21. ~Skylar~

This certainly wasn't what I'd expected when King had mentioned a compromise.

It was surreal.

The entire thing was.

Yet, here I was in a massive Jacuzzi bath full of special salts that were made to soothe my aching muscles, and other sensitive parts, after the fuckfest that had been last night—one of those surreal elements.

Being with Bastian and drawing so close to him had been a big enough deal to me as it was, because I always kept at a distance, but I just hadn't been able to do that with him. He had an effect on me that couldn't be denied. Sure, on my body, but it was more than that superficial level, much more. No, it had been the connection that had drawn us together. An aggressive connection at first that had gradually calmed down and evolved into something much more, much deeper. And then, as stunning as that was for me, Caleb had come into the picture and I'd made room for him too. It just fit with the two of them. Last night had then happened, with King coming together with us as well, the whole thing hitting another level.

And, surprisingly, there wasn't that urge to pull away, or to throw up a wall.

It was strangely… comfortable.

More than that, it was freeing.

King must've predicted it from all his surveilling and strategizing, knowing bringing me here, I'd feel it, an environment conducive to dropping all my pretense, as he called it.

It sounded more than a little fucked-up that I felt safe around a bunch of dangerous men who walked in darkness and had clear depraved and beastly predilections. But I did.

Because I was like them.

We were kindred.

Rarities whose true selves existed on the periphery of society.

I smiled and tipped my head back a little, resting against the little towel Caleb had placed between the edge of the bath and my head. The bubbles covered me right up to my clavicle.

I looked out at King who was now dressed in a pair of Balenciaga jeans and a gray long-sleeve tee that strained against all that broad muscle beneath. He was sitting on a stool a few feet from the foot of the tub that he'd pulled out from beneath the vanity. He was typing away on his phone rapid-fire.

Caleb was in a pair of gray sweats now along with a white tee, those colorful and artsy snake tattoos really prominent against the white of his shirt. He was perched on the edge of the vanity, swinging his legs, and munching on a Pop Tart he'd grabbed from the kitchen just before we'd headed in here. Apparently, they were King's, who I'd learned had a real sweet tooth like me with my cupcakes and fondant balls. Instead of having a gourmet breakfast like I'd imagined the likes of him doing, being the King of the City with a whole lot of staff who could prepare for him whatever he wanted, he usually just grabbed a Pop Tart then headed off to work. Without Bastian living here like he had been before, he'd been without that nagging thing of his about eating properly.

It was interesting how they functioned with each other.

It was kind of like when they were together, they finally functioned as a whole, but when apart, things were missing. Most definitely a case of them being stronger together. Each of them brought things to the whole that the others needed.

I reached out to the tray beside the bath and took another sip of the coffee Caleb had made for me. I'd already eaten the scrambled eggs Bastian had insisted on whipping up for me, along with a bowl of fresh berries.

"Jeez, he's taking his sweet time," Caleb muttered, breaking the comfortable silence as he finished off the last bite of his Pop Tart, then swung his head at the door.

"He'll be here any moment," King said, without looking up from his phone.

"Everything all right?" Caleb asked him.

"Just returning some messages."

"Yeah, I get that, obviously. I'm talking about the look on your face. You seem agitated."

He looked up, smiled at me, then told Caleb with a weary sigh, "They want me to present the awards at the upcoming Rossun Elite Convention."

"Ah."

"That sounds like an honor," I pointed out.

King screwed up his face.

It had Caleb chuckling and informing me, "Cas hates public attention, the spotlight, and all of that. He prefers being his enigmatic self to the outside world and staying in the shadows."

"Wow, so you coming down to the fight club like that was an even bigger deal then."

He merely winked at me, then went back to his phone.

Caleb asked me, "Are you still planning on attending the convention?"

"I—"

"You shouldn't be," King said, typing away, focused on his phone. "You don't belong there. At least not in the capacity you'd be going there under." He looked up and eyed me. "Maria will no doubt use it as an opportunity to connect you with key figures, pushing you further down a path you don't want."

"Maria? You know my mom well enough that you're using her first name like you're familiars?"

He shrugged. "We've done business together a couple of times."

"In spite of the animosity between her and Bastian's mom?"

"That's their issue. Not mine or Bastian's."

"Do you know what that issue really is? It's clearly more than just a professional rivalry, given how intense it is."

"I know a lot of things," he responded evasively.

I rolled my eyes. "You're avoiding my question."

"And you're changing the subject from you and your misguided career path."

That was the last thing I wanted to get into right now. Especially with all the shit I needed to wade through in a moment regarding Jett. I was trying to relax at present, to clear my head, so I could actually manage that.

"I can't do anything about it until after the convention. It will ruin my mom's night, her whole celebratory excitement over closing that big development deal."

He cocked an eyebrow. "So you are planning on taking action there then?"

"Yes, all right? Happy now?"

His lips quirked. "Not yet."

"Jeez," Caleb uttered, before snatching up his coffee mug beside him on the vanity and taking a couple of big gulps. "You two are gonna stress me out and then I'm gonna be the one leaving us hanging through heading outside for a good, long chain smoke."

"It's only been twenty minutes," King told him.

"It feels longer. Fuck, maybe I'm already having a nic-fit."

"You're fine." King locked his phone and held it loosely in his hand. "We both know this is just you getting antsy about what Skylar's going to tell us." He walked to Caleb and slid his hands to his hips, then lowered his voice, but I could still hear with the echo of the spacious bathroom as he said, "I know the idea of women being assaulted, especially in the way we know Jett is fond of, twists you up, but try to contain your reaction in front of her. We have enough with Bastian flying off the handle lately. An intense reaction from you won't help her either. You and I will talk about it later. I'll be there for you to let it all out. Okay, lovely?"

Caleb nodded. "Yeah, I hear you."

I tried to push past what I'd heard and I focused on the sweet sight of Caleb brushing his lips over King's, then nuzzling his cheek.

The bathroom door flew open, pulling them apart and making all of us jolt, as Bastian burst back in.

"Oops, sorry," he said, laughing a little crazily as he grabbed the door and closed it carefully. "Didn't think I'd pushed that hard."

"Are you all right, sweets?" I asked, seeing Caleb and King frowning at him in my peripheral vision.

He came to me with a big grin and cupped my cheeks. "I love you calling me that little pet name." He started kissing my face all over then, making me giggle.

"Bastian," King called sharply.

It had Bastian jerking back and turning to them. "What's up?"

"Your cock, for one," Caleb answered.

Bastian looked down at himself, seeming to only just notice what we all had, the real reason for our stunned reactions when he'd burst on in here. The door had been the least of it.

He was buck naked, absolutely every stunning inch of him on full display.

"Oh, right." He noticed their looks. "What? Nothing you both haven't seen before. Just a few hours ago even."

"Why are you naked, B?" Caleb asked.

"After that call, I needed to calm down. Figured taking a bath with our girl would help with that."

"Do you need me to intervene, sweetheart?" King asked.

"Why? She doesn't know it was you. Damien's not gonna admit to being taken down by the almighty Caspian King. It will make him a pariah in the city to go against you openly, and he knows it."

Yeah, Bastian had gotten a call from his mom as he'd been making the two of us breakfast and reprimanding the others for not taking him up on the offer and eating too. Apparently, Damien had staggered into the house he lived in with their mom last night and she'd caught him before he'd been able to make it to his room. She'd seen the state of him then brought in a doctor and everything. She'd been ready to call the police until he'd told her it had happened at the fight club. Out of nastiness, he'd mentioned Bastian had been there too. Their mom had taken it as Damien being the victim and Bastian standing by and doing nothing to help as his brother had been attacked. Well, that last part had been true, but the rest had been completely out of context and painted Damien in an innocent light and Bastian as a complete asshole. His mom had reamed him out and it had gotten worse when Bastian had refused to come by and take care of Damien because their mom had an important meeting of some sort and couldn't stay with him.

Since then, he'd been gone for several minutes, needing some time to calm down, especially with what I was about to reveal.

"I meant, in order to weave events to your liking and in your favor," King told him.

Bastian waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, it's just the same old, same old. Who cares?"

With the two of them staring at him incredulously, Bastian paid it no mind, then came back to me and folded his elbows on the edge of the bath. "You cool with me joining you in here?"

I reached out and ran my fingers through his hair. "Are you really okay? You seem… off?"

He blinked, then pulled away.

And then he was climbing into the bath without another word.

"Don't work her up, she's recovering," Caleb told him.

"And she's about to tell us about Jett, so be mindful," King added.

Bastian grumbled under his breath. "What do you fuckers think of me? Seriously." He settled himself opposite me, the bath big enough where there was so much space, that even with his legs stretched out, he wasn't touching me. He grinned at me, then called over his shoulder at the guys, "Good enough for you? Not even touching my girl. My wet and naked girl who somehow looks a mixture of cute and sexy right now, yet I'm not laying a single finger—or anything else—on her. Got it?"

"Let's lose the attitude, Bastian," King said with a noticeable edge.

"And it's our girl," Caleb told him.

Bastian grunted, but then rested his head back in a relaxed position and told them both, "Fine. Got it."

Something was definitely off with him.

I just couldn't put my finger on what exactly.

Of course I knew last night at the fight club had been brutal for him, as it had for me, then that call with his mom had obviously only added to that, but his behavior now… it seemed more than even anger and frustration.

Before I got more of a chance to delve deeper into it, King settled himself onto the vanity beside Caleb and asked gently, "Ready, love?"

I sucked in a breath. "Yeah." Not really ready, per se, but I just wanted to get it over with.

"Jett and I met in a fight club in the town where I was attending Vista Ridge. He was traveling around a bunch of underground fighting circuits with this goal of dominating one after the other. He fought under the moniker of Rabid. Beyond that, he was using an alias."

"Jay Brimley?" King asked.

"Yeah, that's the one." I shifted in the bath, staring at the bubbles, as I went on, "I'd been the reigning champion of that particular fight club for over a year. I was really immersed in it back then. I'd used it as a training ground for Onyx, along with the combat skills and everything my dad had made sure to teach me when I was growing up. So, anyway, Jett challenged me, figuring he had it in the bag. I kicked his ass. And he couldn't accept that. Just not in the way you might think. He became obsessed, wanting to know what made me tick, latching onto me. At the time, I thought he was just one of those guys who liked the chase. I figured if he got what he wanted, he'd leave and go back to his fight club mission."

"So you fucked?" Caleb asked.

"Yeah. In an alley, so he didn't know where I lived, and so I could take off right afterward. And I did. But it didn't end there. Like I said, he was obsessed. He broke into my off-campus apartment one night wanting to talk and spend some time with me. It was then that I realized how unhinged he was. I kicked him out. And then suddenly, he was everywhere, showing up at the back of my classes, at the coffee shop I frequented every morning, tailing me back to my apartment where it always ended with me slamming the door in his face. Then he got a hold of my number through illegal means and the texts began. Relentless and crude. One day I called him back and threatened to call the cops if he didn't back off. And that was when he told me who he really was, laughing at the absurdity of my threat when thrown up against that. The younger brother of Elijah Bane. Being from Rossun, I knew who Bane was." I looked out at King. "To you, specifically. I may not have paid attention to the celebrity gossip, social media and all that, but I knew that much."

"Fucking psycho doesn't even cover it," Bastian said. "I'm sorry, beautiful."

"Me too." I sighed and said, "With all that happening, I was really amped up, angry and at my wit's end with him. It had me going out a ton as Onyx. That was when the whole thing took me over and even took on a much darker edge. He followed me one night, ripping right through all my evasion tactics somehow, and he joined in. It was a gory mess, really fucked-up. My mission that night had been to scare the shit out of two serial date rapists and punish them, put them out of commission and stop them from doing it ever again. Jett took that mission and twisted it into something a whole lot more depraved. The two guys ended up in the ICU for months. It went on like that for a while, him showing up on my missions and taking it to that fucked-up place."

"He was trying to turn you, pull you into the dark," King said.

I nodded. "It was pretty much psychological warfare. He wanted me to break for him in every way." I gritted my teeth. "And to that point, he didn't stop there. One night I woke up to find myself bound to my bed and him fucking me. He said it was him introducing me to his somnophilia kink. After he'd finished, he left me there for hours. He came back and did it all over again, then sedated me making it clear he'd keep taking me while I was out and helpless. When I woke up hours later, he was gone and I was covered in his… you know."

"Jesus Christ," Caleb croaked, leaning forward and burying his face in his hands, emotion pouring from him.

I jolted as fingers brushed mine, but I calmed as soon as I looked to see Bastian reaching out and holding my hand. Worried he'd be fuming and basically frothing at the mouth, I was surprised to see him looking barely there now, even his grip a lot weaker than normal.

What was—

"The scars? Did he do that?" King asked.

My gaze darted to him and he was grinding his jaw, emotion in his eyes that he was clearly fighting to check, in order to keep on track.

"The arm was him. The scars on my back were me wiping out. Basically, after that happened, he left me alone for a while, but I'd taken to locking myself in the bathroom and sleeping in there. When I did sleep, that is. I tried to stay awake as much as I could, working on my video games or going out there as Onyx. Around then was likely when you got wind of my vigilante activities, because I stepped it up majorly. I couldn't stop, really. One night I was jolted awake by bashing on the bathroom door. It was him. He breached the door and we fought. I ended up thrown through the bathroom window. That's what cut up my arm. Fortunately, I landed on the fire escape. And with the noise it made, it woke up half the building, and Jett took off before doing any more damage. After that, I was in a really bad place, so much pain and fury." I pulled my hand from Bastian's and admitted what I had never actually told anyone. "I went after him. To kill him."

"He deserved far worse," Caleb ground out, lifting his head, and I saw tears streaming down his face. Oh my God.

"We fought and I had the upper hand, until he stabbed me with a needle. Some heavy-duty drug. I could barely see steady, but adrenaline helped me out in a big way and I managed to stab him in the gut, then stagger off. I made it onto my bike. We were miles from the town at that point. I'd come after him as he'd been on his way to another fight club, so I knew if I didn't get the hell away, I was done for. It was a mistake. I shouldn't have gotten on my bike in that state. I was a half mile away from the scene when the drug got the best of me and I wiped out. I woke up in the ER and there was talk about charging me for riding under the influence. I couldn't explain that the drug in my system wasn't recreational use without getting into everything about Jett. Given who his brother was, that was way too dangerous, for everyone who would be involved. So, I called my dad in. He pulled some favors and got me off the hook. Fortunately, being the great dad that he is, he believed me that it hadn't happened from recreational drug use, even though I couldn't tell him all the details, or who was responsible. After my dad came around, Jett disappeared. Maybe he'd been called back by his brother, I don't know. Anyway, after that, it was peaceful for me at Vista Ridge for several weeks. But then there was Onyx. Things had grown out of control there and I came too close to killing. It freaked me out. And that's why I quit, why I tried to put it all behind me."

I sank back against the bath and brought my hands to my face, trying to shut it out now that I'd put all of that out there and had to basically relive it again.

Although, in amongst all that pain, brutality, rage, and regret that had been unearthed through telling my story, the fact that I had after all this time of keeping it to myself did make me feel a little lighter, there was some element of relief. Maybe when some more time had passed from this unloading moment, that relief would grow even stronger.

But it also niggled at that need I'd tried to let go of… the need to hunt down the bastard and rip him apart.

Before I could focus on that, the water shifted and I looked out to see Caleb climbing in fully-clothed. "Come here, darling," he said, emotion clogging his throat.

"I'm fine," I said, hating that tears had sprung to my eyes in spite of myself.

But as he reached out and very carefully brushed my shoulders, the tenderness cut me open, and then I was sinking into him. He wrapped his arms around me, and then Bastian was there too, the two of them completely covering me in their warmth, care, and support.

Through it, I looked to see King draping himself over me too, his long waves tickling my face, as he softly stroked my cheek.

Instead of pulling away and insisting again that I was fine, I let it happen. I wanted it to happen, to have their warmth all over me. And, honestly, right now I needed it.

Needed it?That was new.

I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

For right now, though, I breathed it all in and sank into them.