Viola's Risk (The Twin Destinies Saga Book 2) (21 page)

The recording clicked itself off once it was finished and
the room was so silent you could hear a pin drop from the shock each Viola,
Cora and even Sage were feeling.

Viola was numb. She was trying to understand how anyone
could be so cruel. What she’d thought she’d known about Anna was nothing
compared to what they’d just been introduced to over the last half an hour.

Cora had her hand over her mouth to cover the fact it was
hanging wide open and her eyes were wide as she looked back and forth between
her twin and Sage.

Sage just sat there with a grim look on his face, staring
into space.

It was at least fifteen minutes before any of them recovered
enough to speak.

“Well, if Anna thinks any of that is going to happen, she’s
got another thing coming,” Viola said, rage pouring from her and fire burning
in her eyes.

“I thought the house of horrors was bad, what is this other
place she was talking about?” Cora asked, just as there was a soft knock on
Viola’s bedroom door. All three of them looked up in surprise and then at each
other.

Sage grabbed the recording and shoved it into his pocket,
making himself look comfortable like they’d just been having a normal
conversation, rather than listening to something that had been expressly
forbidden by Thomas. Nodding his head, Viola stood, composed herself and walked
over to answer the door.

As she got closer, she felt Dominic’s presence on the other
side of it and rushed over and threw the door open wide. Without stopping to
think about it, she threw herself into his arms, holding him tight.

After a few minutes of the couple embracing, Cora cleared
her throat to get their attention. Dominic looked up at her over Viola’s
shoulder and Cora motioned for the two of them to come inside and close the
door behind them. Once they were in, Viola pulled back and took Dominic’s hand
firmly in her own and pulled him over to the loveseat. He sat without a word
and she tucked herself into his lap without asking him if he was alright with
her actions.

“I know you listened to it after Thomas told you not to,”
Dominic said in a low voice. “I wish you hadn’t.”

“We had to know what had upset you so much,” Viola said,
pulling back just enough to look at his face. “I needed to know how to help you
through this.”

“We also had to know what she was planning so we could
defend ourselves,” Cora replied, her voice defensive.

Dominic’s eyes fell on Sage and the other man shrugged his
shoulders. “If I were in their shoes, I’d want to know too and it wasn’t fair that
they were being kept in the dark. They needed to know just how sadistic she is
so they’ll be prepared to fight her.”

“They would have been prepared without hearing that,”
Dominic said, fury in his voice as he addressed Sage.

“Uh uh. We take care of ourselves. It’s always been that
way. Even if Sage had not helped us, we would have found a way to get a hold of
that recording and listen to it. You might as well accept that simple fact,”
Viola told Dominic, using her finger to turn his face toward hers and meeting
his eyes with her own.

“Now, the question is, how do we stop her for good? That
prison is not going to hold her if her mind is that dark,” Cora said with a
shudder.

“You’re right, it won’t. It will only be a matter of time
before she figures out I’m not coming back to rescue her and she will make her
escape. I’m sure she’s already got a contingency plan in mind just in case.
Although she’ll probably think I got caught or killed rather than turned on
her,” Dominic said, his shoulders slumping.

“I have to ask, what place was she talking about to you?”
Cora asked, her voice soft and hesitant to stir up bad memories, but knowing
they needed all of the information they could get.

“Maybe I should start at the beginning,” Dominic said,
heaving a huge sigh and closing his eyes for a few moments. Viola put her hand
on his cheek, kissed the top of his head with soft lips and just held him as he
prepared to lay everything on the table for them.

“I already told you about what Anna did to my family to make
me work for her, or at least, what she made me think she’d done to them. I had
no one left, she was all I had. My only option was to do what she wanted me to
do,
even if it made me sick to do such things at
first,” Dominic started and then paused. He was making every effort not to look
at anyone in the room, knowing that by the end of what he had to tell them,
they’d likely never want anything to do with him ever again. He squeezed Viola
close, knowing these were the last few minutes he’d have with her.

Viola nodded and squeezed him tighter in his arms, sensing
his insecurity. She knew whatever he was about to tell them was bad, but he had
to know by now she wasn’t going anywhere. He was her mate and she’d already
accepted him as such. To her, his past was just that, his past.

“At first, I resisted the horrible things she wanted me to
do. She started me out torturing and killing animals so I would get the hang of
causing great pain and suffering. Anytime I refused, I was beaten to the point
where I couldn’t move for days afterward before she’d bring me another animal
and start all over again,” Dominic said and shuddered at the memories flooding
his mind. They could all see the horror of his past in his eyes and written all
over his face. Viola wished she could take away this pain he was suffering, but
knew it would only heal after he’d gotten it all out and been forgiven for it.

“After about a year or so, I finally gave in and started
doing what she wanted me to do. I got to a point where I let the rage and hate,
over what my father had done by promising me to Anna and then what she’d done
by murdering them all, take over me anytime she wanted me to do such horrendous
things. After it was all over she’d leave me alone, I’d cry for hours over what
I’d done. When she found out about that, I was beaten for that too. She took to
having me watched at all times to make sure I became emotionless to the horrors
she wanted me to perform,” Dominic said and paused again in his story. Both
girls had tears running down their faces, feeling his pain from his words and
remembering their own pain at the hands of Anna and Patrick.

Taking several deep breaths, Dominic cleared his throat and
continued on.

“This training went on for over a year from the first time I
gave in until I became numb to everything. I didn’t feel anything about what I
was doing to those animals anymore. It was just a routine which thrilled Anna
to death. When she felt I was ready, she advanced my training to the next level,”
Dominic said and closed his eyes. He didn’t say anything for so long that Viola
became more and more worried.

“What was the next level Dominic?” she asked, her voice soft
with fear. She was afraid she already knew the answer to that question before
she even asked it.

“She brought in a person for me to torture and kill,” he
whispered and both girls closed their eyes as the tears flowed down their
faces.

“I didn’t even think about it. I did what she instructed me
to do and felt nothing. She’d sucked everything good out of me. I guess I’d
passed her test because after that, she started having me do things for her. If
she wanted information out of someone, I was the one she sent in to get it. I
became her golden boy. She’d finally broken me,” Dominic said, shame in his
voice.

“You did what you had to do to survive. She would have
killed you if you had not done what you did,” Cora said, understanding in her
voice. Dominic’s eyes snapped up in shock at her compassion and understanding
rather than horror and revulsion.

“We know all about just surviving day by day with Anna.
She’s the one who raised us,” Viola told him.

“Yeah, I know that. Neither of you broke like I did though.
Both of you stayed strong. I was weak,” Dominic’s shame infuriated Viola.

“You were not weak. Surviving her type of hell takes a lot
of strength. Your strength is just different than ours because we dealt with
different aspects of her personality in what she put us through,” Viola told
him, the power of her words forcing his eyes to meet hers.

He didn’t know what to say to her statement so he continued
with his story. There was a lot they still didn’t know.

“After a couple of years of doing her bidding, extracting
information from people by force or just for her entertainment, she asked me to
design a piece of machinery that would extract the most pain without killing
the person who was locked into it. Without argument, I designed it for her.
Many people have experienced agony on this machine since then. To be honest,
I’ve never thought twice about it, the numbness lingering inside of me. In
fact, I haven’t felt any emotions for years until I met you. Then everything
came flooding in. But I’m off topic and we’re running out of time if we’re
going to make it to breakfast without rousing Thomas and Angelica’s suspicions
as to what you all have been up to overnight,” he told them all with a deep
sadness that Viola felt in her soul.

“Then she came to me after being so impressed with that
machine and wanted me to design a place that would drive a person insane when
they were released into it. She wanted a series of rooms in a maze-like
formation
that went from hope for escape to
completely having lost their mind permanently, by the time they reached the
end. I designed it, no questions asked. At this point, I was her puppet. That
is the place she was referring to when I talked to her in the prison,” Dominic
said, deciding to leave out a lot of other things Anna had made him do over the
years. That stuff was not relevant and he didn’t feel like reliving all of it
at the moment. The pain he hadn’t felt in years was already ripping him raw
inside.

“So, her big plan for us is to introduce us to this machine
you designed and then let us loose in this maze of torment you created?” Cora
summed up.

“Yeah for the most part,” Dominic said in a low voice. Cora
asked the question as if it was no big deal, but he knew better. He knew if
they experienced any of that, they’d be lost to all of them forever.

“What do you mean?” Sage asked, eyeing Dominic with a
careful eye.

“She wants Cora to watch Liam go through all of it first
before she’s exposed to it herself to ensure Cora goes insane with no chance of
coming back. If she knew who Viola’s mate was, she’d have the same thing done
to me,” Dominic said, no doubt in his voice at all.

“So that’s what she meant when she mentioned Liam,” Sage
said, his eyes widening as everything they hadn’t understood on the recording
clicked into place.

“Yeah, I know there was a lot she said to me that was in
code because that’s how she works. I see you have the full picture now,”
Dominic said as he made eye contact with Sage who nodded his head in response.

“She’s not getting her hands on Liam. There’s no way I will
allow that to happen,” Cora said with such fierceness that Viola was shocked. Although
she shouldn’t be, considering that’s how she’d react if they were talking about
Dominic.

“We won’t let that happen, Cora. Don’t worry. I’m sure
Thomas already has Liam and both of you girls being protected as we speak,”
Sage tried to reassure them even though he wasn’t feeling at all reassured.

Dominic kept his mouth shut. He knew what Sage had already
figured out, Anna had contingencies in place just in case Dominic didn’t carry
out her instructions. There was always someone who was trained and conditioned
to do her bidding without asking questions. This situation was much more dire
than either of the girls were realizing.

Sage also decided it was best not to alert either of the
girls to just how serious the situation was. His mind was already planning on
how to stop Anna from moving forward with her plans, which started even before
she made her huge prison break. The clock was ticking and it was ticking a lot
faster than either male felt comfortable with.

“Okay, I’ve got to get a shower and so does Cora before
breakfast, which it’s almost time for. How about we meet back here after
breakfast and come up with a plan to stop her before she sets her plans into
motion?” Viola said, shifting in Dominic’s lap as she got ready to stand up.

“That sounds like a plan to me,” Cora said with a mischievous
glint in her eyes. Any chance to thwart Anna was a chance neither girl was
willing to pass up.

Sage and Dominic stood and nodded their heads in agreement.
They said quick goodbyes and Dominic gave Viola the kiss of her life,
before the two men left her room to get themselves
ready for the upcoming meal. What the girls didn’t know was the two guys were
off to plan their own strategy to stop Anna that in no way included either of
them.

Just as Cora was finishing getting dressed in one of Viola’s
outfits, there was a knock at the door. Since Viola was in the shower, Cora
shook out her long wet hair and went to answer it. Liam was standing on the
other side looking exhausted.

“Hey,” Cora said, feeling horrible about where they’d left
things the night before, knowing his exhaustion came from her pushing him away
and him not sleeping all night because of it.

“Hey,” Liam said back, his voice low and tired.

“Wanna come in?” Cora asked.

“Are you still mad at me?” Liam got straight to the point.

“I’m not at all happy that you didn’t back me up, but no,
I’m not mad at you,” Cora said and reached her hand up to stroke his face.

“I talked to Sage a few minutes ago. I know what you did
last night and how he helped you. I wish you hadn’t done that,” Liam said,
looking deep into her eyes.

“Come in here, the open doorway is not the place for this
discussion,” Cora said, looking up and down the hallway for anyone who might
overhear their conversation. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the room,
then closed the door behind them.

“I knew you would try to get your hands on that recording,
but I didn’t believe you actually would be able to do it. Getting Sage’s help,
that was a miracle on Viola’s part. Still, you shouldn’t have done that,” Liam
said, repeating his last statement again.

“Why shouldn’t I have done that Liam? Why don’t we have a
right to know what she’s got planned for us? Did you know she has plans for you
too, not just Vi and I?” Cora demanded, anger flowing through her at Liam’s
reprimand.

“We’re not going to let anything that was on that recording
happen Cora, you need to trust us. The fact you had to go sneaking behind
everyone’s backs to listen to it just shows the rest of us that you don’t trust
us. You don’t trust me,” Liam stated, hurt in his voice.

“You should know better than that by now. You should also
know that neither Viola nor I, like or tolerate things being kept from us. If
you can’t just be open with everything, then where’s all of your trust in us?
We’re supposed to be the ones saving the world according to the prophecy, but
we can’t be trusted with what Anna’s got planned for us? These are our lives.
Yes, we got our hands on that recording with Sage’s help and listened to it
last night. Dominic put everything into perspective that was on it and we
aren’t flipping out or running in fear over it. We’re going to stand and fight
her. So much for all of your faith in us being strong,” Cora said and turned
her back to Liam, stalking across the room.

“She’s right Liam,” Viola said, making her presence known.
Cora didn’t know how long her sister had been standing in the doorway to the
bathroom, but she was grateful to have the backup.

“No, neither of you are right. Both of you need to learn to
trust in the rest of us to protect you and have your backs when you’re in
danger. You two need to learn that you can’t run into every dangerous situation
head-on because at some point, it will get you killed before you even have the
opportunity to fulfill your part in the prophecy and then where does that leave
the world? Where does that leave all of the innocents who are depending on you
even if they don’t realize it? You need to learn how to let others fight some
battles for you so you are around to fight that fight,” Liam yelled at them,
frustration and fear making his exhaustion stand out even more.

When he was done, he slumped into one of the chairs in the
sitting area and waited for one of the girls to say something. He was trying
his best to get them to see reason, but was afraid he wasn’t even making a dent
in their stubborn pride.

“We don’t know how to let others fight our battles for us.
It’s not right to ask that of other people who have lives and families of their
own to live for. We’ve already lost too many good people in the short time
we’ve been here because they were fighting to protect us. Do you think we’re
okay with that at all? It kills me inside to know there are people mourning
those losses right now while we’re alive and healthy. It’s not right to ask that
of others, not when we’re willing and strong enough to fight our own battles.
We’re not little children Liam, we’re not powerless,” Cora said, kneeling down
in front of him and forcing him to meet her eyes as she poured out her heart to
him.

“We’re not worth the sacrifices they’ve made. We’re just two
women who will stand up for what’s right. Their lives are not worth ours.”
Viola said, moving over and sitting down in the chair across from Liam’s.

“Their sacrifices are worth it if they keep both of you alive
and safe to fulfill the prophecy. Each one of those men and women knew that
going in and embraced it. They sacrificed themselves to protect you for their
families and loved ones, to keep them safe because if Anna gets her way, nobody
will be safe ever again. Every person here knows this and is willing to pay
that price to protect those that they cherish,” Liam informed them with a
passion Viola hadn’t seen from him before.

“That may be so, but we’re still not going to sit back on
the sidelines while others fight our battles for us. It’s not who we are,”
Viola told him with just as much passion as he’d just displayed. He rolled his
eyes and leaned back in the chair.

“There’s no getting through to either of you is there?
You’re too stubborn to see the bigger picture,” Liam ground out.

“We see the bigger picture Liam. So far, Sage is the only
one who’s even attempted to see things from our points of view. I love you, but
you’ve got to start listening to me a lot better than you have been, because
I’ve tried telling you over and over again, we are not defenseless or naïve.
We’ve lived through hell and come out on the other side stronger because of it.
We’re caring and compassionate because we understand what it’s like to be used
and abused for others’ amusement. You need to understand that sitting on the
sidelines is not in our make-up, we’re fighters. The more you try to hold us
back, the harder we’re going to fight. That was Anna and Patrick’s biggest
mistake, underestimating what we’re capable of,” Cora told Liam as she moved
away from him to sit in the chair next to him.

“We may not know what we’re fully capable of with our powers
yet, but we do know what we’re capable of without them and that is an awful
lot. Quit underestimating us and give us the opportunities to prove our worth.
Trust in us to be smart about fighting our battles. Each of us has defeated
Anna once already on our own and Cora even defeated Patrick on her own too. Who
was hurt? Yes, I had a power problem and I know now I need to keep them balanced.
One thing we’re quite good at is learning from our mistakes, but it’s obvious
nobody around here is very good at doing that themselves,” Viola ranted at Liam
before stalking back into the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her.

“I’d say we’re at a stalemate at this point because Viola’s
right and we’re not going to back down from it,” Cora said, standing up and
leaving Viola’s room with Liam still sitting in the chair looking back and
forth between the two doors the twins had exited through.