Page 28 of His Paradise

“We have a room, and we have an entire fucking house. I’ll bend my wife over every piece of furniture, including your bed.” I clap my hand over Aden’s mouth, shaking my head and laughing as his eyes crinkle in a smile as he picks me up. He grabs my shorts while I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. I feel like today is going to be a beautiful day as he carries me to our room.

I was so fucking wrong. My stomach churns violently as I stare at the note hand delivered to our front gate. David’s mother begging Aden for mercy, as I stare through the two way mirror to lock eyes with the monster himself. He wasn’t so scary, filthy and crying in the chair he is chained to.

I have to fight the bile that threatens to spill, again, as Aden pours salt in the gaping wound on David’s leg. When I caught him and Percy reading a letter and snatched it from their hands, this isn’t at all the trouble I imagined they were causing. Aden warned me I shouldn’t be here but I was determined to see him pay for what he’d done. My heart is screaming that this is brutal, inhumane and sick beyond words. I should stop them.

I don’t.

I don’t stop them when Aden pulls Davd’s eyelid out to snip the thin flesh in half with scissors, but I do throw up over the floor. Aden tosses his gloves to the floor and races to my side to help me with a gentleness that was so opposing to his actions seconds ago, I question how this is the same man. Olivia wasn't cowering though. She marches in, grabs a scalpel and plunges it into his thigh with a sneer I have never seen before.

Olivia is watching intently next to me again, and she clutches my shoulder to get my attention.

“He deserves this,” she smiles.

“Nobody deserves this. It’s torture.” I shake my head, having had enough. When I storm from the room and limp for the stairs, Aden calls after me. But I have to get out, get to fresh air that isn’t filled with David crying for his mother. Or him spilling every secret his family has. Their plans to kill Isabelle’s father to take over his territory was shocking, but now, Aden is after as much information as he could carve from the poor bastard.

Olivia hooks her arm in mine as I walk past the house, heading straight for our cars. “I need to remind myself of why he doesn’t deserve my pity. I need to see her.” I say softly. Olivia understands immediately and hurries along.

“Ma’am, Aden doesn’t want you leaving without a guard.” Anne says, keeping pace with us while her eyes constantly scan the area.

“Then you can drive us to the hospital. Send a car to pick up Grayson and his daughter Gabriella at the airport, please.” I ask her, climbing into the passenger seat of the black SUV without another guard.

Olivia scrambles into the back and Anne takes the driver's seat, weary as she starts the engine. Aden’s look of rage fills the rearview mirror as I roll down my window, tossing my cell phone out to the grass as we leave.

Chapter twenty-four

Aden

She is going to make me rip my hair out if she keeps pulling stunts like this instead of using her words like an adult. Percy nods to a spot of blood on the front of my shirt and I frown, realizing the irony of my thoughts. I shouldn’t have let her come out here, to see this. Nina has never been cruel. She doesn’t have the same dark streak as most of us. It’s one of the reasons I love her so much, for her bright and kind heart. Anne is going to get her ass handed to her if she doesn’t slow the fuck down, weaving through traffic with my wife in the front seat.

“Having a nanny on speed dial is necessary in our world, aint it?” Percy snorts next to me, his posture relaxed as hums to song playing through the speakers of my car. I snort, but don’t say a word as we follow the familiar vehicle into the parking lot of the hospital, and my anxiety raises a few notches.

“Olivia told me about your sister. I’m so sorry.” He says.

“Sorry for what? She isn’t fucking dying.” I snap and he holds his hands up defensively.

“Easy killer. I’m saying that I’m sorry because she was hurt protecting Nina. I can’t imagine the guilt and the relief you must have been warring with at that moment.” He shrugs as we climb from the car and his words make me pause for a breath before I catch Nina’s angry glare.

“I don't need a babysitter and a stalker,” She shouts across the parking garage, her voice amplified as I walk towards her. “Grayson needs somebody to pick them up at the airport.” She speaks to Anne.

“I’ll go,” Olivia offers and Percy stands behind her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Anne, don’t leave Olivia’s side. Fuck this up and you’re as good as dead.” I don’t bother watching them climb into the SUV and leave. Nina’s eyes widen as she realizes I’m backing her to a corner. I can see the idea form as her eyes flick around the area, and she tilts her body, giving away each thought.

“Don’t you dare run from me ever again, Nina. When I catch you, I’ll put you over my knee and print that pretty little ass with my hand. If that’s not enough, I’ll fuck you over the hood of my car until you’re a dripping mess and you’re begging to come while wrapped around my cock. I’ll leave you there, shaking and needy, the same way you leave me everytime you’re gone from my sight.” I snarl the words more harshly than I intend to, and her eyes widen.

The sound of her feet slamming to the pavement as she sprints away from me makes my cock ache painfully as I watch. This woman is going to be the death of me. My large strides eat the distance between us in moments as I grip her by the hair, wrenching her body to twist and face me. I smother her cry of surprise with my mouth, swallowing the pretty little sounds she makes as I press her body against the cold concrete pillar. When we finally pull away, we’re both breathing hard and she bites her lip, her brows scrunched.

“Your words, my heart. Use them.” I remind her.

“What you’re doing to David is wrong.” The words send a flash of shock through me, but I don’t react as I let her continue. “He’s a monster but that doesn’t mean we should be one as well. I don’t want him to live, kill him but make it quick.” She pleads. I nod once, but it isn’t up to me anymore.

“Markus and Alec are coming to ask him a few questions. When they’re done, I’ll kill him myself.” She frowns, probably realizing that what I’ve done is going to seem tame compared to those brothers when Isabelle and her father’s life are at risk.

“But why here?” I ask. She looks away, and guilt warps her expression.

“I thought that maybe seeing Luna would make me angry again. That it would take away the sympathy I felt for that monster.”

“Oh, my sweet Nina.” I sigh.

---