Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
“No.” He frowns. “But I just woke up.”
“Sin?” I call out, entering the living room. I yelp in surprise when I see Tyson sitting on the couch, arms out across the back of the cushion. “You scared me.” I smile but it drops when he doesn’t return it. “Where’s Sin?” I ask, looking around as my father enters as well.
“He’s gone,” Tyson answers, his eyes going to my father then back to mine.
“What do you mean gone? When will he be back?” Maybe he had to go to the house of Lords for something.
“He’s not coming back.” Tyson stands and holds out a journal I hadn’t seen sitting next to him until now. Then he sets a Lords ring on the coffee table next to what I recognize is Sin’s cell phone. It starts to vibrate, and I see it light up with a text.
My breath hitches as the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. He’d never leave his phone behind. I pick it up, noticing there’s no longer a lock on it and open up the message to read it out loud.
UNKNOWN: Nicholas, enjoy your freedom.
“Fuck,” my father hisses, yanking the phone from my hand.
“What’s going on?” I demand. “What does it mean by freedom?” Why is it unknown? Why would they text it to Sin and not Tyson? I would wonder why they didn’t text my father if it was directed to him, but he doesn’t have a phone that I know of.
“Tyson, may I speak to you for a second?” My father ignores my questions and doesn’t wait for an answer from Tyson. Instead, he walks out of the house and onto the back porch. I open up the journal to the first page.
Little demon,
I’m sitting here next to you in our bed watching you sleep. It’s taking everything in me to not wake you up and tell you goodbye. To see those gorgeous blue eyes look at me one more time. To hear your sweet voice whisper you love me. I won’t do that to you. I’ve already put you through enough.
So I decided to write you a letter. It’s better this way, I promise.
First, let me just say, I am in love with you, Elli. I have been for as long as I can remember. I’m selfish, I know that. But I also know that you were always meant to be mine, and me yours. No matter what I’ve done or said to you, please believe me when I say it was always you. You are it for me.
I had to make a choice. And I know it was the correct one. I hope one day you will wake up and agree with me. You deserve your father. My family took him from you, it’s my responsibility to give him back. Nicholas can protect you from everything that is bad in our world. I failed you more than once and for that I’m sorry. I should have been there for you, and I wasn’t. Not when it mattered.
I tricked you into marrying me. I’m not sorry about that, though. I went to an attorney yesterday and had divorce papers drawn up, but I couldn’t bring myself to sign them. I can’t let you go. Although, I will no longer exist to the world, I will still be alive. For how long, I don’t know. But I promise you this, Elli, you will be my wife until I take my last breath. I did, however, make sure that you are taken care of. Tyson has the paperwork you’ll need. I left you everything that I have. I know you don’t need it, but you deserve it. You’ve always owned me so it felt wrong to not give you what was left of me.
This is where I’m supposed to tell you that I hope you find someone to make you happy. That you settle down with a good man that isn’t involved with the Lords, have kids, and grow old with him. But I can’t do that either. If that makes me a horrible person, then so be it. You know who I am, and I’m the guy that can’t imagine you with anyone other than me. That will never change.
Lastly-don’t lose yourself in your own mind, Elli. Don’t let yourself drown trying to save someone who refuses to swim. Stay clear-headed. Don’t fog your brain with drugs or doubt. You are stronger than that. Know that you are loved by a man that wanted the world for you, even if he wasn’t able to deliver.
Please know that you’ll always be in my thoughts, and that you will remain my little demon forever.
Love, your devil
“Where the fuck is he?” I hear my father demand and I look up through my watery eyes to see him enter the house. He yanks the journal from my hands.
I feel dizzy, my hands grab at my chest, pulling on my shirt.
Tyson walks over to me. “Breathe, Elli,” he orders, gripping my face, forcing me to look up at him. “Fucking breathe. Before you pass out.”
“Goddammit.” My father hisses, throwing the journal to the floor.
“W-why would he do this?” I’m gasping, trying to catch my breath. I don’t understand. The letter didn’t answer any of my questions, it just gave me more.
“Because he’s an idiot.” My father is the one who answers. “Tyson, we need to leave.”
“Where are we going?” he asks, confused.
“My old house. Now.” My father starts gathering his things. “Does the cathedral still have a triage set up?”
“Yeah.” Tyson nods.
“Good. Call Gavin. Have him meet us at the cathedral. We’re going to need him.”
_______________
I REFUSED TO stay back at the house after reading the note that Sin left me. If he is going to choose to leave me, he’ll say it to my motherfucking face. After everything we’ve been through, and he thinks he can just walk out on me? I won’t accept that from him. He’s never been a coward; I won’t let him be one now.
I sit in the back seat of my mother’s Cadillac Escalade. Looking over the seat, I see my mother and Sin’s father both hog-tied, lying side by side in the back. We went and picked them up at my parents’ house.
My father and Tyson have been talking nonstop. I’m trying to keep up with their conversation but half the words I don’t even understand. The other times I’m too busy crying, wondering why Sin would do this to me. Why can’t I have them both? Him and my father? Is that too much to ask? Just when I thought I was going to get what I want, what I deserve, the world takes it from me.
Tyson pulls into a driveway and stops at a gate. He punches in a code and the gate opens. We come to a circle drive, and I jump out of the SUV, my hands sweating as I look over the building. It looks like an old castle. One you would see sitting on a cliff where a monster would live. The dark clouds that cover the sky just add to the haunting feeling.
Tyson grabs my mother and my father grabs Sin’s. I follow after them on shaky legs and up the stairs. Tyson shoves both front doors open, and we enter the grand foyer. Two staircases are on either side that lead up to a second-story balcony. The smell makes me gag. It looks just as threatening on the inside as the outside.
“Well, well, well. We love when company shows up unannounced, don’t we, brothers?” a man’s voice echoes before he comes into view from a hallway off to the right.
“Surprise,” Tyson states dryly, dropping my mother to the floor. She sobs around the tape over her mouth. I should feel bad for her, but I don’t. Not after I found out everything that she had done.
Two more enter the room and they’re all covered in blood. From their hands to their shirts and their jeans. One guy even leaves bloody shoe prints with his black boots as he walks to stand in front of us. I gag again, getting the attention of one of them. He looks me up and down, smirking. “If you brought the girl to beg for Romeo, it won’t work.”
My watery eyes go to Tyson, but he keeps his eyes ahead on the three men who stand before us.
“I’m here for a trade.” It’s my father who speaks to them. “Two for one.” He then drops Sin’s father to the floor at the men’s feet.
“What am I going to do with them?” one asks, kicking Sin’s father in the chest, making him cry out into his gag.
“Whatever the fuck you want.” My father shrugs carelessly. “I’m sure you can come up with something.”
“I say we keep the kid and let her come visit him.” The same one from before steps closer to me. His blood-covered shirt almost touching mine. “We’ll let him watch us fuck her. I bet they’d both get off on that. I know I would.” He takes another step closer and my breathing stops. “Starve a man for a few days, he’ll eat anything. We’ll each take our turns, filling your cunt with our cum, then lay you out for him like a feast. He’ll eat every drop of us out of you.”
Tyson grabs me and yanks me behind him, and I try to swallow the bile that rises.
“Enough.” The first one who entered sighs heavily, sounding bored. “Jessie?” he then calls out, making me jump, and the one that was speaking to me laughs at my unease.
A man appears dressed in an all-black tuxedo. “Yes, sir?”
“Take these two to be prepared for initiation,” the one guy orders with a wave of his hand.
That one guy who was talking to me steps closer to Tyson, and he notices. “She’s not for you,” he tells the bloodied man.
“I’m just having fun, Tyson. Of all people, you should know what it’s like to have a piece of something that doesn’t belong to you.”
If Tyson is irritated, he doesn’t show it.
The one who called for Jessie gives us his back and the other two follow. Tyson takes my hand and drags me down a hallway on shaky legs and to an elevator. I cling to his side, staring straight ahead, ignoring the eyes that are on me. I want to ask if they’re taking us to Sin but bite my tongue instead. Where else would we be going?
The door opens and a shiver runs down my spine at the freezing cold air that hits me. Tyson steps out, yanking me with him. Down another hallway and to a door. One of the brothers opens it and Tyson steps in, but then spins around, stopping.
I run into him and ask nervously, “What?” I look up at him with wide eyes and I catch his jaw working as he clenches it.