Chaotic (L.O.R.D.S. #7) — Chapter no 57

FIFTY-SEVEN

KASH TON

fter our conver sa tion, her stomach started growling. I man‐A aged to get her to crawl out of bed and made her breakfast.

Thankfully Tyson keeps the kitchen stocked because someone is al‐ ways staying here. She chose waffles and a side of toast.

“How long are we hid ing out here?” she asks from inside the shower.

I go to re spond when the doorbell rings. I look up in the mirror, and she opens the glass door, arching a brow. “Expecting someone?” she asks.

“Nope,” I say, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my hips.

“Stay here.” Closing the bathroom door behind me, I check her cell on the end of the bed. I see it’s not even eight in the morn ing yet, so I’m confused about who could be here. I know Tyson keeps this place locked up tight when it’s closed. Stepping into the living room, I grab my gun from the front zipper pocket of my bag. It’s al ways loaded and ready to fire.

I make my way to the door to the apartment and open it to find Tyson standing in the hallway. “Ringing your own doorbell?”

His eyes drop to my gun at my side and then run over the towel and my bare chest. “I wasn’t just going to walk right in. I didn’t know what you’d be doing.”

I step to the side, and he enters the apartment. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up that Haidyn and Saint are on their way here.”

Fuck. “You told them —”

“No,” he cuts me off. “Bill has called a meeting. I was instructed to tell you to join us.”

Bill knows I’m hid ing out with Eve; he’s aware she needed rest, so for him to call a meeting, it must be important.

I place my gun on the kitchen counter. “How long do I have?”

“Maybe twenty minutes. But they don’t know you’re here. So if you go down stairs before they ar rive, then they’ll just think that you beat

them to Blackout.”

I nod. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

“Of course.” He goes to walk out.

“What is this meeting about?” I need to pre pare Eve as much as I can. She’s had enough surprises over the past cou ple of days.

“You know what I know.” With that, he exits the apartment.

I re turn to the bathroom to find her out of the shower and brushing her teeth. Her pretty eyes meet mine in the mirror before she rinses her mouth out. “Who was it?”

“Haidyn and Saint are on their way here. We’re having a meeting downstairs.”

She turns off the water and bows her head. I understand why she doesn’t want to see them. Eve now has to face them after finding out what Evan did to her. Now more than ever I’m glad that I didn’t tell her that my broth ers and I know that our fathers raped her.

“Hey.” I walk up behind her, grab her arm, and turn her to face me.

“It’s going to be okay. I promise.” Leaning forward, I kiss her fore‐ head. “Afterward, we’re leaving.” Getting the fuck out of this town.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“Wherever you want.” My girl deserves a vacation.

Eve and I fin ished getting ready and made our way down to the club. Tyson excused himself to his office to make a phone call. Then Ryat ar rived, followed by Sin.

Haidyn and Saint got here not long after that, and there’s been ten‐ sion since. A lot of it. We haven’t spoken. I think everyone is con‐ fused by what’s going on, and of course they’re mad at me for ignor‐ ing them for the past several days.

“Why the fuck are we here so early?” Sin glances at his watch as if he’d rather be in bed.

“Long night?” Saint chuckles.

“Just wait. Your sleep less nights are coming,” Sin says, smiling with satis faction.

Tyson enters the room and claps his hands. Ryat was sleep ing with his head in his hands, but jerks awake at the commo tion. “I’m going to make this quick, but we’re waiting on two more,” Ty states.

Everyone looks around silently, counting to our selves. I’m surprised Tyson’s minions weren’t invited. I know we’re waiting for Bill. He was the one who supposedly called this meeting. Surely, he’s not bring‐ ing Adam with him. Maybe Tyson’s detective is also join ing us. That has me on edge, because I know he’s after Eve. Bill wouldn’t set her up. Would he? Not after what she just went through at Dollhouse.

I see move ment out of the corner of my eye, and to my surprise, Bill enters the club with Adam by his side.

“The fuck?” Ryat asks, rubbing his eyes before looking from Adam

to Easton.

Sin just shrugs. He’s so over it.

Tyson looks at me and then at Haidyn and Saint. None of us are surprised to see our brother. “You’re supposed to be—”

“Dead,” Adam finishes Tyson’s sen tence.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Bill growls, walking over to Eve. She stands from my lap and hugs him before I pull her back down and wrap my arms pro tectively around her waist.

“Why the fuck are we here?” I demand, wanting to get this over with. I promised Eve we would leave after this, and I’m ready to get the fuck out of here.

“There were three bodies found at Bar rington re cently,” Adam states.

Saint nods. “Yeah. It’s been all over the news. All three were miss‐ ing for over a month.”

“What’s not on the news is that there’s a fourth woman,” Adam adds.

“Her parents don’t want her mentioned?” I wonder.

“The police don’t want her information re leased. She’s still alive,”

Bill answers.

“Well, that’s good, but it sounds fishy to me.” Haidyn rubs his chin.

“If it’s the same MO, they’ve been raping, torturing, and then killing these victims for years. Why leave one alive now?”

“Maybe a copycat,” Sin offers, lean ing back in his chair. “They’ve seen the news but only know very little of what actu ally happened to the pre vious victims.”

Adam crosses his arms over his chest and looks at Eve. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“How?” I demand getting a sickening feeling in my stom ach.

“I’ve gotten word from my boss that she was awake when the women were found. When questioned, she gave a description of the person who was ‘hold ing’ her.”

“Well, who was it?” Hai dyn demands, getting ir ritated.

“She de scribed Everett to a T.”

“What?” She jumps off my lap. “No.” Eve turns to face me. “I did not kidnap, tor ture, or kill any of those women.”

That gut-wrench ing feeling intensifies. I look at Adam. “You came with a plan. What is it?” He wouldn’t risk being seen in broad day‐ light if there wasn’t a good reason for it. No. He and Bill have gone through every scenario, and they need us to see it through.

He looks at Eve and then at me, nodding. I run a hand down my face, and Haidyn curses under his breath.

“What?” she snaps. “Use your fuck ing words, because I don’t un‐

derstand your silent ges tures.”

“We kill her,” Sin an swers.

Eve gives a rough laugh, throw ing her head back. When her eyes meet mine, she stops. “Kash. No. You can’t be fuck ing se rious? Tell

them no. Absolutely not.”

“Eve.” I get to my feet.

“No.” She takes a step back. “You can’t kill her—”

“No one in this room is going to agree with you,” Sin announces, standing. He’s tired and ready to end this shit. “I would do unspeak‐ able things to guarantee my wife and children’s safety. And every Lord in this room would do the same.”

“Kash,” she whispers, looking at me. “Please don’t allow this.”

“I’m sorry, Eve,” I tell her. “He’s right.” Any threat to my fu ture wife must be eliminated.

“I can’t believe this.” She runs her hands through her hair aggres‐ sively.

Adam steps forward. “This isn’t one dead body found, Eve. They’ve al ready got your prints on the one that you found, and with a de‐ tailed de scription by another, they’ve got you for two, and they will blame you for the oth ers.” He shrugs. “They’ll say you were working with an accomplice. Most likely Isabella, since she’s ‘missing,’ and you’ll go down for who knows how many counts.”

“They could try and push the death penalty,” Bill suggests.

“I didn’t do this.” She looks at me, her pretty green eyes pleading with me, and it breaks my heart because they look the ex act same as the video I watched last night. When she begged Evan to just kill her. “You know that, right? That I didn’t do this?”

“It doesn’t matter what we think you did or didn’t do.” Eve narrows her eyes on Hai dyn at his lack of belief in her. “It’s what they can prove, and they have the evidence stacked against you.”

“They can’t prove it, because I didn’t do it,” she grinds out.

“What’s the status on the woman?” Ryat asks.

“Apparently, she was se verely beaten and raped, like all the oth ers, but instead of being killed and dumped, they left her to die. The cops were able to get a little information from her before she went into surgery, but she hasn’t wo ken up yet. Brain swelling. She’s been back into surgery twice since. They’ve got her in a drug-induced coma right now to try and re lieve the swelling.”

“She may not survive,” Saint states the obvious.

“There’s al ways a chance,” Adam adds. “And if she does wake up, they’ll show her pictures of Eve. And I have a feeling that even if she doesn’t recognize Everett, they’ll pres sure her to say it’s her. They’ve been wanting to close these cases, and this gives them the advan‐

tage to do so.”

“And we can’t allow that,” Bill says.

“You agree with them too?” Eve snaps at Bill.

“I would have done anything to save your mother,” he says softly.

“You’re killing some one’s daughter.” Everett turns to me. “Kashton, what if I had been killed? Hmm? I was that girl. Beaten and raped, and I survived. She can have a life after this. She deserves a chance.”

My girl can beg me all she wants, but it’s not going to do her any good. “Not at the expense of yours.” It’s not even up for discussion.

“I can talk to her—”

“Absolutely not,” I snap. Has she lost her fuck ing mind? She’s obvi‐ ously not thinking clearly from the drugs that Bill had to give her at Dollhouse for her as signment. I need to call Gavin for another IV.

Maybe that will help.

“It wasn’t me,” she shouts desperately. “If you kill her, then it changes everything. It puts all of you on their radar. You be come ex‐ actly what they’re trying to accuse me of.”

“I’ll take that chance,” Haidyn states, and she bares her teeth at him.

“I know I’m exhausted and all, but what if we’re looking at this the wrong way,” Ryat suggests. “What if she was planted?”

Adam opens his mouth but closes it just as quickly.

“Like a mole?” Haidyn questions.

Ryat nods. “Yeah. You were right when you said it’s odd that they’d leave one alive. Doesn’t sit right. A body gets dumped and found by Eve and then they want to pin it on her? Now you’ve got a woman who describes her perfectly?” He looks Eve up and down. “Bullshit.

The girl was either brainwashed or part of the plan.”

“You can’t take that chance,” Eve growls. “She could be innocent.”

“We’ve seen this before.” Adam ignores her. “A woman planted and the ones she was spying on had no clue until things went south.”

“Just fur thers the point. She’s got to go,” Bill adds.

“How do you suggest we do it?” Hai dyn asks.

“Gavin,” Sin and I answer in unison. Then I explain. “She’s in the hos pital. Gavin has access. Just make it to where she never wakes up.” It doesn’t have to be gruesome or lengthy. Just quick and easy.

Eliminate the problem.

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” Eve’s hands shake as she rubs them down her leggings.

“What if we kidnap her instead?” Sin shrugs.

“Absolutely not—”

“Just hear me out,” Sin interrupts Eve, looking at Adam to explain.

“If she’s a mole. She’ll have information we could use.”

“If Evan is involved like we think, she could lead us to him.” Saint nods.

“It’s the only plausible explanation,” Adam agrees. “We know they adminis ter drugs at Dollhouse; it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think they take blood sam ples. Evan could have very easily planted Eve’s DNA on the dead body for the cops to find.”

“But this woman is in a coma right now,” Ryat re minds him. “What the fuck do we do with her until she wakes up?If she wakes up?” he corrects himself.

“Sounds no different from Laura,” I add. “We keep her alive until she’s coherent. We have Gavin re move her from the hos pital and Devin monitor her at Carnage. When she wakes, we see what she knows. That de termines whether we kill her or throw her in a cell.”

Either way, we won’t let her go free. The woman knows too much about Eve to identify her. So like Sin said, she’s got to go.

“You need to get the fuck out of town. I don’t care where you go, but go. Don’t pack a bag, don’t go to Carnage. I’ve got the jet fu eled and ready for you at a private airfield. I’ll send you the information.”

Adam checks his watch. “We’ll let you know once she’s been deliv‐ ered to Carnage.”

Ryat is the first one to say goodbye, and Sin follows. Adam lingers over in the corner, talking to Bill, and Tyson has to stay until we’re all gone to lock up.

I grab Eve’s hand, pull her to ward the ele vator, and push the but‐ ton, then I turn to her. Green narrowed eyes burn into mine. She’s mad, but I re ally don’t give a shit. This is her life, and I take that very seri ously. The door opens and I usher her into it, pushing the button for the top floor, and step out. “I’ll be right up.”

She huffs, lean ing back against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest as the door slides shut.

I make my way back to the bar area, and Saint nods when he spots me over Haidyn’s shoulder. Haidyn turns to face me. “Where the fuck

have you been these past few days?” he demands.

“Funny. You didn’t tell me where you were when you were hid ing out.” I don’t point out that he was gone for weeks.

“I wasn’t with your sister,” he snaps. “Is this some kind of re venge?

Trying to pay me back for leaving Carnage?”

I snort. “You’re the last thing on my mind, Haidyn.”

He huffs and then the anger leaves his face. I stiffen, knowing what he’s going to say next. “We re ceived a video.”

“I’ve seen it,” I inform him, not need ing him to explain what was on

it. Watching it once was enough.

“Kash—”

“I would stay and help with the girl, but I’m leaving with Eve,” I in‐ terrupt him. “Adam will let me know when it’s done, and we’ll re‐ turn.” With that, I turn, giving them my back, and make my way up‐ stairs.

The one good thing about Haidyn being Eve’s brother is that he’ll do anything to pro tect her. I might be mad at him, but I trust him a hundred percent to do what needs to be done.

EVERETT I’m pac ing the living room of the apartment above Blackout when the door opens. I glance up to see Kashton enter. “I won’t let you—”

“Save your life?” he snaps, cutting me off.

I place my hands on my hips and arch a brow at his attitude. But even I know that Sin was right. None of those Lords down stairs will see this situ ation how I see it. I know I’m innocent. Killing another innocent woman who has been through so much trauma won’t pro‐ tect me. Her death will still be on my hands. Even if she is a mole. I doubt she volunteered. She was most likely forced into it. Black‐ mailed and groomed. I know firsthand how hard it is to try and find your self when your mind has been altered for years.

Kashton sighs, running his hand down his face. “I’m tired, Eve.”

Slowly, he walks over to me and cups my cheek. His blue eyes are hard when he adds, “Don’t fight me on this. You won’t win, angel.”

My teeth clench. All I’ve ever known is fight. I huff, “Kash.”

“I want to have a life with you.” His words make my breath come quicker. “As close to a real life as we can have in our world. But if

you force my hand, I will do whatever needs to be done.”

I swallow nervously and whis per, “What does that mean?”

Running his tatted knuckles down my racing pulse, he answers, “It means that if I have to collar and lock you in a basement to keep you safe, I will. Either I kill those in my way, or I keep you hid den from the world. You can fight me if you choose to do so, but know my actions will depend on you.” Leaning in, he gently kisses my fore‐ head. “That decision is yours.” Then he pulls away, walk ing off to the bed room.

I numbly follow after him, not sure what to do or think after his threat.

I love Kashton. We’ve made it to a point where we can never go back to life with out one another. But one question re mains. Do we have a fu ture?

I have no schooling. No career. I have money, but he has his own.

After Bill saved me, he gave me my mother’s inheritance. All I have to offer Kashton is my body, and even that doesn’t work. I can’t give him an heir. The next generation. The Lords won’t allow that. He may think we’ve won, but it’s not over.

They will make sure to rip us apart when we least expect it. Just when everything starts to settle down and they see us happy. That’s when they’ll step in and take over. Re mind him of who he is—a Spade brother who must carry on the tradition and give them chil‐ dren to groom for when he’s no longer alive to do their bidding.

Stepping into the bed room, I see him placing our toiletries in a bag, and I sit on the end of the bed. “I want to be your Lady,” I tell him.

If I’m going to die, I’m going to die as his wife. It might sound sad, but it’ll be the biggest accomplishment I’ll ever achieve.

Fuck Gar rett. Someone in this world does want me.

Kashton drops the bag at his feet and exits the bathroom to walk over to me. He gently brushes the hair off my shoulder and frowns,

glancing down at me. “You will be.”

“When?” I ask, licking my lips.

He opens his mouth, but there’s a knock on the door.

Heading back down the hallway, I follow him to see Bill walk through the door when Kashton opens it.

“Right now,” Kashton says to me, and I frown.

“Right now what?”

My father lays some papers out on the kitchen counter and hands Kashton a pen. He signs it and then turns to me, hold ing out the pen.

“I don’t understand.” I look be tween them.

“Mar riage license,” Bill states. “You passed your as signment. With everything going on with the police, you need to be legally mar ried as soon as possible. I’m not saying it’ll help, but it can’t hurt.”

I look at the papers and then Kashton. He signed it like it was noth‐ ing. Not a doubt in his mind. I wasn’t lying to him. I do want to be his Lady, but why does he want me? I don’t understand… “Don’t over think it, angel.” Walking over to me, he places the pen in my hand and cups my face, like he can read my mind. “Trust me.”

He leans in and kisses my fore head. When he pulls away, I walk over and sign my name.

“Thank you.” Kashton shakes my father’s hand and slaps his back.

“Take care of my girl,” Bill says, and tears sting my eyes. My life would have been different had Bill been my bio logical father. He turns to me and pulls me in for a hug and whispers, “Told you, princess. You’ll get everything you want.” He kisses my cheek and then pulls away. “I’ll have these filed today.”

Kashton lets him out, and then he turns to face me.

That’s it. I’m officially Mrs. Pierce. The thought hits me like a fist to the chest, knocking the wind out of me.

“Breathe, Eve,” Kashton orders, his hands on my face once more.

“Nice and slow. Just breathe, angel.”

I nod, sucking in a shaky breath.

“That’s it. Another one.”

I do it again, and a smile graces his gorgeous face, show ing his dimples. He looks so happy, and I feel like I’m having a heart attack.

I wrap my hands around his tatted arms. “I do trust you,” I tell him.

His eyes search mine, and then he leans in and presses his lips to mine. I moan into his mouth, my body lean ing into him. He grips my ass and picks me up. I wrap my legs around his waist, and he carries me back to the bedroom.

We fall onto the bed, and I pull away, laughing. The range of emo‐ tions I’m feeling is making me lightheaded.

“There’s my girl.” He dots kisses along my neck.

“Kash.” I arch my back and grab his belt, unbuckling it, but he pulls

away.

“We have to get out of town, Eve.”

“But I want my husband.” I bat my lashes at him.

He gives me a soft smile. “Don’t worry, angel. You’ll spend all night tied up, begging me to let you come. But right now, we’ve got to go.” With that, he stands up, grabs my hand, and yanks me to my feet, slapping my ass.