I was shocked to find Alex standing at the cliff’s edge, a black dress blowing in the wind across the backs of her legs. She kicked off her heels and stood barefoot in the grass, long curls draped over her shoulder. Even from behind, she took my fucking breath away.
I glanced at Bastian. He nodded, and we each took a side, sandwiching her between us.
Bastian bent down and whispered against the shell of her ear. “Are you okay, Cherry?”
She startled at the deep rumble of his voice. “No.”
His hand slid onto her hip. “What’s wrong?”
She studied each of our faces before taking a deep breath. “Luca.”
Bastian cupped her cheek. “What did he do?”
“He’s acting like his old self. Luca said it was all a game to him. That he never liked me.” She choked out a sob. “He called me white trash.”
“I’m sorry, Cherry. Luca is an asshole. I don’t think that about you. Neither does Damian.”
Bastian hooked his arm around her, and I watched this rare display of affection. He wanted this to work with her. And I needed both of them back in my life.
I was sick of not having them.
“I thought you didn’t want me,” Alex said, a tear dripping down her cheek. “You guys stopped touching me.”
“Because of Luca,” Bastian admitted. “He fucked with us, too. I’m so sorry, baby.”
His lips brushed hers, and I expected her to step back after not looking at either of us since Luca sank his teeth into her.
Bastian fisted her curls and parted her lips with his tongue. She opened up for him, their tongues tangling in harmony. It was a sweet kiss at first, but Bastian was more aggressive once they got used to each other.
He kissed her the way he sucked my cock. Like he was desperate for more and didn’t want to come up for air.
I was so fucking jealous.
He rarely kissed women and refused to kiss me, but maybe this was what he needed to get us back on track. As their mouths separated, Alex was breathing hard.
So was Bastian.
He cradled the side of her face and stared into her eyes. “That was some kiss, Cherry.”
She smiled. “I’ll say.”
Alex turned her head to look at me. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking until her eyes settled on my mouth.
Did she want me to kiss her?
I needed to fuck her before I thought about any other human connection with her. Bastian didn’t get repulsed at the thought of skin-on-skin contact. He hadn’t slept in a grave with a dead body beside him. My brothers didn’t know the true depths of my darkness. Most of the shit I had done stayed with me.
“We leave in the morning.” Bastian twirled one of Alex’s curls around his finger. “You won’t see us for a while.”
I already knew Luca would stalk her from a distance. He had been doing it all year and monitored her cell phone and emails. She would never know the meaning of privacy. Not as long as we were in her life. And she was stuck with us for the foreseeable future.
CHAPTER 21
DAMIAN
I spent most of my childhood feeling like an outsider. Even now, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. Luca treated me like a child. Marcello ignored me. And my adoptive father acted like I was a weapon for him to use for his deviant purposes.
But not Bash.
