Chapter 12 Thea
Anna, a few of the ol’ ladies and I were sitting by the pool.
I didn’t have a swimsuit so I borrowed one of Anna’s.
I hadn’t seen Serena since earlier. I guess she ended up not wanting to go shopping and went upstairs to take a nap.
The boys were in what I’d come to learn was called church, discussing club business.
Whatever the fuck that meant, so we decided to hang out by the pool.
It was one of the very few days that it hadn’t reached over a hundred, so being outside felt great.
“Can I ask you a question?” Anna said from beside me on the lounge chair.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“How did you meet Marcus?” I wasn’t sure why she was asking but I figured that she was just genuinely curious.
Though Anna was a hellraiser, she was also fairly sheltered, which I figured was because she was a founding member's daughter and her brother and father are assholes. When she told me she was a virgin, I didn’t believe her.
I mean, the girl is two years older than me, but once she explained the club dynamic and how protective they were, it made sense.
“Bridgette introduced us at a party at the start of our second year, and we got to talking, talking led to fucking and then fucking led to the past two years of hell,” I said, trying to sound funny, and I heard a few of the other ladies snicker.
“You hooked up on the first night you met him?” she said, almost shocked. “How many other guys have you dated?”
“Uhm,” I thought for a second. “Maybe like two or three in high school, so like four total.”
“Huh,” she said. “You’re younger than me and you’ve seen more action than a Bruce Willis movie.”
“Bitch,” I said as I playfully shoved her. “We all can’t be nuns living in a convent. Don’t worry, Innocent Anna. A boy will come along and corrupt you any day now.”
Anna gave me a telling look, like she wanted to say something but was too shy.
“Unless someone already has?” For a woman who always had a lot of words, she sure was quiet.
“If you’re wondering how long you should know or date someone before sleeping with them, there is no right answer.
It’s all about what you feel in the moment with that person. ”
She smiled at me, and someone grabbed my shoulders from behind. I jumped and looked back and was surprised to see that it was Bane. All of the ladies seemed surprised by the stares they were giving us.
“Hey,” he said in his deep, sexy voice. “I wanted to come talk to you about something.”
“You did?” Bane and I hadn’t spent much time together other than the random mornings on the porch, so I wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to talk about. “Yeah,” he said, reaching for my hands. “Follow me.”
With those words, I swooned. How could you not when you look at those deep blue eyes and his smile almost seemed boyish, like he was genuinely happy today.
Following his lead, he took me upstairs and down the hall.
He grabbed a key out of his pocket to unlock the door and pulled me inside.
Looking around, his room was not what I expected.
It was clean, but looked lived in. The entire room smelled like his deep, woodsy scent that I was beginning to become obsessed with.
“What are we doing here?” I finally asked him.
“Take a seat,” he said and gave me a push on his bed.
“Fuck,” he grunted. “You have no idea how long I’ve thought about having you in my bed.
” My body shuddered at his words and goosebumps began to cover my arms. “Probably just about as long as me wanting to be in it,” I said playfully.
He laughed, his dark and seductive laugh that always sent lightning bolts straight down my thighs and into my lady business. “As much as I’d like to explore those evil little thoughts of yours, that’s not why I brought you here.”
“No?” I said, confused. “No, I’m taking you out tonight,” he said matter of factly. “And before you give me lip, it’s a done deal, sweetheart. You’re with me tonight.” His grin was panty-dropping.
“Do I get a say in this?” I responded as I crossed my arms over my chest and pretended to look annoyed. I was really ecstatic and already wanting to run downstairs and have Anna help me with my outfit.
“Nope,” he said, widening his grin. “Besides, if you said no, I’d think you were just using me for my body.
” He patted his stomach where I was well aware of the nicely chiseled six-pack he was packing under there.
“I am using you for your body,” I said, smirking.
He dropped down so his lips were right beside my ear.
“Keep talking like that and I will spank that beautiful little ass of yours.”
I laughed, though I was extremely turned on.
Ugh, this beautiful man kept breaking through my walls and every ounce of self-control that I had.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I said and gave him a push away from my space.
I had to put some distance between us because if I didn’t I was going to combust right there in his bedroom.
He laughed as he shook his head. “Be ready at six, babe.” I didn’t say anything and walked out of the door.
Fuck, I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t be excited about being pursued by a man when I was hiding from another, but the more I got to know Bane, the more that I felt like I got to know myself.
Another reminder kicked in when my phone started to ring and I saw Chase’s name.
Fuck.
I answered the call in my room. “Hey Chase. I’m sorry about what happened earlier,” I said, referencing me hanging up on him.
“It’s okay, Kid. I know this is a lot to take on, especially with so much going on where you’re at.”
“You have no idea,” I said, letting out a puff of breath.
“What’s going on?”
“Bane asked me to go on a date tonight,” I said. “Well, he told me we were going on a date tonight, there wasn’t much asking.” Chase grew quiet before he said, “I don’t like you getting involved with another pushy motherfucker.”
“Whoa, calm down, tiger,” I said, laughing. “Believe me, Bane is nothing like the guys I typically go for.
“Good,” Chase said and I could hear the relaxation in his voice. “Are we going to talk about the weird calls?”
“I mean, what the fuck are we supposed to do about them? Can Marcus trace the calls from his computer?” I asked.
“I don’t see the point in tracing them if we already know who they are.
” He was right. Who else would be calling from the same number as the Oceanside restaurant?
Matteo was closing in on us, if he hadn’t already.
The thought sent a shudder down my body.
“What about the guy who saved you?” He asked. “Flynn Carter?”
“What about him?”
“You said your brother couldn’t help you. Couldn’t that guy? Didn’t you say it seemed like he had tactical training or something?”
I thought back to the strange man who had saved me from that monster’s house.
I woke up in a hotel room that looked a lot like a typical Marriott suite rather than the suites that were found in Italy.
My head was pounding and pain radiated throughout my entire body.
I heard the shower running and I shot up to see where I was.
There were no chains on my wrist or shackles against my ankles.
I wasn’t a prisoner here, I thought to myself.
Looking out the window, it looked like I was in the middle of a large city and, judging from the signs on the streets, I was back in the United States.
My mind began to race as I remember mine and Matteo’s big fight, him beating me to an inch of my life before I could even tell him I was pregnant and a strange man rushing in during the middle of the night and rescuing me. I must have passed out from my injuries, but how long had I been out for?
I heard the water turn off and my eyes shot around to look for a weapon. There was no telling who this man was. Matteo was always threatening to sell me because I didn’t love him like he loved me. What if I’m at the mercy of another monster?
Before I had time to find a weapon, a man walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and his chest exposed. I quickly recognized him as the man who saved me, but he looked a lot less intimidating and his face was cleanly shaven.
“You’re up!” He said, flashing me a grin.
“You’ve been out for three days, I thought you were in a coma.
” He chuckled and I gave him a curious look.
I was too scared to speak, I had just spent the last three months with a man who would beat me if he thought I looked at him wrong, and I didn’t want to take any chances with this stranger.
As if he caught on to my hesitancy, he put up one of his hands.
“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.
“I have a stepdaughter that seems to be only a few years younger than you. I would be worried sick if you were her. What’s your name? ”
Oddly enough I believed him. “Thea,” I said and my voice came out scratchy. “Oh, you’re an American. I thought so when I looked at that shitty fake ID you were carrying around,” he laughed. “Why’d you have a fake ID anyways? You must be well above most of Europe’s drinking age.”
“People ask fewer questions when you aren’t American,” I simply responded. He nodded in what seemed like admiration. “Well, thankfully you were using another identity. Did Matteo ever get your real name? It’s okay if he did, we can still protect you.”
I shook my head no. While I was with him, he knew my name was fake, but no matter how much he laid into me, I’d never tell him who I was. I didn’t want him to use my family or my friends against me if he knew. “Who’s we?” I asked Flynn.
“I lead a security firm here in New York,” he said as he grabbed his clothes and went back to the bathroom.
He left the door cracked so I could still hear him.
“We specialize in the shady shit that the feds are too pussy to put their hands on. A friend called me about you being stuck with the Santoros unwillingly, so I came in to help. I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner. ”
As he approached me fully clothed, his face looked full of remorse.
I knew I was safe with him. My mind quickly went to the pregnancy test I had left on the master bedroom’s bathroom counter.
If Matteo saw it, he would think I ran away pregnant with his child.
Flynn broke my train of thought as the worry continued to creep up inside of me.
“I know my help won't be able to erase what happened to you, Thea. But I hope that it will make things a little bit easier. We are going to get you back to your family.”
Flynn was my hero. When I think of him, I think of him as my last sign of hope that things would be okay.
He helped me get back to California, buy new clothes and a new phone.
He also assured me that his team made sure that there were no traces pinpointing Francesca Moretti to the school I was attending in Italy and back to me, and set me up with a few more legitimate fake IDs, social security cards and passports just in case I did need to run.
“I have no way of contacting him,” I said to Chase’s question. “It’s possible that he figured out Bridgette’s alias and that’s why he’s contacting her and not me.”
“Fuck,” Chase breathed out. “That Flynn guy cleared traces of you but not her?”
“More than likely. I was too scared to even mention my real name to him, nonetheless the names of my friends,” I said as guilt flushed across me.
“Don’t worry, kid. We’ll figure this out. It’s Bridgette’s last year, maybe she should do it virtually and lay low for a while.”
I laughed but it was joyless. “You’re going to tell the campus princess to lay low and do school virtually? Like that’ll happen.”
“It will if she wants to survive,” he said with a gloom in his voice. “Anyways, kid. Go get ready for your date. I don’t want you to think anymore about this right now. No matter what happens, it isn’t your fault. It’s that creepy ass motherfucker’s. I love you.”
“Love you,” I said, ending the call.
Chase always knew exactly what I was thinking, and that’s one of the many things I loved about him.
It’s hard to not feel at fault when I brought this trouble to the United States.
I never told anyone about me being pregnant in Italy.
It was too much to think about. It was one thing to have the choice not to have a child, and another to have that choice ripped from under you.
Unfortunately, I’ve dealt with both situations.
The fact of the matter was Matteo Santoro thought I gave birth to his child, an heir to one of the largest mafia families in history, which means that as long as I was still breathing, the devil himself would always be looking for me.
Always.