Chapter 15

Fifteen

Aster

L ater that night, I wake to find the storm fading into the distance. Someone peeled back the curtain so I watch the rolling clouds. They resemble my chaotic emotions recently and the new calm I feel in the aftermath.

Warmth cocoons me from all sides, and I'm no longer scared. But I am alone, I realize.

I kick off the covers piled around me and make my way to the sliding doors. I pull on Mirsha's discarded shirt, buttoning it up. I find another box on the table and realize they ordered me more than one pair of underwear.

"Glory be!"

I pull those on and slide open the door that leads to the garden. Fresh rain and wet grass are favorite scents of mine. It reminds me of summer days by the pool with them . They would watch as I swam and my brothers' friends tried to pick me up.

The memory brings a smile to my face.

I look around to see shoes are gone and so are pants.

After what we shared, they were probably down at our spot under the willow.

A wicked smile pulls at my lips, and I step onto the wet grass. Maybe we can finish what we started three years ago. Voyeurism isn't my style per se but I don't see another soul out here tonight.

A quiet settles over the Society's gardens.

Three steps and something black in the grass catches my eye. I crouch down and stand up with a hurt bird in my hand. Poor thing. The storm must have forced it into the side of the mansion.

I set it aside and push deeper into the Society's garden. I come to the statue I've come to think of as Lover's Embrace.

I look down to find another bird.

I step over it and come to the end of the walkway. In the distance, I spot a silhouette. There they are. I'm halfway across the expanse of grass before I can tell this shadow in the dark is not Mirsha. Nor Luther. And definitely not Viper.

My blood drains from my face to pool at the bottoms of my feet. Tingles of dread fall through me like stars cast from the sky.

Gas lamps flicker here and there but the shadows are deep and I can't make out faces or anything else. Lightning dances over the sky as a warning the storms have not fully passed. What an epic fucking was for Mother Nature to mimic my life.

I take a few more steps.

" Privet , Aster."

That voice. I've wanted to drive my knee into the balls of its owner for a long time.

I haul in a lung full of moist air. Fingers of fury skitter across the sky. The burst of light is bright enough to catch on the metal of a gun.

"Oh, shit."

I slide to a stop in the wet grass. But the really creepy part is the glowing cherry of Joseph's cigar casting a red glow over his ugly face.

He looks like a demon.

And moves like one too!

I pinwheel backward as the mobster rushes his massive weight in my direction. But I don't get more than ten feet before I clobber into a beefy chest.

"Umph!" I face plant forward in the wet grass.

"Can't you take rejection can you, Joseph?"

Even in the darkness, I see the evil intent glittering in his eyes. It also radiates around him and threatens to pull me into the cloud of bleakness around him.

Fuck that!

" Nyet ! No one tells me no. I take what I want." He's talking and I'm planning, but I'm not coming up with anything that screams go for it .

Given that my bare feet have no traction on the grass, it's not a big surprise his fist connects with my cheekbone before I can move.

Come morning, it will swell purple and black. But I know this asshole won't live to see it.

Damn it! "What the hell do I have to do to get you to understand no is…NO!" I pour all my frustration into my roar and hope it chokes him. Chills seep into my bones. It's the middle of a Louisiana summer, but the icy fingers of lingering death pucker my nipples and cause my fingers to shake.

The birds distracted me or I would have sensed I wasn't alone. Damn it!

I'm on my feet and moving in the only direction I don't see anyone blocking.

I slip, but manage to right myself and try again.

I push forward. Water sloshes, and my muscles ache from the force of keeping upright. This far from the club, there are only a few lamps dotting the rolling grass with small sitting areas for members. It's not long before the manicured garden fades into untamed wooded areas. Wet leaves lick against my bare legs. They don't slow me down. More sitting spots are out here too. Probably for some primal kinky play.

But that is not this.

A small shed comes into view and for a second, I wonder if I should use it to hide. But why? I need to get back to my men, not get pinned down. The only way I can do that is by finding a main road and following it back to the club.

Seems like a good plan until I step through a curtain of hanging willow branches and run into my father.

High beams hit my eyeballs and I fall to my knees, momentarily blind.

"So predictable," he clucks. Biles rises and burns the back of my throat.

The man who raised me digs his fingers into my hair and yanks the damp strand so hard my neck pops.

Cold metal presses against my temple.

"Father?" I croak, not at all surprised my dad is holding a gun to my head. I guess this could be worse. How, I don't know, but I don't want to die with my heart filled with hate. Not after what I shared with my men.

Okay. Details. Think Aster.

If he's here, that means someone is fighting with Luther and Viper. Mirsha. I know they can hold their own, but this is supposed to be a place of safety like Club Genesis. A safe zone with no weapons or harm allowed. Heads are going to roll for this.

And then it sinks in. I'm not inside the Society's property line anymore. Out here, in the Louisiana woods, anything goes. Will my father dump me in the Mississippi or will he drag me deep into the bayou for the alligators?

A question I never thought I wanted the answer to. And yet, here we are. My stomach rolls like one of those watery beasts.

I raise my hands, and he swats them away. "As stupid as the day you were born. I curse the day your mother gave me a girl."

My soul can take the pounding he wants to give. "And the truth is finally out." But it doesn't sting. Warmth and love feed the threads leading me back to my men.

"Why couldn't you be more like your mother and fall in line and obey me?"

He snaps his teeth an inch from my nose, but I don't flinch.

With a gun to my head is the perfect time to learn restraint, but you know me. I let my words do the powerlifting.

"Her life mission was to please you. Everything she did was in the hopes it made you happy. But you don't see that, do you?"

Gentle rain spatters on my cheeks. Fine misting turns into fat blobs of water until sheets of water drench us. But as mighty as Mother Nature is, the evil in my father's eyes still burns brightly.

"She obeyed because she didn't want you to sell her off. And I refuse to obey you any longer. I am not a fucking machine born to please you."

His grip on my hair grows painful. "No, you think you were born to fuck my best friends like a whore. You don't think I know about three years ago. How do you think I knew where to find you? I knew you would crawl back to them. I should have killed them then and let you watch"

Metal cracks against the side of my head and I fall forward, clutching at what has to be a nasty gash.

I'm pulled back to my knees and when I check my hand, and sure enough, there's blood.

"That will not pull me to your bosom, Dad ," I draw out and hope this little exchange gives my men time to get to me. I might be ballsy, but even I know me on my knees with a gun to my head is a solid sign the odds are not in my favor.

I guess last night was the Universe giving me one shot at happiness knowing what was coming down the chamber for me.

I can give in or fight.

I know what I should do, but rules were meant for others. I lower my head and rear back fast, catching his chin with the back of my head.

Bone cracks and my father lands hard on his ass in the growing water levels around us. A nearby stream must be flooding. Great.

"It's time to play, Aster."

I turn to see fucking Joseph Romanov barrel through the willow branches. His shirt is ripped and the blood dripping from a gash over his eye and a few slashes across his chest tell me he ran into my men and narrowly escaped with his life.

Three hundred pounds of Russian slam me into the ground. Fingers as thick as damn saplings wind around my throat and I can't breathe. Not even a little.

I gasp, kick, flail like a madwoman, but nothing I do dislodges Joseph. And if I can't get him off me, that means the rising water under me will become a problem. It's already at ear level. At that point, it's a matter of what will kill me first.

Since I don't relish becoming gator food, I stab my fingers into a bleeding wound on the Russian's chest.

He roars and jerks back. It's enough for me to dislodge his weight and roll out from under him.

Fear so strong it holds the power to knock the rest of the air from my lungs clenches around my ribs. I push to my feet and find my father's loaded gun pointed at my forehead. I drop to my knees and his gun stays trained on me.

I clutch my chest. What the hell is happening?

Viper comes into sight.

It is not my fear I am feeling, I realize, when our eyes briefly lock.

Everyone is so focused on Viper that no one sees Mirsha and Luther attack from the sides.

I see the muzzle flashes from my peripheral before I hear the bullets leave their chambers.

And then just as quickly as my nightmare began, it ends.

More bullets and revving motors and the rest of my father's men run or die where they stand. I know Mirsha will see to it they all pay at some point.

Without the light from the car's headlights, I can't see the blood in the water pooling around my feet, but I can feel the warmth.

My back turns to solid iron as I fight to keep upright. I almost died. They almost died protecting me.

"Oh, God. What just happened?"

Tears mix with rainwater, and I am being pulled into arms. I don't know whose arms at first, but I sense they don't mean me harm.

"I am so sorry, Aster. God, forgive us. It took us far too long to get to you."

Viper's hold is so tight and warm and crushing and perfect. When he loosens his tight hold around me, I climb up him and wrap my legs around his waist. I anchor my arms around his neck and we just stand there in the rain.

The protective wall from the other two surrounds me, and I am safe again.

"You found me," I murmur against his neck to all of them. "That is all that matters."

"We found you. We always will. Wherever you walk on this earth, we will find you."

The shield of Luther's words wraps around my heart and heals old wounds. "Is it over? Is the nightmare really over? Can we be together now?"

Gray, amber, and blue meet my eyes. "Not even God can take us from you now. We are only sorry it took this level of violence and loss."

I believe God brought us together using my cousin. A point I plan on addressing the next time I get a phone in my hand.

"Me too. But my father chose this ending, not us." I turn into Viper and close my eyes. I don't want to see any more death and violence for as long as I live.

"Let's go and leave the violence behind us."

All I need are my men and the love we have for each other.

The Gilded Key Society gave us a chance to discover our love and I will forever be grateful for the protective bubble it provided.

But in my world, it takes violence to get what you want. In my case, our desire to be together outweighed the evil in my father's black soul. He didn't care how much he hurt me as long as he got what he wanted. Revenge for the perceived disrespect.

But love won.

I believe with all my heart and soul, we pay our dues in blood and pain before we can move on from this world. I hope my debt is paid after tonight. Deep inside me, I know this isn't our first time fighting to be together. But I'll leave my theories of woo-woo magic about twin flames and fated mates for another time. When I'm dry and warm.

The four of us have finally forged our energies and we are whole. That is all that matters. I reach for both Luther and Mirsha, who walk behind us as Viper leads my new family back to the safety of the Society.

"About leaving. The reason we were held up getting to you faster is the owners of this place finally arrived."

I pull back. "Oh?" I have no idea where this is going.

"What do you think of calling this place home?" Mirsha asks.

"A sex club?"

A mysterious shadow moves over Luther's expression. "It's so much more than a sex club. The top floors are just the beginning."

There's an entire conversation hidden in those few words. One that needs to happen after a warm shower and a few phone calls back home.

"What he's saying is we are now owners of the Gilded Key Society and we want you as our partner," Viper fills in a few more empty spaces of information for his brother. "We were signing contracts when a burst of fear tore us out of the office and running back to you. We found the bed empty and Joseph bleeding in the grass."

I clear the emotion clogging my throat. "Thank you for coming back to find me." My arms tighten around Viper and he does the same. "I didn't think two dreams could come true in one night," I whisper with all the love pouring through me.

"We have a life to build," Luther offers.

"Today is day one of our forever."

I agree with Mirsha. Our eyes connect. An endless sea of emotions meets mine.

Flares of desire heat my core. Viper's hands roam as he leads us back to our room. My walls clench at their animalist rumble of need matching the desire building inside me.

Warm lips meet cool skin, and I willingly tumble into the gentleness of Viper's love.

In the midst of chaos and pleasure, we find our balance in each other's arms. We could have lost our lives tonight, but instead love won. Gilded kisses are forever and tonight that is more true than ever before.

I've headed down the path of ruin and rage, but I've learned one thing tonight. Every road I stepped on led me to the Society and the men I love.

"Claim me again and tomorrow you and show me our new home."