AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That was the last straw for me. He threatened to come after everyone related to me, even tangentially so. Which means people like Grace, who only cook and do some light kitchen clean up for me, are constantly being pulled over for minor traffic violations or just because an officer wants to fuck with me.” Last month Grace went through a yellow light just as it turned and she was given a ticket. I paid it before she was sent a bill, but I shouldn’t have had to.
“Grant has made it his life’s mission to give me hell, so I decided to give it right back to him. What would cut him off at the knees?” I look Calliope up and down as she shoves a forkful of waffle into her mouth. “Having to regard me as family. That’s where you come in.”
She nearly chokes on her food. Calliope is laughing as she tries to chew and swallow what’s in her mouth. “You thought you’d use me to get back at my father?” She snorts again in an unattractive manner. “You wasted your time then. I ran away years ago and he hasn’t given two shits about me since. Unless he found me on the streets, of course,” Calliope mumbles. “Then he’s all too happy to scoop me up and take me to jail for the night for vagrancy.”
And somehowI’mthe bad guy. “Not anymore.” I ball my hands into fists and have to talk myself off a ledge. I half consider driving down to the police station right now and giving Chief Jackson a piece of my mind. But I’m aiming to get my revenge, not immediate but underwhelming gratification for knocking his teeth in. I want to see him squirm for the rest of his life the way he’s trying to make me. “You’ll never be homeless again, Calliope.”
She isn’t phased by the promise. Instead, she takes a couple more bites before responding to me. “All I’ve done is trade one prison for another, Raniero. I was finally making something of myself before you came along. I might have endured another cycle of poverty eventually, but maybe I wouldn’t have. Maybe I would have been fine on my own.”
It’s her first outburst since I pulled out the gun at her open house. It isn’t much, but it shows me that she has a fighting spirit. She had been barely scraping by for years, but Calliope still believed that she would change her fortunes one day. “Maybe,” I agree with her carefully, “but now you don’t have to find out. You are mine now, Calliope, and I will do whatever I want with my property. Including breed it, marry it, and use it for revenge.”
8
CALLIOPE
Begrudgingly I must admit that the grounds are stunning. I looked out my bedroom window for a while yesterday while waiting for dinner to roll around and I was given an ample view of the gardens. From up above, I could see that the carefully planted flowers and bushes formed a maze that lead to a water fountain in the center. A marble statue stood proudly, water gushing from its teats. It was a reminder of fertility.
Since I was on the side of the house that faced away from the lake, Raniero offered to take me on a walk after breakfast. If I had known what was going to happen, I would have worn something more suited for the sun. Instead, I roasted alive under the ubiquitous rays of the heat on my black pants.
Unfortunately, humiliation was back on the table. Before we left the mansion, Raniero stopped me at the front door to put a collar around my neck. It fit snugly against my throat and had a metal ring that he positioned just under my chin. A few moments later, I found out why.
“I don’t want to risk you running away,” he said with a smile as he clipped a leash to the ring. “Now if you try, I’ll be able to stop you in your tracks.”
It was bad enough that he’d made me crawl on my hands and knees the night before. Like a dog, he fed me table scraps as I knelt at his side. He continues that treatment today, walking me like a bitch in heat.
But it is nice to be outside. The windows in my bedroom don’t open; I tried to get through them last night. I might have been on the second floor, but I would have risked a broken leg to escape.But escape back to what?The little voice in my head asks. And I know that she’s right. I could return home if I wanted, but I wouldn’t be returning to much. An apartment with minimal furniture and more food than clothes. A friendless existence because I couldn’t afford to go bar hopping or wine tasting with my coworkers. Wondering when the other shoe was going to drop and I was going to lose it all.
“—and then we’ll get married,” Raniero says, pulling me out of my trance.
My head snaps to the side to look at him with a frown pulling across my features. “What did you say?”
He tuts his tongue at me and pulls on the thin, black leash attached to my collar. If I tried to escape, it wouldn’t stop me, but it would certainly slow me down. “Pay attention when I speak to you, Calliope.”
I guess I should be thankful that he hasn’t raised a fist at me yet. Or taken the belt off of his pants and started beating me across the back with it. My father did both when I was younger. His actions drove me to rebellion and then, ultimately, to running away. “Sorry,” I mumble my apology to Raniero, “I won’t do it again.”
His face softens and he gives my leash some slack. I use it to walk a step ahead of him while taking in the view. The lake is a few hundred yards ahead, but we’ll never reach it. Instead, a gate has been erected around the edge of the property. Black metal bars stand ten feet tall with enough space to allow my arm through but nothing else.
“My grandparents bought this land over a century ago.” Raniero comes up to stand beside me when I stop walking. As I glance over at him, I notice that his facial hair is more gray than black, a sign of aging. “They passed it on to my parents and they built a home here. I’ve always lived here,” he says with a hint of nostalgia in his tone. “My brothers and I grew up throwing rocks at the lake’s shore and playing tag in the garden. Mother hated it, but she never stopped us.”
When you’re in a hostage situation and the kidnapper has a gun to your head, you’re supposed to make yourself memorable. You recite facts about your life like how many kids you have at home and what you do for a living. You make yourself someone that the kidnapper can’t forget because they’ll be less inclined to kill you.
Though I’m not holding a gun to Raniero’s head, he seems to be parceling me information as if I were, as if to endear himself to me. He seems less like the dark, dangerous figure that kidnapped me on a Sunday afternoon and more like a human being. It makes this feel more like a date than what it truly is.
“Where are your parents now?” I ask after a few moments. I shouldn’t. I should keep my mouth shut and pretend not to hear him. The less I know about Raniero Valenti, the more I can hate him. But a few of my father’s well-intentioned life lessons, albeit executed poorly, sunk in over the years. I am respectful to a T, always.
Raniero turns to face me and I catch a glimpse of his dark, beautiful eyes. A flicker of intimacy mixes with the cruelty in his gaze. “A few years ago they decided to move back to Italy. My mother was originally from Sicily and my father’s parents were from a neighboring village. Though he’d lived in the states all his life, he wanted to give my mother the retirement that she deserved. Because he loved her so much.”
I never should have asked. Just the way that he looks at me tells me everything I need to be afraid of. Raniero’s eyes say that he would do the same for me if we got to that point one day and it makes it hard for me to look at him.
I turn away and stare at the fence, suddenly wondering what it would take to scale it. There is a bar that runs perpendicular across the bottom hovering five inches above the ground. Another bar mimics its pattern across the top. I’m not a tall woman, I’m barely half the size of the fence, but it wouldn’t take much to grab the top bar and hoist myself aloft. I’m not in terrible shape and I certainly don’t have a lot of weight to carry with me. Living off of nothing some days and just a little more on others has left me with a fast metabolism and a thin figure.
“Don’t think about it.” Raniero wraps the leash around his fist and pulls it taut. The tugging of my collar forces me toward him. “My parents built this fence to keep people out. There’s a thin strand across the top bar,” he gestures with his head. “The second you grab it, you’ll be electrocuted. Not enough to kill you, but enough to make you wish you were dead.”
A shiver races down my spine. I already wish I wasn’t here while simultaneously wondering how I got to be so lucky. I can’t imagine what it would be like to touch that electric wire and get the shock of a lifetime.
“Half this town thinks we’re the bad guys. Teenagers try to break in. Cops try to scour our grounds when we aren’t home. Our enemies come here searching for a way to weaken us.” Raniero stares at the black fence that seems to go on forever. It curves around the property, narrowly obstructing the view of the lake. “The fence isn’t meant to keep you in, it’s meant to keep the real bad guys out.”
Does he know how crazy that sounds? “Those bad guys didn’t kidnap me in broad daylight,” I mumble more to myself than to him.
