The Virgin Next Door by Stasia Black

28

MACK

Calla fellasleep in Mack’s arms about an hour after Liam left them. He’d texted Liam several times to ask what was going on but got nothing back.

Calla said he was probably just catching up with his dad. Mack didn’t tell her he saw Liam storming out of the hotel when he’d followed him back downstairs earlier. Or that that woman, Brigid, had gone right after him.

Calla always believed the best in people. So Mack had just nodded along, not believing it for a minute. People like Liam always stuck to their own kind in the end. The fact that he himself had started allowing Liam just the little bit in made Mack furious with himself.

But if he was honest, Liam had wormed his way under Mack’s skin. Calla too.

Mack would find his thoughts straying to the softness of Calla’s hair at the most random moments. Whenever he made a breakthrough with Torpedo, she was the first one he wanted to tell. And whenever he had a setback, he immediately wanted to take out his frustrations on Liam’s ass.

Though really, there’d even been more tender moments between him and the bloody Irishman lately. Who would have thought? Just this morning, early as fuck, he’d woken up hard as a rock and gone in to grab Liam so they could go give Calla a wake-up call she wouldn’t forget.

And he’d stood there for a good five minutes just watching Liam sleep.

What the fuck was that about?

Thank Christ for the rude awakening of Liam’s past coming back to remind both of them exactly who Liam Delaney O’Neill was.

Because the clock had wound down. Time was up. Mack was supposed to split town as soon as Torpedo was auctioned tomorrow. But he hadn’t yet made any plans. Or packed any of his things.

He sifted his hands through Calla’s soft hair as she slept against his chest. His gut clenched and he felt fucking nauseated at the thought of leaving them.

What if he didn—

Shit. No. He couldn’t think like that…

Could he?

He jerked forward. Calla stirred in his arms and he froze. When she settled, he moved her gently so that she was laying on the bed.

Then he got up and paced back toward the window.

The thought returned—what if?

What if he didn’t go back for Bone? What if he forgot that part of his life had ever happened? What if the happiness he’d found here could actually last?

He sat for hours watching Calla sleep. Waiting for Liam to come home. The others got back from the bar a little after Liam left but they were quiet and didn’t wake Calla.

By three a.m. he’d memorized every contour of Calla’s face but he wasn’t any closer to deciding what he should do. He climbed into bed beside Calla. Her body was so warm and when he slept with her and Liam, the nightmares didn’t come.

He was so tired. So, so tired.

Ever since Ben had died, Mack spent every spare moment thinking about taking his revenge on Bone. Fuck the consequences.

He was born shit and he’d die shit, right?

There was nothing but darkness for him. No future. No joy. Just doing what needed doing and then either spending the rest of his days rotting in a cell for it, or, more likely, getting cut down by another of the Devil’s Spawn.

But… maybe, just maybe, choosing his future was as simple as that—a choice. Shit could be fertilizer, right? If there was the right person nurturing whatever was growing.

His eyes fell on Calla again. Someone bright and full of life like her.

Christ, he was tired. Fucking delirious if he was having such flowery fuckin’ thoughts.

He let his head drop back against the pillows. Calla was so warm in his arms. She even smelled like sunshine.

He fell asleep, that old song playing in his head, you are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

* * *

“Do you think he’s okay?”Calla asked for what felt like the hundredth time as she and Mack parked the trailer in the designated area. They were towing Calla’s horse and Xavier and Mel were bringing Tornado over from the stables where they’d boarded them for the night.

One look at Calla’s anxious face made Mack want to punch Liam in the fucking face. Especially on a day that was this important to her. She’d only brought it up once, but Mack knew she had hopes of winning one of the cash prizes today. She had a real shot at it. What she’d accomplished with Painter in three months was fucking phenomenal.

But she needed every ounce of focus she had. Which Liam fucking knew.

“You saw the text,” Mack said, trying to make his voice reassuring even though he felt anything but. “He’s fine. He’ll be here soon.” The text had been three lines long. See you this morning at arena. Went for drive last night. Didn’t want to wake you when I got back.

Calla put a hand on his arm, stopping him from getting out of the car. “It’s okay if last night upset you. I know you two can be…” she looked to the roof of the car before meeting his gaze again, “volatile. But I know how much you care about him.”

Mack paused, frowning. Shit, was she right? Was he so mad at the bastard because he was worried about him?

He pushed the car door open. “Wouldn’t have killed him to have fucking called,” he mumbled under his breath.

Calla came around the front of the truck cab and threw her arms around his waist. “Everything’s going to be okay.” She looked up at him, eyes searching. “Right?”

His chest went tight at seeing her uncertainty. “You bet your ass. Everything’s gonna be great.” He gave her a squeeze, and then a quick smack on the ass. “Now let’s go get your prizewinner ready.”

She smiled and nodded. He was about to follow her to the back of the trailer rig when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

He pulled it out and glanced at the screen.

Sammy was Facetiming him.

Mack frowned. Sammy knew the competition was today. He wouldn’t be calling if he didn’t have something important.

“I’m gonna go check on Torpedo, okay, hon?” Mack called out to Calla.

“See you in there.”

Mack was already striding away. The phone stopped ringing but started right back up again. Mack finally answered when he got to an empty part of the huge parking lot where no one would overhear him.

“What’s up, Sammy?”

But it wasn’t Sammy’s face he saw on the other end. It was some fucking meathead.

“Who the fuck are y—”

“Bone’s got a message for you,” the meathead said.

Mack’s blood went cold. The screen shifted like the guy was moving the phone around. It settled on a computer screen that was obviously some kind of camera feed.

And what Mack saw almost made him lose his breakfast.

There was just enough light to see Sammy, naked, bloody, and strung up on a hook like he was a slab of meat at the butchers. He was screaming in agony.

“Please! Please, don’t—”

Mack almost dropped the phone. “Sam!” he shouted.

And then came that evil fucking laugh that haunted Mack’s dreams.

Bone’s face filled the computer screen a second later. He grinned, showing off his stained, yellow teeth. “Baby boy, I heard you been asking around about me. You wanted to arrange a reunion all you had to do was ask me direct.”

Bile rose up Mack’s throat

“Instead, I learn you got one of our own playing snitch for you.”

Bone moved out of the way and Sammy’s body took up the frame again. Some of the blood and grime on his chest was dark, but some was bright red like Bone had slashed him right before placing the call. Mack’s stomach bottomed out at seeing his friend like this.

“Gotta say I didn’t mind having the excuse to get me a little plaything,” Bone’s voice came over the video of Sammy. “It’s so goddamned boring on the outside. I miss having my pick of the fresh meat.”

Bone circled one of Sammy’s nipples with a sharp hunting knife. “Remember the first day you walked the block, baby boy?”

“Fuck!” Mack yelled when Bone sliced Sammy’s nipple off. Sammy screamed and writhed on the hook. Mack dropped to his knees, staring at the phone.

“Foreplay just gets me so excited,” came Bone’s voice again. “Maybe you have missed me all these years and that’s why you sent this fucking idiot to try to learn about me. So I’d know just where to come and find you. Because Sammy here? He sang like a songbird as soon as I pulled off the first fingernail. Wyoming, huh? I didn’t make you out for a city boy.”

Mack sat paralyzed, eyes glued to the screen.

“Feel free to stay and watch the show. I’ll be seeing you soon, baby boy.”

Sammy whimpered something Mack couldn’t make out. There was another five minutes to the video and Mack wanted to throw the goddamned thing across the fucking parking lot. But maybe there was some deal he could make with Bone. Maybe he could offer to exchange himself for—

Sammy’s scream filled the phone speakers and Mack could only sit helplessly by for the rest of the video while Bone raped his friend and then slit his throat.

Bone’s demonic laugh was the last thing Mack heard before the phone call was ended.