Tristian (The Doherty Mafia Book 5), стр. 30
The man gripped my elbow tightly, forcing me to stay up. I couldn’t stop shaking. I wished they’d killed me instead of her. I wished I was already dead so I wouldn’t have to live through this anymore.
“Please…no…please…” I begged.
My mind hadn’t processed the facts fully. I hadn’t come to terms with the reality— Libby was dead. I couldn’t change it now. For some reason I thought I could still save her.
Aldo put his gun away before taking a few steps in my direction.
“You’ve made some pretty bad mistakes in the last few days, Elsie. I’d have thought you knew better than that,” he hissed.
I couldn’t meet his eyes. I couldn’t even catch my breath. All I thought about was Libby and what I’d done to her. If I never left Tristian’s apartment, or even if I did—if I had gone somewhere else, taken a train somewhere—Libby would still be alive.
“Haven’t you learned anything, little girl?” Aldo groaned. “From what happened to your mother and father?”
I raised my head up, my eyes were filled with tears, his face was almost hazy in front of me. I saw flashing images of my parents slumping to the ground with each bullet that was fired at them. I felt the pain. It seared my skin.
“You’re killing everybody in my life. Why don’t you just kill me too? Why have you kept me alive?” I screamed.
Aldo drew in a deep breath, shaking his head.
“Because I need something from you. Don’t worry, this will all be over soon. Just as soon as you fulfill your tasks, you’ll get what you want.”
I sobbed even harder, forcing myself to keep looking at him. It was over. I didn’t even want to live anymore. I could never go on living with the guilt of Libby’s death hanging over me.
“Did you really think you’d escape me? Steal a prisoner and go right into the arms of a Doherty? That I’d never find you?”
“You will never win this war,” I hissed.
Aldo’s slap was unexpected. He hadn’t touched me yet, but this time he slapped me right across the face. My body jerked to the side and I felt the sting on my face.
I swung my head around to look at him again. I didn’t give a shit anymore. He could slap me around as much as he wanted to. I couldn’t break any more than I was already broken.
“Take her away and lock her up,” he commanded his men.
I wasn’t surprised.
Twenty
Tristian
I was on my way back to my apartment where I expected to find Elsie.
Nolan was right—I should’ve seen and spoken to Christie a long time ago because now, I felt free. I felt free of her and free of my past.
I wasn’t exactly happy to have seen her again, but now it was done, I was relieved.
There were a lot of things I’d made up in my head about what happened eleven years ago. I thought my feelings for Christie were real. Now I knew they were nothing more than an adolescent crush.
Because of what Christie did, I had developed a latent mistrust in all women since then. Especially beautiful women I was attracted to. And that held me back from Elsie. Even though I knew I had feelings for her. I was suspicious of those feelings.
But now I knew it’d all been an illusion—I was free of Christie, and I could trust my feelings for Elsie.
Elsie wasn’t anything like Christie. What I felt for Elsie now had no resemblance to what I’d felt for Christie then.
I’d known that chick over the course of one meal at a diner.
I knew more about Elsie than I knew about any other chick in the world. I’d never allowed anyone to get this close to me. And the explanation was simple. Elsie was real. She was not an illusion. And my family was right about their perception of her.
She could be trusted.
I was excited to see her again. I hoped she’d forgive me for my strange behavior. Once I had explained everything to her, she’d have to see why it was important for me to gain some closure first.
I wanted to keep Elsie safe. I wanted to protect her from Aldo, and at the same time, I wanted to claim her as mine too.
I had never imagined a future with someone before, and now I saw it.
I was impatient in the elevator up to my apartment. I was already working on a speech to deliver to her. To try and get her to see my point of view.
I barged into the apartment but she wasn’t there, waiting for me as I expected her to be. She wasn’t in the kitchen. Not in my bedroom, in the bathroom, the spare room. Not even under the bed where I foolishly looked. Where the fuck did she go?
I had told her to stay put, to not go out, and I should’ve known she was too reckless and emotionally unstable right now to listen.
If she’d managed to gain some ground, then she’d be in serious trouble. Aldo had spies everywhere. They’d follow her. They’d find her. Depending on how long she was gone, she could be in real danger right now.
I called Nolan on the way to the family home. He said most of them were there already. I needed to speak to all of them.
My tires screeched as I zoomed into the driveway, running up the steps and into the house. Out of breath. With a thin film of sweat on my forehead.
I’d always been in control, until now.
I was the calm one.
I never let things get out of hand.
And for the first time since I could ever recall, I was actually afraid.
If that motherfucker laid a finger on my woman, I’d
skin him alive.
“Hey man, where’s Elsie?” Aidan asked when he found me in the hallway. He was drinking a