Chapter 15
Fifteen
Theo
Despite everything I’d done to her, for her, going as far as to fucking piss all over her, it had achieved little to placate her mood.
She still wanted to go. She still had this urgency about her.
I’d hoped I could fuck it out of her system, like what usually happened.
But while she was asleep, she was restless, tossing and turning, muttering under her breath.
I looked down at her in the bed, still damp from the second scrub in the shower, her hair splayed out and wetting the pillow, her skin flushed from the pleasure and the heat of the water.
But her eyebrows were furrowed, her mouth was down-turned.
It hadn’t worked. She didn’t have to be awake for me to see that.
What we’d done in the shower still rolled around in my mind. When she told me what Charlie had done to her, how he’d splattered cum and piss over her while Rafael watched, I almost snapped, but she brought me back down, explaining what she needed to heal from it. So brave. So clever.
It had been fun in the end, and fucking hot.
Owning her like that, pushing past such a taboo barrier and enjoying each other in a new way.
I didn’t know that we had many taboos left to cross, or if we’d leaped over the biggest one first and were now chasing that high, but I was fucking here for it.
Her puppet. Her master. Her toy. Whatever she needed me to be.
The sight of her on her knees, laying her soft lips on my pissing cock, will never leave me. My spent cock gave a desperate twitch at the thought of doing it again. My dirty, depraved girl. Who would have guessed my once innocent sister would teach me something new?
I kissed her forehead and hushed her mutterings before climbing out of the bed and picking up my phone.
I needed to call Christian back, for fuck’s sake.
I couldn’t even remember if I’d hung up on him before Violet’s idea sprang out of her.
How much had he heard? Was this it? The last of his help because he was now aware of what a sick fuck I was?
As the call rang out, I realized almost three hours had passed since he first told Violet that Rafe had Margaret. Shit. He’d said he’d be working on it, but I’d done nothing. Despite telling Vi that was all we could do, a ripple of guilt washed over me.
“Theo…” Christian said my name with a wary tone.
Shit. Had he heard it turn sexual? We’d never outright talked about it, but I’m sure he knew there was more to our relationship, but having the audio proof might change things.
He could have seen it on the cameras, picked up on it easily enough before though.
It was one thing to suspect, another to hear it happening live in his family cabin.
“Sorry, mate,” I replied, running my hand through my hair. “She was…”
“I heard.”
“Did you—”
“I hung up,” he spat. “As soon as she started freaking out. Figured you’d call me or I’d see you leave through the gate.”
A moment passed, where I waited for him to call me disgusting, to kick us out of his home and remove all his protection, but it didn’t come.
Instead, I nodded, steeled myself, though he couldn’t see me. “We need to get her out, Chris. Vi’s not going to rest until we do, and I can’t have her in any danger. Not yet. Not until she can’t take the quiet anymore.”
“Yeah,” Christian sighed. “I figured as much. So, I’m working on a plan.” I heard him typing something on his computer for a moment. “You wanna get your uncle involved, right?” More typing. “I mean, I assumed…”
With a sigh, I replied, “Yeah. I don’t think we have a choice. He’s going to be pissed.”
Chris sighed. “Not as pissed as he was when Damon showed up dead. That was… interesting to witness.”
“What do you mean? How did you see him?”
Chris laughed. “He’s as easy to hack into as Rafael Delucci.”
“Meaning?”
“Really fucking hard. But I did it. And I got to watch him hear the news from your father.”
I didn’t get it. Why it was such a big deal, why they would be discussing it at all. Damon was just a henchman, a low part of the totem pole with no power.
“Why do they even care that one of Rafael’s lackeys was killed?”
“I have no idea.”
After a few deep breaths through my nose, I spoke again. “What’s the plan?”
Violet’s face turned from groggy to pleased when she woke up to find our bags packed by the bedroom door. “What’s going on?” she asked, stretching her muscles out and looking around with that frantic energy still zipping through her, though more docile this time, like it was tempered.
My jaw tense, I looked my sister up and down, frowning and wishing I could just keep her locked up here, safe and sound away from any danger. I didn’t want this, fuck, I didn’t want to do this, but what Violet wanted won out. Always. “We’re going to get Margaret.”
“What?” Her mouth fell open, the slightest upturn of a smile on that gobsmacked face. “We are?”
I nodded. She’d been out all day, almost twelve hours, in which Connor, Christian and I had planned, checked things over and plotted things out - it was happening, and soon. Maybe our only shot.
Connor had been… strange, when we spoke.
Admonishing, pissed, but ready to do this shit.
He was about as over this as I was and seemed willing to do whatever it took to get his niece to safety; he’d been working on his own shit to get her.
He had Amaryllis already, something I had to be grateful for, tucked away in a location he wouldn’t share with anyone.
Margaret would join her there, protected, hidden, until there was nothing to be worried about anymore.
“You, me and Connor. We have a plan.”
“Theo… Connor?” She clambered from the bed and strode closer to me. I welcomed her into my arms despite my tension, releasing a sigh into her hair, kissing the top of her head. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much. But… is it safe to contact Connor? To see him again?”
She was right. The things my father had said about him had me suspicious, but when I’d contacted him, using a line Christian set up, he’d sounded so relieved, I didn’t have it in me to not believe him.
I found his relief fucking annoying though, because where was this energy with Vi all those months ago?
I hated it. Didn’t believe him. But saw no other way.
He had resources I didn’t. And Christian saw no reason to distrust him, so here we were, on the back end of an awkward conversation where he told me he’d had to pay off the police in New York to stop searching for us, and how much of a ball ache us running off had been.
I let him complain at me, for Violet, for my sisters and their safety.
“I think he’s as safe as we can hope for,” I assured Vi. “We’ll keep our backs up. When she’s away from Rafe, we’ll leave her with him. You have to do everything I say, though.” I stroked Violet’s face. “Your safety is more important than hers.”
She winced but nodded into my chest before letting go to get changed, drifting over to the small dresser in the corner.
I watched her dither over what to wear — we still didn’t have much choice anyway — before pulling on some black leggings and a hoodie.
Her hair went up in a ponytail, and then she whirled back on me, looking ready for action.
“I’m good to go.” There was a glimmer of excitement in her eyes, almost manic with it as she tensed up and braced.
She was always so unsettled, swapping between energies at the drop of a hat. I hoped to get her settled one day.
“Slow your roll, pretty girl,” I said with a chuckle, yanking her into me again and tugging on that ponytail so she had to look up at me. “We’re waiting for Christian to plan us a route, and we need to eat.”
“I don’t want to eat; I want to get our sister.”
“We’re hours away, love, calm down.”
She huffed, her anxiety still rolling off her like a heat.
Despite all I’d done to her to release it, it still simmered, needing to boil over.
I had hoped the next time we ventured from this cabin it would be to maim and kill another of those prickhead guards, but we might see Rafael now.
Dad, even. I worried. Who knew what we’d have to walk into?
It was too close to being too much. And she vibrated with it, likely thinking the same thing. She didn’t know the plan yet, I’d tell her while we ate. But she had to sense how close we were coming to her demons.
I took her hand and guided her to the kitchen, forcing her to sit at the counter where I’d already plated up some toast and eggs. She frowned at the plate, aware I was a shit cook, but picked up her fork and dove in.
“You’re not getting near,” I told her, waiting for her to have a mouthful before dropping the bomb.
Connor and I had spoken at length, Christian helping too.
We had it all set out. She would be with us, as that was safer than leaving her somewhere alone, but uninvolved.
Tucked in the car with a weapon, far enough away from the action that she couldn’t be spotted.
This was the exact kind of situation that made me want her to learn how to drive, at least enough to escape.
“What do you mean?” she asked after chewing and swallowing, staring at me tentatively.
“Connor and I are going in to get her. You’ll be near, but… not too near. We can’t risk you being seen. Or…”
“You think if I see Rafe I might, what? Snap? Burst into tears and slice a blade across my neck?” That new rage in her was trying to bubble up and out again.
She was so much more volatile that she used to be.
That placid, meek little sister I’d had for eighteen years had been replaced with this fiery angel before me — I loved it.
I frowned, though, resisting the urge to rub my temples or yank on her ponytail again. She was being antagonistic, unusual for her, but since Damon… Since she’d unleashed herself on him, there’d been a shift. It wasn’t an unwelcome one, but it was different.
That meek, quiet version of my sister was falling further and further away.
I think she’d always been who she was turning into, that this bolder, more commanding woman had lain in wait beneath her skin.
But now she could be free with it. There was no one to suppress her, to tell her no.
Again I wondered what she’d be like if raised the same as me, as Charlie.
Would she be ruthless and cutthroat like him, or like me? Done with glee or with resignation?
I certainly wasn’t going to stop her finding out.
“I think you’re still healing, and this won’t be a controlled environment. This won’t be your revenge,” I said to her, choosing my words with care. “This is about saving our sister. Connor and I can keep our emotions out of it.”
“And I can’t?” She frowned.
“We don’t know.” I rested my hands on her shoulders, brushing them up and down her warm skin to soothe her, and just to touch her.
Nothing was bad when we were touching. “We don’t know if it’ll overwhelm you and things will go sideways.
Let’s get Margaret, then we’ll go back for him. For all of them.”
“Okay, Theo,” she acquiesced, leaning over the table to plant a kiss on my lips.
Relief trickled through me, and I kissed her back.
We stayed like that for a while, kissing, touching, finishing off our food, feeding each other, just existing in our small bubble.
Then it was time to go. Bags slung over our shoulders, we headed to the car.
I wasn’t sure if we’d ever return to this place, but I wanted to.
We’d healed here together, got to spend time just living as a couple.
Like we could be normal without the shitshow that was our lives and connections…
but here, we could. I fucking hoped we’d be back here before we knew it, ready to bed down and live.
I knew it wasn’t possible, that Violet wouldn’t be settled until she’d killed every single one of those assholes, but maybe one day.
Something in my gut told me to say goodbye to this place, but I didn’t look back as I pulled away and headed down the narrow drive.
Violet continued to vibrate with tension and excitement I think she thought she was hiding, and I felt it too. Another opportunity to fuck Rafe’s shit up. He was about to see what we could really do.
A few hours later, when we were halfway through a half-assed game of I-spy I’d forced on Violet to focus her mind, my phone buzzed. Christian.
Our plan was solid, but there was a final variable. We didn’t know which route they’d take.
“I know where they’re headed. You need to get there now,” he told me, no hellos, no pleasantries. “Your uncle is going to meet you there.”
“Tell me,” I said, hackles immediately up, gesturing for Vi to pay attention.
And he did. Christian knew where they were going and when. Tonight, eight hours from now, they were moving her from a location near the airport to Rafael’s compound, to where Violet had suffered her worst.
I put my foot down on the accelerator and silently thanked my friend again.
I was saving another sister.