28 Seconds: A House of Valentine Novella (22 page)

As soon as I hit fresh air I was running toward the house, flinging the door open. Alarms sounded, men came running with guns drawn but then backed away when they recognized me. I flew up the stairs to the closest bedroom, sliding across the floor on my knees and retching into the toilet. Dozens of footsteps pounded on the stairs and I could feel them all hovering at the door. They parted, allowing Cole and my father to enter. They took a step toward me and I shoved myself into the wall, sending a tray of something clattering down over my head.

“Ariana,” my father’s voice was soft and warm. A tender, calming tone that I could believe he’d used with me as a child. He tried to step toward me but I jerked again and he put his hands up in surrender. His voice, although still tinged with concern, was a clear order: “tell me, Ariana.”

I could barely speak, could barely manage to say the words out loud through my broken sobs. “He raped her. Over and over. For years.” I pulled my knees to my chest, rocking myself. “Daddy, he raped her.”

“Who?” he demanded.

“Marco. It was Marco.”

My father turned, barking orders as he stepped out of the room. “Now. I want him here now! Take everyone and drag that sonuvabitch out of the church.”

While my father raged, Cole had moved toward me. Kneeling in front of me, he reached out slow, touching each individual mark on my arm. He tilted my head, tracing the shape of Marco’s fingers on my throat. “And what about you?”

“No. You know he didn’t.”

“There are a hundred ways to rape someone,” he hissed. “Ariana, look at me.”

But I couldn’t. Scuffling and screaming, angry, hate filled words assaulted my ears from the hall: they’d found Marco.

“Ariana!” Cole shook me, demanding my attention.

“Cole,” I whispered, “I was just a tiny little girl...the littlest Valentine.”

And he was gone. I lunged after him but missed. I scrambled to my feet making chase. I tried to break through the crowd but Tony grabbed me around the waist, holding firm...the only time I could ever remember him touching me without permission. Marco stood in the center, spouting vile things about me and my mother but it only lasted seconds: with no patience for words, no forgiveness for begged excuses, Cole and my father raised their guns and fired in silent unison. Two bullets in his head, blood splattering everywhere and then Marco dropped to the floor.

I tried to wriggle free but Tony held tight until Cole gave him a nod, granting me freedom. His release was so instant that I stumbled to the floor. I picked myself up and rushed to Cole, wrapping my arms around his waist and burying my head into his chest. He wrapped one arm around me while tucking his gun away with the other. “Clean this up,” he ordered and swept me out of the room.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

As soon as we were alone, I was stripping everything off and heading toward the shower. Thankfully, a knock at the door stopped his pursuit and I locked myself in the bathroom before Cole could follow. I could hear my father’s voice, worried and low, and knew I didn’t want to know whatever they were saying. I turned on the shower as hot as I could stand and climbed inside, letting the water assault my skin. I scrubbed, trying to get the scent of Marco off me, to remove the touches and memories all at the same time. I was still scrubbing when Cole pulled the curtain open and turned off the water.

“I locked the door,” I mumbled.

“Did you expect that to stop me?” he growled. “Get out.”

“No, I-”

“You’ve rubbed your skin raw, get out.”

“Please stop yelling at me,” I begged.

He froze and I could see the confusion on his face. He was so consumed with his anger at Marco that he didn’t even realize he was lashing out at me.

“Cole, please.”

He took a shuddering breath and reached behind to get me a robe. He extended his hand, helping me out of the shower and wrapping the robe around me. I headed to the bed but stopped, seeing a bottle and syringe on the nightstand. My fingers traced the ornate V on the white label.

“Franco. He didn’t know what to do. He thought it would help you forget.”

I nodded. “He doubts everyone, but he believed me without question.”

“Of course he did,” Cole admonished. “He’s your father.”

I climbed into the bed, leaning against the headboard and tucking my knees to my chest. My regular defensive position it seemed.

“You want a drink?”

“Are you going to lecture me?”

“Not tonight.”

“Then, yes. Several.”

He moved to the door and mumbled a few words. There were apparently still a dozen men on the landing. He had the whiskey in hand quickly and was back at my side, pouring me a glass.

“None for you?”

“Fueling my emotions with alcohol right now would have devastating results.”

I took a drink but my stomach lurched. I took a few breaths and tried again but this time, as soon as the smell drifted to my face, I gagged hard enough to shake my whole body. I sat it on the table and shuffled down in the bed, curling onto my side and hugging a pillow as the tears started to fall. Cole knelt beside the bed, his hands scalding hot against my cold ones. “Tell me what you need.”

“Just don’t leave.”

He stripped off his jacket and shoes then shuffled over me, curling up behind me and tugging me into his arms.

“I have no one.”

“Ariana, you’ve always had me,” he whispered.

His words were sweet and meant to calm but, in the quiet, the visions of everything began to flood back. I tried to fight back the hysteria I felt building and I began rubbing my arms through the robe.

“Baby girl,” he murmured, “what are you doing?”

“I can still smell him on me. Everywhere.”

I knew it was irrational but, thankfully, he didn’t point that out. “You want to try the whiskey again? A bath, maybe?”

I shook my head and jerked away from him. I was on the floor, pacing, before he’d even managed to sit up. I felt jittery, each memory sending fire through my veins as if it had just happened. I stood in the middle of the room, swaying without meaning to, and could hear my own teeth chattering.

“Ariana-”

I lurched away from his touch, my body ramming into the edge of the table. I was halfway to the floor before I managed to catch myself. He was closing in on me and I shuffled away, every muscle trembling. He wanted to hold me still, calm me, but the thought of not moving was suffocating. I tried to pour a glass of water but it shattered to the floor, broken pieces of glass circling around my bare feet.

“You are scaring the shit out of me here,” he argued, reaching for me again.

I batted his hands away. “I’m fine. Really. I just keep seeing things, memories. They are blinding, they won’t stop.”

“Other than Marco?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. It’s a jumbled mix.” I began rubbing and scratching my arms again, my feet crushing into the glass. I could see the blood start to flow but I felt nothing and, curious, I began to make purposeful steps on the shards just to see what would happen.

“Stop moving!”

“I can’t,” I whimpered, my chattering teeth and the crunch of glass echoing in the room. I glanced to him, seeing the absolute fear on his face. It was so much like my mother - the exact same look she’d give me each moment before we’d run. I let out a broken sob and dropped to my knees, burying them in the glass. “Cole, please, I don’t understand what’s happening.”

“Did he give you something? You’d know, Ariana. Think, did he make you take something?”

“I don’t want to think.”

“You have to. Concentrate, Ariana. Please.”

I rocked as I allowed the memories of Marco to cross my mind. His touch, his mouth, his hands between my thighs, his threats and fury. They were sickening but, as if I was watching it happen to someone else in a movie, I felt nothing. I shook my head. “No.”

“No, he didn’t?”

“No, he didn’t.” I nodded, somehow managing to get to my feet, and began yanking off the robe. “Why is it so fucking hot in here?”

He shoved the robe back on me before I could surge away. “For chrissakes, you’re freezing.” He stepped away, two hard raps against the door. “Tony. I need Tony.”

I smiled. I liked Tony. He was nice. But then I realized he’d see me like this and I started shaking my head. Combined with my jittering, I knew I probably looked like I was convulsing but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

“Too hot,” I grumbled. I tried to pull the robe off again but Cole was next to me, stopping me. I began to thrash at him and he picked me up, locking me into his arms and lowering me to the ground.

Visions assaulted me of this exact same position - me or my mother I had no idea- and I began punching and kicking him. Cole straddled my hips, pinning me down and locking my arms to my chest.

“What the fuck?” Tony’s voice was hard as he slammed the door behind him.

I glanced around to try and see what he saw: shards of glass, blood on me, on Cole, me pinned to the ground under the full weight of his body. “He didn’t do it, I swear. He didn’t hurt me. Promise.”

“He loves you. I never would have believed that he did.” He moved to kneel at my head, his eyes boring into mine. “World stop spinning for you, kiddo?”

“She’s in some terrorizing loop. I thought it was an overdose but she swears he didn’t give her anything.”

Now that I knew Tony wasn’t going to kill him, I sank back into my own world. “Please, please let me up,” I begged. “It makes it so much worse.”

“Ariana, I’m gonna touch your throat for just a few minutes, okay?” Tony asked. When I didn’t answer, he snapped his fingers to get my attention. “Okay?”

I clenched my teeth to stop the tremors long enough to respond. “Yes, okay, okay.”

His fingers were on my throat, tapping out a count. “Cole, she’s like ice.”

“I know,” he growled.

“All done, kiddo,” Tony promised taking his hand away. “Her heart rate is through the fucking roof.”

“I didn’t bother to check. I can hear it.” He loosened his grip just enough to let me start rubbing my arms again.

“How long has she been doing that?”

“Since the shower. She kept saying she couldn’t get him off her.”

“You’re sure he didn’t slip-”

“Yes.”

“Please,” I begged, twisting to try and get loose. “Just let me move, please.”

Tony brushed my forehead in slow, even strokes. “We’re gonna help you, I promise. Just bear with us. We don’t have the legendary drug sniffing skills you do. Let her up.”

“What-”

“Cole, if you want to help her then stop the blind hatred at Marco and let her up.”

I was loose in seconds, up and pacing, jittering, chattering, trembling everywhere.

“Look at her, brother,” Tony said, his voice a low command. “She’s not od’ing, she’s withdrawing.”

“No, she’s had nothing-”

“Look at her!”

I could feel their intense gaze on me and offered them a half smile. I nodded as if they’d asked a question.

“It must’ve been happening for days. She was probably nearing the edge last night when we gave her the sedative, and then the acetyl interfered today. We’ve both just been too fucking blind to see it. It would explain why the visions are coming faster and stronger, the mood swings, the lack of appetite, the-”

“I don’t care. Just tell me what it is.”

“Something psychoactive, obviously, but I don’t know.”

Cole’s voice was a broken plea. “Tony, it’s gonna kill her.”

“We could try methadone.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Effective on opioids only.”

“In fucking withdrawal and she’s still smarter than the two of us put together.”

“You’re right,” Cole murmured, “she is.” He was beside me fast, looming over me but not touching me.

“Ariana, look at me.” He commanded. I obeyed. “I need you to name a drug for me, can you do that?”

“Coffee?”

Tony was at my other side. “All you want, kid.”

“Okay, then.”

“Either liquid or powder. Low dosage. Able to be spiked without notice.”

“Buildable tolerance,” Tony added. “Psychoactive. Fucks with your head.”

“Valentine,” I smiled as I continued to rock on my heels. “That’s an easy one.”

“She’s right,” Tony grimaced, “we just described our own fucking drug.”

“No. Close but no.” Cole shook his head. “It doesn’t only fuck with your mind. It screws with your memories specifically. Valentine makes you forget. This makes you forget some things while making others less intense emotionally but more vivid physically. Not deja vu but more like...” he trailed off, his eyes closing. He shook his head and exhaled. Then I heard the words I’d said to him over and over: “like a movie playing in your mind.”