Silent Sons MC Box Set

by Ambere Sabo

  Lena and I stayed with her mom until the last guest left. Leti wanted to make sure every guest was thanked for coming. And she insisted that Lena needed to be there until the very end. We both wanted to leave with Adan and the team, but Leti wouldn’t hear of it. It only took an hour for the guests to disperse after he left, and we’d planned to sneak out and meet up with them after we got home, but that never happened.

  Our car waited outside to bring us home when we were finally ready. Laughing and whispering to each other, we walked towards it. But our car wasn’t the only thing waiting for us to leave. The men who are holding us now, swarmed the minute we walked out of the hall. I didn’t understand what was happening until it was too late.

  One man was shouting, “Which one?”

  The other answered in a gruff shout, “I don’t know. Just take them both. We’ll sort it out later. You know there’ll be hell to pay if we don’t bring back the right one.”

  Leti screamed as they dragged Lena and me away from her. We clung to each other in terror. And we held on, not letting go until the threw us in this room. Our hands stayed fused even when they gagged and blindfolded us and for the entire drive that seemed like it would never stop. Lena has been my rock this entire time. The fire she has inside her is something I’ll never possess.

  She strokes my hair while I cry and pray to go home. She screams for answers until she has no voice left. She kicks and fights anytime one of the men tries to take me from this room. I don’t have the will to tell her that when she thinks she’s tricked them into taking her in my place, they still come for me after she’s gone. And they hurt me just the same.

  The first time they took her she refused to tell me what they did to her or where they took her. Told me it didn’t matter. That nothing they did to her mattered. They’d never break her. She’d never let them have that. No matter what, she’d be stronger than them.

  I’m nothing like Lena. They broke me the first time they came into this room after she was gone. That first time they dragged me sobbing through the door, they took something from me I can never get back. That day I cried for hours with no explanation why. Lena is used to my tears now. It isn’t worth telling her they’ve broken me, and I no longer need to ask her to tell me what they did to her. I know firsthand the horrors they put her through. She thinks she's protecting me. Thinks that she has some kind of control of what’s happening to us. But, in reality, our lives are theirs to do with as they please. We have no control over anything.

  I worry they’ll never let us go. That this will become the life I have left to lead. I mean could they really let us go, now that we know what they look like? That we know how they move? How they smell?

  Or will we die here in this room without ever knowing why they took us to begin with? The days and weeks have blended together, so much that I no longer have any idea how long we’ve been here, in this hell.

  “Alex,” Selena whispers to me, “are you still awake?”

  Without replying, I roll over to look at her. My best friend is crying. Something she hasn’t done a single time since we were put in this hell. Sliding next to her, I do for her what she’s been doing for me all these months. I stroke her hair and let her cry.

  “I want you to know that I love you, Alex. You’re the sister God never gave me…” She hiccups a sob, then continues, “And if you ever get out of this hell, know that Adan loves you…”

  “Lena, why are you saying this? What happened?” I ask as my heart begins to race.

  “Just let me finish, please,” she pleads, as she sits up to look at me with tears flowing down her face. “Know that Adan loves you even if he hasn’t admitted it yet. Just as you love him. And nothing in this world would make me happier, than if you were together. Promise me, you’ll tell him how you feel if you ever have the chance.”

  “Lena, I don’t understand,” I start.

  “Promise me,” she yells, with nothing but pure terror in her eyes.

  “I promise,” I whisper.

  She reaches forward and clutches my middle before collapsing into tears. I don’t know how long we stay like this, but when the lock turns, I know something is about to happen that will change my life forever, and I’m terrified.

  Chapter 5

  Adan

  Nineteen years ago…

  Every single day they’re gone, I wake praying it’s all a bad dream. Each time that hope shatters when I see my mother grow more haggard. The days blend together. Each one full of imagining new horrors they’re being forced to endure. Sleep seems to be my only reprieve. And it isn’t always a break from the nightmare I’m living, wondering where they are.

  Then it’s over.

  All around me people cry. Everyone except my mother. She’s been damn near catatonic since the policia came to give us the news that they’d found only one of the girls. My heart dies a little when she tells me, because I’m not sure which girl I can live without.

  When Alex is delivered safely back home, it takes a while for her to tell us that the men who took them, killed Selena. Strangled her right in front of Alex and dropped her lifeless body in a heap at Alex’s feet.

  Everyone thinks because the Millers paid the ransom for Alex, she was spared my sister’s fate. No one understands she simply got caught in the crossfire and was never meant to be taken to begin with, not even Alex herself. That she was just a fortunate accident, the kidnappers were able to capitalize on. My sister wouldn’t have ever been spared. No amount of money could’ve saved her.

  When she finds out they didn’t pay for them both, she screams, “You have plenty of money. You should’ve saved Selena too. It’s all your fault. I hate you.” Now, Alex refuses to speak to her parents, blaming them for her best friend’s death.

  She won’t talk about where they were held or what happened to them while they were missing. She won’t even talk about Selena’s last moments anymore. Once the words left her lips the one time, she’s refused to say anymore.

  Nearly three months is how long they were gone. That’s a long time to be in the hands of monsters. So, who knows what could’ve happened. Honestly, I don’t know if I can bear to hear what they went through, so I don’t ask. The burns and bruises on Alex’s body speak volumes on their own.

  My sister is being buried today. Or at least an empty casket in her honor is. The men who took her refuse to tell us where they dumped her body. In the circles my father runs in, leaving an enemy’s body unburied is the ultimate act of revenge. It keeps the family from finding closure and having a place to visit their loved one’s soul.

  The coffin’s settled at the front of the church. The whole scene feels like a dream, and I wish more than words can say that that were true. That she’s still here, and this bad dream could be over. But I fear the nightmare that’s become my life is just beginning.

  My father isn’t here today. He says that’s what the people who took my sister's life would expect. I haven’t even begun to think about what that means. Deep down I know once I have the answers I seek from him, my life will be irrevocably changed, and right now I don’t think I can handle any more changes. Losing Selena is enough to deal with for now.

  Alex sits beside me, pressed into my side with tears flowing down her beautiful face. Her parents are paying for the funeral as a way to get back into her good graces. They sit across the aisle from us. It’s the closest she’s let them to her in the week since she was found. She even sleeps in our home.

  Her first night back, she crept into my sister's room, not realizing anyone would be there. I haven’t slept in my bed a single night since they were taken. Wanting to feel some kind of connection to my sister, I sleep in her room, surrounded by her things. I guess Alex wanted the same feeling. That first night, she crawled beside me on the bed, tucked her head into my shoulder and cried. I’ve held her every night since.

  Neither of us gets much sleep. The memories of what they went through plague her every waking moment, but in sleep… In sleep, she re
lives them to the point it scares me. No matter how much exhaustion tries to claim my body, I have to be there for her when the nightmares hit.

  I carry the burden of what happened to her and my sister heavily on my shoulders. Whatever my father has become is the reason she’s gone through all she has. The reason she watched her best friend, my sister, be murdered. I want nothing more than to explain things to her. To ease the burden of her guilt for what happened to them but it's not possible. So instead, I try to keep her from reliving it as much as I can. Not that it will ever be enough. Nothing will ever be enough.

  ***

  Present day…

  For months after her return, I held Alex as she slept. Every day I wished I could turn back the hands of time and change the events of that night. That they’d taken me instead of the girls. Later I found out they had no clue I even existed. No one in my father's life knew he had a son. A secret he’d planned to take to his grave if need be.

  Alex began spending more time at home as the months passed, finally letting her parents back in, to some degree. But her nights were spent with me. My mother practically replaced Selena with Alex. She wouldn’t even say my sister's name. And I may as well have been invisible. At that point, I couldn’t wait to graduate a few months later just to get away from the woman, but the thought of leaving Alex tore at my soul.

  Back then, I had no clue what me leaving would mean for us. Hell, I didn’t even know if I was more to her than someone to find comfort in. We hadn’t been intimate in any way except for holding one another. No matter how much I wanted to know how she felt about me, I couldn’t bring myself to ask her. Instead, I let the not knowing tear at my soul.

  I knew if she didn’t see me as anything but Selena’s older brother, it would gut me. The thought that she’d no longer lean on me was something I couldn’t risk, so I settled for holding her in my arms each night instead. I didn’t want to know what I’d become if she ever didn’t need me anymore.

  After the funeral, I didn’t hear from my father again for nearly a year. He went back to wherever he came from and disappeared from our lives again. The last thing he said to me before he left was that he’d make them pay, promising to bring my sister justice in the bloodiest ways possible. I didn’t even know who they were, and I honestly didn’t care to ask.

  I cared more about finding out who he was and why someone would make it a point to try to hurt him. Trying to ask my mother anything was pointless. I attempted to get her to explain things to me once. All she told me was the man she married and the man who was my father was dead. And if I wanted anything to do with the mafioso who had his face, I could leave and never look back for I’d be just as dead to her as he was.

  Sadly, being dead to her didn’t bother me. It was hard to care if she disowned me when she’d treated me as nothing but a reminder of the man she’d hated for most of my life. But even feeling that way about my own mother, I couldn’t imagine leaving Alex just then.

  With my mother’s increasing distance, I knew my days were numbered. In her heart, she’d already disowned me years ago. Her actions over the years spoke volumes. She just hadn’t said it blatantly out loud yet. As I contemplated my future in the weeks before my eighteenth birthday, I knew that day would probably make it official.

  My mother would be more than happy to slam the door in my face once I turned eighteen and could be considered an adult. But I knew there was no way she’d risk looking like a bad mother to the Millers a day before then. By the time that really dawned on me, I had less than a month after graduation to figure out where I was going to go. College wasn’t going to start until the fall, which would leave me potentially homeless for two months before then. A lot could happen in two months. If only I could’ve guessed how much.

  Chapter 6

  Alex

  I thought the nightmare would be over after I came home, but I’d never been more wrong. The police said we’d been taken for money. That everything Lena and I had gone through was for something as petty as money. And what was worse? My parents only felt I was worth saving. They left my best friend to be murdered right before my eyes.

  ***

  Nineteen years ago…

  I dream each night of the look of resignation on her face as they choked her like she knew it was coming, and there was nothing I could do to save her. But they could have. They could’ve paid the ransom for us both. Hell, they could’ve paid it months sooner. Instead, they left us there, believing the police when they said they’d find us and not to worry.

  My mother begs me to tell her what happened to me, but I won’t. I’ll never breathe a word of what those monsters did to me. I’ve tried going back to school just for the distraction, but I couldn’t even make it through a whole day. The way people at school look at me, like I’m tainted now, makes me sick. People who’ve never talked to me before, suddenly want to be my friend. They aren’t fooling me. I know they just want to get the scoop on what I went through. They can’t help their morbid fascination with the girl who survived being kidnapped and tortured. People whisper behind my back. I don’t always hear what they say. But I hear enough. Some pity me. Others think I’m dirty. That I was violated in a way I can never be cleansed of. Because I don’t really talk to any of them, they all think I’m damaged. Maybe I am. But I can’t handle their insincere attempts at getting to know me or their pity.

  Every noise, every person walking up behind me, makes me jump. I live in constant fear that they’ll come for me again. That coming home is only a dream. A dream I’ll wake from only to be back in that hell again. Reliving it night after night is tormenting enough. The only reason I get any sleep at all is because being in Adan’s arms for whatever reason, calms the nightmares. He’s held me every night since I’ve been home.

  It's unfair of me to lean on him like I do. He lost Lena just as much as I did. Maybe more, since they share blood. So, I’ve tried to sleep at home in my own bed, but the nightmares come on so fast when I’m there, that I wind up getting up and creeping into their house anyway. Because the only way I can avoid them is wrapped in his arms, surrounded by everything Lena held dear. So, no matter how much I argue with myself, tell myself to suck it up and stand on my own, every night I find myself sinking into Adan’s welcoming embrace as if it is the only heaven to be found in hell. Because for me it is.

  I wish I could go back to being a silly, little girl afraid to tell her best friend she’s in love with her brother. It seems like years ago that was the only worry I had in the world. Now my best friend is gone, and her brother is the only thing holding me together. I still haven’t kept my promise to her to tell him how I feel. I don’t know if it’ll ever be the right time. Without him, I’d be lost. And I fear if I tell him, I could lose him altogether.

  If I thought, he held my heart before everything went to hell, that fact has only grown with all the care and tenderness he’s shown me. There are nights he doesn’t sleep. Nights where he worries more about making sure I don’t go back to that hell than his own sleep.

  My parents, the therapists they keep sending me to, Leti—all of them act like I might lose it. Go right off the deep end. He’s the only person who doesn’t look at me like I might shatter at any minute. Even though I might. I draw strength from his faith in me. And for that, I will forever be in his debt. But I still have a promise to keep. How can I fulfill Lena’s dying wish without risking losing the only thing that’s keeping me from falling apart?

  Chapter 7

  Adan

  Nineteen years ago…

  “Why are you sitting out here all alone?” Alex asks as she takes a seat beside me.

  “I don’t feel much like celebrating,” I tell her with a sigh.

  Turning to look at her, a small smile plays on my lips. “You know, this was the first place I ever saw you, Alex,” I say, gesturing to the garden we sit in. “You were playing tag with Selena just after we moved onto the property.”

  My heart squeezes like it’s in a vice. T
alking about Selena still hurts. I don’t know if it’ll ever truly go away. A part of me hopes it doesn’t. A part of me clings to that pain, holding it close to my heart like a treasure. It’s all I have left of her now. If the pain goes away, I fear I’ll forget her altogether.

  “It feels like that was just a dream. The fun we used to have,” her voice cracks with emotion. She takes a moment to control herself. “God, I miss her,” Alex admits softly with tears coming to her eyes.

  Pulling her into my side, I kiss the top of her head. “I do too, Alex. I do too.”

  “She’d be so proud of you, you know. Graduating and going off to college in the fall.”

  “Right now, she’d be yelling at me for missing my birthday party,” I tell her with a chuckle.

  The smile that lights her face with her giggle breaks my heart just a little. Tomorrow everything will change, and she doesn’t even know it yet. My mother told me yesterday I’m expected to be out by sundown. As far as she’s concerned, I’m over eighteen and can take care of myself now. Not long after she told me that, I got a call from my father. He’ll be here to pick me up at noon.

  I don’t even know what to expect when he gets here. Will I finally get the answers to all the questions that I have? Who is he? Where did he go? And why do people want to hurt him? Why are people so angry with him that they would murder his daughter to make him pay? And those are just the basics. There are at least a hundred more just like them that I need answers to.

  For now, I have just one more night with my Alex. “Come on, let’s go back inside.” I say standing from the bench and offering her my hand. “The guys are probably wondering where I’ve been.”

  We spend the next few hours with my teammates watching futbol and hanging out. By the time the last guy leaves, I’m more than over the day. No matter how much I fear the changes tomorrow will bring, I want nothing more than to hold Alex tonight. I don’t know how I’ll even sleep without her beside me anymore.