Page 3 of Her Vengeance

404 Error: User Not Found

“A violent and silent woman will be the undoing of man.”

I’m sitting here on the other side of the screen with my heart beating out of my chest as I watch her leave the airport. That was way too close. What was her brother thinking? This is why I hired Eva, to keep her properly guarded. Leo has always had a soft spot for his baby sister, which includes her walking all over protocol and getting herself into trouble, and needing to be rescued.

Tapping into the traffic cameras and tracking her cellphone’s location, I am able to track her movements through the city. The call between her and Leo ended abruptly, and I hate that I needed to push him this far, but he gave me no choice. I am unwilling to jeopardize my flower’s safety to placate his ego. If I hadn’t paid for Eva to be there before her plane landed, I wouldhave lost her forever. Having to watch her from a distance is hard enough. I don’t know if I can live in a world where she no longer exists.

As they near the apartment, I pull up the surveillance cameras and watch. The car pulls into a guest spot, and I smile. My investment in Eva is paying off already. If someone else was watching the property and, more specifically, her designated parking spot, they may not notice the blue sedan casually pulling into a parking spot. The only visible body is the brunette that I hired to keep my flower safe.

She gets out of the car, uses the key fob to secure the car, and walks into the building. To avoid looking conspicuous, she takes the elevator up to the fourth floor, avoiding her real destination in case anyone is watching. She disembarks the elevator, casually keeping an eye out for trouble before she finds the staircase. Once she enters the stairwell, I spot her gun, giving me a glimpse of the assassin that I hired to protect her, which is the most important thing to me. With precision, she clears the hallway before accessing the apartment. Once she closes the door behind her, I switch from the building’s surveillance cameras to the hidden ones that I placed after the lease was signed.

After Eva completes a thorough search of the entire apartment, she tucks the gun in its holster and makes her way down to the car using the stairs to avoid drawing unnecessary attention. Closely, I follow every move, waiting for just a glimpse of my girl. She may be just out of reach, but that doesn’t change the fact that I would lay down my life to protect her. Knocking on the trunk, she signals that it is safe, and Claire climbs out of the car.

My heart stops beating as I watch her run her fingers through her blonde waves. Is she hurt? Did I miss something? Eva drops everything, walking over to her and assessing any potentialinjuries, only to find a worn-out girl standing in front of her. She turns to help gather the bags from her car, and I expect to see her cheeks wet from tears, but find nothing. I know it’s been a long couple of weeks, so it might be shock setting in but I need to be sure.

Eva reaches for her backpack only to have Claire almost rip it out of her hand. What is in there that could be so important that she would willingly go toe to toe with an assassin over? Eva puts her hands up in surrender before she reaches for the suitcase in the trunk. Squaring her shoulders, Claire lifts her chin and walks side by side with her bodyguard to her new home. My girl has always been fearless, but something is different this time. I will have to watch her closely to get a better understanding of what’s going on.

4

Chapter 4

Claire

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, night terrors can break you.”

Sweat covers every inch of skin as I wake up mid-scream. Eva slams open the door, gun in hand, ready to eliminate the threat. I blink the sleep from my eyes. Fuck.

“What’s wrong?” she asks me softly, lowering her gun as she walks to the end of my bed. My shoulders fall as my mind struggles to find purchase in the mess of itself. I exhale softly, trying to gain control.

“It was a night terror; I used to get them when I was younger. I guess they’re back.” I say, feeling the weight of the words and the truth behind them.

“Why did you use to get them?” she asks as she takes a seat at the end of my bed. I pull my knees up and wrap my arms around them in the only way that I have known how to soothe myself.

“I am sure you read about how my mom died in your background for this assignment,” I respond, still unsure how to put those memories into words. She stands up, placing the gun on the dresser, and then walks over to me. Slowly, she sits mere inches from me and extends her hand in an offering of support.

“I read the official report, but those tend not to give context to why it would give you nightmares,” she explained softly, opening the door for me to explain. My stomach sinks, and I feel the weight of the words sloshing around in a jumbled mess.

“I was too young to fully grasp what I witnessed,” I whisper, unsure how to encapsulate the words of the first true trauma I experienced.

“Do you want to start before the attack and go from there?” she asks me. I have never talked about it. Not with the shrink that dad hired, or Leo as we grew older. Being the princess hidden in the tower had its downfalls.

“I grew up in a quiet apartment with my mom. I never struggled as a kid. My dad was there even though he didn’t live with us,” I let the words flow from me without restraint. We may have just met, but almost all of the players from this dream are dead and cannot be hurt by the truth. She cups my chin, tilting my eyes up to meet hers. As she wipes away the tears that I didn’t notice had fallen, I feel closer to her than I have to anyone in a long time.

“Anything you say inside the walls of this apartment stays here. I will never bring it up, but you need to talk about it before it rips you apart from the inside out,” she tells me, bringing a level of comfort and understanding that I have never before experienced.

“Sometimes my dad would bring my brother to do family bonding days. I never knew that he was a mafia don until that day,” I say, feeling myself rock back and forth as I find my rhythm.

“Take all the time you need, darling,” she says, as she continues as she pulls me into her lap.

“One night, I went to sleep early because I was fighting with my mom. My last words to her were in anger about how she didn’t love me as much as she loved him. I was so wrong. When they broke the glass of my window to come in from the fire escape, I didn’t know what they were going to do.” My voice cracks as I get into the horror that I lived the night my mom died. Sobs rack my chest, and I struggle to maintain control as the fear envelopes me.

“Shhh… take a breath. In and out. I promise that no one will hurt you while I’m here,” she soothes in my ear as I try to hold the jagged edges of my broken pieces together. My breaths sync with the way she is rubbing my back until they are even.

“I heard them talk about how they wished I were an option for the night instead of my used-up mom. The feeling of a gun pressed to the back of my head will never leave me. They instructed me to walk with them into my mom’s room. When she turned on her bedside light, she was so shocked that she knocked the glass from her end table onto the floor, where it shattered. To get her to comply, they dangled my life in front of her while they raped and beat her. Covering her face with a pillow so that the neighbors wouldn’t call the cops and end their mission early.” The words feel like sand as they leave my lips for the first time since that night.

“They let you live through that?” she asked, shock evident in her voice.

“They wanted my dad to get a message from another family to force him to end the war,” I answered her, it was weird to explain that part so easily when I only just found out that part myself.