Page 60 of Redeemed

“Funny how you only started saying that after you realized you had a chance to fuck her.”

Rage flashes in Aaron’s eyes, and he charges at me with a yell. I step back and let Lucas tackle him. They hit the ground hard, Aaron taking the brunt of the fall. When his head smacks against the concrete floor, Haven gasps.

“Please don’t do this,” she begs. She’s frozen in the corner, tears falling onto her cheeks. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Snatching her shirt from the floor, Colton throws it at her. “Get dressed.”

“I—”

“Now,” he snaps.

Haven jumps into action. Her hands are trembling as she pulls her crop top over her head. When Lucas punches Aaron, she grimaces. “Stop. God, Lucas, please!”

I’m not sure if he even hears her. His hands are wrapped around Aaron’s neck now, and he’s squeezing hard enough to kill. As Aaron’s face turns bright red, Haven throws herself at Lucas.

“Stop! You can’t do this!” She pounds her fists into Lucas’s back. “Stop, stop,stop!”

Finally, Lucas lets up. Aaron wheezes and rubs at his throat.

“Get off him,” Haven pleads shakily, but when she pushes at Lucas, he doesn’t budge.

It’s one of the many things I love about him. Give Lucas a target, and he’ll hone in on it so hard he forgets everything else.

“Am I killing him?” he asks, his gaze still fixed on Aaron.

“No,” Colton says, his expression reserved. “He’ll learn his lesson. And if not…” He smirks. “Then he’s all yours.”

Kneeling next to them, I place a hand on Lucas’s thigh. Aaron is glaring silently at both of us, too stubborn to admit his defeat out loud. It’d be pathetic if it wasn’t so damn comical. He really thought he could take all three of us.

I kneel in close enough that only he can hear me as I whisper, “This is what happens when you touch what’s ours. Remember that for next time.”

Aaron’s eyes are focused on Haven, and then they flit toward the door. Poor bastard still thinks he can escape us.

“Are you going to touch her again?” Colton asks as he steps around us so he can see Aaron’s face.

“Fuck you,” he spits out.

“Do you have a fucking death wish?” I snap. “Tell him you won’t touch her again.”

“I’ll do whatever I damn well please, and so will Haven. You don’t own either of us.”

For the first time since Lucas tackled Aaron to the ground, he looks up and frowns. “Where is she?”

I do a quick sweep of the room and come up missing. When my eyes land on Aaron, he’s smirking. Everything clicks into place in an instant. When he glanced at the door, he wasn’t looking for an escape. He was telling Haven to run.

Motherfucker.

I give him a swift kick to the ribs, making him grunt in pain. “We’ll find her. She’s not getting away with this. But first things first.”

Colton nods, and Lucas crawls off Aaron. The asshole groans but doesn’t move to get up. Undoubtedly, he’s in a lot of pain, but we didn’t hurt him nearly as badly as I wanted to. He’ll be fine.

Pulling on my mask, I head straight for the door. “Let’s get the painting and then get the hell out of here.”

Haven isn’t in the basement, and we don’t see her upstairs. As we walk through the hallway, Lucas snatches the painting from the wall and tucks it under his arm. Everyone is too absorbed with their own groups to notice, or too drunk to care, so no one stops us.

Outside, we don’t stop until the painting is safe in the back of Colton’s BMW.

“Where do you think she went?” Lucas asks.

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