Page 95 of Delirium
“She will,” I reassured her. “She’s your sister. She loves you.”
“Ah, Storm. My own brother hated me and wanted me dead. Family ties aren’t exactly strong in that household.” She chuckled. “But I need to see her, no matter what. I need to tell her how sorry I am.”
“And you will. Do you have an address?” I asked. I hated going back to Las Vegas. It held too many bad memories, too much blood spilled, but we would go no matter what.
“Yeah. I can write it down.”
20
OPHELIA
My eyes kept travelingto Storm as we drove down the narrow road, leading to Kieran’s house in Las Vegas. I’d been here only once and the memories I had connected with this place weren’t pretty, but I knew it was even harder for Storm, coming back to the city that held so much pain. Not to mention the rest of the guys who followed us here.
Atlas and Indigo were in the car behind us, with Creed and Hector in the other one. We weren’t taking any chances, especially knowing that there were members of Belladonna’s organization monitoring the house.
The two of us could fight, but there was only so much the two of us could do if we got outnumbered. I wasn’t taking any chances.
I pressed my hand over my belly, hoping for their sake that things would start turning around. We still had to plan our trip to Portland, but it would have to wait until at least tomorrow. Until we spoke to Kieran and Maya.
Trepidation took hold of my body, and with each passing minute, with each new mile crossed, I wondered what she would be like. The Maya I used to know wasn’t very affectionate. We weren’t at each other’s throats like Theo and I were, but she never really cared about me, and I didn’t really care about her or anything she did.
We used to be close when I was younger, but something had changed when she turned sixteen, and I knew it had everything to do with Nikolai. Maya always kept a part of herself closed off, hidden from the rest of us. I just hoped that didn’t turn her into just another monster in my life.
“Are you going to be okay seeing Kieran?” I asked, looking at Storm’s profile. His hands clenched around the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white, but it was the only indication that he wasn’t exactly happy to see the man I cheated on him with, and the man I used to love. “Stormy?” I asked again, trying to lighten the situation.
We didn’t have time to talk about how this would affect him, and without question, he had assembled the team, taking us all into Las Vegas. The four-hour drive was mainly filled with silence as both of us processed what had happened and everything we found out, but I wanted to comfort him.
I wanted to assure him that he had nothing to worry about.
“You know I love you, right?” I said, trying to bring him back to me. And it worked, as a smile spread over his face and his hand shot to my side, seeking my hand. His fingers laced with mine, holding on tight, and I knew we would be okay. “You also know I will kick your ass if you kill Kieran, right?”
The laughter that bubbled up from him, escaping through his lips, pulled a smile from my face. “Only you would try to protect the man that brought you so much pain.” He laughed. “But to answer your question,” he looked at me from the corner of his eye, “I won’t kill him.”
“Thank God,” I exhaled.
“But I might punch him.”
“Storm!” I cried out. “No violence, please.”
“I can’t promise that, Sunshine,” he murmured. “But I’ll do my best. For you, I’ll do my best. If it was for anyone else, I would’ve probably planned a full coup at his house, but I won’t do it. And the guys won’t do it either. They’ll wait for us at the gate and they won’t even approach him. Creed still wants to kick his ass, and I don’t think he’s exactly happy that he won’t be able to attack him.”
“Creed used to love Kieran.” I smiled. “I’m sure that it’s only because Creed thinks Kieran had something to do with the beating he got.”
“Are you sure he didn’t?”
“I’m sure,” I answered.
Kieran was many things, but he wouldn’t have gone after Creed. He wouldn’t have hurt the man his sister loved, no matter what. Neither one of them would. I had a feeling that Nikolai and Logan had something to do with it.
Nikolai liked to pretend that he didn’t know about Ava’s passing, that he wanted to help me, but it was all a lie. I had a feeling that both Nikolai and Logan had their fingers in that whole mess, wanting to control us.
Dividing people was the best way to control them. Just look at the politicians in most of the countries. The easiest way to brainwash people was to tell them that others were after them, that they wanted to take their space, that they wanted to attack them… That’s how wars were waged.
Small-minded men controlled the masses, dividing them, putting a seed of doubt in their minds, giving them weapons, letting them destroy each other, while they sit in their ivory towers, watching as the entire country burned, just so that they could gain something from that.
People never understood why I was so much against the war, when I did what I did, but I knew. Wars weren’t made by the ordinary men and women in the country—they were created by the politicians and heads of states who would do anything to get more money, more power. They poisoned the minds of young people, of those who weren’t strong enough to think for themselves, who believed in every single word they said. They pushed them into the dark pit from where they could never return.
“Phee?” Storm’s voice pulled me back from the wayward thoughts taking over my mind, and as my eyes focused on our surroundings, I could see that we were parked in front of the wrought-iron gate, with the Nightingale emblem right in the middle. “Are you okay?” Storm asked, and I could feel his eyes on my face. I didn’t want him to see the anger that still clung to my mind.
