I groan as a knock comes onto the bathroom door. As soon as we got to Talon’s, he showed me to my room. It had a connected bathroom with a huge bath in it. I found some healing herbs and bath salts under the counter and took advantage of them. That was about an hour ago. I’ve been in bliss since I got in this bath and now it looks like reality is coming knocking. Literally.

“Yeah?” I call out.

The bathroom door cracks open and I raise my brow. These guys have death wishes apparently.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you well and figured this would work better,” Hunters voice travels through the crack. He didn’t open it any more than was necessary for me to be able to hear him. Thank god.

“It’s fine. What’s up?”

“I need you to meet us in the living room in a few minutes. There’s a healer here who can help speed up the healing process for your back and we also need to talk. There’s a clean pair of clothes for you.”

I mumble a curse. “Alright, I’ll be out in a sec.”

Hunter closes the door and I hear his footsteps receding as he walks away.

Five minutes later, I walk out of my new room towards the voices down the hall, my bare feet making little sound as I move.

Walking into the living room I pause when I see an elderly woman sitting on a chair with a coffee cup clasped in her hands and the guys all scattered throughout the room. Talon, being the only one standing and facing the entrance where I was coming in, noticed me first.

“Mercy, this is Georgette, a family friend,” he introduces us when I get close.

I give the new woman a soft smile and a nod, trying not to shiver at the way her eyes rake over my body before finally meeting my eyes and looking at me like she can see straight through me.

“You’ve had a hard life, child,” Georgette rasps, her tone compassionate.

I say nothing in response to that. Truthfully, I don’t know how to respond to that.

“What do you mean?” Kai asks from the chair beside her.

Georgette meets my eyes. “That’s a story that you all will find out shortly, I’m sure. It ties in to your questions that you have for the girl.”

Fucking lovely. I try not to groan as I realize what the woman is.

She’s a fucking Psychic. Usually they come from a human mating with a witch. There are the rare cases that human parents give birth to a Psychic, but the last Psychic that was from that kind of parentage was several hundred years ago and is long dead. They just have this ability of knowing everything. Well, nearly everything. They’re also masters at healing. Those are the only abilities they have. Psychics are notoriously nosy and extremely pushy when it comes to getting answers.

The guys exchange looks before looking between me and Georgette.

“Come here, child. Let me take a look at that back, see if we can’t hurry along the healing.”

I nod and stand in front of Georgette with my back to her. She lifts my shirt enough that she’s exposing my entire back to her, but isn’t exposing my breasts to the rest of the room.

I stiffen when I feel her place her hands over my back, the cuts were hurting, and I was still pretty self-conscious with my scars. However, here I was, showing a majority of my scars to a woman who I didn’t know, so she could heal me enough so I didn’t get even more scars on my back.

A heartbeat later warmth spreads over my back and I feel the cuts knitting themselves together quicker than they would have healed on their own. They had stopped bleeding but they were still there and slowly healing. Unfortunately it’d have taken me at least a day to heal them without help.

Georgette takes her hands off my back and pulls my shirt back down, covering me again. “Alright. You’re all set dear.”

Turning to face her, I give her a smile. “Thank you.”

“It’s what I do,” she says with a small shrug while she stands to leave. Halfway to the door she turns to look at me. “Be careful who you trust Mercy. Those who you thought you could count on are sometimes the ones you need to be most weary of.”

With those last words she walks out, leaving me with my mouth open, gaping after her.

“Freaking hate Psychics,” I grumble before plopping down on the chair Georgette was sitting in.

Parker and Warwick chuckle, nodding their heads like they agree.

I look around, meeting everyone’s eyes before asking, “So what did you guys want to talk about?”

“Jerome,” Hunter says simply after looking at something on his phone and putting it in his pocket.

I tense. “What about him? He’s a bastard.”

Hunter chuckles humorlessly. “Yes, I’m well aware of that. What I need to know is how do you know him? Why is it Jerome is the one that’s after you? When I was informed there were people after you, no one mentioned him or his boss.”

“You need to know that?” I ask skeptically.

“Yes, if we understand why he wants you we may be able to come up with a way to stop him.”

I bite my lip, unsure. This will essentially be opening myself up to all of them. I haven’t done that with anyone but Xena and even then, it took a long time for me to tell her the details.

“Is this what Georgette was talking about? About you having a hard life?” Kai asks carefully.

I wrap my arms around myself in a weak attempt to shield myself from the memories and move to stand in front of the window to look out at the blackness of the yard.

“Mercy, we need answers,” Hunter urges gently.

“I know, just… just give me a second please,” I murmur loud enough for them to hear me.

I debate for a minute where to start, then decide to get it done and over with.

“You know my family, right?” I see the guys nod in my peripheral. “I don’t know a lot on the specifics about why I was taken, but I’ll try and fill you guys in as best as I can.”

“That’s fine, just what you know,” Hunter assures me.

“My dad, he was friends or business associates or something with Jerome’s boss though he kept him away from me and my mother. I never understood why he kept me locked in my room whenever he came to visit. I was at a neighbors house playing one night when I was eight and I ended up coming home while he was there. I didn’t know he was there or I wouldn’t have gone in. I would have waited at my friends house, but I wasn’t thinking of anything but getting home and having time with my dad. I walked into the living room and heard my dad and some guy arguing in the kitchen. I was worried that him and my uncle were fighting so I went to see if I could help.

“Unfortunately, the man that was arguing with my father was one I had seen at a distance whenever he came to visit. There was another there, Jerome, who was watching the two of them fight with a blank expression on his face. Until he saw me. When his cold eyes came to me, I froze. I knew I needed to leave but I couldn’t move, I was scared.”

I look up as Parker brings a cup of coffee to me and I let it warm my hands before taking a drink.

“Anyway, when he saw me he laughed and told my dad that he did a good job of hiding me. Of hiding that he knew where I was or that I had even existed. That made my dad and the guy he was arguing with to turn towards me.” I pause and take a deep breath. “That was the only time I saw my father’s face show fear. It wasn’t fear for himself, it was fear for me. The man, he came toward me and cupped my cheek, making me look at him. I begged my legs to move but they just wouldn’t. My dad tried coming between us, even though he was powerful, he wasn’t any match for Jerome and his boss together. My mother was out with friends or something so she couldn’t do anything to help me.”

I stop as I think about that night, the fear I felt for me, for my dad. Seeing my dad unconscious on the floor had scared the ever loving fuck out of me. I fight back the chill that crawls up my spine and take another drink of my coffee.

“What happened when your dad tried to help?” Hunter asks.

I jump a little, forgetting that they were even there, listening to me tell the story. “When they subdued my father, knocking him out they both came for me. My legs finally listened to me and I ran. I left my house and I don’t remember exactly how far I ran but it wasn’t far. I don’t think I even made it out of my yard before they had me.”

Moving away from the window, unable to handle standing for this next bit of my story. I tuck my legs beneath me and stare at the floor in front of me, not wanting to see the guys’ expressions.

“When they got me, they took me to Hell. I’m not entirely sure where in Hell they took me, though. I don’t know why exactly he didn’t kill me. Although something Jerome said tonight makes me wonder.”

“What’d Jerome say?” Hunter asks.

“He said something about me being given to him after his boss gets my kids?” It came out sounding like a question because I have no idea what the fuck that was about. “My scars all came from my time there, although that’s not all they did. They healed the rest of what they did to me. I’m thinking they healed it because it would have interfered with me having a baby since there was so much done internally, especially to my stomach at those times. I was never raped, but I was tortured. They kept me there for four years until my dad and my uncle found me. My dad died saving me from him.”

“Who is Jerome’s boss?” Kai asks, looking between me, Hunter and Warwick. I guessed Hunter knows who he is but I wasn’t sure if Warwick did. Judging by the look on his face he knows who he is too.

“Lucifer’s only living son,” Hunter says. “Payne. He’s nearly as powerful as his father.”