Biting the corner of my lip, I look around the newly decorated bedroom. It looks nothing like it did a couple of days ago. It is fresh and light, it looks like it belongs in a showroom. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t have done any of it without Mountain’s men.
Dragon came by on the first day, looked at the carpets while grumbling, then an hour later there were three prospects here and they replaced all of the flooring in the house. Now instead of old, worn, stained carpeting, I’m standing on warm, weathered mahogany hardwood flooring. It’s heavenly.
The entire house feels amazing and beautiful and kind of a dream come true, in its own way. I know it’s not as fancy as my father’s house, it doesn’t have the luxuries that his did. However, where his was pretty to look at, it held horrors of the worst imaginable kind. This place is a little more worn, a little more torn, but it’s going to be filled with love and hopefully happiness.
My phone rings in my back pocket and I quickly tug it out, smiling as I see the name Unknown Caller flash across the screen, knowing exactly who it is on the other end of the line.
“Hey,” I breathe.
There’s a moment of silence, then I hear him clear his throat. “Heard you been busy?” he asks.
Looking around the room, I press my lips together. “Maybe,” I offer, trying not to laugh.
He chuckles. “Dragon and Taz have been in constant communication. I have a feeling my credit card bill is going to be sky high.”
A sudden sense of dread fills me. A sickness forms at the pit of my stomach. I didn’t think about cost, about money at all. I was so wrapped up in making everything perfect, in making a home that I didn’t even consider that all of this was going to cost Wilder a lot of money. He told me to get what I needed, and I selfishly got what I wanted.
“Mi reina,” he calls out, his voice sharp and there is a bite to it. I shake my head, humming as my response. “Got money, babe. Got plenty. Whatever you want, I’m good with it. All of the bigger cosmetic shit Dragon talked to me about ahead of time. Don’t fuckin’ worry, yeah?”
My stomach still twists, but I shove it down and try to push it completely away. “Okay, yeah.”
“Can’t wait to come back to the home you made. Never had a real one before.”
I look around the house and frown. Of course, he had a home, I’m standing in it, I redecorated it. This most definitely was a home. He interrupts my thoughts as if he can read them.
“Had a house, a hellhole. Never had a home, babe. Not until I moved into the clubhouse and well, that ain’t much of a home.”
Wrinkling my nose, I shake my head. “No, it’s really not, but I can see how you felt safe there,” I admit.
“You feel it?” he asks.
“I do. They love you, Wilder. They truly do. It would make anyone feel at peace.”
“Giving that to you, babe. When I get back, when we’re able to really be together. Giving you that peace you need.”
“I hope that I can give that to you too,” I whisper.
“Already do, mi reina.”
He ends the call and I’m not surprised. Every time we talk about something that is serious, that is real, he ends the conversation before we get too deep into it. I don’t think it’s because he’s trying to avoid it, but maybe he is, I think it’s more along the lines of him wishing to talk about these things in person.
“Looks like you think you’re in love,” a deep voice rasps.
Spinning around, the phone falls from my fingers and I stand, frozen and staring at the man in front of me. Shaking my head, I take a step back, then another, until I hit the wall behind me and have nowhere else to go.
“How?” I breathe.
“Do you think that you could just run away and I would never find you again?”
“You died,” I breathe. “They killed you.”
He shrugs a shoulder, his suit impeccable, his hair the same. My heart starts to race. His gaze flicks down to my belly, then shifts back up to meet mine again. His top lip curls in disgust.
“That’s a little problem that we’ll have to take care of.”
“No,” I rasp, wrapping my arms around my belly.
My eyes frantically look around for Taz, for Trista, for anyone who is supposed to be here. His lips turn from disgust to humor as he lets out almost a cackling laugh.
“They’re incapacitated for the moment. I should have ended them, but I decided not to. Especially the woman. She’ll do perfectly.”
“No,” I cry. “Take me, leave her here.”
He laughs. “As if you have a choice in coming, either of you. Leighton Richardson, you are in no position to bargain with me over anything.”
“How? How did you survive?” I ask again.
I know that he’ll take me with him, that I won’t have a choice. I could attempt to fight him right now, but he isn’t going to allow that. He will overpower me one way or another and the longer I keep him here, keep him talking, the better chance I have for one of the others to come and hopefully help me, Taz, and Trista.
“They tried to force me to put the gun in my mouth and shoot myself. When I fought with them, they shot me in the chest, but they also shot a few of the men I was with. When the cleanup crew came, I had crawled to my filing cabinet and grabbed a handful of cash, paying one of them off to call my doctor. You don’t realize how much money does talk, do you, Leighton?”
“You’re disgusting,” I hiss. “I hate you.”
He laughs, his cruel voice ringing throughout the room. “You have no idea how disgusting I can be and how little I care how you feel about me.”
“Just, before we go, tell me why,” I softly demand.
He tilts his head to the side, his eyes searching mine. “Why?”
“Why have you done this, the girls, me? How could you do these things?”
His eyes glaze over as if thinking about all those beautiful girls that have been in and out of his home. How many men had been in and out of my bedroom. How many countless people’s lives were destroyed by his actions, by his perversions.
“Why not? Do you think that these desires go away without supply? Do you think that supply will ever dry up? Do you truly think that the world will be harmonious and nobody will ever feel pain?”
“But children? Your own child?”
He chuckles, it’s cold and distant. Then I realize that is who he is, that is who he has always been—cold and distant. Nothing more, nothing less. And right now, I’m about to go back into the hands of the Devil himself, for the second time in my life. Except this time, I have my unborn child and my new life to protect.
MOUNTAIN
“What’s going on with you and Avah?” I ask on a whisper as I watch the man down in the valley look around before he slips into the seemingly deserted building.
Most people would think that it’s just some shack, nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. But if you walk inside, toward the back, there is a hidden staircase in the corner, just wide enough for a man to walk down.
The basement is where all the action happens. Where all the drugs are made and packaged. Where this fucker is going and where he probably won’t ever walk out of alive again. I am not fucking around with him, or his cunt of a sister.