CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

MIRA

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“Stupid bitch!”

The crack of his backhand sends a flood of copper liquid to fill my mouth. It’s a combination of mine and his from the chunk I took out of his filthy palm with my teeth.

If I survive this, I’m going to need to be tested for all manner of diseases. The two assholes from the hardware store still look as filthy and foul as the last time I’d seen them, only, now, they also seem feverish with an excitement that is making my stomach knot.

They caught me off guard back at the house. I had my back turned to the backdoor, focused on Christian standing on the porch through the window.

Gap-Tooth came up behind me, clamped a hand over my mouth. Despite all my kicking and thrashing, he hauled me across the living room and out the front door.

Tufty had the truck tearing out of the clearing before the door even shut behind us.

The ride was a fight between Gap-Tooth and me. It was him trying to pin me to the seat and get under my t-shirt and me kicking and clawing every inch of him. I was only saved by Tufty telling him they were supposed to wait.

“She’s going to be pissed if you get carried away the way you do sometimes,” he’d said sharply. “And I miss my turn because of it.”

Gap-Tooth had huffed like a petulant child but dropped back in his seat. He ignored me the rest of the four hours through miles of unpaved dirt deep into the forest. Not a single soul dwelled here where the canopy is so thick, the early afternoon hits more like late evening.

The lodge, a sturdy structure with heavy log walls and a square shape, sits hidden in a wide clearing, draped in a murky gray-green hue. The only clear thing I remember beyond that, before I’m dragged inside, is the silence.

Maybe I couldn’t hear anything over the vicious cracking of my heart, but even the wind seemed afraid of this place.

“Christian and Daniel are going to kill you,” I tell them around the throbbing gash splitting my bottom lip.

The pair, Gap-Tooth and Tufty, stand over me in much cleaner clothes than last time. The Viking is nowhere to be seen in the single room hunting lodge we seem to be in, but that doesn’t mean he’s not on his way.

“Oh, they won’t find us here,” Tufty assures me. “Only family knows this place.”

I don’t let that distract me from what I know to my core — my boys will tear the world apart to find me.

But I’m not going to argue with these two morons.

“Why am I here?”

A terrified part of me knows why. Their intentions are obvious in the twin bulges tenting the fronts of their jeans. But I’m hoping this will be the one time I’m wrong.

“You left so quickly last time,” Tufty says. “We didn’t finish our conversation.”

“And Lucy wants to meet you,” Gap-Tooth chimes in.

Lucy.

Fucking great.

Neither move and I guess we’re still waiting on her highness. It gives me some hope because Tufty said they weren’t supposed to touch me until Lucy talked to me. The longer she took, the more time the boys had to find me.

No such luck.

The lodge door swings open in the moment and a beautiful, porcelain woman walks in.

Definitely in her early thirties with hair the glossy blue-black of a raven’s wings and eyes so clear green, they could have been polished emeralds. Her skin had the flawless clarity of fine-bone China topped with the reddest, plumpest lips pulled into a warm, sweet smile like we’re old friends and haven’t seen each other in a million years.

“Mira, right?” Straight, white teeth flash in a smile that almost makes me forget they kidnapped me. “You have no idea how happy I am to meet you.” Her wide, almond eyes widen at the sight of my bloody mouth. “Who did this?”

She storms towards me and gently cups my face to get a better look. Her expression is nothing if not concerned.

Catching myself, I tear my face out of her grip. She doesn’t seem to notice.

“Dirk. He did it. He hit her,” Tufty says immediately, dirty finger stabbing towards Gap-Tooth. “Tried to do other things but I told him you said to wait.”

Lucy pulls in a sharp huff of air and, with a speed I didn’t see coming, swings. The crack of her palm across Dirk’s face sends his whole head snapping right. Blood erupts from his lips to splatter across his clean shirt.

“Are you some kind of wild animal, Dirk? Too stupid and mindless to control yourself?”

Despite being almost a head taller, Dirk cowers under his sister’s withering wrath. His eyes glisten before he averts them.

“She bit me,” he mumbles.

Her fiery gaze drops to his bloody hand.

The clap of her palm into the side of my face muffles the world of all sound, except the hollow ringing between my ears. My cheek pulses with the severity of a raw burn. It radiates around my eye like I’d been punched.

I actually feel woozy as I come slowly to my senses and find myself on my side on the floor with Lucy standing over me looking regretful.

“God, I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m a little protective of my brothers. You understand, don’t you?” Her gentle hands tuck under my arm and I’m lifted a little too easily into a chair next to a rickety table. “Let me see,” she croons, reaching for my throbbing cheek. She hisses through her teeth. “We’ll need to get you some ice. Are you okay? Do you want some water?”

I want to cry. It’s burning at my throat, but I swallow it back.

I will not let this bitch see me cry.

“What do you want?” I mumble with lips that feel twenty times bigger than their actual size.

Rather than answer, she pivots her chin to face the two standing stationary behind her, gruff, eager Dobermans.

“Wait outside. This is girl talk.”

The pair exchange glances, looking ready to argue. But a sharp, now, from their sister has them scrambling out of the lodge.

Lucy shakes her head, disappointment hardening the delicate line of her jaw as she faces me once more. “This is not how I wanted us to meet, Mira. I hope you know that. When I saw you that morning outside the Sheriff’s office, getting manhandled by Walton...” she breaks off with genuine disgust. I think it’s genuine. It looks genuine. “I was outraged. Isaac Walton had shit stains running down his leg only a year ago and now he thinks he’s a tough guy because his uncle got him on the payroll. Men are such foul creatures, Mira. You can’t trust them. None of them. They lie and cheat and hurt you.” She reaches up and lovingly brushes a lock of my hair back from my throbbing temple. “You deserve better.”

I jerk out of her reach.

“What do you want?” I say again because she still hasn’t told me.

Hurt flashes in her eyes and she sits back. I almost feel bad. She’s being so nice. Making it difficult to remember she kidnapped me. Hit me. She’s not a good person.

“I don’t know what Chris and Danny told you about me—”

“Everything,” I interrupt.

There’s a quick flash of something in those eyes that remind me of the sun reflecting off the slitted eyes of a snake.

“I doubt that. Men never tell the truth, Mira. You’re still very young, but trust me—”

“You kidnapped me,” I remind her sharply. “You had your inbred brothers grab me and—”

I see the rear back of her fist but I’m not fast enough to dodge the blow before it cracks across my jaw on the same side as last time. Something pops, the sound brittle reverberating through my skull. I think she’s broken my jaw.

“Goddamn it, Mira.” She hurries to grab my shoulders and lift me off the floor again. “I wish you wouldn’t do that. I’m really trying to have a conversation with you and you’re being so rude. Please, please stop, okay?”

I’m dropped back into my chair. The jostle sends cobwebs of pain snapping up my arm.

Not my jaw, I realize numbly. She’s twisted my shoulder when I hit the floor twice on the same side, and the pain is astronomical. It’s brutal in a way that makes my stomach want to heave. Cold sweat dots over my brow, plasters my hair to my temples. Pastes my top to my back.

“I don’t trust you,” I hiss through my teeth. “They told me what you did.”

Finally sculpted brows draw together in frustration. “What did I do? I was good to Chris. I acknowledged his existence when no one else would. He was a pathetic stoner with no life purpose. I gave him purpose, Mira. I went out of my way to—”

“Hit him? Set his bag on fire?” I growl, pain radiating through my soul. “You used him and hurt him.”

“We were teenagers. Our hormones were everywhere. What I did was an accident.”

“And the lies you told? You got them thrown out of town. Your brothers jumped them in the dark like coward’s and beat them so badly, Christian died!”

I wait for a smack or a punch, but Lucy drops back in her chair with a shake of her head.

“I never lied. They used me. They took what they wanted and left me. Me!” she bursts out, jerking forward in outrage. “I made them. All the things they do to you that you like, I taught them that. Yes, I know you’re fucking both of them,” she snaps when I blink. “This town is small and narrow minded and pathetic, but it’s not blind. Everyone knows. But unlike them, I get it. I’ve been in your shoes. I understand how conflicting, but exciting it is to have two men completely devoted to your pleasure.” She grins like we’re sharing a cute girl time story. “You’re welcome.”

I refuse to believe this woman had a damn thing to do with the way Daniel and Christian touched me. I refuse to accept she was ever even in their lives.

“I didn’t thank you,” I bite out.

“You should. You think Christian had any idea how to touch a woman before me? He could barely look me in the eye. The first time I sucked his cock, he came after two pumps. He was so embarrassed.” Her chuckle holds the frozen tundra winds. It skates down my spine. I almost shiver. “Danny, however, he was something else. Hard, masculine, dominating. He was a force. The way he’d slam me into the wall as he pounded his cock—”

“Stop it,” I snap without thinking, the image of Daniel or Christian touching this viper making my stomach hurt.

Lucy smirks like she’s won. “I had them first. I molded them. I made them into the men you let between your legs. So the fact that they could turn on me, cast me out like they could ever find anyone better...”

“So, you told everyone they raped you?”

“I never said rape,” she shoots back. “Not once. But I was young with a lot of expectations on me. The people of this town look to me for guidance and spiritual support. My family has long roots in Jefferson and it would have destroyed my mother if she thought I was getting railed by two men.”

“But you were,” I mutter.

Lucy shrugs. “Doesn’t mean she needed to know it. I was protecting her. Mother has always been weak. Soft and a little useless. Father always had to have a strong hand with her, keep her steady. For her, I had no choice but to hide what happened.”

“You told your brothers they assaulted you. You lied—”

“I never lied!” she snaps.

I ignore her. “You almost got them killed. You got your brother killed.”

Her arm swings back. I brace for the blow, but nothing comes.

“I never told Jameson or Wyatt to do that.” Her arm drops into her lap with a smack. “Wyatt always had Father’s temper. He’d get mean, especially with me. Said I was weak like Mother. He thought it was his duty to keep me straight.” Her lips slash into a thin, red line. “He didn’t like when I went out with boys. He’d say it was my job to stay home for him. Keep myself ... holy. There wasn’t a damn thing holy about the way he’d come into my room at night and...”

She suddenly leaps from her chair and stomps to the mini kitchen in the corner. Bottles rattle violently with the yank of the fridge door.

She returns a moment later with two bottles of beer. One is shoved into my good palm. It’s not cold. I guess being this isolated meant no electricity.

“He got so mad when he learned what I was doing with Chris and Danny. I’d seen him plenty pissed in the past, especially the mornings after he’d fuck me. You’d think getting laid would put him in a better mood, but he’d go on for hours about the wrath of God and whores who spread their legs. But that night, it took Jameson and my dad to keep him from killing me. He broke all my fingers. Dislocated my jaw, shattered my arm.” She blew out a huff of air. “He did things to me right there in front of my whole family until I said what I had to, to make him stop because no one else did. Fucking two men? Blasphemous. Watching your son pin your daughter to the living room carpet and beat her and fuck her? Perfectly acceptable.” A brittle chuckle escapes her. “Father sure was something else. Probably thought Wyatt was fucking the devil out of me.”

I needed a drink. I needed a bucket to barf into. The story just kept getting worse and I needed it to stop.

Lucy, however, was reliving every minute of that night.

“I didn’t tell Wyatt to go after the boys. I didn’t tell him they raped me. I said what I had to, to survive.” The bottle cap snaps off with the twist of her wrist. It’s pitched into the corner somewhere over my left shoulder. “Part of me wonders if what happened to him was an accident.” She takes a hefty swig, emptying half the bottle. Her eyes remain slightly unfocused when she lowers the drink between her jean clad thighs. “Jameson and I have always been close. Even as children. When he returned without Wyatt that night, I had to wonder.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

Honestly, there had to have been a better way to unfold all of that without kidnapping me.

Lucy blinks. She lets her gaze settle on me as if for the first time and, just like that, the nightmare she’d been reliving vanishes and she’s smiling again.

“Aren’t you thirsty?”

I glance down at the beer gripped tight between both hands.

“Not much of a drinker,” I mutter, feeling like I should say something. I hate her for what she did to Daniel and Christian, but she went through a mess, too. How can I just overlook and ignore that story? “Lucy, I’m—”

“You should drink,” she snips in with a razor blade edge. “It helps.”

My stomach roils. “Helps?”

She finishes her drink and sucks what little drag is left. “It’s easier if you don’t fight. It’s been a while since they had anyone so it’ll most likely be quick. Honestly, I’m glad it’s you. You’ve had two men at the same time. The others...” Her baby pink nails clink against the glass. “They don’t mean to be rough, but they get carried away sometimes.”

“Are you serious right now? After everything you just said?” I exclaim, fury and panic wedging in my chest.

Lucy frowns. “One has nothing to do with the other. You called me a liar. I had to explain myself. This is my payment to my brothers who helped me get you away from my boys.”

“They’re mine!” I snap without pause. “You will never have them.”

Lucy’s crimson lips purse in displeasure. “That’s a bit rude given I’ve been nothing but kind to you.”

The sheer wild delusion has me gaping at her, struggling to gauge her level of seriousness, but she meets my brewing anger with her own outrage.

Unbelievable.

“Are you insane? In what world do you think they will ever want you back after what you did? What makes you think they won’t kill you for hurting me?”

For the first time since meeting her, Lucy’s mask slips. Her eyes hood and her bottom lip curls like she’s eaten something rotten.

“What makes you think I can’t make them forget you? What makes you think you’re special? I can give them the one thing you can’t — their home back. I can make Jefferson their town again. They can visit their mom’s grave. I can make everything go away.”

“They don’t care about that. Not when they learn what you did to me.”

For a second, she actually seems confused. “How will they find out?” Her big, green eyes blink as if a realization just occurred to her. “Oh, sweetie, no. You think you’re going to survive this. That’s my fault. No, baby, I can’t get my boys back if you’re still around. You understand that, don’t you?”

“They’re not yours,” I bite out.

She’s not listening. “Once I get them back into my bed, they’ll see how good we are, and you’ll be a distant memory.”

“You’re forgetting something,” I mutter, weighing my words carefully so she doesn’t miss a thing. “They love me. They will never stop looking for me and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re at your house right now.”

I know I’ve hit a nerve when her sickly-sweet smile slips.

“You think I haven’t planned this out? I’ve been waiting for them to come back since before Ryan died. I mean, they would have to eventually. Ryan was bound to die the way he was drinking his liver into the ground. He said so himself one night while he had his dick in my ass—”

“You were fucking their dad?” I cut in, certain I heard wrong.

Lucy stares into me like I’m the crazy one. “Don’t slut shame me. It was an accident. I was leaving Christian’s room, and his dad was just waiting outside the door. He said he could make me scream louder than his worthless son. I was curious. And he did, in case you were wondering—”

“I wasn’t.”

She smirks. “Ryan was a dirty, dirty old man who used to watch me during cheer practice. I would make sure to bend over extra for him just to tease him. He’d punish me later in the most fucked up ways. I taught the boys a few of his tricks.”

“I don’t want to know!” I snap before she can indulge me.

Thankfully, she shrugs. “Anyway, one night while he had his dick in my ass, he asked if I wanted his sons still. I told him honestly I thought about it sometimes. Ryan knew everything. He didn’t care as long as he got a young piece of pussy. He mentioned that the only way those two were coming back was when he died because the house and everything was in their name, so they’d have to. You were a surprise. I wasn’t expecting them to come back with a whole child.”

“I’m almost nineteen,” I retort, though I know it’s none of her damn business.

“If things had gone differently, Danny and I would have had a daughter your age by now. I used to imagine us as a family with like twenty kids. He would make the best dad.”

“And Christian?”

“Danny’s much better looking. His babies would be gorgeous.”

“They’re identical twins,” I cry. “Literally the same DNA makeup.”

“Oh, there’s a difference, sweetie. Daniel is by far the better choice.”

“So, this plan of yours, you get them, then what? You hurt Christian all over again?”

“Of course not. I made that mistake and won’t make it again. If Danny wants to watch his brother cum in me, I’ll sacrifice through it.”

“It won’t work,” I tell her.

“Once I get Chris on my side, trust me, there is nothing Danny won’t do for his brother. And Chris will come running. He’s always been weak.” She reaches behind her and pulls her phone out of her back pocket. She checks the time and sighs. “I better go. I need to be home for when the boys arrive.” She stows the phone away and smiles at me like we just finished having a fun coffee date. “I can see why they like you so much. I’m really sorry things had to end this way, but I promise I’ll take much better care of them the second time around.”

“They’ll know you’re lying,” I blurt when she gets to her feet. “They’re not stupid. You won’t be able to lie to them.”

“Oh!” she gasps, hand going to her chest, expression twisting into one of distress. “She’s missing? No, I haven’t seen her at all. Well, we have to find her. Let me make some calls. We’ll rally the town and bring poor Mira home before dark. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.” She stops her weirdly convincing performance to smirk down at me. “How was that? I can be very convincing. I mean, you believed me.”

I blink. “What?”

Lucy just sneers down at me. “You really shouldn’t be this stupid or gullible.” She nods with a jerk of her head towards the drink still in my hand. “Drink. It’s going to be a long few days.”

I can’t think. I almost can’t move when she strolls towards the door.

“You lied?” I call after her, realizing that really isn’t the issue I should be concerned about, but needing to keep her talking so her brothers don’t come in.

She stops with her hand on the knob. “Of course.”

“About what?”

She shrugs. “You’ll never know. Oh, don’t run. They’ve rigged every inch of this property with traps. They won’t patch up your wounds and don’t fight. They like it when the girls fight. It’s like a game to them.”

With no further attempt at conversation, she leaves, and the two hulking assholes replace her.