Page 22 of Moretti Captive
“I knew you guys would come for me. I just had to make sure I stayed alive long enough to see you guys again.”
My eyes droop, and I feel unconsciousness trying to drag me down.
My shoulder is shaken, and I whimper. My eyes peek open to find Vin looking down at me with worry lines etched across his face.
“Don’t fall asleep. You need to stay awake until we get to the hospital.”
I frown. “I’m so tired, though.”
Vin’s brows pinch together. “I know, baby, but you have to stay awake for us. Tell us about the first person you killed.”
I give him a small, tired smile. “My dad. He was a mean drunk, and my mom refused to leave him. He would beat the shit out of both of us. One night it got so bad. He’d been so drunk he shoved my mom into the mirror in their bedroom. I heard the crash from my room. My mom was crying, and I ran in there. I was tired of hearing her pleading for him to stop. Inside the room, I found him hitting her while she cowered in a pool of broken glass on the floor. I ran to my mom, even put myself between them. He just backhanded me out of the way. I was scared he was going to kill her, then I would be stuck with just him. I didn’t really think beyond wanting him to stop. Next thing I know, he’s lying on the floor in the fetal position while I stabbed him with a broken shard of glass. I was only twelve. My mom was never the same after that.”
Vin’s fingers run through my hair. “You were so brave to step in to help your mom like that.”
A tear tracks down my cheek. “She hates me for it. Everything was my fault after that, and now she’s too fucking broken that she can’t even exist outside of a mental hospital.”
Nic’s head leans against the top of mine. “Just because your mother was weak doesn’t mean that you are.”
I find that comforting. I crowd closer to Nic to absorb some more of his warmth. My eyes find Vin’s again, and I realize something horrible and then feel awful for just now thinking about it. I hadn’t considered the consequences for what I did.
“Ava. I just killed her mom. She’s going to be devastated!”
Vin’s lips roll in, and it looks like he wants to disagree with me, but we both know that it’s true.
“She’ll be sad, but I’m sure she will understand, especially after she sees you. Ava is a smart girl. I’m sure she won’t be upset at you about it. She also understands how things work in our line of business. She knows how her mother is and that she was being given more than one second chance for her benefit.”
I frown at that. I never got the impression that Ivy was a bad parent to Ava. Sure, she was an awful person, but that doesn’t mean that Ava won’t mourn the memory of a mother who truly loved her. Thankfully, I don’t have to think about it any longer as the car stops in front of the emergency room doors.
Nic gets out, still carrying me, though this time he’s practically running through the doors.
“She needs help! I need a doctor!”
Dr. Martin comes running with a few nurses. One of them pushes a gurney that Nic carefully lays me on. He starts rattling off tests and scans that I need to make sure there’s no internal bleeding or lasting head trauma. Though head trauma would explain these new feelings I’ve developed for my two kidnappers. If I force myself to be honest, I would have to admit that I had been developing these feelings since the moment I met them.
Somehow, they just slipped through my defenses. I was always taught to never trust a man, but I found myself trusting these men with my life. I trusted that they would come for me, and they did. My chest aches as I’m rolled away from them. From the men I’ve fallen in love with.
15.Niccolò
Miraculously, Harper has no internal bleeding or brain damage. I stayed with her while Vin went to break the news to Ava. Harper has been asleep for the past few hours. Normally, I would have gone with Vin to be there for Ava, but I couldn’t leave Harper alone again. I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever be able to leave her alone again. The last two times she’s been alone, she’s either been attacked or kidnapped, so she’s just going to have to suck it up and deal with me being her personal stalker for a while.
I look up when the door pushes in softly. Vin walks in, followed shortly after by Ava. Her eyes are red and puffy, but there aren’t any tears currently. When she sees Harper lying in the bed, bruised and with stitches across her brow, she gasps, holding her hand to her mouth.
“Oh my god. Mom did this?” She looks horrified.
Vin gives her a nod. “Yes. She wasn’t very happy about how close Harper was to me.”
Ava shakes her head as a tear trails down her cheek. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t told Mom about her, this would have never happened. I was just so excited because Harper is so nice, and you’ve been so much happier since she moved in.”
“No, no, sweetie, this isn’t your fault. Nobody could have known she would have gone this far.” Vin pulls her into a hug.
Harper stirs in the bed. When her eyes open and she sees Ava standing there, tears immediately spring to her eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she says as her body shakes with sobs.
Ava pushes away from her dad to rush over to Harper’s side. She carefully holds Harper in her arms. Ava cries with her. “It’s going to be okay.”
Harper keeps whispering that she’s sorry over and over again like it’s a mantra. I look down at my feet, hating that there’s nothing I can do to make things better for the both of them. They cry together until they exhaust themselves and fall asleep still clinging to each other.
Vin turns to me, and I can see the same pain and helplessness smeared across his face that I feel deep in my gut. “It’s all going to be okay.” He repeats Ava’s earlier words.
