Merciless Union by Faith Summers

1

Aria

People say fear is a state of mind.

They say you can overcome it if you try.

My fears usually live in the hidden crevices of my mind and come alive in my nightmares. Once I awake, I escape.

What is happening at my home, however, as I breathe, is real and not something I can control.

Men who have come to attack and kill walk the grounds of this place I called a prison not even a few weeks ago.

I’ve been trying my hardest to shove my fears to the back of my mind so I can calm myself, but I’ve never been so scared in my life.

Our guards are dead, and there’s no one to protect us.

Marylin and I have been hiding behind the bookshelf in the library for at least twenty minutes. This was the only place we could get to.

The goal was the garage, but we didn’t make it.

Now we’re huddled in the corner, hoping beyond hope Lucca will come.

He’s my last hope.

My husband.

So many terrible things happened in this house today and barely in the space of a few hours.

The day started beautifully.

Lucca and I got married yesterday.

Only yesterday, I walked down the aisle, and it felt like walking through the valley of the shadow of death. My enemies watched me take my stride toward the man I thought was my doom.

When he placed his ring on my finger, and we said I do, I trusted him. I also allowed myself to love him.

How could I not?

He was my Peter Pan boy from my dreams. When I woke this morning, I thought maybe I could be okay. I thought maybe I could get through this.

Then he went somewhere, and when he came back with knowledge of the vile truths of the past that my father killed his family, everything changed.

Lucca nearly killed me, but then he set me free–barely.

As I ran from him, I remembered the extent of my father’s evil, as the memory of my own shocking truth struck me like a bolt of lightning.

I remembered Dad telling someone to shoot my mother. While I couldn’t see who the shooter was, I saw my mother die. They shot her in her head, and then my father burned her body.

That was the same accident that took my memories of everything from my past. I don’t know what the truth is now, but I know which parts are lies. I was told my mother died in a fire and I was injured while trying to save her.

Lies.

All of it was fucking lies. Lies told to me by the man I trusted with my life—my father.

I hardly had time to process all of that before men stormed the house.

“Be still, dear,” Marylin whispers into my ear. Her words are in response to my chattering teeth.

I nod and try to gather myself. She just spoke to Lucca. He answered the phone, and I heard him say he was on the way.

Until he gets here, I can’t let myself crumble and allow these people to kill us.

Us?

I have a feeling this is about my father. I think he’s sent these men here to get me. It’s the only thing that makes sense. So, I don’t think it would be us they would kill. It would be Marylin, and they’d take me back to him.

Since I can’t allow either of those things to happen, I can’t fall apart. I have to focus on staying calm, staying calm until Lucca gets here.

I’ve been thinking about how these devils got in.

The grounds of the estate are heavily guarded, and there’s a security gate at the entrance where you have to put in your password, or the guards check you before entry.

To get on the grounds, you’d have to jump the walls, but even then, it would be difficult to get past the military-built guards protecting the house.

The roar of a motorcycle engine rips into my thoughts. I know that can only be one person—Lucca.

I’ve heard him riding on his bike, but I’ve never seen him. That sounds like him for the reckless, wild echo that ravages the silence.

“That’s Lucca,” Marylin whispers, helping me to stand.

She peers through the crack in the books and seems less tense than moments ago.

“Should we go out?”

“Wait.”

I hear the front doors open and recognize the footsteps of Lucca’s heavy boots walking through the foyer.

My heartbeat picks up, but I still try to calm my breathing and remind myself that I’m not weak. I’m not, and I won’t bow down to fear.

There are things I need to fight for: truth and freedom.

I don’t know if I have love anymore. Even if I did for the few hours I felt it, I don’t think it could survive the truth of what my father did to Lucca.

“Come, let’s chance it,” Marylin mutters, still keeping her voice low. “If we get to him, then we’ll all be able to get out together, and he won’t have to come into danger looking for us.”

“Okay.”

“Ready?”

“Yes, I’m ready.”

We move, and I summon every ounce of bravery to put one foot in front of the other.

As we step outside into the passageway that connects the library with the living room, the echo of a bullet makes me jump.

The sound came from inside the living room. The room that’s a breath away from us.

Marylin grabs my arm and holds me close against the wall.

“Why? When did you… switch sides?” I hear Lucca growl, and I know it was he who got shot. It’s the strained sound of pain rippling through his voice that moves me.

I rush toward the living room door, Marylin in tow, trying to stop me.

I can’t stop moving. Lucca was shot. My heart tumbles in my chest with panic and desperation with every hurried step I take.

“It’s not what you think,” someone who sounds like Jon, Lucca’s best friend, answers. “I’m so sorry, Lucca. You were like a brother to me, but you dug too deep.”

Marylin and I stop short when we see Lucca lying on the ground with blood pouring from his stomach. That’s bad enough. However, the sight of Jon standing over him with his gun aimed at him in one hand and a metal bar in the other makes my blood boil. That answers the question of how the men got on the grounds.

“Lucca!” I scream, and my eyes lock with his silver ones.

In that split second, as I look at him, memory hits me as clear as the image of him lying before me.

I remember the day I first met him. It was at music class. I heard him playing the piano. I was seven, and he was ten. He was playing that song that unlocked my heart.

Clair de Lune.

He offered to help me with my piano lessons so my mother would allow me to play the violin.

That was the moment we began. That was the beginning of our unexpected journey and an unexpected friendship that has lasted my whole life, even though he might not have always been with me. My accident might have robbed me of memories of the magic we shared, but I feel it.

That’s the first memory I’ve had of my childhood that wasn’t locked in a dream.

As the horror hits me that I’m watching him die, I try to get to him. Marylin holds me back, but I try to get away so I can save him.

“No, Aria, we have to get out,” Marylin urges.

“Lucca!” I wail.

“Go!” Lucca shouts to me, and his eyes roll back in his head.

“Come!” Marylin cries, and that’s when I realize if we don’t move, we’ll be next.

Shewill be next. I can’t allow her to die.

Just as Marylin gets me across to the door opposite, leading to the hall, Jon comes after us.

We break into a run, but we aren’t fast enough. Jon catches up to us in a heartbeat. We never stood a chance, even if we’d ran when we first saw Lucca.

I’m not sure if we would have had that chance if we’d stayed in the library.

He grabs me first and secures a strong arm around my middle.

The impact breaks Marylin’s hold on my hand, and she stumbles to the ground.

She turns to face him, and without a moment’s hesitation, he shoots her in her stomach.

Marylin and I both scream, but hers is one I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

It rises above mine and pierces through my soul. Then she crumples to the ground, her eyes fluttering shut.

I continue screaming, and tears pour from my eyes.

“Let go of me!” I thrash against Jon, but he’s like a robot.

He doesn’t answer. It’s like he’s lost his mind.

“Let go of me. You fucking bastard. How could you do this!”

His grip on my waist is so secured I can barely breathe.

He carries me toward the door, and it’s only when he reaches out to open it, I take the opening I see.

It’s his arm reaching out to unlock the door. As it goes up, I lunge forward and bite him hard.

He yelps, and his grasp loosens enough for me to slip out of his arm.

I manage two strides before he grabs me again, but my instinct to fight takes over. I grab the vase on the side table and hit him in his face so hard the glass shatters and cuts his skin.

“You will pay for that!” he growls, tightening his grip on my wrist.

I kick him, but it does nothing. Everything I do means nothing because I’m not strong enough to escape this man.

I can’t run away from him. Of course, I can’t. He’s like Lucca. Lucca’s right-hand man and head of security is not going to be a man you can easily escape.

He’s going to overpower you in every sense.

So, when he pulls out a syringe from his pocket and stabs me hard in my neck, I know not to be surprised.

Whatever he stabbed me with works straightaway. My throat closes, and I can no longer scream or talk. My mind tears apart, then my body goes limp. All I can do is stare at Jon as I go down.

“Good, finally, you are quiet,” he speaks.

“Why did you do this to us?” I manage through a bare whisper. I doubt he can hear actual words. But he can see my lips moving.

“That’s none of your concern.”

How could he betray Lucca like this? It doesn’t make sense.

Only days ago, I watched him take care of Lucca when he was injured. That was days ago, wasn’t it?

It was. It was five days ago. He brought Lucca home and carried him upstairs. The man wouldn’t leave Lucca’s side until the doctor assured him that Lucca was stable.

So why is he doing this?

Is he working for my father?

Is this even about Dad?

If it wasn’t, I think I’d get shot too, like Marylin and Lucca.

Jon has been here many times. Neither of those times gave anything away that he was a traitor.

As my brain checks out and my awareness fades, I see guards walking up to the door. Some of these men are Lucca’s. I’ve seen them before patrolling the grounds.

“Let’s go,” Jon orders. “Tell the boss we’re on our way, and I have the girl.”

Jesus…they were all working for him.

As Jon carries me away, I glance back toward Marylin lying on the ground, then to the living room where Lucca is.

I can’t see him, and as my vision fades, I can’t see anything more than darkness.

How strange, as the darkness takes me, I suddenly recall the journal entry I read from when I was sixteen. It was the gypsy warning that she saw darkness and death in my future.

She was right.