Once I had calmed down some, Lorie helped me up off of the floor of the helicopter and into one of the seats. The same man who’d helped talk me through my panic attack brought me a bottle of water, which Lorie promptly opened and proceeded to bottle to me like I was a baby animal that couldn’t drink for itself.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “How did you know where I was? What room I was in?”
“I’ve been working with your brothers for the past couple of weeks trying to find you. Ever since you sent me those texts, I knew something was wrong. I contacted them and told them that I thought you were unsafe and wanted to help. They asked if I could call in some favors without alerting my dad, and I told them it’d be easy enough.”
I looked around at the high-grade helicopter and men dressed in all black swat gear. “The policearen’tinvolved in all of this?”
“No. Your brothers said that involving the police would lead to bad publicity and they couldn’t risk it. They asked if I had any strings I could pull on my own, and I told them I did, some of my dad’s guys have been friends of the family for years. It took a little bit of espionage and back-tracking your phone, but we eventually found you.” She rubbed my hand. “Sorry for having to snatch you out of there like that. I’m sure that was terrifying, but we didn’t want to risk Giovanni actually killing you or something.”
“Y-yeah,” I murmured.
She rubbed her hand over the side of my face. “Did he hurt you?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. The truth was, no, Gio hadn’t hurt me the entire time that I’d been there. He’d pulled a gun on me once, but I’d long since forgiven him for that. The circumstances that brought us together were less than ideal, but at least he wasn’t my father who willingly gave me up to pay a debt or my brothers who let me go missing for over a month without alerting the police all because they were a little afraid of bad publicity. At least he treated me like a person.
“Not really,” I said. “More bark than bite.”
She nodded. “Good. I don’t know what I would have done if you’d gotten hurt. Your brothers would have been even more upset than they are already. I’ll tell ya, listening to you tell the story, those two don’t care about you at all, but spending these past couple of weeks with them, I see now that they really do love you.”
I forced a smile, knowing that they’d won her over with their charm. “Yeah. We’re family at the end of the day, right?”
“Right.”
I looked out the window of the helicopter door. “Where are we going now?”
“We’re taking you back to your brothers’ place. I know they’ll want to see you right away and then they said they’ll help you move to a new place in the morning.” She cupped my face and put on her best mama-bear face. “Don’t worry anymore. Everything is fine. You’re safe.”
I lifted my hand to hers and squeezed it. “Thanks, Lor.”
It felt like we were up in the air for longer than was necessary for us to get to my brothers’ place by helicopter. I didn’t necessarily know where Gio’s estate was located, but we’d been in the helicopter at least as long as I was in the car when I was first snatched and driven to the compound, and hypothetically a helicopter should be moving faster.
Eventually, though, one of the tactical men lifted a phone to his head. He didn’t appear to dial or anything, just said, “Are we clear to land?” and then said, “Okay. Preparing to touch down.”
My stomach lurched again as the helicopter started to slowly descend downwards and I recognized my brothers’ chilly, modern estate. Though Gio’s place felt like a prison to me at first, it was really just a very secure place that felt much warmer on the inside. Everything about my brothers’ compound was black and white, sharp edges, modernistic with no flair or color. It was awful. After a few weeks at Gio’s estate, it felt like home, but I’d been to my brothers’ home more than once and it always felt cold to me.
They had a flat enough acre of land behind their home where the helicopter was able to touch down safely. The surrounding trees and blades of grass whipped around violently in response to the blades, but one of the tactical guys opened the door regardless and hopped out, holding out a hand for me. I looked back at Lorie, but she reached forward and put her hands on my headset.
Just before she pulled it off, she said, “I’m riding back with them to where my car is parked. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“You can’t,” I said. “I don’t have my phone.”
“I’ll call one of your brothers. We’ll get you a new phone tomorrow, okay? Get some rest. I love you lots!” She leaned forward and gave me a peck on my nose, then leaned back, taking the headset with her.
She motioned towards the soldier who had jumped out of the helicopter, and I finally got up from my seat and reached out to take his hand. He braced me so that I could hop out, and I did, relying on his weight to guide me down to the ground safely. My hair flapped all around my head, but through the strands blocking my eyes, I could see my brothers standing in the distance.
The soldier released my hand, guiding me off in their direction, and I couldn’t think of a worse reception. They were smiling at me and coaxing me forward, but I knew it was all for show. What choice did I have but to go to them, though? So I walked across the yard where the helicopter had landed, headed for where they were standing. Once I was about halfway to them, the helicopter lifted back up into the sky and watched as my last semblance of something warm, my best friend, left me behind. For some reason, it wasn’t just that I didn’t feel good being around my brothers.
I didn’t feel safe.
“Avion,” Anton said, walking forward and wrapping his arms around me. “I’m so happy we found you.”
“Yeah,” was all I could get out.
He pulled back and Vincent was looking down at me with an impartial stare. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I’m okay.” He didn’t look like he would have cared if I’d said Gio had attempted to cut my arm off.
“Let’s get inside,” Anton said. “You can sleep here tonight and then we’ll figure out your new living situation in the morning. You may have to stay here for a little bit while we work something out.”
