Epilogue
EPILOGUE
ROBE
Mari stirred on my lap as Jon pressed a cooled cloth to her cheeks, cleaning away the remnants of the delayed reaction to her horror from the day before. I should have looked for it and had failed her yet again. She worked out for more hours than I could count in the wake of her walk through the forest. And then she took that solid night’s sleep and her fear, and she belted it out against her opponent the way we taught her.
But we’d forgotten to tell her how to stop. Her stomach emptied itself as she hunched over her arms, once outside the house and once back inside it, where she dry heaved as her limbs shook until her body gave out.
Miller grumbled while he held her the entire time, swearing lovingly in his own strange way, like he was proud of her for finding her limits and pushing through. Then she let each of us hold her, passing her around for cuddles until she returned to me. I fed her a few mouthfuls of water, and then she purred against my chest.
“Too much, too fast,” I murmured, tangling my fingers in her hair.
Plus, I’d been a complete asshole, making her retrace her steps, dictating where she should find security after the months we’d spent wrapped around each other. The need to destroy everyone who hurt her burned within me, dolloping a decent helping of self-loathing onto my shoulders.
Cinnamon notes bloomed as I curled a glossy lock around my fingers. She used the shampoo and lotions I’d given her, and some deep-seated part of my inner beast roared its approval.
But as much as I wanted Mari to stay, I couldn’t keep her forever. I imagined her in a white-picket-fenced yard, pregnant, a white-and-brown puppy lolling at her feet. But that couldn’t happen, not with me. No world I lived in would ever allow it. Which meant I needed to give her a choice, the choice she should have been given earlier.
Then we got… distracted while I lied to each of us that we could keep her.
If she wanted to return to us, that needed to be her choice. In the half year she’d lived with us, Mari displayed a keen intelligence, a Miller-level-worthy loyalty to all of us, but especially the ability to deal with circumstances beyond her control whenever they were thrown her way, like with Alan and his skewed sense of morality. I had a place where she could use those skills and keep an eye on her.
Watch her—like a fucking creeper.
Letting her go broke my heart, but she needed to heal without me in her space. And there was that minor issue of professional help.
Jon sensed my hesitation. He paused in his ministrations. “She’ll come around.”
Mari shifted in my arms. “Robe?” she murmured, tilting her head back. She stared up at me with a dozy gaze, her lips parted.
My cock hardened in an instant. I held back from dipping my head to kiss her, from laying her out on the floor and begging her to stay with my tongue between her thighs. She needed more time to heal. I knew that now.
I doubted that with five men who were already obsessed with her, she would get that time in this house.
The unspoken words that pressed against my lips threatened to break me.
“Sweetheart, sit up.” I searched her gaze for any hint of internal damage. I couldn’t fix every hurt she’d endured, but I knew someone who might.
“Thanks,” she murmured, snuggling into my shoulder. She wrapped her arm around Jon’s giant bicep, drawing him closer. “I feel a lot safer when you’re both here.”
Adoration lit Jon’s eyes. I expected my face matched his, which made the next part so much harder to push out.
“Mari, it’s time you got your wish.” I forced the bitter seeds into a semblance of sweetness, coating them in a lure of honey. “Freedom.”
She struggled in my arms, tangling herself into a knot between us in her panic. “What? No. I want… I want to stay,” she whispered, the admission widening her eyes in shock.
I smiled, knowing how weak it had to look from the outside. “Get dressed. Take your time. Anything you need. Then come out. We’ll be waiting.”
Mari stiffened. I swallowed hard, extracting myself from her embrace, Jon mirroring my jerky movements.
* * *
“You said take your time. But you could have specified,” Alan rasped forty minutes later, holding his face between his hands.
The shower had turned on and then off, and we hadn’t heard a thing from her since. I was seconds from ripping the door off its hinges and getting on my knees for her when the damn thing opened and she crept out, her arms wrapped around herself. She was wearing one of those damn sundresses she loved, regardless if it was fucking snowing outside or not, and a knitted pink thing that hung to the hem so she appeared naked beneath.
Will looked on the verge of swooning or bending a knee himself, and I didn’t blame him in the least.
“Ready to talk, Mari?” How many times had I said those words and in how many other versions?
She nodded, her gaze skating about the cabin, lighting on each man, even meeting Miller’s rage-fueled gaze and holding her own without flinching.
My brave fucking girl.
Jon broke from his position near the door to slide in behind her, linking his arms around her waist. She sighed and closed her eyes, and I took that as my signal to start.
“You need to see a doctor, a real team who can help you heal. The right way. I’ve kept you from that long enough. I don’t want to send you away,” I reassured her. “You can come back after, if that’s what you want.”
Please let her come back to me. To us.
Mari nodded and said nothing.
“We need to know who you are from your own lips. I know we’ve been through this, and I know that we already know. But now I need the words.” I needed it recorded, as evidence, and Alan was ready with all the right hardware.
“Tell us who he is to you. We can’t send you back to your own world if we can’t protect you.” Jon’s eyes held the same unspoken plea as mine, though she only looked at me.
“He’s a CEO,” Mari started, and I knew she’d already thought the words up, turned them into something that would betray no one but herself. Who knew how many times she’d rehearsed the part? “I am— was —his PA. Personal assistant,” she added, sneaking a quick glance at Alan. “You know that. But my home… my life there, it isn’t?—”
Her brow dipped. We’d spent weeks, months telling her that she had to stay for her own safety, and here we were, throwing her into the lion’s den. I knew what that looked like, and I had a solution. But first, I needed something from her.
Silence fell in the room.
“Stay here,” Will piped up, his enthusiasm overflowing, as always.
“Ignore him.” Jon curled a hand around the curve of her shoulder in an intimate gesture that belied his words.
None of us could bear to push her further. Mari’s strength and resilience were a blessing in themselves. I doubted I could have been as courageous in her place. And for that, I would worship her in any way she wanted. I wiped my face clean of emotion as she cast a speculative glance my way.
“If you go back, you won’t have a job, and you’ll have to move. You can’t be you, not anymore. If he’s in a politician’s pocket, then he can use those connections and pull to create problems. Will’s right.” My voice cracked, and the boys laughed. Mari managed a small, sweet smile. “You would be safer here.” I paraphrased my ex-junior officer’s words and ignored the startled glance the young soldier shot my way.
“I’ll be fine.” Mari waved a hand as though walking back into that viper’s den would be a simple thing.
I clenched my teeth and didn’t bother to fake a smile.
“You won’t be fine, Mari.” Jon tipped her head back and kissed the tip of her nose. “What they did to you is inexcusable. Unforgivable. It needs to be dealt with.”
She looked up at the gentle giant of a man with such trust that had he been anyone else, I might have attacked him for stealing her attention.
“It does need to be dealt with,” I agreed, catching her fingers to hold her hand in mine, memorizing the heat of her. “Why are you scared of going to the authorities, Mari?”
Her eyes flared wide as she started, and for a long moment, I expected her to deny it. Then she shook her head.
“I played a part in too many of Gi—his crimes. Some small things that I arranged for him. Hookers and parties. It took me a bit to realize how naive and stupid I was then, how it would look, but nothing like this.” Her eyes welled with tears as she ran her hands down her arms that bore the marks of her horror. “I had no idea they were making slaves out of women.” Her eyes took on a distant look I hated, and Brandon’s words the night he passed echoed around the room.
I caught her chin in a firm but gentle grip to bring her back, tilting her head back so I could hold her gaze. “But there will be more if nothing is done about it.”
“You want to, don’t you?” she whispered. “You want to be the one who destroys him. But he’s dangerous, Robe. More than you can imagine. I don’t want you to get hurt because of my stupidity.”
“That wasn’t stupidity on your end, Mari. Corrupt men believe their power comes with no price. I know better. We all do.”
“I can’t tell you, Robe.” She nibbled her bottom lip. Her head tilted farther back of her own accord, though it must have hurt her like hell to do it, in an invitation I couldn’t deny.
I lowered my head, brushing my lips over hers. She sighed, leaning forward as Jon released her, melting in my arms, and I kissed her deeper, then sweeter until the taste of her seared into my tongue. My heart clenched on itself as I held her, willing her to do what I asked and deny me at the same time.
Go because you should.
Stay because I need you.
A moan worked its way from her mouth to mine. I wanted to be the air she fucking breathed.
When I drew back, her lashes framed heavy-lidded eyes crowning a curved body that begged to be fucked. I inhaled a slow breath before I broke my promise to myself not to touch her again, took her to my bed without anyone else in it, and let my control snap.
Then I’d be as bad as the assholes who tortured her, who made her run for her life.
I brushed my lips over hers, memorizing the shape of her mouth against mine.
“Stay,” I murmured against her lips. “Tell me what I need.”
Indecision warred in her midnight gaze, but then she relented. “Gideon Blackthorne was my boss. I… I….” Her bottom lip wobbled, but she held the impending tears at bay. “I didn’t see other faces. If I think of anything, I promise I’ll tell you.” She hiccupped. “I can draw really good stick figures.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. I know that hurts to say.” I held her tight, my heart ripping into shreds. “You’re the bravest damn creature I’ve ever met. God, girl. I love you.”
“I know.” She smiled through her sheen of tears, tracing her fingertips along my cheek. Her touch burned like she’d branded her claim there.
She’ll come back.
I believed it. I had to.
I swallowed hard and pressed her back into Jon’s waiting arms, my decision made. He nuzzled at her neck, inhaling her scent. Then he looked at me with a closed face and nodded.
I withdrew a pair of keys on a single key ring from my back pocket and let them dangle from my fingers. Alan pressed a small pile of plastic cards into her hands.
She picked them up, examining the freshly printed driver’s license that featured her photo, albeit with a new name and address printed on it. “Marion Knight. Is that who I am now?” She traced a fingertip over the glossy card. “I can keep my first name?” At least in part.
The rest of the short stack included ID cards, enough to prove to the world that she was who we needed her to be. At the bottom of the pile sat a brand-new passport. A new identity to hide her from Blackthorne and thus Petersen, who kept his lapdog on a short, albeit invisible, leash. This identity gave her a new life and a chance to live it.
Alan tossed a phone into her hands. “Password’s the same as your old one, and it’s got all the same apps on it.”
“How do you know my passwords?” Mari stared up at him with wide eyes.
“It’s a talent, honey. I get to infiltrate everyone else’s life. I just don’t get to live mine.” He tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Yet you struggle with who you are,” Mari said, still staring at him.
Alan snorted. “Get out of here, sweetcakes, before I decide to keep you regardless of what the oaf tells you to do.”
Jon laughed, squeezing Mari’s waist between his giant paws.
She twisted to face him and pressed her hand over his heart. “My woodsman. My tin man,” she whispered. Fresh tears tracked her cheeks.
Jon stared down at her, unbreathing. Yearning filled his face. My heart broke a dozen times for him over his wife, and a dozen more now on his second round. Every time he found someone to love, they were swept away from him, outside his control.
Tin Man suited Jon Littleman all too well.
“Mari,” I called, bringing her attention back to me. “There’s a car on the dirt road half a mile that way.” I jerked my thumb behind me in the opposite direction from where she’d arrived. “It’s yours. Everything’s in your name. Illegal but untraceable. Alan hasn’t let me be caught yet.”
Mari lifted the keys, wonder widening her eyes. Her fingers brushed over mine. A shiver shot up my arm, and I pressed my hand to my thigh to prevent myself from touching her again.
“Are you sure?” She turned the pair of new keys over in her tiny hand.
“Am I sure? Hell no, sweetheart. But if you want that freedom, then you’d better run before I change my goddamn mind,” I growled, echoing Alan’s sentiment and meaning it no less. My lips pressed tight together as I bit the words out, only half playacting.
Mari giggled.
She fucking giggled.
Add that as one more reason why I’d fallen in love with her in a few short months.
Anyone with their sensibilities in the right place would have tripped off the veranda in their haste to escape, but not Mari.
A handful of chuckles echoed her sentiment around the room.
Mari squeezed the keys between her fingers as though testing they were real. “What’s the second one for?”
Jon grinned, brushing his fingers along her throat. She shuddered at the contact, her lips parted in a response that went straight to my cock—and his.
“Robe’s office in New York City.” He spoke into her hair as he whispered the address into her ear. “There’s a nice penthouse apartment on the top floor of the building. Key’s in the bottom drawer of his desk, taped behind the back. It’s yours.” He nuzzled her neck, sucking hard enough to mark her.
A tiny moan escaped her lips, her eyes fluttering closed. When she opened them, Mari stared at me as she leaned back into Jon’s embrace, the ghost of a knowing smile gracing her lips.
I clenched my fists, willing self-possession to take hold of me before I ripped her from his arms. A dual need tore through me. The urge to protect her roiled inside my chest, demanding to be released.
“Yana manages my company, but she’s been begging to retire for the past year. I’ve struggled with handing over control of a multimillion-dollar business to someone I don’t know. I’d like you to get to know her, see if she thinks you might make a good… replacement.” I couldn’t offer her any less for tearing away the life she had, for not pushing her through the proper channels when we had the chance to do the right thing.
Her eye for detail and her care factor in my house showed me everything I needed to make the decision.
Mari’s pretty eyes narrowed. “Did you cyberstalk me, Mr. Huntingdon?”
“Through a screen, but never in person,” I said in a rueful voice, as though that slim difference made it all right to inch my way into her private life to ensure who she claimed to be matched up with the woman I loved.
Lucky for us all, she did.
Her eyes darkened. “Your company? The one you ran with Gi—” She swallowed and stopped.
I didn’t force her to say his name again. Once was more than enough. “Knight & Watchman. The same as the accounts you looked over. It’s who we were. Who I was, once. It’s a private security firm that deals with cases like yours. Perhaps you can make a difference there.”
Maybe my purpose could become hers.
“Maybe you can come visit one day,” she whispered, her eyes glistening.
I forced my lips up. “Is that a yes?”
Not to the question I want to ask you.
My heart ached.
“It sounds like you have a reason to leave the mountain, Robe.”
“Bullshit,” Alan yelled over a chorus of laughter. “He’s afraid to go into town.”
“If town is several hours away and situated in one of the biggest business centers in the world, then yes, I’ll take that one.” I gave her a rare smile, and she rewarded me with one of her own as laughter bubbled from her again. I tapped the phone Alan gave her. “The number of a doctor who can help you is programmed in there. Use it. But you can’t contact anyone, not your family or your friends. That’s the price of your freedom. One call and you blow your safety net to hell. And… don’t Google yourself.”
I let her see the fear in my eyes of what might happen while I wasn’t there as a barrier between her and the rest of the world.
“I didn’t think Robe Huntingdon was afraid of anything,” she teased, stroking Jon’s cheek as she disengaged from his embrace and sashayed toward me. Then she stopped, her eyes impossibly wide. “Mari Knight. On the license.”
I nodded. “It’s my family name. Huntingdon is the title I hold in Europe.”
“Are you shitting me?” she whispered, one foot preceding the other as she crept forward.
My vision tunneled in on her. “I wouldn’t admit it in front of anyone else,” I murmured.
Mari moved into my space, stealing my air with every step until the hem of her dress touched me. She rose onto her tiptoes, brushing her lips over mine in the barest caress. “I love you,” she breathed into my ear, so soft that not another soul could hear her confession.
I flexed my hands in my pockets. “Will you come back if I don’t say it again?”
My heart thudded in my chest as her mouth moved, but she didn’t kiss me.
“Half a mile up the path?” she asked, her breath hot on my mouth as she spoke.
“That’s right.” I still hadn’t touched her, couldn’t touch her. Otherwise, I’d never let her leave.
“Thanks.” She sent me an impish grin, whirled, and flew out the door before anyone thought to stop her.
Five pairs of eyes tracked her escape across the clearing and into the trees. The forest’s sentinels closed over her route until only the faintest trace of her scent remained among us.
Jon made a half-strangled sound deep in his throat and stepped forward.
I caught his shoulder. “Let her go.”
He watched me, turning his teacup in his massive paws. “You’re not keeping her?”
“Did you think she would say no? We gave her an offer she wanted, one she didn’t need to refuse.” I huffed a laugh. “She’s not going to tell anyone about the men who fucked her over. Or us. I think we’re safe.” I followed the boys out of the cabin and watched them scan the forest for any trace of her.
Alan alone leaned back against the cabin, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He caught my eye with a small grin while the others pined over what they couldn’t have.
I held his gaze, assessing him. “Want to check if she got to the car unmolested? Don’t be seen.”
Alan answered me with a fast grin and quicker feet. He hit the forest floor before the remaining boys could protest.
Leaning my forearms over the railing, I watched him disappear between the trees and head in the direction of the car I left on the road for Mari.
“Are you sure, Robe?” Jon braced his arms over his head at my side, gripping the struts that held up the veranda in a white-knuckled grip.
“I’m sure.” I scanned the trees, a plan forming. I retraced her original path in my mind to where someone had dropped her onto my land in an effort to incriminate me. A short surveillance walk might be the thing to keep the boys from obsessing over a broken heart. “Besides, I don’t think Mari Merripen-Knight is done with us yet.”
And I’m not finished with her.
I gave her my name, and that was a two-way door.
Mari would return to us. I had no doubt of that, the same as I refused to doubt her ability to take on my company and run it like a well-oiled machine. Hell, maybe I’d venture back into my old life to see how she filled those shoes, give her a reason not to slip away and disappear on me altogether.
And when she came back, I’d know she chose us. Until then, I opted for a little vengeance to seek on her behalf.
I spread my lips in a dead smile as a familiar coldness blanketed my ruined soul.
“Who’s up for a little recon mission?”