Chapter 70

                                    

                                          
"Are you sure you're ready for this baby? You say 'stop' and we'll stop, ok?" Mav asks, his brows furrowed in concern. Mav is always in control, but for the first time ever, he looks truly and utterly terrified. Not for himself of course, but for me. 
I shake my head, looking up at him with pure admiration. I love how he keeps me safe; it's not something many people have cared to do, so the fact that he values something so basic means the world to me. 
Talk about bare minimum. 
"I'm fine, I promise." I say loud enough for the rest of the brothers in the room to hear. 
There's been an obvious tension in the house all day. Actually, I don't think I've spoken to any of the brothers today other than our small interactions in the past ten minutes. 
We're all strung way to tightly to be calm. The restless energy has been building for months, and now, the night of nights has come. Will we finally be enough to put Marco in his place for good? 
All I can do is pray that their plan works. Pray that whatever information they got was accurate. Pray that none of the people I loved died in vain. 
Onyx is the first to move after Mav takes a step back, immediately crowding my space with his large presence. Just like the others, he looks concerned. 
"Ok, go through it for me one more time, Pip." Onyx commands, his voice betraying the emotion he tries to hide. 
Kai groans from his seat on the couch. "We've been over this a hundred time. Trust her. Trust that she knows what she's doing and she'll be safe." 
I give a small smile to Kai which he returns. He's always been one of my fiercest protectors, but in this moment I can help but preen at the fact that he's trusting me with this. 
The Valors are quick to forget that I have lived this life for a lot longer than they think. I've been put through the ringer, chewed up and spit back out. I've killed dozens of people without a second thought. 
This needs to be done, and I will give my life for this to be over. That's not something I've told the brothers, but I can see from the looks in their eyes they know it too. I think that is what scares them the most. The fact that I would die if it meant Marco would too. 
No matter what, they will always see that girl on the floor begging them to just kill her. They're petrified I'm going to fall back into it, and I can't promise them I won't. I've been through so much shit that dying pops into my head on a daily basis, and sometimes the thoughts of the brothers aren't enough to pull me back. 
Fuck, I really need to go to therapy. 
I give the men a smile before grabbing Mav's phone from his desk, the weight of it feeling like a slab of cement. It doesn't just weigh down my hand, but my heart as well. 
I want this to work, but the part of me that was imprisoned and conditioned by Marco is saying I can never beat him. 
Instead of snapping at that voice in my head, I marvel in it. I drown myself in the fear that I always had from him, and the thought that no matter where I ran he would find me. I sink into the feeling that I am safer with him and no one else. 
I become the 18 year old girl I destroyed so long ago.  
With a final deep breath, I bring up Marco's phone number–at least the one he called Mav on before–and hit the call button. 
I don't doubt that Marco will pick up. If he sees Maverick Valor is calling him after kidnapping his wife, he will answer angry and demand answers. 
Then, once he gets the answers, he'll throw them out the window, come in guns blazing, and kill every last person who had anything to do with taking me.