Chapter Fifteen
SKYE
Halloween.
My favorite holiday and yet I feel nothing but deep sadness and anguish.
Max dropped me off here at the cabin five days ago and promised to return as soon as he had the documents I needed and some cash to get me started.
I feel like shit taking money from them, but I don’t have another option.
I can only imagine the shit show that is happening back home.
I ran, giving the guys no option but to admit to my father they lost me and it would have started a war. I just pray Xyla, Max and even my guys make it out of the fight unscathed. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to any of them because of me.
I gaze out the window and watch the setting sun.
The snow stopped falling three days ago and is still melting away.
Before I can get lost in the beauty of the view of the mountains, I hear a knock at the back door that startles me.
I instantly go on high alert. Max told me no one ever comes and no one knows about this place.
I snatch a poker from beside the fireplace and creep toward the door, keeping my steps light so the floor boards don’t creak.
I peek out the side window and see nothing.
I purse my lips and wait a minute to make sure no one pops up, then I open the door.
No one’s there and there isn’t anything on the porch steps, as I turn to close the door my mouth pops open at the sight of the piece of paper nailed to the door and read the words written in blood.
Run, bitch…
Without thinking, I race toward the mountain trail.
Most people would have hidden in the cabin and locked all the doors and windows but then I would be a sitting duck, and I refuse to be someone’s prey.
I have no idea who is after me but I’m not sticking around to find out.
I’m a fucking idiot for thinking I would ever escape unscathed.
I prayed I would be granted forgiveness for all my sins but it looks like even the man above has turned his freaking back on me, leaving me to deal with these mother suckers on my own.
I run as fast as I can up the trail. I had studied the map Max left me, if I make it to the head of the trail, it splits into a fork, one leads to a bush walk and the other will take me into the nearest town five miles away.
I shouldn't have come here alone.
The thought hits me the second I hear the snap of a branch behind me. I spin around and scan the trees surrounding me. Darkness is blanketing the sky, making it hard to see. Shadows surround me and normally, they never bother me but tonight, the shadows feel different. Predatory.
“Well, well, well.” Axel's voice cuts through the darkness like a blade. “Mother Nature called and said she’d totally like to help you freeze your naughty bits into a twatcicle.”
My heart slams against my ribs. I spin around to find all three of them emerging from the tree line—Axel with that vicious smirk playing at his lips, Nixon's cold eyes tracking my every movement, and Asher...
God, Asher looks like he's been waiting for this moment his entire life.
The three of them are wearing their jumpsuits and all have their masks resting on the tops of their heads.
“Funny seeing you out here all alone, petal." Nixon steps forward, hands shoved deep in his pockets, but there's nothing casual about the way he moves. It's calculated. Controlled. “It's almost like you wanted to be found.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.” I hate how my voice wavers. I hate that they can hear it.
Axel laughs, low and dark. “She's lying.” He tilts his head, studying me like I'm something he's about to dissect. “You ran from us and now we’ve been forced to hunt you through our woods to punish you.”
“These aren't your woods—”
“Everything here is ours,” Asher interrupts, his voice quieter than the others but somehow more threatening. “Including you.”
The air leaves my lungs.
My heart begins to pound so loud inside my chest, I start to think they will be able to hear it.
“That's not how this works,” I manage, taking a step backward. My spine hits a tree. I’m trapped.
Nixon's smile is cruel. “That's exactly how this works, petal. You just haven't figured it out yet.”
They move as one—three predators closing in on cornered prey. Axel to my left, Nixon straight ahead, Asher cutting off my right. There's nowhere to run. The bark digs into my back through my thin shirt.
“What do you want?” I force the words out, lifting my chin even as my hands shake.
“What do we want?” Axel echoes, stepping so close I can smell the whiskey on his breath. “We want you to stop pretending you don't feel this. We want you to admit what you already know.”
“I don't know anything—”
His hand slams against the tree beside my head, making me flinch. “Liar.”
“Careful, Brother.” Nixon's voice is ice. “She bruises easily, remember?” Nix’s gaze drops to my chest, looking directly at where his brand lies beneath my shirt.
Asher moves closer, and unlike the other two, he doesn't touch the tree or invade my space aggressively.
He just stands there, those eyes boring into mine with an intensity that makes my knees weak.
“You can keep running,” he says softly. “You can keep lying to yourself.
But eventually, Skye, you're going to have to face the truth.”
“What truth?” The words come out as barely a whisper.
Nixon leans in, his breath hot against my ear. “That you're ours. That you've always been ours. And that no matter how far you run or how hard you fight it…” His fingers ghost along my jawline—not quite touching, but close enough that I feel the heat of him. “You'll always be ours.”
“You're insane.” But my body betrays me, leaning into that almost touch despite my brain screaming at me to push him away. That this is all a trick and he’s trying to fool me.
“Maybe.” Axel's grin is feral. “But you fucking love it.”
“I hate you.” The declaration sounds weak even to my own ears.
“Hate. Love.” Asher shrugs one shoulder. “Two sides of the same coin. Either way, you feel something. And that's what terrifies you, isn't it? The fact that you feel anything for the three of us.”
He's right. God help me, he's right.
“This ends now,” Nixon says, his tone brooking no argument. “No more running. No more hiding. You want to pretend you don't know what this is, fine. But we're done playing games, Skye.”
“This isn't a game. I heard you—”
“No,” Axel agrees, his voice dropping to something dangerous.
“It's not. It's so much worse. Because games have rules. Games have endings. What we have with you?” He finally touches me, his fingers wrapping around my wrist with just enough pressure to remind me how good it feels to have his hands on me. “This doesn't end. Ever.”
My pulse thunders beneath his grip. “Let me go.”
“Say it first.” Asher's closer now, close enough that I'm surrounded by all three of them, boxed in by muscle and heat and the promise of something I don't want to name.
“Say what?”
“Say you feel it too,” Nixon demands. “Say you know you're ours.”
The words stick in my throat. Because if I say them out loud, if I admit it, there's no taking it back. There's no more pretending that I'm not drawn to them like a moth to a flame, even knowing I'll get burned.
“What you—”
Nix jumps in before I can finish. “I needed to make sure you wouldn’t betray us. I had to be certain that you were really with us and not a plant. Everything you heard was horseshit,” he admits, shocking me.
I stare up at him, astounded that he answered my question honestly. “Nixon—” His name feels heavy on my tongue, weighted with everything I've been trying not to feel.
“You think this is a game?” He stops just outside my reach, but close enough that I can smell him—something dark and masculine that makes my head spin. “You think we just walk away and that's it? You get to run away and pretend this didn't happen?”
My throat works as I swallow hard. “What do you want me to say? You made it clear I was the enemy.”
“I don't want words, Skye. Words are easy. Words are cheap. You can lie with words.”
“Then what—”
“I want you to show us.”
The sound of Asher and Axel's growls makes my pulse spike. I dart my tongue out to moisten my suddenly dry lips, and Nixon's eyes track the movement like a predator.
There it is—that familiar stubbornness rising in me even as my body trembles. I tilt my chin up, refusing to cower even though every instinct tells me I should be afraid.
“Your pulse is racing.” He leans in closer, his lips almost brushing my temple, and I have to fight not to close the distance. “You're trembling. And if I slid my hand between your thighs right now, we both know what I'd find.”
A sound escapes, half gasp-half whimper, and heat floods my cheeks. He's right. God, he's so right, and the knowledge that he knows exactly what he does to me is mortifying and thrilling all at once.
“That's what I thought.” He pulls back just enough to look at me, and I feel stripped bare under his gaze.
Like he can see every secret I'm trying to hide.
“You can hate us all you want. You can tell yourself this is wrong, that we're monsters, that you'd never want men like us. That I lied and hurt your feelings. But your body?” His hand hovers near my waist, not touching but close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from him. “Your body knows the truth.”
“You're insane,” I breathe, but the protest sounds weak even to my own ears.
“Probably.” His smile is dark and dangerous and sends shivers racing down my spine. “But that's what you need, isn't it? Someone insane enough to see past all your walls. Someone willing to tear them down brick by fucking brick until there's nothing left but the truth.”
“What truth?” My voice cracks, betraying me.
“That you want this just as badly as we do.” His fingertips finally make contact with my hip, barely there, but it burns.
“That you've been waiting for someone to push back when you push.
Someone who won't let you run. Someone who'll chase you into the dark and drag you back kicking and screaming if that's what it takes.”
Something snaps inside me.
In a move so bold it surprises even me, I press forward and plaster myself against his chest, tipping my head back to lock my gaze with his. The heat of him against me is overwhelming, intoxicating.
“I'll show you what I want, how I want it, and how I want the three of you to fuck me if you admit one thing.” My voice comes out sultry, confident.
I reach out and grip both Axel and Asher's jumpsuits, pulling them in until all three of them are in my line of sight. Three pairs of eyes are burning into me with hunger and possession and something that looks dangerously like love.
“Name it,” Asher grits out, his voice gravelly and strained.
“That the three of you are as much mine as I am yours.”
The words hang in the air between us, and I watch as something shifts in Nixon's expression—triumph and possession and raw need all mixed together.
He snaps his arms out and grips the backs of my thighs, lifting me off the ground effortlessly. My back slams against the tree, and I gasp at the impact, at the feeling of being completely at his mercy.
His eyes blaze with need as he holds me there, suspended and helpless and exactly where I want to be.
“We're yours, demons and all, baby.” The conviction in his voice makes my heart stutter.
A grin pulls at my lips—sexy, satisfied and full of promise.
“Good answer,” I purr.