Chapter Fourteen
This woman was their entire world. She was everything. It started with her, and it would end with her.
And she had no idea what seeing her like that did to them. They hated it even more that one single bastard had that much sway over her despite her trying to maintain a strong front. Emerson could see right through her, and so could Darien and Austin.
Nothing on this earth mattered more than annihilating her problems the only way they knew how. She didn’t know it yet, but they would raze the world for her and everyone in it if it meant keeping her safe.
Obliterating Morton had been in their plans for a long time now. Well, three years, to be exact. Before that, they hadn’t really cared about the son of a bitch enough to want to make his life a living hell.
But all that changed when Adrienne came onto the scene. She changed everything for them. She was their whole world on a platter. The only woman they would ever love. And the one woman they would kill for without question.
The address Morton had given them led them to a dark monstrosity of a house. He thought he was playing the evil puppeteer. He had no idea the amount of pain that was waiting for him at their hands. And how they were going to relish each moment of it.
It didn’t take them long to scope out the area. Morton thought he was amping up his security. The whole place was crawling with armed guards. But there was only one man’s blood they wanted, and that man was Desmond Andrew Morton. An enemy of the woman they loved. Their enemy.
They were led down a long, dank passageway of the dark eerie mansion. They kept Adrienne between them, the scent of perfume warmed their blood, and the scent of their touch on her turned them into possessive dangerous beasts.
After a few minutes, they arrived at what was a reception hall and came face to face with their enemy. There were no other guests, just as they’d expected.
Desmond Fucking Morton.
He sat at the head of an elaborately laid table under a gold and diamond chandelier. He’d lost half his hair in prison and seemed to have gained a few extra pounds which made him look portly. He was also surrounded by old money, but money that wasn’t his even though he flaunted it as his own.
Morton thought he had made it big when he joined the Petrov Bratva and got himself released from prison after only serving three years of what should have been a twenty-year sentence.
What he didn’t know was that the Petrov Bratva owed Emerson, Darien, and Austin a life debt. In their time as Navy SEALs and secret government agents, they’d played both sides of the law, for whatever gains they needed to make. Ultimately, they were untouchable by the law, and their license to kill was covered globally.
It required one two-minute call to the Petrovs to call in their favor and the heavily armed guards outside the house knew who they now worked for. Emerson, Darien, and Austin.
But they themselves would take care of Morton and his inner circle of bodyguards who remained true to him.
The only reason Morton was still alive was because of that one thing of Adrienne’s that he still had. The chances of them finding whatever it was after they killed him were too slim, so all he had to do was hand it over first and then they’d break his spine into three neat little pieces.
The smug bastard thought he was sitting pretty. He had six armed men in the dining hall protecting him. They checked Emerson, Darien, and Austin thoroughly over for any weapons and stopped just short of putting their hands on Adrienne. Wise decision.
They were no match for Emerson, Darien, and Austin. In fact, they thought it was funny Morton thought he was in charge.
He wasn’t and the sooner they ended his life the sooner they could put this behind them and take care of Adrienne for the rest of their lives.
But there was something Adrienne didn’t know about them. They’d spent hours contemplating telling her the truth or not. In the end, they decided their plan was best executed in three steps. Get whatever Morton had that belonged to Adrienne. Kill him. Then tell her the truth. They were not going to divert from their plans.
“My lovely wife,”
Morton said, standing up and coming toward them, his hands outstretched as if he were going to hug her. Without a moment’s hesitation, they bristled at the older man when he was within arm’s length of her. He didn’t take the hint and reached out for her.
Darien caught his wrist in a death hold, making the man wince in pain. Two of his bodyguards approached and in seconds were sent sprawling to the floor as Emerson and Austin shoved their fists into their throats. The rest of the bodyguards drew their weapons.
Morton stopped them.
“It’s too early for a blood bath. That can come later,”
he said. Darien released his grip on the man. It was a wonder they’d restrained themselves enough from snapping his neck where he stood and following suit with his henchman.
“Try and touch her again,”
Austin said darkly.
Morton laughed but at the moment his gaze flickered over them for a fraction longer before he looked away. Then he looked at them again. What did he see when he looked at them, Emerson wondered.
Morton raised both his hands in supplication, then shuffled back to the table.
“Please, sit. I have a feast prepared for you, my lovely wife,”
Playing his game a little longer they each took a seat around his table, keeping Adrienne furthest away from him.
“I am not your wife anymore, Desmond, and even when I was, you were still a disgusting, revolting piece of crap who blackmailed me into marrying you. I want what you stole from my father and then I never want to see you again,”
Adrienne said.
Fuck, she was stunning. She may have been frightened and riddled with self-doubt before, but she was the quintessential Ice Queen in Morton’s presence. The loveliest creature in the universe. Theirs.
She held her head high, and only they could see the tautness in her beautiful body. She wasn’t going to show Morton that he had affected her.
Their woman. Their Adrienne.
“You have something that belongs to Ms. Palmer, Morton. We suggest you hand it over,”
Emerson said.
“Or else?”
Morton asked, raising his eyebrows at them, but then his gaze got stuck on their faces yet again. Emerson noticed that and so did Darien and Austin.
The three of them looked at each other.
Was it possible that he knew who they were?
Fuck. He wasn’t supposed to figure out anything in Adrienne’s presence.
She wouldn’t tell them what it was that Morton had of hers, but it didn’t matter. If she wanted it back, she was going to get it back, whatever it was.
“Or what, pretty boys?”
Morton resumed his weak attempt at appearing tough and nonchalant.
“Bodyguards, huh? They’re making them too pretty these days.”
But he couldn’t keep his eyes off them, which suited them fine because he wasn’t looking at Adrienne.
“Do I know you three?”
He asked eventually, a little uncomfortable now. Emerson watched as Adrienne swung her gaze to them, a frown on her beautiful face.
“Do you think you know us?”
Darien asked.
Fuck. This wasn’t supposed to happen, not this way.
“I don’t forget a face...”
Morton said before sweat beaded on his brow and his eyes widened as he seemed to connect the dots in his head. For a split second, he shrank back, confusion and fear clouding his entire face now. They watched him recheck himself and go over the details in his head repeatedly to make sure he wasn’t playing tricks on himself.
He knew who they were. Emerson smirked and glanced at Darien and Austin once more. They were impressed that he figured out who they were just on sight. But again he wasn’t supposed to discover it in front of Adrienne. They didn’t want her to know this way.
And they had to hand it to him when he reacted quickly afterward. He’d had the good sense to give his bodyguards a surreptitious signal that brought them to the table in an instant, their guns shoved into the necks of Emerson, Darien, and Austin. They didn’t so much as blink at the contact.
Adrienne gasped in alarm and fright. She opened her mouth to plead with Morton, but one look from them silenced her. But she was panicking now. They would have to wrap this thing up quickly.
“You have ten seconds to give the lady what belongs to her,”
Austin said, completely unperturbed that he was a bullet away from death—same as he and Darien.
“Are you fucking this cunt?”
Morton cried, incredulously, pointing to Adrienne.
“Call her that one more time and I’ll cut your tongue out and feed it to your ass,”
Emerson said, keeping his tone pleasant.
“Is this....”
He shot up from the chair, and then paced the floor, excited now.
“You fucking sons of bitches. Do you think you can come in here and beat me at my own game?”
He picked up a gun and pointed it at them.
“Oh, I know who you are. I see it in your eyes. I never forget the eyes. Oh, you’re big men now, aren’t you? Did you think you were getting back at me? Fucking her just like I fucked your mamas thirty years ago out of revenge?”
As if she were drowning in a tsunami, Adrienne looked at them with tears in her eyes, and horror and betrayal written all over her face. She was thinking all the wrong fucking things.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She wasn’t supposed to know. It wasn’t supposed to matter but now it did. They were going to relish killing Morton.
“Fuck that,”
Morton said puffing out his chest.
“I will fuck her cunt with this bottle of champagne first,”
he said picking up a bottle from the table.
“And cleanse out her pussy of your junk before she gets my dick. Kill these bastards and take your time with them. I want to hear them scream when I fuck them out of my slut of a wife.”
He made a move toward Adrienne.
“We warned you what would happen if you touched her, Father dearest,”
Emerson said softly.
“Why?”
Morton asked, and he seemed to genuinely want to know the answer.
“Because she belongs to us.”
“It’s our teeth marks and handprints all over her body. A body you will never touch.”
“And it’s our cum dripping down her thighs as she sits there.”
“She’s ours the way she would never be yours.”
Their words did the job. It distracted Morton and his bodyguards and in the blink of an eye, they took charge of the situation with nothing more than the cutlery from the table. The six bodyguards went down, bleeding profusely before they could charge their weapons and Morton was slammed into a chair, a gun planted in his mouth.
One look at Adrienne, and they knew they had to get her out of there. It was going to get ugly between them and Morton.
Darien called one of the guards on the grounds. She happened to be a woman. Someone they knew and trusted and had worked with before.
“Helena,”
Austin said.
“Will you take Ms. Palmer out, please? We have some personal business to discuss with Mr. Morton.”