I approach my grandfather, hand him the check that I wrote out for a million dollars for Olivia, and turn, not giving him a second glance. I walk up to Olivia and reach out my hand to take hers, and she flinches, the flash of betrayal written all over her face.
“I. SAID. DON’T. TOUCH. ME!” Every word she spat out had venom dripping off it. This is notmy Olivia.
She turns towards Tony and starts to walk towards the back of the stage. Tony shoots a victorious look over his shoulder at me, and my blood boils. He thinks he has won, but little does he know he has won a one-way ticket to hell. By the end of the night, he will be six feet under at the hands of a crazy blonde who wants her woman back. Eventually, I will meet him there and continue to make him pay for the disgusting and vile things he did to Olivia.
From the corner of my eye, I see Rachel start to stalk towards him. When she gets close enough, she pulls up her dress, jumps on Tony’s back, and digs the heel of her red stilettos into his calf to climb higher on his back. When she finally gets in the position she wants, she wraps her legs around his waist and swings her knife through the air, stabbing his right shoulder first, making sure to twist it and pull it to tear the muscles. Tony roars out in pain as Olivia watches Rachel with a mix of horror and surprise in her eyes. I forgot; she doesn’t know that Rachel killed Andrew or had an obsession with knives. When Rachel pulls the knife out, she stabs Tony’s other shoulder, making sure to dig the blade in deep.
“Get off me bitch!” Tony tries to swing, turn, and buck Rachel off of him, but she is holding on tight, not letting anything get her off his back. The thrill in her eyes is shining bright as she rides Tony like a bull at a rodeo. I even think I heard her yeehaw at one point. I just stand back and cross my arms, watching my woman with pride and love in my eyes.
Rachel jumps off of Tony’s back after the short bucking ride, ducking under his arm as he swings out to hit her. She takes the opening and stabs him in the stomach next, and then turns her head towards his ear. “I don’t fucking think so fucker! You took what was mine! You hurt what was mine! You used what was mine! And now you will fucking pay!”
She stabs him in the stomach three more times and once in each eye before she jumps back and watches him crumble to the floor. Her pupils are blown wide with fury, and her stare is as sharp as the dagger in her hand that is dripping with Tony’s blood.
She steps back and finally turns towards Olivia, desperation, longing, love, and raw pain drowning out every other emotion in her bright blue eyes.
“Olivia, are you ok?” She whispers. The question was rhetorical, but I knew she needed to hear Olivia’s voice. The adrenaline was still coursing through her veins as she tried to make a connection with Olivia and let her know that we were on her side, that we loved her, and that we needed her now more than ever.
The terror in Olivia’s eyes as she stared at Rachel for a long minute was so stark, so overwhelming, that it shattered my heart into a million jagged pieces.
“Olivia? Come here, baby… Please.” Rachel's voice is broken and needy as she walks up, arms wide, to Olivia. Olivia’s eyes widen, and she steps back, bumping into Tony’s lifeless body on the ground, blood pooling around him, unconscious from blood loss. She looks down in horror at Tony, back up to Rachel, and then around the room for an escape.
“Olivia? What's going on, baby? Talk to me.” You can hear the desperation in Rachel’s voice. I see her heart breaking with every word that leaves her mouth; she just wants Olivia to say anything to her, to knowour Oliviais still in there.
Olivia stares at Rachel with a blank look. Her once-blue-green eyes are now a grey color, almost as lifeless as the dead men behind her. I don’t know what she went through or what is going on in her head, but I need to find out. I need to handle this situation with care and get her home safely. I need to heal the pieces my Grandfather broke.
Olivia looks at me, then back at Rachel. You can see the wheels turning in her head as she figures out what to do next. Her eyes look from us to the door in the back of the banquet hall several times, then she turns on her heels and runs down the stairs, heading straight toward the back door. I saw her looking around for an exit before the auction happened, but she didn’t know the house well enough to know which door was the exit. Rachel starts to run after her, and I grab her wrist to stop her. Only one person can handle this, so I do the only thing that comes to mind. I pull out my phone and call Oliver.
I hear him answer the phone, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Your sister is heading your way. Go down the stairs, and she should run into you. She is scared, and she doesn't trust me or Rachel. I think you are the only one she will trust right now.” I hang up the phone and hear fast, loud, heavy footsteps from above, and I know it's Oliver going after Olivia. If there is one person she feels safe with, it will be her twin.
I turn and look at the podium to find my grandfather no longer standing there. Of course, he ran; the man is a coward, never in the action, and never takes accountability for his actions. But that's ok. I will hunt him down. I will go to every corner of the world to find him and kill him with my bare hands.
I turn to Rachel and see her looking at Tony, studying his now dead body, with tears streaming down her face. I hate when these girls cry; it breaks my fucking heart.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I hold her face in my hands and wipe her tears off her cheeks with my thumbs.
“It breaks my fucking heart, Alex. They fucking took the light out of her. They took everything good out of her. She is now a shell of a person. Will we be able to get her back? She is fucking scared of us. What do we do? I don’t think I can live without her.”
“I did what we could. They got into her head. I don’t know what they said, but I will find out. But right now, I have to trust that Oliver will be able to bring her back to us. He has to help calm her down, and then maybe we can talk to her. If she will open up to anyone, it’s him.” She nods in response, and I wrap her in a hug, burying my nose into her hair, smelling her floral shampoo.
I have to give Oliver time, I remind myself. I know he knows what he is doing. I grab Rachel’s hand and intertwine my fingers with hers.
“Let’s go see our girl.” I bend down, kiss the top of Rachel’s head, and head towards the double doors in the back.
Chapter three
Olivia
Everythingishappeningtoofast. My brain is swimming in pure terror. I was just sold. Fucking sold like cattle. And of all the people to buy me, it was Alex!
That fucker just bought me!
I didn’t want to believe he was like his grandfather, but now he’s proven it.
The Lopez García men—they’re all the same. MONSTERS!
I run out of the double doors at the back of the banquet hall. My heart is pounding, my breath ragged, but I can’t stop running, not now. I don’t know where I’m going, but I know I have to get away—away from Alex, away from Lopez García, away from all of it. The walls feel like they are closing in on me. I can’t breathe, and my heart is pounding out of my chest. I don’t know who I can trust anymore, and that makes my head start to spin.
