Safety.
18
MAEVE
I sat up— my heart racing, my face aching — and wondered if Ethan Todd was making his way down the hall to my cell, if Mr. Skinny was bringing my tray of food.
But I wasn’t in the cell. I was in a well-furnished, brightly lit bedroom.
Bram’s room. And Ray was lying at my feet.
He scooted toward me on his belly with his tail thumping when he saw that I was awake.
“Hi, boy.” I bent over to bury my face in his soft golden fur. “I’m glad you’re okay. I missed you so much.”
He licked my cheeks and burrowed closer. His tongue stung my tender skin, but I didn’t care.
I looked around, trying to get my bearings. I had almost no memory of the trip home from… wherever Ethan Todd had been holding me prisoner. There were just flashes: a fire, a car, a plane.
The Butchers.
I shuddered as the memory of Anton’s blood returned. I gagged and ran to the toilet in Bram’s bathroom, retching untilmy stomach clenched in pain, but there was nothing there to throw up.
I was in clean underwear and a T-shirt I recognized as Bram’s. The Butchers had obviously managed to get me in clean clothes, but when I looked in the mirror my face was battered and bruised. My reflection stared back at me with haunted eyes, and there was a rust-colored smudge on my neck that I instinctively knew was Anton’s blood.
I gagged again, then turned on the shower as hot as I could get it.
It burned when I got under the spray, but I didn’t care. I wanted to sear the memory of what had happened from my mind and body, wanted to burn it all away.
I washed my hair with Bram’s shampoo twice and carefully washed my face, wincing and gasping in pain. Then I washed my body three times, fighting the shame that washed over me when I remembered the bucket I’d had to use as a toilet in my cell.
I hoped to god the Butchers hadn’t seen it, but I knew it wouldn’t matter if they had.
All of you.
I’d meant it when I said it. I knew Bram had meant it too.
My skin stung when I finally turned off the water, but I felt better when I stepped from the shower. I combed through my hair, dried off, and wrapped a towel around my body, then swapped it for a clean sweatshirt from Bram’s drawer.
I was out of luck in the underwear department, but the sweatshirt was long enough to cover my ass, and I pulled on a pair of Bram’s socks, so huge they almost went to my knees.
I felt almost human when I opened the door to the hall. I didn’t have a phone so I had no idea what time it was, but Bram’s room had been bright, and when I descended the stairs to the second floor, the sun was streaming through the loft’s living room windows.
I heard their voices before I saw them and felt an immediate rush of familiarity. It was the sound of comfort and safety.
Of home.
The Butchers were talking in hushed tones in the living room and I stepped hesitantly into the room, feeling like I’d just landed from another planet.
Poe caught sight of me first. I saw the concern in his dark blue eyes as he rose to his feet and hurried toward me. “You’re awake.”
I nodded and Bram and Remy crossed the room. They all enveloped me in a hug, and I was pretty sure I’d never felt safer than surrounded by the three men the rest of the world thought of as butchers.
We stood like that for a long time, just holding each other, their arms a fortress around me.
When we pulled away, Bram took my face tenderly in his big hands. The scar that slashed across his face had never been more dear to me, and I almost fell into the vacuum of his dark eyes. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Probably not much of a sight for sore eyes though.”
