She exited the cellar and darted for the stairs, absently stepping over more broken stemware on her way up. When she got to the top, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The plate glass window had shattered and the street outside was a war zone. Several emergency vehicles were parked at crazy angles in the middle of the road, their lights flashing. People were shouting orders. Others were crying. Running.
Despite a light drizzle, a thick layer of smoke and dust hung in the air. The Grape and Bean awning was tattered and hanging by just a corner. It appeared as though all the businesses on both sides of the street had been affected, with the club across the street suffering the most damage. The whole front facade was gone, reduced to rubble.
God, how long had she been stuck down there? On one hand, it had seemed like hours, but in reality, it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Had Marco and the customers gone outside to see what had happened?
She was dimly aware that her phone was ringing from somewhere behind her. It was her mother’s distinctive ringtone. With shaking hands, she found her purse. It took three tries to hit the Talk button.
“Mom?”
“Liv! Are you all right? Oh my God, I’ve been trying to reach you.”
At the sound of her mother’s voice, Olivia choked. Rather than anchoring her and giving her strength, it reminded her that she was barely holding herself together. Struggling to get herself under control, she wished she’d have thought to answer her mother via text instead. That would’ve been much easier. The urge to get outside and see if anyone needed her was almost unbearable.
“A little shaken up. What about you?”
“Me? I’m fine.” Her mother sounded confused as well. “What are you talking about?”
“Aren’t you home? Didn’t you feel it?”
Just then, a man stumbled on the sidewalk in front of the Grape and Bean, his face covered in soot. “Mom, I’ve got to go. It’s chaos around here.”
“Wait. Don’t go do anything foolish. I’ve seen the video feeds. There are people injured everywhere. Leave things to the first responders.”
It shouldn’t surprise her that this would be her mother’s reaction. Olivia usually kept a low profile, but she’d messed up when David had discovered her secret. After that, her mother’s admonitions had become routine. Don’t do this. Watch out for that. Like she’d screw up again if her mother weren’t there to remind her. Well, she wouldn’t. A lesson learned the hard way made a bigger dent in future behavior than a lifetime of nagging ever could.
“But—”
“I’m serious, Liv. Let them handle things. That’s what they do. You cannot jeopardize yourself and risk them finding out about you.”
Given that she was twenty-seven years old, she didn’t need her mother to worry about her. “Mom, I’ll be careful.”
“Careful? Well, you weren’t careful with that fighter guy.” She never called David by name. It was always that fighter guy. “Whatever you’re planning to do, don’t do it, Liv. I’m serious. You can’t ever forget what happened to your brother.”
Her mother’s voice faded in her ear as Olivia eyed an overturned wine rack on the far side of the tasting room. Was that a shoe lying next to it? Dread soured her stomach like a shot of vinegar. It was Marco’s. At some point, she must’ve ended the call because her phone was now in her pocket as she ran over.
The heavy wooden wine rack, the one he’d just imported, lay over the upper half of his body, a large pool of blood spreading out from underneath. She couldn’t see his face, but she’d seen enough. She didn’t have to take his hand to tell that he was dead. His essence was gone, untethered from his body, his life energy too far dissipated for her to pull it back together again. No wonder she’d assumed he’d left the store.
Clapping a hand over her mouth, she scrambled away until she tripped over something and fell to her knees. Marco was a good man. What would his family do without him? Faded images of her father crashed into her head. He hadn’t been ready to die, either, on that fateful day when the army showed up and took her brother.#p#分页标题#e#
Run. She had to run. As far away from the death and destruction as possible. She couldn’t bear to be around it without being able to do anything. If she tried, people would see her and know what she was. Her brother’s fate would be her own.
A soft scraping noise, different from the pandemonium outside, sounded behind her. She spun on her toes, instinctively getting into a defensive position, legs shoulder-width apart and slightly scissored, the heel of her hand cocked back.