Page 19 of At The End Of The Day

My heartbeat began to quicken, my stomach whirling. “Yeah, I’m…okay,” I whispered.

He stood and tucked his hands under my arms, pulling me to my feet, as well. Clinging to a bicep and elbow until my balance was secure, I continued to hold his stare, something fluttering around my chest.

He flashed a sad smile and patted my nape before giving a firm squeeze. “Gotta focus, brother. We need you right now. Gotta be strong.”

Nodding a little more vigorously, I gently pushed him away and approached my sister. A couple feet away from the swing, she shrugged out of Tyler’s embrace, hopped from the bench, and flung herself against my chest, weeping hysterically. My arms folding tightly around her, my eyelids clenched, my cheek on the top of her head. Swaying her side to side, the knife in my back twisted a little deeper.

I may have failed her when I went to jail, but I’ll be damned if it happened again. If Jackyl didn’t show himself by tomorrow, I was going after him. The law and Serpents could go to hell. It was time to take a stand. I would gladly face whatever repercussions that came my way to make that man’s blood spill from his body. He would pay for what he did to Violetta. Even if I went down with him, he would fucking die.

Chapter 10

Tyler Warren

No matter how hard my dick was, I refused to touch Violetta in a sexual manner tonight, not after her confession at the swing earlier. Ever since, I had been unable to look at her the same. Before, there was still a trace of that sweet, innocent young girl I’d fallen in love with. She had a hardness about her now, a depth of life’s experience I would, thankfully, never know.

This new view didn’t lessen my love for her, it made it stronger. I appreciated her more than ever, that she had gone through the pits of hell, lived there, somehow managed to raise two beautiful babies, and pulled herself out while still maintaining a sense of compassion and hope, still wanting to love and be loved. She was fucking remarkable and for the umpteenth time since meeting her, I thanked whatever god decided to gift me her heart.

Her back against my chest, we were lying on our sides, slightly perched against the headboard. My arms around her, my left hand was twined with hers, my thumb stroking her knuckles. The right underneath her and crossed over her chest to tenderly pet her bare bicep, my lips were pressed against her scalp as music crooned from the television set on an oldies channel. As Bryan Adams sang Everything I Do, I Do It For You, my brain whirled at everything the both of us had been through because of a certain Edoardo Jackson “Jackyl” Bianchi. The man bulldozed our lives and ruined everything. Sure, I set the ball rolling when I cheated on her, but that had been a one time situation, I was not a habitual cheater, as he used to drill into her head.

Our love had been strong enough to overcome that discretion. In time, we would have found our way back to one another and continued with our life goals. She would have joined me at college in Kentucky, she would have become a lawyer, and I would have gone to the NBA. I might still be a ball player today, or I might have already retired and found my way to the music industry. The point was, we would never know, thanks to that sick bastard.

I was also now seeing, even had I not made that one mistake, Jackyl would have found other ways to get rid of me. That thought had me shuddering to my core. In his view, I had been an obstacle to his prize, something to be eliminated, no matter what. At least, with how things went down, I was still alive. Had things been different, he might have had Dash and his goons kill me, not maim.

“I felt that,” she whispered.

“Hm?”

“You got all tense all of a sudden. You okay?”

I snorted and rotated my head so I could talk without her hair. “I should be asking you that. You always think about everyone before yourself.”

“I don’t know about that. I think choosing to follow my heart over my children’s safety was kind of selfish. I felt that, too.”

My insides cringed and then I chuckled. “Baby, you three were not safe with him, haven’t you learned that, yet?”

She heaved a sigh and snuggled closer. “My mind says yes, but my heart is still in denial.”

It seriously irritated the hell out of me that she could still be so blind, but I had never been brainwashed before. I’d never been groomed by a predator. I had no idea what was going on inside her mind so all I could do was be patient and try to be as understanding as possible.

“Oh, my god, I can’t believe Vinny heard me today.” She dipped her chin over my forearm to rub her eyes. “I never wanted him to know.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” she whined.

“Is it because you were afraid of him hating Jackyl even more, because, honestly.” I snorted and shook my head. “I really don’t think that’s possible.”

“Tyler,” she whined, tensing up herself. “I really don’t want to talk about this.”

I huffed, reminding myself she was a victim. She was only sixteen years old, alone, frightened, and vulnerable when he started digging his way into her psyche. There was a good chance a piece of her would never be able to fully accept what happened. Would that truly be so bad? What was the harm in letting her partially stay in denial? She was in love with me, knew her place was with me. If keeping on those rose colored glasses helped her cope with her traumas, then why take them away? Whatever it took to help keep her sane.

Choosing to change the subject, I tightened my embrace and pulled her even closer, my cheek against hers. “Did you see that weird moment with Vinny and Dash earlier?”

“Yeah, what was that about? They had a weird moment in the kitchen the other day, too, remember?”

“Yup.”

“I’ve never seen that with them. You think they’re torn because of why we’re here?”