Page 53 of Watching Ames

“Hey, A. Knew we’d be coming for you, didn’t you?”

Before I could answer, Alex’s hand whipped out to grab Peter around the collar of his shirt just as he made a break for it. Peter’s shirt choked him, bringing him to a stop without Alex even having to move. Dev took the opportunity to punch Peter across the face, blood spraying across the white leather couch from the impact.

“He tried to run,” Dev reasoned, not looking the least bit sorry. In fact, he looked like he wished Peter would run again so he could beat the shit out of him.

“Did he touch you? Other than the slap?” Alex’s voice was deadly calm, but I knew their next steps hinged on my answer, so I quickly shook my head, watching as his and Dev’s shoulders relaxed the slightest bit.

“Lucky for you but unlucky for us,” Dev commented, slapping Peter on the shoulder so hard that he flinched. “That means we don’t get to kill you, but we still get to ruin you, so that’s a plus.”

“Please.” Peter’s choked beg was accompanied by a sniffle, and I almost snorted at his patheticness. The audacity of this man to play the victim after everything he’d done didn’t summon an ounce of guilt or sympathy within me. It just made me want to leave him to rot.

“You say ‘please’ as if we have a choice. Your fate was sealed the moment you touched my girl against her will.”

“She wanted it!” Another punch, this one delivered by Alex to the middle of Peter’s stomach, sending him to his knees. Alex squatted next to him, elbows on his knees as his gun hung casually between his thighs, the picture of deadly stillness.

“She didn’t want it. She didn’t ask for it. None of the girls you’ve done this to have. It might seem like they want it, when you have them pinned down or you’ve threatened them into doing what you want. But they don’t. And those women you thought you had power over are going to take you down. In fact, they already have.”

Alex tipped his chin at the television that had been silently playing in the background of this nightmare, the faces of Peter and his father plastered across the screen. Headlines scrolled across, describing the accounts of assault and coercion from multiple women who had worked closely with Peter in recent years. My heart lurched in surprise when I saw Penny’s familiar face, his assistant’s usually pinched, judgmental face replaced by one haunted by what she’d seen and experienced.

The testimonies were followed by the video from that fateful night, and I closed my eyes before I could watch past me get shoved against the wall and struggle in Peter’s grip. By the time I opened them, the video from hours ago was playing. Even with the tv muted, I knew what I would hear. Peter’s claims that his father and the police on his payroll would falsely accuse and arrest my sister, blackmail and threats and kidnapping. “Your father is already disowning you, trying to distance himself and his campaign from his rapist son. The police will be knocking down your door any minute. You’re not the only one with connections, after all.”

With that, Alex stood up, wiping his hands casually on his pants as if he didn’t just ruin a man’s life. Dev bent down to zip tie Peter’s wrists together.

“You’re lucky the cops are going to drag you off with all your bones intact. But listen here, Peter. If you ever try to fuck with my family again, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

I watched the sharp lines of Dev’s face as he growled the words to Peter. His deadly expression coupled with the cold, threatening tone sent a shiver down my spine, so unlike the outgoing, friendly Dev I had become used to. His intention was written in every curve of his body, muscles tight, jaw ticking, and I didn’t doubt for a second that he was serious.

It was all too easy to forget how dangerous Dev was underneath his warm veneer, especially considering I knew the least about his background, but I didn’t mind the glimpse into this side of him. It was a reminder that he and Alex would keep me safe, keep Wren and Bex and each other safe. A reminder that he belonged with us, that a part of him was a little too dark for polite society.

Alex’s hand tugged on mine as I watched Dev whisper a few more threats in Peter’s ear, too low for me to hear. I followed him silently out the back of the house, leaving Dev behind as we bypassed the door they had snuck in through so silently. Once we were out of the house, Alex finally turned back to me, eyes catching mine in the dim light, burning with the passion and love they always did. He stretched out his arms and I didn’t hesitate to jump into them, wrapping my legs around his waist as he lifted me.

“I love you,” I whispered, my nose brushing his as I leaned in to press my lips to his. But Alex jerked back, denying the kiss as I frowned in confusion.

“Say it again,” he demanded, voice tight.

“I love you.”

Hearing it again, Alex closed his eyes for a moment, as if absorbing the words. When they opened to meet mine again, I watched the most brilliant grin spread over his face, eclipsing every other smile of his that I’d savored. Before I could commit it to memory, his lips were crashing against my mouth, body pressing mine against the side of the house. I gasped at the feeling of the cool bricks against my back, Alex pressing his tongue into my mouth to tangle against mine.

I moaned into his mouth, adrenaline still high from what I just went through. I savored the sensation of his skin against mine, grounding me to this moment rather than allowing me to stay stuck in the tense uncertainty of the past two hours. Alex’s chest melded tighter to mine, his hips tilting so I could feel the hard ridge of his cock pressing against the apex of my thighs. My mouth was suddenly free, Alex’s lips finding their way across my jawline and down my neck, sucking and nipping at the skin until I was almost crawling out of my skin with desire.

A throat clearing had me freezing as I remembered where we were, though Alex must not have felt the same discomfort, his lips much more reluctant to make their way off my neck.

Dev stood to the side, smirking at the position he’d caught us in. “Not that I want to interrupt, but we need to leave. Police should be here any minute.”

Alex’s face pressed into my neck as he tried to compose himself, finally withdrawing himself from my embrace as he set me gently on the ground. He took my hand in his, leading me around the front of the row of townhomes, to a familiar black SUV. Alex opened the back door, attempting to usher me inside when my way was blocked by a black-clad banshee jumping out of the car and onto me.

“I’m so glad you’re okay! The guys said they could handle it but if you hadn’t come back sooner I was ready to bust some skulls.” Wren held up her arm, the tight black material of her turtleneck not moving in the slightest as she attempted to flex her nonexistent biceps. Her outfit was reminiscent of a cat burglar, with black leggings and a black turtleneck despite the late summer heat, topped off with a black beanie. I watched a bead of sweat trickle down her temple as she stood next to me, and I couldn’t help my smile that almost everyone from our little group had shown up for my rescue. Even if some of them were dressed impractically.

Alex finally wrangled us into the car, Wren crawling to the third row of seats while Alex settled in next to me, keeping a tight grip on my hand. Wren kept up some chatter on how she had planned to take down Peter on her own if Alex and Dev “didn’t make it,” lightening everyone’s mood from the intensity of what just went down.

When we were finally settled, I looked up to find Bex grinning at me over her shoulder from the passenger seat, computer in her lap. She was dressed more like the guys, in a black top and jeans, though hers were ripped and riddled with chains that clinked as she turned in her seat.

“Sorry it took us so long, but news channels really like to sit on breaking news until the six o’clock segment. Plus, we knew you were alright. I hacked the microphone on Peter’s phone right when Alex called me.” The reassurance helped loosen some of the tightness in my chest, realizing despite the sensation of danger that the lot of them were ready to bust in as needed if anything had gone awry. But what hit the hardest was that Bex was sitting there, talking me through the details of my rescue.

“You helped too?” I whispered, teary when I imagined the four of them working together without me as a buffer, which had been completely necessary every other time all of us had gotten together in the past few weeks.

“She had to,” Dev called out from the front seat, as he drove us back in the direction of our house, the suburban streets giving way to the tree-lined roads that felt like home. “First day - or I guess night - on the job, right B?” Dev met my eyes through the rearview mirror. “You can thank your sister for inundating every news channel from here to the west coast with Peter’s dirty laundry.”

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