He took me so hard that he shook the bed, slamming it into the wall.

  “I own this ass!” he roared as his release spilled inside me, taking me with him as I shattered into a million pieces.

  After a shower and breakfast, we sat on the sofa for my history lesson in us.

  “You sure we have to do this? Can’t I just tell you about all the sex, you sucking my dick, me eating your pussy? Those are the highlights anyway.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “We will end up having sex again.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” he drawled.

  “First time we met,” I asked.

  He sighed, leaning back on the sofa. “Pool party at Blaise’s house. You were with the senior quarterback from your high school, who had only been invited because he was … well, last night’s game, the other team’s quarterback?” He paused, and I nodded. “That’s him. You were sixteen. He was eighteen, and although he had women of all ages throwing themselves at him, he wanted you, and I didn’t fucking blame him.”

  My jaw dropped. “I dated an NFL quarterback?”

  He tensed. “He wasn’t NFL back then. Just headed to play first-string quarterback at an SEC school.”

  I pressed my lips to keep from smiling. Apparently, this guy was a sore point for him. “So, you took me from him?”

  He shook his head. “You were sixteen. Sexy as fuck and a mouth on you. I had some chick straddling me, and you managed to slash her with words said so damn sweetly that it was impressive. Anyway, you showed up some other places and drove me fucking nuts. I couldn’t seem to go anywhere without seeing you.”

  “You said I wasn’t a fatal attraction thing!” I accused, not liking the fact that I had chased him around.

  He chuckled. “I don’t think it was on purpose. It was fate taunting me with what I couldn’t have. Anyway, eventually, that ended. Mr. Football went off to college, and you were no longer in my circle of people. Then, some time went by, and you showed up with some douchebag at Huck’s shop to get his motorcycle fixed. You acted like you didn’t know me and were bored. Pissed me the fuck off since you were a year older and fucking better-looking than you had been the last time I saw you. I basically asked you to stay. You did. He left. I kissed you and put myself out of my misery. Then, we ended up in the meeting room inside the shop, and I ate your pussy.”

  I put my hand up. “Okay, wait. I hadn’t seen you in a year, and I let you just go down on me?”

  He grinned. “Have you looked at this pretty face?”

  “Yes, but I would hope I wasn’t that easy.”

  He leaned forward and ran a hand up my calf. “You weren’t easy. You just had a crush on me. You knew that it had been ten months and two days since we’d last seen each other. I used that crush to my advantage.”

  I shoved his hand off my calf. “No distractions. Keep going. Skip the details on the oral sex this time,” I told him.

  He smirked. “After that, I couldn’t get enough of you. I was too damn old for you, and I knew it. So, I managed to convince you to meet me places alone. We’d go to the springs, drive over to the beach, go anywhere to get away. And I got my mouth between your legs every time. You got as addicted to my tongue as I was to your pussy. When I wasn’t licking you like a starved man, we had fun. You made me relax and smile more. Being with you kept back the dark shit in my head. That summer, I started taking you to Blaise’s parties, around my friends. The first one I took you to, another girl offered me a blow job, and you got territorial. Sharp tongue and quick to bite. I fucking loved it when you got jealous. Then, you demanded I take you to a room. I did. You then hit your knees and gave me the best damn blow job I’d ever had. Swallowed like a pro and left me shook.”

  I was unable to hold back my smile.

  “Why are you smiling?”

  I shrugged. “I’m proud of seventeen-year-old me.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Of your oral abilities?”

  “Yep.”

  This time, he laughed.

  “Continue,” I pushed.

  “Okay, fine. Then, after that, I took you everywhere I went. The guys got to know you. I took your virginity in the same pool house you had sucked me off the first time. I can give you details, but I’ll need to fuck you. Because it was a lot of buildup, wanting you, and after you recovered from the painful part, we … yeah, I need to hold off unless you’re ready to stop this story and let me between those pretty thighs.”

  I was already getting damp, watching the look on his face as he thought about it. “You can tell me later.”

  He nodded and took a deep breath. “We fucked a lot after that. Everywhere I could get you alone. Then, the summer ended, and you turned eighteen, and you were a senior in high school. You always flirted with guys and drove me crazy. That wasn’t a new thing. But that year, it got worse. You were gorgeous, and guys were always hitting on you. I’d go through it all, but I will just hit some of the worst ones because listing them all could take a while.

  “I took a steel bat to a guy’s car for following you to the parking lot at school and touching your back. I broke a barstool over a man’s head, who was almost thirty, for leaning in and whispering in your ear. He got a skull fracture. I got arrested for that one. Garrett, Blaise’s dad and the boss, got me out of it. I threw a guy across a room and into a brick wall for grabbing your arm and pulling you to him when you were walking away from him. Broke his nose and arm. Again, arrested, and Garrett got me out. There were a lot of these instances. You would scream at me to stop. I would do it anyway. You’d storm off. I’d chase you down and kiss you until we were fucking.

  “You were all I cared about. Nothing else mattered. Not the family. Not my friends. I just wanted you. I made plans, and when you decided where you wanted to go to college, I was moving there. Leaving this all behind to follow you.”

  I held up my hand. I was dealing with the fact that former teenage me had in fact been a selfish bitch. Why would I have flirted and let him keep getting in trouble like that? But now, this?

  “Did I know you were going to do this?” I asked, horrified that he’d give up what he wanted for me after all the shit I did.

  He shook his head. “No, you chose the University of Florida before I told you my plans. You didn’t tell me you’d chosen Florida until I told you I was following you. But then you were just forty miles away, and there was no need for me to leave. You stayed home instead of living the dorm life. That summer was one of the best ones of my life.

  “Then, the fall came. You had new friends, a life that I wasn’t a part of. We were together as much as we could be, but you had study groups, and that was where you met Leo. You wanted me. You made that clear. Our sex life was off the charts. There was no problem for us there. It was the jealousy that made it all turn. Leo was after you. He wanted what was mine, and I knew it. I saw it, and I warned you I’d kill him. I meant it too.”

  I covered my mouth. “Please do not tell me you killed this guy.”

  He shook his head. “No, I didn’t. But I did burn down his frat house. No one was in it. The only casualties were some fish. But … I hadn’t known no one was in it. I’d thought he was.”

  Oh my God. I took a deep breath. “Back up. Why did you do this? Because he had flirted with me?”

  “Fuck no. I’d have only broken his arm or some shit for that. You came to surprise me at the shop. The secretary Huck had hired was hot for me. I’d put her off and told her I wasn’t interested a million times. We had a party that night. I drank too damn much because we were supposed to see each other that night and you’d called to tell me you had a study group you couldn’t miss. Anyway, Misty, the secretary, got topless and wrapped her arms around my neck. Unfortunately, that was when you walked in the door. I hadn’t reacted quickly enough because I had enough liquor in me to kill a man. I was slow to shoving her off my lap, and you were already in your car, speeding away. I tried to run after you. Fell face-first and passed out.

  “Woke up the next morning to a raging headache. Couldn’t remember shit. Checked my phone, and you’d broken up with me by text. It felt like you’d reached into my chest and grabbed my heart and ripped it out of me. Levi told me what had happened. I got in my truck and went straight to your house. You refused to answer your phone. Your car wasn’t at your house. Your mother, who hated me, informed me you’d stayed at the dorms with a friend.

  “I went to find you, but the friend you were supposed to be with told me you’d gone to breakfast with Leo. This was when I snapped. It gets a little foggy for me. But I waited for you to return to the dorms. He drove up, opened your car door, then pressed you up against the car and kissed you. I went to buy the supplies I needed and then headed to his frat house.”

  “You lit it on fire because I had kissed this Leo guy?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I convinced myself you’d been wanting to date him. That you’d been seeing him behind my back. That you’d used the Misty thing as an excuse. No one was killed, but I ended up with a trial date, although there was no firm proof that it was me who had done it.

  “While I sat behind bars, you packed your bags and moved to Boston. Wrote me a letter, telling me you couldn’t do this anymore. That we were bad for each other. That you didn’t love me and you wanted a new life. Your parents were buying a home there, and you’d decided to go ahead and move there now. Get enrolled in college. A lot of other shit that destroyed me. Garrett was able to get me out of a trial and prison time if I went into the Marines for four years. I took the deal.

  “Came back a year and a half ago once I finished serving my time. I’d only checked on you once. About six months after I joined the military, I had Blaise run a check on you. He sent it to me. You were in college, dating a premed student, in a sorority, spending time at a country club, attending fancy events for the Boston elite. There were pictures of you with Isaac Jeffrey, son of some political shit, in the paper more than once. I threw the papers away and never checked again.” He stopped.

  “And then I walked into your house five years later, like I hadn’t done anything wrong,” I whispered. “I’m surprised you didn’t choke me to death. I left when you were in jail, and I left you a letter? That’s cruel. It … it’s horrible. Why would I—”

  Gage’s mouth was on mine, silencing me as he pressed me back until I was under him. His hand moved under my T-shirt dress and pulled at my panties. “It was cruel. It fucked me up. But you came back,” he said, pressing another kiss to my mouth. “You fucking came back.”

  His hand slipped down between my legs, and he shoved two fingers inside me. “I knew when I lit the house on fire that I’d pay for it,” he said against my lips. “I just hadn’t known that payment would be losing you.”

  I let out a cry as he began to fuck me with his fingers. “Gage.”

  “Yeah, baby?” he asked, pressing kisses down my neck.

  “If I had loved you, I’d have never left.”

  He stilled and looked down at me.

  “Because I love you now and I would never—”

  His mouth covered mine again as he ripped my panties off and spread my legs.

  Thirty-Seven

  Shiloh

  The next few days would have been perfect if I hadn’t had another awkward run-in with Wilder and had to rush Ace to the vet because he had gotten into Uncle Neil’s chocolate stash. Also, Gage was going to be out of town the next two nights. He and Huck had to accompany Blaise to a ranch in Tennessee to see a horse. Uncle Neil was taking me home after work, and Levi was picking me up at seven from my apartment to take me to stay with Trinity at the house.

  Knowing our past and understanding why Gage had treated me the way he had made it easier for me to accept. This life. The family. The secrets, crime, and whatever else they were involved in. It was like I’d told Gage—I loved him, and because I loved him, I wasn’t leaving.

  Uncle Neil had a late patient come in with a broken arm. I finished closing up things, then got the trash together to take outside to the dumpster. The office would be closed for the next three days, so we always made sure it was clean and food was all disposed of properly. I had to text Levi and tell him I needed a little extra time to pack since I would be getting home later now.

  The sunset was getting later the closer we got to spring. It was nice to go outside at five and it not be dark anymore. Smiling at the last bit of sunshine, I walked the bags out to the trash. My thoughts went to Gage and how he’d woken me up with sex this morning. He’d been demanding, and I loved it when he was like that. But then I loved it when he was sweet and when he was dirty.

  A noise that sounded like a van door caught my attention. There were no cars back here but Uncle Neil’s when I walked outside. I started to turn around when a sharp pain hit my head, and then everything went black.

  The throbbing pain in my head made it hard to open my eyes. I tried twice and had to close them. The light in the room was too much. When had another migraine hit me? I didn’t remember it. Where was I? I tried opening my eyes again, and I winced. I couldn’t do it.

  Focus. Where had I lain down? The smell of stale beer and cigarettes made me cringe. Why would I be asleep in a bar? A dirty one at that? Something was wrong. I tried to move, and the coarse rope around my wrists made that impossible. I froze as fear slowly trickled in. Okay, this wasn’t good. My ankles were tied together too.

  I went still and tried to make my breathing slow and even as I waited to hear something. Male laughter from a distance. I wasn’t sure how far away, but it wasn’t in this room. Then footsteps coming closer. My heart started to hammer in my chest. Why would someone have me tied up like this? Where had I been last?

  The garbage! I had been taking the garbage to the dumpster. How had I gotten tied up and in a strange, foul-smelling room?

  “You awake yet?” a male voice asked as the footsteps behind me came to a stop.

  “You hit her too fucking hard,” another one said, farther away.

  They had hit me in the head. I’d been taken. Oh God, oh God. What did I do now? Did I let them know I was awake? Why did they have me?

  “She’s awake,” the first one said, sounding amused. “She’s breathing too fast.” He moved, and I could tell from the shadow over my eyes that he was in front of me. “You can open those eyes. You’re not fooling us.”

  I winced. “I tried. It hurts too bad. The light hurts my head.”

  “Told you that you hit her too hard,” the other one said.

  “Fuck off.” He moved closer, and I jerked when he ran a finger down my arm. “You’re sure nice to look at.”

  Tears stung my eyes. Please, please don’t let them rape me. I’d rather they killed me.

  “You can’t fuck her. Not yet at least. He might let us fuck her later.”

  I was going to start crying, and that was only going to make my head hurt worse. “What do you want with me?” My voice cracked.

  One of them laughed. “Can’t answer that.”

  A phone rang behind me.

  “We got her. She’s awake. Uh, she’s not talking much. Won’t open her eyes. Says it hurts. No, he fucking hit her head too hard. Yes, boss. I will.”

  “What did he say?” the other guy asked.

  “He said to get her some water. See if she’s hungry.”

  “He’s gonna get in trouble for that. He must have seen what she looks like.” The other one sounded amused.

  “Yeah, he did his research.”

  A hand touched my arm. “I’m gonna sit you up. How about opening those eyes?” he asked.

  I squinted, and it was bearable. I gave them time to adjust, then managed to open them up all the way. A man with long, greasy black hair, a matching beard, and a big gut was looking at me. He had a snake tattoo around his left arm, a scar across his nose, like it had been sliced once, and a large mole on his neck. I tried to take in the details in case I made it out of this alive.

  “Damn, would you get a look at those eyes?” he said, staring at me.

  The other man walked around and stood beside him. He was tall and skinny. Spiky brown hair and a weird goatee. Same snake tattoo on his arm though. “Who does she belong to again?” the skinny one asked.

  The fat one shrugged. “We don’t know. Boss just said to get her. Not sure he knows why this was what she wanted.”

  The she was not me. I didn’t want this. I thought about telling them who I belonged to, but then I worried it would put Gage in trouble. I didn’t want any of them in danger. I kept my mouth shut. Gage was still recovering.

  The skinny guy looked at me with an apologetic frown, as if he was sorry about this. “Which is why you hit her too damn hard. This ain’t even Viper-related.”

  “It is when the pussy that the boss wants demands we get her.”

  “Boss might change his mind about what pussy it is he wants when he gets a look at this one,” the skinny guy muttered. “I’ve seen them both. This one wins.”

  The fat guy shook his head. “Nope. Pussy he wants is Acid’s sister. He’ll pick her.”

  “Acid might want her.” The skinny guy tilted his head toward me.

  I wanted to scream that no one was getting me. My skin felt like it was crawling, and I was nauseous. I wasn’t sure if it was from the head pain or the fear.

  “You want some water? We got some food in the kitchen. Best fucking barbecue you’ve ever had,” the skinny guy told me.

  “Just water,” I replied.

  “If you change your mind, let me know. Juice is a genius on the grill.”

  I ignored that but put yet another name away, just in case I needed it later. It sounded like I had a small chance I might get out of here alive.

  My thoughts went to Gage. Would he know I had been taken? Would he think I had run away from him? No. I’d left my purse, phone, everything in the office. The back door had been left open. He’d know I hadn’t just run off on foot. At least if I didn’t survive this, then he wouldn’t think I had left him.