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“You see what I mean!” Mira exclaims, and I quickly divert myself back to her with brows raised and an open mouth, for you know, effect.
“Hey, can we have an early night? There’s somewhere I’ve got to go.”
Mira deflates but picks up her glass and swirls around the red liquid. “Okay, fine.”
I quickly push up from my chair, pay the bill, and head straight for the door.
I slide into my car, fire it up, and drive onto the main road that leads me right to the very street I never would have found myself driving down. Am I really going to test Luca? Yes. Luca is a monster, I know that, but I also have to find a way to escape his grip. He owns everything that is in my life. My school, home, everything. When Niko came back, I thought I could work Luca’s manipulations in my favor, but as usual, Niko is ten steps ahead of everyone—and more than that. He seems… different. In a way that also makes me uncomfortable.
I leave the stereo off, needing the natural sounds of tires rolling against the asphalt and the light exhaust of the V8 engine beneath my hood.
I kill the lights when I hit the road that leads down the gravel, my stomach rolling with every mile that I get closer. I know the road has nothing and no one on it but a straight line to the Cathedral, but that still doesn’t make driving in pitch-black conditions any easier.
I slam on my brakes and let out a deep breath, my heart palpitating in my chest. “Get it together.” There’s no way they’re going to let me through the gates if I come up looking shady as hell. I need to look like I’m trying to find Luca—yes. That will get me into the gates.
I flick the lights on and scream when I see Luca standing in front of the car, holding a long machete that he has strapped around his hand.
I shove the car into reverse and floor it backward, only I choke on my seat belt when I hit something. I turn to see Luca’s truck parked behind me. Panic grips me around my throat when I realize he must have been trailing me with his lights off the entire time. Luca has always been abusive, but I’ve conditioned myself to put up with it. If I only don’t upset him, the worst he will do is beat me.
By the time I turn back to the front of the car, Luca is beside my driver’s window. He punches his elbow through the glass and reaches inside to grab my hair.
“Luca!” I scream, but sharp glass shards slice my legs as he yanks me through the window and throws me onto the ground.
“I knew you’d come back here, Meraki. What were you doing, hmmm?”
His hand is on my throat and all oxygen sources disappear, my face swelling as he raises me to my feet. Blood pours down my legs as I dig my nails into the skin of his arms. There’s a tree behind Luca’s frame, thick with fat branches growing off, but every time I try to keep my eyes open, black patches come in and out.
Finally, he releases me and I fall to the ground, wheezing while exhaling air that I thought I’d never feel again. My lungs burn like acid as I reach for my throat, desperate to open it up further.
“You wanna see what’s in those houses?” Luca says, grabbing me up to my feet once again by a fistful of hair and throwing me into the back seat of my car. I’ve never been inside the houses until today with Lana. Maybe that’s why I’ve become obsessed with saving them all. I always knew what they had to go through, but I’d never been confronted with it the way I was today. Another door slams before the car is flying forward and tears sting the corners of my eyes. I’ve done it this time. I’ve officially tipped him way over the edge that I have always been so desperate to keep him away from.
“You’re getting your wish, baby. That’s going to be your new home now.”
The car stops, doors open, and then a hand is wrapped around my ankles and I’m being dragged out of the back seat. Leather tears at my breasts until I’m airborne and slap. I hit the gravel ground with a thud, my lips and head vibrating with pain as blood fills my mouth.
Flipping around, I throw my feet out until one hits the center of Luca’s crotch. Fear scratches its way down my spine when I fist a handful of loose gravel in my palms, rolling to my side. A heavy foot collides with my ribs and my eyes roll to the back of my head as pain radiates all the way down my pelvic bone.
