Can't Walk Away (The Thomas Family Chronicles #1)

by Ashlee Taylor

  I started to smell something. Could you smell in a dream? Was this my subconscious trying to let me know something was happening and that I needed to wake up from whatever void I was in. Or maybe just open my eyes and try to see what was going on.

  The smell so familiar—it was Chanel. I recognized it fully.

  Mom.

  Mom was here, wherever I was, or maybe she wasn’t and I was just trying to conjure up memories or familiarities to things that mean so much to me. I struggled a little bit to bring myself back to reality, but just ended up falling back to sleep, or at least I think I did.

  When I woke sometime later, my body started to come alive. I hurt everywhere, my whole head was a throbbing mess. It felt like it had been cut open repeatedly. My eyes popped open and I focused on my surroundings. The room was dark. There were people in the room to the side. I turned my head slightly, wincing at the pain that seemed to be centralized in my head and neck area.

  Sitting by the window were my parents. They were huddled together. I looked like Dad was comforting her. I slipped my hand out to try and get their attention but I could barely raise my arm. Feeling hard plastic, I began scratching my nails against it, hoping I could conjure up some sort of noise so they’ll notice me.

  I was about to give up when I saw Dad’s head slowly rise and turn in my direction. He was looking at my hand at first and then his eyes flicked upwards. I imagine I made a smile for him because his face lit up like a Christmas tree. He jumped up, scaring my mom in the process. He pulled her up with him and they both walked over to the bed.

  “Sweetheart?” Dad called out, then Mom realized I was looking at them.

  “Oh darling, thank you for coming back to us.”

  I struggled to speak, to say anything, but couldn’t manage to move my face without pain.

  “Don’t speak, Angel, your jaw was stabilized because it was dislocated. It needs to heal so you need to figure out a way to talk to us.”

  I blinked my eyes rapidly, like I was trying to send Morse code to them, but I didn’t even know anything in Morse code. Mom grabbed my hand.

  “Calm down, I know you have a lot of questions. We’ll do our best to answer them for you,” Mom said sweetly while stroking my hand.

  Flipping her hand over, I lay it flat on the bed, smoothing her hand out so it was a flat surface. I began to slowly draw a straight line down and then across, straight line down and then across and I looked at her. Pleading for her to recognize that I was drawing an “L” in the palm of her hand. She watched as my finger continued the pattern on her hand before her mouth fell open.

  “L, sweetheart? Layla…you want to know about Layla?” she asked and I clasped her hand with mine.

  “She’s good, sweetheart. We’ve been taking very good care of her. She misses you. She calls for you every day. It was rough those first few days when she didn’t understand where you were. Nicholas has been with her every day and night.”

  Closing my eyes, I reveled in the news that she’d had him to keep some familiarity. I knew I was crying now, I could feel the wet tears falling down my face onto my neck. I did the same thing with Mom’s hand again, this time writing an “N” on it. When she smiled a smile that barely reached her cheeks, I knew something wasn’t right.

  “Sweetheart, Nicholas was here earlier. Something happened and he left to go take care of it.”

  I turned my head away from them, if anything I understood that something happened. I’m sure whatever happened to take him away from here had to be something big, or else he’d still be here.

  When I kept my head away from them, Mom and Dad began mumbling something to themselves. I guess they thought when I woke up I’d be different, maybe that I would be the same. I’ll never be the same again, not after what I went through. No one could prepare your mind for having to live through what I went through. No one should. I just hoped the people responsible feel some sort of torture. Have their eyeballs pecked out by birds or their body ravaged by cannibals.

  Nothing would be enough for them to suffer.

  “Sweetheart?” Mom called out.

  I turned slowly back to them and they both smiled.

  “Your dad is going to call Alex and have her bring Layla here. You want to see her, right?”

  Squeezing her hand tightly in mine, I hope she knew that I wanted nothing more than to see my baby girl. I wrote an “N” in her palm and Mom turned quickly to Dad before nodding.

  “I’ll tell her to bring Nicholas as well, darling.”

  I had a feeling she was lying, not that I could confront her about it. I would just make a mental note to watch them from now on. There was something they weren’t telling me but I knew that eventually I would find out what was going on.

  Mom and Dad kept talking, but I wasn’t really paying attention anymore. My mind was on Nicholas and Layla. I didn’t get to stay in my thoughts for long because the door opened up and a man in a white coat stepped in the room. He smiled first at my parents and then at me.

  “Well, Christianna, I’m so glad to see you’re awake. I’m Dr. Chase. I’ve been one of the doctors who has been taking care of you since you were admitted. How are you feeling?”

  I think I smirked a little bit. I couldn’t move my mouth to respond, other than shooting him the finger in response. I just stared at him.

  “She’s been writing on my palm, Dr. Chase. It hasn’t been much, but it was enough for us to know what she was talking about.”

  “Good, we’re already steps ahead right now.” He let out a little chuckle, and I immediately didn’t like him.

  Dr. Chase hit the button above my bed while smiling down at me. Yeah, I really didn’t like this guy.

  “How can I help you?” the intercom voice asked.

  “Yes, this is Dr. Chase. I’m going to need a whiteboard in room 224 right away, please.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Dr. Chase stepped back and began to look me over while we waited. He started to check my bandages and then he poked at my stomach, which hurt so badly that I flinched in pain. It sounded like he “mm-hmmed” before picking up my other arm.

  That was when I noticed my other hand was in a cast to mid-arm, the bright blue cast seemed to glow at me like a beacon. I couldn’t even feel anything on that side of my body and had no idea what happened to my hand.

  When the nurse walked in with the small board, the doctor adjusted my bed so I could sit up a little better. I looked down at the marker he had placed in my good hand as Mom removed the cap.

  “Christianna, I’m going to ask you a series of questions. I would like for you to answer them to the best of your ability for me, please, if that’s okay.”

  I gave him a pitiful thumbs up attempt while holding the marker causing him to chuckle again.

  “Are you experiencing any pain?” he questioned.

  Yes, I wrote it down on the board.

  “Where are you feeling the pain at, is it all over or in a specific area?”

  Head.

  “Good, now does your arm hurt at all?”

  No, can’t feel.

  “Okay, does your abdomen hurt?”

  Not until you touched it, I jotted down and he chuckled again.

  “All right, I’m going to give you some medicine to help you with the pain. It’s not going to make you sleepy, although you may want to sleep at some point as your body is trying to recover, so we recommend this to help you along.”

  Okay.

  I felt useless. I couldn’t do anything or tell anyone or ask too many questions. I just wanted Nicholas to be here. I needed him.

  Nicholas, I wrote on the white board and looked at my parents, who just stared at the white board then back to me.

  “He’ll be here soon, Angel, but Alex will be here shortly with Layla.”

  I knew they were lying, I just didn’t understand why. As much as I needed to see Layla I needed to see him more.

  Whatever Dr. Chase inserted into my IV had me feeling semi-no
rmal within minutes. I didn’t feel sleepy, but I did have an overwhelming sense of wanting. Wanting to see Layla was at the top of my list. I needed to see her, feel her, I needed to just be near her. I kept my eyes fixated on the door. Dad had taken a seat in the chair next to my bed, Mom was fixing my blankets and straightening the cords that were connected to me. Busy work.

  The silence in the room was deafening. I wondered if there was a TV or a radio to give off a little bit of noise so I wasn’t stuck in my head. I was getting ready to jot down on the white board about it when the door opened. Ethan stepped in wearing a big huge smile on his face. Stepping to the side, he held the door open a little bit wider.

  I heard her before I saw her, her little baby babble that no one could understand except for her. Alex had her arms wrapped around Layla, who was looking the other way, playing with her hair.

  Alex stood in the open door and just stared at me. Her eyes glistening with tears, she hugged Layla a little before whispering to her low enough for only her to hear.

  Layla’s little head whipped around to look, I assumed for me. When she saw me she thrust her little arms toward me.

  “Ma…ma…ma,” she called out as she struggled.

  Alex walked over to me, slowly letting Layla down on the bed. Layla crawled up me and laid her head on my chest. Her little hand clutched at my hospital gown. She turned her face up and just stared at me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I rubbed my unhurt hand through her hair and down her back.

  The tears were streaming down my face as I held onto my baby girl. Her eyes started to falter before they closed completely and soon she laying against me, fast asleep.

  ***

  Nicholas

  Luke drove me straight to the house. I got out of the car and headed upstairs to my bedroom. Stepping through the door, I was assaulted by the sweet scents of the vanilla perfume and strawberry shampoo that Christianna uses. The scents that were undeniably hers hung in the air, letting me know she was still with me.

  Seeing her bruised and broken, lying in that bed is what drove me right now to make sure the people who had caused pain and heartache to the woman I love and our families pay for what they’d done. I was so fucking elated that she was back with me, elated that she was going to pull through the horror she had suffered. It was the only reason I could do this now.

  I was going to inflict pain onto people. I was going to make this known to the world, who would without a doubt be watching. They would see the terror I would inflict, and they would know what awaited them when I got close.

  Death. Tonight I was going to kill someone.

  I would look into the eyes of the man who tried to take the love of my life and I would destroy him because he fucked with the wrong person. I would find out what his motivation was and I would break this man before I ended his life. Even though he suspected that his hours were numbered, he wouldn’t anticipate what I was going to do to him.

  When I walked into my closet, I went straight for my black tailored Armani suit with matching tie. It was the suit that I wore when I needed the person I was going up against to realize I was deadly serious.

  I got dressed, making sure to put on my shoulder holster before pulling out my nine millimeter gun from the safe. The gun was lucky. I had received it from my father when I turned twenty-one. It had never taken a life—after today that would change.

  Tightening my tie before slipping on my jacket, I took one last glance at myself. Everything was perfect. I had put on my wingtips to pay homage to my grandfather, as he was the one who paved the journey that I continued to this day.

  I made my way back downstairs, passing Laura on the way out. She looked like she was on the verge of tears so I stopped.

  Laura walked over to me, fixed my lapels, and straightened my tie before looking up at me. “I can’t begin to understand how you’re feeling right now. I know you’re going to do something that goes against every moral code I live by. With that being said, you make that son of a bitch pay for hurting Christianna.”

  “I will,” I said before walking out the door.

  The look on Luke’s face said he was ready. I slid into the car and we took off toward my dad’s house. I was eager to get started, eager to get answers, eager to come face to face with the man who had Christianna.

  When we pulled up to the house, the grounds were covered with men. I guess Dad had to make sure there was plenty of security around for what was about to transpire. It was going to get dirty. Dad anticipated the emotions that I would have confronted the men that were held here. After I paid a visit to the man last seen with Christianna, I would spend time with Anderson, who would undoubtedly be begging me for death.

  Luke got us as close as he could and I stepped out of the car. The men who were milling around the yard stopped and stared. One of the guys pointed to the closest building, where I suspected the man I came for was waiting. I stepped up to the door when one of my dad’s men, Michael, came out holding a folder.

  “Is that intel?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Cain Devereaux, age 42, did stints at Rikers and Chino. Got out on technicalities. He is a mercenary for hire type that had half a million wired into his bank account a month ago. No living relatives that are on record and no known residence. I would say the guy is a ghost if I didn’t see him sitting in that room just now.”

  I smirked. “Ghost? I guess he fucked up getting caught.”

  “He hasn’t said a word, sometimes he starts laughing to himself. There are enough guns trained on him that if he moved he’d be obliterated on sight.”

  “Good thing I’m here then. I’ll be taking care of this myself. Make sure the guys keep their guns down, but on standby. It’s only going to get ugly when I’m ready.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “One more thing, where did the money come from?”

  Michael’s eyes flicked to the ground and then to Luke before settling back on mine. “The money came from an account we traced back to Bobby. It’s a shell company. I’m sorry we didn’t find it sooner, but that’s what led us to other things. Leverage, if you will.

  “Leverage?”

  “Yes, he thinks he hid his tracks, but he didn’t hide them from me. I was able to find out he had a residence in Sherman Oaks, he also has a five year old daughter who lives with her mother in that house.”

  Leverage, you fuck with my family, I destroy you by threatening to destroy yours.

  “Their names?”

  “Arabella is his daughter and Sophia is her mother.”

  Grabbing the door handle, I pushed it open, stepping onto the concrete floor. All you could hear in the small building were the sounds of my shoes clipping along. I turned and focused on the scene before me.

  A huge man, he was way taller than me, heavier than me, yet here he sat on a chair in the middle of the room. He smirked out a grin before sitting back in his chair, lifting his leg and laying his ankle on his knee.

  “Oh please, tell me you’re the big scary man that’s going to hurt me.”

  “Big? Scary? I’m neither of those things, but I will be hurting you.”

  “You and your army?”

  “No, just me. I’m going to hurt you in the same way you hurt my wife. However, she’s still alive. When I’m done with you, you won’t be.”

  He scoffed, “I’m not afraid of you.”

  I pulled a chair from the side of the building and took a seat before him. Shrugging out of my jacket, I lay it on the back of the chair. I wanted him to see the seriousness of this. I wanted him to understand that he wouldn’t be leaving this building breathing. I needed him to see my gun, and for him to see me relaxed.

  “No, Cain, I don’t think you’re afraid of anything. Well, maybe one thing. I wonder how you’d react if Arabella or Sophia were harmed in the way you hurt my wife and daughter?”

  Cain’s demeanor changed. Now, the cocky look he had on his face was gone and was replaced with ange
r. His feet were both firmly planted on the floor.

  “Now that I have your attention, I’ll let you in on a little secret. The family you managed to keep hidden from the outside world was easily found by my guys. Do you know what they call that, Cain? They call that leverage. You’re going to tell me what you know and in turn I won’t harm your family. It’s a win-win situation if you ask me.”

  “Fuc—” he began but I cut him off.

  “Watch your mouth around me, Cain, choose your words wisely. The things you say in here are going to be the determining factor of how I deal with you. I can do it easy, kill you for retribution for you harming my wife and killing our unborn child.”

  I watched as he swallowed hard at that revelation.

  “Or I can kill you in a heinous way, then leave your body in the bedroom where your little girl sleeps in Sherman Oaks so she can find her daddy’s dead body. So what will it be?

  Cain’s face turned to fear. Done. I had accomplished what I needed to, now it was time to make my move.

  “Now that we’re on the same page, I want you to tell me everything about who hired you, including where they are right now.”

  Cain didn’t say anything, he just looked at me. I didn’t know if he was mistaking me for someone else. As much as I respected the whole “don’t touch a child” rule, I did believe in an eye for an eye.

  I sat back waiting. I let him have enough time to let it sink in before I chose to speak again.

  “Michael?” I called out, I knew he was close by.

  “Sir?”

  “I need you to call Antony and have a few of his men pick up Mr. Deveraux’s family. Bring them here right now. Mr. Deveraux thinks I’m joking.”

  “Please, don’t.” Cain shifted in his chair.

  “Please, don’t what? I told you I’m not fucking around. Do you know who I am?”

  His head shook twice.

  “My name is Nicholas Prescotti, I am the acting head of the Prescotti family. My father is Marcello Prescotti, this is his building you’re in. This is his property. It is because of him you didn’t make it to the jail. Christianna Thomas, who will soon be my wife, who is the mother of my daughter, is the woman you tortured and struck as if she was a man. Christianna was carrying my baby, an heir to the Prescotti family and you took that child’s life. Even if I were to forgive you for what you did to her, you killed my child. You have no bargaining chips, you have nothing to keep me listening to you.” I laughed before slipping my jacket back on and turning toward the doorway.