Page 2 of Vengeful Valentine

Except, all of the boys wanted more than that from her. That’s why none of them could have her. They wouldn’t fight over her. They may not be blood, but Hawk and Ace were his brothers.

He wouldn’t do anything to threaten his make-shift family.

His head pounded a beat to his heart, his body ached in ways it shouldn’t, and he was sure his ribs were either broken or at least bruised.

But Silas didn’t care.

Ashmine brought hope into all of their hearts. Wrapped them all around her fingers.

She was the kindness they had forgotten existed. She was the solace they all fell into, broken and bruised after their encounters with Jerald. She was beautiful, sweet,innocent.

Young.

Hawk stepped carefully to him, maneuvering around the grits and offering a hand up. Silas took it gratefully. He smothered the groan that threatened to leave him, not wanting to worry Ashmine.

“It’s time,” Ace stated again, this time much softer.

Silas turned to him, Ace laid against the back wall on the bottom of their bunk beds, Ashmine still in his embrace.

Ashmine breathed evenly in his arms, her eyes shut.

She had fallen asleep, and Silas didn’t blame her. It was the middle of the night.

“Tonight,” Ace hissed out between his teeth.

“It’s too soon,” Hawk murmured, taking up post against their bedroom door.

Ace reached into the shirt Ashmine fell asleep in, carefully unwrapping the bandage that bound her chest down. “He’s going to notice that she’s not as young as he thinks, she’s fucking sixteen! He’s going to see her one day like this and he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants.”

With her breasts freed from their confines it was easy to tell that Ashmine was maturing. That she wasn’t a child anymore. They couldn’t keep hiding her appearance. Soon the baggy clothes, the hunching, the banding–none of it would be enough.

Ace wasn’t wrong, but Silas had hoped they could push it off just a bit longer.

“You’ll be eighteen in a week. We can hide out until then, say we were lost in the woods. Just like we planned to do anyways. Something,anything. She can’t stay here; she’s going to be hurt.Irreparably broken.” Ace’s voice broke as he tightened his hold on Ashmine, shifting her further into his embrace. “We all have money set aside. William said he would help us. We can finish school and then live the rest of our lives away from this hell. If that man touches her, I won’t think, I will act. And then I will go to jail and Ashmine will be a broken ghost of who she is. Do you want that?”

William was a kind, lonely man that had lost his wife a decade back and owned a dozen cabins in the woods near them. When they were younger, the boys had wound up on his land while trying to escape Jerald’s wrath. They expected William toturn them into the man. Instead, he had taken them all under his wing. William had given the boys work when no one else would, odd jobs here and there, and they had been going to him foryears.Besides his foster siblings, William was the closest thing they had to family at this point and Silas didn’t doubt that William would watch over them—the man had promised as much—but he was old,frail.

Ace was right though, Silas wouldn’t be okay if anyone touchedhisAshmine. Because that’s what she was.His.

He wouldn’t admit it out loud. Would deny it if asked. But he couldn’t lie to himself, no matter how much he tried to.

Silas had done his best to temper his urges, to not pursue her, but he knew how he felt. That he was obsessed with her. That she would never escape him. Even if that meant they spent their lives asfriends. Silas would take it.

Silas heaved a sigh, rubbing his temples and glancing towards Hawk. Hawk had stayed silent through the entire interaction.

Hawk was nearing eighteen too, only a month behind Silas, but his countenance was that of a much older man. He was the quietest of their group but also the one that Silas would always listen to.

Hawk’s piercing glacier eyes were a stark contrast to his charcoal hair. It was long but pulled back in a greasy knot.

None of them had been allowed to shower this week. They were all covered in filth, half-starved, littered with bruises and broken bones.

“It’s time,” Hawk agreed.

Silas didn’t argue as he cast a glance around their room. They had been in this hell foryears. Silas was first and the other boys joined shortly thereafter.

Silas examined Ashmine as she slept. Every breath of hers shifted her long dark hair, her small nose pointed up, her long eyelashes ghosting across her cheeks. She was small,too small.

Malnourished.

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