* * * *
They were going around in circles and getting nowhere. Flynn was losing his cool. He was filled with a mix of emotions. Did Adelina really care for them, too, and was she just caught in the middle of a crazy situation? She had been at their beck and call for two years. She always went above and beyond her job as their manager, and all they really wanted was for her to share their bed. Had they somehow placed her inadvertently in danger? Now he was thinking like an agent, instead of thinking with his cock, and wondering if she would screw him and Jett over, like other women had tried. Like Tess?
“What did he do to you? Was it Raymond or someone else?” Flynn asked abruptly. The thought that her boyfriend did this, or was part of something bigger and had used her to get to him and Jett started to get his temper flaring.
She turned away.
They stood side by side behind her.
“Adelina, tell us. We want to understand what happened. We don’t want to believe that you would be part of a plan to destroy us and The Phantom. We expect more from you,” Jett said firmly.
She glanced over her shoulder, the tears still in her eyes, but now anger, too. “Expect more from me? I’ve given you both a hundred percent of me every day when I step into this place.”
“And so easily you could turn against us because of some poser? Some wealthy guy who swept you off your feet and promised you what, Adelina? Money, security? What?” Flynn challenged her.
“I wasn’t promised anything.”
“Bullshit! You think we were born yesterday? You think we’re fucking stupid? We know that you’re involved with this. You’ve admitted to it and then try to say that this guy threatened to kill a sister and nephew we never even knew you had. Is that supposed to make us weak? Is that supposed to get us to forgive you?” Flynn yelled at her.
“You’re worse than Tess. What you’ve done hurts worse, too.” Jett told her.
She gasped. “I’m not. I have no choice. He will kill me.”
“Bullshit. So he threatened your family? We could have protected them. We could have protected you. But no, you decide that this guy’s threats are more powerful, more capable. Give me a break, Adelina. What would make you comply to this guy’s demands? You broke Tess’s nose because she was going to use me. You’re not weak, you don’t back down. What could this guy have done to you? What, Goddamn it?” Flynn yelled at her.
She was shaking. They could see her, despite the fact that her back was toward them. She reached back and began to unzip the back of her dress. As her fingers caused the material to part she stared at them over her shoulder. She was shaking like a leaf.
“This, you self-centered son of a bitch! This is why I’m going to help him. Because I have no choice. Because I’m scared to death, and there are no other choices!” she screamed, her last words choked back with tears as the bruises and marks over her back came into view. Red, bruised streaks of welts crisscrossed along her bare back to the top of her panties.
Flynn never felt so much anger in his entire life. Adelina kept one hand holding up the front of her dress, while using the other hand to hold the desk in front of her for support. The marks on her back looked painful, and the realization that someone beat her and threatened her by force attacked every one of his senses.
He couldn’t move, but Jett did. Jett was there to pull her into his arms and hold her as she cried, her body shaking. The desperate sounds of her sobs tore at his heart.
He tore his eyes away from her damaged, abused skin and felt his own heart ache. He never felt so helpless, so weak and just downright angry in his life. He failed her. They failed her.
“Fuck!” he yelled out and then slammed his fist down onto the table beside him. He ran his fingers through his hair, paced the room like some caged animal, all while Jett consoled her. His brother’s words, his ability to care for their woman in a time like this was commendable. She was their woman. They had been so fucking stupid. Instead of protecting her, caring for the one woman they knew would make them happy, they pushed her away repeatedly.
There was so much to ask and discuss, but the one thing that remained at the forefront of his brain was revenge. He’d kill the bastard responsible for this. He’d kill him with his bare hands.
* * * *
Jett felt his own body shaking as he held Adelina against his chest. She was sobbing and as he closed his eyes, absorbed the feel of her in his arms, and inhaled her perfume, he saw the damage to her body. They should have been there for her, protecting her.
“I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there to protect you. We’ve been stupid, Adelina. So fucking stupid.”
She pulled back, and he stared down into her watery eyes. He cupped her cheeks between his hands as she still held the front of her dress tightly. Her knuckles were white from her grip. Her cleavage deep, as her large breasts nearly fell from the satin cups of the dress.
“It’s not your fault. No one could have known this was going to happen. I sure as shit didn’t know. I was so scared. I was in shock. I’m in deep, Jett. There’s no way out now. No one can save me.” The tears rolled down her cheeks at her own words. “I’m going to die.”
“No. No, you’re not going to die. We’re going to protect you, and do what we should have done from the start. You mean so much to us. Obviously, this guy knows it. You need to be strong for me, baby. Flynn is going to call Cash and Zane, along with Al, and some others. We need as much information as we can get from you so we can stop this guy.”
“Oh, God, Jett, my family. They’re not safe.”
He held her cheeks firmly and tilted her face up toward him. The fear in her eyes was so great it pulled at his heart and wretched his stomach. But Adelina needed him and Flynn. They would need one another to get through this situation.
“Flynn is on it. He’ll get them to safety immediately, and then we’ll begin.”
He stared at her intently. Adelina’s plump red lips, her thick eyelashes and sparkling green eyes, and he knew she was going to be theirs.