Double Tap by Lani Lynn Vale Read Free Book Online

of the bed, and my upper body soon followed as my body hit the floor with a strong thump.
    My head slammed against the floorboards, but I had no time to react as I was dragged like a bag of trash down the hall and into the living room.
    I wasn’t screaming. I was trying to, but I couldn’t catch my breath.
    My father’s face looked thunderous as he threw me down onto one of the kitchen chairs. I ended up next to one of my brothers, and then my father bent down looping my hands together with one of his, and threading a zip tie around my wrists. He pulled it painfully tight, grabbed me around the shoulders, and sat me upright in the chair.
    My head was spinning as I started to struggle, but it was too late.
    He had my legs zip tied to the chair legs, surprisingly smooth for a man that I could smell the whiskey pouring off of him.
    That was when I finally looked around and saw all of my brothers in much the same predicament I was in. They were all strapped to the chairs, them with duct tape and zip ties instead of just the ties. They all looked incredibly frightened , and were looking at me to tell them what to do.
    “I don’t know,” I cried.
    Then my dad stopped and pulled a gun out of his shirt.
    “I don’t know,” I pleaded, shaking my head.
    Then he pulled it up and aimed.
    “I don’t know,” I whimpered.
    “ Mi, amor ,” Nico’s voice intruded in my dream.
    God, Nico. What do I do? My head thrashed back and forth as I tried in vain to get my hands free.
    “Georgia, despertar mi amor ,” Nico’s voice cracked through my horror like a thunderclap. “Wake up!”
    My eyes opened to find Nico over me in the bed.
    He was straddling my hips, and he was hunched over me. His beautiful brown eyes were wild as they stared down into mine.
    “You with me, Georgia?” He rasped.
    I nodded, “Yeah, I’m with you.”
    His head dropped so his forehead rested against mine. “Ten years off my life, niña .”
    I smiled sadly at him. “They never get easier.”
    ‘They’ meaning my dreams. They never lost their intensity. My dreams were vivid and real, and I relived the worst day of my life over and over again , when something triggered them.
    He shook his head. “No, they don’t.”
    His voice held the pain of a thousand sins, and I so desperately wanted him to know that he had helped me. That he was the one that made me live.
    “You know why I survived that night?” I asked, staring at his neck.
    He shook his head as my eyes closed and then reopened. A lone tear trailed down my face as I exhaled.
    “You taught me how to get out of cable ties. I watched you do that a hundred times when we were younger. I remembered your voice as I did it. I replayed exactly what to do a hundred times in my brain. I blanked out my thoughts, and just did it. It was your reassuring voice that got them out of the house alive. You’re the reason we’re all alive today,” I whispered brokenly.
    I saw the muscles of his neck work as he swallowed thickly. “That was supposed to be a party trick. I thought you’d find it cool.”
    I gave him a watery laugh. “Well, your party trick worked, and I’ll forever be grateful.”
    He leaned down and pressed those full lips against my forehead, then fell over to his side and gathered me into his arms.
    “So…obviously, I know not to wake you up by grabbing your ankle again,” he replied jokingly.
    I snorted. “Yeah, let’s not.”
    He stayed silent for a few moments, and my eyes started to drift closed, but his voice made me open them once again.
    “If you ever wake me up, make sure you don’t do it while standing over me. Do it, preferably, with a long stick by the doorway,” he said dryly.
    Or at least I thought he was kidding.
    “You’re kidding, right?” I asked.
    He smiled. “Sort of. Just don’t stand over me and you should be fine. Bennett tried that one night after I fell asleep at his place after a ball game. He got power slammed into his coffee table when he went to