Page 26 of Unyielding
‘It’s okay, Zane; it was far from scary. If anything, it was touching and slightly amusing.’
Matt looked between us in disbelief as Zane’s admission of my being family sunk in.
‘You are serious, thank fuck!’ Matt clasped me around the shoulder, grinning and shaking his head. ‘Why didn’t you just say so? You had me looking like a fool, trying to play the macho big brother act.’
‘V said you could be overzealous at times and just to roll with it, so I wanted to see what she meant; it didn’t disappoint. Besides, I’m sure of her you know. I won’t hurt her. She’s mine just as much as I’m hers.’
‘You know she’s going to marry you, don’t you? If you’re here, you’re part of the family. She’s not letting you go.’
‘Here’s hoping.’ I grinned.
The gentle clink of cutlery against a wine glass rung out in the gallery, and conversations halted as people gathered toward the center of the room. There V stood before the pool of red paint at her feet. She held out a hand, gesturing for me to step forward and take my place as the director of this show.
‘Thank you all for coming. This collection means a lot to the two of us,’ I said, stepping into the crook of V’s arm. ‘As you walk through these walls, you will see how love changes the soul and how it changed me. Everything in me was surface level, but it was Valentina who brought my strength, confidence and hope to the surface. As you step through, you will see the weight of the past dragging us back, trying to intervene in something that was destined. But here we stand, together as one. Even as the wounds of the past try to pull us apart and bleed into our present, we still remain everything to one another,’ I finished.
V looked at me with such admiration that I barely registered her talking for a moment so swept up in her eyes.
‘When you find your everything, you hold onto it with both hands. Even if everything falls apart around you, as long as you have each other, you will find beauty in the darkness.’
She bent down to the silver platter that lay in a mixture of blood and red paint and pulled off the lid. There lay a redvelvet box. V picked it up carefully, opening it as she sunk her white satin knee into the blood before me.
‘Sunshine, you are everything. Without you, I am nothing. Let me hold onto you with both hands and be that ray of light that pulls me from the grime and darkness of this life.’
Tears dripped down my cheeks as I sunk to the floor with V. We were reborn, starting something new and beautiful from the ashes of something old and broken. I slammed into her, our lips colliding as we fought to hold on to each other, not drowning in the darkness that lay at the edge of the night. This moment being our north star to one another always.
At some point, V pushed the ring onto my finger, but by the time we were done, we were a mess of red paint and blood smeared over our limbs and faces. Right back to how we looked at the start of the night. The crowd cheered and soon we were enveloped by Matt for a hug as he whisperedI told you soin my ear. Xavier hugged his sister in a way I had never seen from the cold and detached man before, warmly. Zane pressed his forehead to hers and whispered something to her that made her punch his arm as he laughed. I had never seen her brothers so at ease, defences down and filled with joy—joy for their little sister. Forus.
Xavier and Zane turned to me, each hugging me kindly; it was the first time either had dared to lay any kind of hand on me aside from the tattoo that laced my neck. I had always thought my skin would crawl under their touch, as scary as they were, but it was comforting in a way I had only ever felt from V—my family. That’s who they are now. They welcomed me from the first day, fought for me, and even helped more than I ever expected them to with Jason.
The rest of the evening went off without a hitch. Wemade the rounds, and I spoke to a few journalists and critics. Many were impressed by the spin and the performance art nature of the proposal to tie the show together. Many promised glowing reviews, and it sent a pang of pride through me. My girl was incredible, and soon everyone would know it. Not just her name, but her talent.
14
VALENTINA
It was late by the time we wrapped things up at the gallery. My little Sunshine had fallen asleep in the car as Z drove us to our desert safe house. Xav had left earlier to keep an eye on Jason, having seen him stir ever so slightly on the cameras after partially knocking out his sedative-filled IV line.
On the outside, it looked like a decrepit wooden shack of a home, with broken windows and creaking hinges on the doors—not unlike one of the homes where we had found ourselves hiding as children. In the laundry, there was a secret door at the back of the linen cupboard. It opened to a winding staircase that went three levels below. Sunshine didn’t react, but I could hear her little gasp as she took in the thick concrete walls and the reinforced door that sealed shut as we descended. It was a fortress; there was no coming in or out, and not a lick of sound would penetrate through. We could do what we wanted down here, and no one would ever know.
Zane led the way until we reached the landing on the very last floor. Xav sat in a chair smoking acigarette as Jason sat across from him, chained to his. Cigarette butts littered his thigh, where Xav had undoubtedly been extinguishing his last hour of chain smoking. A tinge of burnt flesh greeted my nostrils, along with the smell of piss. Looking at Jason’s jeans, it was easy to see why.
‘Sunshine, do you want any part in this?’ I asked, stepping in front of her and pressing my forehead to hers. Breathing in her scent and holding on like hell to this moment and to her, as I felt the red-hot rage burning under my skin, clawing at me to eviscerate the man that had hurt her. Her bruises had faded, but the scars on her heart would remain for years to come, and I would make him pay for it all.
‘His last breath. It’s mine,’ she said as her lips found mine. Pulling back, she whispered, ‘Thank you.’
I pressed my lips to the tattoo on her neck then lifted her left hand.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she said, and it was. I kissed her hand as the emerald-cut ruby glinted against the fluorescent lights. It matched the red she wore the night I met her, while the yellow gold band shone like sunshine against her deep skin, looking perfect on her slender finger.
Xav stood, offering his seat to my girl. Taking it further away, creating as much distance between her and the man that had haunted her, she nodded her appreciation to my brother. He stood next to her, guarding her as he would for me.
Z dragged a stainless-steel table laden with tools, knives and other more creatively painful contraptions. ‘Need some help sister?’ he asked, grinning. These moments were the happiest I had ever seen Z. On the cusp of or immersed in bloodshed was where he belonged. It’s what I feared to be, I looked at Sunshine once more, my grounding force. Promising not to lose myselfhere and now.
‘I need to do this brother but thank you. Both of you,’ I said, clasping the back of his neck as our foreheads met. I was closest to Z because we were so much closer in age with him only being three years older and we had an unspoken understanding, recognising the truth of who we were at our depths, even if I kept mine leashed. Two sides of the same fucked up coin.
Grabbing the smelling salts, I ripped the IV out from Jason’s arm and held them under his nose until he was retching himself awake. His eyes snapped open, and slowly he took in the room and its inhabitants before him. Fear glinted in his eyes as they landed on Z, but tonight Z would be the least of his fears because he had awakened something in me that needed to be released.
His mouth opened as if to askWhy?before his eyes settled on my Sunshine. She sat there poised, unflinching, with a strength I hadn’t yet seen radiating from her. This is what I had always wanted to see—my girl without fear, surrounded by her new family.
