Chapter 44
Savannah
J olting upright, I gasp for air.
“Hey, it’s okay,” a familiar voice says. My eyes snap over to see Lucy sitting next to me. She must see the confusion on my face. “We’re in your room.”
My room? Why would she be in my room?
Everything comes flooding back, and I scramble to my feet. “Athena?”
“She’s fine,” Lucy reassures. “See.” Looking down, I see Athena lying on the bed next to her. She’s curled up on her side, thumb in her mouth, as she cuddles with the fuzzy pink blanket I bought for her. Her favorite one.
Dropping to my knees, I start to cry as I stare at her. “She’s mine,” I whisper.
“I know.” Lucy smiles at me, but it’s sad. “I’m so happy, Savvy. I’m so glad you got your baby back.”
My baby. My fucking baby. She’s mine.
Fuck. The guys. Oh god.
“Where are they?” I ask, looking around.
“They're in the garage. Duchess went to get Ashley.”
“Ashley.” The growl that leaves me is pure feral. “That fucking bitch. I’m going to kill her.”
“You might not beat Daphne to it,” Lucy says.
My eyes drop to Athena. I don’t want to leave her side.
“Go,” Lucy says. “She’s safe with me. She’s sleeping. We’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
She nods. “Go get the justice you and your guys deserve.”
Leaning over, I quickly kiss Athena’s chubby cheek before rushing out of the room. I don’t care if I’m only in panties and a baggy shirt, I have one thing on my mind: making that bitch pay.
Thor’s chitters let me know he’s right on my heels.
But when I get to the garage, I stumble to a halt.
The sight before me breaks my heart. All four of my men are hurting. Jake is on his knees crying, Walker is tearing the place apart, Caleb is screaming in Ashley’s face, and Leroy leans against the wall with this blank look in his eyes, like he’s lost and doesn’t know how to find his way back.
My eyes find Ashley again. My lip peels back as violent rage fills every cell in my body.
I storm into the room, grabbing the baseball bat that’s leaning against the wall with some other miscellaneous sports equipment.
Caleb sees me just in time to take a step back. With all my strength, I swing the bat, hitting her in the gut. I do it again and again, not stopping when she begs, not stopping when she pukes or bleeds.
She’s like my own version of a birthday pinata! And just like kids with a normal pinata, I can’t wait to see the insides spill out onto the floor.
I finally stop, but only when my arms scream in protest and I’m out of breath.
“You stupid piece of shit!” I scream in her face. “You’re fucked up, you know that.” She tries to plead her case, but I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care that she didn’t know the baby was mine. I don’t care if Corbin offered her all the money in the world.
She did something morally fucked up. She let my men believe the baby they were raising was theirs. They didn’t know about their daughter, they didn’t get to grieve their loss.
She took that from them. She took so fucking much that she had no right to.
“You hurt my pack,” I growl, getting in her face. “You hurt my men. My family. No one gets away with that. Do you understand me? There’s nothing you could say or do that will get you out of this. Your fate is sealed. I hope all that money was worth it, because in the end, it cost you your life. You're nothing but a sad, pathetic woman. Even after all that, you actually thought you had a chance with them? What were you going to do, let them believe the lie for the rest of their lives? Fuck!” I scream, rearing back and punching her in her stupid face.
“Savvy,” Duchess says, grabbing my attention. “Kill her.”
“No. Please, no!” Ashley screams.
“If you don’t kill her, I will. I had some of my people look into her while I was on my way to get her. She’s just as fucked up as the men we kill. This isn’t the only fucked up thing she’s done. Is it Ashley?”
“What else did she do?” I ask, turning to Ashley. “What else did you do?”
“She owed a lot of people money. And when she didn’t have the money to pay them back, even after all of this, she started working for them. Wanna know what they did?”
“What?” I ask, voice filled with venom.
“Omega trafficking. She worked with the same type of people who took Lucy, who took you,” Duchess growls. “She would go to parties, become besties with the Omega, get them drunk, slip something into their drinks, and leave them to be taken.”
“She’s the gift that keeps on fucking giving.” I laugh. Because this is beyond fucked up.
Looking around the room, I nearly break when I remember my men. I want to drag this out, to make her pay, to hear her cry and beg and plead. But they need me. My pack comes first.
Grabbing the gun that Duchess holds out, I take a step back and fire off a few rounds into her stomach.
She screams and sobs as blood pours from her mouth. She’s coughing and gagging as she begs for mercy.
“You won’t find mercy here,” I spit in her face. “Thor...” I look down at my little buddy waiting nearby. “Finish her off.”
Thor lets out a rabid growl and launches himself at her.
Turning around, I ignore the sounds behind me and go over to Jake. “Come on, baby.” I hold out my shaking hand. He looks up at me with big, broken eyes, and my knees threaten to give out. He lets me pull him to his feet, then wraps his arms around me before breaking into deep sobs.
One by one, my pack forms a circle around me, wrapping their arms around one another. We stand there for a moment, taking comfort from each other before leaving the room and the woman who played a big part in ruining our lives.
Only... our lives aren’t ruined. We have each other, we have Athena. We will be okay. We won’t let them win.
We stumble our way upstairs to my room. When Lucy sees us, she gets up and quickly leaves, giving my shoulder a squeeze as she goes.
Carefully, I pick Athena up in my arms and lie back on my pillows, placing her on my chest.
The guys join us, lying down next to me, creating a protective huddle around us.
A sob gets clogged in my throat when they each place a hand on the baby, as they cuddle into me.
This won’t break us. I won’t let it. They were the thing that held me together when I needed them the most.
This is what a pack does, we feed off each other's strength as well as give it back.
And it’s my time to do that for them.
I’ll be by their side, do what I can, be what they need.
They’re not alone. We will get through this together.
T he past few weeks have been hell.
After everything came out, the guys were broken and lost. I think they’re going to be like that for a little while. I know I was. Right up until that night I found out the truth, every day I woke up with an ache in my heart. So I know exactly what they’re feeling. And my heart hurts for them because of that. I’d never wish that pain on anyone.
Daphne suggested going to see a therapist, one who works for her, so we’re able to talk freely about everything.
I think it’s working? It’s a start at least.
My heart breaks for them because I can relate. I’ve felt the pain they feel.
It took a few days before they could talk about it. To talk about what happened to their daughter and what everything meant now.
I fell in love with my men all over again when they told me that this changed nothing towards how they felt about Athena. They loved her, she was theirs. We were a family and we will always be one.
Even though they’re grieving for their lost child, they all told me how happy they were that I got my baby back.
I needed time alone to break down over that. I felt guilt over the joy I felt while they were in pain.
Everyone took time off of work, no one was in the right headspace to be going into their 9-to-5’s right now.
The need to do something, anything to help them has been eating at me every day.
Last time we saw the therapist, I asked her what we could do to help them heal. She mentioned getting closure could help them.
So, I found out what happened to the baby they lost, what the facility did with her body.
She was cremated, her ashes kept in the basement.
Daphne got that place shut down fast and everyone who knew about the shady business was being dealt with by her and Jerry.
But not before she was able to get the ashes to me.
“What are we doing here?” Walker asks as we pull up to the cemetery.
Saying nothing, I lead them to where we need to go.
“This is a weird-ass family outing,” Caleb mutters.
I can’t help but laugh.
“Shh,” I hush him. “We’re here for a reason.”
“What's that?” Jake asks. “You're not going to kill us and leave our bodies here, are you?”
“No,” I growl playfully.
When we get where we need to be, I stop. The guys stop too.
“Ahhh...” Caleb starts. “What’s going on?”
“Baby girl Holloway,” Leroy whispers.
Turning to face him, I smile. His eyes well with tears as he wraps his arms around Athena who’s strapped to his chest in a baby carrier.
“What?” Caleb asks, eyes dropping to the gravestone in front of us.
“What's this?” Walker asks, voice thick with emotion.
Swallowing hard, I give them a watery smile. “This is where your baby girl is buried. If you want anything on her headstone changed, we can do that. This can just be a placeholder for now.”
“Why?” Jake’s red-rimmed eyes turn to me.
“Because...” My voice cracks as I let the tears fall. “You all deserve the chance to grieve, to get closure. But most of all, you deserve to talk to her, to say your goodbyes if you want. Or, tell her whatever you want to say.”
“Thank you.” Walker pulls me into a bear hug. “You’re fucking amazing, you know that?”
“You're pretty amazing yourself, Big Guy.”
He kisses me roughly before stepping back.
Taking a seat on the bench nearby, I give them some space.
All of them sit on the ground and talk to her.
They cry, they laugh. They tell her all about Athena. How they wish she could have been here. How they wish they could have seen her grow up.
When Caleb tells her how much she and Athena would have loved each other, I have to hold back the sob that threatens to break free.
She may not be here with us, but I hope she knows how loved she is.
After a little while, they get up and make their way over to me.
Leroy helps me up and pulls me into his arms. “We love you. So fucking much.”
“I love you all too.” I smile. “I hope I didn’t overstep.”
“You didn’t.” Jake shakes his head. “This was exactly what we needed.”
“Come on.” Caleb wraps his arm around my shoulder. “Let’s get our girls home.”
Home. They’re my home. No matter where we are in this world, as long as I’m with them, I’m home.