Dietrich
“What the fuck have you done to her?” The scream cuts through the blessed silence, Hannah sleeping under me warming my cock and the next thing I know I take a fist to the side of my jaw. “Get the fuck off my sister!”
Brigid tries to come at me again while I’m tugging my boxers back into place. She’s got bruises on her face, a cut bottom lip and a scratched jaw. Put that together with the bruises on Hannah.
The sound of the baby crying reminds me I’m a father now. A real father.
I wanted to go see Ruthie as soon as we came up for air, but Hannah said if we wake her, she will be up the rest of the night and she needed her Daddy for a few hours to make her feel safe. She was so soft around my cock, we hung onto each other and fell into a hard sleep.
I get my underwear situation sorted just in time to deflect Brigid’s next blow while backing across the room.
“You better run! Run right back to Zeneli and tell him I’m coming for him. You hurt my sister, you die.” She turns to Hannah. “What the hell did he do to you? Can you stand?”
“What about Zeneli?” I ask, cutting through the hysterics as I get my still half hard johnson under cover. “How do you know that name?”
She falls silent, glaring in confusion as her tongue plays with her top lip.
It’s Hannah who speaks. “Brigid, it’s Dietrich.”
“What?” Brigid turns away and stares at her. “What’s Dietrich?”
“Him.” She points at me. “He’s Dietrich.”
“No fucking way. That’s not…” She turns my way and glares, then her eyes go wide as she shakes her head. “Dietrich? As in, Hawk??”
I nod. “Yes, Hawk, Dietrich. I think you even called me Eagle once. I had an accident, lost my memory and my face, got a new one but I’m back now, tell me what’s happened with Zeneli.” I glance from one to the other. “Somebody start fucking talking.”
Brigid drops onto a chair, shaking her head.
“We borrowed money. There’s this guy, someone Greg knew.
He said he had a boss, someone named Zeneli, and he loaned us what we needed.
Just a little. But then we couldn’t pay it back and there was interest and…
He said I could work it off in other ways.
” She meets my eyes. “That’s why I thought you raped Hannah.
I thought it was to teach me a lesson. Either I do it or she does… ”
I growl low in my throat. “Zeneli.”
“We had no choice,” Hannah says, pulling on a pink robe, covering her leaking tits as the baby cries louder. “Don’t do anything. Zeneli is a really bad guy. Like level ten.”
“I know Zeneli.”
Zeneli threatened the mother of my child. My wife, as soon as I get that deal in place. And he harmed my sister-in-law.
Fucking dead man.
“I’ll be back. Get packed.”
***
As I walk back in through the door, I rub my knuckles. They’re battered and bruised. Painful. They’ll take a while to heal, but I like the pain. The pain reminds me that the world is a little better now than it was a few hours ago.
The sun is coming up as I walk into the kitchen and find it empty. I drop my bloodstained pistol on the table, grab a glass and fill it with water from the refrigerator, then sit and take a welcome sip.
There’s a creak from behind me, but I don’t turn as I speak. “It’s done.”
I feel Hannah’s arms around me, and wince a little at the pain in my shoulder.
The bullet was in and out. Clean. But it’s going to take a few weeks to heal.
I reach up and back, and pull her into my arms. The only thing I feel is love. I need her. I want her. Our lips press against each other and she frowns when she sees the blood and the bullet hole in my t-shirt.
“Zeneli will never touch anyone again,” I tell her. “And animal control will be taking care of a white tiger.”
I shake my head, remembering how the stunning creature was chained to a wall behind a fucking gold throne chair.
“I have a house in the Caymans. We can start over. You, me and Ruthie.”
As I think about the baby, the ache in my chest that I haven’t seen her yet becomes unbearable, but I had to make sure things were safe for all of us.
I’m desperate for that first glimpse, for that first touch. My child. Something I never thought I’d have.
“I can’t start over,” Hannah says, frowning. “What about Brigid? She’s helped raise Ruthie. She’s as much a mom to our daughter as I am. I can’t leave her here and disappear off into the sunset. I don’t want to. I love her. Where will she—”
I press my finger against her lips, silencing her words to a mumble. “Brigid too,” I tell her. “Of course, Brigid too. She comes with us.”
“No. She’s a good actress. Way better than I ever was. She’s getting roles, maybe not much at the moment but she is. I can’t ask her to leave her dreams behind.”
“I want to go.”
I hear the voice from behind me, and turn, pain shooting up into my neck but I’m frozen in silence.
Brigid is standing there. With my daughter cradled in her arms, giving me a little smile.
“You took care of him?” she asks and I nod.
“Him and a few more. They’ll be sorting out the bodies for a while.”
“I want to go,” she repeats. “You said you loved Dietrich. You said he was the father and the man you never knew you wanted. You have to go, and I’m going to go with you.”
I nod as she hands me my daughter for the first time, and I take her into my arms, cradling her and Hannah at the same time.
Hannah stares at her sister as my eyes start to burn and my heart inflates against my chest wall. “What about acting?”
“What about it? I only did that for you and Dad. I had this idea that I could take care of everyone, take care of you both, if I got famous. I don’t even like it most days.
I don’t like being the center of attention, you know that, I’d rather just be…
I don’t know… decorating people’s houses. With you.”
“You sure?” Hannah asks, her eyes returning to mine as I start to cry, holding Ruthie like she’s going to break into a million pieces any second.
“I hate Las Vegas,” she scoffs.
“Me too,” Hannah says. “I’ve hated this place ever since the moment we moved here.”
I hear them talking but there’s a fucking miracle in my arms. I’m shaking as I kiss our daughter on her soft head, inhaling the worlds sweetest scent.
“She’s beautiful. Like her mother.” Then I kiss Hannah. And I reach out and take Brigid’s hand in mine, not bothering to fight off the tears. “Let’s go. The plane’s waiting.”
Wait. I turn to Hannah, fear tightening around my torso.
“You have a car seat right? She has to have a car seat…”
***
The plane is already prepped and ready to go when we get there, but as we step out of the car Hannah makes a gagging sound, holding Ruthie against her chest.
“What’s he doing here?” She glances at me, and I don’t bother to fight off the smile.
“This is Jeremy’s plane,” I tell her, then turn to him. “Come to see us off?”
He chuckles, but his eyes are on Brigid. “Something like that. But now that I think about it, I could use a break away from my fucking mother. Cayman is calling. You got room for one more?”
“Yes,” Brigid answers before any of us can say a thing. I turn her way and see the blush rise on her cheeks as she mumbles the next words. “I mean, it’s your plane.”
Hannah shakes her head. “No way. No. I’d rather walk.”
I start to laugh at that, and Jeremy tears his eyes from Brigid long enough to speak to me. “Tell her, man. She’s going to hate me for the rest of her life if you don’t.”
“Fine,” I say, even though I was enjoying the moment.
“Jeremy was my inside man on that job. Let’s just say, I got him out of a tight spot with some old friends of mine.
Something money couldn’t fix. He owed me and when I put together he was Margaret’s son, I called in a few favors.
Then one more when I needed a private plane.
” Hannah’s staring at me, then Jeremy, as I finish.
“He also flew the drone into our room on my request. Forced proximity can be an intoxicating aphrodisiac. Not that we needed one. But, I like stacking the deck in my favor.”
“That was you?” She glares at him.
Jeremy nods. “You’re welcome, by the way. And when this guy called me out of the blue a month ago, I got him sorted out with a new ID, flights where he needed and a bit of spending money to get him going.”
“You kissed my fingers,” she says, still sounding disgusted.
“Yeah, what can I say? I do play a good asshole. Shall we get this bird in the air?” He glances at Brigid as he says it, and I hear her squeak, but she doesn’t say any words.
I put my arm around Hannah’s shoulders and pull her in close. “Jeremy’s a good guy, but if he tried to kiss you again, I would have taken him out.”
“My big strong Daddy,” Hannah says as Ruthie looks up, and I let her grab my finger and as I guide my family to the plane, tears burning down my cheeks.
I’ve never been more sure of a bet in my life. This is my final play and I’ve hit the jackpot.