Page 94 of Delirium
“No, but we can face it. Together, Sunshine,” I murmured. “We can do anything as long as we’re together, so don’t even think about running.”
“I’m not.” She chuckled. “For the first time, I don’t want to run.”
The knife fell out of her hand, clattering down onto the floor, slowly getting covered with Simon’s blood that kept on spreading around the chair. Her arms opened and wrapped around my middle, her head pressed against my chest. As I hugged her, holding her tight, I held on to that hope that came back to me, that maybe, just maybe, we would be okay.
“I don’t want to run from you, from us, from our little family, Storm,” Ophelia mumbled against my shirt. “I’m tired of running, hiding, constantly being on the lookout. I want this to be over so that we can live our lives in peace. I don’t want my past to be hanging above our heads, which is why I want us to end this insanity before the twins are born.”
“I know,” I said. “Me too, Sunshine. I’ll have to assemble the crew, call them all to come back from their posts. I don’t want us to go there unprepared, guns blazing, when we have no idea what’s waiting for us.”
She pulled back slightly, smiling up at me. “Simon did say that there are at least fifty men in that house, as well as Belladonna. I’m pretty sure we can take them on.”
“Atlas and Indigo are back today,” I added. “They’ll help as well.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised. “I thought they were still with Skylar and the crew.”
“They were, but Atlas said that they need to let them be for a bit. I have no idea what happened there and I’m gonna ask them for a full report. I don’t like the fact that all of this is interconnected. I want to make sure we’re all safe while doing these things.”
“I’m worried about Skylar,” Ophelia murmured. “Cillian said she isn’t doing well. None of them are.”
“They’re going to be fine.” Or at least I wanted to believe that they would be fine. What those kids went through isn’t something I would wish on my worst enemy. “Maybe I should bring them here, let them stay with us,” I said out loud. “I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but I don’t know.”
“I think that could be a good idea. Maybe they need some normalcy after everything that has happened. They’re all so young.”
“You’re not much older than them.” I laughed.
“Yeah, age-wise, but sometimes I feel as if I’m forty years old after everything that’s happened. It’s been too much of a mess in these twenty-five years of my life.”
I couldn’t agree more, which was why I wanted to show her that the terrible things that have happened were not the end.
“You know—” I started speaking when her phone rang, the annoying ringtone bouncing around us.
She quickly detached herself from me, pulling out her phone from her back pocket. As her eyes zeroed in on the name on the screen, filling with tears, I had a feeling who it could be.
“Kieran?” she breathed out as soon as she accepted the call, fear digging its claws into her body. “Are you okay?”
I fucking hated that man, hated him for what he did to her, for everything he put her through, and most of all, I hated him because he was the first one she ever loved. It was irrational, it was insane, but I couldn’t help it.
“You’re good? Both of you?” Ophelia nodded at something Kieran said, and it ate at me that I couldn’t hear what he was saying. If Maya, Ophelia’s sister, wasn’t with him, it would kill Phee.
“Maya is okay?” Ophelia asked again, attentively listening to whatever he’d been saying. “Tonight? Alright. We’ll be there.” She looked up at me, her eyes full of tears. “Thank you, K. Thank you.”
She dropped the call within seconds, staring down at the phone in her hands.
“Sunshine?” I asked, slowly approaching her. “Is everything okay?”
“They’re okay,” she whispered, her voice wavering, and as her eyes clashed with mine, I could see the relief there. “They’re both okay and they’re here.”
“Where?”
“They’re in Las Vegas,” Ophelia murmured. “We’re going there tonight to meet them,” she stated, and I knew I couldn’t deny her.
Even if I didn’t want to see him, even if I felt as if I would kill him on the spot, I could push all these feelings down the deep, dark hole and face it with her. Because she needed me and I wanted to show her that she could count on me.
“Let me organize it all,” I murmured, pulling her to me. “You got your sister back, Sunshine,” I smiled. “She’s alive.”
But instead of happiness and elation, I could feel the wariness settling deep in her bones. I could feel the uncertainty and fear, and I had no idea where it was coming from.
“I’m scared she’ll hate me,” Ophelia mumbled. “I’m scared she won’t want to see me.”
