Page 4 of Nash

“I don’t doubt that you would have.What I think is funny is that you said you’d not have gotten pissed off at her.You’ve gotten us all pissed off and in the same mood as you are, and we’re not mated to you.I cannot imagine what that little girl thought when you held her down with all your shifter strength and made herpayfor being a nice person.How much was the bill, Nash?Millions of dollars?I’m betting that whatever it was, it was more than she could afford.”Mom told them what had happened at her apartment.“So, she paid your bill instead of paying her heat bill, and you didn’t think that a simple thank you would have been better?Christ, Nash, if she never has another thing to do with you, you’ll be fucking lucky.Did it ever occur to you that, as your mate, you could have gotten her with child?”

“She’d better not fucking try and tell anyone that I impregnated her.I’ll tear her throat out.”Archie had enough.Giving his brother another squeeze to hurt him more, he let go and left the room.He wasn’t going to be there when Nash figured out what he was doing.

Going home, he couldn’t think beyond what his brother was doing.Archie let his cat take him as soon as he was in his yard.He’d not had a good run in longer than he could remember and thought that it might be some of the problems he was having.That and being around Nash.As soon as he made his way to his house, going inside naked, he didn’t bother covering himself up when he realized that he had company.Grandda might fuss at him, but he’d not make a big deal out of him being naked in his own home.

After telling the old man he’d be back that he was going to take a shower.After trying his best to wash his anger off himself, Archie dressed in some jeans and a tee and didn’t bother with socks and shoes.Again, it was his house and his rules.Grandda was on the phone when he entered the kitchen where he was.

“All right then.Yes.”Grandda looked at him as he held the cell to his ear.“Has she asked for anything?Anything at all?”After another pause and his grandda looking about as crestfallen as he’d seen anyone, he told the person on the other end to call him if there were any changes.

“She’s awake, I take it.”Grandda just nodded.Archie could almost feel his hurt.“What’s going to happen to her now?I’m assuming that she won’t be welcomed to the family anytime soon.”

“I welcomed her.Even though I was not able to talk to her, I welcomed her to the family.Nothing that was done to her was a bit her fault.He killed her off as surely as if he’d put a bullet in her head.Now she’s laying there in that big hospital bed with nary a person around her because she has been hurt by one of mine.”Archie hurt for her, too.Even not thinking about the fact that his brother had done this to her, she was still a person.“I’m headed over there in a bit.Your momma, she doesn’t want any of us being there too many times.She’s afraid that—I can’t believe that I’m going to say this, but she’s afraid that Nash will find her.What is wrong with him?”

“I don’t know, Grandda.I just don’t know.”The two of them picked around at some of the lunch he’d made the two of them.After shoving it away, he asked him how Mom had been able to find the girl.He realized then that he didn’t know her name, not a thing about her.

“There isn’t a person in this state that doesn’t know who the six of you are.And who your mom is.When there was trouble that morning at this little diner about an hour from here, someone called her and told her that Nash had been in and hadn’t paid his bill.It’d been taken care of, of course, but the owner of the place wanted LouCinda to know that it had cost the girl all her money for the day.She headed over there right away to make things right.”Archie asked if she really had just paid the bill.“Never said a word either.Of course, when Nash sat down, he told her to shut up and to bring him his food.That’s what she did, too.Never giving him bad service either, but making sure that he had biscuits when he was done with them and full pitchers of water, too.By the time LouCinda got there, they’d heard all about him looking for Sunny, that’s her name, Sunshine Nettles, and that someone had seen her jumping in the trash truck when it came by.It didn’t take your mom long to figure out where the next stop was and that Sunny had gotten out there.By then, she’d been hurt.It wasn’t until she found her that she realized that Nash had taken her, too.She was in poor shape, your mom told me.Just in terrible shape.Lost a lot of blood.When she begged your mom to kill her, it broke something in your momma that I don’t know that she’ll ever recover from.”

Deciding to go with his grandda to see the girl, Archie wasn’t the least bit surprised to find that the young woman was staying in a homeless shelter.One of the rooms there had been converted into a state-of-the-art medical unit and had round-the-clock doctors and nurses.She was getting the best of care, for which he was happy to know, and when he sat down next to the bed, he could smell that she’d recently been drugged, too.

Picking up one of her hands, he couldn’t believe how badly she was bruised even after all this time.Up and down her entire arm, there were bite marks as well as finger imprints too.His anger at his brother doubled when she opened her eyes and looked at him with fear.

“I’m not him.”She still tried to get away from his holding her.Archie stood up and backed as far away from the bed as he could.“I’m going to let you go, Sunny.But please don’t hurt yourself.I’m not Nash, but his brother, Archibald.Everyone just calls me Archie.I won’t hurt you.I swear to you on my life that I won’t hurt you.”

“They told me that I was safe here.”Her voice, raw and full of fear, was low.He could hear her, but it still hurt how much pain she was in.Again, assuring her that she was safe there, he asked her if she needed anyone called.“I don’t have anyone around me anymore.There is no one for me to call and take care of me.”

Archie wanted to tell her that she had five brothers.A mother and a grandda too.Even though his brother had done this to her, she still was their sister.As her eyes drifted closed, her body sliding under again, Archie sat there and let the tears fall down his face.Christ, this was not the way it was supposed to be when one of their kind found their other half.

When grandda joined him, he couldn’t speak around the large lump that had formed in his throat.Archie knew that he’d not had a thing to do with her being in the shape that she was in, but he felt guilty for her pain and suffering.Each time she moved and cried out, he ached even more for her.Wanting to find his little brother and make him hurt as much as he’d done to his mate, had him sitting with her until the sun came up the next morning.Terrified to leave and run into his brother, Archie stayed right where he was.

~*~

Nash hadn’t left his apartment since he’d been called into a meeting with his mother two weeks ago.The walls of the place had suffered badly from his self-imposed confinement.He’d allowed his cat to have at it when he realized that he wasn’t getting anyone to come to him.No delivery service would come to bring him shit once they heard his name and address.Since he owned the entire building, even using a different address got him nothing.

His brothers had washed their hands of him, too.Stretching his neck, he blamed that on his mother.She’d done this to him by butting her nose in where it wasn’t any of her concern.Looking around, just on the off chance that she had heard his thoughts, he moved the broken couch to the dumpster that he’d brought his busted table and chairs to yesterday.

As it was now, he didn’t have any furniture to speak of but a mattress.And it was in terrible shape, too.A single plate, though, he had nothing to put on it and some books that he’d not torn to shreds when he’d woken from a rage two days ago.Since then, he’d not had any more outbursts, but that didn’t feed him or entertain him.He’d never owned a television, so that wasn’t a hardship for him.Though he thought he might enjoy one with nothing else to occupy his mind.

“Having fun?”Nash ignored his brother Wrangler when he spoke to him from just outside the dumpster area.He hadn’t noticed him when he’d gone out of his place, so he figured that he’d just shown up to torment him.Although, for the last twenty-four hours or so, he didn’t think anyone could torment him as much as his own thoughts had been.He asked him what he wanted.“Mom thought you’d be hungry about now.I’m to tell you that she had nothing to do with no one wanting to bring you shit.She said that the entire town has you on their shit list because of your treatment of them when you call in.”

He’d heard that, too.Not that he wasn’t still putting the blame on his mom, but he asked Wrangler what he’d brought him.He told him that he was going to take him out to dinner if he could behave himself.

“Why would you want to be seen with me?I don’t know if you remember or not, but I’m a mate abuser and a bastard.”Wrangler told him that he did remember that but didn’t want him to suffer without food.There were other things that he thought he could suffer with more.“Gee, thanks.”

Nash had showered just before taking the couch out.He knew that before that, it had been a few days since he’d even brushed his teeth.It had been in his head to make others suffer for their treatment of him, but not brushing his teeth or showering hadn’t bothered anyone but himself.So, taking a shower, washing his hair four times, he’d brushed his teeth that many times, too.He’d had a funk about him that even he couldn’t stand.

He didn’t want a big meal.He would have eaten it had they gone to a nice restaurant, but when his brother suggested burgers, his mouth watered for them.Nash was happy when they went through a drive-thru.He was not sure that he’d be fit to be next to people anymore.They sat in the parking lot and ate them without saying a word.They were on their way back to his place when he turned Wrangler.

“I don’t have anywhere for you to sit down.”He told him that he was only feeding him; he didn’t want to be around him.For the first time in longer than he could remember, Nash felt a pain in his chest like his heart was breaking.When they pulled into his parking lot, as soon as he got out of Wrangler’s truck, his brother sped away like the hell hounds were after him.Alone again, Nash made his way to his place again.

Dragging his mattress to the living room, he pulled out his laptop and began looking over some of the houses that he owned.If he was honest with himself, he was sick of his own company, and if he didn’t get out of his place soon, he was going to leap over the edge of his patio as his cat and make sure that he was seen by every cop in the land so he could be arrested.At least in jail, he figured that someone would have to speak to him.If only to ask him what the hell he’d been thinking.He needed a house.

While he figured that having a house was just making him have more than the walls that he had now, Nash did think about Sunshine, too.He was going to have to get her something to live in.Trying his best not to think about living in the house with her, he was going to find her a home fit for royalty so that he could do one thing right for the young woman.

Nash had had a long time to think about his actions.Not just what he’d done to Sunshine but the weeks and months leading up to the day he’d found her.There was no doubt in his mind that he’d been a bastard to everyone.If his cell phone never ringing was any indication by not ringing with people asking about him, he didn’t know what else to compare it to.No one, not his family, colleagues, nor even his own attorney, had once tried to contact him in any way.

After the third time of his brothers showing up to take him to dinner, he stopped going with them.Then, after a few days of telling them that he didn’t want to go, he stopped opening the door to them, too.Now, if he was lucky, he got to go to the mailbox out of his apartment and saw someone.Not that he was feeling sorry for himself.No, it was just the opposite.

He didn’t have anyone at all to blame for what he was dealing with now but himself.At what point, he couldn’t have pinpointed it that he’d turned into the man that everyone hated.But the last month, he’d realized that he was totally to blame for everything.Picking up his cell, after putting it off for a week, he called his personal attorney.

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