Chapter 47
Forty-Seven
MATEO
Iam so fucking proud of her.
My savage girl is laughing with her sister, who after a month has started to come out of her shell and has grown more comfortable with our core group. She even went to family dinner last night, which was huge for her.
But today is about Violet.
We’re all here to help put the finishing touches on the tattoo studio and for everyone to see it before she opens tomorrow, with two other women who are excited to work with my girl.
It seems that Violet has one hell of an amazing reputation in Vegas, and she had more applications than she could sift through by herself.
Rose helped her, and they decided on the crew that would be working here for the foreseeable future.
“I love the art on the walls,” Natasha says as she studies it. “Who’s the artist?”
“Me,” Violet replies with a shy smile. She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “It’s no big deal.”
“It’s a big fucking deal,” I counter, and kiss her cheek. “You’re amazing.”
“She’s always been a crazy good artist,” Rose says with a proud smile. “She won awards in high school and everything.”
“There’s no need to tell them about that stuff,” Violet says, shaking her head.
“Sure there is,” Lulu says, rubbing her hand over her even bigger belly. “We’re your family, we want to know these things. I also want my baby to stop kicking me in the kidneys.”
“Be nice to your mama,” Scarlett says to the belly, making the other girls laugh.
Violet finishes a piece on Scarlett’s inner wrist and sits back while everyone else checks it out.
“All of us girls should get that,” Lulu says. “Matching tattoos.”
“Not until—”
“I’m not pregnant,” Lulu finishes for Violet. “Yeah, yeah, I know. This baby is taking forever.”
“She still has a couple weeks to cook,” Natasha replies. “But I’m down for matching tats. Do you already have a full schedule, Violet?”
“Yeah, I’m starting with the other girls who have X’s on their necks. And I have some women on the schedule who have scars from domestic violence that they want covered.”
“It’s so awesome that you’re doing this,” Scarlett says and looks over at Rose. “And I love what you covered yours with. The phoenix is so appropriate.”
“Thanks.” Rose rubs her hand over the back of her neck. “I love it too. I hated that damn X. They put it on you as soon as you’re snatched up, in case you manage to escape, and then they can spot you easier.”
I narrow my eyes, and I feel Carson shift next to me.
“Rose, how long were you with Damien?” I ask softly.
She scowls and tilts her head. “What do you mean?”
“When did he sell you to Lincoln?”
The room has gone quiet as we wait for her answer. I haven’t wanted to pry because she’s still been so fragile, but she opened the door on the conversation, and I have to try to get some information.
“He didn’t.” She nibbles her lip in thought. She doesn’t look scared or uncomfortable.
“But when you sent me the letter a couple of years ago, you mentioned Damien in it,” Violet says. “That’s why I moved to Vegas.”
“I didn’t think of the postmark on the letter,” Rose mutters. “I shouldn’t have sent it. It put you in danger.”
“You definitely should have sent it,” Diego assures her.
“How did you come to be with Lincoln?” Violet asks.
“Lincoln is Damien,” Rose says softly, looking toward the front of the store to make sure no one else can hear her, but all eight of us men tighten with awareness.
“When I was first . . . well, when I was new, he went by Damien. But his face and hands were covered, and he was a mess. I don’t know what happened. ”
I look to Carson.
We know what happened.
“He had so many surgeries. I don’t know what he looked like before. Then, after he was healed, he told us all that we had to call him Lincoln, or Jeremy, but never Damien ever again. I slipped once.”
She presses her hand to her side.
“He broke my ribs for it.”
“That fucking hurts,” Natasha hisses.
I hate that anyone did that to them.
“You’re saying,” Rome says, because Carson can’t speak, he’s so fucking pissed, “that Lincoln, the man that’s taken you all over the country to dinners and parties with the heads of the families, is Adam fucking Damien?”
Rose nods and then swallows hard as she looks around the room.
“Oh. I’m not supposed to tell. I’m sorry.”
“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Diego assures her. “We have a history with Damien, that’s all.”
“He’s bad,” Rose whispers, but then she takes a deep breath.
“Where does he live, Rose?” Julian asks her.
“What do you mean? The house burned down.”
Julian’s eyes narrow. “You’re saying the house we found you in has been Damien’s main home all this time?”
“For as long as I’ve been around,” she says. “We stayed in hotels a lot. We always had separate rooms because, well, he couldn’t—”
She clears her throat and then swallows hard.
“Okay, I’m just going to say it. We’re all adults here, right?
He couldn’t get it up. He couldn’t rape me.
And man, did that piss him off. He wouldn’t let anyone else touch me, either, because he was convinced that I was his, and honestly, that was fine by me because what they did to those other girls. ”
She shudders, and Diego rubs his hand on her back.
“Are you saying he never—” Violet blinks in surprise.
“Never,” Rose confirms. “And that made him so mad that he’d hit me. Said it was my fault, but he was embarrassed.”
Violet’s eyes fill, and I immediately pull her to me.
“Oh, thank God,” she whispers against me.
“Where would he go with his house being toast?” Carson asks, keeping his voice as calm as possible.
“Well, I’m not sure. He talked about having a place on an island somewhere, but he never took me there.”
“You lived here this whole time,” Violet says, her voice cracking. “This whole time.”
“And you found me,” Rose says. “I knew you would, and that scared me because I knew he’d hurt you, or worse. He hurts everyone.”
“He won’t hurt you ever again,” Violet says.
Later that night, when we’re back in the penthouse and Rose is tucked away in her room, I take my savage girl up to the rooftop.
We sit in silence and listen to the city around us. She’s curled into my side, her head on my shoulder and her hand on my arm.
“I’ve been here for two years,” she begins, “and all this time my sister was less than thirty minutes from me.”
“You got her,” I remind her and kiss her hair. “And she’s doing a lot better than she was when we found her.”
“We started sparring again, and I think covering the tattoo on her neck helped too. She and Diego are inseparable.”
“That’s an interesting turn of events.”
Her head comes up and she frowns up at me. “Is it bad ‘interesting’?”
“No, not at all, just . . . different. I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at her.”
“And how’s that?”
“The way I look at you.” I kiss her nose. “You know we have to hunt Damien down.”
“I know.” She sighs and climbs into my lap. “But not tonight. Tonight, I want to curl up with my husband in our special spot and just be normal for a few hours, whatever that means.”
“Does that include me getting you naked and fucking you until you can’t walk straight?”
“Of course it does.”
“Then I’m in.”