Page 19 of Mated to Four Bears

I cocked my head to one side and just stared at him. For now, I was happy to just let him continue talking himself into a hole. What an idiot.

“Okay, so maybe Iwillgo and get the money I have,” he decided. “Just so Benjamin knows that I really am trying my best. I don’t want him to think I’m useless or whatever, or I’m playing him for a fool. I know what that man is capable of.”

I wanted to know more about this Benjamin guy. He had to be some scary dude if he had Antonio on edge like this. This was why a gambling compulsion was so very dangerous, it caused people to slip into a very shitty world where they would do the craziest of things. Not that it made Antonio’s crappy behavior okay.

I couldn’t check to see if any of my brothers had answered my call without alerting Antonio to something weird going on. His wand might have been up in the air at the moment, but who knew when it would come back towards me. I couldn’t trust him.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re still doing here,” Antonio groaned. “I just told you everything you need to know.”

“So, are you trying to steal money from all your ex-girlfriends?” I asked, finally breaking my silence. “Or is it just one of them? Because going after Samantha won’t end well for you.”

“Samantha?” Antonio turned a funny shade of white. He clearly wasn’t expecting me to bring her up. Antonio probably thought Samantha was alone, but he was about to find out she had some serious friends who wouldn’t let anything happen to her. “What do you know about Samantha? I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

I took a step closer to him, anger running through my veins, burning up my insides. “You arenotgoing to go near Samanthaever again, do you hear me? You or any of your little cronies. I can assure you that you’ll regret it if you do.”

Antonio’s expression turned from shock and horror to arrogant. He pointed his wand at me and I heard the loudest cracking sound before I even realized what had happened to me.

Pain radiated through me from my broken leg. I collapsed in a heap. Fuck, Antonio had gotten to me before I could get to him.

“You… you fuck off,” Antonio barked, actually sounding a little stunned by what he had done. “Don’t ever come here again. Don’t talk to me about Samantha. She has absolutely nothing to do with you, do you hear me? She ismyex-girlfriend. If you were important, then I’d know more about you. I’ve never even heard of you…”

He sped off before I could move, not that I really could. With my leg like this, there wasn’t anything that I could do. He’d fucked me up. Badly.

“Richard!”

Oh, thank God, my brothers were here.

“Richard, oh God. You’re here. Guys, I found him!”

“Antonio,” I rasped out through the pain. “He went that way.” Henry and William took off before I could say anything more, leaving me only with Thomas, which was probably for the best. “That asshole broke my leg with his magic, Thomas. It’s killing me.”

Thomas leaned down and pressed his hands to my leg, starting to work on me. His healing magic was the best thing to ever happen to this family. Thank goodness he was born, although we had to wait for him. He was the youngest, but the most precious out of all of us.

“Thank you, Thomas,” I whispered as he worked. “I don’t know what I would do without you. Thank you for coming and making everything right.”

He didn’t say anything because he was too focused on what he was doing, but the smile that briefly lifted his lips was enough. He was just as glad to find me as I was to have him and my brothers here. Hopefully now we could find Antonio and put an end to his reign of terror over Samantha at long freaking last.

13

SAMANTHA

Ipaced up and down by the window of the Osborne house. I’d chewed my thumb nail down to nothing, anxiety coursing through my veins the whole time. No one told me what was going on, but it had to be important for them all to run off like they did, leaving me here alone. I was safe in their home, I knew that much because the security in this building was unlike anything else, but that didn’t make me feel any better.

What if they were in trouble? If this was something linked to Antonio, which was what I feared, then it could be dangerous. He was desperate, and already willing to throw the Code of Magic out the window.

“Fuck, come on,” I muttered. The clock was ticking too noisily for me now, reminding me of every single second that was going by. “Come on, where are you?”

If I hadanyidea where they were, I would have gone after them. There was no way in hell I would have stayed here, just waiting. It was killing me. Every single second that went by felt like a torturous hour.

I ran to the front door when I heard a noise outside, my heart absolutely hammering against my ribcage. Relief flooded me asI swung open the door to find the Osborne brothers there…until William walked up with Richard in his arms. “No! What happened? What happened to Richard? What did he do?”

No one answered me as William carried Richard to his bedroom where Thomas could do what he needed to do to make him better. I went to follow them, but Henry put his hand on my arm to stop me. Guilt settled in the pit of my stomach, because I knew if this happened because of Antonio, then it was all my fault.

“Where did you all go?” I asked Henry with a whimper. “What happened? I have been here going out of my mind here. It’s been really horrible…”

Henry wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. I let out a little sad sob against his chest. I was starting to feel like I shouldn’t be here. It was all well and good getting protection from the Osborne brothers, but I didn’t like putting them in danger. It wasn’t right. I cared about them all too much to just let them run into danger like that.

Henry tucked his fingers underneath my chin to bring my eyes up to meet his. “You know we’re all going to be fine, don’t you?”

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