WORK IN PROGRESS: Lords of Ma...

*** TW for references to domestic violence ***

Copyright © 2025 by GroveltoHEA

I had no right to fall in love with her. Saw her picture when I was looking into her husband's background so we could kill him, and I fell in love with her. Hit me harder than Butcher's fist to my face when I joined Mayhem, but it hit just as fast and with just as much force.

From a fucking picture.

Her soft brown hair, her sweet hazel eyes, her slightly crooked smile spoke directly to my heart. This was the woman I'd been waiting for all my life. For a man more comfortable with numbers and logic, I didn't even question it, and I normally questioned and analyzed everything that didn't make sense.

It was her wedding picture I first saw and she looked so happy, so in love.

And that was the last time she looked happy in pictures with her husband.

She tried. I could tell as I looked closely at pictures of her after her wedding day. She tried to fake it, to fake that wedding-day happiness, but it never reached her eyes again. Wariness had replaced happiness. Fear and distrust had replaced the love. Glory Treacher had married a monster and had to pretend she'd married a prince -- and look happy about it or else she'd pay for it later.

His family was beyond wealthy. They had power, they had connections and they had intimidation down to a science. They turned the graceful, delicate beauty into a clumsy ox. She walked into doors. Be more careful, Glory. She tripped and broke her arm. You need to watch your step. She had delicate skin that bruised easily when she was at the gym. Ease up on the workout routine, sweetie.

He'd put her in the hospital three times. The first time, she said she'd fallen down the stairs.

The second time, they said she'd been in a car accident. No one at the hospital pressed for details, and Glory was too scared to say otherwise. She'd learned she couldn't win against her husband and his family, so she stopped trying to get anyone to listen.

The third time, the worst time, he'd caught her trying to leave him. She tried to press charges, but his family had gotten him out on bail, providing him an airtight alibi, spinning some unbelievable 온라인카지노게임 about her trying to frame her husband so she could divorce him and go after all that money.

I took off my thick, black glasses and spun around in my chair to look at Big and Butcher. "If he gets his hands on her again, he's going to kill her. He almost succeeded this time."

"Tabitha's father said the same thing," Big commented.

"Fucker's been hurting women since high school," I said in disgust. "Always gets away with it because the parents step in and offer the girls enough money to quietly go away. But he's been escalating for years, and the payouts were getting bigger and bigger as his crimes were getting worse and worse. With a wife, he didn't have to make payouts anymore, the sick fuck."

"Bring him in," Butcher said, both of us understanding he meant now, then walked out. I sighed, relieved, even though I'd known Butcher would make that call. 

Big walked out to get together a liberation crew, and I'd stayed in my computer fortress to take care of any cameras that could pick up anything incriminating as we relocated Treacher to Mayhem's guest quarters. All told, it took less than an hour to pick the little fucker up.

Then, while Big was explaining to Treacher the errors of his ways, I couldn't help myself. I went to the hospital where Glory Treacher was recovering and two Mayhem brothers were watching her room just in case the asshole's family tried to get to her. They nodded at me, and I nodded back before I walked into her room. No one was with her and she was sleeping, looking inhuman still, though it was several days after her attack.

I sent a text to Big, one word that he would understand, one word that would tell him I wanted the bastard to suffer for a long time.

Hours.

On it, brother.

I knew Butcher would have let me watch and even help as Treacher learned, for the first time in his life, that actions actually did have consequences, but I wanted to be with Glory as her husband was leaving this world and she became a widow. I set the bouquet of flowers I'd bought her on the rolling table that was down at the foot of her bed. She'd see them first thing when she woke up.

Although she was actually a widow -- or would be very soon -- she'd wake up divorced. I'd faked the divorce decree that was granted -- and dated -- the day Treacher attacked his wife. We used two lawyers and a judge who were Mayhem friendly and hated abusers, so they were happy to help. Word would be the divorce was kept very quiet, and he'd lost it the day the divorce became final and attacked Glory.

I'd had to make her a divorcee because proving her husband's death without a body would stand in the way of her being free and unencumbered to start her new life. So secret divorce it was for my girl.

My girl.

I wasn't stupid. I suspected, given what she'd been through, that Glory wouldn't want anything to do with a man for a long time, if ever. And I doubted she'd want someone twice the size of her dead ex. I might be a nerd at heart, but I had the body and build of a heavyweight boxer. My face had rough features that made me look like a street thug, which also might not be very reassuring to someone with Glory's background. For the first time in my life, I wished I looked gentler and less threatening, like the stereotypical ninety-pound weakling who got sand kicked in his face at the beach. That kind of man might -- emphasis on might -- have a chance with her someday.

I'd have to prove to Glory that I would never threaten her. All I would do is protect her and cherish her the rest of our lives. And kill anyone who would try to hurt her, but that part I wouldn't mention to her.

"You're safe now," I whispered to her. "No one will ever hurt you again Glory. I'll be your own personal Batman, but instead of dedicating myself to protecting Gotham City, I'm going to dedicate myself to protecting you."

I watched her monitors to make sure nothing changed as I spoke to her.

For the next hour, I talked quietly to her, telling her how brave she was, how much strength she had and promising that she'd never have to be brave or strong that way ever again. I was also hoping that by hearing my deep voice, she'd somehow remember it when she was awake.

When she began stirring, I got up and left with a quick, "Concentrate on getting better, Glory. I'll see you later, sweetheart."

I visited her over the next two days while she was sleeping, talking softly to her. The third day, she was awake when I got there, so I stuck my head in as I had the nurse carry in the flowers I'd brought and said hello before I left right away.

Not threatening. I hoped. She'd never have to fear me, but she didn't know that. All she knew was the most heinous betrayal imaginable from the man she'd married who should have loved her.

The next day, the nurse shot me a smile when I walked up to the nurse's station. "She asked who you were."

"Was she scared?"

"Maybe a little because I started by telling her you were Mayhem, but I tried to reassure her that you'd been here every day, bringing her all of the flowers in her room. Then her pastor and his wife came in, and they told her that their son-in-law was Mayhem and Mayhem men would die to protect a woman or child, never hurt one."

I owed Tabitha's mother a big bouquet of flowers for that assist.

The nurse leaned closer. "But she did want to know why you were here when you didn't even know her."

"What did you tell her?"

"That if she felt up to meeting you, I'd be in the room with her."

"What'd she say?"

"No."

Nodding, I wasn't surprised. I handed over the flowers to the nurse. "Would you mind giving these to her?"

"Be happy to. Any message for her?"

Smiling half-heartedly, I said, "Just that I hope she feels better soon. And I'll stop bringing flowers if it makes her uncomfortable."

Maybe I'd been unintentionally creepy. Shit. I hadn't wanted to be creepy. I'd just never had a woman I'd really liked before. Unless Sarah Jamieson in tenth grade counted, but we'd only had lunch together for two weeks before she started eating lunch with another guy who was on the soccer team. As a mathlete, I'd felt I was as much of an athlete as the soccer player, but I never succeeded in convincing anyone else of that, even with my massive, athletic body. The football, wrestling and basketball coaches wanted me to play, but I enjoyed math competitions more.

Since Sarah had thrown me over, I lost myself in comics and computers because they'd never break your heart and begin eating lunch with someone else. I'd never dated after that because women didn't want to date shy, awkward computer geeks, never mind completely inexperienced ones. My mother had tried to get me to meet some of her friends' daughters, but I wasn't interested.

The nurse started to take the flowers into Glory's room but turned back to me. "What's your name?"

"Mother. Well, Motherboard." Wait. No. Glory wouldn't understand a road name. Fuck. That meant that I had to give my government name for the first time in years. "No, it's Conall. Conall Alasdair."

"Well, Conall Alasdair, I'll tell Glory that the flowers are from you."

"Thank you. But please remember to tell her I'll stop bringing her flowers if it's bothering her." 

I paced in the hallway waiting for the nurse to come back. Seven minutes later, she came out of Glory's room.

"Conall, she said to thank you for the flowers but you don't need to bring them anymore."

I knew it'd been too much. I was hopeless when it came to women. I had zero game, and I didn't understand coded messages. 

"She said I didn't need to. But...but maybe tell her I'm doing it because I want to, not because I need to. Or is that creepy? I don't want to creep her out. I'm really not a creep. But if I have to say I'm not a creep, does that mean I am a creep? Isn't that something creeps would say to convince you they aren't creepy? Shit. I just want her to have something fresh and pretty to look at because hospital rooms are so depressing."

The nurse looked at me, her head tilted and said, "Awwww."

I wasn't sure, but was awwww good? Wasn't ewwww the bad one? I was fairly certain awwww was good, but I wasn't conversant in female cooing, just straightforward words.

"Give me a minute," she said, then she hurried back into Glory's room and came back three minutes later, her face all soft and happy.

"You can keep bringing the flowers," she said.

"Are you working tomorrow?" I asked the nurse.

"I am," she said. 

"Then I'm bringing you some flowers, too, for your help. Thank you."

Leaving the hospital, I got on my bike and headed for the clubhouse to talk with some brothers who might be able to help since I was pretty damn hopeless on my own.