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Chapter Two : Belong To All Of Us
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2026-06-16 05:53:01The basement wasn't a dungeon.
That was my first surprise.
It was a wide underground room with concrete walls, a cot in the corner, a small bathroom, and a weight bench nobody had used in a while. It smelled like motor oil and damp concrete. Not pretty. But not a torture chamber either.
Axel pushed the door open and nodded inside. "Sit down."
I sat on the cot and that's when I felt it. The burning. I looked down at my feet and my stomach turned. The hem of my wedding dress was shredded and dark with blood. My bare feet were cut up from the highway, the bridge, every surface between the church and here.
I hadn't even noticed until now.
That's what running for your life does. It makes you numb to everything except moving.
Axel leaned against the wall and looked at me with his arms crossed. Not threatening. Just watching. "You got guts," he said. "I'll give you that."
"I got nowhere to go," I said. "That's different from guts."
"Is it?"
I looked up at him. He was still doing that thing where he almost smiled but not quite. Like the smile was there but he was deciding whether I deserved it yet.
Before I could answer the door swung open again.
The man who walked in made Axel look small.
He was massive. Broad shoulders filling the door frame, thick beard, arms covered entirely in black and grey tattoos. He was carrying a metal first aid kit and he didn't look at my face when he walked in. He walked straight to where I was sitting, dropped to one knee in front of me, and opened the kit.
The patch on his vest said DOC. Sergeant at Arms.
"Ghost said the girl was bleeding," he said. To no one in particular.
"Her name is Lena," Axel said.
Doc didn't respond to that. He took my ankle in his hand without asking and I almost pulled back. His grip was firm. Calloused. But careful in a way I wasn't expecting from someone his size.
He pressed an antiseptic cloth to the bottom of my foot and I hissed through my teeth.
"Don't move," he said.
"It burns."
"I know." He didn't look up. "Keep still anyway."
I gripped the edge of the mattress and breathed through it while he worked. He was thorough. Quiet. Like a man who had done this a hundred times in worse conditions and wasn't going to make a big thing of it now.
"How bad is it," I said.
"Bad enough." He looked up then. Green eyes. Sharp and direct. "You ran barefoot on asphalt?"
"I threw my heels into a bush."
Something moved in his expression. Not quite a smile either. What was it with these men and almost smiling. "Why?"
"They were slowing me down."
He held my gaze for a second longer than necessary. Then went back to work. "Smart," he said quietly.
Axel made a sound from the wall that might have been a laugh.
Doc was wrapping my second foot when the sirens started.
Loud and sudden, cutting through the concrete walls like a blade. Red light flooded under the door. I jumped so hard I nearly knocked the kit off the floor.
Doc's hand tightened on my ankle. Steady. "Don't move."
Axel was already at the door, hand on the holster at his hip, all the almost-smiling completely gone. "We've got a breach."
The door burst open.
Ghost.
He looked different now. Whatever cold composure he'd had in the courtyard was still there but underneath it something dangerous had woken up. His eyes went straight to me.
"Three black SUVs at the front gate," he said. "Edmund's men. They're saying we stole a billionaire's property."
My blood went cold.
Property. That's what he'd called me. Not his bride. Not even his wife.
His property.
"Are we handing her over?" Axel asked. His voice was flat and serious in a way it hadn't been before.
Ghost crossed the room in four steps. He reached down and caught my chin between his fingers, tilting my face up to his. His eyes locked onto mine and didn't let go.
"I told you what it meant to stay here," he said. Low and certain. "The Iron Grave doesn't give up what belongs to it. Not for a billionaire. Not for anyone."
He let go of my chin and straightened up.
Something in my chest cracked open just slightly.
He turned to Axel and Doc. "Lock the door. Nobody gets in or out until we're done." His eyes came back to me one last time. "Stay down here. Don't open this door for anyone except one of us."
"And if someone else comes?" I said.
"They won't make it this far," he said simply.
Then he was gone.
Axel looked at me from the door. That almost smile came back, softer this time. "You good?"
"No," I said honestly.
"Good answer." He grabbed the door. "Lock this behind me."
The door closed.
The lock clicked.
And I was alone in a concrete room listening to the sound of engines roaring to life above me and men shouting and the distant sound of something that might have been a gunshot.
I pulled my knees to my chest and sat in the red blinking light and thought about Ghost's fingers on my chin.
Not Edmund's cold damp hand.
Not the grip of someone who owned me.
Something completely different.
I pressed my back against the wall and waited.
Whatever was happening above me, three men I had met less than an hour ago were out there fighting for me.
Nobody had ever fought for me before.
Not once.
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