Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
“Hello, Ashtyn.”
My blood runs cold at the familiar sound of my name. Slowly, I push myself up to look over Haidyn’s body to the man now standing in the room.
“What the fuck?” Jasmine barks.
His eyes move to hers, and he smiles. “Jasmine, it’s been a while.”
SIXTY-TWO
SAINT
I step over the fourth dead body down in the basement following the blood trail. Sin wasn’t wrong. Kash is currently on a killing spree. He may be the joker, but when you piss him off, he is ruthless. It just takes more to get him there than it does me or Haidyn.
The thought of our brother in the morgue makes my chest tighten and hands fist. I’m going to get answers, and whoever did this to our family will pay. I’ll make sure the last word they speak is Haidyn’s name before I carve it into their chest.
But I’ve got to calm down Kashton first. He’s obviously not asking any questions before he kills them.
We come to the pits, and a man crawls across the concrete floor, dragging his broken legs behind him, sobbing.
“Kash?” I say, getting his attention, but he ignores me and walks over to the far wall. He grabs a meat hook, his fingers curling around the handle.
“Please…noooooo,” the man sobs, trying to move in the opposite direction, but he’s too slow.
Kashton walks over to him as the guy rolls onto his back. He raises his hands to defend himself, but Kash leans over, shoving the hook underneath the man’s chin and yanks him to his feet. Kash pulls the guy into him with the hand still gripping the hook while the other starts to punch the man in the face. The position has the hook cutting into the man, splitting the guys neck and chin. Blood squirts out and the guy makes gurgling sounds.
Tyson and Ryat stand to the side watching. Ryat looks impressed, but Tyson looks worried. Ryat and Sin knew Haidyn, but they weren’t as close to him as me and Tyson were. Sin comes to stand next to me.
“Kash?” I walk over to him and place my hand on his arm. He lets go of the meat hook and the guy falls to the ground with it still stuck in his neck. By the way he gags, he’s not dead yet. “What are you doing?” It’s a stupid question because I know he’s hurting, but this isn’t going to get me what I need.
He’s breathing heavily, and his eyes are wild. He’s covered in blood.
“Did he know anything?” I ask, pointing at the man flopping around like a fish out of water.
Kash runs both his bloody hands through his hair, pushing it off his face. “He wasn’t going to tell us anything anyway.”
“You don’t know that,” I growl.
His eyes narrow on me. “I know that it was an inside job and the only way we’re going to fix the problem is to kill them all.”
I take in a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. I’m about to lose my shit, and if we burn this place down, it won’t do us any good. “We’re-“
“You’re right. It was an inside job,” a male’s voice states, but it’s distorted like in the video.
My stomach drops when I see Ashtyn enter the room with Jasmine by her side. They both have duct tape over their mouths. Jasmine’s hands are tied behind her back, and Ashtyn’s are zip-tied in front.
“What the-?” Kashton steps forward but two men dressed the same as the video are behind them, holding both girls by their hair.
Coming to a stop, the girls whine as they’re forced to their knees, guns cocked and placed at the back of their heads.
The blood rushes in my ears. I’ve seen this. My worst nightmare. Both men are dressed in black pants, long-sleeve black shirts, and bulletproof vests. They’ve got gloves on and have guns strapped to their thighs. Matching masks cover their faces. Not an inch of skin or hair can be seen.
“What do you want?” Kashton yells, stepping forward, and the guy behind Jasmine yanks her head back, making her scream into the tape.
I hold my hands out when Tyson steps up next to me. Technically, we could take them. It’d be five against two, but it will only take a second for them to kill the girls, and I won’t take that chance. I can’t lose her again.
The guy behind Ashtyn pulls out a cell, and a second later, the phone rings as he places it on speakerphone. “Hello?” a man answers. Again, you can’t make out who it is.
“We’ve got them. In the pits.” He hangs up, and I curse that they’ve got their voices altered.
I look at Ash, and her head is down. She’s dressed in blue scrubs and tears run down her face. How did they get to her? Was the bomb their plan? Get everyone to one part of Carnage while forcing our attention down here? It left them sitting ducks.
She sobs, her shoulders shaking, and I hate what I’ve done to her. I brought her back here. She was happy without me. She had moved on, and I couldn’t accept that because I was too selfish.
“You’re okay, Ash,” I tell her. She raises her bloodshot eyes to meet mine, and they plead with me to save her. To be the man I was trained to be and fucking do something.
Kash steps forward, and the guy yanks Jasmine to her feet, wrapping his arm around her neck from behind. She screams out into the tape before he wraps his arm around her neck and begins to choke her while she kicks her legs out, struggling in his grip.
“Alright! Alright!” Kash raises his hands and takes two step back from them.
The guy lets go of her, and she falls to her knees, bowing her head and trying to catch her breath.
“Gentlemen.” We turn to see a third man-guessing the one they called-enter behind us and my heart races. He’s their twin. Dressed the same except he has ACE written across his vest.
I go to rush him, but his words stop me. “Did you like your gift?”
I tense at the way he laughs.
“I brought her back to you.” He points at my wife on her knees, and I look at her confused and then back at him. “See…it took me some time to figure out how to do it, but here we are.” He raises his arms out wide. “As much fun as I had whipping and raping your wife for the past four days, I thought I’d let her go and run back to you. Now you get to suffer the way that I did.”
I haven’t had the chance to speak to Ashtyn about what happened while she was away. But she didn’t have to tell me. Devin read me the results. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I bark.
“Ashtyn is pregnant, right?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I avoid his question. One, because I don’t know who the fuck this is. And two, because I don’t know why he would think that. I mean, could be just a guess. She’s a Lady, and we’re supposed to reproduce.
He chuckles. “I thought she taught you better than to lie.”
I look at Kashton, and he’s white in the face. After Ash left and our training began, all staff was removed, and hers was brought in. Because she didn’t want anyone favoring us. We were no longer Lords, just prisoners until she was done with us. He had to have been one of them. They were always dressed in cloaks and masks.
He looks at my wife. “You see, sweetheart, your precious Lord made sure he would get you pregnant.”
She shakes her head, not believing it.
“Isn’t that right, Saint?” He doesn’t let me answer. “But no worries. I’m here to repay the favor. An eye for an eye.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. What eye? What fucking favor?” As much as I want to slit his throat, the more he talks, the more time he gives us to come up with a plan. And that just keeps him busy. If he’s talking to me, he’s ignoring her.
He steps toward me. “I’m going to let you watch her lose yours, like I watched her lose mine.”
Kashton looks at me like “what the fuck,” and I start to laugh. “She’s never been pregnant.”
He looks over at Ashtyn. “Tell him, Ash. Tell him how hard it was on you when you lost our son.”
I look at my wife, and her watery eyes are on the floor. “Look at me.” Her shoulders begin to shake as her mumbled sobs fill the room. “Ashtyn!”
The man standing behind her grips her hair and yanks her head back. Her tear-filled eyes meet mine before they close and fresh tears run down her taped face.