I clucked my tongue, wanting nothing more than to turn and drive away from here while knowing this had to be done. I’d have preferred to do it alone, but Brooklyn needed to see it with her own eyes. She needed to let those damn insecurities of hers fall away into the irrelevant nonsense that they were. She was the only woman for me, and I’d spell that out plain as day to all those who thought to deny it.
I nodded once, slamming my foot to the floor the moment the gates had fully opened and tearing up the gravel drive without another word, making Brutus bark in alarm in the back and a whoop of excitement spill from Brooklyn’s lips.
Mateo had wanted to come too of course, but even he had been forced to admit that revealing himself to a whole host of Irish and Russian gangsters who would like nothing more than to torture a member of his fancy cartel in the quest for information on their organisation and the riches he’d stolen from them was a bad idea. So he was just stewing away back at the house. I’d even left his collar off when we went, making it clear to him that this arrangement of ours was coming upon a grand change. When we returned, he’d either be ready and waiting, looking to sign up to this ride until the bitter end or he’d be gone, and we’d see the truth of him plain enough. He hadn’t run yet, so I suspected he’d be staying.
Strangely, I was hoping for that too. Because no matter my own feelings on him or the behemoth currently sitting in the back of my truck, it was clear to me that they were important to Brooklyn, and I didn’t want to see her cry over either of them. So if keeping them around equalled her happiness as well as her safety, then so be it. I could work with that. I never had made obvious choices in life, and this seemed like the kind of lunatic idea I liked the flavour of.
I jerked the parking brake hard, swinging the wheel around and skidding the truck to a halt at the base of the steps which led up to the house I hated more than any other in this world.
“Wow,” Brooklyn breathed from the backseat. “It looks like two mansions got together for an orgy with another two mansions, and then all of them had quadruplets and then they all bought really big dogs and then they all kinda squished themselves together to become a mega mansion.”
I cleared my throat, glancing at the imposing structure which my father occupied alongside a whole host of staff, and I nodded.
“Yeah, and in each and every room of it is a bastard born of sin, built perfectly to raise more bastards within its walls and coat our skin in darkness, ready to unleash upon the world,” I muttered.
“You hate it here,” she whispered sadly.
“It’s no home,” I agreed. “Just a shell built for breeding evil little clones.”
“But you’re not a clone,” she pointed out, reaching between the seats and running her hand down my forearm, her fingers brushing against the Devil I had tattooed there. “You broke the mould, Hellfire.”
I grinned at that remark and nodded firmly, taking a cigarette from the door pocket and placing it in the corner of my lips before lighting it up.
“Then let’s go remind them of that, shall we, love?” I offered, exhaling a cloud of smoke as her eyes lit with violence and my heart began to beat faster in anticipation of this game.
I rolled my shoulders back, checked the Desert Eagle which was sitting snug beneath the smart jacket I wore in its holster, and I drew in a lungful of smoke before opening the car door and getting out.
I moved to open the rear door next, offering a hand to Brooklyn and she took it, letting me draw her out to stand before me in the long blue dress she was wearing which had tiny silver skulls stitched all across it. She’d paired it with some killer heels which brought her a little closer to my height, but I still dwarfed her even in them. I reached out to tuck a lock of ebony hair back behind her ear while I looked her over.
“Last chance to escape this hell without having to look it in the eye,” I offered, toking on my cigarette as Jack got out of the car behind her but she just giggled, booping me on the nose and shaking her head.
“I want to see her tits deflate, Hellfire,” she said firmly. “I want to watch all the air zip out of them when she realises she can never have you.”
I smirked at that, nodding my head in acceptance of what I’d known had to happen anyway, and exchanging a look with Jack that warned him in no uncertain terms to protect her with his life.
I took a last inhale from my smoke then flicked it aside, moving around the truck and taking the leash attached to Brutus’s new collar and whistling for him to jump out of the truck as I opened the back of it.
The big bastard snapped at my fingers as I jerked on the blue diamante leash and I laughed as I managed to escape his jaws with all my fingers intact then handed the leash to Brooklyn.
“Hold on tight to him in there,” I warned her. “He’s a good boy, he’ll protect ya. Only let go if you gotta run and he needs to attack.”
“I’m the fastest runner ever,” Brooklyn swore. “But we won’t have to run, Hellfire. They won’t dare attack us.”
I grunted my disagreement because I really wasn’t certain how this was about to go. I planned on making it quick, that was for sure. I’d lay out the facts, let them see my new bride then fuck off sharpish before anyone had the chance to get too murderous with their intentions.
“How fast can you run while carrying a tiny scrap of a girl, big fella?” I asked, lifting my gaze to Jack as he moved up close behind Brooklyn, his chest pressing to her back and making her inch towards me so that she was sandwiched between us. Brooklyn bit her lip like she didn’t mind that at all and I took a step forward myself with a grin, making sure she really was trapped between us.
“Fast,” Jack said, his tone serious and the look he gave me swearing it.
I wasn’t sure what to make of the big fella, but I was becoming more and more convinced of his feelings towards Brooklyn, and for some reason that made me trust him with her safety. He also seemed to respond pretty well to orders, snapping to attention if he was given a nice clear one and making me think he liked it when someone focused his mind for him like that. I happened to enjoy bossing people about, so we would likely get on like a house on fire once we were given a little bit of time to warm up to one another.
I reached out to wrap my fingers around Brooklyn’s throat, caressing the racing pulse point there and giving her a light squeeze, which made her moan softly between us, her fingers releasing the leash and allowing Brutus to wander away.
She liked that, falling into the thrall of my power, but I was pretty sure we both knew she was the real one in charge around here now that she’d gone and shattered the last of my resolve and made me fully hers.
“Come on then, love,” I said in a low tone. “Time to show my family that I have a new master now.”
I released her abruptly and turned to walk up the white steps which led to the front door, feeling the two of them and the dog close at my back as they followed in silence.
The door swung open before I made it there and I nodded at Martha as she looked between me and the uninvited guests I’d brought with me on this little excursion.
“Find yourself something to keep busy with in the kitchen for a while, eh Martha?” I suggested, not bothering to hide the darkness in my eyes as she looked up at me.