I was wrong. On so many counts, but so very, very wrong on at least one important fact. The Canadian geese I'd heard weren't even animals. Unless I counted those of the two legged variety. "MS. CHASE! MS. CHASE. OVER HERE!" a woman yelled, a microphone in her hand. A man at her back with a huge camera settled on his shoulder. I think I would have been okay had it only been the one reporter. But I just wasn't that lucky. No. There were at least two dozen of them. I huddled into Ryker's shoulder as he bulldozed his way through the crowd. The police made a small tunnel for us to escape through. But even then the reporters shoved their cameras and microphones in my face. I took an elbow to the temple as one of the rowdy newscasters tried to topple an officer. Ryker's roar of outrage brought everything and everyone to a grinding silent halt. His face was red as he turned on the offending person. He reached out with one hand, caught the man around the neck, and shook him like
Before I even knew what I was doing, I had Willow crammed into the side of the car, the gun knocked to the side, and the intruder up against the far wall. Nico helped me hold the person down as we shouted for Jessa and Willow to run to the apartment. A blurry picture of black hair, beard scruff, dark eyes, and a snarling mouth were all I saw before I slammed my knee into the attacker's balls. He curled down and over my knee as I caught the gun. Wrenching it from his hands, I had it pointed at him before he stopped gagging. "Who the fuck are you?" I demanded as I laid the barrel of the gun against his temple. Nico shook his head. Gestured for me to give him the gun. I wasn't going to get into a pissing match with the man. I handed him the gun. Watched as he backed up out of striking distance. "Answer the question or you die and absolutely no one notices or cares."Nico jerked his chin at me to back up. I shuffled a few steps to the side. Nico nodded. He looked back a
I looked around my home for the last eighteen months. It had been exactly what I needed at the time when I most needed it. Memories washed over me in 4K detail. Over there by the little desk where Tali and Nico helped me draw up the business plan for my bakery.The couch where I huddled with Momma after a week of nightmares. Papa baking his signature molasses cookies in my new oven. We'd spoken of nonsense for hours and hours. Not once had I been made to feel like I was an imposition. A drain on their lives. I looked across the room. The table that carried the echo of my tattoo where we'd had hundreds of late night dinners and board games to help chase away the demons. The games of Mafia and Clue that made us chuckle. The games of Monopoly that brought out the most savage in all of us as we maneuvered for Top Dog. Every part of this home had been touched by the family that had loved me. Accepted me. Made me one of their own. And now it was time to leave. To move on to the ne
We pushed into the elevator car. Only half of her bags were with us and there was barely any room for humans in here. There was no way all of this was her clothing. It was mind-boggling that she would have this much. "Where is my stuff going?" she asked as the doors slid closed. I held my breath, waited to see if the elevator would give us a weight warning. Sighed in relief as we began our ascent. "In the closet."She snorted. "Which closet?"I looked at her, narrowed my eyes. "Our closet. You're staying here. No moving out. No changing your mind. We've made it this far, we're not stopping now. If we need to do some renovations to make it easier for you, then we will. But you are mine." I surveyed her sea of matching luggage. "And apparently that means your clothes as well."Her smile was brilliant. "Good answer." She opened her mouth. Shut it. Bit her lip.I sighed. "Spit it out, cupcake. We can't fix it if it's just rattling around up there in your brain.""Are you in
Once again in the elevator, I huddled the gun safes close to my chest. I'd been so stupid to leave them in a different bag. To not have grabbed them the first trip. I could have gotten three very important men hurt. Or worse. I shuddered as I cut the thought off."You okay?" Ryker asked softly. I nodded. Tried to smile. Words came gushing out of my mouth. "I'm so sorry. Sorry for not doing a better job. Sorry for not taking care of the guns the way I know I should. I could have gotten you shot. If the person who'd taken them..." I trailed off as nightmare after nightmare ran through my mind. "Hey." He pulled me into his arms. "Nothing happened. We've had a pretty emotionally draining couple of days. No one got hurt.""This time," I muttered into his chest. I rubbed my forehead back and forth between his pecs. "Sweet goddess, Ryker. You could have been shot. Died." I looked up into his face. "You're not allowed to die." My tone was hard, my gaze fierce. "You're not allowed to
I fought my body's need to cum as I watched Willow's pussy weep for me. I hadn't been expecting her to squirt, but I felt about ten feet tall that I'd been able to make her do it. My dick was hard enough to give a pneumatic nailer a run for its money on driving nails. I laid my head on her thigh as I brought her back down to reality with soft strokes and gentle kisses. I smiled. She'd turned to me. Before the need for pain got too bad. Before the darkness in her mind dragged her away from me. We were making progress. Good progress. And in a fucking short amount of time. Somehow we'd both been able to scale the other's walls. "Mmgh."I chuckled. "That good, huh?" I pulled my fingers from her body. They were coated with her juice. I slipped them between my lips. Licked them clean. Best fucking flavor in the world. My dick twitched. "What the hell did you do to me?" she asked from her position, still staring at the ceiling. "Never heard of squirting or female ejaculati
We got cleaned up and dressed. Made our way back out to the clothes mountain. This time around, when I saw a duplicate, I just thanked it for helping me and tossed it in the DONATE pile. I wasn't going to drag myself down for coping in whatever way that worked. I was still standing wasn't I? Still happier now than any time before in my life. Outside of a couple measly snafus, I thought my life was landing on the side of good more days than not. I chuckled. Measly snafus. Kidnapping, torture, shot at, almost run off the road, attempted murder...easy peasy. **"I think I see the floor," Ryker said a couple hours later. I jerked my head around to look at his side of the room. "No way. This pile is never ending. I'm pretty sure it was breeding and copying itself while we had sexy times."He snorted. "Probably true. But look." He stepped into a section of floor without any clothes on it. "Bare floor." He did a little dance that looked like he was either shopping or spanking
I looked away from Willow's compassionate gaze. The forgiveness sitting in her eyes shamed me. Mocked me. I gritted my teeth. I'd left my sister in the hands of a kidnapper, forgotten all about her, and then stood by while the woman who had taken her was killed. What kind of brother was I?Shitty. A fucking shitty brother. Someone who didn't deserve the kind and generous heart of Corrie. Of Willow. Hell. I shouldn't be with anyone. Since she'd met me, Willow had been kidnapped, tortured, run off the road, hospitalized, gone into hiding, and now we were lurking in the parking garage of my building and home so we could go and save my half sister that she'd never met. Some fucking boyfriend. "Excuse me, Daphne. Nik. I'm going to talk to Ryker in private. We'll be right back," Willow said as she pushed me around an upright barrier. Once we were a couple spots away from the stairwell, she looked up into my face. "What kind of pain?"I blinked, tried to process her words. "Pa
I crept along the rooftop. The target was staying in the long term suites across the road. It was our first night, and it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders the farther we got from New Trenadie. The next moment, I crashed to the roof's floor. "Damn it." She snickered. "Still a sucky spy, Raphael." She slid her body over mine.I sucked in a breath. Nodded. Hell, I practically begged her for it. But without words. When she got that tone, my words were not necessary. She smiled. "I'm not going to beat you to death. Nor am I going to stuff you into a padded room." She bent down, flicked her tongue over my lips. "But I will tie you up, spank you, flog you, fuck you, and then make you do it all over again. My dick went to iron between her legs. Her laugh was husky. "I'm keeping you, Raphael. Do you understand me?"My heart settled. Skipped a beat. "Yes, Mistress."The end.
My phone dinged with a new incoming text message. Considering my phone had been going off since the wee hours of the morning with Willow and Ryker announcing the baby was finally coming, I was tempted to just shut it off. But it could be something important. And since Angelo and I were at home with the other babies, it fell to us to make sure we kept everything running as it should. I grabbed the phone. Unlocked the screen. A video message popped up. Raphael and his girl, Nia. Their heads mushed together to get into frame. "Momma, I have to leave. But I wanted to tell you I love you. And thank you for everything. I will let you know when I get back." Nia smiled. "I'll keep him safe, Momma. I swear it.""Bye, Momma," they said together before they ended the call.I smiled even as tears filled my eyes. Angelo looked up at me from his spot on the bed. He was restrained, a ball gag in his mouth. I held the crop up high. "Our last baby is finally happy, Angelo." I s
Two weeks later I glared at the woman on the table. "I still don't know why I have to be here. I barely know you."Willow snorted. "Because you're scarier than anyone else in my family. And I don't want those doctors trying to get all bitchyyyyyyyy." Another contraction hit her. She clamped down on my hand hard enough that I thought I was going to need surgery to remove the bones from each other. And this little firecracker had more strength inside her than her grip would show. Raphael had told me some of her story. She'd told me the rest of it. A ritual the Amatucci women apparently indulged in was something called Girls' Night. Really it was a bunch of drinking, talking about sex, and watching movies while we ate enough of Willow's confectionaries to give ourselves diabetes. Willow blew out a breath. "Ryker can't handle seeing me in this kind of pain, so he has to stay out in the lobby with the rest of them. You're second chair." She panted. Demanded some ice chips.
Three days laterWalking into my parents house when they didn't know I was alive was a risky thing. A multitude of crappy things could happen. Not the least of which was Momma killing me for real this time. Or Papa crying. Or either of them fainting."Go on," Nia said as she shoved me forward gently. "You're already here. Just go into the kitchen. Nik said she told them to wait for her in the kitchen."I nodded, felt my palms go clammy as my breath backed up in my lungs. This could go terribly wrong. So fucking horribly wrong. Man up, Si, that no longer too small voice said inside me. Since I'd been actively listening to it more, he wasn't so easy to shut up. Even when I wanted to. Thankfully, the nasty bitch who lived inside me was getting fainter. Although he could still throw a temper tantrum to beat a two year old. "I'm right here. And I'll be right here the whole time. They've waited long enough, Raphael." She nudged me again. Even as bile rushed up the back o
We all stood in the kitchen, guzzling water by the gallon. I hadn't been this dehydrated since the last time I got in trouble at Petter Manor. But at least this time it was due to happy tears and reunification. Raphael sat and watched it all. Just absorbed it. But he never got so far away I couldn't touch him. That I even needed to touch him still blew my mind. But I wasn't going to question it. He helped steady me when it felt like everything inside me and around me was bending and flexing too fast for me to catch up. "What are your plans for tomorrow?" Liam asked as he finished his third glass of water. "Tomorrow is the gala. I'm going to string Anders up-the guy who had you kidnapped again. I'm going to tell everyone the Petters have been blackmailing and abusing and paying off that the Petters are dead and gone. That they're all on watch." I studied Liam and Lilly. It blew my mind that they had gone into the government side of this dirty world. That they willingly put t
Nia came over to me while I was helping drag some bodies away. "Hey Raphael, can you come with me, please?"Foster grunted at me as we got the body up on the catering cart. "Go. I've got this." I nodded, turned back to Nia. "Sure, Nia." She took my hand and we walked from the room. Her hand was trembling in mine. It was only the slightest degree, but it might as well have registered on the seismic scale. "You good?" I asked her softly as we walked down a set of stairs. She said nothing, made no movements except to keep walking. I pulled her to a stop. Made her look at me. "Are you good?" I asked again. Her eyes were wide, as if she were trying to stave off the tears. "Amelie and Anton..." she blew out a breath. "They're t-""The only two people you love in this world." I smiled sadly. "I know, Nia."Her eyelids fluttered shut as a tear escaped down her cheek. Her breath was shaky as she exhaled. "I got them away from here. Put them in with a good woman with a hu
Day before the gala "Charlie team in position," the man's voice came through the little earbud I wore in my right ear. I kept a tight hold on my fear. My relief. My heart. All of the planning, all of the tears, all of the arguments. It all came down to this. "Delta team in position," Raphael said through my ear. "Foxtrot team in position," another voice said. I still wasn't quite sure who was who by their voice, but I'd done an okayish job of remembering names and faces. The fact that I had a team full of women with me made me like the Amatuccis even more. They didn't discriminate. If someone had the skill and the drive to join the security teams, they were given a position. "Estrogen team in position," I said. A series of clicks came through the earbud. I'd made a single joke about Echo team being full of vaginas. They called us the Estro team now. Since we were collectively badass, I didn't really care what they called us as long as it wasn't disrespectful. "A
Her babies? She had kids? I shook my head. Knew there had to be a different story, but I needed to get her back with me to learn it. I set her down on the chair. Pushed her head down between her knees. "Breathe, Nia." I made my voice hard. As hard as I dared when all I wanted to do was cuddle her up and carry her away. Nowhere was my fierce and strong Dominant. Right now, she was a broken, hurting woman. I would hold her together until she could find herself again. Ivan came rushing into the room, his gun drawn. He lifted it to the ceiling when he saw what was going on. One of his brows rose in question.I gave him a brief rundown of what I knew. Which was damn little. I shrugged when I was out of information to share. Mas came hopping in behind Ivan. He didn't have a weapon, but he did have concern etched on his face. "Who the hell are you?" a voice said from behind me. I whirled around, putting Nia behind my body as I faced the threat that shouldn't be there. A
After rushing through the shower and the delicious meal that Raphael put together for breakfast, I walked into the space Ivan and Klara had set up for me. Everything was as I left it, but that didn't mean a whole lot. Especially in a place I didn't control one hundred percent. Brushing the weird vibe away, I walked to the computer. Booted everything up. Once it was up and running, I went through my process of accessing my cloud accounts. Jasper had set some up for me that weren't the typical commercial kind. Luckily, I'd memorized the process, or I'd be up a creek with zero paddle at the moment. A ReadMe file was highlighted when I got all the way into my account. I right clicked, read through the metadata how Jasper showed me. Recognizing his signature, I opened the file. Ms. Flower~I've attached all of the information I could find re Cucumber Butt and Pretty Mean. You'll find them in the associated files.I snickered at Jasper's sense of humor. That kid was a genius and