Atlas - Roberts Alyne. Страница 31

The sun going down was a stark contrast to the daylight. Sunlight poured in the windows while we planned war. While we discussed lying, cheating and killing, the sun graced us. It was in the shadows that it all disappeared. Only Stella and I existed in whatever way we wanted to. When darkness came, I pretended the evil wasn't there, and she acted like I wasn't a monster.

Sometimes I wished it wasn't. I wondered if my mom had stayed if I would have turned out differently. Could I have been the person Stella thought she saw inside me? The shitty thing about the past is that we could never change it. We couldn't even change the effects it had on the present or future. We could only look back and wish it were different. Maybe when this was all done and over with, she could find comfort in this one time when she caught a glimpse of someone worthy of her.

Most likely, I would end up one of the bad guys her dad had warned her about. If she had a choice or options, I was sure she would never let me touch her. Stella was raised in the opposite atmosphere I was. She was taught that life was valuable and never to do harm. I was taught how to get away with murder. It was a wonder I ended up with any morals at all.

It was cold the morning I woke Stella up and forced her get dressed quickly. I only gave her a few hours of sleep before I was hauling her out of her warm bed. In a last act of desperation, I had an idea I prayed would pay off. Otherwise, I was risking everything.

"Where are we going?" she asked and she put her arms through the flannel jacket I shoved at her.

"Home," I said, pushing her out of the bedroom.

"Your place?" she asked.

"No. Yours."

Stella's feet froze but I picked her up, carrying her easily to the waiting car. I shut the door and Tony pulled away from the lake house.

"I don't understand," Stella said, her voice shaking with nerves. "You're letting me go?"

"No," I answered bluntly, taking the blindfold Sal handed back to me. "Put this on."

Stella's shoulders sunk and she hung her head while I tied the black fabric over her eyes. The car was silent as we weaved through the dark gravel roads away from the lake. With the cold moving in, the tourists had fled the area, leaving only the crazy locals. Even I should have been back in my plush penthouse, overlooking the city I controlled with violence and fear. Instead, I was taking a trip down memory lane.

After an hour of driving, the car came to a stop.

"Are you going to kill me now?" Stella whispered.

I didn't answer and instead opened my door. Coming around, I helped her out and guided her away from the car. It was still dark enough we would go unnoticed. I still needed to be careful.

"Don't scream," I said in her ear as I pushed her forward. Her entire body was trembling as we stepped through the doorway.

When I pulled away the blindfold, I stepped back and let her take it all in. Stella gasped when her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She spun around, taking in the bare walls of the house she had lived in her entire life. What was once a home was now a cold and vacant house.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked me, turning to face me with tears in her eyes.

"If Ace was last here and left a clue for you, me, or even your dad to follow, we need to find it," I told her. “We can't have anything in the hands of the wrong people.”

I stepped forward and took her shaking hands, pleading wordlessly for her help. Stella pulled away and slowly walked the halls. She ran her fingers down the walls of the hallway to the bedrooms. Some furniture and items still remained since Stella was still the owner of the house. With her missing, the place wasn't sold or emptied completely yet.

"This was his room," she said, pointing to the room with blue walls and a single bed inside.

I walked inside, checking the closet and under the bed for anything hidden. Ace wasn't a novice teenager hiding dirty magazines or drugs. He was a professional, so his hiding spot would be good but I knew what to look for. We learned from the best. When I didn't find anything, I looked around to find Stella was gone.

I found her down the hall in her old room. It looked much like the night she left it. Most of her stuff had been packed and sent across the country. She seemed lost in herself until she heard my footsteps. Giving me a sad look, she motioned for her to follow her to the closet.

"This was my hiding spot," she said, pushing on a loose board on the floor.

Stella pushed on the corner of the board and one end came up, enough for her to pull it away. Underneath was a sizable space, filled with a tiny wooden box and papers. I knelt down and pulled them out. The papers were worn and old but smelled like Stella. I unfolded one, finding a drawing of the house we were standing in.

"You drew these?" I asked, flipping through the rest.

"Yeah," she admitted quietly. "It was a hobby of mine for a while."

"Why hide them?" I asked while staring at a sketch of her mother. I could easily see the resemblance in her and Ace. It was rough and unfinished, but talented and beautiful.

"They aren't that good. I just liked doing them."

I shook my head because she was so wrong. Not one was finished and full of rough lines and harsh shading because she gave up before perfecting them.

"They are good," I told her.

She took them from my hands roughly, one of the papers ripping in the process.

"It doesn't fucking matter because no one will see these. No one will see this woman that I drew from memory," she hissed, thrusting the drawing of her mom in my face and throwing it to the ground.

"No one will know about the lone survivor of the Harlow family who could draw, because what does that matter with the backlash of murder, mob involvement, and crime? Who the fuck cares about me in all this?"

Angry tears streamed down her red face.

"I do." I said as I handed back the corner of paper that fell to the ground. She couldn't give up yet. She needed a reason to keep going just a little longer.

"What is this?" she said, taking it back and looking at it fully. It was then that I noticed the handwriting on it for the first time.

Stella sat on her bed and sorted through the drawings to find one that was not her handwriting. I recognized it immediately as Ace's. Stella silently read it, holding the missing piece to make it whole. Her eyes glistened as she soaked up her brother's words. I wanted to rip it from her hands and read it, but I couldn't take any more from her at that moment.

She flipped through the rest of the drawings and sprawled them out over her bed. Picking out one of a beautiful woman who looked slightly different than the other drawings, she handed it to me.

"He asks we never forget her. Memorize her face and fight for her every day that he can't." Her words were choked at the end.

I took the drawing of the girl. It was the girl from the casino that Ace had fallen in love with. This drawing was finished and detailed down to the reflection in her eyes. This face was innocent and undeserving of what I knew she would have gone through.

"He said that I had to make sure you kept your promise," she said, pulling my eyes away from the pencil marks Ace left behind for us to find.

"What's in the box?" I asked.

Stella opened it, and looked shocked to see what was inside.

"Nothing," she said, revealing the empty box.

I looked outside to find the sky changing to dawn. "We need to go. We have enough."

I pulled Stella off the bed and rushed her to the car. I locked the front door behind me and we pulled away. Ace found the proof he needed and it no longer mattered what that was. I would keep my promise. I would make those fuckers pay. Starting with the people who took his girl and killed his family. I would end with the man who brought me into this world. That was the thing about family. You killed for them and you died for them. I would do them both for Ace.