Page 43 of A Dove To Break (The Dove Institute Collection #1)

Adrian

We stop about a quarter mile down the road from the cabin so that we can approach on foot.

We don’t want him to know that we are coming.

When we get close to the cabin, we take softer steps and move cautiously.

Cian stays with me as Brent and Raul go around the cabin to come in from the back.

Julio is hanging back a bit. We want someone to be a step behind us, just in case we get ambushed.

When we reach the front door, we hear voices inside. “You raped her!” Vanessa yells.

“Vanessa, baby. Please. Put the gun down, sweetheart. I didn’t…” Edward pleads.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I heard you. There was a camera. You lied. You lied to me,” Vanessa shouts. “You raped her. She told me. She was just a baby, Edward. A baby!”

“Vanessa, please put the gun down, baby,” Edward says pleadingly.

“Alania deserves better,” Vanessa growls. Right as I throw the door open, a gunshot booms through the cabin. The first thing we see is Edward getting blasted backward. He is tied to a chair, but the force of the shot to the head sends the chair falling back.

“Vanessa, don’t!” I scream at her. Cian tries to grab her, but Brent gets to her first. He tries to pry the gun out of her hand, but she times it perfectly.

The barrel of the gun is facing her for a fraction of a second, but it’s just long enough for her to pull the trigger.

“Mom!” Brent screams as the gun clatters to the ground.

He catches his mother's limp body and brings her down. Her appearance mirrors Fiona’s, and the entire left side of her head is missing.

I am absolutely stunned as I stand here watching Brent scream and beg his mom to wake up.

“Call Alania,” I say quietly when Cian steps in front of me. “It’s her mom. Call her.”

“I’ll call. Try to get him away from her. Both of you,” Cian says. I nod and look at Raul, who is just as stunned. As I pass the side table next to the couch, there is a paper lying on top of it with neatly scribbled words.

I can’t live without him, but you can.

He can’t hurt us anymore.

I love you both so much

- Mom

Raul and I pull Brent up to force him to step away from her.

He is screaming and sobbing as I hug him tightly.

All I can do right now is comfort him and thank God that Alania isn’t here to see this.

I thought we lost her when Fiona died. This will crush her, but being here to see it would be different.

Brent, on the other hand, was trying to stop her.

He was trying to get the gun away. We all were.

Vanessa knew what she was doing, though.

She chose to get revenge for her children, despite knowing that she would never be able to live without Edward.

She has the wherewithal to understand how deep his manipulation ran.

Nearly an hour passes as we wait for Alania to arrive. Cian said she was on her way. He heard her keys jingling and abruptly hung up, so it’s just a matter of time. We managed to get Brent outside and calmer.

“The moment I signed to put her in that facility, I knew I had lost my mother… I knew she’d kill herself one day…” Brent says. “I just never thought I’d have to see her do it.”

“I think she was just desperate, and she knew you’d try and save her,” I say. “Sometimes people don’t want to be saved.

“Yeah. I just… Alania should see her. Not like this,” Brent says.

“Hey!” Jax yells as he runs up to us.

“Why are you…” I start to ask.

“Alania was in a wreck,” he says breathlessly. “They called the school when you didn’t answer. She flipped the truck about thirty miles down the road.

“Fuck!” I shout. “Is she okay?”

We all stand up and abandon everything to walk back toward the truck. “Julio. Get her transported for cremation. Get rid of him,” I say.

“Yes, sir,” Julio nods.

“She’s okay. A little banged up, but she’s losing her fucking mind,” Jax says as we hurry to the truck. “She was unconscious when they found her, but when she woke up, she ripped her IV out and tried to leave.”

“Shit. Okay. How’d the wreck happen?” I ask.

“Peter was the responding officer. He told me when I called for an update that the front right tire blew and when it jerked the truck off the road, a guardrail caught the front and flipped her,” Jax says.

“They told her everyone was on their way to her, and she finally sat back on the bed and is now relatively calm. They just aren’t going in there because she throws shit at them.

They’re just watching her on the camera. ”

“Sounds like she’s triggered,” I say.

“Tire blowouts are loud,” Brent says.

“Yeah,” I sigh. “Let’s go get our girl.”