Page 67 of Revived
“Alright, let’s do this.” Flynn claps his hands together.
Rowan and Kieran walk in front of me, while Sully and Flynn are on either side of me, and Declan and Mac follow a few steps behind. The smell hits me, making my nose scrunch up. It’s an odd mix of dirt, hay, mildew, and bodily scents I’d rather never smell again. Wewalk into the huge vacant space. There are empty horse stalls, a hay loft, and directly in the middle is a guy tied to a chair that I would recognize anywhere. Even with his eye half swollen shut and his body bruised and tattered. It’s the man who kidnapped me all those years ago.
“Hello, little gymnast.” He smiles at me, blood coating his teeth. I can’t help the way I flinch into Sully’s side.
Mac steps around me, blocking the man’s view of me. With his back to me, he lets me know what he found out. “This is Silas Moore. He has two siblings, an identical brother and a younger sister; Yusuf and Addison.” It feels like someone sucked all of the air out of the room. I suck in a sharp breath. He lets the gravity settle over us for a moment before continuing. “The man who took you back in high school is dead, Elle. This is his twin brother.”
Holy shit.
“Where’s Addison?” I ask, my voice trembling.
“We have her in the back. She hasn’t been harmed.” Flynn speaks quietly beside me.
“That’s where I want to go.” My eyes flick over to Rowan, where I see him staring back at me. “I have no desire to ever see this man again. Do what you have to.” He gives me a firm nod, and then I’m turning and following Sully and Flynn into the back of the barn. There’s a separate room that must have been a tack room when it was a functional barn.
My arm starts to ache as we approach the door. The guys must notice because they both stop to check on me. The sling that I’m wearing is tethered tight to my body while my arm is splinted until next week when it’ll be casted. Sweat beads on my forehead from the pain, but I have to do this before I’ll allow myself to be fawned over by Sully.
“We should do this another time.” Sully starts to fret, which brings a small smile to my face.
My hand comes up to cup his cheek, which draws his eyes to mine. “No. I want to do this and then go home and rest. I want to lay on the couch with you and the guys while we watch Knox’s game. Let’s get this done.”
He shuts his eyes and nods before straightening up and turning to Flynn. “You heard the lady. Let’s get this shit done.”
I push my shoulders back and hold my head high before walking into the much smaller room. It’s actually a pretty decent size room, about the size of a standard bedroom. Addison, much like her brother, is tied to a chair that’s bolted to the ground. Unlike her brother, she just looks like she needs a shower. In the corner of the room standing guard are my Papa and Xavier.
X was more involved in what our fathers were doing than I was when we were growing up. It’s the only reason that it doesn’t even remotely surprise me to see him standing guard looking like the perfect Cosa Nostra soldier. We lock eyes, and he nods slightly. The lack of communication tells me he’s taking this extremely seriously.
I move to stand about four feet back in front of her, she looks up at me in disgust. “Get the fuck out of my sight,Rossi.” She spits. The betrayal that slices through me like a hot knife through butter makes my knees wobble. I thought this girl was one of my only girl friends for years, when really this whole time she’s been my downfall.
“I don’t think I will, Addison.” I tilt my head and watch her for a beat, letting my anger bubble up to the surface. “As a matter of fact, I think I’ll stand here until you decide to fill me in on why your brother broke my arm and shattered my elbow while you were competing in trials. Seems very… Tonya Harding of you.”
Fire blazes in her eyes as she scoffs in disgust and finally cracks, “If I was pulling aHardingit’d mean I didn’t think I could win if you were competing. The flaw in your logic is that IknowI’m better than you. You killed my big brother. This is nothing more than revenge.”
“I haven’t killed anyone, but if what you say is true, that means your brother kidnapped me. He hurt me after stalking me and scaring me for years.”
“HE WAS TRYING TO GET YOUR ATTENTION!” She roars, shocking me but causing the men in the room to bristle and stand a little straighter. They’re not going to stand for her yelling at me like this much longer. “You don’t understand. My brothers and I were in love beforeyoucame along and stole them from me. That’s all I heard for years from them.‘Elena Rossi smiled at me today.’ ‘Elena’s made the Olympics.’ ‘Why is she always with those guys? Does she not realize how cheap it makes her look.’ ‘We can’t do this anymore, little one. Elena will never forgive us for it.’” Holy shit. I realize this poor girl was groomed and abused by her older brothers. “Poor little Elena. All these men falling in love with you. How scary it must be to be so loved by people. You’re a pathetic whore. Then after Yusef died, Silas was no better. Falling all over himself to send you flowers every damn week. They wanted you so badly, and I wanted you as far away from me and them as possible. So when we synced up together a few months ago, we compromised. He could continue to watch and simp over you, and he would come back to me every night. I could come up with the plans to get you away from the gym and Pine Springs as a whole as long as he could still see you until it was time.”
I honestly can’t believe what I’m hearing right now. She has to be lying for a shock factor… right?
“Would you want to have to be around the person who killed your sibling every day? Having to pretend to be your friend? It’s agonizing.”Tears begin to pool in her eyes for the first time, and I can’t help but finally feel sadness for her. She’s fucked up, but it seems like she’s also a victim of her fucked up brothers. “Just have your goons kill me already so I can go be with him.”
My skin is crawling at the new information that I’ve just been given. I know what I have to do, but I also know no one is walking away satisfied with the results today. I turn to my Papa and wait until he gives me his hard gaze. His expression softens as he waits for me to make my decision.
“I’ll take the necessary recording to the ethics committee to have her disqualified from the games. You take the rest and get the poor girl help. She doesn’t need to die, Papa. She needs a facility that can help her.”
“A locked and guarded facility.” Sully grunts, causing me to turn to him.
“Yeah, Monster. A locked facility. She’ll never be able to touch me or my life again, but maybe she can get a second shot at hers.” I look Addison in the eyes. My heart breaks for what she must have been through growing up. “I don’t hate you, and I hope you find peace. But make no mistake, if you ever come near me or my family again, I’ll put the bullet in your brain myself.”
The sound of a gun being fired echoes throughout the space, and her face pales in shock. “I can’t say the same for your predator brother though.” Her wails are so loud that my ears ring. It needed to be done, and I can’t say I feel bad about it. Turning to Sully, I reach out my non injured hand. “Can we leave now?”
“Yeah, baby girl. We’re done here.” He gives me a gentle smile and leads me out of this hell hole and into our future.
Epilogue
Sullivan Byrne
Standing at the window in the box at the rink, I’m so content. I have my beautiful fiancé in my arms. My brother’s team is up one in game five of the Stanley Cup finals, where they lead the series in a three-two split. If they win this, they win the cup.
