Ascending Darkness (Shattering the Darkness) (27 page)

His hands flex in my hair and I imagine his jaw clenching right before he says, “Yes. Tell me, dove.” I take a deep breath and continue…

I wake up sometime later in a dark room. I can still feel blood oozing out of my head wound. Or wounds; I’m pretty sure there is more than one. I try to sit up, but I can’t. I reach my hand out and find some kind of table that I’m able to pull myself up with. I get into a sitting position and try to get my bearings.

I look around and note that I’m in some kind of a warehouse. The walls are all steel and the floor is wet with something; it’s too dark in here to tell what it is. I smell something stale- like pond water. I also smell my own blood.

I can hear the rain pounding onto the steel roof. My eyes begin to adjust and I can see a table on the other side of the room full of tools of some sort. My whole body screams at me as I try to hold myself up; I crawl over to the wall ten feet away and lean against it. My hand goes to my stomach and caresses it.

“It’s okay, little baby. I’ll save you from this life
,” I murmur to the empty room.

I have no idea how long I sit there, looking for the strength to stand, when
a large door slides open to my right. Stevie walks through and my heart starts to race. He walks over to the bench and sets something down, before turning back to look at me. His lip raises up into a snarl and he makes his way over to me.

“Stevie, I’m sorry. Please just let me go. You know I won’t say anything
,” I beg as he yanks on my arm and drags me towards the tool bench.

He stops at a table set up next to it, lifts me up and throws me onto it.

Hard.

I cry out at the pain shooting through every inch of my body.

My baby… my baby... Please let my baby be safe.

“You’re not going anywhere you stupid, fucking cunt. We’re going to take care of your ‘situation’ and get you back to work.
”

“Please Stevie, just le-”

He smacks me across the face cutting off my words and begins to strap me down to the table that I’m on. He places leather restraints around my wrists and ankles and I thrash, trying to get lose.

“Yeah, keep trying bitch. It’ll do no good
,” he laughs at me.

After about a minute, I stop thrashing and look over at him standing at the bench. I look around and see nothing to help
me or my baby. I start to cry.

“Cry all you want to, whore. Nobody will hear your pathetic fucking pleas.” He turns back around with an extremely large and serrated knife in his hand and my eyes grow wide with fear.

My heart kicks it up a notch telling me to run.

“S-Stevie… p-p-please… d-don’t
,” I keep begging.

“Shut up cunt
,” he growls and cuts my shirt off me. “Such perfect fucking tits.” His hand grabs hold of my breasts and he squeezes them painfully. He looks up at my tear and blood streaked face as he removes his hands. “I’ll stay away from those money makers, babe. With those tits, your ass and your million dollar face, ain’t no John gonna care, what I’m ‘bout to do.”

“N-n-n-no… P-p-p-p-
pleeessse…” I’m openly bawling and he just laughs at me.

I feel the knife cut into my lower abdomen on the far left and Stevie pushes in deep. I scream as loud as I can, but nobody can hear me now. As he drags the knife across my stomach to the far right, my screams break off into a gurgle. Blood is pouring out of everywhere on my body, including my mouth.

I spit it out and try to breathe. Blackness begins to broach in on my vision and everything looks and sounds fuzzy. I hear something loud bang and far away shouts, which sound like deep voices. I can’t be sure, though. My wrists and ankles feel free and I’m floating. I can feel my face break into a small smile as I’m finally released from this hell.

“Harper? Harper Brown?” I think I hear.
That’s not my name.
“It’s okay, baby girl. I’m Nikko. I’m a friend. I’m going to get you help. You just hang in there, girl. Just hang in there. Dear God!”

“It wasn’t as bad as it felt,” I tell Breccan in the silent room, “The cut to my stomach was jagged but it wasn’t deep… it felt like he was ripping my insides out of me… which he was…”

The tears have finally dried and my whole body is numb. Breccan knows the absolute worse about me, and I don’t know how I really feel about that.

Complete and utter shock.

Fury. Pure and evil.

These are the only things Breccan can feel as his dove tells
him her story. He
has
to find this piece of shit and cut his fucking heart out.

Slowly.

The fury builds and builds until he thinks he is about to explode. This rage is consuming him. His whole body is wound tight, ready to spring into action.

He doesn’t realize how long he is silent and unmoving until Harper tries to move out of his arms and he reflexively tightens his hold on her. He has to protect her from ever having that horror enter into her life again. He vows to himself right then and there that he will protect her for as long as he lives.

No harm will ever come to her again.

“Where are you going?” he asks her.

He notices his voice is filled with the fury he feels when Harper’s whole body tenses. He lifts her face up to look at him and he stares deep into those emerald green eyes… His body begins to calm. He takes a deep breath as the anger finally decreases to a low simmer. He moves his hand to stroke Harper’s face and runs it through her hair, bringing her closer.

“Don’t leave,” he whispers against her lips before devouring them in a deep and all-consuming kiss.

Claiming her.

His hand moves down her stomach as he rolls her over onto her back until he
is aligned alongside her.  Her words finally penetrate his brain as he slows the pace of the kiss, and he just tastes her on his tongue…

It wasn’t as bad as it felt…

It wasn’t deep…

It felt like he was ripping my insides out of me…
which he was…

That motherfucker took her child.

Breccan’s eyes roam over his dove’s face. Taking in her beauty. After sharing one of the most horrific stories he has ever heard and knowing that she went through that… and survived… She has never been more beautiful.

“I love you,” he tells her, breaking the kiss. Her red and puffy eyes flare with apprehension. “I do,” he reiterates. He sees more tears well in her eyes and his fingers are quick to catch them before they fall. “You’ve never been more beautiful to me than you are at this moment.”

“H… how can you think that? I’m a mess,” she asks him as she sniffles.

“Dove…” he smiles at her, “you’re everything to me. I’ve given you everything I have. Everything I am… it’s yours. My life didn’t start until I found you. I wanted so desperately for you to give yourself over to me…” he leans down a places a soft kiss on her perfect mouth, “I didn’t know if you actually would… but I was willing to wait.” He closes his eyes briefly and shakes his head at her. “Your strength amazes me. Every. Single. Day.”

“What do you mean?” she asks, her brow furrowing in confusion as she searches his eyes.

“To tell me that…” He closes his eyes again and clenches his jaw. “The strength it took to get that out…” he opens his eyes back up, “it’s beautiful to me. There is this connection between us…” Breccan’s eyes wander a bit thinking of a way to describe the way he feels for his dove, “it’s been present since that first day,” his eyes travel back to hers. “And I knew then… once I felt that… that you were mine. Nothing you could say or do would ever make me stop loving you.” He waits for Harper to say something and when she doesn’t, he states, “I can’t think of a better way to make you understand what you mean to me.”

“I understand, Brecc,” she tells him and places her hands on either side of his face, “and I feel the same way.”

“I love you, Harper Isabelle Reagan.”

“I love you too,” she tells him with a small smile on her face.

Now is the perfect time
, he thinks to himself.

Harper curls into his side and entwines her legs with his, settling in for sleep. Bane jumps up onto the foot of the bed and curls up on her side since Breccan’s legs are too long for him to be comfortable.

Ask!
He tells himself again.

But he can’t. He wants nothing between them and in his heart he knows that this dark cloud over their heads needs to be gone first…

*****

Monday morning I wake up early, feeling drained. So much happened over the weekend and I’m not really sure what I am supposed to do with myself… now that
Ricominciare
is no longer there…

I crawl out of bed, leaving Breccan still asleep and begin to get dressed in my running shorts and tank top. I quietly leave calling Bane to follow. My head begins to fill with all the things I need to do today, as I get on the elevator, like contacting my insurance company… making decisions about my future…

I step out of the lift and begin to head out the door of the lobby when a large hand lands on my stomach, stopping me in my tracks. My heart rate kicks up a notch and adrenaline starts to pump into my veins. My eyes travel from the hand up the arm until I see Hank, my security detail that Nikko and Breccan hired. I take a deep breath and relax on the exhale.

“Oh. Hi, Hank,” I say, his hand still on me. I look down at his hand then back up to him pointedly until he drops his hand. “What’s up?” I ask.

“Where are you going, Harper?” he asks me in return.

“Just for a run,” I answer with a confused look on my face.

“Can you give me a heads up next time?” He crosses his arms over his chest and stares at me with a blank face.

My immediate reaction is to tell him to ‘fuck off’, but I know, first hand, the danger we are all in.

“Yeah,” I nod my head, then, just to be sassy ask, “Am I allowed to go?” with a raised brow.

“Yeah,” he chuckles once. “Michael and I will follow in the car.”

“No, Michael has to stay here with Breccan,” I shake my head.

He eyes me for a long moment but I hold my ground and eventually he concedes.

“Thanks,” I tell him, my voice filled with gratitude. He nods his head and leads the way out the door.

Once outside the early morning air blows cool against my skin. I put my ear buds in and get a better grip on Bane’s leash. I turn to be sure Hank is ready and take off.

I tick through the list in my head of everything that I have to get organized for the day while running my usual route. I run four miles before turning around to come back, checking frequently to make sure Hank has eyes on me the whole time.

An hour has passed by the time I make it back to the apartment. I pull out my ear buds and wave to Hank as I walk in the building. I feel
so much better. I haven’t gone for a run in a while and my head feels more focused; ready to tackle the day’s events.

When Bane and I walk back into the apartment, I fill his food dish then head upstairs and see Breccan still sleeping. My stomach flips at the site of him sprawled out on the bed. The sheet is pulled down low on his waist showing his toned and broad back. His hair is fanned out across the pillow; his hands curled up under it. I smile at the stirrings of desire running through my body and quietly make my way to the bathroom.

I get through my morning routine and hop in the shower. I’m alone with the steaming hot water for about five minutes before the glass door is pulled open. I turn and see Breccan’s naked perfection stepping in to join me; his morning erection standing tall. I smile at him as I lean my head back to rinse the shampoo out of my hair.

“Morning, dove
,” his deep voice is rough with sleep, making my knees a little week.

“Morning,” I say quietly back.

He moves so that he is directly in front of me; our bodies a hairsbreadth apart, his erection resting against my stomach causing it to do another flip and warmth to pool in my core.

My eyes move slowly up his toned and perfect body until they settle on his face. He stares at me as he raises his arms and rests his hands on the tile behind me, forcing me to move back against it. His hair becomes soaked as he moves forward through the stream of water.

I wrap my hands around his forearms, mostly to hold myself up. The way he is looking at me is completely feral. I’m so turned on that I can feel the vein in my neck throbbing in time to the throbbing of my clit.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” he asks as he lowers his head and trails slow kisses along my jawline.

“Wh… what?” my breath hitching on the word.

“I would have went for a run with you,” he explains between nips on my ear. My hands spasm on his arms, keeping me in place. “Saw your running clothes on the floor,” he explains further.

“Oh… I… Oh God,” I moan as he begins to lick the sensitive area of my neck, just behind my ear. “I… didn’t want… to… wake you…” I pant out rubbing my legs together to help give me some kind of relief from the incessant throbbing.