Chapter 22

Someone tripped the alarm—fuck. I can no longer hear Harper while I continue to bring up the feed from the yard. I'd heard her at first, talking with someone, but now, nothing.

"Daddy," my daughter whimpers.

"Sadie, where is Harper?"

Sadie hiccups. "The bad lady has her. Harper told us to go."

The pain in my chest eases. "Good. Girls, go to the safe room just like we practiced. Harper will be okay."

The line cuts out. "Sadie!" I yell. "Fuck!"

"Why the fuck are you bellowing?" Van asks as he steps out of the other room. Cian is in there torturing the asshole who owes us a fuck ton of money but thinks he doesn't have to pay. Normally, we send someone else to do the job, but this guy evaded them for weeks.

"The house went into lockdown."

Van takes his phone out of his pocket. "Fuck, are Harper and the girls okay?"

I run my hand through my hair. "I don't know, but we need to go. Shit, if I didn't know better, I would have sworn I heard Sam's voice."

I watch as all the color drains from Van's face.

"You killed her, right?"

He shakes his head, and I shoulder-check him hard as I barge past him and into the room. "It's this asshole's lucky day—we have to go. Harper and the girls are in trouble because Van is incapable of following through with a fucking kill."

Cian brings the knife to the man's throat and slides the blade across it.

Ronan and Cian are firing off questions as we sprint out of the building, ones I don't have answers to. "Just get in the fucking car!" I shout.

By the time Cian finishes closing his door, I have turned the car over and thrown it into reverse. We are at least half an hour away, and that's if I break a lot of road rules.

I vaguely hear Ronan talking on the phone. My foot presses against the accelerator—I need to get to my girls. If something happens to them, I don't know what I will do. Van sits quietly in the back and I'm grateful. The option of killing him is on the table; he put my daughters' lives at risk and that of our woman. That shit doesn't sit right with me. Why the fuck would he spare Sam's life after all the crap she put him through?

"Harper is tough—she'll keep the girls safe," Cian tries to reassure me, but it does nothing to relieve any of my stress and worry.

I never imagined I could care about anyone more than I do myself, or the men in this car. But now, I would die for those three girls, and I would single-handedly put a bullet in my best friend's brain if it were a choice between them or him.

My palms sweat as I weave in and out of traffic, and somewhere around the halfway mark a cop car comes flying up behind me, lights and sirens blaring.

"Fuck, should we pull over?" Cian says. Then he laughs, but it has no conviction behind it. "Nah, let's see if you can outrun them. Let's go."

"Take a sharp left up ahead. If you keep going straight down here, you will have more cops blocking the road," Van says, and as much as I hate him right now, he is right.

I take a sharp left, cutting across traffic. Luckily the road between the two buildings is clear, and it brings me out near the bridge. If I can make it there before the cops block it off, we are smooth sailing.

A cop car pulls up, and I swerve around it, once again weaving in and out of traffic, but the cop stays on my ass.

My heart pounds harder the closer we get to the house. Plumes of smoke catch my eye and my heart leaps into my throat; the guys don't say anything, but I know they can see it too. We drive in silence, only broken by the sirens of the police car following us. When we pull into the street, we find the gate already smashed apart, so we fly right past. I drift sideways into our driveway through our personal gate, which is also lying mangled on the roadway. A fire engine is out the front, and firefighters are battling the blaze from the outside. The second the car stops, we all jump out and race forward.

"Whose house is this?" a firefighter asks.

"Mine," Ronan says.

"My men can't get inside."

No shit. When the alarms are activated and the house thinks it is under attack, it automatically shuts everything down, and the windows are fucking bulletproof.

"No, you can't," Ronan says. "The only way is from inside the fucking house. Shit."

"We'll do what we can," he says.

The cops have joined us now, and thankfully they haven't put us in cuffs.

"Thank god you're here," Celia simpers as she approaches. "I came past to drop off those contracts and there was smoke everywhere."

"Holy shit, is that Harper? HARPER!"

Cian sprints across the lawn, and I look up to see the girls clutching her hands. Harper's knees buckle, and she falls to the ground, which has us all racing over to her. Once I reach them, the girls jump into my arms, and I pull them to my chest.

"I think she is dead," Sadie cries.

"She was bleeding a lot," Eloise sobs out.

"I'm fine," Harper croaks. "I was a little dizzy."

Van picks Harper up in his arms and runs with her toward the ambulance, which has pulled up beside the fire truck. I walk across the grass, taking the girls to the same place.

"Check the girls first," Harper says.

"Miss, but you're bleeding," the younger paramedic says.

"Then you better check them fast before I drop dead."

Cian chuckles at Harper. "You scared the life out of me, Sweetheart."

She smiles at him. "Just a little payback."

Something catches Harper's attention, and she gets to her feet. Van tries to grab her arm, but she shrugs him off even though she staggers minutely, and I watch what she is doing as the girls get checked out by the paramedics. She confidently strides up to Celia—whose back is to Harper—and when she turns around, Harper cocks her arm back and slams her fist hard into Celia's nose, causing blood to spurt everywhere.

"You fucking whore!" Celia shouts.

The cops jump into action and grab Harper.

"That cunt is responsible for all of this. And her friend is still inside."

Celia's eyes go wide. She looks at Cian, but he shakes his head. "You have no proof," Celia shouts as the cops put her in cuffs.

"We don't need any," Ronan says. "I'm sure we will get justice."

Harper tells the firefighters the upstairs emergency door was left open, and one of them asks Ronan how to override the house's lockdown system. I leave them to deal with it, as I don't give a fuck if the house burns to the ground now that everyone I care about is out. My girls and woman are okay, and that's all that matters.

To be safe, we are told the girls and Harper need to go to the hospital to be monitored. So they are loaded up into the ambulance, and I join them. No one tells me to get out, not that I would, and I think they know it. Harper gets into a second ambulance that arrives, and Van jumps in with her, while Cian and Ronan deal with the shitshow.

Harper refuses to let the girls be taken out of her sight, so the doctor stitches up her arm while she sits on the end of Sadie's bed. Eloise didn't want to watch, but Sadie was almost in Harper's lap, entranced. Harper refused any further treatment, so the doctor told us to monitor her.

Van sits in the armchair in the corner of the room, and Harper sits on my lap. I'm not normally a PDA kind of guy, but she saved my daughters' lives, so I owe her.

"You know you're a badass," I whisper in her ear. "But you risked your life—maybe you need to be punished."

She shivers. "Yes, please."

"You two are not doing that," Van says. While he can't hear exactly what we're saying, the guy knows me well. "The house was on fire when we left, so I highly doubt we are staying there again soon."

Harper slumps in my arms. "Don't worry," I whisper. "We own more properties than just that one."

Van gives me a death glare, and I try not to smirk at him. Harper will get a spanking, at the very least. My cock gets hard, and Harper laughs just as Ronan and Cian walk into the room, followed by a nurse.

"You are all free to go. The girls' tests came back all clear. Miss Daniels, I would highly recommend that you get the same tests done as well."

"I'm completely fine," Harper says, pushing up off my lap, knowing damn well my cock is hard as fuck.

"Okay, well, here is some information on things to watch for. If either you or the twins show any of these signs, please come straight back in."

"Thank you, Rachel, we appreciate it," Harper says. She then turns to Ronan, who throws his arms around her and pulls her into his body.

"You're squishing me," Harper says with a laugh.

"Don't care," Ronan replies. "You scared the absolute life out of me."

I get the girls down from their beds.

"The house needs some work," Ronan continues, "so for now, we are heading to the penthouse in the city. It's close by, and the girls have not been yet. I was allowed into the house to pack some bags for each of us since the fire didn't destroy the bedrooms, but the kitchen is completely gone and so is the living room."

"What about Sam?" Harper asks, and Ronan shakes his head.

I glance over at Van and there is nothing but guilt on his face. I hope he feels bad. This is the reason we leave no evidence—nothing can come back to bite us in the ass.

Some people don't agree with the way we live our life, but you know what? Fuck them. We don't force people to use their connection to us, nor force people to work with us, or borrow money, and we are very clear about what happens when you screw us over. Our world does not work like everyone else's. Regular people who stay out of our business don't get hurt. We are not vindictive fucks who kidnap, hurt, or murder innocent women and children. There might have been an innocent man or two somewhere along the line—after all, we are not perfect.

Thankfully, Ronan and Cian brought two cars, and we split up between them. The girls and Ronan are with me, and Harper is riding with Van and Cian. I don't argue because it's possible that maybe—just a bit—I feel Van needs her, and he'll only get her for the duration of the drive.

Ten minutes into the journey, the girls fall asleep. Ronan looks over at me, but I try to ignore him. It doesn't work.

"Are you okay?"

I shrug. If I'm being honest, I don't know. "Everyone is alive, so I should be fine, right?"

"It's okay if you're not. I'm still a little shaken."

Being vulnerable isn't something I ever do. "For a split second when we pulled up, I thought I lost them. I just found them, Ronan. Promise me if anything ever happens to them, you will kill me."

"I'm not the man to ask for that promise."

I nod in acceptance. He's right, it will need to be Cian. "What will happen to Celia?"

"She is being questioned by the police. They will let her go, since I didn't hand over the video surveillance."

"Good, the bitch is mine."

A small hand slaps me. "Daddy, no bitch is yours. If you leave Harper, we'll go with her," Sadie threatens.

"Yeah, Dad. We will all go with Harper," Ronan mocks.

"Don't worry, Harper isn't going anywhere. Otherwise, who else is going to plan your birthday party?"

Sadie squeals. "Yay, you're the best dad ever!"

"Thanks, kid. You're not too bad yourself."

Eloise starts crying. "We've never had a birthday party before. Can we have ponies?"

"You can have whatever you want, as long as you talk to Harper about it first, and she agrees."

Ronan shakes his head. Celia was supposed to throw the party and now I'm going to kill her for what she has done. I figure Harper is a girl, so surely she will know how to throw a kid's party.

By the time we reach the penthouse, Ronan has had dinner sent up and we all eat before the girls bathe. I then read them a bedtime story, check for monsters under their beds, and tuck them in for the night.

Searching the penthouse, I find Cian flicking through his phone in the living room, and I lean down to whisper in his ear. "Keep an ear out for the girls. I need to show Harper how bad she is for putting herself in danger."

Cian nods, knowing what I plan to do to our girl. While I'm so grateful and owe her my life for saving my daughters, for role-playing purposes, she has been a bad, bad girl and needs to be punished.

I haven't told the others, as Van would bitch me out saying she has been through enough today and doesn't need my bullshit, and Ronan would throw his weight around because he's the boss. I plan to beat them to it.

Padding back down the hall, I spot Harper quietly standing outside the girl's room, watching them through a crack in the door. Walking up behind her, I wrap my arms around her waist and rest my chin on her shoulder. "They sleeping?"

She nods. "Yeah, I just wanted to make sure they were okay. They still have nightmares about monsters."

Grabbing her by the arm, I lightly press my thumb over the bandage on it, and she hisses out in pain. "They are fine. Cian is listening out for them, and your ass is mine."

I lead her down the hall to the main bedroom, where Ronan put all her shit, wanting her to be comfortable. This place has like six bedrooms and is the largest penthouse in the city. Harper doesn't argue, walking straight into the room, and I kick the door closed, letting her arm go to lock the door behind us.

"Strip, then I want you over my lap."

Harper doesn't flinch. She pulls her hoodie over her head and drops it to the floor, watching as I remove my belt and take a seat in the chair in the corner of the room.

Harper strips down and walks seductively toward me, a sway in her hips. I pat my lap and she kneels beside me, leaning her body over my legs.

"Before we start, know I owe you my life, no matter what I say aloud."

Harper nods. "Do I need a safe word or something?"

I chuckle. "Stop works for me."

Sure, I might be an asshole, but taking a girl against her will is not my idea of a good time. Though I fucking hope she consents because her ass staring me in the face is making my goddamned mouth water. I will go easy on her tonight, but I think my little whore needs to give up her power to me just a bit.