Deacon - Nicholas Bella Page 0,52

make a sound. I quickly looked for the keys to the cells and found them on the first guard I’d killed. I released Elliot and together, we fled the jailhouse. He climbed on my horse behind me and my mare bristled under his massive weight.

“Easy girl, I know,” I said, then patted her neck. The sun was rising by the time we returned to my home and dismounted. I was exhausted, having been up for nearly a whole day. Elliot was also exhausted and starving. “I will have my wife prepare breakfast.”

“You have a wife?”

I turned to him and smiled. “We have everything. Wives, children, beautiful homes.” I gestured to my own abode and he looked at it with an open mouth. “You can have it also. Come inside.”

He had to duck his head a little when he entered, but inside, my ceilings were tall enough that he didn’t have to remain hunched as he had in his cell. I gestured for him to sit at the dining room table and he did, the chair creaking under his weight, much like my horse had.

I chuckled “You’re a big fella, larger than any man I’ve ever seen.”

“Is that why you wanted to save me?”

I removed my cloak and hung it up before turning to face him. “Your past fascinates me. I don’t care that you’re a murder, rapist, and a thief. I only care that you are loyal.”

“Meaning?”

“You were a pirate, you had a crew, one that you did not forsake. I heard they interrogated you and yet, you would not give up their whereabouts to the navy. I respect that you held your secrecy,” I said.

“Better to them than they were to me. I thought they would come for me, to break me free as you had, but they didn’t,” Elliot growled.

“Well, they were human. Weak and selfish. Pack would never abandon you. Pack will protect you and we have the means to do so.”

“They will be looking for me.”

“Unless they think you’re dead. Unless they can never find you,” I said. “Unless they are paid to look elsewhere. Unless whoever comes looking never returns. So many predicaments and not one ends with you being taken back to prison. And even if so, what cell can hold you? I could have easily bent those bars to free you. I used the keys to make it look as though your crew had come to rescue you. That would point the authorities to the ocean in search of you instead of inland.”

“My, my, my, you are a cheeky one,” Elliot said.

“The brain is the strongest part of the body. I would have you use yours to learn the words you’ve shown such disdain for,” I said.

Elliot frowned. “I don’t need to.”

“Yes, you do. As I’ve said, once you become one of us, you will live forever.”

“How does one become like you?” he asked, changing the subject of education. I let him for the time being.

“Darling?” I heard Charlene’s voice from behind.

Both Elliot and I turned to see her standing in her white gown with her red robe over it.

“Well, well, well… hello, milady,” Elliot purred.

I growled and he turned to me sharply, then sat back in the chair. “She is never to be yours, not even to lust over,” I warned.

“Your wife? I wouldn’t,” Elliot protested.

“Good.” I walked over to Charlene, taking her in my arms and kissing her softly on her forehead. “Morning darling. Can you make breakfast?”

She looked at me, then around me to Elliot. “Who is he?”

“He will be pack, soon. For now, he needs food, a bath, and clean clothes. I’m afraid I don’t have anything here that would fit him.”

“Must he stay here?” she asked, wrinkling her nose at the same time.

“I know he is foul, he’s been held in prison for weeks,” I said.

“Prison? Why—”

I placed my finger over her lips. “This is pack business, Charlene. You are never to question pack business. Now, prepare breakfast, love.”

I could tell by how her lips drew a thin line that she didn’t appreciate me silencing her, but it was true. I was carrying out my duties as a Capo, her approval was null and void. I turned back to Elliot. “You should bathe before we eat and afterward, you may rest. In the meantime, I have a robe for you to wear until we get you some clothing that will fit your gargantuan body.”

“I can just wash these out,” he said, motioning to his tattered clothes.

I frowned at