CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
RAINA
He flips over so I’m laying on top of him, and holds me against his chest.
“Tell me about Leo. ”
The way he says his name is with obvious hatred.
“What do you want to know?”
Kage drags his fingers through my hair as he kisses the top of my head.
“What he did to you.”
“Lorenzo,” I warn, because I don’t want to talk about him.
“Tell me, Firecracker. He touched you, but never had sex with you?”
I cringe as the pain fills me once again.
“I had to stay a virgin, so my father could sell me like cattle. Leo knew that. He took everything other than my virginity.”
He clenches his fists around my back, and his voice comes out low and threatening.
“I will make him pay. Trust me, he will regret every time he put his hands on you.”
The tears are instant, and the emotion gets trapped in my throat as I squeak out, “You would do that for me?”
He flips me over to my back, and stares at me with a heat that I swear could burn me.
“You’re mine. Any man who touches you, past or present, dies,” Lorenzo adds through a clenched jaw, “Painfully.”
I swallow hard as a tear slips down my face.
“Why are you crying?”
The truth twists like a knife in my stomach.
“Nobody has ever stood up for me. They never cared. Not even my mom.”
“But you’re close to her?” He asks with obvious confusion.
I squeeze my eyes shut tight, as the hurt nearly consumes me.
“I love my mom. It’s the closest relationship I ever had, but it’s complicated. My mother is the perfect mafia wife, and does as she’s told, and turns a blind eye to the most revolting things. When my father and brothers had Bella in the basement, I said something, and her reaction was of dismissiveness, like I shouldn’t even be surprised they were gang-raping a girl in the basement. Her husband was raping a girl, because of what her boyfriend did. And because she’s a good mafia wife, she said nothing. We never could’ve prevented it, but she could’ve at least expressed her disgust, although I’m not sure she had any.”
“It sounds like you don’t like her much.”
I open my eyes and smile at him.
“That part of her, I don’t like. The other parts, I do. My father always favored my brothers. There was nothing I’d contribute to his empire, so it was always about them. My mom and I are close. She has always loved and supported me, when the rest of my family didn’t care if I was even alive. She’s my world. Thank you for not killing her.”