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My blood pounds hard in my ears. “What are you talking about?”
Lorenzo pulls that hateful knife out of his jacket and leans down to Griffin.
“No—” I start to say, thinking he’s going to stab Griffin with it, but he grasps the sleeve of Griffin’s leather jacket and slashes it open.
He straightens up and points to a tattoo on the boy’s forearm. “He’s a Geak, you fucking moron. Do you know what they do to women when they want to send a message to the man who owns them?”
“No one owns me,” I say automatically, but I’m staring at the gothic letter G inked into Griffin’s arm. I was never close enough to Griffin when his arms were bare, but would I have recognized this tattoo for what it is? I barely know anything about the Geaks except that they’re a gang that’s sometimes mentioned in the news.
Jax. That was the name of the person Griffin called. “Who else is in the Geaks?”
“A bunch of lowlife scum,” Vinicius replies.
“Names,” I demand.
“It’s not like we’re mutuals on fucking Instagram,” Lorenzo growls. “He’s got a Geak tattoo on his arm. What more do you want?”
“All I know is they’re led by a guy called Jax,” Vinicius says.
I suddenly feel like Lorenzo is leaning on my windpipe. Jax. That deadpan voice on the phone. Griffin was taking me to him.
“Is that enough proof, princess? How about this?” Lorenzo raises his foot from Griffin’s throat. “How many of your buddies has Mayor Romano put in prison?”
“Seven,” Griffin rasps, his eyes full of hate as he glares at me. “This cunt deserves to be fucked with a broken bottle in every ho—”
Lorenzo draws his foot back and kicks Griffin viciously in the head. I stare at the boy as he writhes on the bloodied concrete.
Slowly, Cassius releases me and places his hands on my shoulders. “Bambina. Go back to my car while we take care of this. You shouldn’t watch.”
The last thing I want is to watch them torture someone to death, but I need to understand.
“Griffin, you were really going to…” I can’t bring myself to repeat the horrible things he spewed, “hurt me just because some of your friends were put in prison? I didn’t do anything to you or them. I can’t control who the courts convict.”
“This isn’t about you, you stupid bitch,” Griffin wheezes, spitting blood.
“So why bring me into it?”
Lorenzo answers for him. “It’s about your father. Right now, you belong to him and you’re fair game for anyone who wants revenge against the Mayor of Coldlake. Killing you is punishing him. Later, you’ll be targeted by anyone who wants revenge against Salvatore. That’s why we—” He breaks off and glances at the others, and then growls, “Never fucking mind. Go back to Cassius’ car. We won’t tell you again.”
The sound of an engine roars along the street and a vehicle screeches to a halt. A car door slams, and then a tall, broad-shouldered figure in a dark suit comes stalking across the lot with murder in his eyes.
No one speaks. Even Griffin has stopped moving.
Salvatore stops a few feet away and glares at each of his former friends. At me. At the bloodied boy lying on the concrete. And finally, the ornate G inked into his arm.
His hands curl into fists and he growls, “How did this happen?”
Vinicius is the one to speak up. “Your promised bride sought to do something about her virginity with a cute, harmless boy who’s been, what?” He glances at me. “Walking you home from school?”
I wince. Oh, Jesus Christ. I thought Vinicius, Cassius and Lorenzo were following me because I dared to get into a car with a strange boy, when they were actually freaking out because I was in a car with a Geak, someone they knew wanted me dead in the most horrific way. They saved me, and now everyone knows about my humiliating plan.
“He—Griffin—has been following me. We spoke a few times, and today he was waiting at school for me.”
“You’ve been stalking her?” Salvatore snarls at Griffin.
I wait for all four of the men to give me looks of loathing for being so stupid, and for attempting to have sex with a complete stranger, but all their venom is reserved for Griffin.
“Get him on his feet,” Salvatore says. Vinicius and Lorenzo haul Griffin up by his armpits as Salvatore takes his jacket off and rolls his sleeves back to his elbows. He takes his time about it, but his jaw is flexing like crazy.
