Storm was right next to her and so were Winter, York, Zin, and Weston.
She locked gazes with Storm’s concerned eyes and threw herself into his arms and hugged him tight. She cried hysterically like she hadn’t done in years. Not since she had been held against her will.
“It’s okay now, baby. I’ve got you. You’re safe now. It was just a bad dream.” Storm’s strong voice rumbled through his chest and against hers. She squeezed him so tight as it all came back to her. The memories of her abduction, the pain of her bruising and broken arm. It was so wild. Even now, her arm ached as if remembering the pain.
She felt the hands caressing her back, her thighs, and with the room illuminated, she began to settle down, remembering where she was and how safe she was.
She pulled back and Storm cupped her cheek, the look of concern, sadness filled his eyes.
“I love you, Storm. I love every single one of you guys. I’ve loved you forever. Do you know that? Do you know how long I’ve loved you? I don’t care how long you’ve wanted to have sex with me and kiss me and hold me in your arms. Just know I love you and I figured out why the five of you have always been so important to me. Why I felt this deep connection to each of you,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks and she reached out and caressed Winter’s cheek then ran her hand along Zin’s arm before taking Weston’s hand and squeezing it. York caressed her thigh and she nodded at him and then looked at Storm.
“We love you, too, baby. It’s more than just sex, than just wanting to hold you, kiss you, and have you in our bed,” Storm told her.
She cupped his cheek. “I know everything now.”
“Do you know how long we’ve loved you?” Zin asked her.
She shook her head. “You saved me. All of you. I don’t know how you did it. I don’t know how you found me there, dying, giving up hope that I would make it out alive before they shipped me out.”
“Don’t. Don’t talk about it,” Winter said and cupped her cheek, ran his finger along her chin and jaw.
She shook her head and smiled. She reached up and kissed his lips then pulled back. She looked at Storm, took his hand, and placed the palm over her heart and held it there.
“I remember. I saw your eyes, Storm. I saw the mask, the anger, the determination and fear in your bold blue eyes as you unlocked the cage I was in and saved me. I thought you were shot in my dreams. That’s why I screamed your name. But it was my own fear thinking that I could lose you now that I know the truth about what you all did to rescue me. You all saved me back then. Ten years ago. Ten,” she said in disbelief.
“We got the call from Porter that you were abducted. He was freaking out, and had no way of finding you. We had to use our resources, and when we did and found out their intentions…” Zin stopped talking. Storm took her hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed the top of her fingertips and ran his hand down her arm gently, repeatedly.
“You were so bruised up and battered. Your arm. God, baby, your arm looked mangled.”
“You saved me.”
“We’ve loved you a pretty damn long time, Aspen. Maybe loved you from that moment we saved you, but in more of a protective way. Like you were bound to us and us to you because we shared that experience together. It was always there. This connection,” Storm whispered.
She nodded her head. “I know, Storm. I felt it, too. I just didn’t know why I felt that way about the five of you. I thought it was some schoolgirl crush. My brother’s older, mature male friends, so sexy and muscular. Throw in being made men and what’s a young, horny girl to feel?” she said teasingly.
They chuckled. Weston wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed her to him. “Horny, huh?” he asked.
She chuckled.
She looked at Storm, Zin, and York then Winter. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked them.
Weston released her and she turned around, knelt on the bed to face them as they gathered around her there.
“The doctor said to let you remember on your own and to not push it,” Zin told her.”
“Well that, and we basically committed about a dozen different crimes to get to you, to locate you, rescue you, get you out of there, and get you medical treatment,” Winter informed her, and they laughed as they mumbled some comments about the scary experience.
“Holy shit, I remember thinking that Storm was going to get us all kicked out of that hospital in Monterrey for being right on top of the doctors treating you,” Weston said.
“Monterrey? Mexico?” she asked.
“Hell yeah. Those fuckers were going to ship you out within the next few minutes and we got to them, took them out, then got to you right before they were moving your cage,” York told her.
“I heard thumps and groans,” she said.
“We had to eliminate a few assholes before we lost the opportunity to save you quietly. After all, we were basically in a foreign country without permission,” Winter said.
“Not that we never did any such things like that before while serving our country,” York teased and they chuckled.