Tyler's Undoing (35 page)

My father nodded and pulled out a small black bag from his glove compartment.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Smiling, he opened it up and inside were various lock picks of different sizes. “Do you know how many times I’ve left the keys to the gym at home? Your mother bought me these so I’d always have a way in.”

Quickly, we both got out of the truck and ran down the sidewalk, crouching behind a set of bushes at the edge of her yard.

“It’ll only take me a couple of seconds to unlock the door,” he whispered over to me. “As soon as I do, we don’t need to barge in. Let’s do it quietly and catch whoever’s inside of there off guard.”

My father started toward the front door, but I went straight to Kacey’s window. Her curtains were pulled down, but they were sheer enough to where I could vaguely see inside. She was on her bed with tears streaming down her cheeks. But that wasn’t all . . . she was fucking tied down to her bed.
Motherfucker!

I tried to lift her window, but it was locked. My father hissed my name, and I was about to go to him when I saw Kacey’s bedroom door open and Liam enter. By the look in his hungered stare, and the way he locked the door, I knew what his intentions were.

Kacey trembled on the bed and fought against her restraints, her wrists blistered and red from the ties. The second Liam crawled on the bed and started touching her, I lost all self-control.

He was a fucking dead man.

WHEN LIAM ENTERED and locked the door behind him, I knew I was in trouble. I pulled on my restraints and hissed with pain. “What are you doing?”

He crawled up the bed and put his hands on my calves, slowly sliding them up my thighs, lifting my dress along the way. He didn’t stop until the bottom of my dress laid on my stomach.

I felt ill. “Get off of me, Liam. Kyle will kill you when he finds out.”

“No, he won’t, because he knows he’s nothing without me,” he murmured, kissing his way up my thighs.

My legs were tied too tightly and I couldn’t close them or push him off. I was trapped and the combination of wanting to vomit and having my adrenalin pumping was almost bad enough to make me pass out.

“Fuck, you’re so hot. I’m going to enjoy this.”

When he started unbuttoning his pants, I lost it. “Liam, no,” I shouted. “Please, don’t do this to me.”

Getting to his feet, he lifted his shirt over his head and let his pants fall to the floor. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a condom, opening it up slowly, tormenting me. “Just relax, sunshine. It hurts more when you’re tense. Although, tense makes you tight, and I guess that’s better for me.” He shrugged.

Tears poured down my cheeks and all I could think about was Tyler. He would kill both Liam and my brother after this; he would go to jail and things would never be the same.

“Jordan!” I screamed. “Help me,
please
! Don’t let Liam do this to me!”

Liam snarled and jumped on top of me, slamming his hand over my mouth. “The only name you’re going to be screaming is mine, you bitch. Jordan’s not going to help you.” He pushed his arousal into my hip and I gagged.

In the next second, the door burst open and Liam was yanked off of my body and thrown across the room. I heard fists pounding into flesh and the gurgling sound of someone struggling to breathe.

I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. Jordan saved me. I felt my dress pulled back into place and then the cold bite of metal slid against my skin. My wrist was free, the tie cut away. However, it wasn’t Jordan who released me from my restraints.

“Kacey.” Tyler’s strangled voice was full of heartache and rage. “I’m getting you out of here.” He wiped away my tears.

When I could finally see him, I burst into more tears and held onto him as he lifted me up and carried me to the door. “Oh my God, I was so scared,” I wailed. I looked down at the floor and Liam was knocked unconscious, his face a bloody mess.

Tyler’s dad already had Jordan apprehended and rushed over, peering down at Liam on the floor. “I thought I told you to leave the roughing up to me, son.”

Tyler growled and held me tighter. “That wasn’t exactly easy considering what he was about to do to Kacey.”

“Then I’m surprised you didn’t kill the fucker,” his father grumbled angrily. He squeezed my shoulder and turned my chin to face him. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, tears falling down my cheeks.

“Then you two get back to the arena. I’ll handle everything here. I think it’s time Liam pays for all of his crimes.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Tyler asked.

Steven cracked his knuckles and grinned. “You have nothing to worry about, son. Now go.”

Tyler rushed us out the door and down the street, where Steven’s truck sat cloaked in darkness. He opened the door and set me down gently.

“How did you know?” I asked.

He buckled me up and ran to the other side and got in. “Your brother told Paxton you were sick. When Paxton noticed Liam and Jordan weren’t in his entourage, he knew something was wrong.

“I wanted to kill Liam, Kacey. I saw him through your window and I lost it. As soon as my dad unlocked the front door I came straight for you. I don’t want to imagine what would’ve happened if I’d been a few minutes late.”

Neither did I.

My hands were shaking uncontrollably and my wrists looked like raw hamburger. I focused on trying to breathe and calming myself down. It hurt to know that my brother was the cause of it all.

“You don’t have to go with me, Kacey,” Tyler murmured, reaching for my hands. He placed his on top of mine and squeezed gently, making sure to avoid my wrists. “If you don’t want to see your brother, you can wait for me in my room.”

Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and sat up taller. The thought of seeing my brother cleared my head and gave me new focus. “No, I’m going to watch you fight and I’m going to sit in your corner, with my head held high. My brother likes to break people and we’re going to show him he can’t break us. This all ends tonight.”

By the time we got back to the arena, Tyler had ten minutes before the fight. My dress was part way ripped and my makeup was smeared down my face, but Tyler held my hand firmly in his as I raced along beside him to his room. When he opened the door, I gasped at the amount of people in there.

Paxton and Bree were the first ones up, rushing to my side. Reluctantly, Tyler let me go and Pax took me up in his arms—his skin warm and sweaty from his fight. “Your brother is so fucking dead, Kace. Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “If Tyler didn’t show up I wouldn’t have been. Did you win?”

“You know it.”

I smiled and held him tighter.

“All right, let me have her. You boys can’t always keep her to yourself,” Bree scolded.

Pax set me down and Bree immediately brought the tissues to my face and wiped under my eyes. She even had to use them on herself when she looked at me. “We were so worried. When Paxton told us you weren’t here . . .”

“Shh. I’m okay now,” I consoled her. “I’m safe.”

Over her shoulder, I saw Matt and Gabriella, along with one of the Jameson twins. Gabriella smiled at me, her dark hair pulled into a low ponytail and dressed in a royal blue tank top and jeans. Hesitantly, I smiled back.

Matt, looking exactly like Gabriella with the same dark hair and green eyes, shook Tyler’s hand and slapped him on the shoulder. “It’s time, Rushing. Are you ready to go out there? I’m in your corner tonight.”

Tyler smiled, but then looked back at me, his expression uncertain.

“Go,” I said, nodding my head. “I’ll be out there as quick as I can.” I held up my wrists. “As soon as I get these bandaged up.”

“I’ll do it,” Gabriella cut in, coming to my side. “You boys need to get out there, now. Us girls can handle it from here.”

Tyler tensed, but Matt grabbed his tape and gloves and started for the door. “Come on, boys. It’s time to kick some ass.”

All the guys left the room, except Tyler, who took me in his arms and kissed me long and hard. Gabriella and Bree both turned their heads, giving us privacy. “I love you, Kacey. Wish me luck.”

“You don’t need luck. I have faith in you.”

He kissed me again and disappeared out the door, closing it behind him. Now I was left alone with Bree and Gabriella. The awkward silence was thick enough to choke on.

“Okay, I’m just going to break the ice,” Gabriella began. She took my hands and pulled me over to the couch and gently pressed down on my shoulders. I sat down and watched her rummage through Tyler’s bag until she pulled out the triple antibiotic ointment and gauze.

Kneeling down in front of me, she turned my hands over and hissed when she saw all of the damage. Bree sat beside me and put her arm around my shoulders.

“I’m going to do this as gently as I can, okay?” Gabriella murmured soothingly.

“Okay,” I whispered.

Closing my eyes, I gritted my teeth together as she rubbed the ointment onto my sores and slowly wrapped them in gauze. When both were done, she smiled and got to her feet.

“There, that should take care of it. Tyler can put more medicine on them and rewrap them for you tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Gabriella. I appreciate it.”

Bree took my hands and helped me up, clenching her teeth at my ripped dress. “I hope Tyler beat the shit out of the guys who did that to you.”

“He did,” I informed her. “If I wasn’t tied up, I would’ve tried to do it myself.”

“Do you happen to have something else to wear?” Gabriella asked.

I shook my head and ran my hands through my hair. “No. After everything that happened, Tyler rushed me out of my house and away from there as fast as he could.”

Reaching for her pink duffle bag on the floor, Gabriella picked it up and set it down in front of me. “I know you have no reason to like me and you can say no if you want, but I have something in here you could wear.” She pulled out a pair of jeans and held them up. “We’re basically the same size, so these should fit. I think my ass might be a little bit bigger, though.”

Bree chuckled when I took the jeans and I rolled my eyes at her. Gabriella was actually nice, considering everything between us. It wasn’t what I was expecting. Rummaging through her bag some more, she pulled out a couple of tank tops and passed one to Bree and to me. “I know this is kind of silly, but I used to do this a lot with my brother.” She pointed to the tank tops. “Hold them out.”

When I lifted the black tank top there were words written in the center in bright neon green letters . . .
Team Tyler
. I looked down at the royal blue one she was wearing and noticed that it said
Team Ryley
on it in big, white letters. The tank tops were the same colors of the guys’ fighting shorts.

“I would wear the ones for my brother at his fights. Eventually, I had some made for all of my friends, including Tyler. You don’t have to wear them, but I figured it would be a good smack in the face to your brother.”

Smiling, I held the tank top up to my chest and traced Tyler’s name with my finger. “Let’s do it.”