CHAPTER 32 - Bryan Trevor #2
I let the body drop and turn my attention back to where the voice came from, spotting a flash of red hair. I take off running toward her, leaving my crew to handle things here. When I enter the corridor, I see two silhouettes turn left up ahead.
I pick up speed, but when I reach where they vanished, I find an empty corridor.
I throw open each damn door, and at the last one, I spot another door inside the room. I race toward it, and when I burst outside, a 9mm is aimed straight at me, freezing me in my tracks.
The gun means nothing when I see Noah sprawled on the ground.
She shakes her head, eyes brimming with tears and fear.
I see the bruises on her arms, face, and legs.
He touched her.
The son of a bitch hurt her again.
“You think you're so clever, don't you?” Gavin sneers, his eyes bloodshot—not just from hatred, but something more.
His pupils are dilated.
Eyes red.
He sniffs every couple of seconds, and his hands shake like a goddamn cokehead.
The son of a bitch is a fucking addict too?
I curl my lip into a contemptuous smirk, my Sig still trained on him.
“Must be horrible knowing you tried to destroy me and I came back stronger. Like a shadow, I slipped into your life, and now I'm about to wipe out your bloodline.” I smile, catching Noah inching away out of the corner of my eye.
That's it.
She understood what I want to do.
That's my girl!
“You're not leaving here alive, you piece of trash. I'll make you pay for every death in my Redoubt,” he spits, glaring at me with pure hatred, oblivious to Noah edging further and further away.
Dominic appears from the opposite side, emerging from the shadows.
He smiles and I give a slight nod.
“Welcome to hell, Gavin. Now I'm going to teach you how to start and finish a job right. Show you what happens when someone touches what's mine,” I say, seconds before my friend's shot tears into the bastard's leg.
Gavin crumples in front of me and I put a bullet in his other leg.
“Ah!!” he screams in agony. I step closer, kicking his weapon away. “You…” He coughs, disoriented, and I kick him in the face, sending him sprawling.
“Bastard? Is that what you were going to say?” I crouch over him, looming above his body. “I think that's the best nickname I've ever gotten, but you can bet by the end of tonight, you'll believe I'm Lucifer himself.”
I fire toward his face—not aiming for anything vital, just a graze to let the gunpowder burn.
“Take him inside,” I tell Dominic, pointing toward a smaller building in the back. “Don't finish him off, and don't let anyone set him free.”
My friend approaches, and I finally turn to face my whole life.
She smiles through her tears, and I run to her, dropping to my knees.
“You came…” she sobs, throwing herself into my arms. “God, I was so scared.”
“I told you I'd rip you from that vermin's hands, and I keep my word.” I cup her face, letting my thumb trace every inch.
I hate seeing the bruises on her skin.
She looks even more exhausted than the night I found her again.
This torment ends today!
“Sadie…”
“Our little girl is fine.” She bites her lip, trying to control her crying. “Our daughter. Noah, our daughter!”
“Yes,” she stammers. “I had no way to tell you. They always threatened me. If I ran, they'd kill her,” she explains in a rush.
“Shh… Don't blame yourself. I came back, and that's what matters.” I press a kiss to her cheek, tasting the salt of her tears. “I need to get you out of here, but first, I can't let that vermin live. I wouldn't sleep easy knowing he's still breathing the same air as you.”
“Do what you have to do, but I'm only leaving here with Brittany,” she says, and I narrow my eyes in confusion.
“You know her?” We turn at the sound of Travis's voice.
“I met her here,” Noah responds, pulling away. “You're her brother, aren't you? You two are identical!”
“I am, and I need to get her out of here as fast as possible,” he says, desperation in his voice.
His face and arms are covered in blood.
“She waited so long for you,” Noah sobs, and I help her to her feet. “Thank you for coming.”
“Where is she?” he asks.
It's clear how desperate Travis is to find his sister.
How much he loves her.
And how much he blames himself for everything she's been through—and is still going through—at their father's hands.
“I don't know. She was beside me, but when the shooting started, Elias pulled her away.” Noah lowers her head. “He's a monster… He…”
“Do you have any idea where she might be?” Travis interrupts, maybe unable to deal with certain things right now.
“She told me he always takes her to the purification room inside the main house.”
“He…” Travis doesn't finish, but lets out a roar of hatred and pain.
Noah hugs me, and I hold her while watching my friend punch the wall over and over.
I understand his pain.
I wish I could say something, but nothing will ease it because he knows what that room represents.
Travis disappears through the door I came out of moments ago, and I pull Noah back.
“Where's Sarah?”
“I have no idea, but she's definitely hiding or looking for some way to kill us.”
“If I find her…”
“You can finish her off. I'll do the same if I get the chance,” she interrupts, and I crouch down, picking up Gavin's Glock.
“I know you've never fired a gun, but there's nothing to it. Just point and pull the trigger.” I show her how, and she nods. “Is there somewhere in here you can hide for a few minutes?”
“I can go with you,” she counters quickly.
“My love, what I'm going to do to your father won't be pretty.”
“I don't mind seeing it.”
I shake my head, remembering how she reacted when she witnessed my outburst after discovering the bruises.
“You don't understand, Butterfly…”
“Bryan, I want to see you rip his head off. I want to witness every bit of pain he feels.” She pulls away from me, and for the first time, I don't recognize her gaze. “His death will set me free after everything I've been through.” I narrow my eyes at her. “Please, don't deny me this!”
“Will you be able to handle it? Because I won't let you go. I won't let you leave me, Butterfly.”
“I can handle it, and leaving you isn't an option,” she responds firmly. “I spent the last few years mourning your death, but when I found out you were alive, I knew I was yours—and always will be—no matter what you do or how many people you've killed.”
“Fuck!” I pull her to me.
“Bryan, you’re my missing piece.” She smiles and my breath catches. “We’re still us. Despite everything.”
“It’ll always be us, Butterfly, always!” I say, and she rests her face against my chest.
“Your heart is racing,” she murmurs, and I smile, pressing a kiss to her head.
“My heart doesn’t beat normally. It has its own rhythm. A rhythm that belongs only to you,” I say, and her blue eyes, almost the same shade as mine, meet my gaze.
“I love you so, so, so much!”
“Seventeen…” I say, pressing our temples together. “Seventeen I love yous.”
“You still count?” she asks, biting her lip in a futile attempt to hold back her tears.
“I’ll count until the last one. Until we leave this life for the next.” I press our lips together, ignoring the gunshots and screams exploding in the background. “I love you too, Butterfly. I loved you in the past, and I love you even more today. It’s almost sick how much I love you.”
“I think I understand, because even when I believed you were dead, I kept loving you.” Not even witnessing the worst deaths and tortures has made my heart race like it is now.
“I’ve loved you since you taught me to skip stones and lent me your jacket.
I loved the dreamer you used to be, but I love this version even more—the one who does whatever it takes to protect me.
I love you exactly as you are, Bryan Trevor. No more, no less.”
“I know this isn’t the ideal moment, but I’m going to kiss you, Butterfly.”
“This is the perfect mom—” she starts, and before she can even finish, I pull her close.
Our bodies collide, and everything in me comes alive again. My fingers sink into her hair, pulling her to me with more force than I expected.
She gasps, and the sound goes straight to my cock.
Knowing she loves me, that she’s not afraid of me, that she has no problem seeing what I’m capable of—it gets me horny as fuck.
I was afraid of losing her the moment she saw the monster inside me, so hearing her say she still loves me, that she loves this version of me, tells me Noah isn’t as fragile as I thought.
She’s lived through horrors, and that somehow shaped her, just like it shaped me.
“I like it… I like this,” she murmurs, and I don’t know if I’m going crazy, but I hear desire in her voice.
I don’t respond. I just press our lips together the instant her words fade into the air.
It’s not gentle.
Slow.
Or lukewarm.
It’s hot.
Fast.
Hungry.
Raw.
It’s us fitting together once more.
I explore her lips with a desperate hunger that only grows with each passing second.
Addictive as fuck!
I grip her waist, pulling her against my chest until there’s no space left between us, because I need more—so much more.
The gunfire, the screams, the entire world goes silent while we kiss, and when our tongues meet, a feeling of possession takes root in every cell of my body.
Noah is mine.
She always was.
She always will be.
And there’s nothing in this damned world that can take her from me again.
I kill every last trace of longing in my body while we kiss.
I give her all of me and take all of her.
When I sense her breathing begging for relief, I pull away, reluctant as hell.
I smile, seeing her disoriented.
“I love you, but now I need to kill your father!” My voice comes out hoarse.
“Well, I hope we find my mother so we can finish the job.”
Holy shit!
I’m horny as fuck discovering this side of my girl!