Chapter 21

Over the past few weeks, we have gotten into a good routine. The guys are gone most days, doing whatever it is they do, and I have finally convinced them I don't need one of them to babysit me at The Range every time I'm at work.

Sullivan has been teaching me how to use a gun. I still don't like it, but he says you can't bring a stiletto to a gunfight. Although I would argue a heel to the eye would fucking hurt, he is right—it's no match for a bullet. He even gave me a gun as a present. I don't know what type, but it's pink and small enough it can fit in my purse if I want to take it anywhere. I warned them I shouldn't be responsible for something like that, as I used to lose my house keys more often than I had them in my bag.

Ronan has been worried about the business. They don't talk in front of me often, but he comes home full of tension. It's not all bad, as it leads to a massage which leads to sex, but I can't even blame Ronan—it's all me and, as Darragh says, my dirty little pussy.

Darragh and I still have not had sex alone, much to his disgust, and Cian has to babysit us. Sullivan isn't completely convinced Darragh actually likes me and won't use the opportunity to hurt me, so we are keeping him happy for now. Darragh gives me shit about it, but I don't care. I respect Sullivan enough to wait until he is comfortable with the situation.

All the guys are out on a job today, something about moving the money now the cops have backed off. They were each interviewed about Liam and Connor's disappearance, but thanks to their connections, there have been multiple sightings in Mexico. They have even used their credit cards. That kind of power should scare me, but surprisingly, it doesn't.

"Harper," Sadie yells from across the house.

I left the girls in the living room to play while I made them lunch, so I head out of the kitchen and walk down to the living room to see what's wrong. "Yes, Sadie?"

"Can you tell Eloise you and Daddy are not boyfriend and girlfriend? You are Uncle Van's girlfriend, right?"

I press my hands together in front of my face and breathe into my hands. "Okay, maybe you should talk to your dad about your question."

"Can I call him?" she asks.

"Sure, but if he doesn't answer, it's because he is working. If he answers, be sure to ask him all your hard questions—he loves answering them. I'm going to finish making your lunch," I say, pulling out my phone from my jeans pocket with a smile.

Sadie swipes the phone open, typing in my password, which she knows because she downloaded a game on it last week.

"Hi, Daddy. Harper said to ask you if you are boyfriend and girlfriend. Eloise says you are, but I think Harper is Uncle Van's girlfriend."

I chuckle as I walk out of the room. Back in the kitchen, I finish making their lunch plates, consisting of a ham-and-cheese wrap cut into four spirals, strawberries, some crackers, cut up carrot sticks, and a chocolate chip cookie.

I got the idea from social media about girl dinners. It's more my style of cooking because I can't burn it. Taking the trays into the living room, I place them on the coffee table.

"Thank you," Eloise says, continuing to color her picture.

"Daddy wants to talk to you," Sadie says, holding the phone toward me.

"Hello?" I say tentatively.

"You couldn't have answered her questions?"

I chuckle down the phone. "Could have, yes, but this was more fun. What did you tell her?"

"That you're a dirty, dirty whore who loves all her holes filled with cocks."

I gasp. "You did not!"

Now he is the one laughing at me. "No, I didn't. I told her you are with all of us."

"And what did she say to that?" I ask. Shit, I really don't want to screw these kids up.

"She said, and I quote, ‘Yay, we love Harper! She is the best stepmom.' And that you are lucky to have all of us love you."

"Awe, you love me," I tease as I walk up the stairs, wanting to change into different pants. Since living here, I have put on a couple of pounds, and the button on my jeans is digging into my stomach.

"I wouldn't go that far. I love your pussy—does that count?"

I chuckle as I walk into my room. "I kind of love the bar through your cock, so we are even. What time are you heading home?"

"Maybe an hour if Cian stops playing with his food."

It's code for him slowly fucking someone up. It's a don't ask situation, so I don't. "Okay, make sure you change before coming home. The girls are way too curious, and the last thing they need to see is blood on your clothes."

"Yes, mom. I promise to be clean when I come home, even though you like me dirty."

I roll my eyes at him as I pull a pair of sweats from my closet and an oversized shirt.

"Ha, ha."

"Seriously, thank you for watching the girls. Are they behaving?"

"You don't have to thank me for watching them, and yes, they are perfect. I've just made them lunch and now I'm getting changed into some comfortable clothes. Next, I think we might watch a movie and chill."

I've put the phone on speaker while I'm getting changed, and the red light on the wall blinks. "Are you being a dirty perv and watching me strip?"

Darragh laughs. "No, why would you think that?"

"Because the red light on the wall is flashing."

"Harper," he warns, his voice now serious. "Go downstairs now and get the girls. Then get to the safe room and lock yourselves inside."

His voice is calm and collected, but dread fills my stomach. I pull the sweater on, pick the phone back up, and move out of the bedroom.

"Don't panic, anything could have tripped the silent alarms. The security will go check it out. I'm going to pull up the feed now and check the perimeter."

The silent alarms around the house are flashing, but as I reach the bottom of the stairs, the fire alarm pierces the air.

"HARPER!" Sadie screams.

I run, the phone still tight in my hand, as the thumping in my ears drowns out Darragh's voice. But I come to a screeching halt as I enter the living room.

Sam—the woman from the Inventory, Sullivan's ex-girlfriend—is standing in the center of the room, holding a knife to Eloise's throat.

The smell of smoke fills the air, and I wonder where the fuck the security has gone? I remember Ronan mentioning the house has a safety feature where all doors and windows lock when the alarms are tripped, but I never realized the alarms were silent.

"Let her go," I say calmly, even though inside I'm feeling anything but calm. Sadie runs to my side and grabs hold of my leg; she clings to me, her sobs racking her tiny body.

Sam laughs. "Why would I do that?"

"Because the girls have nothing to do with this. Let her go and you can take me."

Sam only looks at me blankly, no compassion in her eyes.

"If anything happens to these girls, he will never forgive you. Me, he thinks he likes me, but I'm just pussy. If I'm out of the way..."

"Shut up," she screams. "He said he's in love with you."

"That's too bad for him. I don't love him back." The words taste vile in my mouth. "I fuck for a living, and they have money. Being with them means I don't have to worry about a thing."

She slightly lowers the knife.

"What if I leave? You can say you saved the girls—it will mean something to them."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" she yells as she waves the knife in the air.

I move Sadie away from me, handing her the phone. "Because you can come upstairs and watch me pack. Just one bag, that's all I need." I move a few steps closer, but not fast enough that I'll startle her. "Woman to woman, he doesn't love me. The idea of me is feeding his ego. He still has a picture of you in his top drawer in his room. I know he still loves you, but I think he's scared because you left him the first time."

If I can get her upstairs, my bag is on my floor with the little pink gun. It might be cute, but it has bullets.

Eloise whimpers, but I can't focus on her right now. I step a little closer, my hands still in the air where Sam can see them.

"He does?"

I nod and my eyes go wide as Eloise spins around and strikes. She does it just the way Darragh taught her, punching Sam straight in the box. I want to high-five her, but she runs toward me. Sam runs after her, but I cut between them and launch my body on top of hers in a tackle, and though she is shorter than me, she has a bigger body frame and is solid.

"Go," I yell to the girls. "You know what to do."

Now I just hope they listen.

Sam pushes me off her body and stands, but I grab her legs, gripping onto them so she can't chase the twins. If she has been here before, she may know where the safe room is, but I'm praying she was never given access.

She kicks me in the side of my face, and I wince as the pain radiates through my skull; I don't have time to cry about it and keep my grip firm. Pulling myself forward, I bite her on the leg, then as she tries to swing her leg at me again, I roll and push myself to my feet.

The smoke is getting thicker, and I pray that the safe room is fireproof. It has to be right? Since the house self-locks.

I don't stay in the living room to go another round with her; instead, I run out to the foyer and she follows me, only seconds behind. I take the stairs to my room two at a time, and when I get there, I place my hand on the scanner, willing it to hurry and let me inside. The blade of her knife presses into my side as the door pops open, our momentum pushing me into the room, and we tumble to the ground.

"Nice try, slut. You really think you can come here and take them all? What's so special about you? Seeing you up close with no makeup, you're nothing amazing. He's supposed to be mine."

Come on, someone must get here soon. And our security—a fuckload of good they did. "Tell me something. How did you get in?"

She laughs. "You forget I dated him too. I have been here so many times. Though you must have pissed some people off because at least Celia hates your guts."

"I have barely met the woman."

Sam shakes her head. "Well, she hates you. She told me as much."

"Why isn't she here now?"

Sam laughs. "That is the best part. Since I can't have Van, she might as well get Cian. She can be the shoulder for him to lean on. She will be outside when they get back."

Now I laugh. "That stupid bitch. I'm not even the reason he won't fuck her. Where is the security?" I ask, changing the subject.

"That's the second-best part—I drugged them. By the time they wake up, the house will be burned down, and you will be dead." I don't even want to know how she pulled it off.

"You forget the girls are protected in the safe room. They will tell the guys straight away."

The smile on her face is huge. The smoke isn't as thick up here, but my throat is burning.

"Oh, you think it's fireproof? That's so cute."

My eyes go wide. Why the fuck would it not be fireproof? That seems counterproductive.

Crawling backward, I use my hands to feel around for my bag, but it's nowhere to be found. Fuck, I swear I dropped it up here when I came inside. I scan the room for anything I can use as a weapon. A can of deodorant—that's it—but it will have to do. I wrap my hand around the thin aerosol spray bottle and wait.

"So what's your plan? You clearly know we are locked inside the house while it burns down around us."

"That is the plan. If I can't have him, neither can you. You think I'm stupid and would believe you don't love him? It's Van—you can't help but love him."

"You're right, I do, but I care about the girls' safety more. So, why hurt them?"

"Because he loves them too. He told me as much. He wanted to get rid of me like I meant nothing to him."

Now it's my turn to laugh as I push to my feet. "Do you not realize he sent you away because he once loved you? Cian and Darragh didn't even know you were still alive. He still tried to protect you, even after everything you did to him. Shit, did he really mean so little to you it was worth taking the money and running?"

"You don't know anything about me," she snaps, coming toward me.

I brace for her to swing the knife and just as she gets within arm's reach, I hold out the can and spray her in the eyes. Sam swings the knife blindly, and I feel my skin split beneath the blade.

"Fucking bitch," she screams, as I run through the smoke and out into the hallway between the bedrooms. Beside Cian's room is a decorative table, and on it there is a large crystal-ball-looking monstrosity. I pick it up with two hands and creep back to wait beside my door, praying she turns toward the stairs.

Sam steps through the doorway, the smoke thick enough to impact visibility and hide my waiting form. I heft the heavy ball in the air, then bring it down against her head. She staggers and falls onto the carpet, blood pooling around her. I drop the ball and run—I need to find the girls.

Descending the stairs two at a time, I take a left and sprint down a hallway to where the safe room is at the far back corner of the house. The fire must be in the kitchen because the smoke thins slightly the further I move down the hall, past the cinema and the games room. This whole side is fun shit, like an indoor sauna. I duck into an empty room, and there is nothing in here besides a bookshelf, but if you pull a book, the case unlatches, leaving a door with a hand pad. I press my hand to it, and it turns red. Fuck! If they are inside, it has gone into panic mode, and they will need to unlock it from the inside.

"Girls, I need you to open the door. Darragh would have shown you how."

I don't know if they can hear me, but I hope they can.

Sirens. Thank fuck, I can hear sirens in the distance. "Come on, girls, please open the door."

The light clicks green, and it opens, then both girls are wrapping their arms around me. "As much as I want to hug you, we need to find a way out."

They both nod.

"The basement," Sadie says. "The windows down there are usually open because it smells."

"Let's go," I tell them, taking their hands.

"You're bleeding," Eloise whispers, and I look at my arm. Shit, that's a lot of blood, and I'm feeling woozy on my feet.

"I will be fine. Let's get downstairs. I don't know where the crazy lady is, so we are going to run as fast as we can to the basement. Do not let go of my hand, understand?"

They both nod. "Okay, ready, set, go."

The three of us run back through the house, but the smoke gets thicker and flames now billow out of the hall leading to the kitchen. Shit, we need to go through there to get to the basement.

"Fuck!"

"We can get outside from upstairs," Eloise says.

I don't have time to ask her how—it's the only option we have left.

"Show me," I say, and Eloise pulls us toward the staircase leading to their room. Once we are past their room, in an alcove of sorts at the end of the hall there's an emergency exit door.

"It's normally closed, but I leave it cracked open in case Mom comes back."

My heart hurts for these girls and all they have been through. I push the door open, and we step out onto a small balcony which has a ladder. Shit, this really is an emergency exit.

"Okay, you girls go first, and I will meet you at the bottom."

Eloise goes first, followed by Sadie. As I'm climbing down the ladder, the sounds of the sirens stop, and shouting from the front of the house is the only noise breaking the silence.

Once I reach the bottom, I take the girls' hands again, and we walk toward the front of the house. The quickest way from here is along the side of the building, and we move as fast as we can, but with the amount of blood I have lost, I am staggering a little on my feet. My vision blurs as we step out from beside the house, and my knees give way. The last thing I hear is someone shouting my name.