Chapter 13
Tate
M y fury builds deeper as I storm back into the office suite, my eyes flowing over everyone here, which includes several more of the Relentless Keepers. Law meets my gaze, the black eye he’s sporting courtesy of me, dealt before he could even question why I was going after him.
He came back into the clubhouse hours after Everly left for the hearing, alone, claiming he never texted Everly anything. I let my fist fly for calling my girl a liar and it took Spawn and Victors to keep me from going at him again when he pushed back, asking what the hell had gotten into me. It was only when Cash said he’d seen the message from him, that we began to piece things together—realized that it’d been a trap, and when we got to the courthouse, finding my car there with no Everly in sight, the man just clasped my shoulder, and made a call.
Our club isn’t high-tech. We figure the less of a computer trail there is, the less the feds can follow. We use minimal computer programs for our legit businesses and everything else for the club is done on paper, which is why Cash’s position is so important. The Keepers have a bigger pool to choose from when it comes to members, since the city’s about thirty times the size of our town.
Their cyber tech, a former military tracker, a couple of their marksmen, and a couple of their biggest beaters all were headed through the gate just before ten that night, with the assurance from their president that if we needed more bodies, he’d send them. It was three in the morning before their tech got into the city’s files. Apparently they had better protection than most companies he attempted to hack to test their vulnerabilities, which just proved how corrupt they all were. If Fortune 500 companies were easier to crack, with all of their potential intellectual property, than a small city commission…they were definitely hiding something.
The Keeper’s tracker Stealth had covered all of the possible paths Everly could have taken from the car to the courthouse doors, which wasn’t a lot, but he marked them and which had cameras. Not that it mattered because when Crypto was finally into the server, all of the camera files for the entire day were wiped. Even worse, there was a bomb threat that was called into the courthouse earlier in the day that the police of course kept under wraps, but it’d apparently been searched and deemed a hoax, but all afternoon proceedings were rescheduled. Which meant no one around to see it happen.
Crypto has spent the last day and a half trying to get into private cameras to find anything concrete, but I already know who has her. It’s just where he’s keeping her that I’m uncertain of.
“I get it, man,” Stealth says holding up a hand to keep me from blasting them for the nothingness that we have, “she’s your woman and she’s missing. I’d be wound up just as tight, especially if I knew who was responsible for it, but if you go off half-cocked storming the mayoral residence and she’s not there…you’re going to have to guns coming at you from all directions.”
“It’s a good sign that she hasn’t been found yet,” Law adds making my brow rise at that statement.
“I think Law means it’s a good sign that she hasn’t been found by some random party yet,” Spawn says, backing me up a bit more from the other man. “It means she’s not dead. They would want her found before the court case is settled because if she’s dead, it should go away.”
“Which Everly would know,” Law states. “After getting to know your girl this past month, going over everything law related on it with her, she must have found a way to hold them off.”
“How?” I growl pacing the space wanting to pull my hair out because my girl isn’t in my arms. She isn’t safe under my roof, and I swear, I’ll kill the bastard if he touches one hair on her head. I’ll kill the entire damn police force and the city council and the judges and whoever the hell else I have to in order to get her back, get our baby she’s growing back.
“However, she thinks will works best. I’d wager good money that she threatened them with the language of the grandparents’ will. She’d know if she simply promised to sign over the company, that it wouldn’t ensure her safety once that paper’s handed over. But she’s learned that in law, it’s all in the way it’s written. The will says the company is to go to Adam Jackson’s eldest blood child.”
“Which would be Paul if they kill Everly,” I snap back at Law.
“No, it wouldn’t,” he says with a half-smile sending my brow upwards once more. “Everly will always be the eldest blood child because the will does not specify that the eldest child has to be living at the time of inheritance. In the same manner that her mother’s estate is suing for the child support to get the DNA results, Everly’s estate could sue for the inheritance. Which yes, doesn’t negate that they could kill her and attempt to fight it, claiming it’s implied to mean living child, but we could still wrap them up in court for a long time fighting over it, and they’d know it.”
“I still don’t see how that keeps her safe,” I grumble.
“I do,” Cash says. “If Everly had a will herself, leaving her estate which could include the company to someone else, especially someone she’s involved with that has a large pile of cash to continue the fight in the courts…”
“It could put us right back on even footing. We would have claim based on Everly being his oldest child and it should be given to her estate, while they’d just claim the eldest living child should get it,” I state.
“Exactly, and since law is left up to interpretation, it’s a fifty-fifty shot. We have the upper hand though based on the fact the twins aren’t even seventeen yet which means they’re not even legally eligible to inherit, whereas Everly is and we’ve already filed an appeal on the initial court ruling of insufficient evidence to her claim, citing the child support case’s pending DNA results as grounds to reopen the claim. They cannot deny the appeal until the child support case is complete,” Law offers and that calms the worst of the raging beast, but the nagging is still pounding at the door.
“Alright, but even if she did threaten them with it, how does that keep her alive longer?” I ask, dreading the response.
“Because if they really are worried that she has a will that leaves everything to you, the only way to block it, would be to have a new will supersede it. She’s signed enough forms for me to have to file whatever we need, and we could easily add the signature page to a forged will and I’m sure she knows that. So, they would have to get someone in to draw up a will of their own and have her sign it. That would take time to get all of the background information to align properly so it would seem like it came from her,” Law states. “We have her real signature. They would have to force one out of her or have someone forge it, which we could then question, claim it to be a forgery which would mean our will would stand.”
“Alright, but how does that get us any closer to finding where they have her before they do something to her?” I ask the group.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t, brother. I’m sorry,” Meyer says shaking his head. “Unless we can get our hands on the mayor and beat it out of him, our only option is to keep boots out on the ground looing in every nook and cranny to figure out where they’ve stashed her.”
“And the mayor hasn’t been seen since the bomb threat. They claimed he was in meetings all day, but no one knows where,” Crypto adds. “He’s not using his city issued cell phone, and his personal one appears to be turned off.”
“Is there anyone else that might know that we could grab up?” the Keeper’s Rambo asks, and I run my hand down my face knowing there’s only one person he’s likely to turn to for this.
“Not anyone that’d be easy to get,” Spawn says, and I nod in agreement.
“We can get to anyone,” the Keeper’s Knuckles replies with a chuckle.
“In this case, it’s the chief of police,” I state, and Law gives a little nod at their surprised expressions. “Taking him out would be easy, snatching him up, not so much. He’s never alone and in town, it’d be way too noticeable, and getting him out of town…regrettably, he’s not that stupid.”
“Actually, I might have a way to get him out of town. The only catch is, he’s not likely to be alone,” Cash says, pulling all eyes his way and I give him a hard stare that has him wincing a hint. “When Everly and I started talking, getting to know each other, she let something slip to me about the chief of police she’s been sitting on for about five years.”
“What? Why wouldn’t she tell me about it?” I question, my neck tightening as I try to remain still and not lunge at him for knowing anything about my girl I don’t.
“She didn’t tell me about it to have something done with the information, more to warn me to be careful, at least at first,” Cash says, and that doesn’t make me any happier to hear.
“Why would she warn you to be careful and no one else?” Law asks him, his frown similar to mine but I know it’s coming from a different place than mine towards him.
“Because other than Toombs who doesn’t use anything electronic and Pinky who only hooks up with guys from the city, I’m the only other one around the club that’s gay,” Cash answers, but it only brings me more question until Cash turns his laptop around and shows us missing photos of six young men. “All of these guys went missing after mentioning to friends or family that they were going to go out on a date with someone they met online. When they never came home, their families and the police tried to track down the messages, but they were all erased. Vanished into thin air other than a couple of them who’d screenshotted parts of the conversation and messaged them to friends, talking about it. Both of them were talking to someone with the same screenname. Of course, it stopped being used when the missing person’s report on the second of them came out asking anyone that knew of the online handle to come forward to the police.”
“You think Thatcher is involved with this…or Everly does?” I ask.
“She knows he is. When her bitch of a half-sister took that photo and sent to out to everyone, Everly got in trouble for it. They claimed she told them to take it, which is complete bullshit. She was fourteen for god’s sake,” Cash fumes, and I completely agree with his rage over the incident. “The school called the police, and they took her into the station. Tried to get them to charge her with lewd indecency or some bullshit. The ADA wouldn’t allow them to put her in a cell because it was shown that she was never in possession of the photo, so they couldn’t claim she was the one trying to distribute child sexual abuse materials. While the arguments were going on though, Everly was in the chief’s office, and she did what a lot of fourteen year olds would do.”
“She snooped through his shit,” Law says and Cash nods.
“She found photos of these six. Photos that no fourteen year old should ever find,” he adds, and I groan, praying I’m not right.
“They were sex photos, weren’t they? The chief and his friends doing awful things to men in them, I’d guess,” I question.
“I’m sure she wishes that’s all they were, but no. She said the photos were of him and several of his friends, different ones with different men, but the chief was in all of them. They were holding up the men’s dismembered heads like it was a deer instead of a human,” Cash says, and I see Victors barely catch himself in time before he upchucks everywhere. One of the Keeper’s isn’t quite as lucky, but he thankfully makes it into the hallway before it comes out.
“And all of these men were gay?” Law questions, his voice dark and steely, matching the fury pounding through me that my girl, my little girl had to see something that vile when she was still a child. It makes me thankful that I can be there for her, remove the dark stains that were her childhood and give her happy memories to replace it when we’re in our playroom and I swear to god, I’m going to erase every last one of them so she only knows that bliss she finds in there with her daddy.
“Yeah, she knew I sometimes met guys online, and she wanted me to know to be extra careful with anyone that might claim to be from around here, because it could be the chief. We were already discussing as a club what to do about the mayor and the police, and we figured if the chief of police was discovered to be a serial killer, the Governor would have to send someone else in to deal with the entire department. Which would get them off our backs and let us deal with the mayor separately,” Cash continues. “So, I got a separate phone, set up a fake account, used photoshopped pictures so he wouldn’t possibly recognize me, and found his account he’s currently using. The shit he writes…he’s either got someone writing it for him or he’s the biggest closet-case piece of garbage I’ve ever met.”
“You’ve been communicating with him this whole time?” I ask and he nods. “Since Everly was taken?”
“Yeah, I figured he was in on it and if there was any time to try and draw him out, it was now,” Cash answers. “He’s hinted at a meet up several times, most of them I’ve play off, but he asked the night before Everly was taken and I hadn’t responded yet. I wrote back to him last night that I might be able to make it this weekend if he was still interested. He suggested tonight almost immediately but I’ve not given the final yes to get a place and time, but I can if it’ll get us closer to getting Everly back.”
“Where he’ll be planning to do the same thing to you with his buddies as the others. They just won’t know that we’re there as well, and we can counter their plan to jump you,” I state, and he nods.
“No,” Law says, pulling Cash’s attention back to him and off me.
“What?” Cash questions.
“I said no. You’re not doing it. It’s too dangerous,” Law snaps, his hand slamming down on the desk surprising the other Keepers in the room it seems with the outburst.
“He’s an adult and a member of this club, it’s his decision,” I warn the other man.
“If it was Everly you’d be saying the same damn thing,” Law fumes, and I drop my eyes, doing my best to keep the smile off my face. Seems he’s finally made up his mind about making Cash his rather than merely playing with his feelings still.
“It has to be me,” Cash says calmly, moving closer to him, and Law’s hand snakes out, grabbing onto the back of his neck, holding him tight. “There’s no way they’re going to show themselves unless they see me. He may not know the face entirely, but the photos showed enough of my body that no one else will be able to go in instead. Anyone that’s even close to my size and build has way too many tattoos. He’d sense it’s a setup and bail.”
“What’s to say he doesn’t see you, recognize you, sense it’s a setup, shoots you and still bails?” Law returns, as the others wisely keep their mouths shut.
“Because very few people around town know I’m part of the club to start. Yeah, I ride a bike, but I rarely wear a leather jacket or even my cut when I go into town. When I do wear them on rides, I have a full head helmet on, and no one ever sees my face. Even if he does recognize me and puts me together with the club, he’s likely to be even more anxious to come after me, because he’s expecting a horny gay boy to show up wanting to get fucked. He has no idea I know it’s him, know what he does because he doesn’t show his face online. Not once in any of the photos does he show his face and since the phone is a burner, it’s not tied to me or the club. Even if he tried to trace it, the closest he’d get is to the local tower nearest to the town’s single gay bar,” Cash says, holding Law’s gaze until the man pulls him in closer and kisses him the way we’ve been expecting since day one.
“Come on brother, we’ve got shit to get mapped out if we’re going to do this tonight,” Knuckles says breaking them apart finally.
“You and I are going to have a conversation when we’re back here about keeping things from me, especially when they involve talking to other men,” Law warns him before turning towards Knuckles. “You bring any of those undershirts we ripped off?”
“The bullet proof ones? Yeah I think we’ve got a couple in with the rest of the equipment,” Knuckles states.
“Get him one.”
“They’d spot one a mile away,” Cash says shaking his head.
“Not these. They’re the thinnest ones we’ve ever seen, they have an extremely thin plate, and the Kevlar is woven into the material as well. It may not completely stop a bullet, but it’ll keep you alive and they’re only noticeable up close. Very close,” Rambo adds and while they head off to get things together, Cash sends the message to Thatcher about the meet.
I hate having to wait for a response and the minutes tick past, my worry about what they’re doing to Everly growing with each passing one. I almost jump when the phone finally goes off and Cash shows me the message with the time and place, scheduled for barely two hours from now. The location is deep in the woods outside of town, but it’ll only take thirty minutes to get there. That gives us around an hour to get the snipers in place. The rest of us will have to come in behind them.
We head out, parking bikes and the trucks far enough away on the other side from where the meet is that they won’t be seen. Forty minutes before the meet time, we get word from the snipers where the four men are lying in wait, and I send out our own guys to make their way through the woods so they can come up on their blinds. They won’t draw closer until Cash heads in on his bike so the engine will cover their footsteps, and we send Stealth back to cover Thatcher. We need him alive, at least for now, and if I got my hands on him, I can’t guarantee I’d stop myself from doing him in.
I know Law is likely to be in the same boat, and I hold him back from joining the others with a firm shake of the head. “No, you’re too emotionally attached to this. So am I. You’d shoot first if he laid a hand on Cash before we got him subdued and I can’t let that happen. Not yet.”
“I get first shot at him once we have news on Everly,” Law states and I nod, passing the information along to the others to remind them to hit first, shoot later, when it came to Thatcher.
We stay with the truck, and don’t approach until Cash pulls his bike in, leaving the engine revving for an extra minute to let everyone get closer. He’s on an open mic and we hear everything as he approaches Thatcher. He stops short when he recognizes the chief of police but it takes him longer to recognize Cash, and before he gets within five feet, Stealth has him in a headlock, which brings his buddies out to help, but each one is picked off one-by-one until only Thatcher is left alive.
Law and I get out of the truck, and I’m jealous as hell seeing him able to kiss Cash while I’m still missing Everly, but it won’t be for long.
“What the fuck is this?” Thatcher demands as Knuckles, Rambo and Stealth have him on his knees.
“Thought you were going to do some gay bashing, were you?” I question, dumping out the bag with all of the weapons they brought, and I pick up a baseball bat, testing it’s heft with a low swing towards the bastard. I pull it back right before it’d hit him in the gut, enjoying the wince it pulls from him. “Yeah, we were onto you. Set you up and you completely missed it. I guess that’s because serial killers on the hunt can’t think of anything else. Whereas a guy like me that might have more than three kills to his name, doesn’t go hunting for a kill, only handles a problem when it arises and right now…we’ve got a hell of a problem.”
“Fuck you,” Thatcher spits at me and this time, I don’t pull the hit, but rather than the gut, I land it right to the dick and if there weren’t three keeping him upright, he’d be sprawled out moaning like a little bitch.
“No thanks, I don’t get hard for men, and the ones that do, are too discriminatory to touch you,” I return, tapping my free hand with the bat his eyes can’t leave as they finally open. “Now, you’re still breathing because you’ve got something I want, but I can change that real quick if you’d like. Or maybe not so quick. See, I don’t mind doing the torturing when the receiver is someone that’s hurt my little girl and you…you’ve done that on your own, but this time…you helped that piece of shit grab her and now, you’re going to tell me where she is, or I’m going to make you beg me to just kill you. And if you’re wondering what that might entail, how about a little show and tell of my own. You like pictures I’ve heard, well how about this one,” I state, taking the burner phone that Meyer used to document the cops’ scene for some of the others in the club that weren’t buying the story.
“This one,” I say, showing him a picture of the one with the poker through his head. “He tried to crack Everly’s skull open with his baton, so I just returned the favor. After making him rape his partner with it, since that’s what they were going to do with my girl before I found them. And since you seem to have such a fascination with gay sex,” I add, flipping to the next photo showing him the aftermath of the other bastard, “if you don’t start talking, I’m going shove this bat so far up your ass, you’ll feel it in your throat as you die from internal bleeding.”
“You think I’m scared of you? Of fuckheads like you?” Thatcher crowed, laughing it off. “Try your best. You’re never going to find her body. Yeah…she’s already dead,” he chuckles, and Law barely catches my arm before I launch the bat directly at his head.
“He’s lying, he’d rather die than subject himself to the torture. He can’t take it,” Law says as he pulls me aside. “Especially not when it’s sexually threatening.”
“String him up,” I tell the others, waiting until they have him on his feet to add, “naked and hogtied.”
He thrashes and shoves trying to get away but he’s vastly outnumbered and within minutes, he’s hanging by his arms and legs, shouting his head off. “For fuck’s sake, no one’s going to hear you. Wasn’t that the point of bringing them out here? So, no one could hear you kill them. They’d never find their bodies, so stop your fucking blubbering and act like a man, not damn coward.”
“Fuck you. Only a gay-wad would be able to fuck that fat, ugly…” His words stop as I slam the baseball bat against his side, the left to avoid rupturing his liver and low enough to not get close to the spleen.
“That’s my little girl you’re talking shit about. Keep it up and we’ll invite the entire crowd from Rusty’s out here to take turns on the closeted police chief because that’s what he really likes,” I warn, my voice deadly and the bastard gulps, his breathing racing and I know Law’s right. The only way to get him to talk is to do the one thing he fears most.
I turn back to the items from the bag and find a long handled dildo as well as a second more rubbery one that’s double-ended. Law holds his hand out for the one on the stick and in front of the chief’s face, pulls out his dick and comes on it, coating it as he puts his dick away and moves towards the man with a glittery fury in his eyes.
He holds up the dildo to his face, and when he tries to swing away from it, Law smacks him right across the mouth. “That’s gay cum right there. Don’t it taste good?”
Thatcher was already spitting but he starts to heave, and I move over, grabbing hold of his hair pulling his head up holding onto the rubber dildo as Law moves behind him. He smacks his ass with the stick rubbing it between his cheeks and I give him one chance. “Where. Is. Everly?”
“Fuck you!” Thatcher shouts and I shove the dildo into his mouth while Law shoves the other up his ass, making him jerk and grunt trying to get away from both ends.
“Look at you, getting fuck with gay cum, by a gay man,” Law crows before looking to Knuckles and adds, “Get me a glove. Let’s see if he’s a grower.”
The man pulls out a latex glove, letting Thatcher see it and he jerks even more, and I pull the dildo out of his mouth asking again. “Where. Is. Everly?”
He doesn’t answer and I shove the thing back in his mouth just as Law jerks on his cock hard with the gloved hand, and I grab up the knife pressing it into the flesh enough to break the skin just above his dick and run it up his body, slashing over his nipples on either side before looking back at his face, removing the dildo. “Last chance before you quickly become the town dumpster,” I warn.
“I’m sure there’d be someone in the crowd that would just love to suck your cock, while the others are taking turns on your mouth and ass,” Law threatens as he twists his cock that’s now hard despite the man’s best attempts to stop it.
“Hell, they’d take him from all side. One cock in the ass, one in his mouth and another would come up under him and fuck their asses with his cock,” Knuckles suggests and Thatcher shouts curses to the moon as Law shoves the dildo into his ass further, shooting a stream of cum onto the ground as he wrings it from his cock.
“Yup, they’d do that with their asses them make him eat it,” Law says, and I hold up the knife for Thatcher to see.
“Which is it going to be? You tell me where Everly is, and I end you right here with this knife. You keep trying to act all tough and we’ll let every last man in town that wants to get their pound of your flesh have it,” I state, and Law gives his cock a jerk, bringing the answer to his lips.
“They’re at the old Jackson manor. She’s in the basement,” Thatcher say, and I nod, dropping the knife making him yell. “You said you would end it!”
“Once I know you’re telling the truth we will. Until then, put him the back of the truck and gag him,” I tell the group, and they back the truck into the clearing and toss him none too gently into it. Law heads to Cash’s bike with him, and Cash holds onto him as they tear out after us, heading towards the old manor house to see if they’re really there.
It’s thankfully just outside city limits on a private stretch of road, and we pull in unseen using the backroad that runs up around the old barn on the property. There are lights blazing when we pull up, but there’s no way to see into the basement from outside the house. Stealth moves up to the front door first, motioning us to follow and nothing is keeping me out of that house. If Everly is in there, I’m the one finding and saving her.
Thatcher is too tied up to get free, but we leave one of the snipers with him just in case someone comes knocking. The rest of us move into the house when the door is unlocked. Some shit reality show is blaring on the TV, but no one is in the room watching it, and the guys spread out, checking all of the rooms as we look for the basement.
Stealth gives a whistle, nodding towards an open door and I move up behind him, Law and Cash filling in behind me, and the others cover us as Stealth counts down with his fingers from three. At one, we rush, guns drawn down the steps, as my heart pounds.
“What the fuck?” Stealth lets fly and half a second later, I see why there’s amusement in his tone, but my attention is entirely on the pretty girl sitting on a chair amongst the carnage.
“Everly!” I shout, moving quickly to her side as the others flood the basement, eyes moving from one dead body to the next and I cup her face, taking note of the knife in her hand. “Thank god, oh thank god, baby girl.”
“No, thank daddy,” she returns, lifting her face to mine and I kiss her, hard and fierce before looking the rest of her over as Law heads to our side.
“Self-defense I assume,” he says kneeling next to her leg where the shackle is locked around her ankle.
“Paul thought he could rape me. Melissa attacked me when she saw him dead. Knocked me down. Knocked the wind out of me and was on top of me, trying to hit me. Diane came down and saw them, came at me like she was going to kill me. Adam came down after that. He was about to choke me. I was just protecting my baby,” Everly says drawing confused looks our way.
“My fierce little warrior mama, keeping both my babies safe,” I agree as Stealth hands bolt cutters over to Law after checking Adam for a key. “I’m sorry it took so long, baby girl, but daddy’s going to make sure nothing happens to you ever again. Nothing will touch you over this.”
“Why don’t you wipe the prints from the knife and use the chief’s on it instead. We’ll torch this place, it’ll cover up the evidence on the bodies, but we can drop the knife outside. Make it seem like he ran, trying to cover up his tracks, assuming that Jackson was going to lose the company which would mean him being ousted, and his secret pastime would be revealed. The Jacksons knew about it, so he came and killed all of them before disappearing,” Stealth suggests, and it sounds like a plan to me. “There’s a little inlet next to the porch. The knife’s just the size to fit between the lattices. It’ll make it look like he dropped it on his way out, tried to grab it, but with the house on fire, he just couldn’t take the time.”
“No one will ever find what’s left of him, we’ll make sure of that,” Knuckles says, cracking his and I nod in agreement letting them take the knife as I carry my girl away from the mess.
“I love you, baby girl. So much. So, so much,” I whisper to her, my lips never leaving her face as we reach the trucks. Her eyes widen when she sees Thatcher and she lets out a little gasp. My gaze follows hers, but it lands on a birthmark and not the dildo still sticking out of his ass.
“No wonder the twins were so crazy. Their real father’s a serial killer,” Everly says, gasping again when Thatcher’s head turns, showing he’s still alive—for the moment at least.
“What?” I ask as Law and Cash draw up next to us. Knuckles and Rambo pull Thatcher’s arms up, making him grip the knife handle to put his prints on it.
“Melissa and Paul…they were never his blood. She has the same birthmark, same spot. My mother got the doctor to use his sperm instead of Adam’s on the twins,” Everly states and Thatcher jerks trying to get free. “I guess it’s only fair to tell you since you killed my mother. I killed them when the attacked me, so I’d say I win.”
“You did, baby girl, you did,” I assure her, watching as Stealth moved back to the porch and slid the knife where it would be seen but not easily reached, while the other surrounded Thatcher. “Anything you want to do before we go home? It’ll be the last time you ever see him. His body will be lost just like all those guys he’s killed.”
“Put me down, daddy,” she says, and I do, keeping an arm around her to ensure she’s steady, and she reaches for the metal arm that goes with a car jack, while the guys move aside so she can have free aim. She rears is back, swinging it hard and we all wince when she lands it straight against his balls. His scream is heard even through the gag, and she hands the item over to Law who’s smirking. “That’s for trying to convince them to kill me and make it look like I committed suicide when I was fourteen. Hell’s too good of a place for you. You should be boiled alive in lava over and over for the rest of time.”
“Ooh, good idea, honey,” Law says, kissing her temple and Cash gives her a tight hug as well before I pull her back to me, needing her in my arms for the rest of the night at minimum.
“Let’s go home, baby girl. Daddy needs to take care of his little girl, hold her close.” Her eyes meet mine and she nods, letting me swing her up into my arms and head to the other truck. I hold her on my lap the entire time, a hand wrapped around her waist, holding onto her hip, while the other I use to hold onto her head, letting my heart finally ease back to a normal state, as my face presses against hers. My tightness in my chest loosens and I can breathe again, even more than ever with the knowledge that the two biggest threats to my girl are now gone. She’s safe but even more than that—she’s free of them entirely.
“I love you, daddy. Thank you for coming to get me,” she whispers, and I smile, kissing her temple as I hold her even tighter.
“I love you too, baby girl. Thank you for being my strong little warrior. Daddy knows it wasn’t easy, but I’m so proud of you, baby. So fucking proud that you’re mine. That you let daddy teach you how to be safe. I will never let anyone put you in a position where you have to do that again. Daddy’s never letting you out of his sight,” I add, shaking at the horror of the simple thought.
“Then how will daddy’s little girl set up a surprise playtime for her daddy? Where he can have total control over his little girl. Make her do all sorts of dirty things. Make her hurt and enjoy it if daddy’s always with her?” she counters and I groan, my lips pressing kisses to her eyes and nose until I finally reach her lips, devouring her incredibleness.
“Alright, daddy’s never letting you off the property without him ever again,” I concede and her smile before I kiss it away, is as beautiful as she is—entirely in other words.