Chapter 31 #2
“I think you’re my new favorite brother,” Alisa murmurs. “Where’s Caleb and Hollis?”
“They’re getting the wood chipper ready. I want him alive when I feed him to it. We’ll start with his feet.”
My stomach flips at this announcement. I can kill people when I’m in the moment, but this is pushing my limits. Easton squeezes my thigh, and I blow out a breath. I won’t worry about it yet. I want to hear things from Danny’s perspective if he’s willing to give it to us before he dies.
It’s the least he can do.
“Do you know why I was sold?” Alisa asks.
“Does it matter—Ah, fuck!” Danny screams. Lars slams a bat over and into the man’s kneecaps, causing me to wince. Alisa and her brother have the same taste in weapons they enjoy wielding, despite their differences.
“Keep your answers on topic,” Lars grunts. “She asked you, not me, and not anyone else. You need to fucking tell her!”
“I’m sorry, goddamnit. Your father had debts and you were too young to marry off. Your brothers both refused to take omegas your father introduced them to.”
“He never told us why he was parading us both around,” Lars snaps. “Why the fuck didn’t he tell us?”
“Dad would never have said, ‘marry so and so or I’m selling your sister,’” Alisa snorts. “You’d have killed him.”
“No, but… Fuck.”
“Short of telling you, he didn’t think you’d go for it,” Danny says. “Caleb was pulling away from the family already, and you only lived at home part time to keep an eye out for your sister.”
“I didn’t know that,” Alisa sighs. “You were giving up your life for me.”
“No. No!” Lars says. “I was trying to protect you. I didn’t do a great job of it. Responsibilities exist for a reason, and I managed to do the bare minimum, Alisa. If I’d taken you with me instead, you’d have stayed safe.”
“Theo still would have found a way to sell her,” Danny groans. “He lost a huge shipment of guns and didn’t tell you.”
“He said he was going to get out of the gun business, which is why we stopped running them,” Lars said. “We restructured the year Alisa was taken.”
“Because no one would work with him afterward,” Danny sighs. “Theo needed money fast and young girls sell well.”
Alisa shudders beside me and I shuffle over until my body can surround her.
My chest is her backrest, and my thighs press against hers.
I begin to purr soundlessly to ensure it’s a vibration no one can hear, but I know she can feel.
All I want to do is comfort her while giving her the space to process this.
“I hear I hold my retail value well,” she mutters.
Lyle drops his head to hide the anger in his expression, while the smell of ozone and lightning spikes. I’ve always thought it’s odd that Alisa is scared of being alone in a thunderstorm but finds Silas’ scent, even when angry, soothing. My girl is a beautiful enigma.
“Your father is a dead man walking,” Silas growls to Lars.
“Do you want me to collect him for you?” Lars asks patiently.
“I want him to see me and know he’s fucked,” Alisa says, her voice breaking. She’s not crying, but her muscles are twitching in agitation. “Danny, tell me what else happened back then.”
“Theo was fucking over a lot of people back then,” Danny admits. “Selling you was guaranteed to settle his debts and pull in sympathy from the other mafia families. Back then, a lot of people were paranoid about keeping their children safe.”
“Hmm.” Alisa watches dispassionately as someone takes the phone from her brother to allow him the freedom of movement.
Lars lights up a pre-circumcised cigar, puffing on it until the end glows red and yanks down Danny’s boxers.
It’s the only piece of clothing the bastard has on.
Lars has been working him over for a couple of hours at this point, and he’s still pulling out his dirty secrets.
Wearing gloves, Lars pinches Danny’s tiny cock between his fingers and begins to press the cigar against the tip of it.
Fucking ouch. “I doubt he’ll be able to piss now, Lars.
In my experience, it’s messy, so it’s probably for the best.”
Lars chuckles darkly and Hollis says, “Your brother is finally accepting you aren’t afraid of a little torture.”
“I wish it wasn’t necessary,” Lars corrects her.
“Wishes aren’t something I do anymore,” Alisa states. “Danny, crying is just going to annoy me. Keep talking.”
“Fuck! It hurts! Please!”
“Does he beg with you, Hollis? Because it’s unnecessary.”
“Alisa isn’t the same girl you knew, Danny, and that’s as much your fault as it is her father’s,” Hollis says.
Lars continues to press the cigar’s burning end into Danny’s shaft, and I realize he’s not covered in cigarette burns at all.
“Work through it,” Alisa adds dispassionately.
Dropping my forehead against her shoulder, I breathe in the scent of her clean smelling sweat to ground myself.
“Theo…fuck!” Lars steps back half a step and puffs on the cigar to remind Danny the pain only pauses as long as he keeps speaking. “He waited until a night he knew Lars would be out of the house and Hollis wouldn’t visit. She used to spend the night regularly until she got her own place.”
Hollis gasps from behind the phone as Lars fists his hand, but they can’t step back into the past to change anything. They were living their lives and didn’t know Theo Finnegan was biding his time to sell Alisa.
“Keep going.” Alisa is fully in charge of her interrogation, we’re simply here for moral support. She’s livid with anger as she listens, but this isn’t something we can protect her from. Love isn’t bubble wrapping your pack.
It’s being there for the hard parts in any way you can, something I’m begrudgingly beginning to understand.
“Once we knew you’d be alone in the house, I made sure the guard rotations would have a window where they weren’t anywhere near you,” Danny continues.
“Lars told me this. What don’t I know?” Alisa asks impatiently.
“What haven’t you told me yet, ya bloody bastard,” Lars growls around his cigar.
“I… The people who took her were professionals. They were in and out with very little noise and used the tree outside of her window to get inside. I didn’t even know you were gone until your father checked your room in the morning and sounded the alarm.
“The money was delivered into an account that couldn’t be traced or tracked, but I don’t know what that amount was. All he told me was that it was enough to be out of the hole he dug himself into, kid.”
“Who did he sell me to?” she asks.
“I remember he said the Remano Auction house would be collecting you. I didn’t directly deal with anyone though.”
“Emilia,” Lars whispers.
“Do you need anything else, Alisa? I think your brother is about to have a coronary.”
“Who is Emilia?” Alisa sounds panicked, knowing the call is about to be cut off soon.
“She’s Nico Domino’s cousin,” Easton bites out. “The woman is lost in the wind and we can’t fucking find her to end the destruction of lives she causes wherever her name is spoken.”
“He’s not being dramatic,” Hollis mutters. “The woman had me badly beaten because I got her fired.”
“I’m so sorry,” Alisa whispers.
“Don’t be. I pissed her off well and good. I’m also fine. We both survived that nasty cunt, Alisa. She’s a cockroach who manages to scurry away every damn time. One day, someone is going to grind her under their heel and finally put her down.”
“One day. I’m done. Whatever else I need to hear will need to come from my father,” Alisa says.
“Speaking of, we’re leaving soon for Minneapolis. Make sure Theo doesn’t know anything is wrong. We’re going to make a statement,” Silas growls.
I stop listening to them as they hang up and I drag my nose up her throat.
Alisa’s breath hitches but she sinks into my hold as I wrap my arms around her torso.
My teeth tease her skin, and an uncontrollable need to bite her hits me.
So many people tried to end Alisa’s ability to lead a life of her own, yet here she is.
Dry eyed, angry, and strong as hell.
“Troy.” Silas’ tentative tone tries to pull me out of my one track mind but I growl in response.
Alisa whines as she gives me better access to her throat and Easton curses under his breath.
“Doc said we can’t,” he warns.
“We could have lost her very easily,” Lyle says, moving closer to Alisa. He kisses up her arm and her head leans against my chest as she writhes.
Doc clears his throat at the edge of the bed, and I swear he just appears into existence when you call his name. Instead of a Bat signal, it’s a goddamned Doc one with some medical sign.
“Don’t you glare at me,” he warns. “I’ve been thinking and it’s dangerous to leave Alisa unbonded. She hasn’t had a heat yet, but she’s going to be impossible for you all to ignore.”
“Go on,” Alisa says.
“Such a brat,” Silas chuckles, though he’s still wary as I lick up the length of her throat. “Troy, stop that. Fuck.”
Doc smothers a chuckle and shrugs. “The last thing anyone wants is for her to begin internalizing that she’s not wanted.
That’s very far from the truth. The bites are healed from the last time she bit you, Silas.
I’d rather this happen when I’m available than when you’ll shoot me for entering her nest.”
“Don’t have one of those,” Alisa says without hesitation.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Doc growls.
“She hasn’t wanted one,” Easton says. “We’ve asked, and she’s just shrugged.”
“I’ve never had one and don’t understand its purpose,” Alisa says.
My teeth sink into her skin with a growl, hating that she’s been so cut off from her natural instincts. Alisa shrieks, pulling Lyle’s arm closer to her, and no one realizes she’s biting him to muffle her pain until it’s too late.
“Goddamnit,” Doc groans, watching as Alisa begins to convulse. I hold her tightly, releasing her throat immediately, eyes wide as she shudders and gasps. “It’s closed bonds that trigger this. I didn’t think she’d bite Lyle. Did I hear you’re traveling?”