Under The Magnolia Read online

  memory so that even when I had to work, she’d be with me. I’d be able to

  walk in this room for something and remember her all splayed out while I

  ate her out ‘til kingdom come. Well, till Amelia Poppy come.

  She starts grinding herself against my face, and it’s all I can do to not

  come in my pants. I know my face is covered with slick but God it feels

  good. When I start fingering her, I can feel her muscles begin to quiver,

  sucking me in and then I map out her pretty little clit and start sucking on it,

  using the tip of my tongue to flutter against it, and she falls apart for me.

  Her whole body just lets go, becomes boneless, and I know I need to get

  inside of her now before this beautiful boner goes to waste without her. I

  don’t bother taking my pants off, just open them enough to get access to the

  part of me that is literally straining to escape. I feel so swollen that it’s near

  painful to brush against her flushed and wet sex, but sliding inside of her is

  next-level pleasure.

  “This, Amelia. This right here is what I was so scared of all those years.

  Even then I knew you had the power to possess me so thoroughly that

  nothing else would ever matter again.”

  I snap my hips against her as her nails dig into my back, her voice

  breaking into almost-sobs as she calls my name, begs me for more. I kiss

  her and It’s just everything. She’s clinging to me like I’m her life raft, and I

  love that she needs me. Love that she wants me.

  I change my angle a little, looking for that one place that’s going to make

  her lose her mind, then go at her unrelenting until she has to bite into my

  shoulder to keep from screaming.

  “Fuck, Amelia, the way you take me, you’re perfect.”

  I find my release, which nearly breaks me, all this time of needing to feel

  this connection finally falling away as absolute bliss takes over. She’s in my

  arms, she’s wearing my ring, she’s fucking mine. At last.

  Amelia

  Thank God I’m not expected to walk, because after that show upstairs my

  legs are incredibly useless, like even more so than usual. They won’t stop

  twitching and every time they do it’s just a reminder of the way Alex felt in

  between my legs.

  After a hasty cleanup and a quick re-dressing, we actually did manage to

  spend a few minutes more with the canvas so I could figure out what I

  wanted to do. Now he’s just checking the schedule for Theo while I get to

  sit in the sunshine, the soft country air soothing my ragged nerves. Today

  had been…a lot. I wasn’t sure how their parents would react to this less-

  than-traditional relationship, but it was overwhelming to see that they were

  all more or less adopting me.

  I had to stop thinking about sex with Alex. The way his muscles moved

  under my palms…shit. I need to clear my head so I don’t seem like a crazy

  person if someone tries to talk to me. I can smell the fresh flowers planted

  nearby, can just make out the change in color, and there’s definitely grass

  nearby. It’s peaceful.

  I can hear the occasional car passing in the distance, the rumble of

  engines as they move around the fire station. Voices echoed from within the

  building, life. Life was finally moving forward, and I actually got to be a

  part of it.

  Alex starts pushing me forward, and I have to bite back the need to tell

  him I’m capable. I understood his need to care for me, so I could be a little

  lazy and let him. I tilt my head up to get more sun on my face, determined

  to just hold onto this pocket of happiness they’ve carved out for me. Today

  should have been awkward- admitting to your co-workers you’re entering a

  four way marriage with your friends. But for whatever reason, it wasn’t.

  Everyone seemed genuinely happy for us, and more than willing to give the

  guys shit for what may or may not happen behind closed doors.

  “Are we doing dinner at the house?”

  I was thinking that Constantine and Cameron should be about done with

  their duties for the day. I loved that they both worked from home so

  someone would always be there to keep me company.

  Alex doesn’t answer right away, letting the gravel under my tires speak

  for him as we near the parking lot. I tilt my head up to try and see him, but

  realize immediately it’s not Alex. It’s the wrong color shirt, the wrong

  everything.

  “Who are you? Stop! Hey! Where are we going?”

  I’m panicking now, being sent right back to that place my aunt loved to

  put me where I’m completely helpless. I draw in breath, ready to scream,

  but something hits me across the head and I can’t. I crumple, letting the

  blackness overtake me, praying that the memory I just made with Alex

  won’t be my last.

  Cameron

  All I can think is, not again. The way Alex sobbed on the phone won’t

  stop replaying through my head, won’t stop haunting me. It’s like some sick

  cosmic joke- give me the girl, take the girl away. Give, take. Give…this

  was supposed to be the ultimate ending. ‘Til death.

  Now, I’m praying as hard as my injured soul can that it won’t be ‘til

  death. Not today. There’s been so many damn close calls, so many times

  that this perfect woman has been abused for simply existing. For daring to

  love.

  I’m trying to make my way out to where Constantine was finishing up in

  the garage, stumbling every other step, my hand clutched to my chest. By

  the time I’m finally at the door I collapse, letting out the sob that has been

  dormant for so long. I haven’t let it out since the last time I lost her.

  I can’t talk, can’t think. It’s just blackness, sparks in my eyelids trying to

  detonate my mind so I won’t have to accept what reality is trying to do to

  me again.

  Constantine slaps me across the face and I’m stunned, everything

  narrowing into a perfect clarity as I gaze up at him from the ground. He’s a

  storm cloud, a cyclone ready to release its wrath. I hate to be the person on

  the other end, because he’s done losing the girl, too. And he’s kind of a

  scary motherfucker.

  The slap forces me to come back to what’s important- saving the woman

  none of us can exist without.

  “Alex called. Disappeared. Out front of the station.”

  “Shit. Do they have cameras out front?”

  “Yeah. They’re looking, they’ve already got cops on it. We need to tell

  Theo.”

  “Fuck. I don’t want to tell him.”

  Constantine drags me up and half carries me to his beat-up truck,

  throwing it in reverse and zooming down the road as I call Theo. I think

  he’s still on the house call because he doesn’t answer, so I’m left with few

  choices. I text him, telling him that someone just issued themself a death

  warrant and that she’s missing, then stare out the window until we get to the

  station.

  There’s a swarm of police already there and Alex barely registers our

  presence, too busy talking and looking at maps and stuff. It’s not long until

  a few engines come barreling home, the bays opening up to allow them

  entrance.


  Theo storms up to us, face thunderous as he pulls up something on his

  phone, shoving it down for all of us to look at.

  “I got her one of those first alert necklaces a while ago, she should be

  wearing it. The second she’s conscious or able to, she’ll pull it and we hunt

  the fucker down. Until then, I want every fucking angle of footage searched

  until we have a lead.”

  Looks like he got the low-down over the radio. I look around the four of

  us, all on the verge of shattering, and know that I’m damn grateful for

  having them here to stand with. There’s four times the normal amount of

  pissed off spouses to deal with, and I’m not even surprised when Sophie’s

  name is dropped and a team splits off to go search her house.

  All of us end up with different squads, resources at the ready since we

  have proof it was a kidnapping and because by taking the fiancée of two

  firefighters, it was all hands on deck.

  Amelia

  Fucking Ow.

  Voices. Who…?

  My head is so foggy and slow that I can’t seem to get a grip on where I

  am, or why. I know there’s dirt under my cheek, and the air smells damp

  and ripe with grass clippings and gasoline. So maybe some sort of gardener

  shed? The voices are nearby, but they obviously think I’m still unconscious.

  “It wasn’t supposed to go this far. You said we were just going to talk to

  her, spook her a little bit. Threaten if necessary. You hit her in full view of

  the damn fire station with a fucking crowbar!!”

  Well. That explains the extraordinary headache. Likely concussion,

  judging by the nausea roiling through me. Breathe. Think. Breathe and

  think. Think.

  I remember the sun and waiting for Alex. Shit, that hurts. I start trying to

  carefully wriggle around on the ground, feeling for anything that will help

  me. They didn’t bother tying my legs up since they don’t do much, but my

  hands seem to be zip tied together, cutting into my skin behind my back.

  I really want to scream and panic, but a part of me knows that if I do, I’ll

  only expedite whatever the hell is about to happen. I manage to cut my arm

  on some obscure metal thing that is sticking out behind me in my attempt to

  gain an advantage, stifling a cry when I feel hot blood instantly dripping

  down my arm.

  The sun is barely making it through the cracks in the building so I must

  have been out for awhile. It was only late afternoon when I was taken.

  “Relax, John. It’s not like she’s even worth anything. Did you see how

  pathetic she is?”

  “You’re fucking crazy!! She’s engaged to two of the firefighters I work

  with- they’re definitely coming after her and now I’m completely wrapped

  up in your bullshit!”

  “You said you’d help me.”

  “Oh my God. What the hell are we going to do? What the hell was your

  plan? Just hide her until what? Do you understand what’s happening right

  now? We’re going to jail, Sophie.”

  Well, that explains just about everything. I would rather enjoy seeing

  Sophie behind bars, I’m sure the ambience would do wonders for her skin

  tone. And for my peace of mind. I roll over onto my stomach, trying to get

  the pressure off my new injury, doing my best to ignore it. Easy to do since

  all I can seem to focus on is the way my head is pounding.

  I don’t feel my phone in my pocket anymore, so I guess my cousin isn’t

  completely as stupid as I thought. How the hell am I going to tell anyone

  where I am if I can’t call them? If they kept it nearby or on them though,

  someone should be able to track my phone. Track…

  A lightbulb goes off in my head; a metaphorical one luckily since bright

  light would probably just piss me off right now. I wiggle my head around,

  trying to figure out if that stupid necklace Theo made me wear made it past

  the goon squad.

  It hits me that I should be panicking right now, should be terrified that

  my cousin is apparently about to kill me or something, but there’s this false

  sense of calm wrapping me up. I think that because of how much shit I’ve

  already been through, how many times my heart has been broken, that a

  little kidnapping doesn’t really do it for me anymore.

  There’s always the fear that I’ll lose the guys for good this time, but at

  least if that’s the case, I’ll go knowing they really did love me. Morbid

  thoughts when I’m still alive and kicking, but if I let my fear consume me

  then my life would be a whole lot less fulfilling.

  There. I can feel the thin cord and the weighted pendant where it’s

  tucked into my shirt, so if I can just get it out I can use my mouth to activate

  it. I thought it was so silly when Theo gave it to me, that necklace with the

  commercial showing the ridiculously bad senior actors falling and pushing

  the button for immediate aid. I have to admit though, he’s going to be smug

  as shit if this works.

  I manage to scoot back enough for it to come free, using my chin to

  depress the button that supposedly will send some form of help. It takes a

  second, but a voice starts talking to me, asking what sort of help I need. I

  also know that it sends recordings from the conversation to the cloud for

  safekeeping, and if I’m lucky Sophie will be really dumb and give me

  everything I need to get her arrested.

  I whisper, trying to be as quiet as possible. If Sophie knows I’m awake,

  she might make whatever sordid plan she has move faster. “I can’t talk. I’ve

  been kidnapped and I’m tied up in a shed somewhere. I think I’m

  concussed, and my attackers are nearby.”

  The voice responds just as quiet. “Help is on the way, we’ll stay on the

  line and keep the recording going until you’re rescued.”

  That was pleasantly efficient. Okay, maybe I’m more injured than I

  thought. My thought process seems to be slowing down and fuck my arm

  hurts. I try to focus my ears outwards, trying to catch snippets of

  conversation so that I have something to keep me engaged. They sound like

  they’re struggling, or one of them is at least. Sophie is screeching

  something, which I’m hoping covered up the hushed conversation with my

  jewelry.

  The second voice, a male, is going on about holding her ass down and

  calling the cops.

  “I’m already going down, might as well help myself and confess. You’re

  staying right the fuck here.”

  “We had a deal! Why the fuck did you even get in the car if you were just

  going to pussy out and ruin everything?!”

  Sophie sounded completely unhinged, then there’s some sounds like

  bodies hitting the ground and rolling around, bumping into the shed and

  making the doors rattle. Then they’re thrown open and she’s scrambling

  through them, and even if I’ve only got moonlight to see by, I can tell she’s

  beyond reasoning with.

  “And You! Why couldn’t you just stay dead? You always. Ruin.

  EVERYTHING!!”

  I’m sure she’s expecting me to play the role of helpless sheep like I

  always have, but something happens when you’ve gone through as much as

  I have. You stop c
aring what people tell you and can only focus on what

  you know to be true. And I was done playing the victim.

  “I don’t know what I ever did to you, Sophie. I don’t know why you set

  the fire and tried to kill me, or why you took me today. What the hell did I

  ever do to make you so obsessed with my demise??”

  “Yeah, I set the fucking fire. It was bloody amazing! I sat in the tree line

  behind the property and drank while it went up in flames. Your screams…

  like a dream made real. You know what you did to me? You really want to

  know? You got to live with our father! What, you didn’t know I was

  actually his bastard child that he pawned off to his sister? Surprise! You got

  to grow up in that big fucking house, and I got my mother. She was fucking

  terrible! And Daddy didn’t even put me in the will! He left everything to

  you, because you were legitimate!”

  I don’t know what to do with that information. Sophie was…I mean, I

  can’t really deny the fact that my father was an asshole, spawn of Satan…so

  did I believe the fact that he had an affair? I’m not sure there’s much I

  wouldn’t believe about that man.

  “No words for me, sister? You deserve to fucking die because everything

  you have should have been mine. You know who kept Alex company when

  you were gone? Me! I fucked him so many times, taught him so many

  things. And you think you can just show up and try and take him back?

  What the fuck is he going to do with you? You can’t even walk!”

  I’m breathing so hard right now, trying to stop myself from going apeshit

  at the images she’s painting for me. It would be a really inopportune time to

  puke right now, even though my head is really making me want to. She

  takes a few menacing steps towards me, her crazy eyes trained on me as she

  smiles at my predicament.

  The doors fly open again and a big bulk of a person jumps in and tackles

  her, pinning her arms down and dragging her away from me, right as the

  sound of sirens starts up in the distance, getting closer and closer.

  Whoever the guy is that she was working with is just sitting on top of her,

  pinning her hands down and staring into the distance, waiting for

  emergency services to arrive.

  “For what it’s worth, Amelia, I’m sorry. I respect Theo and Alex and I