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“Nah,” I retorted. “We’re good, thanks.” I let the pliers drop to the floor as I took a step forward, raising my hand. “Now go back to sleep.” I jerked my arm, smashing him in the side of the face and right in the temple, knocking him out instantly.
Dad huffed as we both stared at his lolling head. “We only just got him awake and now he’s out again.”
“I know.” I smirked at my dad, and for the first time in my life, I was grateful for what he could do—the pain he would cause. “I just enjoy waking him up with pain, then sending him off to sleep with it again.”
Dad’s eyes lit up, my words appealing to him. “You have a plan.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I sure fuckin’ do,” I told him, stepping back. “I’ve gone over and over this in my head from the time I got Bailey out of there.” I glanced at the bag of goodies Dad had brought in here. “That won’t be enough.” Cracking my head to the side. “I’m gonna get supplies.”
“I’ll be here,” Dad said. “Having some fun of my own.”
I nodded, my jovial face turning serious as I exited the shed where my father had taught me most of his torture techniques. This wouldn’t be quick. I refused to let it be over in the blink of an eye.
Bailey needed me, but right then, I needed this more. I needed to make this fucker suffer just like he’d made Bailey suffer.
Only then would I forgive myself. Only then would I feel like I’d done what I set out to—to protect her at all costs.
CHAPTER 17
BAILEY
I tried my hardest to be patient while I waited in Peyton’s living room. I tried to let her two small boys distract me, but nothing was working because I was waiting forhim.
Not the coloring her oldest son had asked me to do with him. Not the babbling her toddler was doing. Her house was chaotic, a diversion that should have worked.
But it didn’t. It didn’t stop me from counting the minutes…the hours…the days.
Two days. Forty-eight hours.
That was how long it had been since I’d seen his face.
The longest time of my life.
I hadn’t wanted Romeo to touch me that day; I hadn’t wanted to taint him with what Mr. Pozzi had said and done to me. I’d needed time to process…everything. And now that I’d tried and failed to work through it, realizing that IneededRomeo to help me, he was finally coming home.
It had taken everything in me to make that call and say those three words, “I need you.”
It had been thirty minutes and he’d said he would be here within forty.
Ten more minutes to go. Ten minutes until everything would be right in the world—I hoped.
“The more you stare out of that window, the longer it will take him to get here,” Peyton said, her tone full of happiness.
I turned to her, trying to see that happiness on her face, but it was shadowed with darkness—a darkness I recognized all too well. “I know but…I just need to—” An engine roared down the street, an engine that I’d know anywhere, anytime. “He’s here,” I blurted out, standing up. In the back of my mind, I knew I should have probably said thank you for looking after me, for cleaning me up, for sitting up with me all night the night before because every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Mr. Pozzi.
But…I needed to see Romeo. I needed him to hold me. I just…plain oldneededhim.
I flung Peyton’s front door open at the exact second Romeo got out of his car on his driveway. As if he felt me nearby, his head whipped around, the broody mask that was painted on his face disappearing in an instant. My feet pounded across the ground as I ran to him, leaping into his arms, and wrapping my hands around the back of his neck.
My ribs burned from the move, my chest aching, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Couldn’t bring myself to—I blinked at the splatter of blood on the shoulder of his T-shirt.
“You’re bleeding,” I whispered, my broken voice betraying how I was feeling.
“Not mine,” Romeo grunted, holding me tighter but pulling away so that he could look at me in the eyes. My brows pulled down, a silent question on my face—a question I should have already known the answer to. “It’s Gio’s.”
I swallowed, using all of my effort to ask, “He’s still alive?” At Romeo’s nod, I pulled in a breath, getting myself ready to say something I never thought would come from my lips. But I’d decided this only hours after Romeo had taken Mr. Pozzi away. “I want to see him.”
“No.”
