All Her Broken Pieces

Chapter 14

Sang smiles over at him, and he literally melts under her soft gaze. "Oh, Owen, I thought you looked very dashing in that...outfit." Then she gets a wicked gleam in her eye as she leans over to whisper something in his ear. Whatever she says causes his body to go rigid and he looks at her with heated eyes that bring a blush to her face. I don't think I've ever seen him so openly emotional before and it's refreshing after years of blank face, stone hearted Mr. Blackbourne. We started to chisel Owen out of the stone slab he was, but then Sang came along and boom, my best friend is finally a real boy.

Clearing my throat before things get uncomfortable, for me at least, I decide we better get going before the guys get restless, for a few of them they've not seen our girl for days. A few of which, okay all of them, are starting to get anxious-ahem, all of them. I guess I can't blame them, I miss her whenever she even leaves the room, hell I miss her the second she leaves my arms, but I know one of my brothers is almost always with her and that helps immensely.

"Alright, Pookie, I know a large group of guys that are jumping out of their skin for some Sang time. We should head to the pool before they send out a search party." Honestly, I'm surprised a certain Russian hasn't knocked our door in by now we've dallied so long at Sang's place.

Her eyes light up at the mention of our pool/sleepover/fun night we have planned for the evening and she jumps off my lap and runs to her room to get ready.

"Be out in a sec!" She shouts behind her as Owen and I share a look of exasperated fondness at her excitement for tonight. Gabriel has apparently made it his new goal in life to make sure she has ever experience she missed out on with her "fucking shit show of a motherfucking stupid family," his words, not mine. He has also made it his mission to torture us with her new wardrobe, every outfit she wears has us all in a perpetual state of discomfort in the pantal area, pants town? Thunder down under? Trouser trouble? Oh never mind.

The point is he's trying to kill us, and I'm sure tonight will be no exception seeing as it's the first time any of us will be seeing her in a bathing suit, thank goodness for heated indoor pools.

"What do you think Gabe has in store for us tonight, O-man." He grimaces at the nickname and I chuckle.

"Would you please desist with that godawful name?" He deadpans, glaring at me before a small smile overtakes his face. "And as for what he bought her, I'm sure it will be equal parts torture and salvation." He says and I stare at him a moment before laughing again, him joining me seconds later.

Our laughter cuts off abruptly when she appears in the doorway, looking like every fantasy I've ever had come to life in a two piece pink swimsuit. The bottom are high waisted, with only crisscrossed string lacing up either side to keep them in place, the top with ruffled edges perfectly cute and very her. I hear Owen inhale sharply next to me and I know he's having a similar reaction, she looks like heaven and hell and she's still maintaining a certain modesty that kills me.

When she sees us gaping at her, staring with hungry eyes, she blushes hard and I finally see the start of her flush on the tops of her breasts, I'd wondered how far it reached.

"Um-" she stutters, breaking us from our trance, "-could one of you help me win the back clasp? I can't seem to get it right on my own." She turns around and I gasp for an entirely different reason.

I'd seen the scars before, the thin white lines covering the lower half of her back, but I'd never seen them as closely as this. To the untrained eye, one could assume she'd gotten them from a car crash, or an accident involving shattered glass, but not to me. No, these markings are much too straight, too precise, to have happened accidentally. Years of studying cases of abuse and even torture tactics of serial killers, I know each cut was done with a blade, by someone whose hand never shook, and had been done with purposeful intent.