Chapter 31
FINLEY
Unknown
WHORE
Unknown
Hope you choke so hard on their dicks you die. Dirty cunt.
Unknown
The world is going to find out who you really are.
Unknown
You’re going to hell.
Unknown
Gold digger!
Unknown
HARLOT
Unknown
He will never be yours.
Unknown
Puck bunny bitch
Unknown
Because of your wickedness, The Lord will punish you. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, He will destroy you with brimstone and fire.
Unknown
SLUT
Unknown
Cumguzzling hoe
Unknown
Go die you dirty bitch.
Unknown
You’re fucking wrong. Homosexual scum.
Unknown
Hope they spit you so hard on their sticks, you fucking die.
Unknown
Come home, Finley-James. Give yourself back to the light of the Lord and let Him cleanse you of your sins.
Earn His favor, and all His blessings will be showered upon you again.
Turn away from your sinful ways, and He will bestow his light upon you and Elijah.
If you follow in His ways, the Lord will be good to you.
Continue down this path, and you will be damned. Come home. Mom.
“Hello?” Christina waves a hand in my face. “Are you listening?”
Before she can snatch my phone, I stuff it into my back pocket and look up.
She told me this is normal—what happens when you hit a nerve with meaningless people—but these texts aren’t meaningless.
They’re personal. They hurt. They’re still coming, thick and fast, even though I stopped opening them after Mom’s message.
“Why do you look like you’re about to cry?” She’s already in my space, reading me the way only she can.
“I’m not.” I give her what I know she’ll latch onto. “My whole body is so dang sore. I needed at least another half day in bed.”
Not a lie. Just not the whole truth.
When I woke up this morning, tangled in Jayden and Elijah, life was perfect. Now, there’s a great big knot in my chest.
I know what we have is special, and the furthest thing from wrong. Still, that deep-seated gospel still blathers in my head. The slurs chip at my certainties. And Mom’s message etches itself at the front of my mind.
“Like, how sore are you?” she whispers, girly giggle softening me as she nudges my hip.
A hiss escapes me at the sudden movement, my core clenches tight, making it impossible to stand straight.
“Well, sister, I am blushing for you,” she says, cheeks flaming. “How was it? I’ve never done DP before, but I’ve heard it stretches all the right places.”
“It was intense and not how I thought it would be. Like, it was… incredible, and overwhelming…” I perch on the arm of a lobby chair, watching Jayden clown with the guys. Some look so green, the staff are hovering with trash bags.
“Incredible and overwhelming, but…?” Tina slides beside me and rests her head on my shoulder.
“It was the after part that killed me. The having them inside me, and then—” I suck in a breath, words failing.
“I guess it’s so much more when the fucking means something. When it’s an extension of your feelings.” She stares out at Matheo, soft and faraway.
He and Jayden are attempting a coordinated dance that Auguste and Courtney are unimpressed with. Meanwhile, Elijah shakes his head, fighting a smile.
“So…” I chance distracting myself from the craziness blowing up my phone. “How did you end up here this fine morning?”
“Babe, it’s nearly two in the afternoon. There will be no driving for you today, and I’d say we’ve officially overstayed our welcome.” Tina rolls her eyes, pulling her turtleneck over her face so that her flushed cheeks are covered while she nudges my foot with hers.
“Fine, how did you end up here this fine afternoon?”
Side-eying me, Tina sighs. “My dad canceled my visit. Apparently, I’m too much of a liability for his public profile, so…”
That man is an ass. “I’m sorry, Tina. He’s a nincompoop who doesn’t deserve you.”
She shrugs. “Whatever… In the end, I got the better end of the deal when Mattie called me.”
“Ooooh, Mattie. Mattie, Mattie… Mattie. So he calls and you…”
“Know I’m having the best sex of my life,” she retorts, narrowing her eyes on mine.
We both know she doesn’t do nicknames—or feelings. It’s how she avoids expectations and keeps the guys she sleeps with at a distance.
“With or without feelings?” I tug her collar down so I can see her face.
Running her tongue over her teeth, she gives me another eye roll before mumbling, “I don’t do feelings.”
“You don’t do nicknames, either,” I counter, pulling my phone out when it starts ringing.
Unknown Caller. A part of me wants to answer and tell them to go to hell. Then the logical part bats it away, and I reject the call instead.
“Who was that?” Christina leans in as another text flashes.
Unknown: You’re going to die bitch.
“What the fuck?” She slaps my hand away when I clear the notification, only for another to replace it. And another. “How long have you been getting these?”
“Not long,” I say, trying to hold on to the phone when she pries it out of my hand.
Of course she knows my passcode; it’s still the same one I used in college—Elijah’s birthday.
“Jesus fucking Christ.” The glare she’s giving my phone is meaner than when her father texted her to say he was skipping her graduation. “There’s like… hundreds, Fin!”
“They started last night after The Chronicle posted the photo of the three of us.”
“You need to report them. This is harassment. It’s… fucking disgusting and—”
“What’s disgusting?” Elijah’s baritone slices in.
There’s a defensive edge as he stands at my side. His arm rests on my shoulder, holding me to him so that my head is resting on his hard stomach when I attempt to snatch my phone back.
Christina looks from me to Elijah. When her face morphs to an apologetic grimace, I know she’s going to tell him, and he’s going to freak.
She hands him my phone. “Read it for yourself.”
He doesn’t at first. Elijah grips the device, looking at me for permission.
Never one to wait out silence, Christina snaps, “Your girl is getting hate mail.”
“What?” He searches my face, then scrolls the messages like she did. “I thought we were over this bullshit with—”
“It’s not The Fellowship, Elijah.” Even if Mom texted, the ugliness isn’t theirs.
Already pale, he goes translucent, tapping in and out, reading at random. His eyes narrow to slits. When they lift to me, I shrink.
If wrath had a body, it would be him.
“You should’ve told me.” The words grind through clenched teeth. “Why? Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t want to upset you.” Elijah growls at my reply, so I try a different angle. “Things are finally good and—”
“Things are not good, Finley. If you are being harassed, nothing is good.” He pockets my phone as he lifts me to my feet.
Dragging in a breath, he holds my face in both hands.
“I promised I would protect you. That I wouldn’t let anyone or anything hurt you again.
How can I make good on that promise if you don’t talk to me? ”
“What’s going on?” Jayden slides in, arms slung around both of us. “Why the glum faces?”
His bright grin is sunshine burning through the tension.
Christina slinks back as Matheo approaches. Unlike Jayden, he’s instantly in defense mode—scanning Tina, the room, then us. “What’s happening?”
Three burly hockey players close around me with a spectrum of confused, worried, and enraged expressions on their faces. And all that’s going through my mind are Eli’s words:
Nothing is good.
Context aside, the phrasing needles me. Because we are good. We’re better than good, and I refuse to let anyone put a damper on us.
I’ve lived my whole life chained to an outdated, shortsighted, and contradictory gospel. Now that I am free, nobody is putting me back in those shackles.
“You know, just because it’s not easy, it doesn’t mean it’s not good,” I snap. “For God’s sake, Eli, haven’t you learned that yet? Everything worth having requires fighting for.”
“Of course I know that, Fin.” His hand anchors my waist as he steps in, eyes like a thunderhead about to break. “I will always fight for you… for us.”
He tugs Jayden in, closing our bubble.
“I’m lost,” Jayden says, resting his big hand on the curve of my ass.
“I don’t have a problem with fighting, Fin. But I do have a problem with people telling you to die and to kill yourself. I have a big fucking problem with anyone threatening you.”
Silence swallows us up. Eli’s hand shifts to my lower back while Jayden pulls back to read us.
“What. The. Fuck. Do you mean?” Jayden barks, his palm heavy on my spine beside Eli’s.
“Read her messages.” Eli hands him my phone. I resist the urge to make a face so Face ID fails.
One of them needs to stay sane. I’ve seen Jayden blow on the ice enough times to know this won’t be pretty.
“You’re getting death threats?” The question is more of a statement as he continues scrolling through my texts.
I know he’s reached his limits when he slams my phone into Eli’s chest. He pulls his out and gives Eli terse instructions while he makes a call. “Screenshot them all with the number visible and send them to me.”
The smile he tries on me is marred by his stubborn scowl.
“Fuck, man, people are gross.” Matheo rounds me to stand with Eli. His stormy blue eyes find me with a soft wink that makes it impossible to remain sullen.
Christina links her arm with mine, tugging me back down onto the arm of the large chair we were perched on before.
“I’m sorry I made light of it when we were at the mall,” she murmurs when I rest my head on her shoulder.
The gravity of what’s happening is settling over her, too. Or maybe it’s making her think twice about her feelings for Matheo.
“It’s not your fault, Babe,” I say, threading our fingers.
“No, but I should’ve known better. I’ve had to change my number enough times thanks to my father’s career.” She gives our joined hands a few quick squeezes—our code when words are too much.
I squeeze back twice: I’m okay.
“It’s going to be fine. You’ll report it to the police, and they’ll handle it. All you have to do is change your number.”
“How did all these people get it in the first place?” I’m mystified.
“Girl, there are forums for this sick shit.”
“Yeah, but somebody had to give them my number. Someone had to post it… I don’t understand how—”
“Hey.” Jayden tips my chin while listening to the person on the phone. “My dad is handling it,” he says, no-quibbles. When I nod, he adds, “He says you can relax because he’ll have it dealt with by the time we get to the cabin.”
Whatever his Dad tells him next, Jayden rolls his eyes at. It’s obvious it’s not what he wants to hear from the way his jaw ticks.
“All right, I get it. I’m not going to do anything stupid, because there is literally nothing I can do right now.
” Another roll of his eyes makes me chuckle.
It makes him look so young and haughty that my insides squeeze tight.
“Jesus, it’s not like I can go around America beating the shit out of all these assholes. ”
Although… his devious smirk says he’d try.
I’ve seen this challenge in his eyes before. The come at me, get fucked glint he gets when he’s being marked on the ice. Those moments where the tension is high and the stakes are higher.
With a gentle stroke over my cheek, he trails his hand to my nape while his thumb presses to Eli’s mark hidden beneath my loose hair. It’s a possessive touch, sure, but his focus is all on me—grounding, steadying. As he lifts me to my feet, he steps closer, bringing me into his chest.
“Nobody is going to hurt you, Baby,” he murmurs into my hair.
Heart hammering, lungs burning, I hold tight. “I know, Hotshot.”
When Eli steps in, my insides wrench. His rage hums—alive. Like protecting me is the very thing that fuels him.
Strong arms surround me.
“We’re your line of defense, Baby,” Jayden tells me as his hand grips Eli’s nape. “This is what we do…”
“We guard our territory, Angel.” Eli’s hand presses deeper into my belly.
“Nobody does it better than us. Right, Bombshell?”
“Right.”
I’ve never believed in anything more than I do in their words now.
“Fuck me, dude, these cunts are relentless,” Matheo growls as my phone continues going off.
Mindlessly, he pulls Christina into him while looking over Eli’s shoulder when he starts blocking numbers.
“Just turn it off. My dad said not to bother with screenshots. He’s going to have one of his guys go through it.” Jayden pries the device from Eli’s hands with an assuring nod and stuffs it in his pocket. “Problem is being dealt with. We need to head out before we miss our flight.”
Jayden’s hand clamps my ass and, even frazzled, my brain flashes to last night—the spanking, the bites, the kisses, the fucking. Intoxicating. Perfect. I’m never giving it up. I’m never giving them up.
Without them, my life isn’t worth living. I might as well be dead.
Elijah and Jayden are my heart and my soul. They are why I live.
Come at me, get fucked.