by Haley Ladawn
“Did you sleep with Elliot?” Lily’s voice had gone back to being absolutely frightened and maybe even a little revolted. I couldn’t blame her for the hint of disgust that clouded her voice. Sleeping with Elliot would’ve been the ultimate betrayal. Not only to her, but to Everet as well.
“Of course not!” I frowned at her question, shaking my head back and forth. There was no way in hell that would ever happen. “That’s not what happened between us at all.”
“Then, what did?” Her eyes only seemed slightly relieved, which made a lump rise in my throat. I wondered if I should continue, but the look on her face told me I had to. She needed to hear it, just as much as I needed to confess it.
“There were bad people around back then, just like there’s bad people around now.” I took a deep breath, swallowing back my fear. I blinked my eyes shut, trying to calm myself down. But with my eyes closed, brutal images of that night flashed through my mind one by one. Quickly, I opened my eyes, but it wasn’t soon enough. I’d already seen enough. Suddenly, the room felt too cold, and I was shivering uncontrollably. Seeming to notice, Lily pulled the silky sheets back over my petite frame. The warm fabric did little to warm my heart though. I was colder than ever; both haunted and possessed by sadness all at once. “We were taken by some very terrible people. It doesn’t matter why… because no why could ever justify what they did to us. It was the worst night of my life and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the worst night of Elliot’s life too.”
A familiar look took over her soft features, making me stop the story before it even got the chance to begin. The look she gave me was an understanding. A kind compassion that I didn’t deserve from her. Without so many words, she was telling me that I didn’t have to tell her what happened.
She was giving me a choice, a choice that I hadn’t given to her.
When I helped Elliot get Lily in his wicked grasp, I never gave her a choice or a warning. I had a hand in her demise, and here she was, still offering me a helping hand.
“When I first met Everet, I thought he was the most awful man I’d ever come across. In fact, I didn’t even think that he was a man. I thought he was a monster, but he was a saint compared to the people who took Elliot and me that tragic night.” My voice wavered, but I kept going, deciding that I had to tell the story for all that it was. A nightmare. “For one reason or another, we were snatched up and taken to some deserted hospital in Mexico by a grouped of masked men, but it wasn’t a regular hospital. It was run by the black market, and you can imagine what went on there.”
Her head was down, but she was looking up at me. I could see heartfelt apologies on the cusp of coming out of her mouth, but I silenced her by shaking my head. The remorse in her eyes made it hard to go on, but I continued for the sake of her.
“People were tortured, killed, beaten, raped, and operated on. People either died from their wounds, or from deadly infections. I quickly accepted the fact that we were going to die down there…”
I neglected to add the nitty-gritty details about what really went on there, figuring she got the gist of it all. Judging by everything she’d gone through in the last month, she was very familiar with how cruel and malicious people could be.
“I don’t know what all happened to Elliot, but I know that they gave him a vasectomy.” I glanced up, just as she looked away. Her green eyes seemed wet with a familiar sadness, but not a single tear fell down her rosy cheeks. “They thought if they sterilized him, the Wolfe bloodline would eventually come to an end. They had plans to do the same operation on Everet and Emmet, but they couldn’t get all three of them together in one place at one time.”
After a long while had passed, she asked, “Elisa, what happened to you?”
I wasn’t expecting her to ask or care about what they did to me, so I sucked in a sharp breath of surprise and contemplated my next move. If I was going to tell the truth, I needed to tell all of it, no matter how much it hurt to remember.
“I was beaten with a bat, like I was a piñata,” I said with a heavy heart, feeling my own eyes swell with unrelenting tears. Just thinking about what happened was enough to send me into a sobbing mess, but I fought back the tears with everything in me. It wasn’t about being weak. It was about being strong for the new life that was growing inside of me. It was about being strong for the old life that I’d lost. “They beat me with the bat, repeatedly, until my baby fell out of my womb.”
Her veil of masked emotion slipped, causing a single tear to roll down her childlike face, disappearing beneath her pale jaw. I moved my hand to wipe it away, but it fell too fast, too quickly. It reminded me of how quickly I fell for Everet— head first, heart second.
“It’s one of the few things Elliot and I have in common.” I wiped my own tears away before they got the chance to fall. Turning away, I let a soft sigh escape my trembling lips. “We both had our children taken away from us too soon. In different ways, of course, but it all hurts the same.”
I took another breath before saying, “You’re not the only one that’s broken… Lily… we all are.”
***
Several longs hours later, I stood in front of the rich mahogany doors that lead to Everet’s office. They were currently shut, which meant that he was either out for the day or he was handling some personal business. I could never tell which, so I usually just kicked in the door and burst in the room without knocking. It always resulted in me getting thrown out by hefty bodyguards.
“Aren’t you going to knock?” Lily asked once I came to an abrupt stop at the entrance. “Or do you want me to?”
I sighed, feeling my posture stiffen and my breathing quicken. The more I stared at those two doors, the more uncomfortable I became. “Do I really have to do this right now? He’s still recovering from his gunshot wound and I don’t want to hurt him anymore.”
“You’re not hurting him, you’re enlightening him. Big difference.” She placed her hands on my shoulders, looking me dead in the eyes. Her emerald eyes were lit with determination and strength. “You said I deserved to know about Elliot, and now Everet deserves to know about you. I know what happened before, but it’s not going to happen again. He can’t protect you if he doesn’t know, and you’re not safe if you don’t tell anyone.”
“The only reason those people beat me like that is because they knew that I was pregnant,” I said quietly. “That’s why I’m afraid to tell anyone. I’m scared to give someone a reason to hurt me— to hurt her.”
“No one’s going to hurt you, turchino, not anymore,” a gruff voice said from behind me, causing me to spin around on my feet. I nearly lost my mind, and my balance at the same exact time. Everet caught me with his right hand, steadying me against his firm chest. “I got you.”
I guess that answered my question. He wasn’t in his office after all.
“How much of that last conversation did you hear?” I asked, pulling away from his painfully strong arms. He wasn’t trying to hurt me, but a man as physically fit as he was had a strong grip naturally.
“Why do you ask?” He wiggled his dark eyebrows together, running his hand through his hair. I couldn’t stop thinking about how it’d stained with blood only days ago. “Was there something I wasn’t supposed to hear? You know how I feel about secrets, turchino.”
“Secrets are good in the bedroom, outside the bedroom they’re prohibited,” I said, recounting secret fetishes the both of us had. “Look, I’m not lying.”
“That’s exactly what a liar would say.” He ran his hand along his stubbly jaw, clicking his tongue.
“I’m not hiding anything, I swear! Why would you even think that? You’re so quick to jump to conclusions! You don’t trust me!” A verbal case of diarrhea spilled out of my mouth, making me look even guiltier than I already was. Everet lowered his head to study me, his mouth hanging open in a slight grimace. “Don’t look at me like that!”
“You’re a terrible liar, sweetheart.” He leaned in toward me, only a breath away. “
And you know that liars get their tongues cut out.”
Before I could respond, he gave Lily a look that said a thousand words. She moved away from me instantly, not looking back. He’d intimidated her without saying a single word.
Damn him.
“What are you doing?” I asked when she started running down the vast hall, leaving me behind. “You’re supposed to be my human shield! Wait, come back! I need you!”
“You don’t need anyone but me.” He grabbed me by the wrist gently, pulling me into his office. I was careful not to struggle, so I didn’t accidentally hit him where he’d been shot. No matter how bad I wanted to get out of this, I’d never resort to hurting him to escape. “What’s wrong? Is this about Emmet? What are you afraid of, love?”
Love.
It’d been a long time since he’d called me that. Not days or months, but years. It’d been years since he said that to me. After we lost the first baby, everything changed. Things were rocky between us for a very long time.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” I lied and he instantly noticed. His blue eyes narrowed in my direction and it caused me to look away. He was only ever truly himself when the two of us were alone. “Please stop looking at me like that.”
“Please stop lying to me.”
His tender voice surprised me, making me take an unconscious step closer to him. Everet wasn’t used to asking people for anything. He’d tell people to do things and they would do them, but he never had to ask for anything. Now, here he was, pleading with me.
“Elisabeth, please tell me what’s wrong.” The sound of my full name made me wince. He hardly ever used it. He’d used it one other time that I could remember and that was when he proposed to me almost two years ago. Unfortunately, the engagement was called off just as quickly as it was announced. Like I said, so much had changed between the two of us. “Please…”
His imploring voice and enigmatic eyes made me completely confused and dazed with emotion. I knew that I had to tell him that I was pregnant, but I didn’t know how.
“You’re a baby daddy! A father! A parent! A—”
“You’re expecting?” His features softened momentarily, but there was little emotion in his eyes. I couldn’t gauge his reaction, but I tried my hardest to.
“No,” I answered quietly. “We’re expecting.”
At that moment the love of my life, both the light and the darkness to my world, collapsed to the ground with his hand on his chest.
I assumed he’d fainted due to surprise, but a more chilling thought came to mind when I noticed how still his body had become. He looked cold and rigid, just like the first baby we never got to have.
He looked dead.
Chapter 36: The End of All Things
Elliot’s Point of View
I always sought the kind of things that would shatter my existence in the end. I looked for the kind of things that would bring me happiness, but they only ever came with great sadness. The things I loved most seemed to hate my guts in return.
Drugs. Revenge. Money. Sex. Power. Respect. Family.
I wanted it all, but when I got it, I wasn’t aware of the price tag that came with it. I wasn’t conscious of how many people I had hurt just to help myself. I wanted to be treated like a God, but in the process, I had acted like a devil.
As the Holy book suggests, devils destroy everything they ever come into contact with. They set the entire world on fire just so they can burn with it. I had been playing with fire long enough to know that one day, everything would go up in smoke.
And it did.
I had lit the very match that would obliterate everyone and everything in my path. Now, I had to watch everything I ever gave a shit about come an end. It was like a movie being put on fast forward, scenes of my life blurring into one another. In the blink of an eye, my world had hurdled toward the end I always knew would come.
I was never afraid of dying, but there was something unmistakably terrifying about watching someone else die. Especially when that someone was the only real family I had left.
“Close the fucking windows, adesso! Close the windows before I throw someone out of them!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, losing touch of where my English started and my Italian ended. Seeing my brother lying stiff on the ground, had quite literally taken my breath away. “I told you to keep them shut! Idioti! How many times do I have to tell you benighted Americans?”
Lily jumped at the sound of my rattled voice, scurrying toward the opened window, but I stopped her by curling my hand around her wrist. I only relieved the pressure when I noticed the familiar sting of pain on her face. I’d been holding her too tightly, but I didn’t want to let her go.
“Not you, fiorella,” I gritted out, staring at Gabriel who was standing in front of Connor in a protective manner. I never should’ve let that rat out of the cage he’d gotten himself into, but I had Lily begging that I spare him in one ear, and Elisa threatening to kill me if I didn’t in the other. “Shut the windows, Connor.”
“What if he gets shot with that shit too?” Elisa screamed at me, not caring if she spits in my face in the process. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop from lashing out on her. She was carrying my brother’s child, and now, it might’ve been the only piece of my brother I had left. “I’m not losing two people today! I’m not losing anyone. Where is the damn doctor? Fix him!”
What she didn’t understand was that I was not a magician. I couldn’t snap my fingers together and magically save my brother’s life. Nor was I a trained doctor who had experience in resuscitating people. I only ended lives. That’s what I was good for, but now, the gun was in someone else’s hands.
It was in Sylvio James’s hands, and like me, he was a good shot. He never missed a target, which is exactly why my brother was writhing on the ground with a dart in his neck.
I ripped the dart out, unfazed by the small pool of blood that gathered on the floor. The dart itself wouldn’t kill him. It was what was inside the little vessel that worried me. My brother had been poisoned, and I didn’t know what antidote would save his life, if there even was one.
The doctor I’d called, Emilio Caruso, wouldn’t be here for another fifteen minutes and we didn’t have that much time. If the poison didn’t kill my brother, Sylvio James would silence him himself.
I knew something was terribly wrong last night. There was something different in the air around us, something disturbing and deceiving. However, it was hard to focus on what it was when Lily had taken her clothes off— all but capturing my attention for the next few hours.
I hadn’t even begun to think straight until this morning, when I left her alone in my room. I had no idea that only a few hours later shit would hit the fan. I hadn’t known that her father would breach my security system and sneak into the estate. Admittedly, I knew he would come for her— for them— eventually, but I didn’t anticipate it would happen so soon.
Sylvio James was a man who liked to plan these kinds of things, and this all seemed so spontaneous, but who else could’ve broken my security system? Who else would’ve wanted to?
As soon as the dart was free from my brother’s jugular, Elisa pushed me out of the way and knelt before him with shaky hands. One of her palms rested against the side of his throat to stop the blood flow, while the other held his hand tightly.
In the two years I’d known Elisabeth Rhodes, she had annoyed the hell out of me, but she never seemed to be bothered by my intense dislike for her. She never seemed to be bothered by anything, but I could tell that this was crippling her. It was crushing the hard exterior she’d spent so long building.
“Remember when you made me your trap queen?” Elisa stifled a soft laugh, seeming humored by her inside joke. I could tell the laugh was just there to hide the oncoming tears. Even if I didn’t like her, I had to admit that she cared deeply for my brother.
It was then when I realized what was happening. She was saying her goodbyes, while he was still here to hear them.<
br />
“Remember when I made you watch all those Disney movies because your father hadn’t let you watch a single one when you were a kid? Well, I’m going to make sure our daughter watches every single one. She’s going to have the normal life that neither of us got to have. She’s going to smile, she’s going to laugh, and she’s going to ask a million questions that I’ll have to make up the answers to, but the one question I don’t want her to ask is what happened to my daddy? I love you, Everet, and I know that she does too. Please…”
He made a noise, a faint gasping for a breath that wouldn’t come. It sounded a lot like a bittersweet acknowledgement to her sentiment. I felt my own breath leave my body again, causing my chest to constrict against itself. I’d seen countless men die, and it much worse ways, but this was causing me physical discomfort.
“Voglio passare il resto della mia vita con te.” My brother’s strangled voice infiltrated my ears, making the hole in my heart grow twelve inches deeper. He was trying to speak, but the words were short and choppy. “Ma oggi la mia vita sta finendo. If I got to choose how I would die, I’d drown in your eyes.”
There was a moment of silence, then, “The show must go on, turchino, even if I can’t be a part of it.”
I might have laughed at my brother’s dramatic pause, had those not been the last words he’d ever get the chance to say. Shortly after that final sentence, he closed his eyes and he never opened them again.
***
“I give you my condolences.” Emilio arrived eight minutes after my brother’s death, confirming that he wasn’t going to wake up. I’d never believed in miracles or wishes, but a part of me had hoped this was all just a terrible nightmare that we’d all wake up from. Alas, it was real life, and life involves sudden death. “I’m sorry.”