Page 36 of Burning Bridges

Big strong arms wrap around me and lift me off the ground. I try to pull out of his grip and run away from him, but it’s no use. Tony is so much bigger than I am and built like a brick wall. If he wants to stop me, he will. “Please, Tony, let me go, I can’t stay here,” I cry, tears streaming down my face.

He turns me in his arms so he can look down at me, wiping away the droplets. “Piper, we're all worried about you. Mom is going out of her mind. This might seem extreme to you, but you need to understand. Since, well, since that night, you haven’t been the same, and we just want to help you.”

I stare back at him, knowing he’s right. I’m not the same girl I used to be. I will never be the same again after what happened. I’m broken. “Staying in a mental hospital won’t help me,” I try pleading with him. “Let me come home with you and we can find a therapist there. You have one. I can see her, can’t I?”

“It’s not a mental hospital. It’s the best health retreat money can buy. Think of it as a holiday, Piper. One where you will be able to heal and come home better than ever. You can also get away from our house and Dad. This is the best thing for you,” he tells me like a warning. He thinks I need space from my father before the situation at home worsens. And I’m sure he is correct.

He's the only one who knows what happened that night and why I’m so angry. So furious that the man who is supposed to look after me and protect me would let something so awful happen and do nothing to stop it. If Tony didn’t come to my rescue, it would have been worse, I’m sure of it.

From behind me I can hear Mom and the psychologist have caught up with us. My scared eyes beg him to take me home. I don’t want to stay here. Yes, over the last two years things at home have gone from bad to worse, but at least I know what to expect at home. Here I have no idea what’s going to happen to me. I’m too fragile to stay, there is no way I will cope.

“This is the type of behavior I was telling you about,” my mother tells the doctor, her voice thick with frustration toward me. She’s had enough, and I know she is on my father’s side. Everyone always is. In our family you don’t get a lot of choice. It’s his way or you suffer the consequences. My mother knows that better than anyone. The black eye she is sporting behind her thick concealer would tell the story for her if anyone cared enough to take notice, but they don’t. Everyone is too scared of my father to even ask.

The doctor has a kind face and looks at me like she wants to help, but I don’t trust her. People can change in a split second, and maybe this is just an act to get them to leave me here. Then when they're gone, she will turn on me.

Tony's grip on my arms feels like a vice; he’s scared to let me go in case I flee again. And he should be. All I want to do is run. I tried again yesterday, and that’s why I’m here. They both think I’m crazy. The only two people I care about in this world think I’m losing my mind, but really, I’m the only normal one in my family. It’s them who have all lost their minds to be putting up with the abuse my father throws at us.

“Piper, if you can’t do this for yourself, do it for her,” he says, looking at our mother. I know he's right, I should do it for her. She is trying to help in the only way she knows how. She’s caught in the middle. That’s the only reason I’m here, because she knows if she and Tony return home with me and have to explain to my father I tried to run again, he will probably kill me this time.

My heart races so fast in my chest I feel dizzy. I don’t want to stay here with these strange people. “What if something happens to me because you’re not here,” I whisper to him. I have come to rely on my brother. He is the only one who can protect me from Dad and anyone else he lets in our house.

“Piper, you're stronger than you think. You don’t need me. You are safe here, I promise you.” I feel the lady's arms around me pulling me away from him as he and my mother get farther away from me, fading until there is nothing left of them. Just her, the doctor, telling me everything is going to be okay. But it’s not. I will never be okay again.

I wake up in a hot sweat, panic racing through me like I’m back there being abandoned by my family. I feel the spot next to me and realize Hannah is with me. We must have both fallen asleep watching the movie she picked out this afternoon. I pull the covers over her, making sure she's warm enough, then turn over, trying to calm myself down.

I hate those dreams, they stay with me. My head swirling with thoughts of the past again, that dream taking me back years. It's probably the time I've been spending with Leo that set it off. And the mention of the Kings. The day I got that letter from their gang, these nightmares started again. After years of calm. Some of the dreams are like this one, me being abandoned in a mental hospital when I was just seventeen. Others are worse, when I relive how I ended up there in the first place. Before this week, I hadn’t had a dream about any of it in so long, but now I can’t stop thinking about what happened to me.

My stay in that hospital might have worked out to be a blessing, crafting me into the strong, resilient woman I am now. It was actually the only decent thing my mother ever did for me. The only time she protected me from him. But the nightmare of being left there by the only two people in this world that I trusted still haunts me. I had been through the worst two years of my life. Firstly, working out exactly who my father was and just how evil being the boss of a mob organization allowed him to be. After I found out, I tried to run the first time. My plan was to skip town and start over where no one knew who I was, but I didn’t get very far. My father found me and dragged me home to face my punishment. He made sure I would be too scared to ever think about running again. But I did. I kept trying, hoping I would eventually escape my life. But look at me now, thirty-one and still stuck in it. Still following my brother’s orders. Living in this old, haunted house.

I’m obligated to help my brother, I really am. He was the only one helping me. After I came home, he started to look out for me even more. I don’t know what would have happened to me if he hadn’t. I was lucky to have him around. It’s why I have to help him now when he needs me. I have no idea how much trouble he's in, but for him to have faked his own death, I can only imagine it was bad, and for him to show his face again now, it’s going to wreak havoc on this town.

I already know Leo won’t forgive me for hiding this from him, but what choice do I have? He would do the same for his brothers, I know he would. But it doesn’t stop the guilt that’s eating me alive every time I’m with him. At first, I let myself get swept up in the moment. Lost in his dark eyes and the silent promises he whispers, offering me something better than what I have now.

Leo’s still in denial. He proved that last night after the fight. It’s so obvious how he feels about me, but when I tried to call him out on it, he shut me out again. The truth is, I would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. I can try and tell myself it’s about sex all I want, and so can he, but I know the truth. I have always wanted Leo, and he wants me, and now I’ve started this thing with him. I already know there is no way I will be able to walk away when the time comes. And it will come. I will have to choose between the man I know I’m falling for and my brother. I’m so torn. Trapped. And it makes me want to run more than ever before.

My phone rings, and I see it's Tony. I scramble out of bed quickly, hoping not to wake Hannah. I slip into the living room. “Hello,” I whisper.

“What can you tell me? What happened at the fight?” He says it like he might already know something.

“Not a lot. Something was supposed to go down, but it was uneventful in the end. But I think you're right and the Stones and the Riveras are working together.” I could tell him the rest of what Axel told me, about Leo trying to fix up this town and right all the wrongs the Acevedos have done over the years, but for whatever reason, I choose to keep that part to myself.

“Hmm. You’re hiding something from me,” he accuses.

“I’m not,” I snap back, trying my best to stick up for myself.

“Okay. Do something for me. Cause a little Piper trouble between the brothers, see how tight this new bond really is. I’m sure you still have some influence over Axel. Show him what he’s missing out on, and he might just want you back.”

I think over what he is asking of me, and the old me would have agreed and gone along with whatever crazy plan he had, but I’m tired of this. I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. Axel is happy, and honestly, the last thing I want is to cause trouble for him or anyone else. “I can’t, Tony, not this time.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. No more games. I’m done,” I say, sounding a little braver than I actually feel. He might have saved me all those years ago, but things have changed so much since he left. I can’t keep up this act for him.

“I decide when you're done, little sister. And we're not done. Do what I’m asking or see what happens,” he warns.

“Are you threating me?” I stutter, surprised he would turn on me so quickly.

“Nope, just making sure you know the consequences if you don’t comply. Me and the other boys have it all sorted on our end, and we're getting very close to taking back everything that’s ours. I just need this one little thing from you.”

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