Page 3 of Nash

Knowing that she couldn’t go home, not that there was all that much there anyway, she backed between the buildings until she knew she was out of sight from anyone looking from the street.Finding herself an open door, she got herself inside and stayed in the darkness until her eyes adjusted.There were several rooms around her in the abandoned building, most of the ceiling had been taken down, but there were enough of the stairs for her to go up them when she paused on the first step.

He could still find her.Again, not sure why he’d care, but he had come this far.Sunny pulled her shoes off, leaving her socks on, and took some of the bits of trash that was around her and wrapped it over her feet, tucking it into her socks.Careful that she used what she touched, she made her way up the stairs.She wished that she owned a book about the shit there was out there about shifters.And if there was, she was going to get her a copy if it was the last thing she ever did.When she got to the second level, then the third, careful of touching anything, she made her way to the middle of the building and leaned against the wall as she sat.Every part of her body hurt.

Crying herself to sleep again, Sunny didn’t know what she was going to do now.She’d really done nothing wrong, she told herself.But the big man had a bone to pick with her, and he wasn’t stopping anytime today.Tomorrow, she told herself.Tomorrow, he’d move on, and she’d be back to waiting tables and keeping her distance from everyone from now on.

Waking up sometime in the darkest part of the night, Sunny heard rustling.Knowing that it was rats, she had some of her own in her own building, and she didn’t move.Not that she thought that she could have.Her body had decided that whatever had been done to it was enough to kill her, and she was just waiting to die.

“Where the fuck are you?”Flitching at the sound of his harsh voice seeming so close to her, she cried out, scaring the rats and whatever else was around her away.“Tell me where you are so that I can come and get you.Stop being fucking childish, and let me come and get you.I know that you are hurt.I can fucking feel it.”

Nearly answering the man, knowing that he wasn’t as close as he sounded, she kept her mouth closed.That was when she remembered her lips and how she’d bitten through them.The pain was too much, and she felt herself nearly sliding away into unconsciousness.It took everything that she had to hold on.Unable to move at all, her hands and legs raw with pain, she lay there as quietly as she could while he continued to scream at her to tell him where she was.

“So you think to make me suffer, do you?I have news for you, Sunshine Nettles: I suffer for no one.So we had a good fuck, and it turns out that you’re my mate.So the fuck what?Do you think that I’m going to come to you on bended knee and beg you for mercy?Not fucking likely.Tell me where you are.I’ll give you some cash, get you healed up, and then you can be on your fucking merry way.I don’t have time for this shit.”Her mind stilled at the fact that he’d said she was his mate again.“You fucking bitch, tell me where you’re hiding.I’ve been all over this city, and you’re hiding from me.This isn’t going to get you any brownie points with me.Nor are you going to be able to blackmail me into setting you up in some kind of fancy home with money and a car, either.I don’t want you in my fucking life.”

It occurred to her that he’d never once asked her how badly she was hurting.Nor did he ask her if she needed anything from him.No, it was all about what she thought that she was going to take from him.She knew just what kind of man he was and decided that if she lay here and died, she’d be better off than she was anywhere near that man.

Sunny knew that she was losing blood.How much wasn’t anything that she could think of right now.As she lay there, slipping in and out of consciousness, she was careful each time she woke that she was alone.

By the time the sun was bleeding through the windowless front of the building, Sunny knew that on a very bad level, she wasn’t going to make it if she stayed here much longer.It didn’t make her get up, even if she thought that she could, but she did look at herself.It made her sick and physically throw up when she saw the state of her arms.There wasn’t a place on them that wasn’t blue or bleeding.It must have all happened when the cat attacked her.It looked as if three of her fingers were broken, bent out of shape.Even her legs were beyond anything she’d ever seen before.Touching her fingers to the wound at her neck, Sunny couldn’t have held the scream back if she’d been paid a million dollars.

“Don’t move.”She opened her eyes but thought that there was something wrong with at least one of them.Focusing was impossible, and she was sure that the woman next to her was as beautiful as any queen she’d ever seen in a book.“What a lovely thing to say to me.Thank you.But you just lay still, and I’m working on getting you some help.”

Making her mouth move, she begged the woman to kill her.Sunny wanted that more than she had her next meal.Closing her eyes when she was told to, Sunny felt someone touch her arm, and she cried out.Even though it pained her to speak, she had to make this person understand something.

“He’s after me.Please, kill me.I don’t want him to find me so that he’ll finish the job.Please, he’ll make me suffer.”The woman said she had her.“I didn’t do a thing to him.I did want what he wanted, and that was all.”She heard the sharp intake of breath and thought it was her.There wasn’t any way that anyone would care.

“I care.You’re going to be all right, my dear.I swear to you.”Sunny felt herself sliding away again.This time, she didn’t fight it.If this was death, then she was fine with that.At least she wouldn’t hurt anymore.

Chapter 2

Archie didn’t know what this was all about, but being called back into the offices today wasn’t something that he’d been planning on.As soon as he was seated, second to last to arrive, making sure that he was as far from his brothers as he could be, he reached for the pitcher of water and poured himself a large glass of it.It wasn’t until Nash came in, his face a bloodied mess, that he realized that this was more than just some temper flaring.This was bad.

He leaned over to ask Nash what had happened to him when he snarled at him.He’d like to think that this was something new for his little brother, but they’d all been snarling and tearing into each other for months now.Sitting up in his chair again, draining the glass of water, he stood up with the others when their mother entered the room.

“Sit your asses down.”They did.Everyone had heard about the fight that Nash and his mother had had.Even her telling him that she’d tear his throat out.Archie knew that if she had indeed said it, and looking at his brother, he had a thought that they’d tangled already, she would follow through.All the years that their father had been knocking them around, never touching their mother or them letting her know that he’d been doing it, had cost their sire his life.Archie had no doubt that their mother would do anything she set her mind to, including making one of them pay.“Eight days ago, your brother met his mate.”

He didn’t know who that might have been until Nash stood up.He asked their mother where she was, but all she did was dig her nails, a very vibrant shade of red, a good inch into the oak table they were all sitting at.Staring at the two of them, wondering what the fuck was going on, it wasn’t until Nash made his way to the door that he thought things were going to get worse than he could have imagined.

“You go out that door, and I will have you arrested.Not only will you spend the rest of your life in prison, Nashville, but you will never be able to speak to any one of us again.And that would include that young woman.Sit your ass down or open the door.You decide.But know that there are eight officers on the other side of that door just hoping that you’re going to be stupid enough to try and get by them.”Nash didn’t move, nor did their mother.“Come back to the table and sit down.”

“Where is she?”Archie watched the two of them snarling words back and forth like a violent game of tennis.“I demand to know what she’s told you too.”

“Told me?She’s not been able to say a word since I found her.She’s been in a coma.Oh, and if you’re interested, she has fifty-six stitches in her mouth.Five broken ribs, a broken wrist.Her ankle was so badly turned that they had to do surgery on it so that she could walk on it again.Ifshe wakes up.Then there is the— Tell me something, Nashville, did you know she was a virgin when you took her?Or were you too fucking pissed off because she was nice to you to care.”Nash turned, and he stood up when his brother took the few steps to their mother.“He’s not going to hurt me, Archie.I think right now he’s done enough hurting to last several lifetimes.”

“You’re only willing to hear her side of the story.”Mother told Nash again that she’d not spoken to the girl.She was still in a coma.“Like I’m supposed to believe you.How did you find her anyway if she was in a coma?Did she call you?Tell you that I hurt her?She enjoyed it as much as I did, and if she ever tells you any different, then she’s a liar, too.”

The fist came out of nowhere and knocked his brother back several feet.It took his mind a few seconds to realize that it hadn’t come from his mother as he had first thought, but her father.Grandda looked about as pissed off as he’d ever seen him.The usual very friendly and affable man was gone.And in his place was a man who looked ready to go toe to toe with anyone that bothered his daughter.And that would include his grandson.

“You come near your mother again with that look in your eyes, and she won’t have to have you killed.I’ll do it all on my own.”Nash didn’t move off the floor but lay there staring at them with hatred in his eyes.“You’ll sit your ass right there where she told you, or so help me, Nash, there will not be a hole deep enough for you to hide in.That little girl you hurt has already died twice since I’ve seen her.You killed off your own mate.How do you feel about that?If not for your momma finding her when she did, there would have been no saving her at all for you.”

“I didn’t ask for her to come into my life.”Grandda took a step toward Nash, but he pushed him out of the way to get to him first.Knowing that he had a bit more magic than his younger brother, being firstborn, he lifted him up over his head and tossed him across the room and into the fireplace that graced the other wall.

Breathing hard, he glared at Nash.Waiting and hoping that he’d come at him.When he stayed where he was, a crumbled mess on the floor, Archie went to him and pulled him up from the floor.Shoving him across the room, he put him in the chair he’d been in and stood behind him, holding him in place with his paws biting deeply into his flesh.

“I’m not going to ask you where she is because it’s frankly none of his business.But is there anything we can do to keep her safe?”Grandda told him that it was up to the young woman right now if she lived or died.“I take it that she doesn’t want to.”

“She begged me to kill her when I found her so that Nashville couldn’t find her and make her suffer more.”Digging his claws deeper into his brother, he felt him wince at the pain.It mattered little to Archie if he suffered or not right now.His mate, whoever she was, wasn’t going to be treated this way again.After Mom told them all the story about how he’d come to meet his mate and then finding out later what else he’d done to her, each of the others wanted to stand behind Nash, too.Archie didn’t know why he cared but he thought that Nash might live longer if it was him there.The others were out for his blood, and he didn’t think they’d stop at that.

“This isn’t all on me.I told her that I left my wallet in the truck.If she’d not paid, then I wouldn’t have gotten pissed off.”Archie looked at Weston when he laughed.It was Nash that spoke to him.“What?You think I’m funny?I didn’t do anything wrong.I told her that I’d pay.”

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