Darcie“What?” I came awake suddenly, the word tearing its way out of my mouth before I had even fully regained consciousness. My tongue felt thick and furry and my throat was so dry it hurt to swallow. Slowly I turned my head against the pain radiating from my skull to look around the dark confines of the car. My eyes finally came to rest on the man by my side. He didn’t look anything like I had expected him to look. Shouldn’t a kidnapper be rougher, more mean looking? Shouldn’t I have been bundled up into a nondescript white panel van? “Where am I?” I did a double-take. “What do you want?” The words left my mouth in a rush. Not that I was expecting any answers from him. He turned his head slowly and I almost drowned in his black eyes. They were emotionless. Bottomless pits of hell. He might look like someone’s grandpa, but I would find no kindness from him.“Where you are doesn’t matter now ….” He seemed to search his mind for a second. Like he was trying to remember my name. “
HavocShe was close. Closer than I had ever imagined. Just a few miles from Maggie’s house in fact. The idea of her being only a few hours away and going through god knows what was enough for me to push the bike to its limit. My tires ate up the road, my brothers roaring behind me. We were an army, an avenging one but I still had hope that we would get to her in time. We had to. The alternative didn’t bear thinking about. One thing was certain though, I wouldn’t give up on her. No matter what they had done, or where they had sent her I would bring her home. Because my grandmother was right. I was in love with her. She was my family and I didn’t give up on family. Not ever. Not unless that family had betrayed me first. Lucas was left behind, under guard at the clubhouse where he had no chance of escaping. I would have to deal with him another time. But his day was coming. Death when it came for my little half brother would not be quick. I would make him suffer. And if anything had h
Havoc.It was a strange thing, telling a woman I barely knew that I was in love with her. But as I held her in my arms as she slept, I realised I meant every single word. It wasn’t because I had been scared of losing her that I said the words but because I meant every damn word. Me, Havoc, was in love with the sweetest, most fiery woman in the world.The moment she pushed herself into the bar, I should have known. There should have been trumpets and fireworks and a giant neon sign above her head that warned me. Of course, there was none of that. There was just Darcie Summers in that damn gauzy, grey dress.And the funniest thing of all? I wasn’t even sure she felt the same. She sure as hell hadn’t planned on making me love her. Which left me open for all sorts of heartache that I wasn’t ready to deal with.“Havoc?”I blinked down at her as she sleepily said my name in her cute ass little accent. Her face was confused. “Go back to sleep.” Slowly I reached up to smooth her hair back
1 Month LaterHavoc“Is that everyone?” From beneath my lashes, I watched as Darcie peeled her clothes off, leaving them in a heap on the bedroom floor. We were still at Maggie’s, although I knew we would need to go home soon. Fang had understood my need to stay with Darcie as she helped my grandmother get the women who had been rescued home to their families. Darcie needed to stay busy and I needed her to be happy. So if she needed to stay here for now that’s what we would do. She turned to me, naked and unashamed and I was floored by just how lucky I was. How god damn perfect she was for me. She made me softer, something I never thought I would want, let alone embrace.Padding towards me, she slipped between the sheets. Her cold feet instantly found my legs. “Everyone but Iris. Maggie is going to try and contact the embassy but I doubt she will leave without finding her daughter first.”I mulled it over for a second. Iris. How had I forgotten Iris? The English girl with the same
IrisPeople always assume that being rescued is the end of a story. But I know that's not the case. Being rescued doesn’t mean you can go back to your life. It doesn't mean you can live happily ever after. That’s in fairy tales; it isn’t real life. Or at least that isn’t my life. I know people think I should be grateful for the rescue, and I really am.They think I should be able to shake off the last five years of my life, the pain, the darkness, and just get on with it. But I can't. It's not like the darkness is always there. There are times, tiny little moments where I almost forget. I smile and laugh. And for those split seconds, I can feel the woman I used to be still inside me. She is still there, fighting to be let out, and then the darkness takes me again. And I am back to being the Iris I have been trained to be. The woman with no fight in her. The one who jumps at her own shadow and won’t meet anyone's eye.I don't want to be the woman who people look at with sympathy in t
CyberThe woman on her knees between my legs had hair the colour of butterscotch. It fell over her face, which was fine. I didn’t need to see her face. The only thing I cared about was that she didn’t stop doing what she was doing with her tongue. She was pretty enough. All the club girls and hangers-on were in their own way. Not that I really paid much attention to them. I didn’t know their names. I didn’t even bother asking them. There was only one thing I wanted from girls like the one in front of me, and that was the release they could offer me. That instant sexual gratification. And none of them said no to me. They always scrambled when I clicked my fingers, eager and willing to do anything I wanted.I knew some of them aspired to be an old lady. It had happened before. A brother falling hard and fast for a girl who had done the rounds of the club, but I wasn’t one of those men. I would never take an old lady. I had enough stress without adding a regular woman to the mix.I had
IrisCyber.He had changed. A lot. But I would have recognised him anywhere. I knew that voice. The deep timber of it.And the way he said my name when I finally lifted my head was exactly the same way he had said my name five years earlier. When he had crashed into my life and changed everything. My whole world had imploded that night. Cyber had done that.He had started me on this path. It was all on his impossibly wide shoulders. If he hadn't come that night, my parents would still be alive, and I wouldn't have spent years in absolute misery. Scared of everything that moved.It was all because of him.And it had all started by him saying my name in his deep velvet voice.The exact same voice that he had just used.My heart slammed into my chest, and I clutched my throat with my hand as memories of that night engulfed me. It was suddenly hard to breathe. Panic gripped me, making the edges of my vision turn black.The darkness was threatening to overtake me. And this time I knew it
CyberMaggie was going to be ok, and that's what I should have been concentrating on, but I just couldn't stop thinking about Iris.Never in a million years had I thought I would see her again. Even when the name Iris had been dropped into conversations about the girls the Savage Sons had rescued from the human trafficking ring, I hadn’t batted an eyelid. There were loads of Iris’ in the world. The one I knew hadn't been the kind of girl to be snatched. She was safe and happy in her little corner of England. Where she belonged.To find her there, covered in Maggie's blood, had nearly floored me. It had come a lot closer than Havoc’s punch. But it was the hatred in her eyes, the way she had snarled at me not to touch her that I couldn't shake. She had every right to be pissed at me. I had ghosted her. Any girl would be angry. But it wasn't anger I had seen flashing her eyes. It had been hatred. A burning hot hatred. After five years, most girls would have gotten over it. They would h