Fury: Book 2 in the Vengeance MC series (9 page)

The taste of her mouth as she opens for me is like coming home, and it is in a way. I’ve fantasized about this more times than you can imagine, but I never thought it’d be this good. This perfect. Avery tastes like cotton candy and sunshine. Sweet and innocent. Fucking phenomenal.

I nip, caress, tease, and pillage her mouth as she strokes her tongue along the length of mine. My hand finds the heavy weight of her hair, gathering it in my fist, I tug on it just enough to tilt her head into the perfect position to deepen the kiss even further.

Everything after Avery unwinds her arms from around my waist – one going north to grab hold of the hair at the nape of my neck, the other up inside my shirt to explore the skin of my back – is a blur.

Pushing her roughly against the door, I detangle myself and grip the back of her thighs, hoisting her up until she’s forced to wrap her legs around my waist. Avery comes willingly, curling her arms around my neck, one still intertwined in the hair at the base of my skull. If the soft moans escaping her throat every now and then, and the way her body glides erotically up and down the straining length of my cock is anything to go by, she’s needed this just as much as I have.

Desperate for more, I make a mistake. I stop paying attention to the subtle cues her body is giving me and push her too far.

I run my fingers from the hem of her tank top, up to the lower curve of her breast reveling in the silkiness of her skin. Warm and velvet smooth, the toned expanse of her belly is something I intend to explore in depth when I finally have her naked beneath me.

Enamored with the feel of her – the weight of her in my arms – I miss Avery’s desperate mewl for me to stop. It wasn’t loud, I’m pretty sure even if I were paying attention I would have barely heard it over my own growls, but it was there. And because I missed it, I took us from where we were back to square one.

“Stop. Please, please stop,” Avery begs, tears now falling from her eyes, burning my skin as they land on my neck.

“Jesus, Ave,” I breathe, scared I’ve hurt her. Dropping her feet to the floor, I use my hands on her hips to steady her before removing them and taking a step back without breaking all connection between us. But she doesn’t give me a choice.

Wrenching herself away from me and skirting under my outstretched arm, Avery gasps,

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry, but I can’t do this.”

Trying to calm her down, I soothe,

“It’s okay, baby, we don’t have to do anything you aren’t ready for. I promise, yeah?”

“I-I-I just can’t. You have to leave, Fury. You have to leave now,” she stutters, her tears coming in rivers now.

I’m at a loss. For the first time in my life, I honestly have no idea what the fuck I’m supposed to do. Women’s tears have always been something I’ve run the opposite direction from, but now it’s my woman crying I wish I knew what to do to comfort her. Avery won’t welcome my touch, let alone me holding her right now, that much I do know.

Just as I’m about to break down, helpless, and cry with her, keys in the lock followed by Blaine pushing her way through the door loaded down with bags of groceries saves the day. Fucking literally saves the day.

“Oh, my God. What’s going on? What happened to her?” She exclaims, dropping everything in her hands gathering Avery in her arms.

With my head in my hands, fingers speared into my hair tugging roughly, I answer bluntly,

“Fuck, Blaine. Just fuck.”

Looking between us, Blaine gives me a sad smile indicating she understands without words what I’m telling her, smoothing a hand down Avery’s hair at the same time.

“Let me guess,” she offers quietly. “Things got out of control between you two, you went a little too fast for her, and here we are.”

“That about sums it up,” I sigh dejected feeling like a complete asshole.

Like I said, I should have thought about what I was doing. Avery had just been through something so traumatic that’s still fresh in her mind, which meant I needed to handle her with care, not get carried away. I should have been thinking of her and only her, not myself and how good she felt wrapped around me.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Fury,” Blaine counters. “It was bound to happen. If it helps, I’m glad it was you that it happened with. If it had been anyone else that might not have known her history and how to handle her. It’s a good thing, honey. Now that that’s out of the way, maybe she can create a good memory of what it’s like to be touched by someone who cares about her, not someone who just wants to hurt her,” she continues as if Avery isn’t even in the room.

While Avery’s tears haven’t abated entirely, they have calmed to hiccupping sobs every now and then in their place. Unsure of what to do now, I question,

“Is she going to be okay? Is it best if I just go and check in on her later? I’ve got no idea what to do here, Blaine. I don’t want to stay and risk upsetting her anymore, but I don’t want to leave her like this either.”

Blaine doesn’t hesitate in bending to whisper something in Avery’s ear to which Avery turns and sedately pads down the hall to her bedroom, closing the door and engaging the lock with a soft snick.

Taking my hand in hers, Blaine tugs me toward the couch saying,

“I think you best sit down because you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you, but I think in light of recent events it’s time.”

Settling myself into the corner seat, I listen to every word Blaine says as my heart shatters into a million pieces for the woman I failed to protect.

My first thought on finding Fury in our living room was to scream at him and then kick him out for upsetting Avery, but after seeing the devastated expression on his face, I decided to do what my best friend will never gather the courage to do. Tell him the truth.

Avery is the strongest woman I know – not many women recover from what she went through as well as she has – but she in saying that, she isn’t the bravest. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, her fear will only serve to destroy any and all chance she would have to be with the man I know she’s desperately in love with.

I wasn’t the first or even second person Avery opened up to when she was finally ready, but I did know more than the rest. More than her therapist even. Until now I’ve kept her confidence, but as far as I’m concerned Fury has the right to know what she went through. Honestly, I think it’s for the best.

Curling my legs underneath me, I get as comfortable as I can in an uncomfortable situation, before asking,

“How much do you know about what happened in the day and a half they had her?”

“Saw how he held her seeing as I was the one to find her, saw the damage they did too. Other than that, not much. Bits and pieces filtered through the clubhouse but I was gone before they could be confirmed or denied,” he answers leaning forward in his seat.

There’s no easy way to break to him what Avery went through, and there’s no less horrible way to describe the sequence of events that have led her to where she is now, so I opt for the unadulterated truth.

Sucking in a deep breath, clasping my hands tightly in my lap, I go on to explain,

“The details of where they were going and how Beth’s car was run off the road don’t really have any bearing on how you found Avery, so there’s probably no point starting there. I’ll start when she woke up for the first time if that’s okay?”

“Yeah, that’s good, B,” he rasps.

“To hear Avery tell it, she was only conscious for ten minutes or so before those men came in and separated her from Bec and Beth, but from what I’ve been able to put together, I think it was more like an hour. She remembers too much about the size of the room and where everything was located, details she wouldn’t have been able to recall in that short period. Especially considering the amount of pain she would have been in.”

Fury’s ragged panting stops me in my tracks. The poor man looks pained already, which doesn’t bode well for him since the rest of what I have to tell him is so much worse.

“Go on,” he gestures with his hand. “Don’t stop no matter how I react, yeah?”

Agreeing, I continue.

“Lord was the first man she recognized, he came in to take her to his boss. Apparently, he tried throughout the duration they kept her to sneak her water, check her wounds, and interrupt when things were getting too bad, but he disappeared soon after the sun rose. Boss and Saint confirmed Avery’s story that she got most of her injuries in the first few hours of being captured with Lord when they could, and he agrees. The easiest way to do this is for me to detach from storytelling for a minute and just give you a list of her injuries, you okay with that?” I question, hoping he is.

“Whatever you think is the best way to do this, Blaine,” Fury assents.

“Okay,” I croak. Trust me when I say this is the least horrifying way to hear the extent of Avery’s suffering. I’ve heard her tell it, her therapist, and her doctor, and honestly, the objective way her doctor relayed the information was less heart wrenching.

Knowing this, if this softens the blow this information will be for Fury, so be it.

“Obviously, there were signs she’d been in a car accident. The diagonal bruising across her neck and chest from the seatbelt, the six-inch shard of glass the hospital removed from her arm, along with the scratches from the window that broke, grazing her opposite arm, and her left shoulder was dislocated. All of that was conducive with what the police reported to her doctors. They think her five broken ribs including the one that punctured her lung were due to being pulled out of the vehicle, but no one can be absolutely sure when that occurred. Everything else happened after she was abducted, though. The men who held her broke her arm in three places, one fracture was so bad the surgeons didn’t have a choice but to repair it using a metal plate and eight screws. The lacerations the emergency room staff found on her chest, thighs, and stomach weren’t accidental. They were precision cuts designed to hurt a great deal but bleed very little. Burns up and down the insides of both her forearms were along the same vain. Not bad enough to severe the nerve endings, only deep enough to cause the maximum amount of pain. Her nose was broken, she had two black eyes, a fractured cheekbone, and for a while there, we weren’t sure she would ever be able to see out of her left eye again,” I recall, a sob hitching in my throat.

“Fuck, don’t stop, Blaine. I need you to get this done fast, babe,” Fury pleads, shaking with anger from his seat across from me.

Composing myself, I do as he asks.

“The police arrived not long after Avery was brought in, and demanded a sexual assault exam be performed. She was a virgin before their attack, Fury. She’d been saving herself for someone special she told me.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he hisses, the living room practically vibrating with his barely controlled rage.

Hurrying to finish, I rush out,

“The sexual assault kit evidence was able to identify seven individual samples of DNA, not all of it collected vaginally. Fifty-nine stitches she needed to close the multiple tears, salt baths, and a month long course of antibiotics to prevent infection. The doctors ran a full panel of STD tests and a pregnancy test, and thankfully, they were all negative, but to be on the safe side, they gave her Plan B just in case. Three months ago, Avery underwent another round of blood tests just to make sure nothing was missed on the first ones, and they too were negative. It took her a little over a month before she broke down enough to speak to anyone, but when she did, it was Ade she talked to first. Avery didn’t tell her everything, honestly, until she started seeing her therapist I don’t think she remembered all of it. That was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it gave her time to physically heal before having to tackle the emotional side, but a curse because she had to relive those horrors all over again.”

“Please tell me there isn’t more,” Fury begs, tears rolling down his cheeks splashing onto the dark, faded denim of his jeans at his knees.

“Not much,” I reassure him quietly. “When Avery actually started to remember, she did it vividly. Her night terrors are a part of that. Sometimes it’s difficult to pull her out of them and wake her up. She gets so lost in those dreams it’s like she’s reliving the experience night after night. She wakes up exhausted, pale, shaking, and disorientated. Half the time Avery only snaps out of it because she’s screamed loud enough to penetrate whatever dream she’s in. Her therapist says it’s normal, they’ll probably continue for months if not years, but it’s something you’ve got to be aware of if you’re ever here when she falls asleep. It’s terrifying hearing her go through that, Fury.”

“And she has them every night?” he asks curtly.

“Every night, and occasionally if she falls asleep during the day,” I confirm. “The police were able to take Avery’s statement the day after as you know, and because Saint taught her well, she was able to give detailed descriptions of all the men who attacked her, bar one. Avery says she would be able to recognize his voice if she ever heard it again, though. They arrested three of the seven men, and issued warrants for two more, but the last two, one of which they have a description of but no name and the other only his build and eye color are still out there somewhere. I think that’s what scares her most,” I admit quietly. “That they haven’t been caught, and one might never be.”

“Both MC’s have the same info, though, yeah?”

“Of course,” I nod. “Avery asked for copies of her statement, video interview and artists sketches which she gave to Boss and he, in turn, made copies of it for Cage. Dad took what we have to his contacts at the FBI, and I think Boss sent it through to Brookes’ at EyeSee as well.”

“They tell you if they’ve got any leads yet?”

“Nothing yet. According to Dad the trail’s cold, but he hasn’t given up hope something will turn up, and I know Boss and Brookes’ haven’t either.”

“Good,” he breathes heavily. “That all of it?”

Unfortunately, it isn’t, not quite anyway.

“I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but she’s been getting more paranoid lately. Nothing obvious, just small things like checking she’s locked the door and watching over her shoulder all the time, but enough that I’m worried about her. I thought she was getting better. She’s been seeing her therapist twice a week for months now, but this has only started recently. If anything, I would have expected this in the beginning, not now.”

“Think I’ve got a fair idea as to why this has only just cropped up, Blaine, and it’s something I intend to deal with when I get back to the clubhouse later,” he replies cryptically.

“Why,” I question.

“How much do you know about, Lawson, Deke’s cousin?”

What does he have to do with anything, I wonder? Avery has mentioned him hanging around the clubhouse and showing up while she’s at the diner having lunch, but that’s about the extent of it. I know he’s shown interest in getting to know her, but to my knowledge, he hasn’t pushed the issue.

“Not a great deal. He’s visiting his cousin, staying with him at his apartment, and Avery said he had lunch with her once but that’s all. She said something about him asking her to have a drink with him one night but she turned him down.”

“Yeah, the first part of that I got from Boss and Cash when I spoke to them earlier,” he says gruffly. “But they’re under the impression the two of them are dating. Not sure where they got that info, no doubt from him, but when I talked to Avery about it, she denied it.”

Shaking my head, I confirm,

“They’re definitely not dating, that much I do know. Avery would have told me if they were.”

“I’m not saying I don’t believe her or you, babe, but something is going on with him that I’m going to get to the bottom of. Avery’s a beautiful woman, any man can see that Lawson included, so I don’t doubt he’s interested but from what Avery’s told me, he freaks her out. Like I said, I’m going to sit him down and have a chat with him, see where his head’s at and take it from there. If I’ve got to deliver a message he can’t ignore, I will, but I want to feel him out first. I won’t have motherfuckers like him freaking my girl out, and I need to find out what his agenda is before I beat the shit out of him and he shuts down completely.”

“Do you think he’s dangerous? He wouldn’t hurt her would he?” I gasp.

“He won’t get a chance to, Blaine. I promise you that. I’d lay down my life to keep that girl safe and you know it. Give me a few days and I’ll have it sorted,” he assures me.

Emotionally exhausted, I stretch my arms above my head and let out a ragged sigh. I hope I’ve done the right thing by telling him my best friends story and haven’t caused problems between us, but I suppose only time will tell. Not to mention, I’ve got enough problems of my own to sort out without adding to them. The biggest being, Jonas.