Page 43 of Shattered Silence Duet

I inhale sharply, instinctively take a step backwards in fear as my mind screams.NO!I’ve never been allowed in one of the real bedrooms before, in any of our homes, not since my father left. When Simon came to see me, he always came to me in the basement, touched me, got himself off, then left. I’d never spent a whole night with him before, something I had been grateful for. But the thought of why he wants to spend an entire night with me, and in an actual bedroom, terrifies me to the core.

Up until now I had somehow considered myself lucky that he has never gone all the way and stuckthatin me before. But his visits were still far worse than any beatings I’d had. He liked to run his hands all over my body while he stroked himself. The worst was he would put his fingers inside me or when he forced my hand onto his dick, placing his own over mine and using me to jerk himself off. I felt like throwing up every time I thought about it, so I hid the memories in the back of my mind, buried in a little box covered with chains and locks so it would never see the light of day again. But every time he came to see me, that boxwould burst open and all those damn memories came flooding back in.

My breathing picks up as panic starts to consume me.No, no no!This couldn’t be happening, I wouldn’t survive an entire night with him. Why was he doing this? Why was my mother letting him? I know she hates me, and there’s no way she doesn’t know what he does when he visits me. She’s always loved Simon and hated me, blaming me for my father leaving. I know it’s my fault, that there is something wrong with me, that I did something wrong, that I have a demon inside of me. But lately, I’ve started to question everything. My new friends have started to make me realize that I might not be the problem my mother has repeatedly told me I am.

“Mina, my pet, breathe, do you really want to pass out right now?” I hear Simon ask with a laugh. As black spots start to dance in my vision from lack of oxygen, I try to get a grip on my emotions. I donotwant to faint right now, who knows what he’ll do. I have to think about something else to calm myself down.

An image of Jasper holding my hands, telling me to take deep breaths, comes into my head. I think about Max’s text telling me I’m beautiful. I think about the way Atlas had held me when I freaked out at their house.

Slowly, my breaths start to even out and my brother comes back into focus, standing only inches from me. He raises his hand and strokes the back of his fingers down my cheek, making me shiver and cower with fear.

“There’s my good little pet. You rest up today, you’ll need your energy tonight, I’ll bring you some food soon.” I don’t dare move as a few tears trail down my cheeks to meet his icy fingers. He pulls his fingers to his mouth and licks my tears from them, reminding me of Brad. “Mmm, delicious. So sweet.” He cups my face and tilts my head up to make me look him in the eyes.

“There you are,” he whispers. “There’s my scared little pet. Don’t worry, after tonight you won’t be scared anymore. You’ll finally understand you belong to me, and I’m going to take care ofyou.” Then he leans in and I scrunch my eyes up tight as he kisses my forehead softly. He releases me and turns, quietly heading back upstairs, locking the door behind him.

The second the door shuts, I run to the bucket and throw up. I haven’t even eaten anything since lunch yesterday, but that doesn’t stop my stomach from emptying itself. When I finally finished retching, I sit against the wall and wrap my arms around my knees, wishing I were anywhere but here.

Simon is my big brother. He’s ten years older than me, and when our dad left, he promised he’d take care of me. But it was a lie. He liked to trick me with soft, kind words, when really he was just a sexually abusive pervert. When dad left, I was so desperate to believe Simon, wanting someone to take care of me, that I did whatever he told me to. But it didn’t take long for me to realize I didn’t like what his version of caring for me was.

He told me he was doing it to help me, he was similar to my mother in that way, stating they were just doing what was best for me. But I didn’t want either of their help. I just wanted to be left alone. I wipe the silent tears from my cheeks as I wonder how I’m going to survive the night.

Chapter 29

Tucker

Normally, I hate stakeouts, sitting around with nothing to do but watch… They’re boring as hell. But this one… This one is so much worse. I think it’s the emotional tie I have, we all have, to it, to her. I’m not sure if I’m more scared of Mina getting hurt or of her being actively involved.

For now, I’m sitting in the car with Max, watching Mina’s home while Jasper and Gideon watch from the woods behind her house. Atlas and Dom will switch places with us soon, to give us a break, but I don’t know if I’d rather sit here watching or be at home trying to sleep, knowing she’s possibly in there with a killer.

I flip my lucky coin over my knuckle before letting it slip between my fingers, before continuing the movement over each knuckle in a rhythmic motion, a quiet way to channel my restless energy.

I can’t get her out of my head. Whenever she’s in gym class, my eyes are constantly finding her, making sure she’s okay and not showing any signs of distress. I want time to get to know her better, outside of the classroom, because if my suspicions are correct, she could not only be the missing piece to the serial killer puzzle, butourmissing piece as well.

We’ve been an almost full team for a few years now. Atlas andDom found each other first, then slowly added myself, Gideon and Ben to the team, and we quickly became a family. The five of us were together for two years before we found the twins and eventually told them about our history with women. Something all seven of us agreed on was that family came first. But we quickly learned that dating would become much harder.

The first girl I dated after we formed a team was Cynthia, who I met at a coffee shop where she worked. We hit it off straight away, she was kind, charming, and we liked to joke around together. We dated for two months before I started noticing issues. My brothers apparently saw them earlier on, but didn’t want to ruin my relationship.

She started getting upset with me for leaving on cases. Not all our cases were like this one, months in length. Most were just a few days to a few weeks. But even if I left town for a couple of days, she’d get angry, telling me I was choosing some job over her. By the time I got her to forgive me, I’d have to leave again. In the end, she pleaded with me to quit the team, and it made me realize that she didn’t understand me at all. I couldn’t believe she’d ask me to leave my family. It was an obvious choice, and I’d choose the guys every time.

The next time one of us dated, it was Ben, his girlfriend’s name was Clara or Sara or something like that. She was quiet, shy, a real bookworm. We thought she was too sweet to have the same jealousy issues as Cynthia. But she started getting upset when he spent time with us, saying we worked together and he didn’t need to spend his free time with us, too. He dumped her real quick after that argument.

Gideon had a serious girlfriend for about three months. I actually thought they might make it. Dom and Atlas didn’t really have girlfriends, but occasionally Dom would see the same girl for a week or two. One of those girls caused Gideon’s girlfriend to get jealous, saying she didn’t want another woman in his house unless she was there too—basically demanding to move in. Luckily,Gideon wasn’t as smitten as we thought because he told her it wasn’t happening, and that was that.

After that, I pitched my idea for the pact, and they agreed. When the twins joined us, any girls they brought home either got clingy or started eye-fucking some of the other men in the house. When I found out they had shared a girl between them a few times, we decided to tell them about the pact. I smile as I remember that conversation.

“So we’d all date the same girl?” Max asks curiously. I nod.

“Wouldn’t we all get jealous… Seeing each other with her?” he asks.

“Do you get jealous when you share a girl with your brother?” I counter. He shakes his head as his brow furrows in thought.

“Fuck no. It’s hot to watch him get her off.”

“Exactly. And the benefits would be huge. We have a dangerous job, and protecting seven women would be a challenge. Plus, we often move around for cases. Do you see us dragging seven women around, dropping their careers to follow us? And it would be impossible to find places in all these towns that could sleep fourteen people comfortably.”

Gideon continues for me. “There will always be at least one of us to take care of her. We never need all seven of us in the field at once, so someone will always be able to watch over her.”

“I don’t want to be single forever,” Ben adds. “I want a woman I can love and take care of, but I don’t want to lose you guys. If we don’t do this, we will get married, eventually leave the team, drift apart and even settle in different cities. I don’t know about you two, but I refuse to lose this family, it’s the only one I have.”