Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
“He has nothing to say. Maybe you should have Devin wire his mouth shut,” Sin says as he joins us in the room.
“Want to be a Spade brother?” Kash asks, looking over at him. “Seriously, I feel like we could adopt you.”
Sin laughs, thinking it’s a joke, but Kashton has become quite fond of Easton, and I’m pretty sure Kashton would have him and Elli a room ready to go by the end of the day.
“Fuck you.” The guy spits blood onto the concrete floor. “Your girl isn’t anything special.” His one good eye finds mine.
I kick him in the face, needing to move this along. I saw how Charlotte looked at me upstairs. She didn’t want me to leave her but was either ashamed or too afraid to ask me to stay with her.
The bastard’s head snaps back, and blood sprays across the concrete floor he lies down on before rolling to his side, holding his bloody face. Without the adrenaline, he’s going to feel it a lot more now.
I shove him onto his stomach and order, “Tie his hands behind his back.”
Kash comes to kneel beside him as I push my boot into the back of his neck, holding the man down. He doesn’t even fight him as Kash pulls his arms behind him and secures them with a pair of handcuffs. I remove my boot, and Kash steps back, kicking him back onto his back. I place my boot at his throat this time. “Last time and I start cutting. What were you going to do to my girl?”
He coughs, spit flying from his mouth and splattering his busted face. “She…was…random,” he says between gasps.
“So you don’t know who she is?” Saint questions, wanting to make sure he stays consistent with his answers.
He tries to shake his head, and I press my boot further into his neck, cutting off his air. “Use your fucking words!” I demand. Loosening my boot, he coughs once more.
“N-ooo,” he cries out. “I swear.”
“So were you going to rob her or rape her?” I ask.
A part of me doesn’t believe him. Another part wants to because if he’s lying, then I have another problem on my hands. It’s not uncommon for a Lord to hire someone outside of the society to do their dirty work. Or he could have been a Lord who didn’t make the cut.
“Both,” he says through gritted teeth, spit flying from his bloody mouth.
“At least he’s honest.” Kash shrugs, looking at me.
Yeah, after I’ve beat the shit out of him twice. “What do you know about the Lords?” I demand, wanting to know more. No matter what he does and doesn’t know, the bastard will die here.
“Fuck the Lord! I’m not religious,” he snaps.
Sin throws his head back laughing, and Kash chuckles. Saint and I don’t find it funny. “Lords aren’t religious either, but we do believe in hell.” I remove my boot from his neck, and he rolls back onto his side to relieve the pressure of his arms underneath him. “And today you start serving three devils.”
FIFTY-SEVEN
CHARLOTTE
Iwas just getting out of the bathtub when Haidyn returned to his room. I didn’t want to wash my hair, so I opted for a bath rather than a shower. I washed my mouth out with mouthwash and then cleaned my body.
I feel a little better but tired. The clock on my dash says it’s only six o’clock in the evening. It started raining at some point while we were at Carnage.
As we were leaving, I couldn’t help but think that my future husband was in the same building as me. Hell, I was in the basement. He could have been right there, and I had not known it.
But I know what happens there. If he’s a prisoner, he’s as good as dead, meaning any future we have is no longer an option, which makes me wonder why I’m even doing an assignment. What other future do they have planned for me now?
When we pull up to Haidyn’s house, he parks in the garage and opens the door for me. He hasn’t told me what he did when he left me in his room, and I haven’t asked.
“Would you like anything to eat?” he asks as we enter his house.
“No, thank you,” I say softly. “Jessie fed me at Carnage.” He had brought me some soup and crackers, informing me that Devin requested he bring me something to eat due to the meds he had given me.
He nods. “I’m going to take a shower.” With that, he enters his bathroom and shuts the door.
I find myself pulling his T-shirt and sweatpants off my body and crawling into his bed naked. I didn’t have any clean underwear at Carnage, so I chose not to put mine back on. The sheets are cool and feel good on my bruised skin. Lying on my side, I watch the rain hit his wall of windows. It’s not nighttime yet, but the storm makes it appear to be at this time of day.
I try to fight a yawn, but fail, knowing if I fall asleep now, I’ll be up way too early in the morning. But what else is there for me to do?
Lightning illuminating the room has my eyes opening. Seconds later, the sound of thunder shakes the walls.
The bathroom door opening has me sitting up, and I see Haidyn entering the bedroom. He has a towel sitting low on his hips, wrapped around his waist. He walks toward the door when I speak. “Will you lie with me?”
He comes to a stop and turns to face me with a look of surprise on his face.
I’m not even sure why I asked. I just feel…alone. I want his hands on me. I want my legs wrapped around his waist, not his towel. The moment we shared at Carnage is still fresh on my mind and my body is begging for him.
Lightning fills the room once again, and he walks toward the bed. I lie down at the sound of the thunder that follows and watch shamelessly as he removes his towel and lets it drop to the floor before he pulls back the covers and crawls into his bed with me.
I had felt him hard at Carnage, but of course he’s not anymore. Something tells me it wouldn’t take much to get him there again.
He holds the edge of the covers up. I take the hint and scoot over into his side, placing one leg over his waist and an arm over his chest. He lets them fall, and darkness covers the room as the rain hits the windows.
His right hand slides under the covers to rest on my thigh that is over his waist. His thumb gently rubs back and forth, and I feel my body instantly heat. All of a sudden, I’m getting hot, and my breathing picks up.
I swallow nervously and break the awkward silence between us. “Did you find out anything?” My voice is softer than I meant it to be, and his silence makes me wonder if he even heard me.
After a long second, he lets out a deep breath, making his chest rise and fall. “No.”
He’s lying. I want to be mad, but maybe he’s protecting me? Trying to ease my mind about what could have happened in that bathroom. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” I say, my voice louder than before but still on the softer side.
His thumb stops on my thigh, and his hand moves up over my hip, my side, and then to my face. Cupping my cheek, he forces me to look up at him. I can barely see him in the dark room, but the lightning helps a little. “You’re okay,” he assures me.
“Why did you want me to wait on you?” I ask, needing to know.
His eyes search mine as he answers. “Because men will camp out in a women’s bathroom to attack them as they enter. They will rape and kill them. Then leave them there to rot as they get away.”
“Is that what you think he was going to do to me?”
He sighs but doesn’t answer the question. Instead, he says. “Why do you think he picked a gas station right off the busiest highway?”
I frown, not understanding.
“Because it’s loud. That highway has a lot of traffic coming and going-each way. Men are able to do whatever they want, and no one can hear the women screaming for help.”
“I screamed for you,” I whisper. “Did you hear me?”
I feel his heart pounding under my hand that rests on his chest. “No.”
“So…why did you come in there?” I ask.
“To check on you,” he replies simply. “I’m sorry it wasn’t sooner.”
“I…” Debate on whether to tell him this but I decide after what I saw him do to the guy that I might as well. “I checked underneath the stalls but saw nothing. I was just looking to see which ones were open, not thinking a man was hiding in them. But he obviously was.” I give a rough laugh, and he frowns. “I didn’t see any shoes, but they were locked. He must have been standing on the toilet. Hovering to go unseen. He had two doors locked knowing I’d have to use the only one available. I wonder how long he had been in there waiting for someone to enter.”