27. Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Six

Skyla

I step inside the party, laughter and music practically deafeningly loud when I bump into a woman. Oh, not a woman. The woman. Annie .

“Ow! Watch where you’re fucking going,” she sneers at me.

My mouth drops open, unable to hide my shock.

“Excuse me?” I ask.

“Excuse me?” she mimics before narrowing her eyes at me. “You heard me. If you would stop being a pathetic lovesick bitch, maybe you’d be able to watch where you’re going.”

I shake my head, scoffing at her as I speak.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please,” she snaps. “The tacky slutty schoolgirl thing, the little heart eyes you give him any time you’re in the same room as him. You’ve got a little crush on your husband’s uncle. Fucking disgusting of you, honestly. I wonder how your poor husband would feel if he knew?”

I don’t react, allowing her to see absolutely none of my emotions.

“You think I like Ronan?” I laugh derisively before shaking my head.

I don’t like him, I love him.

Indecision muddles her eyes before she tilts her head to the side in question.

“Yes, I do. You’re so obvious about it. You’re just an inexperienced little girl. You could never give him what he needs.”

Really, I try to do my best to hold in my amusement at that statement. After all, I’m the one with Ronan’s cum dripping down my legs. I don’t respond as she lifts up her white dress, exposing her ass cheeks that have very defined fingerprint bruises developing.

“He likes it rough. As soon as you left that office, he couldn’t bury himself inside me quick enough,” she smiles before pulling down her dress and sashaying off towards the kitchen.

I know she’s full of shit. She has to be. I trust Ronan, and if anything would have happened between them, he would have told me. I know it. That’s not to say something won’t happen eventually. He’ll be expected to produce an heir, and that means he’ll have to sleep with her at least once. What if he finds out he enjoys it? What if they do it more than once? What if…

“Hey, are you okay?” Asher asks, rounding the corner before reaching out to cup my face.

“Can we go? I need to go.”

He nods. “We’ve made our appearance. That’s all that matters. C’mon,” he says as he laces our hands together, leading me through the throngs of people.

Liam and Wesley both catch my eye, and I watch as they both dismiss the people they are talking to before they begin following us. When we are all outside of the house, waiting for the valet, Asher speaks quietly to them.

“I’m taking my wife home for the night.”

They both nod their understanding, handing the valet their tickets as well when Asher’s car pulls up. He tips the valet driver and opens my door for me before climbing into his own seat. I look out the window, seeing sympathetic looks on Liam and Wesley as Asher pulls away and makes our way home.

Somehow, Liam and Wesley beat us home. As soon as Asher parks, Wesley is at my door while Liam reaches for my hand. I take it as I walk numbly into the house before settling in on the couch. Liam crawls behind me, pulling me into his lap as Asher and Wesley sit on either side of me. We all sit in silence for several minutes before Liam speaks.

“Are you okay?”

I shrug. “It’s our life, right? First Ronan. You and Vincent will be next. I’m sure Christopher is already plotting for Wesley,” I say bitterly with a shake of my head. “It’s what I get for falling for five men, right?”

“Hey,” Wesley says as he squeezes my hand. “One day at a time. There are ways for us to stay together.”

“Like what?” I ask. “You guys come over here after work, get a quick screw in before you go home to your wife and kids?”

Liam’s face twists up at that as he forces my head back to make eye contact with him.

“You know it wouldn’t be like that.”

I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know what to think, what to expect. I just…” I pause, my voice catching. “She’s awful,” I say as tears begin pouring down my face.

Liam holds me closer to him, shushing me softly as the sound of the door opens and closes.

“Baby?” Ronan calls out. “Baby, where are you?”

Asher’s jaw clenches, but it’s Wesley who stands up, intercepting him before he can reach the couch.

“It’s not a good time,” Wesley says.

“What did she say to you?” Ronan asks. “She was bragging to me, telling me she had a little chat with you.”

Before I respond, the door opens and closes again, Vincent stepping into the room. As soon as he sees me, his body goes rigid but I spring out of Liam’s lap and run to him. I jump into his arms, and he catches me midair, burying his head into my neck as he grips the back of my hair and inhales.

“Fuck, I’ve missed you. What’s wrong, siren?”

His gravelly voice gives me a comfort completely unique to him, and I cherish it, burrowing in deeper against him as I sob. He rocks me gently before turning to face the guys.

“What happened?”

“Ronan’s engagement party was tonight,” Liam says with a heavy breath.

“The fuck?” Vincent snaps.

“It was a last minute thing. Christopher told me about it this morning,” Ronan defends.

“And apparently, Ronan’s bitch fiancée said some shit to Sky,” Asher continues.

Vincent forces my head away from his chest, holding eye contact with me as he speaks.

“What did she say, siren?”

I shake my head. “That I could never be enough for Ronan. That she knows I have a ‘crush’ on him and that I could never compare to her. She also said they fucked this afternoon after I left. Showed me fingerprint bruises on her ass cheeks and everything,” I smile weakly.

“What?” all of the guys snap, staring at Ronan with murder in their eyes.

“That’s a load of fucking horseshit. I made her leave literally minutes after you left. Sky, you don’t honestly believe her, do you?”

I shake my head. “But you’ll have to fuck her one of these days, and she is pretty. Wouldn’t be able to hold it against you if you liked it and—”

“And absolutely nothing,” Ronan intervenes. “She’s a fucking liar!”

“It doesn’t matter even if you had,” I say dejectedly.

Ronan looks at me helplessly before Vincent presses a kiss to my forehead.

“I’ll fix it, siren.”

Then, he sets me on my feet and steps out of the room. Ronan takes the opportunity to close the distance between us, but honestly, it’s been a long day and I’m fucking tired. I hold my hand up to him, effectively silencing him as I shake my head.

“I’m being irrational, I get that. We all knew this was going to happen eventually, I was just hoping it would be later than sooner. I’ll get over it, I will. I just…need some space.”

Moving past him, he tries to reach for me when Wesley grabs his arm, pulling it away. When he tries to push against Wesley, Asher is there reinforcing him as Liam comes up to my side.

“What can I do?” he asks.

I smile at him sadly. “Want to come take a bath with me?”

He nods, his hands running through my hair.

“I’d love to.”

Liam and I soak in the bath in silence for over forty-five minutes, and it’s absolute heaven. After, we get dressed into our warmest pajamas and head downstairs for a late night snack.

Ronan is down there, his head in his hands, while Wesley and Asher talk quietly from the kitchen. As soon as I step into the room, all eyes are on me as Ronan stands to his feet. His mouth opens like he wants to say something before he shakes his head and sighs.

In the next moment, Vincent steps inside the house, pulling off black gloves and stuffing them into his back pocket. His eyes come straight to me as he nods.

“Problem solved.”

My brows furrow at that.

“What?” I ask as Asher shakes his head.

“You didn’t…” Asher says hesitantly.

“Didn’t what?” I ask as I look between the guys.

Understanding dawns over each of their faces as I turn back to Vincent.

“What did you do?”

He shrugs. “I fixed the problem. Ronan is no longer engaged.”

I look to see Ronan’s face blank, devoid of any emotion.

“What do you mean? How?” I ask.

Vincent strolls up to me casually, cupping my cheek as he looks into my eyes.

“He can’t be engaged to a corpse.”

“Jesus,” Ronan grumbles under his breath.

My eyes widen at the realization.

“You killed her? You killed Annie Williams?”

“Technically, yes,” he says. “Officially, she was still drunk from the party, fell down the stairs, and cracked her head open.”

I wait for horror to fill me, disgust or anger. I wait for that fight or flight urge to run rampant inside me, demanding I get myself away from this psychotic maniac as fast as possible. Instead, I just shake my head.

“What if you get caught? What if—”

His finger comes to my lips, silencing me immediately.

“I never get caught, siren. You had a problem, I fixed it. Just say thank you,” he says before pressing his lips to mine.

For some moronic reason, I kiss him back. Not only do I kiss him back, though, I enjoy it. I feel thankful, grateful even. It’s one thing to have a man who will protect you. It’s another who will so easily kill for you. Not for your protection, but for your peace, for your heart. The fact that he went over there without another word, murdered a woman just so she wouldn’t marry one of my other boyfriends…you can’t make this shit up.

“You okay?” Wesley asks, and I tear my mouth away from Vincent to see him nod.

“It’s better this way,” Ronan says, a coldness to his eyes as he crosses the room to Vincent and me, holding out his hand for him.

Vincent doesn’t move for several seconds before he shakes Ronan’s hand. He doesn’t say thank you, but he doesn’t need to either. You can see it written all over Ronan’s face. I can also see the morality battle he’s currently fighting. Ronan is kind and caring. He doesn’t wish death on those that don’t deserve it. Was Annie awful? Absolutely. Did she deserve to die? Probably not. Will I cry at her funeral? Absolutely the fuck not.