“These men said I had to come with them,” she rushes out.
“They’re the ones I was telling you about the last time we talked,” I remind her of our previous conversation. I feel warm, strong arms wrap around me from behind. “Jessia, this is Shamus. These,” I open up my arms and swing them around in the guys’ directions, “are his brothers. They came to rescue us and take us to find our newfound freedom and lease on life.”
“We’ll never be free,” she quietly shares. “Gray and Jeremiah will never let me go. They’ll see me dead before they allow me to live outside of their domain.”
A shiver runs through me at her proclamation, I’m nothing more than property to Jeremiah and he doesn’t do well when he loses anything he deems his.
“We need to hit the road,” Shamus whispers in my ear. “The sooner we’re in our territory the more power we have to protect you, all of you.”
I look around Jessia and see that Ella is sound asleep, passed out without a care in the world, in her car seat. They are stuffed in there like a can of sardines so there’s no room for me to join them. Shamus reaches out his hand and I place mine in it. He laces his fingers with mine and drags me behind him toward his bike.
We get in our previous position. As my arms wrap around his torso and my head rests between his shoulders, a sense of contentment strums through me.
Just being in the presence of all of these strong, alpha men, I feel more protected and coveted than I ever have in my lifetime.
Now, all I need is to lay eyes on my sister and all will be right in my world.
Chapter Nine
Star
The hours pass by in a blur of active movement. I get mesmerized as the tires eat the paved ground beneath us. I feel as if I’m flying high in the sky, joining the stars as they twinkle brightly, looking down at the earth as we eat the asphalt. We’ve only stopped once to fuel up the vehicles and I stretched my legs. Jessia and I stayed close to the car that holds a peacefully sleeping Ella. She has no idea that our world has just been turned upside down.
I know it’s going to take her a bit to adjust, but I can’t wait to see her come out of her shell. I want her to know it’s alright to get dirty, it’s alright to make mistakes, I just want her to be a kid.
She’s always so self-conscious of what she’s doing. Fearful for being scolded for a little dirt underneath her fingernails, worried if she gets anything on her pristine clothes.
It’s definitely going to be a learning curve for all three of us. Jessia looks like a deer caught in the headlights, not sure if she can trust the men who came to our aid or not. She hasn’t had the best of luck where it pertains to men. Other than her dad, she hasn’t had a good one in her life for a long time.
She’s lived each and every day in fear of what would come. Would that be the day that Gray decided he wanted to crawl between her thighs and force himself on her? Would her brother have had a bad day and wanted to witness, enact or perform a punishment on her person?
Every time I’ve laid eyes on her, she’s had a new bruise or welp on her.
The only person she’s lived for the past two years is Ella, that’s the one thing we have in common. Our love and devotion to a little girl who stole our hearts the moment she came into this world.
My mind has wandered frequently down the path as to what it’ll be like to actually play a crucial role in my baby’s life. I don’t think I’ll be able to let her out of my sight anytime soon. I’ve missed so much and I don’t plan on allowing that to happen in the future. I want to be a part of every milestone she meets, watch her bloom as she discovers new and interesting things.
All the things most people take for granted when it comes to life.
Not me, I look forward to each temper tantrum she throws, each time she fights me when it comes to bedtime will mean she’s finally being a child. I want her to throw the biggest fits, I want her to yell at me in frustration, I want to watch her make a mess and know that no punishment will come from it.
I just want her to live! I want us all to live.
Nobody is perfect, and that’s something that she’ll slowly begin to learn.
Shamus. Where will he fit into her life? I know he says that because she’s mine that makes her his as well. But can a man truly love and accept a child that doesn’t have the same blood flowing through their veins as his?
I suppose only time will tell.
But I promise myself this, the very second he treats her as if she’s anything outside of the treasure she is, he’ll be history. I’ll always be thankful to him for putting himself on the line for us, but she will always come first.
I haven’t been able to do that for her
