My mind was reeling over who at this party could have caused this. I’d never even seen her tear up before. Not once, and women fucking cried. But not Trinity. She was sobbing now, and her hold on me was a death grip. I didn’t loosen my hold on her. For the moment, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to ever let go of her. I wanted to fix this. Make sure this never happened again. I couldn’t stand the thought of it.

  Her sobs began to ease, and they became small hiccups. I wasn’t letting go of her. I couldn’t and keep my sanity. I kissed her cheek, then leaned back to look at her face. Her eyes were swollen and red-rimmed. She looked so damn broken.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  If she’d taken a sword and shoved it through my heart, it would have hurt less than hearing her say those two words.

  I rested my forehead against hers. “Please, Trinity. Don’t say that. Ever. I don’t want to ever hear you apologize for anything the rest of my life. I don’t think I can handle it.”

  She sniffled. “I made a scene. I broke a glass,” she said softly.

  “I don’t fucking care. All I care about is that you’re okay,” I told her.

  I reached up and held her face in my hands. “Who was he? I don’t need why. I don’t need an explanation. I need a name. That’s all. Nothing more.”

  The fear in her eyes was only going to make his death more violent. Had my brother known about this? Had he seen her like this? If he’d known, wouldn’t he have contacted me? He might not have taken lives, but I fucking did.

  “He’s here,” she whispered. “I don’t know why.”

  “His name,” I repeated as firmly as I could without scaring her.

  “Roy … Hayley.”

  The stepbrother. Motherfucker!

  The library door opened, and I knew that within thirty minutes, Roy Hayley would be tied up in the cells underground until I arrived. Gage had been waiting for a name. He had it.

  I pressed a kiss to her lips, then pulled her back against my chest and held her. Until I had her safely back in my bed, I wasn’t letting go of her.

  Twenty-Seven

  Trinity

  Eight years. It had been eight years since I’d cried. Not even a tear. Nothing. I’d go to my dark place to survive the horror, but no tears ever came. When I finally snapped out of it, I was always numb and dry-eyed. I tried to cry so many times, but I never could. It always felt like there was a wall inside that blocked out any deep emotion. I’d accepted it was probably why I couldn’t fall in love. The wall protected me. It surrounded me. It was my strength.

  When I’d opened my eyes, Huck had been there. His eyes full of concern, his words soothing. Something shattered. It felt like every emotion I’d held back for so long broke free and came roaring back to life. All the pain, hurt, heartache, anguish, sorrow, loss, regret—it all flooded me at once. Without meaning to, he had taken down my wall, then held me while my heart and head accepted the return of all I’d kept out.

  If he hadn’t been there to hold me, I wasn’t sure I could have survived the onslaught. Once my sobs had finally subsided, I’d felt exhausted yet free.

  Huck carried me to the car, held me in his lap the entire ride home, and then carried me down to his room. Since I’d opened my eyes and pulled myself out of the dark place, he’d been holding me. His arms had to be tired, but I had been reluctant to let go of the security that he provided. Levi had driven us home but left again after we got out of the Escalade.

  I felt guilty for being the reason Huck had left the party early. At least the other two were staying there. I’d not even gotten a chance to see Maddy and thank her for the dress, shoes, and jewelry.

  Why had Roy been there? I cringed, thinking about his touch on my arm.

  I tightened my hold on Huck without thinking. He sat down on his bed with me. I started to tell him to let me down, but he lowered his mouth and kissed me. His tongue slid across my bottom lip, and I opened, feeling needy for a taste of him. He’d been distant earlier, and I craved this connection. It was a reassurance that I didn’t need to get confused with permanency. But tonight, affection helped pull me back from my past.

  His hand slid up my side until it covered my right breast. I arched into his touch. If he touched me, it would wash away all the dirty that came with memories of my past. His thumb brushed back and forth over my nipple. I turned toward him and pulled up my skirt so I could straddle his lap. His hands moved around to cup my bottom, and he paused when he felt bare skin. I couldn’t wear panties with this dress.

  “Trinity.” His voice was hoarse.

  “Hmm?” I replied, pressing a kiss to the side of his mouth.

  “Why aren’t you wearing panties?”

  “Because you could see my panty line in this dress.”

  He squeezed my butt cheeks and groaned. “I was just going to kiss you, baby. You’ve been through it tonight. We don’t need to fuck. Let me put you in one of my shirts and hold you until you fall asleep.”

  I slid forward until I could feel his erection between my legs. “Or you could fuck me until I pass out,” I suggested.

  His grip on my bottom tightened. “I’m real wound up right now. A lot of shit in my head. Seeing you like that has me wired. You need gentle. I can hold you gently. Can’t let myself get carried away.”

  I leaned back and looked at him. “You’re worried you’ll fuck me too hard?”

  His jaw clenched, and he nodded. I tried not to smile. I called it fuck or fucking because it turned him on when I said the word.

  “Maybe I need to be fucked hard. Maybe having your hands all over me will take away the bad stuff. Make me think of only you.”

  The flash of hunger in his eyes was different somehow. It made me shiver. Was it territorial or possessive? What was the cause of it?

  When he didn’t move, I pulled my dress up enough so that he could see me, and I slid my hand down to play with my clit. His eyes followed me, and his body jerked when my finger slid in between my folds.

  “You sure you want this tonight?” His voice was deeper.

  I bit my bottom lip and nodded. I needed it. I needed to just remember him. When I slept, I wanted it to be Huck that I saw. He could wash away all the nightmares.

  His hand went to the zipper on the back of my dress, and he slid it down. Then, he pulled it up over my head. I raised my arms so he could take it off. His eyes went to my boobs, and I let my arms down slowly. I watched him as his hands covered my breasts and held them.

  “You were naked under that dress tonight,” he said in a reverent tone.

  I shivered.

  “You were already the most beautiful woman at the fucking party. I was struggling with not touching you the way I wanted to. If I’d known you had nothing on under this dress, I’d have taken you to that damn library and fucked you.”

  He’d thought I was beautiful. Why that made me tear up, I didn’t know. I’d just cried for the first time in eight years. I hoped I wasn’t going to start crying about everything. My heart felt tight as I looked at him.

  He lowered his head but kept his eyes locked on mine while he began to lick and suck on my breasts. My hands threaded through his hair as I watched him. Something had changed. I couldn’t explain it, but there was this pull inside of me. A desperation of sorts to be near him. Almost as if I couldn’t survive without being as close to him as I could get.

  I began to shove off his tuxedo coat. I wanted his chest bare, our skin touching. He stopped what he was doing and helped me get the coat and his shirt off his body. I splayed my hands over his bare chest and soaked in the warmth of his skin. I loved how he felt, how he looked. Leaning down, I licked his tight, flat nipple, and he made a noise low in his throat. Switching to the other one, I did the same. The urge to lick his entire chest began to take over me, and I started licking and kissing the taut skin that stretched over his muscles.

  “Baby, you’ve got about five more seconds of this,” he growled.

  Frantically, I kissed the spot over his heart and then licked at the tribal tattoo there. In one swift move, Huck had me on my back underneath him as he began to unzip his pants. His eyes locked on mine. I lowered my gaze, wanting to see him when he was free of his bottoms. Tonight, he had on black boxer briefs. When he pulled those down and his erection sprang free, I realized I loved that too. The metal bar taunted me as he moved over my body.

  He took my right leg and spread me open. “As much as I want to eat that pussy, I need inside you. Can’t wait.”

  I bent my knees up as he held his cock in his grip, then ran it along my wet entrance. He groaned as he sank inside me, grabbing my hips and jerking me forward until he hit that spot I knew would send me over the edge.

  I watched his face as he pumped inside of me, loving how he looked. The way his mouth would open slightly and his eyelids lowered. I could see the pleasure in his expression, and knowing it was my body that was doing that to him made my heart soar.

  “Does it hurt like this?” he asked me, looking down at me with a feral gleam in his eyes.

  “A little,” I admitted, “but I want it harder.”

  He let out an animalistic sound and started slamming into me with more force. “This it? Is this what you want? You want my dick to stretch that tight little pussy?”

  I nodded, panting and grabbing at the quilt underneath us for support.

  “Rub your clit,” he ordered.

  I let go of the quilt and began to massage it the way I would if I were alone.

  “That’s the prettiest fucking pussy I’ve ever seen.”

  That made me rub harder. I loved the way he talked to me during sex. His words alone could send me into an orgasm. I wondered if we could try that sometime.

  He pulled out of me then and grabbed my hips and flipped me over. “Hands and knees, baby.”

  We hadn’t done this position before. I hurried to obey, and he grabbed my hips again and then shoved inside of me. It was deeper than it had ever been, and I hadn’t thought that was possible. He began to thrust in and out of me.

  “FUCK! I’m not gonna last long like this. Your fucking ass is bouncing.”

  I was close. I started pushing back when he thrust forward. The spiral into bliss was coming. I’d never needed it as much as I did in this moment. My pussy was throbbing, and I squirmed against him.

  “I know I said I was gonna stop coming in you until we got you the shot, but I lied. I want to coat you with my fucking cum. Pump you so full of me that you leak for days.”

  It was with those words that pleasure rippled through my body, and I cried out his name.

  His shout followed, and I could feel the pulse of his fluid gush inside of me. Another orgasm washed over me, and I moaned as my body shook.

  When it finally eased, I sank down onto the mattress, and Huck moved off the bed. He was only gone a moment before he was back, wiping up my thighs and legs, then the quilt beneath me. Once he finished, he climbed on the bed and pulled my back against his chest.

  “You didn’t clean yourself,” I whispered.

  “Not ready to wipe your juices off me just yet,” he whispered, then kissed below my ear. “Sleep. I’m here.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Huck

  Maddy was sleeping on the sofa in my room in case Trinity woke up. Blaise was at the house while the girls slept downstairs, and Ms. Jimmie was keeping Cree. Levi and Gage were standing in the cellars located under the ranch.

  I’d spent the drive over here remembering how Trinity had looked in that library. How her sobs had destroyed me. The fantastic sex hadn’t removed the need for revenge. It might have heightened it. Being inside Trinity only made me want to possess her more. Instead of fucking her out of my system, it seemed she was locking me down every time I sank inside her tight cunt.

  I slammed through the last steel door and closed it behind me. The man currently hanging by his hands in the middle of the concrete room hadn’t been touched. Gage had sworn to me he’d refrain from doing anything. I wanted this. However, Gage had tied him up painfully enough that he was groaning through the gag in his mouth. His toes barely grazed the floor. The small trickle of blood running down his arms from the locks on his wrists had him crying like a fucking baby.

  I walked up to him and pulled the gag off. “Who are you?” I barked at him, already knowing who the fuck he was.

  “You’ve got the wrong guy. I don’t know you. I came with a woman I’d met at a bar last week. I’m an accountant—”

  “YOUR FUCKING NAME,” I cut him off.

  “Roy Hayley. I don’t even live around here. I live in Pensacola. I was in town on business and met this woman.”

  I held out my hand to Gage, who placed the knife I needed in it. We’d done this show many times before. But never had I done it with this much rage and hate. It had always been business. Never personal. It took on a whole new meaning when it was personal.

  I held the blade against his cheek as he whimpered. “Unless I ask you a fucking question, don’t talk.”

  “Okay,” he whispered, holding still, afraid he’d get cut if he moved.

  I wanted to laugh. The bastard was worried about me slicing his cheek. He had no idea. But first, I was getting answers. I ran the knife down to his chin, leaving a bloody trail as I went. He let out a long wail. Jesus, he was a pussy. The men we normally had down here wouldn’t make a fucking sound until we removed a finger or an ear. The tongue also got a reaction.

  “How do you know Trinity?” I asked him.

  “That’s what this is about? Trinity? What did that bitch tell you?”

  Typically, I had control. I could pace myself. I let them beg and plead. That wasn’t the case when someone called my woman a bitch. I was in his face, seething, as I buried the knife in his limp dick. He screamed as I twisted it. The screams continued while I pulled the knife out and wiped the blood on his pants leg.

  “Let’s try this again. How do you know Trinity?”

  His eyes were wide, and the understanding that he wasn’t going to walk out of here alive was starting to sink in. “She’s … she’s … my step … step … sister,” he panted through his pain.

  “The Tabitha bitch is your mother then,” I said.

  “My mom raised her. Whatever she told you is a lie,” he started.

  Gage let out a laugh as I took my knife and buried it in his thigh. Another agonized scream tore from his chest as he began to tremble.

  I turned and looked at Levi and Gage. Levi was sitting on a chair with his ankle propped on his knee and his arms crossed over his chest. Gage was grinning like the crazed psychopath he was while watching.

  “He’s not very bright,” I said to them.

  “Nope,” Levi replied.

  “Those are the best ones,” Gage said.

  I turned back to Roy. “You get one warning because it is fucking clear you need it. I’m going to ask you some more questions, and at any time you lie or you degrade or say anything negative about Trinity, I’ll take one of your fingers. Do you understand me?”

  He nodded. Blood and tears streaked his face.

  “When he says take one of your fingers, he means he will cut it off. Just clarifying because you appear to be a dumbass,” Gage called out.

  I smirked. “Now, what did you do to Trinity in the past that would cause her to get so upset at your mere appearance that she’d run away from you?”

  He blinked, and snot bubbles came out of his nose. He started to shake his head, and I moved to go to him. Finger number one was going. He seemed to understand that.

  “No, wait. I-I was her older brother. We didn’t get along,” he stammered out.

  I reached up and held his right hand while he begged and cried. I took his pinkie. The man could wail like a damn baby. He was loud. Holding his pinkie, I showed it to him. Then, he threw up. I tossed the finger down to lie on top of his vomit. When he was finished puking and muttering, I slapped his face.

  “SHUT UP!”

  He quieted down.

  “Now, let’s try this again. What did you do to Trinity?”

  He gasped and choked as the blood from where I’d taken his finger poured down his arm. “You’re gonna kill me anyway,” he sobbed.

  “Think of it as a cleansing of the soul,” Gage suggested.

  I could hear Levi’s chuckle.

  “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

  I could ignore him. I could take another finger. Cause more pain, but I wanted him to die knowing why he was dying. Who I was. I walked up and pressed the knife under his chin.

  “I’m the lucky son of a bitch who has her in my bed. I fucked her sweet pussy and tucked her in before I came to deal with your worthless ass. That’s who the fuck I am.”

  He gasped, and more fucking snot bubbles came out. “So, she got herself hooked up with psychos. She was just engaged to a minister. He died.”

  I pushed the knife harder until it broke the skin under his chin. “The minister was my brother. And we’re the fucking Mafia.”

  His eyes rounded, and he choked. I moved back from him.

  “I’m getting bored with this bullshit. Tell me what the fuck you did to my woman when she was growing up.” I’d just called her my woman. It wasn’t lost on me, and I knew it wasn’t lost on Gage and Levi. I heard Gage clear his throat, but I ignored it. Yeah, I’d fucking said it.

  “Mom didn’t let her eat,” he said in between gasps. “She called her fat and wrapped up her boobs because she said they were fat. She went without meals a lot, and if she got caught eating anything without permission, she was punished.”