AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I only agreed to a date, Tommaso. That’s it,” I said hoarsely, trying to inject as much conviction as I could into my voice, but it was no use. Both he and I knew it was pointless for me to protest—he was a Barone and they always got what they wanted. And if they didn’t, they left bodies in their wake as an example to the next person.
“You and I both knew it was so much more than one date. Stop being so naïve, it isn’t a good look on you,” he scolded, shaking his head in disappointment. “A man doesn’t wait two years for one date.”
I bit back the sob that threatened to rack my chest, knowing it would only bring him some sort of sadistic enjoyment. This had been two years in the making. It didn’t matter what any of us did, he was always going to find some way to make me his. I knew that before the fight two years ago, and Merrick had known it too. It was why he fought him that day, to teach him a lesson—but no one taught the Barones anything.
“Ah, you’re finally understanding.” He grinned, realization clearly evident in my features. “But just in case you don’t understand just how serious I am—”
His words cut off and he took a step back, pulling a phone from his pocket. He tapped it a few times before turning the screen to face me. It was a live feed of both Merrick’s and Kellan’s houses, their parents’ cars parked in the driveways. The Chevy Impala cut through the shot and pulled into Merrick’s driveway where the two men climbed from the front and back seats.
“Stop.” The unbidden word slipped from my lips before I could clamp down on it. He turned off the screen much to my surprise and slipped the phone back into his pocket, his eyes brimming with triumph.
“In case you didn’t catch the clear threat there, I’ll kill them both, their families, and yours if you don’t come with me.”
“I know,” I grumbled, anger boiling in my veins.
“Now, now, it doesn’t have to be this way,” he cooed, stroking my cheek lightly. “I know you, Giana, we spent enough time together before I graduated. I know what you want, what you crave, and I can give it all to you.”
My throat bobbed as I looked back at him. It wouldn’t be the same as a new start with my guys, but this was my life now. The one I’d only ever dreamed of had been dashed away the instant I’d spotted Tommaso on my porch. I’d hoped it would be as simple as making sure the date went poorly, trying to convince myself everything would work out in the end … but it wouldn’t. In this world the villains always got what they wanted, no matter the cost.
Resigned, I nodded, not wanting anyone else to get killed for my mistakes. Because I knew even if I ran, if I resisted in this moment, he’d kill them and take me against my will. And not just my guys, Merrick’s mom, who was too sick to leave her house most days, Kellan’s parents, struggling to keep their bookstore afloat to keep their house. My own parents … who although we didn’t have the best relationship, didn’t deserve to die. And it would all be because of me.
Pain sliced through my chest as I remembered last night, at what the three of us almost had. That morsel of everything I’d ever wanted with them. It was so close it was almost in my grasp. But my own mistakes as a sixteen-year-old girl with a crush on the eighteen-year-old crime heir was the undoing of us all.
I’d always liked Merrick and Kellan, but at that point I was convinced they’d never see me as more than a friend. So when Tommaso and I had been paired together on an assignment in one of my advanced classes, I’d flirted, attracted to the darkness that surrounded him and his family, not thinking about the consequences. I’d quickly shut it down, but it had sparked an obsession in Tommaso, one he’d never gotten over apparently. And when Merrick caught wind of it, he’d taken matters into his own hands, and almost got killed because of it.
All because of me. My jealousy, my naïve belief I could just walk away from a man like Tommaso. At the end of the day, it was all my fault. And this was what I deserved for it. At least I’d gotten a taste of how things could be before it was snatched away from me, the cold weight of reality settling on my shoulders in its place.
“Good.” He grinned, his eyes sparkling with delight at the defeat that slumped my shoulders, sensing he’d won, that I’d lost my will to fight and was at his mercy. “Now go pack whatever things you need. You’ll be staying at my parents’ house until graduation, and right after we’ll be leaving for New York.”
My brows creased and a flicker of fight lit within me, but I pushed it down, knowing it would do no good to argue with him over this. There was a reason he was standing outside my house all night, and this was it. This would be the last time I saw Merrick and Kellan, that brief kiss goodbye wasn’t nearly enough, but graduation … What the hell would I do when I saw them there? Panic bubbled up in me, but I refused to let it show.
“Fine,” I grumbled and went to stomp past him, but his hand clasped around my wrist and pulled me to a stop.
“I could do without the attitude, mi amore,” he purred, his hand tightening uncomfortably around my wrist. “We’re going to spend our lives together; we should at least make it enjoyable.”
My breaths came in ragged pants as I pushed down the flames of anger burning brightly inside me. It wouldn’t do any good to piss him off, not now, not when the phrase “rest of our lives” echoed in my mind. So I looked back at him and pulled a mask over my face, nodding as though I was perfectly fine leaving with him, perfectly fine with living the rest of my life by his rules and at his side.
“Good,” he sighed, his fingers slowly uncurling from my wrist. I turned back to the house, willing my steps to be calm and steady, grateful he didn’t follow me inside. There may still be some way I could leave without my parents noticing me if too much time hadn’t passed yet. I could just leave them a note explaining as much as I could. Because I guaranteed with one mention of the Barones they wouldn’t argue, they wouldn’t call, wanting to get as far away from any tie to that family that they could … unless it benefited them of course.
I pulled the key from my pocket and unlocked the door slowly, attempting to be as silent as possible. But when the door creaked open, light filtered out from the kitchen, hushed voices audible even from the doorway.
I pulled in a deep breath and stepped inside, letting the door close behind me. I winced at the click in the latch knowing that the nearly silent sound would draw their attention. And sure enough, just as I’d predicted, the two of them came storming out already dressed in their usual black slacks and button downs they wore to work.
“Why the fuck is a Barone outside our door?” my mother screeched, storming over to me. My hands fisted at my side, nails biting painfully into my palm as I tempered my own rage. No concern at all for their daughter—no, only fear for themselves, that’s how it had always been.
“You don’t need to worry about it,” I huffed, dropping my bag by the door as I strode passed them to the stairs.
“What do you mean we don’t need to worry about it? He’s outsideourhouse. He wokeusup in the middle of the night looking foryou,” Greg ground out, wrapping a meaty palm around my bicep and pulling me to a stop. “Where the hell were you anyway?”
“Get your hand off of me,” I seethed, glancing back over my shoulder to pin him with a glare. My life had been completely shattered already. Tommaso had already grasped me like I was a possession, rather than a person, and I couldn’t handle it if someone else did it too.
“You’re still our child. We’ll tell you what to do,” he grumbled, but his hand let go, apparently satisfied that I would stand there and endure them berating me for something I had no fucking control over.
My actions may have caused this shitstorm, and I held myself partially responsible, but no one should obsess over someone for this long—no one should force someone else to be with them when they so clearly didn’t want anything to do with them, when they, as he’d put it, came back “freshly fucked” by two men who were not him.
“Oh, so you did completely forget it was my eighteenth birthday yesterday,” I huffed out in disbelief. I’d thought they just hadn’t bothered to mention it, not that they’d completely forgotten what yesterday was.
“Nobody cares that it was your birthday, you little bitch,” Pam seethed, stepping closer to me. My hands shook at my sides with the effort it took not to do something to keep her away with the vindictive glint shining in her eyes. “I care that you brought trouble to our doorstep.”
