I get up and force my way into Vin’s lap so I can see what he’s reading. He kisses my temple and points to a section of the page. ‘Today Daddy made me brush my hair over and over again without a top on’. My heart aches for the little girl who endured this treatment, was raped, then trapped, and ultimately murdered, all by brutal disgusting men. She just couldn’t catch a break.
“Hey, it says here that your grandfather was sent a VHS of the rape. Do you have that? It would be considered evidence.” Travis says while reading a paper from our grandfather’s box. “Looks like my father wrote this. It’s his writing.”
He’s reading the anonymous letter that was sent to my grandfather telling him to watch the tape of his daughter as the town whore and that he should consider sending her away.
“Why was my father so set on getting your mother out of here?” Travis mulls it over.
“Maybe because she remembered who raped her and she was building something against him?” I theorize.
“You’re probably right, then she meets Raphael and falls in love and decides to leave this place behind her.” Vin mumbles.
“Only to be subjected to another type of hell at his hands.” I am seething.
“Why wouldn’t she go into witness protection though? Especially with you as a small child. She must’ve known Raphael would come looking for her when he got out.” Travis scratches his chin in thought.
“I think she was always trying to find a way to Emmett. If she went into witness protection, she would have to let him go forever. Or maybe she knew Raphael had too many paid under the table and he would find her regardless.” I shrug.
“This is a good start.” Emmett nods.
“Let’s get Wade and that problem out of the way and then I can completely focus on this little disease of a town. I plan on raising my kids here, it needs to be purged.” I ground out.
“Once the first one’s in here,” Vin pats my flat stomach. “The others will follow soon after.”
“Oh yeah?” Emmett gets a mischievous gleam in his eye, “when will that be?”
“After we get married.” Vin shrugs and my heart soars.
“And when is that?” Emmett continues to badger him.
“Two years, tops.” Vin states and I gasp.
“Two years?” I look at him.
“Tops.” He reiterates and kisses my mouth. “I better head over and check on my mom.” He places me on the couch and gets up.
He saunters out of the room, his swagger full of quiet confidence. The way those particular jeans hug his ass, has me watching as his glutes flex with each step.
“From the first day, that’s how she’s looked at him. No change.” Adri smirks.
“Except when I made out with Travis.” I shrug.
Travis chokes on his Gatorade and Emmett has a shit-eating grin on his face. “Adri, how did you take that?”
“She was honest with me about it.” Adri smiles at me. “Plus she said she didn’t really feel it.”
“Nope, neither of us did.” Travis leans over and places a sweet kiss on her mouth.
Not many people would understand their relationship, fuck I barely did in the beginning and I was almost sure this shit was doomed to fail. But now I see how the three of them work and how Emmett buffers out the tension that’s always brewing between Travis and Adri. If it weren’t for him, they would end up killing each other.
“What do you guys think of The Black Slaughter?” I ask as I twirl a piece of my hair around my finger.
“What is that?” Adri’s eyes are wide. “Someone else you have to hunt down?”
“No Baby,” I shake my head. “She is the huntress... The Black Slaughter.” I spread my hands over my head.
“Sounds a little corny,” Emmett purses his lips. I narrow my eyes on him and he rolls his eyes. “But scary too.”
“How’d you think up this name?” Travis smirks.
“Andrew Cox told me this is the name I was given by the hunted here in Whitsborough. Widdle wabbits!” I fall over laughing.
“My sister is mental.” Emmett chuckles. “Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbits.” He does an Elmer Fudd impersonation.
“I’m hunting my bed.” Adri stands and yawns. “Love you Ember. Goodnight.”
“Love you.” I say and watch as Emmett flashes me a wink and chases behind her.
Travis gets up from his place on the floor and sits on the couch beside me. He looks slightly troubled and I know he’s been through so much. Him and I have a connection I don’t have with any of the others. I love Travis differently, he sees me and my very soul, as black and sticky as it is, and he loves me as if I am pure light. It’s hard to explain. Vin loves my dark soul and everything it encompasses, no matter what I do in life his love will never change. But Travis sees it for what it is and still deems me worthy of something higher, he makes me feel like I’m pure and that my dark soul is untarnished.
“Hey, I have a question.” I say to him.
“Shoot.” He throws me a grin.
“How will you three get married?”
“One of us will make it legal with Adri and then we will have a private ceremony for the three of us.” He’s thought of this.
“Can I be Best Black Slaughter?” I flutter my eyelashes at him.
“This is going to stick huh?” He chuckles, “and yes, you are my best everything.”
See what I mean? He just sees me differently and I love him the most for it. I don’t care what anyone thinks, he’s my favourite but I would never tell any of them that. I saw him on the brink of death, I watched him in a coma for ten days, and then when he finally came back to us, I watched as his eyes changed when they landed on me. He
