35. Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Five
Luke
Stay with me! Stay with me! Stay with me! “Eva!” I collapsed, catching her body after the gun went off. One bang. One shot. And it hit the most precious thing on this fucking planet.
Holding her in my arms, Eva’s eyes roll to the back of her head. “Eva!” Fucking Christ.
“Luke.” Adam has Sammie restrained; his arms wrapped around her waist.
Sammie.
By the time I’d worked it out, it was too late.
“Eva!” I get her to open her eyes. “Eva, please, keep your eyes open.” I look at Adam as he wrestles with our sister, but manages to control her. “Phones?”
He shakes his head.
Fuck. “Eva. I’m going to get you out of here. Just like last time, Little Warrior, I need you to hold on. Hold on for me, baby. One more time.” Just one more time. Please.
A loud crash slams from downstairs as I press one hand to the hole above her right hip. Blood seeps between my fingers like a raging river.
“Luke? Adam?” The familiar voice shouts up the stairs.
“Up here! Hurry.” I blink away my tears.
Eva’s eyes drag to look at me. “Is she alive?” she asks, getting nothing but a shake of my head. I don’t want to hurt Sammie, but rage is wanting me to rip her fucking head off for hurting Eva like this. My Eva. My girl. My warrior. “Your sister. Is she alive?” she asks again.
“Yes,” I bite back, the bleeding getting worse. Much worse.
Eva smiles. “Then you did it.” I look at her confused. “You told her the truth, and kept her safe.”
Safe? She’ll never be safe now. Death would be kinder than letting her walk out of here in cuffs. She’ll be taken to a women’s prison to see out her days. It’s not what I wanted for her. Ever.
Heavy feet pound the old stairs, the familiar creeks and rattles making the hairs on the back of my neck stand tall. Icy shivers blanket me. The memories are like a maze of terror. One horror after the other coming back to haunt me.
“Luke?” Marcus steps to my side. “What hap—” He stops talking when he looks at Adam. “Jamie?” His surprise at seeing his girlfriend being held by our brother, shocks him. “What the fuck is going on here?”
“Call a fucking ambulance,” I bark at him, hoisting Eva further into my arms. She’s turning limp. Her body getting heavier.
“Marcus, baby,” Sammie begins, her voice a pathetic attempt to dupe him once again. Stupid motherfucker. How could he let this happen? “Help me.” She fights against Adam with violent jolts of her arms, but Marcus doesn’t move.
“Marcus,” I snap, forcing him to look at me. “That’s our sister. Don’t let her fool you into thinking she’s the victim here. She’s played all of you to get to me.”
I look at my sister, seeing nothing but her despise for me.
“Don’t listen to him. He killed our mother. He did this. He needs to be locked back up for what he did, or better yet, dead.”
The night I left Eva’s, all those years ago, I saw the curtains move when I looked back at the house I was fleeing from. I noticed the person in the window looking at me. I saw the way she stared as if she’d seen a ghost. I didn’t know it back then, but that’s how she knew I was back. She’d recognised me instantly. That’s also why she cut ties with Adam when he confirmed I’d gotten out. She made sure he’d never find her. Cut off her phone. Changed her address on public records. As far as Adam knew, Sammie had moved on for good.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth .
None of us knew that years ago she had changed her name. To me and Adam, she is Sammie Evans. The loveable, doting baby sister. To her friends, she’s the extroverted, successful IT security specialist, Jamie Henderson.
Easy to find once you know where to look.
I guess the lie was easier than saying the surname. The surname that tainted every newspaper and headline for weeks at the time.
Killed by her seventeen-year-old son, Sally Evans… Sally Evans, shot down in cold blood… Evans was a mother who came under attack from her… Evans. Evans. Evans.
I get it.
“Luke.” My wet eyes look down at Eva. Her bottom lip wobbles, but I can’t tell if it’s from her own tears or her body going into shock. “Am I going to be okay?”
Her face has paled, but I hear the distant sirens. I silently beg them to hurry. “You’re my Little Warrior. Of course you’re going to be okay.”
The blood is leaking at an alarming rate. I can’t stop it. Can’t control the warm flow. “Liam?” she says, tears rolling over the side of her face.
I pull her closer, resting my forehead against hers. “He’ll be safe. I’ll make sure of it.” I cry wanting to feel her hold me. I want to have her touch on me. When I squeeze her, it isn’t returned. I’m losing her.
“Are there any weapons in here?” Marcus asks Sammie. “Jamie! Talk to me! What the fuck do I need to hide before the police show up?”
Swallowing, I lick my tear-drenched lips. “She injected us with something.” I don’t know what it was. “It’s in a vial.”
Marcus scampers, frantically picking up any incriminating evidence. “And where’s the gun?” No one answers. “The gun! Where the fuck is it?”
Sammie’s eyes track to her left. The weapon she had lies on the floor.
Marcus turns to go for it.
“Pick that thing up,” I roll my head against Eva’s, looking up at him, “and it will be the last fucking thing you ever do.” There’s no love lost between the two of us.
“Don’t be stupid here, Luke. She’s done wrong, but she’s your sister.” He takes a step .
“Marcus.” I take the gun Eva had in her hand—the one I gave to Carrie—and raise it. “One more step and I’ll shoot.”
“Don’t fuck about, Luke.”
“You take whatever else you want. But she just shot the most important person in my life. I’ve already paid my dues for what I did. It’s time she started paying hers.” He doesn’t question me. He knows more than anyone what I’m capable of doing.
Sammie looks towards Eva when the sirens begin wailing on the street.
“How many men do you have with you?” I ask him, sniffing back my emotion.
“Two downstairs with,” he hangs his head, “with the shithead who used to work for me. I had no idea he’d helped her.”
I nod half-heartedly.
“He’s ours,” Adam snaps, standing to full height. “Fucker tried framing Carrie.”
“Go,” I tell him. “Take the back door. There’s a gate that leads to the alley way. Circle back round for your car once the paramedics are inside.”
They both nod and are quickly moving out of the room.
Adam stops by my side. He doesn’t say any words as he looks down at Eva. Her eyes have closed. He grips my shoulder because it’s all he can do, then he’s gone.
“Eva?”
I quickly check Eva’s pockets, pulling out the paraphernalia Carrie will have given her. I reluctantly let her go, but only to hide all of the things behind a broken brick in the old fireplace in the room. Then I make my way back to her, cradling her once more in my arms.
I check her pulse. “Don’t give up on me, Eva.” It’s weak, but it’s still there. Ignoring Sammie’s sobs, I reach into my pocket, grabbing the bracelet that was my lifeline. I stopped needing to feel its touch once I had Eva.
She became everything I needed to survive. Every breath I took, every single step, they were all in her direction. Maybe in another life we knew each other, but in this one, I knew from the very first time I laid eyes on her that she was the one .
I’ve never yearned to be this close to anyone else. Never wanted to paint a smile on someone else’s face as much as I do hers. She thinks I use humour when I’m nervous. I do—I did, but mostly, I used it when the past flared up, and the only thing that could make the pain go away, was her.
She can’t leave me. My soul felt her absence when I lost her the first time. It won’t survive that again.
“This is yours now, Little Warrior.” Looping the bracelet over her wrist, I hear the ambulance pull up outside. The blue, flashing lights pulse in what was once my old bedroom. “It will keep you safe when the storm hits too hard. I don’t need it anymore, because I have you.”
I hear Sammie really cry, her head falling to her chest. Rather than give her any words of comfort, I grip my girl harder, willing the life I have in me to jump to her. “Please, God,” I pray, hoping for the first time in my life he hears me. “Don’t let this one leave me. It’s not her time yet. She has a son who needs her. A little boy who needs his mum. Give her the chance to show him how to love. Give her the chance to see him grow. Please.” I cry into her hair placing kisses on her soft, cold skin.
I swore to the little boy who lived in this room, who feared most days and every single night, that I would make sure everyone who ever hurt me, paid for their sins. I kept that promise. And now? Now that it’s all said and done, I’m supposed to have the life I deserve—the one I never thought I’d get.
Feeling it slipping through my fingers, I cry out, pulling her to sit up straight. She needs to know she can’t leave me like this. Not in here. Not in this way. “The first night we met. The first meal we didn’t eat. Those two guys’ ice cream you love so much.”
Recalling every single moment we’ve ever shared in my head, I start saying them out loud, giving her every reason to stay awake and not leave.
“Finding out I couldn’t drive. Learning that olives and wine are seriously over-priced. Waking up in my bed. Me waking up in yours.” I choke on my next words, a harsh breath expanding my chest. “Finding out you had a son. Waking up with you and him in my arms. Making you run. Watching the sunrise with you.” My muscles constrict around her. “ Eva!”
The sound of the front door being opened and people coming upstairs, sounds.
“You belong with me, Little Warrior. I belong here, with you. Please,” I can’t control my harsh breath as she lies unconscious in my arms, “Please, don’t leave me.”
Then she’s pulled from my hold.
I go numb. Hope and uncertainty ball into a fist shaped knot in my gut. All I can do is watch as the paramedics try to bring her back to me.
My life.
My Eva.
My Little Warrior.