Fragile Truths (27 page)

“You don’t hate me?”

She frowned at me, puzzlement and astonishment causing her to blink rapidly, “What, no. At first I thought you’d killed a girl, a young girl but… Although what happened doesn’t give me an excuse for living, I understand why you did it. And I’ll forever owe my life to Sarah for what she knew would happen to her when she passed. But I’m not going to fall down and let the pain of it swallow me. I owe it to Sarah to fight for you as much as you’ve fought for me.”

She leaned down and gently pressed her lips to mine, the tender kiss building back the broken parts of me as her fingers curled into my hair. I slid my hand up and cupped her cheek, taking what she offered and encouraging her a little closer and a lot deeper. Her lips were so soft and perfect over mine that I couldn’t hold back the frisson of pleasure as it swarmed through my body.

She pulled back and frowned, “What I don’t understand is why my dad hasn’t come. He’ll be missing me by now, hunting for me and I know he’ll be tearing things and places apart with his bare hands.”

“They have her dad.”
The recollection of Nik’s words drove panic through me. Frankie narrowed her eyes when she felt me stiffen.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I lied as I shook my head and forced a realistic smile. “Just thinking about what you said. Maybe we’re just somewhere he can’t find you.”

“What is this place anyway?” Frankie whispered with a tremor as her eyes perused the room.

“I’m not sure you wanna know, babe.” She scowled at me and I shrugged, “Sky Lark’s.”

Her eyes went as wide as plates as a deep shudder rattled her body. She scanned the room as though she was expecting to see ghosts of the old residents suddenly appear. “The old asylum, the place they shut down when they found the owners had been experimenting on the patients?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Jesus Christ… no wonder the place is kitted out with torture equipment and a clinical bathroom. And that damn chair Jude strapped me to. My God Tate, all the people that had been buckled to it before me.” She gagged forcefully as her imagination created all sorts of horrors in her head.

“Hey, no. Don’t think about that. Think about something else.”

Her eyes were still wide and flicking round the bathroom. I took her hand and hoisted us both up, leading her back into the main room and settling her on the bed. “Tell me about Jude.” She smiled at me, begging me for a distraction to the things flying through her head. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes sadly. “What happened between you two?”

“A lot of things happened. One was he found out my father had killed my uncle whom he was close to.”

“Your father killed his own brother?” She stared at me in shock but I shook my head.

“No, my ma’s brother. He had stuck his nose into the family business for a while and Pop found out he’d grassed him up to the cops.  Uncle Giorgio didn’t know that the sergeant he reported my father to was on the payroll.”

“Oops,” she sighed. “I take it you weren’t so close?”

“Nah, he was always trying to pull my mother out of the family. Telling her she was better than us but Jude was close to him, so I suppose that was something that started the ball rolling.”

“And the final nail in the coffin?”

“Me fucking his fiancée,” I answered bluntly. There was no other way to say it and even now I didn’t regret it.

She gaped at me, her shocked eyes boring into me as she soaked up my words. “Wh..what?”

“Her name was Harley and she was pure fucking bitch. She was screwing anything with a cock behind his back. She was using him for money, and for coke, and for jewellery, and all the other shit girls want.” She coughed faintly and I smirked at her, “Apart from you, babe.”

“But that was pretty harsh.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “But I’d warned him what she was doing. She was laughing at him Frankie, behind his back with all the other men she was fucking.”

“So you fucked her to prove a point?”

“Yep,” I sighed heavily. “I made sure it was a time I knew he’d come back and find us. I hadn’t expected him to hate me for it though.”

Frankie shook her head and sighed. “Tate, how would you feel if you found Jude and me…?”

“Yeah, I know,” I answered sadly. “But I loved him. He was my brother and I couldn’t watch him ruin his life on her. She would have hurt him even more down the line.”

“I know, but you should have found another way to do it.”

“Well, now I know that but I was stupid then, blinded by anger and love for him. I would have died for him, Frankie. I still would.”

She smiled at me and ran her finger across my jaw, “Yeah, I get that from you. Loyalty is everything, especially family.”

“Yeah, and that’s the whole reason I did it but he didn’t see that.”

“Tate,” she whispered. “There’s something I need to tell…”

The lights cut out suddenly, plunging the whole room into darkness. Blackness covered every inch of the room as Frankie’s breathing instantly cut off and she veered into a panic. “Frankie… Capella, concentrate on my voice.” I urged as I felt around and grabbed her hands. “I’m right here. There’s nothing in the room but us, there are no memories, no men, nothing that can hurt you. Just close your eyes like I told you before…”

The lights came back on suddenly and the door flew open. I glanced at Frankie who finally took a breath; her lips were blue and her whole body had locked down in fear. She sat ramrod stiff, her back severely straight as her frozen skin blanched against the soft grey of her eyes. But now she breathed again.

“Hello,” Don sneered as he caught Frankie’s terror. “I really thought I would have broken you by now Bubba, but yet again, you surprise me.” He strolled across the room, Yard smirking behind him as the fat bastard carried in a laptop and plonked in down on the end of the bed. I frowned as the tiny hairs on the nape of my neck stood to attention and I tensed with unease.

“Now, I feel as though I should start to get a little more creative, my dear.”

Frankie swallowed and I noticed the microscopic hairs on her arms were as rigid as mine, fear setting her body in survival mode. Fat bastard sneered as he pulled open the laptop.

The sound that came from Frankie was distressing and disturbing, its hum hurting my ears with the pain as the pitch sent vibrations through my bones. I leapt for her before she shot off the bed, launching her furious self at Don. With one swift move he had both of her arms behind her back, locked high up near her shoulders as her body twisted to accommodate the pull. He twisted her hair into a similar cruel hold and yanked her ear to his mouth, “Did you think I wouldn’t find out who you are, Francesca? Mmmm, you underestimate me. Imagine my surprise when I decided to fetch your family into the equation, and guess who I found you belonged to… Harry Belling, or should I say Harry Wilde.”

He was positively glowing as he forced her to turn round and face the laptop. He then nodded to fat bastard who hit the enter key.

I was wrong, before, when I said Frankie’s cry was the most disturbing thing I’d ever heard. Because as she watched Niko put a bullet through her father’s chest, the wail she emitted was horrific. If I was made of glass, I would have shattered right there before her, tiny particles of me powdering at her feet. My bones cracked with the intensity of despair that echoed around the room and my heart bled in bleakness as the keening noise she made constricted my skin, driving all the air from my lungs and crushing the soul I carried for her.

Frankie

Although my whole life ended in the single second that I watched my father die before me, the anger and fury that rained over me was like a million stabbing shards of ice pulverising my desperate need to give in, driving the pain back and severing the want for abandonment coursing through my heart.

The agonising pursuit Don tried to break me with was constant and merciless; however, his need to obliterate me only strengthened my resolve not to fail, gave me the determination to fight and to hurt.

I used the pain, converted the adrenaline from it into strength and rage as I wrenched myself free from his hold and spun round. My fists were relentless upon him, bombarding him with the intense hatred burning inside me as I flew at him. My nails scratched, my fingers clawed, my teeth ravaged him as I let rip and tried to kill him. My screams fuelled the raw power in me as I fought with sound and with my body.

Tears streamed down my face, blurring my vision as a humming in my head sealed out everything else around me.

Don seemed to be gaining space as I kicked out. His body was retreating, his face becoming further away and I suddenly found my blows hitting nothing but air and my feet striking empty space.

“You mad bitch!” Yard seethed in my ear as he hooked his arms around me and pulled me away from Don.

“Get the fuck off me…. I wanna kill him!”

Yard scoffed and held me still in his hold, my body completely locked down in his grip as his fingers dug into my ribs spitefully, “Yeah, good luck with that.”

Don stood before me, his eyes narrow and cold as he drew in furious breaths to calm himself down. He straightened out his clothes, pulling his shirt into place as he looked at me. “I didn’t wanna do this, but now you give me no choice.”

I frowned as Yard strengthened his hold in preparation for me to fight but Don turned to him and nodded, “Lock her down.”

“What?” I started to panic as Yard dragged me across the room and through the door. Tate was screaming after me but I whimpered when he suddenly went quiet. “You can do what you want to me, but please don’t hurt him, please.”

Yard snorted and chuckled, “Too fucking late, sweetheart.”

He hauled me down a corridor and through another door, my feet dragging against the concrete floor as I tried to keep up with him. It opened up into a small garage; tools, filth and oil were scattered everywhere, simple breezeblocks offered protection from the outside elements. Numerous guys were spraying a couple of high end sports cars, most of them staring at Yard lugging a hysterical naked blonde woman behind him. However, that wasn’t our final destination as he continued to lead me off towards another door in the corner. “Where are we going?”

“Yard?” Niko appeared from another door and stared at us both. His eyes flicked from Yard to me then to the door before they widened and he shook his head. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“My father’s orders,” Yard stated simply.

Niko stalked over to us, his intimidating gaze trained on Yard as I saw for the first time something in him that caused my soul to tremble. “It will kill her in there.”

“Fuck you!” I hissed furiously before I spat in his face. “You bastard! I thought… I thought…”

He blinked at me, his eyes hardening further as he wiped the scum off his cheek with the back of his hand. He inhaled heavily and leaned forward, the pits of his eyes black with fury, “You thought what, Doe Eyes that I was on your side, that I was your
friend
?” He smirked cruelly at me but then turned back to Yard. “You put her in there then it’s all over. You want that? She’s already promised what will happen if she isn’t alive for the trial.”

Yard shrugged, “You think that’s a problem? I’m more than happy to put her in there, Nik.” He leaned closer to Niko and lowered his voice so I couldn’t hear. Stupid man. “We get free reign, Nik. If we end her, my father goes down leaving the Guards under my sway.” He smiled and winked as he peered at Niko with a quirked brow.

Holy Shit, they were all fucking mad!

“You fucked up, ponce. You honestly think your dad, Don fucking Knight, doesn’t know what you’re after?” Niko said as his head shook in bewilderment.

The air tightened until all the oxygen seemed to be sucked from around us as they narrowed their eyes on each other, both of them as nasty as the other and each one as insane as their opponent.

Yard took a step towards Niko, his fingers still burying into the flesh of my arm with a depth I knew would leave bruises. Niko scoffed and smirked at him as he tipped his head and regarded Yard. A shiver racked my body as his almost choir boy face turned into something much more sinister and menacing. His eyes cleared, leaving his pupils with an icy blue mist shimmering in them, his skin paled, making him seem ethereal and eerie as his muscled physique locked up, each of his hardened muscles protruding threateningly under the fabric of his white cotton t-shirt, the only thing I had ever seen him wear.

I heard the rapid movement of Yard’s adam’s apple before he stepped back. “Ahh, fuck it, you’re not worth it.” He turned back to me, his face now pale from the sudden blood rush to his gut and grinned, “But you are.”

My feet scrambled as my body surged forward when Yard pushed his palm against my back and opened the door. The faint echo of it closing behind me was the only thing my brain focused on apart from the depth of blackness surrounding me.

I stumbled backwards where I knew the door must still be as I slammed my palms frantically against it. “NO!”

Every inch of my body tightened, my muscles contracted and my bones hissed at the terror rushing through me. Each of my organs constricted; my lungs quarantined all the air inside, giving me a few minutes of reserves before my brain decided it was going into panic mode, my back jolted as my only kidney recoiled with the sudden blood surge and my heart struggled against the blast of adrenaline charging my blood around my body in an attempt to keep me conscious.

“Please…” It was barely more than a whisper as my windpipe narrowed and each section of my body began to collapse.

My legs went first as I slid down the door, the rough wood splintering my back harshly. My hands dropped from the door as I lost all use of my arms, numbness slowly creeping along each limb and freezing all sensation. My lungs shrivelled inside me, depleting me of whatever remnants they had attempted to store. My heart slowed as my metabolism ebbed and sent it into survival mode. And then my brain shut down as terror and fear brutalised it.

16
^th
January 2014