AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My heart jackhammered against my chest as we turned onto the quiet road. The night was always the most dangerous time here, meaning nothing much was still open in East Haven this late except the few bars. Not many wanted to risk getting mixed up with the sordid business that happened after dark.
It wasn’t until Kellan pulled onto a side road that I was able to lift my gaze back to the mirror. Some of my anxiety washed away in the absence of the blacked-out car behind us, and I slumped back in my seat.
“We’ll be out of here soon,” Kellan reassured us, reciting the words we’d each repeated more times than I could remember. His knuckles stiffly gripped the steering wheel until we drove a few blocks farther without any sign of them. With a hitch of his breath, he flexed his fingers, clearly attempting to dispel some of his nervous energy.
Three more months and we’d be free of this hellhole. We just had to make it that long.
Chapter four
Giana
Now
Theafternoonsunbeamedthrough the window, beginning its descent in the early evening hours. Families strolled down the streets of downtown East Haven, indulging in ice cream from the local shop. Couples and groups of friends laughed and embraced while heading to the few restaurants and shops along the main road. The shops hadn’t changed much, though a few new ones had popped up here and there, new victims for the Barones to sink their teeth into after draining the last owners dry.
My stomach twisted as I realized what we were about to approach. Greg’s Diner … my parents’ diner. Chewing on my bottom lip, I debated turning before we reached the place that evoked so many memories, a place I vowed never to step foot in again. But I squashed down that thought, knowing my discomfort would only draw Tommaso’s attention, something else I really needed to avoid right now. Knowing him, he would ask the driver to pull over just to make me squirm.
The buildings slipped past my view, as though each were a second ticking away on a clock, shoving me closer to the edge. My chest tightened as we passed the last bar, leaving a clear view of the open parking lot just beyond it. I clenched the edge of the door, attempting to hide my reaction at the dilapidated exterior. My heart panged at the loss of a carefree childhood, of parents who weren’t able to care for me, and the friends I left behind. Pulling in a shuddering breath, I internally scolded myself at the show of weakness at that last thought. I rarely allowed them to cross my mind but seeing these familiar places had all the repressed memories rushing to the surface.
I felt no loss from the people that Greg and Pam were, only for who they could have been if it wasn’t for this town, for the Barones. They were on the list of people I wished I could never see again, right after Tommaso and his father. But East Haven was a small town and I was having serious doubts about my luck right now, especially after my hopes and dreams were crushed earlier today. I held on to the small sliver of defiance that remained, though that stemmed from my desperation to escape, to not become the lifeless being who was an empty vessel of the person I used to be.
The car came to a stop right outside the rundown diner, and I glanced up anxiously, checking to see if he was about to make me get out, but exhaled a sigh of relief at the red glow of the stoplight that must’ve been installed in the past six years.
“Do you want to go in?” Tommaso asked, his voice betraying the wry smirk on his lips. Schooling my face, I turned to him, realizing my mistake. He clasped my thigh, his thumb rubbing circles on the sensitive skin in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture. Bile climbed up my throat, but I pushed it down, willing my expression to remain void of any emotion.
“No,” I answered, my voice hard as I met his eyes, and his grin creeped wider, growing at the declaration.
“But, mi amore, we’re about to get married, surely you’ll want to invite them to the wedding,” he pried. But to my relief, the driver hit the gas the moment the lights turned green. The tension slowly seeped from my shoulders with each foot of distance we put between us and the ramshackle diner that I’m surprised was even still open. Greg and Pam had allowed the diner to go into disrepair over the years judging by the brief glimpse I got of the overgrown greenery, tilted flickering halogen sign, and thick layer of dirt coating the windows. I would’ve thought they’d have closed for good if it wasn’t for the few cars and movement I could make out through the streaked glass.
“They won’t be coming,” I muttered, slouching back in the seat. My legs spread wider with the movement, and he took the opportunity to slide his hand up farther, teasing closer and closer to my center.
It would be easy to let him take away the stress of seeing this town, to forget he was the reason we were back here. He knew every inch of my body, knew exactly how to make me weak. I could let him do it here and now, in the back of the blacked-out sedan like we’d done so many times before. A shudder ran over my body at his touch, both repugnance and longing swirling within me as my panties grew wetter. My body craved the oblivion he could bring me, the only thing he was good for in my opinion, the release of my pussy clenching around his fingers, imagining they were another’s.
But they weren’t. This was Tommaso, the man I’d just tried to escape from a few hours before. The man that could bring me both pleasure and pain. But was the ecstasy really worth it? Was it worth the mind-numbing soul-sucking nothingness I would be plummeted into if I continued down this road? Was it worth his wrath, his brutality? There’d only been two men before him that made me feel anything close to what Tommaso did but we hadn’t had a chance to explore that side of our relationship. But it gave me hope—hope that I could leave and find someone who both lit that fire within me but also was someone I could love. Because I’d never loved Tommaso.
So I closed my legs, swallowing thickly to clear my mind from the fog of lust that had settled over me. Tommaso released a derisive snort as his hand fell from my leg, a chill sweeping in at the absence of his touch. He shook his head in exasperation, but I didn’t miss the spark of excitement that lit in his eyes at the challenge. The look chased away any lingering passion I had, cold dread settling in my stomach instead.
“Really, Gi?” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, his fingers digging into my flesh until I leaned closer to him. I gingerly rested my head against his shoulder, my body rigid. “You’re really going to punish me after all that you’ve put me through today?”
“Punish you?” I asked incredulously, springing away from him as though flames had just sprouted from his skin, and his hand fell away. “You knew all along, you could have stopped me at any time. Instead, you chose to wait until I got to the airport and past security, just to show me how powerless I am—just to exert your control.”
I didn’t care if the driver heard us. I was done staying quiet and playing by his rules. I glared at him, my breaths coming out in quick pants from the rage burning inside me. I waited for him to say something, to scold me for speaking so loudly, to attempt to make himself look like the victim—anything. But a look of amusement was plastered on his smug face, declining to refute anything I just said.
“You used it as an excuse to move us back here, to tighten your chokehold on me.” My anger cooled as realization came crashing over me like a bucket of ice water, chilling me to my bones. “How long have you had this planned?”
“The past three years, ever since you graduated college,” he admitted, his chest puffing out with pride at his careful manipulation coming to light. “I increased the severity of your repercussions when you disobeyed me and gave you small opportunities, giving you the illusion that I wasn’t watching, hoping you would take one of them. But you never did … until now.”
“Why didn’t you just bring us back here then if that was your plan all along?” I pressed my body as far away from him as I could, my arm plastered against the tan, leather interior of the door. “Why bother waiting three years?”
“Because you needed to break, to see that there’s no running away from me,” he said casually with a shrug, reiterating what he had already said on the plane. His blasé tone grated on my nerves, but I wasn’t surprised, that was what his family did. If someone didn’t bend to their will, they broke them. He shook his head in disappointment, as though I should have already guessed that. “I had to finally get you to accept that you’re mine so that I knew you wouldn’t dare try anything here and embarrass me or my family.”
The car came to a stop just as his words trailed off. The light squeak of the brakes followed by the mechanical whirring of wrought-iron gates opening, signaling we’d arrived. I glanced up at the long cobblestone driveway stretching beyond the entrance, toward the towering mansion. The exterior was covered in stone, and knowing Tommaso and his family, it was most likely imported from Italy. A marble statue stood in the center of the roundabout, artfully carved bushes in the shapes of waves surrounding it. Light glinted off a metallic surface, drawing my gaze up to the entryway where a large door stood, which I could only assume had been honed from gold.
I pointlessly wondered how long it took him to have this built, but I didn’t want to know, not really. Because judging by the size and intricate details that were put into this place, it had to have been started before we even left for New York … six years ago, when I was only eighteen.
“We’re home.”
Home. That word hadn’t existed for me in over six years. And even then, no house had ever felt like home.
