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. Maybe because I need the release. “I will never become Dante’s again.”
He nods. “I wasn’t asking you to go back to Dante. I was asking you to be mine.”
“I don’t want to belong to anyone. I want to be free.”
“No one is ever free.”
Sadness. That is what I see, mixed with lust, in his eyes.
“I was.”
“No, you weren’t. You belonged to the rich, the powerful. You belonged to your family. You never belonged to yourself.”
“Why would I go with you? Why would I trust you? Last time you turned me over to Dante.”
“Last time I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t know what I was giving up. Now I do. I want you, Gia Carini.”
He knows my name, and it feels good to hear something other than cunt or whore. But he turned me over. He’s raped me before.
“You’re no better than him,” I say, unable to speak the devil’s name, or even think it for another second.
“No, I’m not better than him. In fact, I’m probably worse. I’m not saying I’m offering you deliverance. I’m not saving you. Just offering you a new master.”
He speaks the truth. Every one of his words. I believe him.
“What will happen if I go with you, Conti? Will you rape me, torture me, and beat me?”
His jaw twitches.
“Maybe. Maybe, I’ll do worse. And the name is Caspian. Conti is my father’s name.”
My face softens when I hear Caspian. I try to reread this man. Last time, I saw kindness. I saw hope. This time, I’m realistic. It wasn’t kindness I saw before. It was pain and sadness. I see it now. Now that I’ve felt it.
This man is broken, same as me. He’s not evil like Dante is. Caspian may not treat me well, but he won’t hurt me in the same way Dante did.
Caspian may rape me, hurt me, beat me, but not with the same hatred. Caspian’s rage comes from a place of pain. Pain can weaken, hate can’t.
“Choose Gia. The woods, where Dante will find you, or me.”
Nothing can be worse than Dante. I don’t trust Caspian, but I believe him. I don’t know what faces me, but I don’t have a choice.
“You.”
7
Caspian
I should be overseeing the security team. I should be at Dante’s house ensuring the system I set up is working flawlessly. I should be on the phone with Dante, schmoozing him, and making sure he thinks everything I’m doing is to make him more secure.
Instead, I’m standing at the edge of the woods, while the most entrancing woman I’ve ever met tells me she will come with me.
I shouldn’t be here.
I shouldn’t steal Gia.
It could ruin everything.
Gia isn’t the type of woman who is barely noticed. She blazes in, knocking down walls, and setting fire to everything in her path. Some people survive and are made stronger because she was in their life, but most dissolve into ashes.
