Viola's Risk (The Twin Destinies Saga Book 2) (4 page)

Once the door closed behind them, Viola turned on Dominic.

“How dare you get between me and my sister,” she screamed at
him. She was angry at everyone and everything right now. Nobody was safe from
her wrath.

“Are you kidding me? You two were getting ready to not only
kill each other, but all of the rest of us too,” Dominic exclaimed in
disbelief.

“Viola, you need to stop right now,” Thomas warned in a low
growl.

“Not a chance. I’m sick of every…” Viola started, but cut
herself off when she realized everything in the room was shaking like there was
a violent earthquake, but the floor was still.

“Control your temper now Viola,” Thomas told her. He kept
his voice calm, but she could hear the underlying concern in it.

“Am I doing that?” she asked with a shaky voice.

“Yes, you are. Everything is going to explode if you don’t
calm your emotions and pull your power back,” Thomas informed her.

“I don’t know how,” Viola said, worry creeping up into her
voice.

Dominic walked over to Viola and forced her to meet his
eyes. He reached up and smoothed back her hair,
which
had become a complete disarray with their struggle to get her inside of the
room, and down her cheek in a soothing manner.

“Focus on me Beautiful One. See how calm I am. See how much
I believe in you? Believe in yourself. You are not alone anymore,” he said in a
calm, gentle voice, which brought her down from her warring emotional high.

As she relaxed into his soft touch and soothing words, the
room itself began to settle. When everything became still, Viola’s legs gave
out from under her and she began to slump to the floor. Dominic reached out and
scooped her up into his arms and laid her out on the bed, as if she were a
priceless china doll.

Thomas narrowed his eyes as he watched the scene before him
play out. Viola was sound asleep, from sheer emotional exhaustion, when Dominic
stood and turned to face him.

“Do you mind telling me what is going on between the two of
you?” Thomas asked him as only a dad could.

“Do I need to tell you or can you see it for yourself?”
Dominic responded, positioning himself so he could defend Viola should she need
it.

“When?” Thomas asked, knowing Dominic was referring to him
being Viola’s mate.

“When I took her from you and delivered her to Anna. I knew
then,” Dominic responded, and then turned his upper body to look at Viola, as
if to reassure himself she was alright before turning back to Thomas.

“Yet you delivered her to Anna anyway,” Thomas stated.

“I had no other choice. I had to play it off or Anna would
have used us against each other and you. It had to play out as it did for her
safety, as well as mine,” Dominic told him, standing firm.

“You should have told me as soon as you realized and I would
have found a way of extracting you without alerting Anna as to the situation,”
Thomas chided Dominic. “You put my daughter in danger, I cannot condone that.”

“She went of her own free will sir. She didn’t fight me.”
Dominic shocked Thomas by saying.

“Why would she do that?” Thomas asked, his mind whirling
around this new information.

“I think she knew my life would be in danger if she didn’t
come with me. She did it to protect me without me having to tell her anything.
In fact, we didn’t even speak to each other until just a few minutes ago,”
Dominic informed Thomas as if he was debriefing.

“So, you’re saying she sensed you’d be in danger if she
didn’t cooperate with you?” Thomas asked for clarification.

“That was my impression sir,” Dominic said with a nod.

“You do realize that you cannot go back undercover with Anna
now don’t you?” Thomas asked him.

“I disagree, sir. That is my job. I won’t put her in danger.
That, I promise with my life,” Dominic argued.

“There is no way to not put her in danger if you go back in
son,” Thomas argued back. “I refuse to take that chance with either of their
lives. I respect that you feel you have a duty to fulfill, but being mated to
my daughter is now your primary duty. We will find other things for you to do,”
Thomas informed him as if it was no longer up for discussion.

“Sir, I am good at what I do. You need me inside,” Dominic
objected.

“You being inside is a very valuable asset, I agree. The
value of that is not above the value of my daughters’ lives however. You will
put her before your need to play mole. We will find someone on the inside to
replace you. You are not going back inside and that is final,” Thomas said,
ending their discussion.

As he turned to exit the room and go to check on Cora, he
looked over at Dominic with an appraising eye. “Do not defy me Dominic. It will
not work out well for you.”

“Sir, as your daughter’s mate, you will not harm me because
it will in turn hurt your daughter,
and that is
not something you would do because you love her so much. I respect where you
are coming from, but you don’t know Anna the way I do. It took me years to get
to where I am now and earn the level of trust I have from her. We don’t have
time to put someone else on the inside at this point. I have to do what I have
to do to keep all of us safe. She is planning something right now and we need
to know what it is. I am the only way you are going to find out. Please
reconsider your orders before I have to defy them. I have until morning before
I am scheduled to return,” Dominic told him, standing his ground.

“The two of you will come down to my office as soon as she
wakes up. You are not to be alone together. I will send someone in to sit with
the two of you until she wakes up,” Thomas said, nodding his head.

“Yes sir. I understand,” Dominic said and moved over to the
plush chairs in the seating area and sat down in the chair facing the bed so he
could watch Viola sleep.

With that, Thomas exited the room and headed straight for
Cora and Liam’s room where he could still hear Cora screaming from anger and
frustration. He entered without a knock and looked around at the destruction
that had occurred while he’d been dealing with Viola and Dominic.

“Enough!” he shouted as soon as the door clicked shut behind
him.

“Who does she think she is?” Cora screamed the question
although Thomas didn’t know how many times she’d asked it by now.

“She is your sister as she’s always been. You will calm down
and respect her as such,” Thomas told her in a stern voice.

“She had no right to do that to me,” Cora yelled, even
though he could see she was close to running out of steam. He didn’t need Sage
to tell him that.

“That is something you both need to discuss when you’re
calmer and in a better frame of mind. Right now, she is resting from exhaustion
and you need to do the same before you burn out,” Thomas told her.

“I don’t want to rest. How can she rest right now?” Cora
screamed, using the information to help her build up steam again.

“Considering she was so angry she almost caused this house
to explode, after defending all of us from Xavier’s attack, her body gave out
so it could recharge,” Thomas informed her, his tone becoming firm.

Taking in her father’s words seemed to deflate Cora’s rage
and she sagged down onto the bed. She put her face in her hands as she forced
herself to calm down, because everything he’d said had been truth.

“Will she be okay?” Cora asked through her hands.

“She’ll be fine,” Liam said as he slowly approached his mate
so he could comfort her. He knew she hated fighting with her sister.

“Sage, go upstairs to Viola’s room and stay there with her
and Dominic until Viola awakes and then bring them down to my office,” Thomas
ordered.

“Yes sir,” Sage said and rolled his eyes as he walked
through the door and was sure that Thomas could not see him do so. ‘
Man,
this babysitting detail was getting old fast,’
he thought to himself as he
climbed the stairs.

“Liam, you and Cora clean up this mess and meet me in my office
as soon as you’re finished,” Thomas said and left the room to find his mate. He
knew Angelica had to be worried sick about their daughters and he had to
reassure her they would both be just fine.

A few hours later, everyone assembled in Thomas’ office for
the meeting he’d called. Cora and Viola refused to even look at each other and
stayed on opposite sides of the room with their mates.

Sage’s head felt like it was going to explode from all of
the turbulent emotions running through the room. He was close to requesting to
be excused from this meeting if they could not calm themselves down.

As he was rubbing his temples to try to ease the relentless
pressure, Thomas cleared his throat to begin the meeting.

“Before we can begin with the matter at hand which is the
training of Cora and Viola, it seems we have a situation that needs to be dealt
with first,” he said and paused, looking at each girl in turn to see that
neither of them was looking at him.

“You both will look at me as I speak,” Thomas demanded,
raising his voice and commanding their attention. Both girls looked at him with
matching petulant stares.

“Sage, honey, are you alright?” Angelica asked him with a
worried tone. She reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder before Thomas
could continue.

“I’ll be fine once everyone calms down,” Sage gritted out
through clenched teeth.

“We’ll be taking care of that right now Sage. I am sorry you
are in the middle of all of this, but I need you here for this meeting,” Thomas
told him with true regret in his voice.

“Then let’s get this settled,” Sage bit out.

“Cora, Viola, you both need to calm yourselves down. You’ve
both been through a lot and you’re blaming each other for things that were out
of your control. You are both under a lot of pressure right now, confused and
dealing with a great deal of power running through your bodies that will
influence your emotions and how you handle things. You both have to be stronger
than all of this. Your mother and I both believe in the two of you, especially
after everything you’ve already endured growing up,” Thomas told them, allowing
true emotion to flood his words, which startled both girls into listening closely
to what he had to say. He glanced back and forth between each of his daughters
as he spoke.

“Surely the two of you can sit down and discuss the events
that have occurred like adults and understand each other’s points of view,”
Angelica pleaded with her daughters. “If you fall apart now, they win.”

“Your mother’s right. If you don’t believe me, ask Dominic
what they’re currently working on in the event they cannot kill you to prevent
the prophecy from occurring,” Thomas told them.

“Your father is right, they are trying desperately to divide
the two of you, because it will take you both working together to succeed. They
know this is the key, and they know you are good at working together as one.”
Dominic confirmed Thomas’ statement without hesitation.

“I don’t understand, you work for Anna, yet you are here.
You took Viola from us and delivered her to that evil witch, yet you’re
standing here telling us we have to be unified to fulfill the prophecy and beat
them,” Cora said to Dominic, shaking her head in confusion.

“I have been working undercover for Anna for most of my
life, since I was very young. I had to take Viola to her, otherwise my cover
would have been blown. I knew her goal, at that time, was only to try to
convince Viola to turn her back on you, Cora. I also knew it would never happen
because of your strong love and fierce devotion to each other. If she had tried
anything else, I would have given my life to protect Viola and get her out of
there to safety,” Dominic told Cora with the passion of a man in love.

“So why did you lie to me Vi?” Cora asked, letting all of
the hurt she was feeling in her heart, bleed into her question.

“I didn’t know what to think. Yes, I went with Dominic
without a fight. My gut was telling me if I didn’t, Anna would punish him in
worse ways than she ever punished us. Also, I’d felt that spark of electricity
with him that you’d described to me with Liam, and I couldn’t process how I
could be destined to mate with someone who worked for Anna. I couldn’t figure
out how we were meant to be together when he believed what she did and was
pretty much our enemy. Nothing made sense to me. I didn’t have you to talk
anything through with because before I even had the chance, you were mated to
Liam. The right time never seemed to present itself,” Viola pleaded with her
twin to understand.

“I’ve never turned my back on you Vi. Why would you think
that I would now?” Cora asked, fresh hurt in her voice.

“I’m not saying you turned your back on me. I’m saying I
didn’t want to hurt your happiness by darkening it with my battle. Thomas is
right though, the more confused and alone I felt, the more angry I became, the
more the power responded and it got out of my control. You know I would never
hurt you. At least not on purpose,” Viola poured her heart into her words as
she spoke to the one person she knew, without a doubt, she could always count
on.

“I wish you had come to me. We’ve never kept things from
each other before, just because I’m mated to Liam now, doesn’t mean we have to
start now. I don’t care what it is, I want you to always come to me,” Cora told
Viola and walked across the room, wrapping her arms tight around her twin. “You
have always been, and always will be, my best friend.”

“Ok, now I think I need to throw up. Can we wrap this up?”
Sage interrupted, sending both girls into fits of laughter.

“Anything else either of you need to get off your chests?”
Angelica asked with a grin on her face.

“Not that I can think of right now,” Viola said, looking at
Cora.

“Me either,” Cora replied, hugging her sister tight once
more before returning to sit in her usual spot on the couch with Liam.

Viola took Dominic’s hand and tugged him over to where she
usually sat next to them and curled up in his lap, as Sage threw them a smile.
He was so relieved to have the pressure of everyone’s high strung emotions gone
from his head.

Thomas cleared his throat again to regain everyone’s
attention and continued with the meeting.

“As you all know, Xavier was dismissed just before lunch as
your trainer…” Thomas began but was interrupted by Dominic.

“Wait. You had Xavier training the girls?” Dominic asked in
disbelief.

“Why wouldn’t I? He’s been an exemplary soldier and member
of my team since the start of his career,” Thomas responded with impatience. He
did not appreciate being interrupted in the slightest.

“Well, that explains a lot of what happened here today. Anna
turned Xavier to her side,” Dominic said and the room fell silent as that bomb
was taken in by those around him.

“How long ago was this?” Angelica asked.

“About a year or so ago, I believe. I haven’t been able to
give full reports for a while because Patrick started becoming suspicious and
watching me closer. When he was neutralized, Anna became more demanding because
she didn’t have him at her beck and call. This is the first time I’ve been able
to get away and I’m sure she’s noticed by now,” he replied, tense.

“That explains how he was able to block his emotions from
me. That would have been one of the first things she taught him how to do,
because emotions give you away long before anything else,” Sage said as if
everything was becoming clear.

Cora and Viola looked at each other and had their own
private conversation as the others discussed Xavier’s treason and what his
punishment should be.

It took a while before the conversation waned and the girls
were in agreement. Before Thomas could continue, both twins stood and faced
their father.

“Liam, Sage and Dominic,” Cora said without hesitation.

“What?” All three said in unison as they looked at the twins
in confusion.

“All three of you can work together to train us,” Viola said
as if it were a done deal.

“I’m sorry…” Thomas began but was interrupted yet again by
Cora.

“They train us or we don’t train. Viola and I are both in
agreement on this,” she said and Viola nodded.

Dominic reached up and took Viola’s hand in his. When she
turned and looked at him, sudden fear filled her heart at the look on his face
and in his eyes.

“I can’t,” he said simply.

“There’s no way you are going back in there. Not now. You
said yourself she’s probably already noticed your absence. Do you think she’ll
let that slide? Believe me, she won’t,” Viola told him.

“I don’t have any other choice Beautiful One. There isn’t
time to have anyone else infiltrate and gain the level I’ve attained. I am the
only hope of getting information from the inside,” he pleaded with her to
understand and not fight him on this.

“We don’t need it. Cora and I are here now. We will train
hard. We will focus and we will do what it takes to stop them. You don’t need
to put your life on the line for information anymore,” she insisted, refusing to
believe that what he said was true.

“We need to know how and when they’re planning to attack you
girls to be able to protect you. They won’t just lie quiet and wait until your
birthday is here, they will attack and keep attacking until they either succeed
in preventing you from fulfilling the prophecy or you succeed in fulfilling it,”
Thomas spoke up and Viola closed her eyes as fear and pain filled her chest.

“There has to be some other way,” Viola said in denial.

“I wish there was Beautiful One. The last thing I want to do
is leave you here and not be able to protect you myself. I am protecting you
the best way I can and that’s by giving everyone advance notice to do what
needs to be done to ensure your safety. I can’t do that from here,” Dominic
said as he pulled her down into his lap and cradled her in his arms. He felt
his shirt get wet as the tears rained down from her eyes onto his shoulder and
his heart shattered in his chest.