“Don’t. You don’t mean that shit. You need to take a step back and think. Tulip isn’t special. She’s not a virgin. She’s been fucking that guy. She’s not going to be any good to either of you,” Joey explains, keeping his voice calm.
I feel a little hurt by his words, but I know he’s trying to talk his father down, even if they do hurt a bit.
“I can save her,” Silas whispers. “Keep her for myself. Cleanse her.”
Joey shakes his head. “She’s not ours anymore.”
“She’s been mine since she was fourteen. Been watching her, and you fucked it all up,” Silas snaps. “She’s ours. You were supposed to be training her for us. You fucked it all up.”
Joey takes a step forward, reaching his hand out and grips his father’s shoulder. “Where are the others? Don’t they miss you?” he asks softly.
“Only got one left. The others pissed me off. She’s home where she belongs. In the basement.”
My heart squeezes at the woman who is locked in a basement. Then I wonder if any women were locked in the basement when I lived there. I never ventured down there, it was dark, dank and creepy as shit, I never had the desire to explore.
“Go home, Dad. Let me get Tulip back where she belongs.”
Silas shakes his head. “That ain’t where she belongs. I’m keeping her. Should have taken her when her parents died. Your mama talked me outta that shit because you had a little hard-on for her.”
“No,” Joey shouts. “Fucking, no.”
Silas brings his gun up and points it directly against Joey’s stomach. “Yes,” he growls. “You’re a pussy, always have been. How you came from me, I don’t know, but you got too much of your weak assed mother inside of you. I’m going to own every part of that girl, the way I was always meant to. Nothing you or her half-breed boyfriend can say or do to stop me.”
“Fuck you, Silas,” I scream. “Call him that again, I fucking dare you.”
Slapping my hand against my mouth, I breathe in and out of my nose as I watch him slowly turn his gaze to meet mine. I can feel Joey looking at me too, but I’m too terrified to look away from Silas’ angry eyes.
“What did you say?” he asks, his words coming out dangerously slow.
Inhaling a deep breath, I let my hand drop from my mouth. “Louis Kingston is more of a man than you will ever be,” I say.
“You ain’t taught her shit in the years that you had her,” Silas grunts, speaking to Joey, but his gaze never leaves mine.
Joey chuckles. “I taught her plenty. I taught her how to be the strongest woman in town.”
My eyes flick over to Joey and I watch as he smirks before he reaches for Silas’ gun. He’s going to attempt to disarm him and everything happens in slow motion. Someone in the background screams and it takes me a moment to realize that it’s me, but I can’t stop and I can’t close my mouth.
Silas jerks back and at the same time pulls the trigger of his shotgun. Joey gasps, his eyes widening as his mouth falls open and his knees give out from beneath him as he reaches out to grab ahold of his father’s shoulder.
The room is silent, aside from my annoying screaming that I can’t control. Silas turns to me, his eyes filled with uncontrollable rage.
“Shut the fuck up,” he shouts.
Slapping my palm over my mouth, I scream into my hand instead of the quiet room. My entire body is trembling as I attempt to control myself, but I can’t.
Joey has a giant fucking hole in his stomach, his blood is splattered all over the front door and his own father did it to him. The man who’s holding me hostage, who has basically admitted that he’s killed at least three women.
I’m next, I know it. Tears immediately start to fall from my eyes just as the front door bursts open.
LOUIS
I jump out of the truck and immediately begin to pace. I’ve promised not to go inside until someone calls me in. We don’t even know for sure if she’s here, but the way Joey ran, then drove, like a bat out of hell, I know that she must be.
There’s shouting coming from inside of what appears to be a small hunting cabin. Joey’s pickup is parked alongside a car. Wyatt and Rylan have their heads together, with Ford standing a foot back, but intently listening to them as he nods every now and then.
Shawn and Aaron are close by, but their focus is on me and only me. They know that I’m seconds from losing the loose hold that I have on my control.
A shotgun blasts from inside of the cabin.
All six of us stop talking and slowly turn our heads to look at the front door. I don’t know what we expect to see, but we all watch and wait. There’s screaming, it sounds tortured and terrified and I know within an instant that it’s Tulip.
I take a step forward, but Aaron and Shawn both flank my side and grab ahold of me to hold me back.
“No,” I grunt as I start to fight against them. “No,” I repeat as Wyatt and Rylan start to run toward the door with Ford in front. I catch a glimpse of something in Ford’s hand and I realize that he’s got his pistol in his hand.
Shawn and Aaron hold me back with all of their strength, but there is no way anyone could keep me from Tulip right now. Her muffled screams fill the air and adrenaline fills my body at the same time.
Like the fucking Hulk, I rip my body away from the men that I consider my friends and partners. My feet move, my legs pump and they carry me inside of that tiny one-room cabin.
There’s a body on the floor that I have to jump over, Ford and Wyatt have another body on the ground and Rylan is standing at the bottom of a ladder that’s bolted to the wall.
It’s fucking mayhem.
“Local sheriff’s on the way, along with Hernandez,” Wyatt grinds out.
I hear him, but what he’s saying doesn’t mean a fucking thing to me. There is only one thing on my mind and that’s Tulip. Rylan holds his arms up and I watch as a small body with blonde hair falls into his grasp.
He turns around and I breathe for the first time in hours. She’s there. He’s holding her to his chest, his hand pressed against the back of her head.
“Outside,” he grunts, dipping his chin to Joey who is lying in a too-still heap on the floor.
Backing out of the cabin, I debate on snatching her body from his arms, but I don’t. When he’s in front of me, he whispers something in her ear and I watch as her small head nods in confirmation. Then, finally, fucking finally he transfers her into my arms.
I know that I hold her too tightly. My knees give out as soon as I feel her breath against my shirt. Together we fall onto the dirty ground.
Wrapping my legs around her, I pull her against my body, needing her to be closer, needing to fucking absorb her. Dipping my chin, I rest it on the top of her head as I pinch my eyes closed and lose all control.
I cry.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
TULIP
The door flies open and my entire body relaxes at the sight of the men who enter the room. Ford has a gun in his hand and points it without hesitation at Silas. I don’t know if Silas is still in shock or knows when to give up, but I watch in almost glee as he drops his shotgun to the floor.