All Chapters of VELVET GUN: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

“They hold each other like war survivors like girls who have lost everything and found home in the ashes.”The house was dead quiet not the peaceful kind of quiet that settles after a long day, no. This one pressed on Amy’s ears like a coffin lid, heavy, final.She sat on the edge of her bed, hands clasped, cigarette burning low between her fingers and the smoke curling like a noose above her head. Sleep wouldn’t come, not after the night she’d had, not after staring down death itself and living to talk about it — barely if Ellie hadn’t been there… If Ellie hadn’t known how to shoot… If Ellie hadn’t pulled that trigger… They would’ve bagged her body and dragged it out the back door like any other casualty and the city would’ve moved on. Amy’s jaw clenched, the cigarette burned out in her hand. She hadn’t even tasted it, she stood slowly, walked to the cabinet and opened the liquor drawer with stiff fingers. Whiskey, the good kind, aged, burned on the way down but soothed something dee

“They lie in bed, breathing together just listening to the silence.”The sun was high now casting gold across every polished surface of the estate but inside, the air was slow and honeyed — thick with music, the scent of garlic and simmering tomatoes and the low hum of something deeper: peace. Ellie stood in the kitchen, barefoot in Amy’s oversized whitebutton-down. It hung off one shoulder, her thighs bare, her curls pinned back messily with one of Amy’s pearl hair clips. The sleeves were rolled halfway up her forearms as she stirred something in the saucepan — concentration in her brow, hipsswaying softly to the scratchy voice of Billie Holiday spinning on the gramophone in the next room.Amy leaned against the doorframe, watching God, she looked beautiful like that, not polished, not painted up like some doll for high society just herself, raw, real, unfiltered. Ellie turned and caught her staring “Stop looking at me like that.”Amy smirked. “Like what?”“Like you wanna devour m

“Fear is more stare to step closer into her eyes, she’s like the sun when it desires to scorch you , five million miles away from you”The days after the beating moved like molasses —slow, thick and heavy with unspoken things. Amy barely left the bed. Her ribs were cracked, her jaw swollen, her left eye ringed in purple and red. She couldn’t even stand without wincing and every time she coughed, Ellie looked like she was the onebleeding. Ellie was everywhere now — in the way the sheets were fluffed, in the soup that was always warm on the nightstand, in the coolcloths pressed gently against Amy’s face and every time Amy tried to sit up and mutter something like “I’ve got it, Ellie,” the girl would press her down with a hand to her chest and whisper shut up, let me.Ellie had changed. There was no more shaking voice, no more hesitation in her step. She moved through the halls like she’d been born in them,like her name had always been etched into the foundation. On the third day, she

“The storm that we thought was over, just begun. Love can be challenging at times, it tests waters. no.”The storm was coming, not outside — the skies were clear, stars burning cold — butinside the house, every room pulsed with tension. Amy moved through it like a ghost, wrapping gauze over her ribs, loading weapons, checking silencers. Every step brought a wince, everybreath was paid for. Ellie stood in the doorway, arms crossed, a storm in her chest. She didn’t say anything, just watched.Amy finally looked up, don’t just stand there, baby Say something. Ellie stepped in her voice was low, broken. I should be the one going, not you.Amy didn’t answer, she finished lacing her boots instead. Ellie’s voice rose, he’s sending you to die, Amy that’s what this is. You know that, right?Amy walked over, placed her hands on either side of Ellie’s face.“That man’s been trying to kill me since you were ten. This is just another version of it but i’ve survived every attempt. I’m not about t

“The days blurred, sunrise, sunset, silence. Ellie did not count them anymore.”FLASHBACK — DAYS EARLIERThe moment he entered the house, Ellie knew something was wrong. She saw him first — her grandfather, Giulia’s husband — tall, broad, dressed in gray with a stare like winter steel. He looked at Amy like she was dirt under his shoe.Amy, still healing, stood at the foot of the stairs. A robe clutched over her bruised body. Her posture was tall but her hands shook faintly. Ellie moved fast, stepping between them. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, she snapped but he didn’t speak, He lunged. Hit Amy once — hard — across the face, she fell. Ellie screamed, he went to hit her again. That’s when Ellie grabbed the small pistol from the hallway drawer and pointed it squarely at him.“Touch her again and I’ll put you down like a dog.”He froze.Stared at her — shocked.But not by the gun.By the tears in her eyes.By the loyalty.By the fire.He pulled back, didn’t say a word just l