by Beck, J. L.
“Are you okay?” I ask, my voice raw with emotion.
“My head hurts, but I’m okay… are you? Are you okay?” Her eyes move over the front of my shirt before she reaches for me, her hands fisting the material in her hands.
“I’m fine, sweetheart,” I murmur against her forehead as I pluck her off the floor and cradle her frail body in my arms. I’m not sure what kind of injuries she has, but I need to get her out of here. More of Christian’s men could arrive at any second, and I’m not going to fall into that trap. Racing up the steps, I meet Ivan’s dark stare at the top.
“Is she okay?” he asks gruffly, his eyes flicking over her face.
“I don’t know. He shoved her down the stairs, and she’s complaining that her head hurts. She’s not bleeding, but I need to get her to Xander’s and have the doctor check her over before I can be sure.”
Ivan nods, and I walk out of the house, carrying the woman I’d die a million times over for. No one will ever hurt her again, not while I’m still breathing.
22
Who knew that your life could fall apart and come back together so fast in one day? Zane pulls me tight to his side and kisses the side of my face. I feel his heartbeat in his lips.
Taste the fear in the air. His arms are like steel bars wrapped around me, and I’ve never been happier in my life to be confined to a space, because I know I’m the safest I’ll ever be while in his arms. A shiver rips through me, and goosebumps pebble my flesh. This could’ve been really bad, terribly bad, but because of Zane, Ivan, and the rest of Xander’s men, I’m safe. I don’t know what Zane had to do to get Xander and Ivan to help us, but right now, I don’t care enough to ask. I’m sure I’ll find out sooner rather than later.
Everything is going to be okay now.
I’ve survived Christian and escaped Matteo; the worst is behind us.
“I’m pissed at you for forcing me to leave you unprotected. If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself,” Zane growls into my ear like an animal, crushing me to his chest.
“I’m okay. No one hurt me,” I reassure, shifting in his arms, so I’m facing him. I cling to him like a second skin, letting the warmth of his body seep into mine.
“You took a pretty good tumble down the stairs. That’s not nothing, and the only reason it wasn’t worse than that is because we got to you in time. Imagine if we had been five minutes later?” Zane’s fear has never been so real to me. I always knew he was worried, but I’d never seen real fear on his face for me until tonight when he rescued me.
“I know… I know, but you weren’t, and I’m okay. Everything is okay. I love you, and I’m sorry, so sorry.” Tears fill my eyes and slip down my cheeks. Zane wipes them away with his thumb, and I stare up at him through blurred vision, waiting for him to say something.
I won’t ever tell him, but I was so afraid, afraid that I would never see him again, never get to tell him how sorry I was for pushing him away, for trying to save us both.
“I accept your apology, Dove, but we aren’t done talking about this, not by a long shot. I could’ve lost you today, and I know what you did was to protect me, but it’s my job to protect you. My job,” he snarls, and I feel his anger, his fear rolling off of him and slamming into me. “Did anyone touch you? Alberto? Christian?”
“No one touched me. I wouldn’t let them.” Burying my face in his shirt, I inhale his unique scent of soap, and manliness, trying to calm myself. I’m alive. I’m safe. I repeat the same words over and over again to myself. Zane holds me so tightly it’s hard to breathe, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I stay like this cradled in his arms, my head against his chest, the sound of his heartbeat in my ear until the SUV comes to a rolling stop. Lifting my head, I discover we’ve been brought to Xander’s mansion.
All I can do is hold my breath and wait for something bad to happen. It’s a battle of mobs at this rate, and Zane and I are the only two pawns left on the chessboard.
The doors to the SUV open, and I slide across the leather seat with Zane at my back, his hand wrapped around my wrist like he’s afraid I’ll run away or something.
Coming to stand outside the vehicle, I marvel at the huge wooden door before us. It’s massive and intimidating, just like Xander Rossi. I suppose I shouldn’t expect any less from such a man. Zane tugs me to his side, giving me a look that I can’t quite read.
The door creaks loudly as it opens, and Xander’s impassive face comes into view. Instead of looking at me like I’m a bug he needs to squish, he gives me a warm smile, it’s almost cheery if you could picture a man who kills people for a living being jolly. It actually looks more like a shark smiling at you with all of its pointy teeth on display.
“Welcome home, baby sister.”
The air in my lungs stills, and I’m positive my ears have deceived me. He didn’t just say that, right? Sister? He has to be on drugs or something.
“Ssss-sister?” I barely get the single word past my lips.
“Yes. Come in, please, have a drink, sit down, and we can talk. You’ve had a tiring day, Dove, and I don’t want to exhaust you further. The doctor is already on his way to check you over, but while we wait for him, we can talk.”
My mouth refuses to work. Whatever words I’d prepared myself to say, sink deep into the back of my mind. Zane holds me tightly to his side as he gives Xander a weary look before guiding us into the mansion.
This has to be a trap. No way am I this man’s sister. I don’t have to know all that he’s done to know that he’s a man of power and evil. He might have treated me nice while I was here, but I’ve heard enough stories. He’s the head of a notorious and ruthless crime family, after all. It’s not like he’s Santa Claus.
Zane guides me into the house and through the massive foyer, and I’m in awe of the beauty of the house. Ella isn’t just a sweet person but also has excellent taste in decorations.
I try not to think about how fucked up that is as Zane moves us into a small seating area off the dining room. There’s a floor to ceiling bookshelf on one side of the room and a leather sofa and two chairs centered around a small wooden table on the other. Two huge windows make the room feel bigger than it is.
Zane navigates us to the sofa while Xander takes the chair across from us.
“Would you like anything to drink?” Xander asks.
“Water,” I croak. I’m not sure what’s going on. He called me his sister, but that can’t be right. Matteo never talked about me having any other siblings.
Xander disappears from the room and returns with a glass of water a moment later. He hands it to me, and I take a sip before placing it on the table in front of me.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but I’ll tell you what I know first, and then you can ask me anything that you want to okay?” Though Xander’s voice still toes the line on menacing, there is a softness to it.
“When Ivan brought you here last time, you looked so familiar to me, but in a way that didn’t make sense. You looked a lot like my mother, and I couldn’t figure out why. I asked your age for a reason. My mother supposedly died twenty-two years ago, so when you told me you were twenty-one, I didn’t think it could be true. Still, something in my gut told me to keep digging, thinking we might be related in a different way. Distant cousins at the very least. Instead, I found out that our mother didn’t die when I thought she did. She left when she discovered she was pregnant with you.”
I try to swallow, but the salvia in my mouth feels like concrete. A sense of Deja vu sets in. I’ve been here before, rescued from Christian, then being told I have some long-lost relatives. It didn’t work out for me last time, so no surprise that I’m not happy about this new development. For now, I keep my thoughts to myself and listen instead of speaking.
“Our mother had you without any prenatal care, and by herself. There is no record of you ever being born, and you were never given a birth certificate. Police found you in a hotel room
crying when you were about two, our mother dead from a drug overdose.”
My hand tightens in Zane’s, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. I have two brothers, maybe more I haven’t met yet. All of them seem to be part of the mafia. On top of that, I have a father who is part of the mafia but not the same family.
My mother had an affair, ran away, and gave birth to me, god knows where, before deciding, later on, it was too hard to love and care for me. At this point, I truly do feel as broken as I look. Unwanted and unloved. It’s the story of my life.
I don’t even realize I’m crying until I feel the wetness against my cheeks. I look from the ground and over to Zane, hoping he didn’t know. He knows everything about me, surely, he knew about this. Still, a tiny piece of me hopes he didn’t know. When our eyes clash, I know instantly that he did, and like a plane, I nosedive right into the ground.
“I didn’t know until a few days ago,” Zane whispers, trying to reassure me. It’s like I’m being cornered, all my fears and worries bombarding me at once.
“There’s more,” Xander says in a monotone voice.
“What more could there be?” I whisper though I had hoped the words would come out stronger. I feel weak and broken inside. It’s strange because I knew most of the story. It’s harsh to know I spent my entire life in foster care when I had family, a family that is wealthy, and that I could’ve been living with. Even if they are ruthless criminals, family is family, right?
“After you left, I sent your toothbrush in for a DNA sample. You just looked too similar to my mother for me to let it go. The test result confirmed my suspicions, that we are related but even more shocking, turns out you aren’t just our half-sister, but our full-blooded sister…” Red hot rage pulses through my veins in an instant.
“So, wait… both of your parents are my parents? Which means…”
“Matteo was lying to you the whole time,” Xander says before I can. “You are not related to him.”
“Why would he lie to me?” I growl, asking no one in particular. “Not that I am disappointed about having no connection to him.” Matter of fact, I’m a little relieved.
“Because he’s a fucking prick,” Zane replies.
“Actually, he might not have known he was lying. I think our mother did have an affair with him, but she was pregnant at the time, so he doesn’t know you’re not his daughter. He assumed, and since our mother was trying to escape our father, it makes sense.”
I’m sinking in all the secrets I’ve been told, drowning a slow and painful death. I start to shiver, my thoughts swirl as I think of all the things I did, how I betrayed Zane. Yes, I did it to save him, but I didn’t have to butter up to Matteo. I didn’t have to… guilt makes my chest cave in. I can’t breathe. I try and suck air into my lungs, but it feels like I’m choking.
“This is a lot to take in,” I whisper just as the sound of a knock fills the room. Everyone looks up to the door, where a man with a stethoscope around his neck and a bag in his hand stands.
“Ah, Doc, please, come in,” Xander greets, and the doctor steps in. “I need you to check her out. Make sure she is fine,” he orders.
The doctor nods and approaches me. For the next few minutes, he gives me a good checkup. Feeling for breaks, taking my vitals, and asking me a bunch of questions, all under the watchful eyes of Zane and Xander.
At the end, he tells me what I expected. Besides a bump on my head and a few bruises on my body, I’m fine. He leaves a few minutes later, and I am once more alone with Zane and my brand new brother.
The doctor was a brief distraction, but now I’m hit with the reality of my new life once more.
“Can you give us a little bit,” Zane says, turning me in his arms.
Xander nods and walks out of the room. As soon as he’s gone, Zane pulls me onto his lap and wraps his arms around me. He holds all my broken pieces together, holds me together.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Zane,” I sob into his shirt, feeling so torn and tattered.
“Don’t be sorry, baby… You did what you thought was right, and that’s how we both made it out of that situation alive. Matteo will pay for deceiving us, pay for trying to rip us apart. Pay for hurting you. You’re mine, Dove. Mine to protect, to cherish, to keep. Mine until I breathe my last breath.”
“I’m just confused. I don’t know what to think, what to feel. First Matteo tells me I’m his daughter, now I’m suddenly Xander’s sister… I just don’t know how to take any of this.”
“Let’s go upstairs so we can talk.”
Pulling away, I look him in the eyes, those dark eyes of his still give nothing away, but I know deep in their depths there is love and adoration for me that can never be rivaled by another.
“I’m sorry I hurt you… I never meant to push you away. Matteo told me if I didn’t get you to leave, he would kill you, and I couldn’t let you die.” More tears fall, blurring my vision completely now, and I know I’m on the verge of a full-fledged panic attack.
“Shhh, you can make it up to me. Like I told you, Dove. I will never leave you. You could stab me in the heart, shoot me in the head, lie, or cheat, and I still wouldn’t leave. Your crazy matches my crazy, and I’m never going to give you up.”
His confession only makes me sob harder, and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t object as he picks me up like I weigh nothing and carries me back out into the foyer and up a grand staircase. My vision is too blurry to make anything out, but I tell myself I can check out my surroundings tomorrow.
Zane opens a door and walks inside, closing it behind him with his foot. He deposits me onto the bed and takes the spot beside me.
“Now, let me hold you. I miss the way you smell and the way you feel in my arms. I need you like an addict needs their next fix, Dove, and I’m not sure I’m strong enough to deny myself what I want from you right now. So, please, roll over and stop looking at me like I’m a knight when really I’m the devil waiting to crack you open and feast on your soul.”
“You’re not the devil, Zane. You’re the sun, and the moon, and every star in my galaxy. Without you, there would be no me. I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry all of this happened.” I know I already apologized, but I feel like I need to say it a few more times for it to sink in.
I roll away from him, wondering if he can see the shame and sadness in my face. Wrapping an arm around my middle, he holds me possessively, like there is no way to escape him, not like I would try anymore.
“I just want a normal life…” I whisper, more to myself.
His lips trail against the back of my neck, and I shiver in his arms.
“Normal will come, my sweet, Dove. But not until we paint the city red and take over Matteo’s empire. Now sleep, you’ll need it for what I have prepared for you.”
“What’s that?” I murmur half asleep.
“You’ll see, tomorrow. I need to remind you who you belong to.” A tiny shiver of excitement runs through me as I remember the last time he showed me that I’m his. I remember how good he made me feel, how he tied me down and made my body sing. How he coaxed orgasm after orgasm out of me.
I need this. Need him. All of him.
The dark and the light, the good and the bad. I need it all. I need his body against mine. Need his darkness like I need my next breath. If there is anything I’ve learned from this last month, it’s that the only constant in my life has been Zane. My stalker, and me, his obsession.
23
A knock sounds against the door, and I roll over with a groan, remembering that Dove is still hurt. The doctor assured me that she had nothing but a little bump on her head. He gave me some pain pills to give her but said that she was lucky to walk away with nothing more than a bump. Rolling out of bed, I tug on a pair of boxers from the floor and walk over to the door. Opening it, I’m greeted by Ivan’s emotionless face. The dude reminds me more of myself every day.
“Xander wants you and Dove to meet him downstairs for a meeting, whenever you are ready
. Damon is here too,” he says and then turns around and walks back down the stairs.
Closing the door, I turn my attention back to Dove. She is curled up in the bed, looking broken. The last few weeks have taken a toll on her. Her wings clipped. Her beautiful face puffy from all the tears she shed last night.
She’ll learn to fly again soon, but it won’t be without me by her side. Rage and lust swirl together and burn like a raging inferno through my veins. I want to punish her. No. I need to. I need to remind her that she belongs to me and that it’s us together or nothing.
Reaching for her, I stroke her face gently like she’s made of the finest glass. She stretches like a kitten, lifting her arms above her head. Her blue eyes open, and I’m struck by their beauty. My obsession, my unwilling captive. She’s forever tied to me. Cupping her cheek, I lean in until our lips are almost touching. I allow myself to feel every emotion that I’ve repressed in the last couple of weeks. Hate. Anger. Pain. Betrayal.
My touch is gentle, even though it shouldn’t be. I could never hurt Dove, no matter what she did to me. I could never hurt her as she’s hurt me.
“I want you to know that even though I love you, I want to hurt you. I want to make you bleed the way you made my heart bleed when you forced me to leave you with Matteo,” I say, my voice quivering with emotion. I’d never been angrier and scared all at once. The memory of her forcing me to leave, telling the guards to toss me out is all I can see in my mind.
I was scared shitless for days, worried sick knowing that if something happened to her within the walls of that mansion, there was nothing I could do. I was forced to leave her unprotected, and I wouldn’t ever do that again.
Shocked by my confession, Dove’s pretty mouth pops open. I know she’s been through so much, everything she endured and discovered about her history. I know I should let her heal, give her more time, but I can’t stop myself from punishing her. Physically hurting her isn’t an option, but there are worse ways to make someone feel the pain they’ve inflicted on you.
