Chapter 15

With Luna and Sammy in Marie’s care safely away from the city, away from Colby, my mind feels clearer. I can breathe easier.

Despite that, however, my face burns from embarrassment and shame, having been caught lying and keeping secrets. It’s not something I am used to doing, not something I’m comfortable with. My parents may not have been the best parents in the world, especially my mother, but they did raise me with a strong ethical sense.

I was stupidly honest with Colby. I was honest at times when I would’ve been better off lying, if only to avoid a violent outburst or an emotionally abusive tantrum. But once I left him, once I ran away, I knew I couldn’t tell the truth to just anyone. In fact, I decided it best to keep the whole truth to myself.

It was easier if I just invented this new persona altogether—a single mom with two kids. Halle Harrison isn’t exactly a lie, but she isn’t the whole truth, either. She’s somewhere in between, a version of me that keeps to herself and focuses on becoming a better person while pretending that her children’s father is completely out of the picture.

Looking back, I should have known that it wouldn’t last.

“How are you feeling?” Chase asks, his grip on the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles have turned white.

“My throat feels scratchy,” I say. As soon as the words come out, I cough lightly and rub my neck in a bid to soothe some of the discomfort.

“He almost choked you out,” he replies. “A minute longer, and he would’ve stuffed you in the trunk of his car, Halle. He had you.”

“I would’ve fought him hard, with everything I had.”

“And we both know it wouldn’t have been enough.”

Chase seems to have calmed down a bit, like he’s in better control of his impulses since Colby is no longer an immediate threat.

“I’m so sorry.”

“You keep apologizing and it is starting to get on my nerves.”

I almost say it again. It’s a terrible habit I picked up from my relationship with Colby. He ingrained that so deeply into my head from early on that I was literally apologizing while he was the one abusing me. I was conditioned into being this mindless and meek person that isn’t at all who I truly am. Yet another reminder that my marriage left deeper scars than I originally thought. It will take years to heal from the hell that I endured, provided Colby leaves us alone.

Fat chance of that happening .

Once we reach the house, Chase drives us around the block a couple of times before pulling into the driveway. He checks the neighborhood and every side street for signs of anything suspicious.

When he’s sure we haven’t been followed, he pulls the truck into the garage. Instinctively, I hit the garage door button, waiting for it to go back down while Chase gets out and grabs his things from the backseat.

He nods at the door leading into the house and I think about Sammy and Luna. I’ll Facetime them later. It’ll be rough but it’s better for them if they stay away from Dallas, at least for a couple of days.

I go into the house first, feeling him close behind me. Upon entering the living room, a different kind of exhaustion takes over. The emotional kind that I’ve been keeping at bay since I left Eric here not that long ago.

Both Eric and Wyatt are inside waiting.

“We’re not mad,” Wyatt says softly, the tension in his voice palpable. “We just wanna talk.”

“Are you okay, Halle?” Eric asks, concern all over his face.

“As okay as I can be in these circumstances.”

My knees tremble, and I take a seat in the armchair farthest away from them while Chase sits on the sofa next to his brothers. “Alright, Halle. From the top, then,” he says.

“From the top of what?” I ask, increasingly confused.

“From the beginning of your relationship with Colby Nash. We deserve that much from you,” Chase replies .

I take a deep breath. Then another. My throat burns, but it is nothing compared to the weight of all these secrets. It’s time to let everything out. Chase saved my life tonight. The three of them saved my life before in more than one way. They do deserve the truth.

“I met Colby in college in San Antonio,” I start, digging through my soul for the Cliff’s Notes of what has been my life so far. “I didn’t know his family was part of the Nash mafia. I wasn’t up to speed with the Who’s Who of San Antonio. I’d earned a full scholarship for a major in fashion design. I was finally on my own, independent and happy for the first time in what felt like forever. You already know about my dad, about him passing away in that fire, and how my mother took me in.”

“Yeah, we remember,” Eric says.

“Colby was sweet and charming. Determined, ambitious. He talked a big game, and I believed him because he seemed to have the financial prowess to back up his claims. Nice car. Cool clothes. All the spending money that he needed to live a comfortable life as a college student focusing on his studies in business. He presented himself in a way that made me believe he could be the one.”

I go on to tell them about the first few dates, about how he love bombed me and I thought that was normal, that it was supposed to be like that. Intense from the very beginning. Constantly imagining a future together. I don’t leave anything out, tapping into my true self so they get the full and honest picture of how I saw that relationship evolving in a positive light, never seeing the burning and crashing ahead.

“Once we were married and moved in together, things started to change,” I continue. The brothers listen quietly, their eyes scanning my face as if they can see right into my heart. I know I can’t hide from them, and I no longer want to. “It wasn’t sudden. There were little things, little issues, that no longer sat right with him. His mother started coming over for dinner, a tad too often for my taste, but it didn’t matter to Colby. He was more than happy to have her company because the two of them would team up against me, eager to point out what I was doing wrong as a wife, and later on, as a mother.

“When Luna was born, Colby didn’t even want to see her at first. I’d managed to convince him to keep the gender a secret until the baby was born. But Colby wanted a son. When the doctor announced that he was the proud father of a girl, he threw a hissy fit and walked out of the delivery room, leaving me there with our newborn daughter, dumbfounded and embarrassed.”

“Fucking hell, Halle,” Wyatt mutters, his brow furrowed with genuine grief.

“I made excuses for him back then. I found reasons for everything else that followed, mind you,” I smile bitterly and continue my story.

An hour later, the Danson brothers have a much clearer picture of what my life with Colby Nash was like. Of how the abuse started, and how it got to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I can’t tell them about what I saw the night I left. It will put them and their family in danger. It’s bad enough that Chase riled Colby up tonight. I can’t make it worse.

“What made you finally leave?” Eric asks me.

“The million-dollar question,” I exhale sharply. “One morning, I woke up and said that I had seen and lived through enough.” Not a lie. It’s still the truth, just not all of it. “I grabbed the kids, pretended to go on about our day normally with school, errands, stuff like that. It was hard, but I did it. Once I was out of the house, the first thing I did was file for divorce. My mom knew a lawyer, thankfully. I’ll give the woman credit for that because she helped when she could.”

“He didn’t let you work, did he?” Chase asks.

I shake my head. “I depended on him for everything.”

“Classic narcissist,” Wyatt sighs.

“Yeah. It took me a long time to figure that out, though. I started seeing a therapist in secret because I was having panic attacks. Those made everything worse, it pissed him off to see me hyperventilating and losing control. Eric raises an eyebrow. “But that came with a price of its own.”

“Still better than staying with Colby,” Chase cuts in.

This is where we can all agree. I do feel better. I’ve been living with so many shadows hanging around my neck, it’s a miracle I didn’t suffocate from emotional exhaustion.

I can finally breathe again—a lungful of air that brings everything into focus. It’s relief. It feels like the ocean’s cool breeze tickling my skin. I want to smile, but the fact remains that I’ve kept the guys in the dark for too long.

“I am so sorry,” I say, then give Chase an apologetic smile. “I had to. Not taking it back. I am genuinely sorry for lying, for telling half-truths, for everything. You were nothing but kind and supportive and all of you deserved better.”

Eric’s demeanor now seems softer. With a faint nod, he gets up from his seat and walks over, getting down on one knee before me. “Halle, I can’t say I blame you. Knowing what we know about the guy, you had every reason to react the way you did. He put you in a fight-or-flight mode where you didn’t feel like you could trust anyone. We didn’t know how badly he’d hurt you, and so we operated on different assumptions. We assumed a deadbeat husband was most likely it but certainly not a ruthless mobster, a psychopath.”

“How could you have known if I didn’t tell you?” I ask.

“It’s okay,” he says. “What matters is what we do from now on.”

“What we do?” I ask, feeling my eyebrows pop up in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“If you think we’re letting you deal with this alone, you’re nuts,” Wyatt replies. “There’s no way in hell that it will end well for you unless we help.”

“You can’t help. You know who the Nash’s are, what they’re capable of,” I reply. “I’m practically radioactive. The mere fact that you’re still letting me stay here puts you and your parents in danger. Hell, I think it puts the firehouse in danger, too.”

Chase scoffs. “Halle. You’re not going anywhere. You are staying right here, and you will let us handle this.”

“How?” I snap, losing my patience. “The last thing I want is to have your deaths on my conscience. I can’t bear the thought of…” I choke up, tears quick to fill my eyes. “No. There’s nothing you can do. I’ll just leave, it’s better for everyone.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Eric growls and pulls me into a kiss. It’s a loaded, angry kiss. His lips dominate mine, his tongue demolishes my defenses and claims me, mercilessly and passionately. I lose my breath and senses all at once. “When will you understand that you’re not alone anymore, Halle?

You are our woman, you hear me? Our woman. Whatever fate throws at you, we handle it together.”

“I… I…” I have lost my words altogether, unable to look away from him.

“We will protect you and your children,” Wyatt says matter-of-factly.

“We have the skills and the resources to keep you safe,” Chase adds.

“You will never be alone again,” Eric chimes in. Their hands move while they speak to me, yet there’s a hypnotizing dissonance that I can’t quite wrap my head around. All I can do is let them lead while my body responds to each touch with a thousand fires lighting up inside of me at once. The world beyond the walls of this house begins to disappear, and I find a sweet and familiar safety in their arms.

“You can’t fight this devil on your own, angel,” Wyatt whispers in my ear, then plants a soft kiss on my cheek. “You shouldn’t have to, anyway. You’ve got us.”

“I do, don’t I?” I mumble as my clothes begin to disappear.

Theirs, too, on account of my hands moving in equal rhythm. A tee shirt here, a pair of jeans there. Soon enough, the four of us are naked, liquid heat trickling down the inside of my thighs as Chase closes his lips around my left nipple while Eric takes the right one. Wyatt gets behind me, his hand slipping between my legs, finding me wet and ready for them.

“You’ve got us, and we’ve got you,” he says.

I moan as his fingers probe my entrance, stretching, penetrating, inching deeper until I push my ass back into him .

He bites into the side of my neck while I rest my head on his strong shoulder.

It quickly escalates from there.

The frenzy is uncontrollable. The air between us is thick and laced with sexual tension. Chase sucks my nipple harder and harder until the sting makes me cry out, but it only serves to turn him on even more, taking over both of my breasts for a deliciously agonizing minute.

Kneading my flesh, he fondles and nibbles on my perky tips while Wyatt wedges his cock between my legs. Moving back and forth, glazing his shaft with my liquid arousal, he creates a friction that teases my clit, bringing me closer to an edge I long to fall over.

“Bend over,” Eric commands me.

“Yes, sir,” I reply, like the good girl that I promised I’d be for them.

“Take us both,” he says, as he and Chase offer me their cocks—magnificent giants throbbing with desire, their heads glistening with precum.

I do as I’m told. First, I gently massage their rock-hard balls while their eyes darken to match the color of the night sky, lips parted as ragged breaths escape their throats. In the meantime, Wyatt rubs the tip of his erection against my clit, adding more pressure. I’m so close.

“I love how big you are,” I whisper and take Chase and Eric’s cocks, fingers wrapped tightly around the base as I take turns with each.

They slide in my mouth with wonderful ease, and I taste the salty precum before I let them go deeper. Relaxing the back of my neck, I loosen my jaw as much as I can. It takes an effort with such girth, but the pleasure I derive from this is equal to the pleasure I see simmering in their smoldering gazes.

Their moans of passion are like music to my ears.

My own moans catch up as I come with a mouthful of Eric while squeezing Chase tighter and tighter. They lose their minds and I unravel, sucking them faster until they take over. Chase grabs me by the head and plunges himself deeper, fucking my mouth into oblivion just as my pussy ripples in the sweetest ecstasy.

“That’s it, angel,” I hear Wyatt growl as he digs his fingers into my hips and fills me to the brim. I want to say something, anything, but Chase and Eric keep my mouth busy.

Wyatt’s hand comes around and finds my tender nub, rubbing it most viciously. I cry out, briefly pulling my lips away from Chase’s magnificent cock as Wyatt pushes me into pure madness.

He pounds into me, over and over again, while teasing my clit until the second orgasm has my legs shaking and him coming hard, filling me with his seed. At the same time, Chase and Eric take over my mouth, sharing me for their unadulterated pleasure.

I can feel them pulsating against my tongue. I need this, now more than ever, so I stroke them from top to bottom, tighter and faster while suckling their heads one after the other. I press my tongue against the tips.

“Fuck, Halle, you’re getting too good at this,” Eric gasps as he comes in my mouth .

I welcome every drop, swallowing and smiling, my gaze locked on his just as Chase comes in for his turn. Wyatt descends from his own slice of heaven to watch along with Eric as I hold on to Chase’s cock, stroking with both hands until his seed spurts out and splashes onto my tongue. I swallow again, utterly sated.

I’m not done with them yet and judging by the still hungry looks in their eyes, they’re not done with me, either. If anything, we’re just getting started. They caress every inch of my body, kissing me all over. Breasts. Back. Shoulders. Belly. My slick folds, in particular. As I take turns sucking them, they take turns licking me.

Once we’re done, the four of us lay in bed, trying to recover our senses. Bodies glistening in sweat and afterglow. My pussy tender from a glorious pounding. My breasts reddened by their savage kisses. A handful of rose-colored hickeys sprinkled all over my body. But I am safe. I am happy, if only for this precious moment.

I am well aware of the danger lurking outside the door, but for right now, I am wrapped in the arms of not one, not two, but three extraordinary men who have taken it upon themselves to protect me, to cherish me, and to fuck me until I’m breathless.

I am tired of running.

I can’t see an immediate solution for my troubles with Colby, though.

I know Eric, Chase, and Wyatt won’t let me run away again. They won’t let me out of their sight. They refuse to yield before a man who has made others suffer. A man who has killed more than once .

Perhaps everything will change for the better. Perhaps, in this particular case, fighting fire with fire is the only way to save me and my children. Colby Nash is a murderer, not just my psychopathic, narcissistic ex-husband. But the Danson brothers have killed, too. They understand the concept of necessary killing, of strategy and survival.

That’s what this is about.

My survival.

What if there really isn’t any other way?