Chapter Twenty-One
Tyson
It’s almost dawn when I finally step onto the porch.
I’ve wasted all night with the drive to LA and back after Raffaele’s call about a Bratva enforcer whom Malory’s bastard of a father hired to search for her. Right up until he managed to run directly into my half-brother’s open arms.
Our men know what to do when anyone on the West Coast starts asking questions they shouldn’t.
If I could feel empathy towards anyone other than my girl, I’d feel sorry for the dead guy.
Rafe is brutally violent on his best days and outright deadly on his worst.
He would have disposed of him right then and there, but I wanted to deal with it myself.
John won't get his hands on her.
Not today. Not ever.
No one will fucking take her away from me.
It would have been prime opportunity to send the message of his beloved daughter’s death back with the Russian’s body parts. Yet when it came down to it, I couldn’t bring myself to execute.
It’s inevitable, but I find myself dreading the moment.
Wanting to keep her to myself a little longer before sharing her with the rest of the world.
She’s mine, only mine.
Malory’s presence, her personality, her touch, her everything. It’s the very first thing that made me feel something in a fucking long time and I've grown obsessed with keeping her.
The thought of anyone even looking in her direction makes me want to reach into their throats, pull out their intestines and wrap them around their throats in a deathly chokehold.
Already her affection towards the damned dog is pissing me off. I’m not sharing more of it.
I’ve always been able to function efficiently without these uncalled-for feelings. Getting my revenge has always come first. Not anymore.
Now, I keep fucking things up just because the only thing I can think about is keeping my Malory.
So, I shot the guy straight between his eyes.
Normally, I’d have enjoyed breaking every single bone in his body for sticking his nose into my affairs. Especially with Rafe who loves getting his hands dirty more than the rest of us. But I wanted to be back with my girl.
Every night, I force myself to stay awake until she falls asleep because I refuse to miss even a second of feeling her body against mine.
The bothersome thing is that since the night she climbed into my bed, I’ve been sleeping a lot more than usual, wasting so much time that could be spend with watching my obsession.
I can’t remember a time in my life when I’ve been able to sleep through the night. Yet with Malory it comes naturally, like a missing piece of my soul clicked into place and I’m finally whole.
Every second we spend apart, all I keep thinking about is whether something happened to her in my absence, driving myself off the edge.
I should have injected a tracking device into her neck the moment I knocked her out back in San Francisco, but I couldn’t risk someone else hacking into it.
I’m fucked.
The tightness in my chest suffocating me until I’ll have her safely tucked in my arms.
I guess, there’s an easy solution for my newly acquired emotional distress. I’m simply never letting her out of my sight again.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I stop dead in my tracks. My blood running cold as the front door opens up into the hallway.
She’s lying right there on the cold floor.
Right in front of the entrance, an arm thrown over Nero at her side, her face buried in his fur.
“Little one?” I choke out, sinking to my knees.
She doesn’t stir.
Terror surges through my body as I hover over to her, checking her pulse with a trembling hand.
Only when I feel her steady heartbeat against my fingertips am I able to draw in a ragged breath.
Cursing, I check her body for any signs of hurt.
Nothing .
Physically there seems to be nothing wrong with her.
She’s okay. She has to be.
I repeat the words in my head over and over, convincing myself that she’s truly just sleeping here for some reason.
But why the fuck is she curled up in the fetal position on the floor? She was fast asleep in our bed when I left, making sure I wouldn’t wake her up as I quickly got dressed.
I hated leaving her, not holding her through the night. But I planned on returning before she ever woke up.
No need for her to worry about what I did at night.
She’s so fucking tiny, her sleeping silhouette tucked into a ball with her head resting on a pair of my old work boots.
That can’t be comfortable.
Noticing the dried tears on her cheeks, I can’t hold back any longer. Sliding my palms underneath her back and knees, I scoop her up, pressing her petite body to my chest, needing to feel her.
Fuck, she’s freezing. Dressed only in my shirt and boxers.
Malory’s bloodshot eyes flutter open, a small gasp leaving her trembling lips as she whimpers my name.
In a heartbeat, she throws herself on me. Almost knocking me over as she wraps her arms tightly around my neck in a suffocating grip, sobbing uncontrollably into my chest.
Shudders wreak her small body as she clings to me, clutching me like I’m her only lifeline.
“Shhh…. It’s okay, baby.” I run my hand along her spine in a soothing motion. “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Her fingers dig into my skin as she struggles to get her breathing somewhat under control.
“Whatever’s wrong, I’ll fix it, Malory.” I nuzzle her ear. “I’ll do anything, baby girl.”
When she finally lifts her head, her face is puffy with tears running down her cheeks like an endless flood.
I didn’t think my already shattered, dead heart was capable of being ripped to pieces. But in this moment, it breaks all over again.
Her eyes widen in panic at the sniper rifle slung over my back, before moving down to the gun at my waistband, the knife strapped to my thigh, scanning me from head to toe.
“Y-you’re okay...” Her voice cracks.
The fear in her eyes wasn’t because she was scared of me, but because she was afraid for me. She was looking for injuries.
Fuck me.
No one has cared about my well-being since I can remember.
I guess my mother did to a degree but then she gave up as well. Not that I blame her. I never really knew what it felt to have people worry about you.
“I’m all good, little one.” Her head is once again buried in the crook of my neck as she sighs with relief, her fingers sinking into the short hair at my nape, holding me to her.
“I’m here. I’m not leaving you ever again.” I vow.
“Really?” She sniffs, making my chest squeeze painfully at how small and vulnerable she sounds.
“Promise.” I gently kiss her forehead, then her nose, her cheeks, her eyelids and finally her lips. “It hurts too much to be away from you, baby.”
She hasn’t cried when I fucking tore her away from her old life and I fully expected it back then. Yet Malory handled being abducted with such grace and dignity.
I’ve witnessed grown men cry for much less. Not her though.
Seeing her broken like this is killing me inside, I can’t bear being the cause of her tears.
I can’t bear the sight of them.
Taking her face in my hands, engulfing her cheeks, I lick the salty droplets away.
“I’ve told you once before that my cock is the only thing that’s allowed to make you cry, Malory.”
A corner of her mouth quirks a little at the memory of our first time and I can’t resist pressing another kiss to those pouty lips.
Nero who has stirred awake from the commotion is now nudging both of us with his snout. With a wobbly smile, Malory pulls him to us, including him in our embrace as we all hold each other tightly.
Our family. Our home.
Wrapping Malory’s legs around my waist, I stand with her in my arms, discarding the weapons on the kitchen island along the way as I carry her to the couch.
Thank fuck I didn’t get blood on myself because there’s no way I’d be able to let her go to find a change of clothes.
The dog trails behind us and as much as I hate sharing my baby girl, I'm glad she has another protector in him.
Since I wasn’t fucking here to protect her myself.
Malory nuzzles my chest as I settle in the corner of the couch between the worn-out leather cushion, hugging her closely to my body like she might slip away if I loosen my hold on her.
Seeing my inked arms against her pale skin, I almost recoil at the stark difference.
Someone like me should’ve never gotten to touch her. But once I had my first hit of her soft skin, her intoxicating presence, I’d lay my life down to get another.
After tonight, nothing will tear me away from her. Not even for a blink of an eye.
“I can’t ask you to stop what you’re doing.” She mumbles into my shirt.
“You can ask anything of me, Malory. If you don’t want me going out there, then I’m done.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. You cannot imagine what seeing you like this does to me, baby. I won’t let it happen again.” I lean back to look into her watery eyes because she needs to understand how serious I am about this.
“Rafe can deal with your father’s men on his own.” I’m sure he’ll enjoy that. “And I haven’t taken on any contracts since I started spending my nights watching you, little one. I’ve got more money stashed away than we’ll be able to spend in our lives.”
She blinks through more tears as I wrap a throw blanket around her quivering shoulders.
“It’s just us. Nothing else matters.”
I haven’t been out on a hit since I first laid my eyes on her over two years ago. Not that I needed to.
Besides the earnings I have from contract killing, I’m a co-owner of several of my brother’s upscale clubs in the Camorra’s territory used to launder money from their less legal ventures.
There’s no denying that Malory’s presence in my life has triggered some sort of emotional response I’m not quite sure I know how to handle.
I don’t remember it being this intense when I was a child before succumbing to the emptiness. But those early memories have mostly faded anyway.
All that’s left are the screams of my mother, the unbearable pain and then, there was nothing.
Until I saw her.
Everything else in life still doesn’t mean anything, except when it comes to her.
And I have no other way of purging these brewing feelings than crushing her delicate body to my chest.
“When I was very small, I had this phase that when my mom went out grocery shopping, I thought she wouldn’t return so I sat by the front door, waiting for her.
She was the only person I was allowed to interact with at the time and I feared that she’d abandon me as well.” Malory’s voice is barely a whisper against the sensitive skin on my neck, and I have to lower my head to catch her soft words.
“I don’t know what happened. I panicked when I woke up and you weren’t there. Then I started thinking about everything that could have happened to you and it all spiraled from there.” Her crying intensifies once more as I thread my fingers into the silky waves of her hair, tenderly stroking the length of it. “I-I thought you wouldn’t come back.”
Closing my eyes, I allow myself to believe for a second that I’m not the only one who feels like I cannot fucking live without her. That she needs me as much as I need her.
“I couldn’t b-breathe and my heart was beating really fast. That’s how Nero found me, so I held onto him.” She hiccups between strangled sobs. “I- I guess it calmed me enough to eventually pass out.”
“You had a panic attack, little one.” I state through gritted teeth because I feel like breaking every piece of furniture within my reach. I’m not someone prone to violent outbursts like Raffaele, my level headedness has always been my biggest strength and yet here I am, nearly shaking with rage.
That’s not what she needs right now though.
“Do you get them often?” I need to know because it won’t be happening again if I can help it.
“Sometimes, when I get overwhelmed. When thing just get to be too much.” Malory admits quietly.
“What things?”
“Expectations, restrictions. I don’t handle being pressured into things very well. It bottles up inside me until it eventually boils over.”
Malory doesn’t see it because she grew up like this, but from an outsider’s perspective, her parents fucking wrecked her with their emotional abuse.
“Whenever you don’t feel like doing something, you need to tell me, baby.”
I won’t see her cover before anyone, least of all me.
Whatever she wants in life, she’ll get. And I’ll rip anyone to shreds with my bare hands if they dare standing in her way.
“From now on, you’ll never settle. You’ll do things your way, at your own pace. That’s an order, Malory.” I feel a small smile tug at the corners of her lips before she places a soft kiss to the side of my neck. Making my jagged heart bloom with my devotion for her.
I’ll make all her dreams a reality so she won’t need anyone else. It’ll be me and only me who’ll give her the word, fulfilling all her hopes and desires. Ensuring that the thought of leaving me won’t ever cross her mind.
“Ty?” Her soft whisper rips me from my raging thoughts, ensnarling me in the deep, green pools of her eyes.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I want to be there for you too, for anything you need.”
The place long-dead within me stirs as my heart quickens, beating just for her.
“You already are.” I say into her mouth, crushing my lips to hers as I unravel entirely, breaking down every last wall I might have clung to. Giving her all the shattered pieces of my heart that she miraculously brought to life.
It rightfully belongs to her, all of it because without her, I’d be nothing. An empty shell incapable of human emotions.
Yet Malory has carved herself a place in my dead carcass that cannot be filled with anything but her. All of her.
What initially began as merely an all-consuming obsession, a need to possess every part of her, has turned into her wrenching feelings out of me I thought were long gone, buried under impenetrable layers of nothingness.
I wanted to own her but now she’s owning me, making me completely and utterly hers.
Malory bites my lower lip and I growl in response, deepening the kiss as our lips battle with unspoken passion.
My girl has been getting bolder lately, exploring her own dark desires and I fucking love it.
Thinking back to when she first came here, she’s truly grown into herself, bloomed under my care.
My little blossom.
I’m fairly certain that she’s partially drawn to my broken soul in an attempt to nurture it back to life like it’s one of her plants. And honestly, she’s the only one who might stand a chance at succeeding.
Either way, none of it matters as long as it means that she’s mine. As long as it’s me who she opens up to, me who she allows to touch her, me who sleeps beside her.
I’ve allowed her glimpses into the deepest fucked-up parts of myself and she has taken everything I’ve thrown at her in stride because this girl was fucking made for me.
My perfect counterpart.
At first, I was reluctant to drag her into the darkness with me, hating the thought of tainting her innocence but then I saw the glint in her eyes. My roughness turned her on.
That’s when it all fell into place.
She’s always been meant for me to own. This is where both of us were meant to end up, in each other’s arms.
A sense of wholeness washes over me as I hold her until the sun rises, early rays of light filling the living room.
Every now and then, Malory kisses the scars on my shoulders that my shirt doesn’t cover, gently caressing the raised skin with her soft lips.
She always does this when we’re cuddling, like she wants to erase the pain behind those marks. And I’m starting to believe that if anyone can actually do it, then it’s her.
After I told her about my childhood, allowed her to see the true me lurking beneath the surface, I expected her to recoil, to finally run.
Not that I would have let her.
Yet there was only compassion in those big, emerald eyes of hers. And trust.
Trust that I don’t deserve.
Not at all.
I couldn’t risk breaking her when I first brought her here, uprooting her life more than I already have. So I left out a few familial ties and gory details until she’s ready to hear them.
At least for now.
I should have taught her how to use the gun after that fact, because she’s going to want to kill me once she finds out the whole truth.