Chapter 14
JESSIA
“I’m glad you’re my mate, Devil,” I told him after our first time in the garden, letting his scent settle in my lungs.
“And I’m fucking honoured you’re mine, angel,” he’d replied.
I remembered the words now, and felt the same giddy thrill I did months ago.
We’d had so many dates since then that I’d lost count, and they were all as special and romantic as the first. Sometimes he planned them, sometimes I did, but they usually always ended in hot kisses, impatient hands, and the slow slide of him inside me, burning away all other thoughts.
Dates weren’t the only things I’d gotten.
Pierce sent more messages—three, one for each month since Pewter was killed.
I’d been waiting in nervous anticipation for the message this month.
They were always the same, with thinly veiled threats, Pierce throwing his weight around and playing mind games for power.
The first month he sent an anniversary card, the second month a postcard of Vienna where we went on honeymoon, and the third was a sick invitation to a vow renewal.
As if I’d go anywhere near him when I had my mate.
Devil was ten times the man Pierce had ever been.
His rage and violence was reserved for abusers who deserved it.
“Ugh,” Lynn grunted. “The sappy smile on your face makes me want to punch you in the tit.”
“Hey.” My smile became a scowl. “I’ve seen you smiling too when Cobra’s around.”
She rolled her eyes. “Those are smirks; it’s a different matter.”
“Nope.” I knocked my shoulder into hers as we walked down the clubhouse hallway towards the kitchen to steal our friend from her man.
Sweetie had been monopolising too much of ChaCha’s time, and she was ours today.
She just didn’t know it yet. “I’ve seen you with a sappy smile on your face.
Like that time Cobra marched into the sanctuary to bring you food. ”
“I wasn’t smiling at him. That smile was for the food.”
“Mhm. Sure. The food.”
Lynn rolled her eyes hard, making me laugh.
It was easier to laugh these days. Therapy helped with that, helped me leave that mattress and the dungeon in the past. It broke free in my sleep sometimes, and stole moments when Devil and I were together, but I could breathe again without smelling the awful stink of that place on every inhale.
“You wanna talk sappy shit, Jessia?” Lynn said with a wicked smirk. “Let’s talk about that massive tattoo Devil got last week.”
My steps practically bounced, and I grinned.
Devil’s chest was now covered in a huge portrait of an angel with her wings stretched.
The smile fell from my face in slow motion when we neared the door to Prodigy’s office and I saw him standing outside, shaking hands with a tall, intense man.
Handsome in a rangy way, he was dressed in leather, but the way he held himself was all military officer.
The sight of him gave me a reaction so visceral that I flinched back.
I didn’t think; I grabbed Lynn before he could spot us and hurried into the room to our left. This office must have belonged to Guardian because his scent hung stale in the air, but I’d never seen him use it.
“What the fuck?” Lynn demanded, surprise brightening her eyes when I hissed at her to shh, quickly closing the door.
“That man,” I breathed, rapidly running out of air as my chest closed, compressing my lungs. “The one with Prodigy.”
“You know him?” she demanded, suddenly in front of me, her hand on my elbow in instant support.
I jerked my head up and down. Peeled the tongue from the roof of my dry mouth and said, “He’s my husband. But I—I don’t want to be married to him anymore. He’s a bad person. He’s—”
“An abusive piece of shit?” Lynn guessed when I couldn’t finish.
I nodded. “He hurt me for years,” was all I managed to get out before she tore away from me and burst from the room, slamming the door hard behind herself. I pressed my ear to the wood, my heart crashing against my ribcage as Lynn’s voice echoed down the hall.
“Hey! Asshole.”
Fear made every muscle in my body tighten, and I grabbed the door handle to race after her, braced for her cry as he struck her, but instead it was Pierce who roared in pain.
“Lynn, what the fuck?” Prodigy demanded. “Give me that.” A knife, I presumed. Lynn always had a knife.
I cracked the door open and dared to peer out to see Prodigy kneeling beside Pierce where he’d fallen to the floor.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Lynn drawled. “This piece of shit is Jessia’s abusive ex-husband.”
Prodigy straightened, leaving Pierce on the ground. “Is that so?” When Pierce tried to get up, Prodigy’s boot met his chest and shoved him back to the floor, blood spreading across the carpet. We should really switch to laminate; it was much easier to clean.
With Prodigy keeping him down, I was brave enough to come out of the room, though I didn’t get any closer to Pierce, my fear immediate and automatic. My hands shook, but I had friends now, dangerous, killer friends who could make people disappear.
“Are you alright?” Prodigy asked, scanning me from head to toe in a quick sweep.
I nodded because he wasn’t really asking if I was okay; he meant, was I injured. “Don’t—don’t let him close to me.”
Prodigy’s jaw clenched at whatever I betrayed in my voice, and he gave me a grim nod. “You want me to let Tybalt deal with him?” he asked, holding my gaze. Not a single flicker of judgement crossed his face when I nodded.
“What’s going on?”
My attention shot beyond Prodigy and Lynn, and relief made my knees weak when I saw Devil striding towards us.
I’d been so afraid that I hadn’t felt the bond spill with protective rage, but I beheld it now on his face as he looked from me to Lynn to the bleeding knife in Prodigy’s hand, and finally to Pierce as he tried to crawl away.
But Lynn had stabbed him too deeply, or in a place that rendered him useless with pain, and he couldn’t get up.
I didn’t know how Devil knew, but he took one look at my cruel husband and knew exactly who he was. The cold, endless rage I remembered from the Alpha’s Bark filled his face and the bond froze, ripples of chill reaching me.
“I’ll handle this.” He grabbed Pierce by the back of his jacket and hauled him to his feet.
“Fil,” I breathed, staggering forward a step, air filling my lungs when he met my eyes. “Can you—I don’t want to see him again. Ever.”
“Done.” He glanced at Prodigy who nodded, his arms crossed over his chest and a grim look on his face. “Lynn, you stay with Jessia. Try not to stab anyone else.”
“No promises.” She held out her hand and with a sigh, he returned her knife.
“Clean it,” he ordered. “Get Cobra to show you how.”
“I know how to clean a knife,” she scoffed, crossing the hall to grab my wrist, her fingers as gentle as I’d ever known them. “Let’s find something to eat. Something tells me Devil’s gonna be a while.”
I should have felt guilty for asking my mate to kill Pierce, but instead a sick relief spilled through me, taking a weight off my shoulders.
“How’s it feel being a widow?” Lynn asked, watching me.
“Good,” I said with a tentative smile. “Really damn good.”