Ascending Darkness (Shattering the Darkness) (33 page)

After what feels like hours, but I’m sure is only a few minutes, I get the upper hand. I land punch after punch onto his face; his eyes swelling so bad they are almost closed. With every contact my hand makes more fury just runs through me; the rage consuming me.

Stevie tries to get the upper hand but I just keep coming at him. Trying to move as quickly as possible; giving him minimal time to react.

He finally collapses on the floor and I drop to sit on his chest. I continue to hit him; he is not even really trying to fight back any longer, but he is moving his hands around and moaning out. I am not sure how long I sit there and hit him over and over and over….

I am just about to stop and crawl away from him due to exhaustion when I feel hands on me. I scream out and jump off of Stevie to see who is after me now…

*****

~Nikko~

Overwhelming
shock.

That is all I can feel as I enter the small room.

Harper is sitting on Stevie’s chest; clearly exhausted as she is pounding him repeatedly in the face. His whole face is swollen and covered in blood, making him nearly unrecognizable if it wasn’t for the fact that he has haunted my dreams more than once over the years.

I look to my baby girl and see her covered in blood as well. Her little fists are cracked open and she hardly even notices. A swell of pride expands in my chest knowing that she was able to defend herself.

Concern takes over as I watch her weaken with each hit she lands on him. Breccan and I approach slowly at the same time. He places his hands on her shoulders to stop her and she jumps back screaming out. Breccan immediately backs off, holding his hands up, but I continue to approach her.

Recognition flashes in her eyes as she looks between us
and is quickly replaced by relief. I reach her and wrap her up in my arms. She grasps on to my shirt and begins to cry.

“Shh… baby, girl. It’s okay. We’re here now,” I tell her as I rub my hands up and down her back. She holds onto me tighter and cries harder, so I tighten my own hold on her.

I hear Breccan speaking to the team that came with us and helped us infiltrate the warehouse. I turn my head to see what he is saying and realize he is telling them to back off as he picks Stevie up by the throat and throws him into the wall. I know exactly what he is wanting to do and I try… really I do… but I can’t find the inclination to stop him.

I want it
, too.

Breccan slams his fist into the piece of shit’s face as he holds him by the throat
, clearly bloodthirsty. I hear a bone in the piece of shit’s face snap and I watch with a sick fascination as the man slips closer to death. I can hear the breath being beaten out of him with each blow Breccan’s massive fists land on the fucker. I continue to hold onto Harper, keeping her head down in my chest so that she doesn’t see.

Finally, some shred of my humanity kicks in and I look to the team to see them watching me. I give my nod for them to pull Breccan off. They do and he fights them relentlessly until I say his name. He looks at me with half crazed eyes until I nod my head towards Harper
; silently communicating with him that she needs him.

His eyes follow down to her and I see him regain control of himself
when he sees the state that she is in. The team is on the phone dialing the cops and the ambulance to our location. Breccan walks over towards me and Harper and I relinquish my embrace on her. He picks her up into his arms, her body limp with exhaustion, and he carries her out of the room.

Breccan carries me out of the building
, the evening air cooling my skin. The sun is just starting to set, but it still hurts my eyes after being in such a dark room. We arrive in the parking lot just as two ambulances pull in, followed by a whole shit load of police cars. He takes me over to one of the ambulances, the medics open the door to the back and Breccan carries me in and lays me down on the cot.

The medics immediately begin hooking me up to monitors and placing an IV in my arm. They check me over and strap me onto the gurney to take me to the hospital.

“A…” I cough, my throat so dry and unable to get the words out, “Can you give us a minute?” I ask the medics. They nod their head and step out to give us some privacy. “Are you okay?” I ask Breccan.

“Am I…?” Breccan looks at me like I’m half crazy and runs his hands through his
hair, which is hanging around his face. “Are
you
okay?” he asks me his face wrought with worry.

“I…” my eyes wonder around the ambulance for a moment before coming back to him, “I don’t know…” I try to swallow past my dry tongue. “Is he…?” My eyes wonder back in the direction of the building we just came out of
, wondering if I killed Stevie.

“No…” Breccan answers
, clearly knowing what I was trying to ask and gets close to me, brushing my hair back, “Close… but no.”

I feel massive disappointment that I wasn’t strong enough
, as well as relief that I am not a killer on top of everything else that I have done. I take a deep breath and let it out quickly.

I look at Breccan and know he must be angry that I left without Hank.
I bite my lip and look away from him for a moment, noticing all the men coming out of the building in full combat gear. I look back at Breccan, seeing him staring at me, checking me for any signs of permanent damage.

“Brecc,” I begin, my voice still dry and sore, possibly from exhaustion and the fact that I haven’t drank anything for hours. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shhh…” he brushes a piece of hair out of my face, “It’s okay. We got him. But dear God, please don’t pull another stunt like that again,” he finishes by scolding me and it doesn’t go unnoticed. My instinct is to be a smartass, but I reign it in.

“I promise,” I say simply.

I look back in the direction of the building, seeing dozens of men milling about.

“I didn’t realize Paradise PD had so many S.W.A.T. members,” I say to Breccan.

“They’re not S.W.A.T., dove,” he says as he looks back at me.

“Oh. Who are they then?” I look back out the window of the ambulance doors.

“Those are Duncan’s men. From Blackcard.”

“
Oh,
” I’m shocked. I didn’t know they could get so many men here so fast.

At that moment the back doors open and Duncan comes into the ambulance.

“Hello, Harper,” he says coming in and removing his mask, “How are we doing?” he asks Breccan and I.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I answer. “Thank you so much. For helping I mean.”

“No problem, my pleasure,” he smiles knowingly at me and gives Breccan a once over to make sure he is okay, “Here,” he reaches into the pocket of his cargo pants and pulls out a bottle of water, “you look a bit parched.” He hands me the water and I take it gratefully.

“Very much so, thank you.” I take a big gulp of it feeling better already.

“Easy, dove,” Breccan says stopping me from taking another large drink, “you don’t want too much until the doctors say it’s okay to.”

“Oh. Okay,” I screw the lid back on and lay it down next to me on the cot
then look back to Duncan. “Sorry. This kind of ruined our plans to get together before you and Simone had to leave,” I apologize.

“That’s okay, darling,” he smiles at me, “We’ll reschedule.
May I suggest you come to London to recuperate, as our guests?”

“I’d love to,” I answer for us both.

“Right then. See you two later. Take good care of that girl, Breccan,” he hops out of the back and raises his fingers as in a semi-salute.

“Always,” Breccan responds.

“You know the score. Call if you need me. Ever,” Duncan says and closes the doors.

“I can’t believe you called Duncan in on this,” I say laying my head back against the cot, slightly embarrassed that a new acquaintance had to see me in this state.

“Not me,” Breccan answers, “Nikko.”

“Nikko?” I lift my head up in shock.

“Yeah. Apparently they’ve known each other for years. They were in some secret mission together overseas,” Breccan says.

“Wow,” I breathe out, searching the crowd for Nikko.

“I can’t believe you didn’t know all this,” I look at him with a confused look on my face.
What on earth is he talking about?
“Duncan is the one who hid your identity a decade ago,” Breccan explains.

“Oh, my God,” my eyes travel back out the window, now looking for Duncan.

“Nikko said,” Breccan continues and my eyes wander back to him, “that Duncan is also the one who set up the team to find you all those years ago.”

“Holy shit,” I breathe out.

Just then the doors open and the medic steps back in.

“Sorry, guys, we need to get going,” he says coming further into the ambulance.

“Absolutely,” Breccan answers.

*****

Later that night Breccan and I are lying in bed after coming home from the hospital. Stevie had died in surgery from blood loss. I can’t say that I’m sorry. Between Breccan and I, and the beating he took there wasn’t much hope for him. The police also informed us that he had terminal cancer and it looks like he didn’t have long to live, anyway.

When he died my first thought was that the police were going to charge Breccan or me with homicide. But most of the damage was done by me and the police ruled it self-defense and the district attorney had decided not to prosecute due to my history with the man.

Yes. I had to tell the police all about my dirty, sordid history. Which means it won’t be long before the press finds out now. I’m more nervous about that then scared. The threat is gone, so we just have to worry about all the bad press Breccan will get. Which I hate adding that worry to his life. He says he doesn’t care of course… but I do.

Paradise P
olice also coordinated with the police in Las Vegas and were able to find all of Stevie’s girls and his associates, so they won’t be coming after us either. I set up for all of the girls who worked for Stevie to go to one of the houses that I have set up from the charity for ‘women’. I gave them the choice of any city they wanted to go to.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be going to visit them and working on setting up more homes throughout the United States. Breccan says I need to come up with a name for the
foundation and make it into something bigger, so I’ll have to think about if I want to do that.

After ten years of hiding,
the one thing I
feel
… is relief.

Relief that I no longer have to hide out.

Relief that I can be me.

Relief that I’m done always looking over my shoulder.

Relief that Breccan
knows
the real me.

And r
elief that I have finally found him.

“Are you doing okay, dove?” he asks me.

I am nuzzled up against him in bed, my head buried in his perfect chest, inhaling his soap, Armani and the pure Breccan scent with Bane sleeping against my back. Both of my boys protecting me.

“I am,” I answer, “Are you?”

“I’m better now.” He takes a deep breath and pulls me closer, “When I came home… and you weren’t here…
fuck
, dove. I have never been more scared in my life.”

I look up at him and rest my hand on his cheek, “I’m so sorry, Brecc.”

“I know you are, baby,” he tells me and leans down to kiss me, slow and sweet. “You’ve heard how dove’s mate for life, right?” he asks me.

Oh my God. Is he going to tell me why he calls me dove?

“Yes, I’ve heard about that,” I answer quietly.

“Well, it’s true of a lot of birds actually. But the difference is that pigeons and doves do not find another
mate after their partner dies. That’s it for them. There is only ever the one.” He kisses the top of my head and runs his hand up and down my back. “When I was about fifteen, my father told me that. He then proceeded to tell me how when he met my mother there was this instant bond. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was his.

“
He didn’t want me to waste my life. He said he was lucky enough to find my mother at such a young age and that their love had never faded. And it still hasn’t. He wanted me to be choosy and not just fall for the first girl who I deemed to be perfect. He said I would know it when it happened…” he shakes his head, “and boy, was he right.”

I look up at him, “Wow.”

“Yeah,” he smiles at me. “When I first saw you,” he tenderly brushes my cheek, “I was taken aback. I had no idea what was happening to me, but I was completely drawn to you. And when I heard your voice…
God
,” he groans, “I knew I had to have you in my bed. When you shot me down that first day in your bar, I had never been more turned on in my life.