We waited, in silence. I’d been kidnapped, sold to a man who kept me captive and who abused me. I’d thought I’d never be able to move past that, but the loss of Finn? That I know I won’t survive.
It’s like being trapped in the cellar all over again. If I was on my own, I’d go crazy. As it is, the walls feel like they’re closing in.
“Can’t we communicate? Maybe they don’t know we’re alive in here?” Surely men as resourceful as this club would have a method of getting a message to the outside world?
“They know. And we don’t know if our comms have been compromised. It’s radio silence until someone comes and opens the door up.”
It was probably not as long as I felt it had been in my mind and my terror about Finn, but eventually we hear different noises outside. Pip unbolts the door from the inside, then steps back fast, a gun appearing in his hand. He picks up the one Finn had given me and pushes it at me.
“If you don’t recognise them, pull the trigger,” he’d said, tersely.
I might not have shot anyone in my life, but if Finn’s dead, I’ll have no reluctance killing his murderers.
In the end, it’s Pip who forces the barrel of my gun down when the door opened to reveal Grinch and Goofy. Quickly they’d ushered us out.
God, the next few moments were hard. My memory replays them as I look around the clubhouse, seeing my rescuers at the bar having a well-deserved drink. Our side had won, but Finn? I shudder at the memory.
I’d counted every one. Gears was injured but walking under his own steam. One by one I crossed off everyone, except for Finn. Finn. Where was he? The building was half destroyed, and the half that wasn’t was on fire, the building my man was on top off with no way down given his injuries.
“There!”
With my heart in my mouth, I looked where Grinch had pointed. Not daring to breathe, I watched Finn slide and fall his way down what barely resembled a building at all, making a vow that if he survived, I’d hold onto him, and never leave him. It seemed impossible. What had taken moments seemed to stretch out forever.
Until he hit the ground.
Pip had held me back while Igor had rushed over…
Now I’m here, in the clubroom, standing next to the man I thought I’d lost forever. It’s still sinking in.
“I’m going to get a beer.” The voice of the man I’m thinking about comes into my ear. I turn to face him. He’s clean and wearing borrowed clothes. Apart from the cuts now scabbing over on his face, he’s as handsome as I’ve ever seen him.
“Don’t leave me,” I cry, sinking into his chest. “I thought you were dead.”
He kisses the top of my head. “Never. You’ll never get rid of me.”
Grinch saunters across, his beer raised in salute. “To the man of the hour.”
Finn snorts. “I played my part, that’s all. It was a fuckin’ good team effort. Hey, Cat. You can probably let App off in here. He won’t go anywhere.”
But something makes me keep holding onto his leash. Gears had given him back to me when I’d come back downstairs. Like me, he’d had one hell of a shock tonight, and I don’t want him running off.
“Good to hear the words team effort from your mouth, Stormy.” We both swing around.
“How the hell did you get back so fast?” Finn’s mouth is open in surprise.
Snatcher’s face sours. “We knew we were conned as soon as we arrived. The place was booby trapped, but we figured that out. Turned on our heels and came back immediately. When Pip’s call came, we were already in the air.”
Around me more men are walking in, but instead the crowd building up concerning me, I count them off in my mind, pleased to see them all alive and breathing. There’s Swift and Road—when Swift spies App she comes running over, snatching the leash out of my hand, lifting him up and cuddling him to her.
“Thank you for keeping him safe. I was so bloody worried.” I wave her off, I think App saved me as much as I did him, at least he was something to think about.
Honor and Duty walk in, then, after a few others I only know by sight, there’s Bolt, another of my dinner companions.
The clubhouse might be gone, but everything that’s important, the people, had survived.
Snatcher whispers something in Finn’s ear. Finn jerks his head up and down in response. As his prez walks off, he turns to Grinch. “Got any clean bed linen around here?”
“Sure. There’s a closet in the hall upstairs. Hell, we’d have made the place spick and span if we’d known we were having visitors.” Grinch yells across the room, “Prospects. C’mere.”
As Brute and Igor run over, and Gears limps along behind them, Grinch issues his instructions. “Got beds to be stripped and made.”
I feel Finn’s sigh as much as hear it. “I’ll be back later, babe. You going to be alright here?”
Grinch’s eyes open wide. “Stormy?”
“I’m a prospect, aren’t I? Best start as I mean to go on.”
Now it’s Thor who approaches. “Like you can make a fuckin’ bed with one leg and one arm, let alone after you fell from the roof of the fuckin’ building. You get a pass. This time.” The brawny man winks at me. “How about you and your woman get your own room sorted first? Then,” his eyes narrow and his face becomes fierce, “you can explain why you blew up our fuckin’ clubhouse and I’m not going to be sleeping in my own fuckin’ bed tonight.”
As Thor and Grinch move away, I bite my lip. “Are you going to get into trouble for that?”
Finn chuckles softly. “Nah, but I’ll get my chain yanked. Brothers are going to get some good mileage from it. Come on, let’s do what he said. Let’s get our room sorted.”
Our room. A few hours ago I’d have run from a possessive like that. Now, I don’t want Finn out of my sight.
Again, he uses me as a crutch as we go upstairs to where the prospects are already hustling and bustling around, doors bang open and dirty laundry is chucked out as they try to get some order into the chaos. Gears seems to be limping more heavily now.
Finn notices as he’s handed some fresh linen from a rack. “Don’t overdo it, man. You took a bullet for the club tonight.”
Gears rolls his eyes, and shoots Finn a frustrated look. “They were getting impatient. They said they’d shoot the ‘little fuck’ first to hurry you up. I had minutes man, I knew death was coming, but you took that fuckin’ shot. I owe you.”
Finn shrugs the obvious thanks off clearly embarrassed. But he deserves it, Gears might have had doubts about his own future, but a shiver runs through me remembering how I’d thought the worst had happened to Finn. Never, ever, do I want to watch my man seemingly fall to his death again.
What’s happened since my rescue has put things into perspective. I don’t know how, but I know I can’t leave Finn. It will take time, I will need help, but having almost lost him, I’ll do anything to hang onto him now.
As I take his weight again, he needs me to be a strong Cat now, not one the wind is likely to blow over. Slowly—he’s a big man—I help him back to the room he’d labelled as ours. The pronoun that had seemed so wrong yesterday means the world to me now.