“He took off, but Azul was following him.” Wiz shouted out as he flew back, and hit the ground hard when Chloe created a rolling quake.
“You can’t win this, Chloe. Sandra and Bixby are dead, and father has left you on your own. Stop this now and go home.” Gio stated firmly, prepared to do whatever was necessary to keep the people around him as well as the dragons safe.
“Home? What home? There is no home and hasn’t been a home in over twenty-five years, Gio. You left us!” Chloe screamed.
Gio shouted back, “He had me chained to a fucking bed and was ready to kill me. As far as I knew he had already killed Teagan. What did you expect me to do?”
“And what did you think would happen when you left? What did you think our father would do when his precious multiplex elemental son left? He almost killed me, Sandra and Bixby.”
“Kyle wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. He told me…”
“Kyle, Gunther, and Hammond left the same night you did!” Chloe screamed, as the ground rolled once more.
Shaking his head, Gio murmured, “No. That can’t be. Kyle came in and released me. I told him I shouldn’t go, that father would be angry and take it out on all of you. He insisted that everything would be fine. He would take care of all of you. When I left, I was almost dead. I got help, healed. I… tried to hide, but father kept finding me, and then I came here.”
“Kyle came to all of us. He wanted us all to leave. He said he found us a safe place to be. He never told us he had freed you. We voted and Kyle was outvoted. Everyone went to bed, but when father returned, it was only the four of us left. Kyle and the others were all gone. Father went insane. He beat us to within an inch of our lives, demanding to know where you were, where you all were, but we didn’t know.” Chloe cried.
Gio started forward, but Cobra was quick to grab him by the arm, stopping him from moving anywhere.
“Father became even more insane when you all left. When those guys came to our home looking for father…gods I thought he would kill Bixby that day.” Chloe said sniffling.
“You mean the D.O.A. agents?” Gio asked in confusion.
Chloe nodded, “He said the only way anyone would have known what he was up to and would turn him in was you and he was pissed. He took us and made us run away with him, but every time we thought things were quiet and father was ready to make a big deal, some guy named Cobra would find us and we had to run again. Father worked the cartel from underground, but the idea that this guy would make him run like a fearful rat, pissed father off and he told us that he knew what he had to do, it was just going to take a bit of time to complete the training, but he said he was gonna make Cobra squirm.”
“He sent those letters for the past twenty five years didn’t he?” Cobra asked.
Nodding, Chloe cried, “Yes! He wanted to make you guys look over your shoulder like he had to do, especially Cobra.”
“I can’t believe you guys joined with our father to kill me.” Gio whispered sadly.
Chloe hissed, “You have no idea the pain and fear we lived with all these years. Father was a mad man and trust me, what he did to you and Tea wasn’t even close to the things he did to Bixby, and the rest of us. Then a few months ago he came to us really excited. You had been found. Someone from some biker gang had cashed in on the bounty father had put on your head. He tried to get them to steal you away, but the guy said there was no way it could be done. He told father that it was a death sentence for them to enter into Drago and no one would be stupid enough to try. Father came up with a plan.”
“And look how well that played out for you.” Cobra snarled.
The sobs coming from his sister broke Gio’s heart. She kept murmuring, “You’re all gone. Everyone is gone. I have no one left.”
Gio pulled out of Cobra’s hold and slowly went to his sister, kneeling on the ground, taking her in his arms. “You’re not alone, Chloe. You have me. I’m right here. No one here will hurt you.”
“Gio.” Cobra warned.
Shaking his head, Gio softly said, “She can’t go back home, Cobra. I can’t let her go back there. Chloe has always been a soft sweetheart. She loves being in her garden attending to her vegetables and flowers. She isn’t a killer. No matter what happened here… she isn’t a killer. She’s a scared and abused woman, doing what she had to do to survive. Just like I had to do.”
Turning to Pit, Gio begged, “Please, Pit. She isn’t a killer.”
“I can’t trust her to stay in our home, Gio.” Pit stated calmly.
“She can stay in my old place. I’ll be living with Cobra. I’ll take full responsibility for her. Please, Pit. She’s my sister.” Gio begged.
Cobra went to Gio, and knelt with him, Taco made his way to his other side, suggesting, “What if we put a guard on her for now. She can live in Gio’s old place and we can watch her. We already have patrols out we just make sure her place is watched as well.”
Everyone was so intent on Chloe, Gio and his mates no one noticed his father pointing a gun at Gio, until a loud shout, “No!” and then a bright flash of lightning shooting toward the man, but not stopping until Marceli Pasteli’s dead body hit the ground.
Gio turned to see Kace sitting up with his arms out in front of him pushing out more and more electricity until it stopped and Kace slouched to the ground. Jude shouted, “Shit!” Checked for a pulse, then immediately started CPR.
Gio gasped, holding onto Cobra tightly, but no amount of chest percussions or life breaths were going to bring the man back.
