Chapter 17 #2
"I know, let's just say it was a call I made that was right, but they needed to make it go away. I was a scapegoat," I explained, shifting uneasily.
"How so?" Ivy pushed.
Okay, maybe I didn't want to talk.
"What's Meredith like?" Elena asked, shifting the conversation, as if she'd felt my frustration. I was grateful for it.
"She's good," I said. "Didn't grow up in this life. Leo pulled her in, but she doesn't touch the blood. I like protecting her. She deserves it."
Ivy shook her head. "It's still a dangerous world."
"The whole world's dangerous," I shot back. "At least the Donatis have a code. They don't hurt people for fun. That's more than I can say for most."
Ivy opened her mouth to argue, but Elena cut in. "Please. Don't fight."
Ivy's voice softened. "They're her half-siblings."
I nodded. "I know why she came. She wanted to know them. And she's doing it for her mom."
"Anna's everything. She took me in when no one else would. Loved me like her own. I'd do anything for her." Ivy shifted beside me as the wind howled outside, and Elena huddled against me even more. It felt right, holding her in my arms like this, and the pain in my leg was easier to ignore.
"Meredith and Grayson will help. Once they know the truth, they'll do the right thing."
"You really think so?" Elena's voice was almost drowned out by a deafening crack of thunder that made her huddle under the blanket more, pressing against me.
"Yes, I do."
She looked towards the window uneasily. "What if someone else finds us first? What if they want to silence us... about Alfeo?"
I didn't answer right away. Just stared into the dark, listening to the rain. Because I didn't have a lie soft enough to make that fear go away. It was what I'd been worried about as well.
The storm outside only grew, raging and lighting up the sky, thunder rumbling after it and shaking the house. Elena's question hung in the air like smoke, impossible to wave away. I tightened my arms around her, knowing it was the only comfort I could give. I wasn't going to lie, I hated it.
"We'll take shifts," I finally said after another thunderous crack rolled overhead and lit up the room. "I'll take first watch."
"You need to rest. I can go first." Elena pulled away to look at me, those soft blue eyes hard to see in the darkness.
I shook my head. "I've operated on worse. Besides, the pain is making it hard to consider sleep."
"I can sit beside?—"
"No. You're fine right here." I didn't want her moving, and not just because she was keeping me warm. She felt right here, like it was where she belonged.
Elena's fingers brushed against my arm, so light I might have imagined it if not for the trail of warmth they left behind. "Okay. We can take turns. All of us."
The rain intensified, drumming against the roof in an erratic rhythm that matched my heartbeat. Water began to leak through a corner of the ceiling, dripping onto the floor. The sound—drip, drip, drip—marked time in our makeshift sanctuary.
I guess that was why the ceiling was moldy in the other room. This one would follow suit.
"Tell me about your mother," I said to Elena, needing to fill the silence with something other than the fear radiating off the two women. "What's she like?"
Elena's expression softened, the worry lines around her eyes momentarily smoothing out before she nuzzled back against my chest. "She's the strongest person I know. Even now, with the cancer..." Her voice caught, and she swallowed hard before continuing. "She never complains. Just keeps going."
"She used to make these cookies," Ivy added, drawing my gaze to her as lightning lit up the room again. A small smile played at her lips. "Snickerdoodles with extra cinnamon. Said they could cure anything from a broken heart to a bad grade."
"Did they work?" I asked, grateful for the distraction.
Elena laughed softly. "Every time."
I shifted, trying to find a position that didn't send daggers of pain through my leg.
"Want me?—"
"No, just need to shift." I wasn't about to let her move off of me.
The bandage she had wrapped was holding, but the wound throbbed with each heartbeat. I'd seen enough bullet wounds to know this one was a clean through and through. It should be an easy enough fix once we got to a hospital, but that didn't make it hurt any less.
"I remember the last time I saw my father," Elena continued, her voice taking on a distant note, "How he promised to visit more. He wrote us a letter not long after, which I found on top of the fridge."
"What did it say?" I asked carefully.
Elena's fingers twisted in the blanket. "Promises, mostly.
That he'd come back for us someday. That he loved us.
" Her laugh was bitter this time. "His first and last letter to us.
I wonder if he ever truly did love us or not.
He barely visited. Mom was always off whenever he was around.
Like she wasn't super thrilled about it. "
Ivy sighed. "He was a liar, Lena. Always was. And considering we now know he had family…"
"Maybe," Elena conceded. "But every girl tries to look up to their father, even if he's never there.
Mom always told me to focus on what we had, how we were doing super well.
I think she didn't like when I mentioned him, but she never said bad things about him, just shifted the conversations.
I used to think it was so I wouldn't be sad, but maybe… "
"Maybe she knew who he really was, of his family," Ivy mumbled.
I thought about what I knew of Anthony Cassaro—the man Roman had described, the man Leo and Grayson had killed. He wasn't a good man from what I'd been told, and I wondered if he was just saying such things to keep them hidden away, so they wouldn't ruin his other life.
"People are complicated," I said carefully. "Even the ones we think we know."
"Is that what you tell yourself about the Donatis? That they're just complicated?" Elena asked quietly.
The question was understandable. I'd been loyal to the family for years, had killed for them, bled for them.
"They saved my life," I said simply. "When no one else would touch me."
"That doesn't answer my question," Elena pressed.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Look, I'm not saying they're saints. But the Donatis... they protect their own. And they have lines they won't cross."
"Like what?" Ivy challenged.
"They don't hurt women or children. They don't deal in human trafficking. They keep the harder drugs out of their territory." I shifted again, wincing. "And they're loyal to a fault."
"Until they're not," Elena murmured.
I knew she was thinking about her father, about what might have happened to him.
"They'll want to know you," I said with certainty, wanting to give her some hope. "Meredith and Grayson. A sister they didn't know they had."
Elena's laugh was sharp, disbelieving. "How do you know they don't know about me?"
"Because I know them well enough to know they wouldn't abandon you if they'd known about you. Family is everything to them," I insisted.
"Even if I lied my way into their lives?"
"They'll understand. I know they will." I had no doubt about it. I'd been around the family long enough to know what they were like. They were not the kind to turn their backs.
The rain continued its assault on the roof, and the wind picked up, whistling through the broken windows throughout the house.
"I'm scared," she whispered, so quietly I almost missed it.
I tightened my arms around her. "I know."
"Not just of them finding us," she clarified. "I'm scared of what happens after. If Gray and Meredith do accept me... what then? Do I just forget everything I learned? Because I think my dad… I think they…"
It was a question I couldn't answer. The Elena I'd first met—the one with secrets behind her eyes—was different from the woman pressed against me now. She'd killed to protect us. Hadn't run when I'd told her to. Had chosen to trust me despite knowing what I was. Had saved me.
"One day at a time," I said finally. "That's all any of us can do."
Ivy had grown quiet, her breathing evening out as exhaustion claimed her.
Something told me sleep had no plans on claiming me tonight. Maybe it was the throbbing in my leg or the howling storm outside, or the need to watch over these two women.
But sleep would not be on the cards.