Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Theo
Iwas asleep. I knew that. Was consciously aware of the fact that I was unconscious, halfway between a dream and rousing, my mind stuck flitting between the fantasy land of giant tits and melting chocolate and Violet’s moans, and reality.
Because of that, the first bang didn’t register, not really. I was too warm, too cozy and comfortable with my arms wrapped around Violet and my face buried in her messy hair while she too, slept.
We’d talked for hours, drifting off at last when the insanity of our long day snatched us up and she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. That couldn’t have been more than a few hours ago, because my body had a hard fucking time pulling itself out of unconsciousness.
But then my brain caught up when Amy’s frantic shout, just down the hall, yanked me from sleep like a sledgehammer to the face. Violet stirred as I did, gasping and looking around in a panic before we both scrambled out of the bed. Connor’s angry voice joined Amy’s, an argument, loud and angry.
“What the hell is happening?” Violet asked, pulling one of my shirts over her head, sticking her legs into her underwear and standing, swaying a bit. She was still drowsy, confused as she blinked herself awake.
I shook my head, baffled. After the house had been so quiet for hours, now it was all kicking off. Everything had been so dead when I wondered through the halls last night, but now, it was like a fucking party.
Once we were dressed, we raced for the door together.
At the last moment, I encircled Violet’s wrist with my grasp and tugged her back, twirling her around to face me even as the yells continued.
I just needed to look at her face, categorize it while we were still in our bubble. Just a few more seconds.
“Before we go out there to the family bickering,” I whispered, kissing the top of her head. “Remember, we have this.” I tapped her heart, then mine. “We have us. Separate from this shit show.”
Violet nodded, and I looked up, twisting us and yanking open the bedroom door. Right away, noise flooded over us, harsher, making Vi wince and turn into me.
“She just left!” Amy shrieked, clearer now. “She locked me in the bathroom and ran, Connor. What did you want me to do?”
“Fucking anything!” Connor shouted back, his voice so strained, like he was failing to prevent it raising. He was raspy, manic.
Shit.
We followed their shouts to the stairs, finding Amy halfway down them and Connor at the top, Amy’s arm in his grip, trying to tug her back up. They were wrestling against each other, with so much anger between them.
I found my arm sticking out to stop Violet getting closer, reacting without even realizing to stop her jumping in the middle.
“We worked so fucking hard to save her and she ran? You could have fuckin—”
“Connor, stop.” Amy’s voice was firm, sudden, and Connor paused, not letting her go but relaxing his hold.
He was half bent over himself to reach her.
I saw Amy gesture to us with a nod of her chin, and Connor turned to see Violet and me witnessing their commotion.
For once, it wasn’t us. He dropped Amy’s arm with a sheepish expression, but she didn’t do anything; she didn’t run up or down the stairs.
She stayed, looking at us, frowning, glancing at where my arm wrapped around Violet.
“What happened?” I asked, the urge to keep Violet safe behind me overwhelming. I had a bad feeling settling into my gut. A dread making my shoulders heavy, my heart beat harder. The air was thick with… something. Margaret had done something stupid; that much was clear, but there was…more.
Amy’s eyes were flooded with unshed tears as she opened her mouth. “Margaret made a run for it. Maybe ten minutes ago. She… she locked me in the bathroom, blocked the door. I… I tried…” Then quietly, “She hurt me.” The way Amy curled in on herself, looking so young and vulnerable, wrecked me.
“Shit,” I muttered at the same time Violet turned and bolted, racing back into our room. “Violet, stop!”
“What’s she doing?” Amy asked as Connor reached for her again, and I ran after Vi, shouting her name.
It was chaos, three people yelling, arguing, everyone fighting against each other.
But what were we supposed to do? Run out into the night after her?
That wouldn’t be safe. She could have darted off in any direction in these woods, could be anywhere already.
She’d written her own death by leaving this place, and my emotions about it battled.
Margaret was about the least likely to survive a night in the woods out of all of us.
If she was that desperate to be away from us, to be so at risk, I’d say let her. We did our best; we did everything we could, for fuck’s sake. Ungrateful cow. But… my sister. Only sixteen. Shit. Conflict made my head ache.
“I can’t let her go to him,” Violet said, her manic eyes meeting mine as she shoved her feet into her shoes, still in just her underwear. “I won’t.”
“Vi, no, you’re not going out there.”
She scoffed. “You won’t stop me.” Her laces tied, she stood, and made for the door, for straight past me. I blocked her, my arm around her waist to shove her against the wall. She gasped as air pushed from her body.
“I will stop you.”
She tensed up, trying to glare at me. “You’ll hold me here against my will?” she asked. “You’ll be like him?”
“Never,” I balked, hit right in the gut by her words. How could she think of comparing us? After everything… After all the shit we’d been through together, everything I’d proved to her.
But I still didn’t let her go, even when she stuck her chin up, her eyes hard. My Violet was drifting; the monster was coming out. Though really, they were both my Violet. I loved every version of her, no matter how bitter, how wild, how cold.
But I wouldn’t have her running into the night after that idiot, getting herself lost or killed or worse. Fuck no.
“Remember when I told you I would kill you before I let you go back to him?” I asked her, my voice low, menacing, whispered right against her ear. She shivered when I licked at her lobe.
“I do.” The husk in her tone made my body heat as I brought my hand to her throat, squeezing just a little to hold her there. “Don’t say what you don’t mean, Theo.”
I kissed her, unable to stop myself stealing a taste, and squeezed her neck a tiny bit more, enough that she would take me seriously, my fingers digging into her flesh.
The world fell away, the noise of Amy and Connor arguing no longer broke through our walls, and for a second, it was only us. Breathing each other in.
I did nothing.
“Don’t make me fight you off, please,” she begged, her voice so small. “Please just let me go so I don’t have to do that.”
We stayed locked in that position for longer than either of us wanted, my breath heavy, making the strands of her hair flicker around her neck.
Her skin pimpled up, and her body shook, but neither of us shifted.
To break this would shatter something, a kind of peace.
Something bad was knocking at our door, and I didn’t want to let it in. Once we moved, the world was coming.
Finally, with a sigh, I stepped away, releasing her body, her neck, her will.
Her shoulders slumped as she straightened up, and though no more than seconds had passed, it felt like a lifetime, like a shift.
I was possessive of her, but I couldn’t keep her locked up tight.
My body yearned to be glued to hers, but I couldn’t trap her against me.
Right now, she wasn’t returning to him; she was looking for Margaret. If the time came…
She had the right to make her own damn bad decisions. And I would follow along behind her like a fucking puppy dog. I was going with her. Obviously. No matter where she walked, I would follow her footsteps.
Violet nodded her head at me, my heart squeezing, then left the room. I was seconds behind, scooping up a pair of leggings for her, ready to take on the world with her. She raced down the stairs, finding Amy at the bottom of them, twisting her hands in anxiety.
“She said she had a plan, Vi,” Amy said as I tromped down the stairs, too, feeling a tiny bit more put together. Connor was walking back into the foyer too, a phone in hand and a frown on his face. “She said she had a plan, and she had to go.”
Violet looked at our sister with assessing eyes. When Amy’s gaze met hers, they both softened. Violet’s harder edge dulled, and Amy’s anxiety lessened. It really was a travesty they didn’t get to grow up as proper sisters.
“I’ll find her and bring her right back, Amy,” Violet said, grasping Amy’s hands to calm their panicked twisting. “I promise.”
Amy nodded, but her expression remained grave, disbelieving. “I don’t know if there is any saving her,” she whispered.
“I’ll try.” Violet kissed Amy’s hand and dropped it, grabbing a knife from the pocket of a coat hanging on the doorway, and reaching for the door handle.
But that bad fucking feeling.
It raged in me. Boiled up in my blood.
Something wasn’t right.
Something was very, very wrong.
“Violet, no!” I yelled as she pulled the door open.
Chaos.
A scream.
Swarms of men, with their guns raised and their voices harsh, pushed into the house. Bullets zipped over my head, and Violet’s body disappeared amongst the hoard. Fuck. No. Fuck no.
It took me just a glance to recognize them as Rafael’s men. No. No no no. I needed to move. My mind zeroed in on Violet. Only Violet. I barged, shoved and fought to get to her.
“Get the fuck off her!” Connor shouted, yanking my attention to him when one of the fuckers blocked my way.
Connor punched one of the men in the nose, pulled out a gun from fuck knows where and pointed it, pressed the trigger and shot the intruder in the shoulder.
Amy screamed as Connor began dragging her back.
Seconds. Only seconds since Violet had wrapped her hand around that door handle, and the obstacles between us were only growing. Needed to get to her. I punched and kicked, used every limb and muscle, every breath I had.
A gun pointed in my face. My fists and feet connecting with any body part I could reach as they tried to subdue me, but I was manic. I needed to get to her. Needed to find Violet. She was gone. Fuck! If only I’d…
“Violet!” I screamed her name, begged the universe to give her back to me.
Someone punched me in the back of the head and kicked my knees out from behind me, three men held me still, buckled, and dragged me toward the door.
I fought with everything I had, my muscles straining, my jaw aching and my eyesight blurring as I battled against these huge assholes, too strong.
They were too fucking strong. Still, I landed kicks and elbows whenever possible. Made it as fucking hard as possible.
Through the bodies, I saw Connor still fighting, Amy at his back, her wide eyes so terrified. She wasn’t built for this life. She was only a kid, and she was pale. Too pale.
My knees hit the floor with a crunch; more men grappled with me, yelling things at each other, talking into radios. I fought them, screamed at them, but there were just too many. Rafael wasn’t fucking about when he sent these men after us. They were prepared, vicious as they swept through.
Connor was almost overwhelmed too, surrounded by men in the same black uniforms, he spat at them, swore every profanity under the sun as he tried to get Amy behind him. Then Amy pounced in the air, flying past him, a knife wielded above her head and her expression crazed, determined.
And the last thing I heard was another gunshot.
The last thing I saw was my sister go down with a spray of blood from her chest.
Then the world went black with a thump on the back of my head.
The last thing I saw as unconsciousness washed over me was a vision of Violet, covered in strawberries and cream and chocolate, smiling and laughing. My beautiful sister.