Chapter 19
The wind whipped my hair around my face as I stared out over the canyon below. The view was stunning, but in my current state of anxiety I had no room to appreciate it.
When Sin had informed Pres and Dacre that I wasn’t afraid to get on the back of a bike after my ride with Boston, the three of them had insisted on taking me out together for a ride to take my mind off the threat from my father.
I hadn’t seen Boston for the past week. The fear was back now that my father had implied that Boston had been sent here on his command, and I had no idea if I could trust him.
“If your father’s back,” Dacre said, leaning against his motorbike and taking a bite of the apple in his hand. “Surely that means it’s him who’s been attacking you.”
While his demeanour was casual, I knew on the inside he was reeling from the letter, same as I was. Same as we all were.
Pres screwed up his face. “I still don’t understand his end game. None of these attempts on your life are adding up.”
“My father gets off torturing me,” I said, twisting the button on my jacket while I paced the clifftop.
Sinclair shifted in the seat of his motorbike. “Even though you’re married to Boston? Isn’t that what he wanted?”
I paused, twisting a strand of my hair round and round until it started to resemble a dreadlock. “Clearly it’s not enough to force me into marriage, he doesn’t have the opportunity to parade me around in that forced marriage when I’m not in Seattle.”
“I’m so sick of talking about this.” Pres took his last bite of apple and tossed the core into the trees. “Let your father try to take you again. There’s no way in hell he’s getting near you after Paris.”
“Agreed,” Sinclair said, giving me a pointed and somewhat heated look.
Dacre pushed off the bike, moving towards me to plant a kiss on my temple. “You can trust us with this, Bambi. We won’t let him get close to you again.”
By the time we made it back to the house, my mood was buoyant, and we walked into the house in a bustle of laughter and noise.
The trip home had peaked on a deserted outcrop overlooking the ocean at the end of a half-overgrown trail halfway home, where I’d ridden all three of them in turn as hard as they’d ridden their bikes.
My hair was a mess, I’d been fucked three ways to Sunday, and my ass bones hurt from playing backpack on three different motorcycles. Yet nothing could wipe the smile off my face.
For days my body had been in a state of fight or flight after the letter from my father, but one afternoon with the three people I cared about most in the world had changed my perspective.
I was safe here. My father couldn’t touch me inside the protection of Aston Manor and he knew it.
We strolled down the hall together towards the entrance hall to make our way upstairs to shower, when Presley’s arms came around my waist from behind.
“You’re going to invite me into the shower with you, aren’t you, Sass?” he murmured against my temple, his lips brushing a kiss there that made me shiver.
“She can’t invite you into her shower when she’s going to be in with me.” Dacre’s heated gaze had me biting my lip.
Sinclair huffed a laugh from behind Presley. “Why don’t we let Dempsey decide who she wants to shower with? I’m pretty confident I know who it’ll be.”
His arrogance was so freaking hot, but that didn’t mean I was going to choose him.
Pres’s arms tightened around my waist. “Don’t listen to them, Sass. I know it’s me you want soaping you up.”
His suggestive tone had my core clenching, but I wouldn’t play favorites, so I swatted his hands from my waist.
“Now, now, boys. If this bike ride taught us anything, it’s that there’s plenty of me to go around. And when it comes to the three of you, I’m more than happy to be passed from boy to boy.”
I glanced back at each of them to clock their heated reactions.
When I turned back, I stopped short in the entryway at the sudden sight in front of me. Presley collided with my back, his hands landing on my waist to steady us both.
I barely noticed. Instead I stared at my nightmare come to life standing in the place I now called home.
“D-dad?”
I tried to keep the tremble from my voice.
“What… what are you doing here?”
A slow, calculated smile spread across my father’s face at the sight of me.
How had he gotten in here? Why was he standing there so casually? So confidently? If this was another abduction attempt, it was a brazenly stupid one.
“Don’t you fucking think about touching her,” Dacre snarled, stepping in to put himself between me and my father.
My father let out a laugh like Dacre’s words were the most ridiculous he’d ever heard and he hadn’t orchestrated a plot to kidnap me just a few months ago.
“I’m not here to harm you, Dempsey. I’ve merely come to introduce you to my new wife, your stepmother.”
A door opened to the right, and my father held out a hand as a beautiful woman strolled across the room. A choked sound came from one of the guys behind me, and I hardly blamed them. She had a stunning figure with a dark-brown clipped bob, and green eyes that reminded me of Sinclair’s.
She took my father’s hand, and he tucked her at this side like they were as blissfully in love as my mom and Byron.
I instantly wanted to gag. Any woman who could be attracted to the monster that was my father needed to be mentally assessed. All I could see when I looked at him was the man who had tormented me for so many years.
“This is Mona,” my father said, smiling like a cat who’d just trapped a mouse.
There was a stunned beat of silence.
Then…
“Mom?” three voices echoed at once.
I swiveled to take in Dacre, Sinclair, and Presley, the stunned surprise on each of their faces a mirror of my own.
“What the hell is going on?” Dacre demanded.
Their mother smiled. “I’m here to claim what’s mine.”
She glanced at each of them.
“Starting with the three of you.”