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I scurried back to the bedroom and closed the door, thinking, trying to make sense of it all. Should I call my sister and warn her about what I’d heard? Warn Luke? Or should I try to find out more first? See if Salvatore would tell me anything?
When a quick knock came, I jumped up, thinking it was Salvatore and that we could go. The door opened, but it was Dominic who stepped inside. He looked me over, his gaze odd, almost curious, but he remained at the entrance of the door.
“Hey,” he said casually. A smile curved his lips upward, his voice sounded almost sweet. Too sweet. “I wanted to see if you were okay. My brother can be a brute and, to be honest, it sounded like he wasn’t holding back last night.”
I flushed. Was he talking about the whipping or the sex or both?
“I…I’m fine.” I faltered.
He nodded and stepped inside. I didn’t like him, didn’t like the way his eyes shifted around the room and over me.
“I’m glad.” Again, his voice soft, his smile gentle. “If you ever need anything”—he grabbed a card out of his pocket—“this is my private number.”
“I don’t—”
“Just take it and hope you never have to use it. Like I said, my brother can be very physical. Brutal even. I’ve seen what he’s done before, Lucia. I’ve cleaned it up.”
What?
When I made no move, he closed the space between us, took my hand, turned it over, and pressed the card into my palm.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?”
I jumped at Salvatore’s sudden appearance, but Dominic only gave him a smirk and picked something out from under his fingernail.
“Just checking in on Lucia. Since she wasn’t feeling well and all. She looks good to me, though, considering.”
“Get the fuck out of here, Dominic.”
Dominic shrugged a shoulder and glanced back at me after taking a step toward the door.
“If you ever need anything, Lucia…”
“She won’t be needing anything from you.”
Salvatore stalked toward me, the look in his eyes chilling me as he squeezed my wrist and took the card from my hand. He didn’t look at it. Didn’t need to, I guessed.
Dominic walked out the door. Salvatore kicked it shut behind him, his hand still gripping my wrist.
“You’re hurting me, Salvatore.”
Anger, frustration, I don’t know what it was, but whatever he was feeling, it rolled off him and slammed into me.
“It seems that’s all I can do.” He dropped my wrist. “We’re leaving.” He grabbed the suitcases and walked into the hallway.
I followed him out of the bedroom, wanting to be away from this house most of all, yet fearing Salvatore. Uncertain now if would save me or destroy me.
We didn’t run into anyone as we left. Salvatore’s car waited just outside the front doors. The man who must have brought it around handed him the keys. Salvatore loaded the bags into the trunk and opened my door, not waiting for me to get in before he moved around to his side. He was clearly as anxious as I to leave.
We didn’t speak for the first twenty minutes of the ride back. Salvatore’s tension literally rolled off him.
“Dominic will fuck with you. You’re not to have anything to do with him, understand?” He didn’t look at me but kept his eyes on the road.
“Is that an order?”
That made him turn his head toward me. “Yes.”
“Or what, you’ll whip me again? Doors open this time?”
His grip on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles going white. “Don’t push me, not now.”
“What the hell happened back there?” His face tightened even more. “I heard, Salvatore. I heard you stand up for me. I heard your father lose his shit.”
“Then you didn’t learn your lesson about snooping.”
“I wasn’t snooping. I was coming down to have breakfast, show my face. Show him he hadn’t won.”
Salvatore snorted and shook his head, the smile that appeared on his face sad. “You don’t get it, Lucia. He always wins.”
“I told you before, everyone loses sometime.”
“Not Franco Benedetti.”
There was such a weight to him, to his words, that it made me sad. Just sad. But I needed to ask one more question. I needed to know one more thing.
“He said something about taking care of Luke.”
Salvatore gave me a sideways glance. He didn’t answer my question, but he sure knew how to distract me.
“I’m going to let you out of your contract. Once all is said and done, and I’m boss, you’ll be free, Lucia.”13SalvatoreI couldn’t win. No one could. What I said to her, I meant it. Franco Benedetti would win. And everyone else would lose.
Lucia went straight to her room when we got back to the house, and I shut myself up in my study. She hadn’t talked to me the entire ride. Probably pissed at me, which I expected. I would deal with that later, though, because as soon as I booted up my laptop, I saw an e-mail from Roman regarding Luke’s activities.
