EPILOGUE
CLOVER
Daire did his best to follow through with scrubbing my back. I let him run the bath puff over my body with a thick layer of bodywash until he reached my sore ass and nether regions. That’s when I plucked the puff from his grasp.
“I’ll take it from here, thanks.”
When I stepped out of the tub, Cash waited with a large towel. He wrapped it around me, pulling me against his warm chest. Pressing a kiss to the top of my head, he got busy drying me off.
“You guys really don’t have to do all this,” I protested. “I can handle it.”
“It’s called aftercare, Sunshine. Let us take care of you.” Cash booped the end of my nose and smiled.
Against my better judgment, I said, “You guys don’t seem like the aftercare types.”
Daire shot me a dark glare. “We’re not. Now bend over and let me put some aloe vera on that ass.”
I couldn’t hold back the laughter that burst from me. I may have been risking another punishment but I couldn’t help myself. Daire didn’t think it was so funny.
He grabbed me by the shoulder and bent me over the bathroom counter. With a bottle of aloe vera gel in one hand, he squeezed some out and gently rubbed it onto my sore bottom. I sucked in a sharp breath as it soothed my raw skin.
Watching him through the mirror blew my mind. Daire wasn’t the type to rub aloe on someone’s sore ass. He seemed totally out of his element. I liked it though. Glancing up, he caught me watching him and grimaced.
“Don’t enjoy this too much or I’ll be the one spanking your ass next time.”
“Whatever you say, Daire.” When our eyes met through the mirror, I winked.
That earned me a slap on my sore ass cheeks. Worth it.
After putting aloe on my ass, Daire surprised me further by dabbing some gently on the initials he’d carved into my skin. The letters were small, tiny really. The meaning behind them was huge.
I wanted to be mad about it, and I was, yet I was also tired and confused. I should not be okay with any of this.
“Should I order pizza or something?” Cash studied a food app on his phone. “What do you want, Clover?”
I accepted the clean bathrobe Daire handed me, wrapping it around my body. I tried to ignore the ankle monitor locked around my leg. “A noodle bowl with veggies and peanut sauce would be good. Unless you’re set on pizza.”
“Whatever you want. Anything else?”
We were downstairs in the living room when the food arrived. I was suddenly ravenous at the aroma. Sitting on the couch proved a little difficult with my sore ass. I made it work. The soft surface helped.
“Where the hell is Blaze? He should be back by now.” Daire scowled at his phone as he typed a text.
Cash took a large bite of pizza. He’d ordered what we both wanted. “Probably stopped off somewhere else. He’ll be back soon.”
“It’s been over an hour.” The frown etched in Daire’s brow deepened as he stared at his phone, awaiting a reply.
It never came.
After I finished eating, I stepped outside into the backyard to call Raina. She needed to know that I was fine. Knowing her, she was organizing a small army to come in here and get me.
“Holy shit, Clover. I’ve been pacing the floors waiting to hear from you. I was about to come over there myself. What’s going on?” Raina’s tone rang with worry.
Not wanting to sit too much on my aching butt, I wandered around the yard. It was a decent size with a firepit and a small gazebo near the back fence. The grass was thick and soft beneath my bare feet.
“I’m okay. Really. I wouldn’t lie about that. The guys were pissed off, and they wanted me to know it. I guess that’s fair. I did screw them over. It’s fine though. They didn’t hurt me.” Not in the way she thought anyway. I didn’t bother to tell her about my ass or the carved initials.
“Do you want me to come get you?” she asked, her tone changing like she knew what my answer would be.
I turned around to look through the window. Daire and Cash were engaged in discussion, most likely trying to figure out where Blaze had gone. It came as an unexpected shock to realize that I didn’t want to leave.
I shouldn’t want to be here with them. We were all wrong for each other. Totally different types of people with nothing in common. They were no better for me than Zane had been. Despite those facts, I wanted to stay.
“No. I think I need to stay for a while. I got myself into this. Running won’t make it go away. I appreciate you though, more than you’ll ever know.”
Raina’s soft sigh was expected. “You have feelings for those assholes, huh? Yeah, I get it. You know I do. Promise me that you’ll be careful. Call me the second they cross the line. I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”
“I know you will. Thank you. I love you, Raina.”
“Love you too, girl. Keep those boys on their toes. I mean it.”
After ending the call, I stayed outside for a while longer, enjoying the evening sky and the fresh air. Once the neighbor came outside and stood on his patio sneaking glances at me, I made my way indoors.
“His phone is off now,” Daire said as I entered the house. “What the hell is going on with Blaze? I’m starting to have a really bad feeling about this.”
Daire paced around the kitchen, doing circles around the island. Cash stood back near the fridge, watching him with a sour expression.
“You think he ran into trouble?” Cash asked. “Should we go look for him? Maybe if we follow the route he most likely took, we’ll find something.”
My gaze darted between them. “You guys think something happened to Blaze?”
I flashed back to when Blaze told me they had their share of enemies far worse than the Gods. My stomach sank. My dinner no longer sat so well.
“We’re not sure. I hope not.” Cash ran a hand through his short red and black mohawk, cursing beneath his breath.
“Better get dressed, Clover,” Daire said. “We need to look for him. There’s no way we’re leaving you here alone.”
I started for the basement to grab what was left of my clothes. That’s all I had here to wear. The sound of Daire’s text alert stopped me.
He stared at his screen, his expression growing darker by the second. He clutched the phone so tight his knuckles went white. I expected the phone to shatter in his grasp.
“What is it?” I asked, breathless and nervous.
“It’s a message from Blaze’s phone,” he finally said. “There’s a photo.”
He turned the phone around for Cash and me to see. I gasped at the sight on the screen.
The photo of Blaze showed him on his knees in a dark room. A gag in his mouth kept him quiet. Blood streaked across the bridge of his nose and dripped from his eyebrow. Bruises covered one side of his face. His head hung, like he was nearly passed out.
“Oh my god,” I gasped, a hand covering my mouth.
“Fucking cocksuckers.” Cash slammed a fist on the island, making me jump.
Daire started typing a message in response to the sick photo when another message came through. As he read it, his face contorted with rage.
“It’s worse than I thought,” Daire said, holding the phone so we couldn’t see it.
“Is it Brady?” Cash asked, his body shaking with anger. “It’s got to be Brady.”
Daire nodded. “Yeah, Brady and his guys took Blaze. That’s not all though. He says that we won’t see Blaze again unless we give them something in exchange.”
“What do they want?” Veins bulged in Cash’s arms as he clenched and unclenched his fists.
There was a tragically long pause before Daire glanced up and said, “They want Clover.”