“I’m all packed,” I called down. “But I can’t carry them down the stairs.”

  The relief that hit me as I heard Carl’s heavy footsteps on the stairs made me light-headed.

  “Where?” Carl barked.

  “They’re on my bed,” I replied, leading him down the hallway.

  I walked inside my room and gestured toward the bags.

  “Where’s the baby?” Carl asked as he lumbered forward.

  “I put her in her crib,” I murmured.

  As soon as he’d passed me, I took a shallow breath and closed the door between us, fitting the key into the lock in almost the same movement. He wasn’t an idiot, and his palm banged against the door just as I ripped the key back out.

  I’d realized the first night we slept there that Titus had bought the wrong kind of doorknobs for our bedrooms. While they did have locks that required a key to get in, the opposite side didn’t have a latch. So, while you could lock the door from the outside, it was impossible to unlock or lock it from the inside. I hadn’t known that they even made locks like that, but needless to say, we hadn’t locked them at any point and Titus had assured me he’d go get new knobs, but we’d forgotten.

  I was thankful for that as Carl’s hand slammed against the wood again. The doors weren’t very sturdy and Carl was a big man. I’d corralled him for the moment, but I knew with absolute certainty that he wouldn’t stay in there for long.

  I’d never moved faster in my life than I did as I raced back for Cian’s room. Diana was silent as I yanked her out from under the bed, her face swollen and covered in tears. Carl slammed against the door again as we reached the hallway, and the door splintered.

  Diana didn’t even flinch as we flew away from him, down the stairs and through the living room. The girls weren’t there. I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

  “Flora?” I called, looking everywhere as I ran toward the kitchen. “Ariel?”

  “Here,” Flora called back quietly. She and Ariel tumbled out of the empty kitchen cabinet.

  “Let’s go,” I ordered, reaching for Ariel’s hand and lifting her off the floor. “Hurry.”

  I grabbed my purse off the hook just as I heard Carl break through the doorway upstairs.

  “Run,” I breathed, dragging the girls with me as we raced toward the front door.

  We just needed a little more time.

  I flung open the front door and shoved the girls out ahead of me, Diana hanging like a monkey from my neck as Carl stomped down the stairs.

  Then we were running, down the porch, across the grass, and onto the gravel, my car like a beacon in the driveway.

  Carl’s bellow reached me just as I threw open the back door of my car and shoved the girls inside, not bothering with car seats or belts. I slammed the door behind them and reached for the driver’s side door, Carl getting closer and closer with every second, when the sound of Harley pipes roared up the road.

  It was so loud that I could feel the rumble beneath the soles of my bare feet.

  When I’d seen Flora reaching onto the couch I hadn’t realized what she was doing. It hadn’t been until she whispered in my ear that I’d known she’d seen my phone on the cushion and called her dad.

  I’d known they were coming. I just wasn’t sure if they would make it in time.

  I yanked my door open and fell inside, jerking it closed behind me. My fingers scrambled for the door lock as Carl reached us.

  Locked.

  “Open this door,” he roared, pounding on the window.

  It was as if he didn’t even notice the men that were suddenly filling up the driveway.

  He hit the window harder.

  “Get down on the floor,” I ordered the girls. “Cover your faces.”

  He was going to break the glass. He was going to break it and then he’d be able to reach me. I scrambled across the center console, the parking brake scraping down my back as I tried to get away. My hands shook as I tried to pry my keys out of my purse. If I could just get the car started, I could drive away from him.

  I had just got the keys free and was separating the car key from the rest on the ring when suddenly, Carl was no longer there.

  “Daddy!” Flora screamed, shooting up from her place on the floorboard.

  Then Otto was there at the window, his eyes frantic as he took us in. He glanced behind him for a moment before meeting my eyes. “Unlock the doors, sweetheart,” he said gently, his voice startlingly low and deep.

  I was shaking so bad that it took me a moment to get back over into the driver’s seat. The moment I did, I unlocked the doors.

  My door and the back door were both thrown open at once. Otto reached for Flora in the back.

  Then suddenly, I was looking into Bas’s deep-brown eyes. I noticed distractedly that his face was so pale he almost looked gray.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  The sound around me was muffled, like my ears were full of water.

  As Otto moved back with Flora, his brother Rumi reached inside and picked up Diana, who was closer to the door. Then Cian was there, reaching for an unresisting Ariel.

  It felt like I was watching a movie as they lifted my babies out of the car. Like I was there, but not. There was something separating me from what was happening around me.

  “Come on,” Bas said softly as he helped me out of the car.

  The world spun as Ariel reached for me, and I stumbled to the side as I took her in my arms. Then Diana was there, too, and we were all holding each other so tightly. Bas was holding me up from behind as he herded us toward the house.

  I just kept whispering that I was sorry. Over and over again. I was so sorry. I was so sorry.

  Diana stuffed her face against my neck and I belatedly realized that I wasn’t holding her. My arm was around her, but I wasn’t supporting her weight. Bas was. I was holding Ariel.

  Ariel who was still silent, her hands fisted in my hair.

  I made it to the front steps before my legs went out from under me. There was only so much that Bas could do, and when I went down, he broke the fall but he couldn’t stop the momentum.

  “Titus,” Bas yelled.

  I was on the bottom step, the girls wrapped around the entire top half of me, when Titus fell to his knees in front of me.

  His hands were everywhere. My face, my hair, my arms, Ariel’s head, her back, Diana’s head, her back, each of their arms and legs. His eyes were frantic as his hands physically searched for injury.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Sugar,” he breathed.

  “What happened?” my sister yelled from somewhere, her voice trembling with fear.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, staring into Titus’s eyes.

  “Stop, baby,” he murmured gently.

  Without a word, Ariel’s arm flew out and she gripped his shirt in her little fist.

  He leaned forward with a shudder, wrapping himself around us.

  “I’m takin’ care of it,” Tommy said from somewhere above us. His voice was almost unrecognizable, there was so much rage in it. The affable, kind man that I knew was no longer there. I didn’t care.

  “I’m sorry,” I breathed, dropping my head against Titus’s shoulder, the scent and feel of him centering me.

  Neither of my girls had spoken.

  “Are you okay?” Titus asked, his lips against my ear. “Tell me you’re okay.”

  I nodded.

  Diana’s little peach fuzz covered head rubbed against my jaw and I shuddered. She was so little. She was so little and she was so scared and Ariel still hadn’t said a word and it was my fault.

  “Come on,” Titus said, pulling back a little. “Let’s get you inside.”

  As I lifted my head, I caught sight of my sister and Otto holding Flora between them. Esther was crying. That was my fault, too.

  Ariel went to Titus with a shudder, her arms wrapped around his neck so tightly that their cheeks pressed together. I watched as his eyes squeezed tight, his hand going to the back of her little blonde head, smoothing down her hair.

  Then he helped me to my feet and that’s when we realized at the same time that my thighs and skirt were wet.

  “Oh, fuck,” he blurted, looking down at me.

  My face burned with shame. My water hadn’t broken.

  “I peed,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “I was scared and I—”

  “Thank God,” he said, shaking his head as he cupped my face in his palms. “It’s okay. It’s fine, baby. It’s fine.”

  That’s when I started to cry.

  “Hey, we’ll clean you up,” he crooned. “It’s okay. Sugar, come on now. It’s cool. Come on, let’s go clean you up, yeah?”

  Tears rolled down my face as he led us slowly back into the house. I didn’t know what was happening outside, but inside was completely silent. He led me up the stairs with a hand at the base of my spine, reminding me to hold the railing.

  I almost let out a hysterical laugh at that. If only he’d seen me running down those same stairs with Diana in my arms just a few minutes before.

  “Jesus Christ,” Titus muttered when the damage Carl had wrought came into view.

  The door was in pieces. The top half was completely off the hinges and lying in the hallway and the bottom was still hanging, but at an awkward angle.

  “I’m sorry,” I said as he continued moving us forward.

  “Come on, sugar,” he replied, bringing us straight to the bathroom.

  When we got inside he scooted around me and leaned in to turn on the shower, Ariel still wrapped around his torso.

  “Quick rinse off, yeah?” he asked as I stood there dumbly.

  I nodded and moved toward the shower. Leaning over, I attempted to put Diana on her feet. She wouldn’t let go. She was silent, her body still shuddering and trembling, but her arms had tightened around my neck like a vise.

  “Princess,” Titus called. “Come here, baby girl.”

  Diana ignored him as he leaned in, his hand running soothingly up and down her back.

  “Come here to me,” he murmured. “Just for a minute so Mama can shower.”

  Diana didn’t respond in any way until Ariel let go of Titus and reached over, her fingers wrapping around Diana’s upper arm. Then my baby lifted her head, turning to look at her sister. A moment later they were both in Titus’s arms, huddled against his chest.

  I stepped into the shower fully clothed, but when I went to shut the curtain, Diana began to scream. It was the most gut wrenching, soul destroying sound I’d ever heard in my life.

  I swayed on my feet and moved to step back out when Titus shook his head. Diana stopped screaming.

  “Leave it open,” he ordered softly. “Just leave the curtain open.”

  He lowered his head, murmuring to the girls as he gave me the only privacy he could—averting his eyes.

  I stripped down and rinsed off as quickly as I could. I was just about to turn off the spray when Titus moved forward and set Ariel on her feet inside the tub at the opposite end.

  “She’s gonna need a quick rinse, too, sugar,” he said, still keeping his eyes carefully averted.

  I kneeled down on the floor and reached for my eldest.

  She was shivering as I helped her undress.

  “Look at us,” I murmured, smoothing her hair out of her face. “We’re a mess.”

  Ariel didn’t respond. She didn’t say anything as I got to my feet, lifted her into my arms, and turned toward the spray. Ariel hated showers. She always had. She was afraid that the water would splash in her face or get in her eyes, but she didn’t complain once as I rinsed her off and then shielded her from the spray as I turned off the shower.

  “Towels,” Titus said, still holding Diana with one arm as he flung a bath towel around Ariel’s body. I could feel his gaze on my face as I wrapped her up and handed her over.

  His eyes never strayed.

  While I pulled the other towel from the rack and began to dry off, Titus waited, facing completely away from me.

  Diana watched me silently.

  My hands shook as I went into my room for some clothes and the next few minutes were a nightmare as I tried to ignore the broken door and the suitcase and bag that Carl had dropped on my bedroom floor. Titus stood in the doorway so the girls could see me and then we all went back through the bathroom to Diana and Ariel’s room so we could get her dressed, too.

  It was so quiet inside that you could’ve heard a pin drop as I grabbed Ariel’s blankie off her bed and wrapped it around her shoulders. My girls were loud. They talked—especially Ariel—and they argued and they made noises and they laughed. I couldn’t remember the last time it had been so quiet when they were awake.

  Eventually, though, it was no longer quiet as we heard voices filtering from downstairs. I followed Titus and the girls toward the sound, my bare feet aching as they slid against the carpet.

  Downstairs, men and women were loitering, speaking in low voices in the living room and kitchen.

  Bas strode toward us as we reached the bottom of the stairs.

  “My girls,” he murmured, reaching Titus first. “How you guys doin’?”

  “They’re not talkin’ yet,” Titus replied quietly.

  Bas nodded. “Hey, Mermaid,” he crooned softly to Ariel, leaning around so he could meet her eyes.

  She just stared at him.

  My stomach churned with nausea.

  We made our way over to the sectional and I ignored everyone’s eyes on me as Titus gestured for me to sit. As soon as I was down, he carefully tucked the girls in on each side of me. They burrowed in, Ariel’s head on my chest and Diana’s on my belly.

  “I’ll be right back, yeah?” Titus said softly, leaning in to kiss my forehead. “Right back.”

  I nodded.

  As he moved away, I finally looked around the room. Rumi and Nova stood near the entryway to the kitchen. An older man with long hair that I’d never met before was standing near them, talking to two other men, one of them was the one with a large scar on his face that I remembered seeing when we moved in.

  I could hear Myla’s voice in the kitchen.

  Another older man with a beard stomped through the house, heading toward the kitchen.

  And by the front door, Ansel curled against her chest, was Esther.

  When our eyes met, everything inside me froze.

  Chapter 14

  Titus

  “You good?” Rumi barked, his arm slashing out to catch me at chest level.

  “Where’d they go?” I asked, disbelief still riding me hard when I realized that my dad, Mick, Cian, Uncle Will, and Uncle Casper had taken off, and brought Noel’s bag of shit father-in-law with them.

  “Better you don’t know,” Rumi replied, my sweatshirt and cut still gripped in his fist.

  “Fuck that, Rum,” I spat. “Where the fuck are they?”

  “You think they told me?” he asked, letting go to thump me in the chest. “Use your head, kid.”

  I ground my teeth together.

  “Wherever they went, they’ll be one less man when they come back, you get me?”

  I got him.

  Noel’s father-in-law could’ve been an asshole and then went along with his pious churchgoing life if he’d wanted to. He hadn’t. Instead, he’d watched Esther’s house, followed her to Noel, and tried to kidnap my woman and girls. He hadn’t brought his son with him. He hadn’t brought Ephraim with him. He’d known what he was doing was fucked, and so he’d come alone. The man wasn’t just an asshole, he was a batshit crazy asshole, and there was no rehabilitating that. There was also no way to ensure Noel’s and the girls’ safety if he while he was alive.

  “You need to bury it,” Rumi said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You need to shove it all down and get back in that fuckin’ house.”

  “Did you see them?” I asked, my throat so tight I could barely speak.

  “I saw ’em,” he confirmed.

  My nose stung. I ignored it.

  “They wet themselves, Rumi,” I murmured brokenly, looking over his shoulder at the house. “They were so terrified—” I swallowed hard. “I had to put Noel and Ariel in the shower.”

  Rumi made a noise in his throat, dropping his head to pinch the bridge. He stayed like that for a long moment. When he looked back up at me, his gaze was knowing.

  “Been where you’re at,” he said softly. “I get it. You need to get back in that house and see to the girls, yeah? That’s where you’re needed. You leave everything else to us.”

  “I don’t—”

  “That’s what we’re here for, brother,” he reminded me, giving me a little shove. “Go.”

  When I got back into the house, it was as if everyone had been waiting on me. As I strode over to where Noel and the girls sat, a few of the people inside followed me and the others drifted out of the room.

  “Hey, baby,” I said, crouching in front of Noel. She was staring at me dully, no expression on her face. I reached out and brushed her hair back. “You wanna tell us what happened?”

  Her mouth opened and closed, no sound emerging.

  Otto came up behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder as he set Flora on her feet next to me. I was pretty sure it was the first time he’d set her down since he grabbed her out of Noel’s car.

  Flora ignored me as she climbed onto the couch, fitting herself against Ariel’s back as she curled up against Noel.

  I looked up and big fat tears were rolling down Noel’s cheeks as she lifted her hand and ran it down Flora’s back soothingly.

  The four of them looked like one of those little abstract statues of a mom and children, the kind that all the little people fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

  Esther sat down on the couch to Noel’s right, and I watched my woman’s entire body go tight. She looked back to me and nodded.

  “Noel,” Dragon, the Aces president and one of my honorary uncles, said gently. He sat further down the couch with his elbows braced on his knees. “I’m Dragon. Sorry we’re meetin’ under these circumstances, sweetheart.”

  Noel nodded.

  “This is my son, Leo,” Dragon said, jerking his chin toward Leo. “You know Grease, I’m guessin’.”