Page 72 of Healed

But, just as my treacherous mind always did, the unwelcome reminders came.

“Do you think you’d have anything without me?”

I flinched through the memory of Nico backhanding me.

“Where’s the cavalry, Gabriella? Who’s coming to fucking save you? No one. You’re nothing but a used-up fucking whore.”

I curled my arm around my ribs, hugging myself tight as the memory of him kicking me brought with it a familiar phantom pain.

I blinked, focusing on the kitchen tap, trying to bring the room back into reality rather than live in my memories.

“You’ll never escape me, Gabriella. I’ll always fucking find you.”

My chest tightened as the ghostly whisper of a door slamming played in my mind. Of Nico standing over me, glaring down at me, reminding me of my place.

“Breathe,” I whispered, my body tensing up and the shakes already beginning to take over.

Breathing was easier said than done when at this very moment, Nico’s vice president was only a few buildings away. When my life was merging—even though it had never really been separated.

And if the vice were here, Nico would come looking for him.

“I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you from me, Gabby. You’re fucking mine. And I’ll make you wish I had killed you, too.”

My legs bounced as I took deep breaths through my nose and exhaled out of my mouth.

And then Vienna flashed into my mind.

Vienna laughing manically as he rained punch after punch down on Nico’s vice president. The way the pain seemed to spur him on, to make him more violent. I’d witnessed it once when I was sixteen and on a disastrous date with Darren. Vienna had pummelled him half to death before Dante had intervened.

I shook my head, not wanting to live in that scenario anymore. But I couldn’t help it.

Almost as if I were watching a movie, I watched Vienna’s back as he lashed out at the person in front of him. As he used weapons to smash their knees, his fists pounding their face. Of the blood flying and dripping down his tattooed arms.

And then Vienna shifted, and fat tears spilled down my cheeks as my mind betrayed me. Because it wasn’t Nico’s vice in that chair.

Instead, it was my own mother, and she was begging Vienna to stop, begging him to have mercy, begging him to free her…

“Stop!” I hissed to myself, pushing away from the table and out of the chair.

I pressed my palms to my eyes, trying to force the images away.

Vienna wasn’t Nico. He wouldn’t have hurt my mother.

But my treacherous mind refused to let go of the connection. Vienna had murdered her. Even if it wasn’t in cold blood, even if it was a mercy kill, my mind wouldn’t let me forget it.

But the problem with knowing something logically was that it didn’t mean my brain was willing to accept it.

My brain had spent too long keeping me alive to suddenly trust that I was safe. We had been in survival mode for too long to separate one act of violence from another.

Axel screamed upstairs. It wasn’t even a scream of anguish or terror. It was filled with happiness and excitement. I even heard Rachel laugh in return. But that didn’t stop my body from flinching. It didn’t stop the sob escaping me.

And then Rachel chased Axel down the hallway. I heard their thundering steps of Rachel mockingly being menacing, telling Axel she was going to get him.

“Run, Gabriella,” Nico laughed. “Fucking run. Make my day. There’s nowhere for you to hide.”

“Stop, stop, stop!” I all but screamed.

And then there were two hands grabbing me, hauling me against a soft body.