AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"You are wet. Soaked, actually. I can feel it."
Heat suffused my body, embarrassment taking over until I realized he meant with water. I was soaked in water.
My brows snapped down. "Get off me."
"If you insist, Beauty. But let this be a lesson next time you want to make a quick escape from me. You won't make it. I play to win, there's no escaping, and I hold a grudge. So, you might as well get used to this little arrangement."
I scowled up at him as he released me and eased off me gently. One way or another, I was going to get him back, and payback would be a bitch.
10
Nissa
Thanks to the Westin, Julian combo, sleep was getting harder and harder to come by. Every time I closed my eyes. The dreams started again, and I was powerless to stop them. It didn’t matter that I knew it was stress. It didn’t matter that I understood that Westin coming back was another control trigger for me. None of that mattered.
Because it seemed my subconscious gave zero shits about how aware I was of my stress.
I thrashed as I grabbed for my sister. "Lenora. Lenora, I don't want to go."
Sweat poured from my pores, and my hands were slick and my hair matted to my face. I screamed again. “Lenora.” But the more I reached for my sister, the further away something pulled her. Or maybe I was the one being pulled.
The arms around me tightened like a vice. Keeping me close, pulling me in. Drowning me. The edges of darkness crept up my arms trying to envelop me, submerging me in It. And I thrashed and fought. “I want my sister. I want my sister.”
The voice that responded was smooth, cultured, almost kind. A tease. A lure. Designed to make me complacent.
I had left my sister in that place for a whole new life. One I didn't want, One I didn't ask for. I managed to kick out, free from the darkness, and once the oily dark material slipped off my skin, I screamed.
But then I could no longer see my sister. I ran in one direction, the streets becoming thicker and thicker with people. I was no longer in the care home. I ran through the streets of London, and I could feel the footsteps behind me like a herd of elephants, or a group of men that worked for my father.
They were determined to bring me back. Determined to lock me in that house. Determined to never see me free.
So I kept running, my lungs burning, my breath coming in short pants. My legs and arms on fire from the effort it was taking to keep moving. And just when I saw her profile, part of her mischievous smile, someone stepped in front of her, blocking my view. The dark hair, the two big guys, the thin-lipped smile.
I stopped short. Julian.
“Nissa, time to come home. You'll never see your sister again.”
“You promised. You promised I would see her again. You're a liar. And I hate you. I will never love you.”
My father loomed bigger and bigger as he walked toward me, his visage appearing more and more sinister. “You belong to me. You will never be free. And you will never see her again.”
When he grabbed me up, I screamed again. This time he started shaking me. Shaking me so hard. I fought, my arms thrashing. He wasn't going to get me again.
Suddenly something jerked me from out of the dream, and I was back in darkness. But this time the strong firm hands on my shoulders, shaking me weren’t hurting me. “Nissa, wake up.”
I blinked rapidly as light poured in, so bright that I had to shut my eyes immediately. “What the hell's going on?” I asked.
“You tell us. The two of us were convinced that you were being murdered.”
I peeked my eyes open again and frowned when I saw Jamila in the doorway by the light switch holding her cricket bat. Westin was on the bed and had been shaking me. On the nightstand was a gun.
I immediately scooted away from It. “What are you doing?”
He sighed. “You were having a nightmare.”
I swallowed hard. That much I could ascertain for myself. I was slick with sweat. And that panicked feeling hadn't dissipated. I could still feel Julian shaking me. Telling me I would never be free. I wouldn't meet Westin's gaze because he knew what this was. I’d been having these dreams for years.
“I'm sorry you both thought I was being murdered. I'm fine. Just a bad dream.”
