gareth was ever soft and gentle, and he always looked for subtle ways to mark his territory in front of the others.
It didn’t take long. Less than a minute, and then we stopped. They didn’t tell me I could open my eyes yet, so I kept them closed, and my ears heard the faint sounds of someone putting in a code.
Wait. Were we in front of the cold room? Why would we—
The door opened, and I was met with a blast of cool air, and I knew for a fact that’s where we were.
It was Alistair who spoke, “Open them.”
I opened my eyes. Gareth still held onto my hand, and with him, Rick, and Alistair surrounding me, I saw just what my present entailed. And here’s a hint: it wasn’t the kind of present you could waltz into a store and buy.
No, it was the kind of present you could only get by waltzing into a church and doing a little kidnapping.
An older, middle-aged priest stood on his tiptoes in the center of the cold room, his arms strung up together over his head, attached by a chain to the ceiling. He still wore his priestly garb, but beyond that, he was just a regular man.
And he was alive.
The moment he saw us, he yanked on his chains and muttered, “What is this? Who are you?” But no one paid much attention to him or what he said; everyone was too busy staring at me, waiting to see my reaction.
“What’s this?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off him.
