Page 21 of Revived
“Then I’ll wait forever for the heavy stuff. We move this at your pace. I’m not going anywhere. All you have to do is keep kissing me goodnight.”
She presses up on her toes as she wraps her arms around me and pulls my mouth down to meet hers. She kisses me softly before pulling away and pressing another to the corner of my lips.
“Goodnight, Monster.” She teases. We both know I’m not leaving yet, but I’ll play her little game.
“Goodnight, Boo.” I shake my head while smiling. “But seriously, let’s do your shot and go to bed. I’m bone tired.”
“Shit! I completely forgot you got off this morning. I’m so sorry.”
She’s spiraling, so I silence her with a brief kiss. “That’s enough of that. Let me give you your insulin, then let’s go to bed. I’ll try to keep the monsters away.”
She thinks I can keep all her monsters from the past at bay. Only I think that I’m the ‘monster’ that haunts her dreams the most.
Chapter nine
Elena Rossi
Guns, yelling, blood, and Annie flash through my vision. So much pain. Staring into Zach’s lifeless eyes. Flynn’s wails of agony and Sully’s red rimmed seafoam eyes pleading with me to stay awake just a little longer.
I shoot up in bed and grab at my chest. I can’t breathe. Strong arms wrap around me and pull me in close as I try and fail to thrash around and be let free. I can hear his gentle voice whispering to me, but I’m still stuck in that mansion from over three years ago.
I’m standing in the control room staring in shock and terror as I watch the security feed where this man I don’t know holds a gun that’s trained on Sully. My body moves before my mind can catch up. Sprinting down the tunnels that lead from the bunker where I’m currently at with Sully’s in-laws and their families, I hear two sets of feet chasing after me. Shit… My legs launch me through the secret door leading from the tunnels to a random spare bedroom. You need a code to get in and out of the tunnels, and luckily for me, I have that code. Perks of being around for as long as I have been. Just before the bookcase can latch back in place, Annie slides through the small opening. We hear the door lock, which means we have two minutes before Zach can enter the code on his side.
“What the hell are you doing? Go back! Flynn will kill me when he finds out.” I whisper-yell at Annie.
Annie’s just a few inches shorter than me, but we have the same brown hair. Both of our eyes are green, but hers are light, where mine rival the color of the leaves after a storm. I can see how my biological sister fits into Annie’s family without being detected as the Don’s daughter who was abducted and trafficked as a child. We don’t look all that much different.
“And my sister and Sully will kill me if I let anything happen to you. So we both go back or we both go in. It’s your choice.” She hisses back.
Dammit, we don’t have time for this shit. Zach’s going to come barreling out here any second, and he’ll drag us back to the tunnels to keep us ‘safe’, “Fine, but let's go before Zach opens the damn door and snatches us both back by our ponytails.”
I pull my gun out of the waistband of my jeans. She’s tiny, but she does the job. I press the weapon into her palm. Before kneeling and grabbing my other piece from the ankle holster. I’m more armed than anyone has the right to know today. I may look like the perfect mafia principessa, but I can outshoot most men, and don’t even get me started on my knife game.
“I can’t use this. I don’t know how.” Annie’s voice quivers, and her hands shake slightly. She’s got to get a hold of that, or she’s not going to do anything but put all of us in more danger.
“Flick off the safety, aim, and shoot anyone who aims a gun at you. Got it?” I’m being stern, but I really don’t have time to baby anyone right now.
She freezes for only a moment before she sets her shoulders and nods with determination. I silently lead us out of the room and down the hallway until we’re just out of sight from Sully and Flynn, who are standing in front of the second story banister. They can’t see us, but the slight tick of Sully’s jaw and the way his shoulders tense just a hair tell me that he knows I’m here.
I havejust the right view for what’s happening below. Natasha is trying to convince Declan to fall in love with her. Clearly she’s never seen him look at his partner. He and Jakob are end game no matter how big of a tantrum she throws. That’s not what has bile fighting to work its way up my throat though. No, that would be the gun in the unfamiliar man’s hand that’s aiming straight at Sullivan. Now that I’m seeing him in person, I recognize him as a kid I’ve seen around campus over the years. We all just graduated from Princeton, and if I’m not mistaken, he did too.
I watch in terror as the kid flips off the safety of the gun. Again, my limbs work before my brain does. This is a common occurrence where Sullivan Byrne is concerned. My body throws itself in front of Sully right before the gun goes off. The guy says something I don’t catch, but that’s quickly forgotten as the feeling of having a fist slammed into my stomach pushes me back into Sully’s grasp. It takes me a moment to realize the punch sensation came from Annie slamming back against me just before I watch as she stumbles forward and falls over the second story balcony. No, wait, that couldn’t have been Annie? Wouldn’t my whole body be hurting if it was? I look straight up into Sullivan’s eyes in confusion. His face is pained and panicked. Dammit, did I not make it in time? I try to push off of him, but before I can, he scoops me up in his arms.
It’s like the move brings everything rushing back to the surface. Like when your ears pop in an airplane and everything is clear all of a sudden. I can’t breathe. Fuck, I can’t breathe. I try to call out to Sully, but all that comes out is a gargled moan. The pure white hot pain that takes over every single cell in my body is unbearable. My hands and feet are freezing, and I’m not too sure what’s happening around me. I can hear Sully call my name and feel his tears hitting my face as they fall from his eyes freely. My last thought before the pain becomes too muchto handle, and I let the blackness that’s been closing in on my vision take over, is ‘I love you, Sullivan Rory. Take care of my Papa for me.’
“Shhh. Boo, it’s okay. I’ve got you.” I blink my eyes open to catch the furrow in his brow and the worry etched in every line of his face. “That’s it. I’m right here. You’re okay, baby girl. I promise.”
He’s rocking my body softly to calm the shaking of my limbs and my erratic heartbeat. It’s then that I realize two things. One, I’m covered by a blanket, and two, someone’s standing in the doorway to my room. The scream lodges in my throat for only a second before ripping out of me. In the next second Flynn steps from the shadows and fully into my room.
“It’s just me, Ellie.” Flynn throws his hands up in surrender.
It’s not at all abnormal for Flynn to make his way into any of our spare rooms when being alone in his house gets to be too much. He carries so much pain around, and when it gets too much, he seeks quiet solace in spending the night at our houses. Gently Sully’s hand covers my mouth. No doubt just trying to prevent waking up the whole street.
“What’s going on?” I look around terrified. My eyes are bouncing between the twins.
They don’t answer, instead, Flynn sits on the edge of the bed before his permanently sad eyes meet mine, “You still dream about her?”
“Yeah. All the time. It’s not always just nightmares about that day. Sometimes it’s dreams that we’re getting coffee and talking about everything she’s missing… Those ones are my favorites.” I smile to myself thinking about those dreams.
