Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Joey
River came to stand next to me, his arms crossed over his chest. My sister, who adored his and Adelaide’s two boys, Axel and Jaxon, took over watching them so Elaina and Adelaide could have this moment together.
Alejandro, who was still too pale for my liking, was watching our woman with so much intensity, I was surprised she didn’t light on fire right there.
It was like he was waiting for Adelaide to do something to upset Elaina.
Our woman… It still felt a little surreal to think of Elaina as ours. As mine and Alejandro’s. But it… fit. I never thought I’d be the kind of man to willingly share a woman. I hadn’t even thought of potentially sharing Adelaide with River. It had never crossed my mind.
But it crossed my mind with the blonde beauty in front of me.
And as much as I hated to admit it… I could see myself with Alejandro, too.
And that was wild coming from me, a man who’d always thought he was straight.
But I couldn’t deny I was attracted to the raw power he exuded and the way he so effortlessly took control of situations.
He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, and he never left me second guessing how he felt.
And I couldn’t deny the thought of someone caring enough to take the reins so I could rest was tempting. I’d been in control for so fucking long, everyone’s lives resting on my shoulders. I’d been my sister’s parent, brother, and provider all in one. I hadn’t been able to rest in… well, ever.
His words from last night just wouldn’t stop playing through my head.
If you just let this happen, you’ll be a priority for both of us.
I couldn’t remember a time I’d been anyone’s priority.
When my and Jessie’s father walked out on us when we were little, I’d had to take over the role as “man of the house”, even if I was merely ten years old.
Mom could barely function, always too strung out on whatever drug happened to be her choice that day.
When Jessie and I turned eighteen, I got us the fuck out of there, and I built this club from the ground up.
I’d always had to take care of everyone else. Even when Adelaide and I had gotten together, I hadn’t been her priority. She had been her own priority. Back then, no one was more important to Adelaide than herself, and she would’ve sabotaged everything I’d built if it meant she gained something.
I’d never complained, but it had always been me against the world. What would it feel like to have Elaina offering me softness and warmth while Alejandro stood at my back, a lion protecting his mate? To have him ready to go to battle for me instead of making me stand on my own?
“Did you know about this?” River asked me, his voice low so the two women wouldn’t overhear us.
I shook my head. “No. Found out when you did.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Adelaide never talks about what happened to her when Vin had his hands on her.” And after finding out their connection, I understood why.
Being forced to witness something like that was traumatizing all on its own.
Adelaide had probably done her best to block it out.
But Elaina… fuck, how the hell was she still in one piece? How the fuck was her psyche not broken? How was she still functioning, still forcing herself out of bed every single day and facing the hell she lived with her chin tilted up and two middle fingers in the air?
“Alejandro rescued me,” I heard Elaina telling Adelaide. I focused on their conversation. “I ran into him outside of a hotel in San Antonio, and I guess he hunted me down, paid three million dollars, and brought me here.”
The glare Adelaide aimed in Alejandro’s direction was chilling.
A lesser man would’ve backed away or at least treaded carefully around her.
Adelaide was hot-headed when she wanted to be, and her temper was explosive, even if she had drastically calmed down from the wild woman she used to be.
“You bought her? You fuck around in the skin trade, too?”
He arched a brow at her. “Do I look like a man with an interest in the skin trade, Adelaide?” Alejandro calmly asked her. “I did what I had to protect her. That is all. I looked at all my options and chose the safest one for her.”
“You paid for her,” Adelaide snarled, her hands tightening around Elaina’s protectively. She looked a split second away from whisking our woman away and taking her back home with her. And I could not let that happen. Adelaide’s angry gaze met mine next. “You allowed this, Joey?”
“Stop jumping to conclusions,” I told her, getting irritated. “It’s not fucking like that, and if you stop for a damn second, you’d realize that.”
“She is the daughter of Yeller Giddons,” Alejandro told Adelaide.
“I’m sure you know that already though. If I’d gone in guns blazing, she could’ve been killed.
If I’d waited too long, she would’ve been sold off to some other sick, demented man who would be raping her as we speak.
” Elaina flinched, and Adelaide squeezed her hands again, her glare deepening in Alejandro’s direction at his crass words.
“When I got there, she was naked and already black and blue from the beating she’d received for running away.
I had three options: purchase her and buy us time to come up with a plan, go in with weapons and kill everyone we could, which might get her killed too, or sneak in and take her and be on the run.
The safest option for her was to purchase her, buy us time, and come up with a plan. ”
“Do not make Alejandro out to be the bad guy here,” I warned Adelaide, feeling oddly protective of the man.
“He has done nothing but try to protect Elaina from the moment he found out about her existence. And for months now, he’s been trying to rescue every person being taken from the camps at the borders to be sold into sex trafficking.
That’s why he was in San Antonio to begin with. ”
“I’m safe here,” Elaina told Adelaide quietly. A small smile tilted her lips. “Joey and Alejandro are taking care of me. I promise.” She swallowed thickly, and a tear ran down her cheek, even while she smiled so fucking prettily. “I don’t have to be saved anymore, Adelaide.”
Adelaide leaned in and hugged her again.
Elaina sank into her embrace, her arms winding around Adelaide’s back.
“If you ever need help, you call me, understand? I will come guns blazing to protect you and get you somewhere safe.” Adelaide leaned back, gripping Elaina’s shoulders. “I couldn’t save you back then, but—”
Elaina shook her head fiercely. “You tried, and that has always meant the fucking world to me, Adelaide. You were the only person to ever try to save me.”
My heart broke for her, and rage pulsed through my veins. Damn those fucking assholes for abusing her and torturing her for years. The day I got to get my hands on them, I’d slaughter them all like the fucking pigs they were.
One look at Alejandro told me he felt the exact same way. We were both out for blood, and we wouldn’t stop until our souls were stained crimson with every mother fucker who’d touched our woman.