CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

GAGE

With two women and Pretty Boy, I'm used to having sex every day, multiple times, but with all three of them not feeling great, I got none last night. Am I slightly disgruntled by that? A little, I guess, but I have every intention of fucking them all twice today to make up for it. Did I suggest to Mav that he should suck my dick? I was nice, and even offered to suck him off too, but of course he told me to fuck off, which is pretty rude.

As we get out to go into this bookstore, it's honestly pretty hard to tell which of them is more nervous. They are both anxious about what Stella refers to as ‘peopleing', but it's unlikely their ‘readers' will be there, because they didn't announce a time when they'd be showing up. I think it's pretty clear these people are their fans. They love their books, want them to sign shit, and get excited to meet them. That's a fan, right? Wrong. Very wrong. If I say the word ‘fan' I get snipped at by both of them, because they aren't ‘big time' authors. Last night Stella glared at me. ‘It's not like we're Rina Kent, or someone else amazing like that ."

I don't have a fucking clue who that is but it drives me insane that our two women, both talented writers, refuse to give themselves the credit they deserve. With Lucy, I kind of get it, and if you met her parents, you would too. Stella, though. Why the hell is she like this? So much self-doubt when she should be confident because she's amazing. They both are. I don't know what women are looking for when they read, but when I read the words they've written, it always makes me hard.

Sebastian opens the door for us, and we walk through. Instantly the store owner greets our women excitedly, "I hope you'll do this again. We had one hundred copies, but they all sold after you made the TikTok video."

Stella smiles at the short blonde woman. "Let us know when you get more, and I'm sure we can arrange to come in and sign them if you'd like."

The woman's cheeks pink up like she's embarrassed. "Could I get a picture?"

Like I'm the hired help, the lady hands me her phone, as all three of them get into position. I grumble under my breath but take the damn photograph. A few people come over to them, but I don't know if they were here by chance, or if they were specifically looking for them. Tiffany, the owner, points them to a table where they can sit and sign the books. Of course we follow them, because our women don't go very far away without us on their heels, but Stella gets her phone and shoos us away. "You'll scare people if you're on the video. Give us some breathing room."

Reluctantly, all three of us walk to the other side of the store while they sign their books. Mav narrows his gaze at me. "I don't like this. Can't at least one of us be over there with them?"

Sebastian shrugs. "Let them have a few minutes, but not too long."

We all stand staring at each other as we wait in the monster fucker section, seriously these books are actual monsters fucking women. It's not bad enough that we have to compete with other men, but now monsters too? Mav chuckles as he flips through one of the books. "This shit is crazy. This dude has three tongues."

I shake my head at him and glance at Sebastian. "How long has it been?"

He shrugs. "We should check out their TikTok , then we'll know when they are at least done with that."

Obviously, that's a good idea for three possessive assholes freaking out about being away from their women. Their pregnant women. I smile as I pull up their live show, which I didn't expect them to do, because Stella is really weird about posting shit that can't be edited. I watch, with Sebastian and Mav staring at my phone screen over my shoulder, until it ends. Switching the app off, I glance at Pretty Boy. "Five minutes. That's all they're getting."

It bothers the fuck out of me, because they've never asked us to not be in eyeshot before. And I do not fucking like it.

"I gotta take a piss," Sebastian says and I nod.

In under five minutes he comes running, looking pale as a ghost and clearly rattled.

MAV

"They're gone," he says through harsh breaths.

Glaring at him, I say. "What do you mean they're fucking gone?"

He runs a hand through his hair. "Gone. They left us. We were played. They are writers, after all. They just wrote the greatest downfall. Only it's not fiction. It's our fucking real lives."

If Sebastian looks devastated, Gage looks ready to tear someone to shreds. He chuckles humorlessly. "They have no clue what they've done. I'll find them. Lock both of them up and throw away the key. This isn't the end. It's only the goddamn beginning."

Why do I always have to be the voice of reason? "What if they didn't leave?"

Gage looks at me like I've lost my mind, and honestly, I might have. Both our women gone might be the end of any sanity I had left. "What?"

I shrug. "They like to think, for some reason, that they aren't popular enough for anybody to really care about them or what they're doing. After that book they wrote together though, they gained quite the following. I'm just saying, what if they didn't leave on their own?"

Gage growls, "Fuck," as he takes off to I don't know where, but both Sebastian and I storm after him. He barks at the shop owner, "Where's the back room?"

She visibly shrinks from the glare he's giving her, and points to the other side of the store and we walk into the back room, and Gage says quietly, "Why the fuck is there blood on the floor?"

We all stare at it as realization sets in, someone took our pregnant women, and at least one of them is hurt. The mixture of fear, anger, and heartbreak is potent. We only have room for one of those emotions right now. We will find them, and whoever took them is going to regret ever laying eyes on our girls. Ours. There's one thing the three of us will never tolerate. If you fuck with our family, you are fucked. And not only did they take our women, but our children too.

"We should ask to see their cameras."

Gage responds with, "Fuck that," as he takes his laptop off his shoulder, and sets it up at a table in the back room that I assume is for employee breaks. I don't have to ask what he's doing, because he's Gage, and I already know. He's not asking permission because he'll simply do what he always does, take what he wants, and hack his way in to find the video of our women, and whoever was stupid enough to take them.

SEBASTIAN

Did I think they'd run from us, maybe realized that they were safer away from us, or that they shouldn't bring babies into a family like ours? Of course I did, because hadn't they had doubts recently? Their doubts, and the unsettled feelings between us, has been fucking up my head for days. Gage Rage might be a thing, but I think there's a version I suffer from too, because I really feel like I could have gone on a rampage when I first noticed they were gone. I mean, we left them signing books and doing their live stream thing, and they were in their element, but seconds after they stop recording, they disappear? We're supposed to be better at keeping them where we want them.

"Fucking camera angles are shit in here. I'm gonna check the street cams too. Mav, get outside and look for them, just in case." Mav runs from the room, while I pick up my phone again, figuring I'll rewatch that live stream, because maybe there's a hint on there that we didn't realize was a hint earlier, because our focus was where it always should be, on our ladies.

Before I can even open the old stream, a new one pops up from Stella's account, and there's no visual, but it says there's sound, so I turn up the volume on my phone again, as I nudge Gage to get his attention.

"What?"

I shush him as Stella's voice suddenly rings out in the silence.

"Seriously, this is the best you can do for a kidnapping? Where are the blindfolds? Are these actual handcuffs? That's so last year, moron."

That fucking woman is everything. Lucy starts giggling, and I hear a gruff man's voice curse at them. That fucker will regret every fucking second of his life.

Mav runs back into the room, so Gage must have summoned him.

"This van has seen better days, right, Lucy? This loser has no class at all. Don't you know who we are? We're used to better luxury levels than this… Brian, is that your name? He looks like a Brian, right, Lucy?"

She giggles again, and there's the sound of skin slapping skin. That fucker just hit one of our women.

"Is that the best you've got, Brad? I swear I can hit myself harder than that, you bell-end," Lucy taunts, like our little fucking Brit does when she wants a spanking.

"Maybe it's Chad… is that it, Chad? Or is it Hunter, or some other frat boy name? How blond is that hair, by the way? It looks like it came from a bottle."

"Will you two bitches shut the fuck up? Seriously, I thought you were meant to be introverts? Do introverts talk so much shit?!" I grin at Gage while he folds up his laptop and uses his phone to track Stella's.

"Yes, they do," I mutter, as the girls giggle again. Is it weird that they're not afraid of being kidnapped? Did what we did to them make them stronger and less afraid of psychos, or is it just that they know we'll find them?

"Get to the town car, and tell the driver to follow our directions as we yell them out," Gage says to Mav, as he passes his laptop to Mav, and grabs my hand.

"Come on, baby, let's go fetch our girls, and kill this fucker."

We cling to the live connection with Stella and Lucy as we're tracking them, and every word that fucker speaks is another nail in his coffin. If he really thinks he'll survive touching our women, he's dumber than he sounds. Gage's fists are clenched, and Mav's running his hand through his hair so often, he's going to have a bald spot if he's not careful. I wish we could see what's happening, rather than just hearing it, but at least Stella gave us this.

"We'll save you both, just hang in there," I whisper as we listen.

"So, is this your first time kidnapping someone? You didn't even threaten us properly. You have a gun, but do you even know how to use it?" Lucy taunts the guy, and we all glance at each other nervously. The fucker's armed . Of course he is, otherwise, our ladies would have probably kicked him in the nuts and legged it.

"We really need to teach them some defense skills, so they're safe if we fuck up like this," Mav says worriedly, but Gage growls and silences us both.

"This is a one off, so they won't fucking need those skills, and what if they use them against us, fuckhead?"

"If you don't shut up, I'll jam this gun right up your-"

"Finally, the threats. Seriously, this guy's such a rookie," Stella interrupts him, and he lets out a roar of frustration.

Tell us if there are more people, tell us if he's driving, and give us some fucking clues here, I beg silently, because what will we be walking into? What if someone takes a bullet?

"What if our babies get hurt?" I whisper to Gage, and he echoes that raged roar loud enough that the driver swerves slightly in response. He must be wondering what the fuck is going on.

"Left here, and speed up, for fuck's sake." Gage turns to me. "The way they're baiting this fucker, he could lose his shit before we get to them."

Mav groans. "I'm proud of them, but why the fuck are they being so in his face like this? It's like they want to get hurt. They're both getting such a fucking spanking for putting themselves in danger like this." He hesitates. "And for getting kidnapped again."