Chapter Eight
Gianna
Snuggling against the cherry scented warm, I am in bliss.
Until I reach for the big, warm body that should be there. It was there last I checked, cuddled with me in his big, luscious bed. Stretching my legs out, my heart stops before taking off at an alarming rate. Sitting up, it takes me a moment to figure out where I am.
I am not in Gabriel’s luscious bed. Not in his arms. Not even in his penthouse. I am back at my own prison, in my tiny, cold bed, all alone. I try to remember how I got here. Who put me to bed in this too-big shirt? Bringing the collar to my nose, I inhale with relief. It’s him. Gabriel.
However he did it, he got me back home sometime in the night. The very last place I want to be. I told him I never wanted to come back here. He swore to me he was setting me free. Yet he tucked me back inside the goddamn cage as if I am a pet he can take out whenever he chooses.
Last night was the most magical night of my life. I thought it was the night we met but I was wrong. We had made dinner together after the sweetest, hottest shower of my life. Afterwards, he held me in his bed as we talked about dreams for hours. Flushing, I recall him working his big body between my thighs, his mouth licking, sucking and eating my pussy for what felt like hours as I came and came and came.
Reaching down, I touch the red rashes left by his beard. Trace the indentations his teeth made at my thighs, my hips, just above my pussy. I was owned by him last night before he gave me up as if none of it ever happened. As if it were just another of my stupid dreams.
Pouting, I stomp from my too-small bed to get some things together. I am done with the men in my life. Done with all of them telling me who I belong to, who I owe what to, and who gets to decide my future. I throw things inside a leather duffel bag with shaking hands. Pulling on some jeans and a sweatshirt, I climb out of my window as I have a dozen times.
“He won’t even know you left,” I whisper to myself as I see the familiar blacked out SUV where I am sure Stefan waits to follow me.
I have shaken enough bodyguards in my life. I slide down the roof for a few feet before hooking my foot on the trellis leading to the back yard. Out there the gardens are high and thick, and I can sneak through a break in one of the towering, thick hedges. Sliding on the dirt once I reach the edge of the property, I glance back once.
Standing there, I wonder if my father or mother ever loved me. I wonder if they hate me because of my brother. We lost him just a few years after I was born so I remember little about him. I do remember my father holding him up on his shoulder, beaming up at him with love. He has never looked at me that way.
It was not my fault we lost him. I was wandering through the gardens as I often did. Still often do. We were playing a game, I think. He was there one minute then gone the next. I never understood what happened to him. All I remember is my mother wailing in despair as my father tried to hold her up. He was gone, they said. Gone and I was all that was left.
They blamed me, I think. I always felt they had. They grew obsessed about security. It was why they set a bodyguard while I was still a child. It might have come from a loving place—at first. Eventually it became about control, punishment. As if they wanted to punish me for what happened.
“It was not my fault ,” I whisper as I stuff a few last things in the bag.
Swiping at the tears falling fast, I shake my head. It took years for me to say that, to believe it, to understand that I could have done nothing to prevent it. Someone stole my brother out from under our parents. Because of who my father was, because of debts he owed. That is all I am to him now. A payment to Marconi for favors done or ones still to be done.
Jogging through the woods, I decide I won’t ever allow someone to rule me again. I thought with Gabriel it would work. That dynamic, letting him run the show, set the rules, draw the boundaries felt good. Letting go but knowing I had a choice, I had a voice and could use it, felt so good.
“Just another man who never sticks to his promises,” I huff as I head towards the train tracks. I will take the first train out of Silver Shores.
I do not care where it takes me. So long as it takes me the hell out of this place. It was another of my stupid dreams. Riding the rails to see the world, never tying myself to any one place. Now that I have been pushed to the edge, I suppose I might see that dream come true.
Hitting the station, I can almost taste freedom. I can hear it in the blare of the train horn, the bustle of other travelers. Going to the counter, I pull my wallet out with trembling hands. I am doing it. I am going. No one will ever find me if I can just get out of here.
“Heading somewhere, mi bella ?”
Ice runs through my veins at the sound of Santino’s taunting voice. My jaw trembles because I am hit with a wave of hopelessness. Why? What have I done to deserve this? To never get to be free, to never have someone at my side. I am so tired. Just so fucking tired.
“Yeah, I was actually,” I answer before I whirl to face him.
“Where the hell were you running to?”
“Anywhere but here. With you. With my father. With all the men who’re just like you. All of you are evil, vindictive, pathetic boys.”
That little dreamer inside of me does a fist pump. The rest of me, not so much. His hand flies out fast, cracking me across the face. It stings. The heat of it tells me I will bruise something awful. Still, I do not cry out, I do not give him the satisfaction of seeing tears, I just stand there stoically.
“That’s how you talk to your future husband? Come, now. You were told to behave. We have an important dinner tonight.”
Wrapping his big mitt of a hand around my wrist, he yanks me after him towards a waiting car. A dozen pairs of eyes watch the whole scene unfold. Not one of them comes to my aid. No one bothers to do a thing.
Santino shoves me inside back of a town car, pushing in too close beside me. Yanking at my bag, he snorts at the few items I took time to pack. Pulling out a dress, he tosses it at me. Smacking my thigh, he tells me to change for the dinner we’re heading to.
“No. I am not going to dinner. I am not letting my father trade me off to you. There won’t be a wedding. Not between the two of us. I will run. I will get the fuck away from you and all of the other fucks like you.”
“We will find you. Found you tonight, didn’t I, mi bella? ”
Frowning at him, I think about that for a moment. How did he find me? I have not seen him in days, why would he have even been looking for me. Suddenly a wave of panic hits me. What if they saw Stefano outside my father’s home? Watching for me, waiting for me as he claims Gabriel ordered him to. If they did…would they have hurt him?
Shaken by the thought, I reach for the door, as if I might jump out. Smirking once I see my hand, I laugh. Of fucking course. Sliding the hideous ring he put on my finger two months ago when I was told about this bullshit engagement, I hold it up. “Right here. How ever will you find me now, Santino?” Tossing it out of the car, it is lost to the streets.
“Cute. We will see how cute it is when I wrap a collar around your pretty fucking neck. I am not just keeping you here in Silver Shores, mi bella —I am keeping you locked up tight at home where you fucking belong. Who would even care? No one would even come looking for you.”
Turning away as his words cut me deep, I shake my head. What hurts the most is I know he is not wrong. For a brief moment, I let myself believe someone could care. Gabriel had done a number on me. He told me just what I wanted to hear. What I needed. I can’t even know he was not using me as a pawn the same as my father and Santino.
Cowering into the corner of the car, I nod my head. This is my fate. No one will come to rescue me. I will not have a knight in shining armor. Santino will get his way. Father will get his way. I am the tradeoff for their alliance. Even if Gabriel wanted to free me, how could he?
We were not set to get married just because Santino wanted to have me for himself. This is a business deal for him and my father. They have created an alliance between the Marconi’s and my father’s capo, his older brother. I am just collateral damage and nothing Gabriel does will change that.
“Get dressed, Gianna. Want you looking proper tonight.”
“How can I change now?” I wonder, hoping he doesn’t say what I know he will say. A filthy smirk twists his mouth as he reaches out, pulling at my loose sweats.
“Nothing under here that doesn’t belong to me. Give me a good look, mi bella . Ought to be willing to show it all to me,” he hums with a dirty sneer.
I consider leaping from the car even as it races down the streets, heading towards downtown. I do not want him to see me bare, vulnerable. Just the idea of him touching me the way I let Gabriel touch me makes bile rise up the back of my throat. Silent tears slip down my face as I pull my oversized hoodie off. Before I can make another move, his rough hands yank at my sweats, a ferocious growl sounding from him.
“It all belongs to me. Stop being a princess. Show me what is mine!”
Crossing my arms over my bare chest, I shake my head. He can strike me again. Batter my body if he wants to. He has done enough damage to the rest of me, a few bruises won’t matter. It horrifies me that this is just the start. This is going to be my life for as long as he wants to toy with me.
“Show it to me, little girl. Spread your thighs, I want to see the virgin treasure you kept under those pretty babydoll dresses.”
Trembling with shame, with disgust, with terror, I refuse. Santino chuckles and grips my thighs roughly in his hands, yanking them open. I almost throw up when he dips his head, inhaling deeply. Letting out a little hum of approval, he spits on my bare sex, laughing at me.
“I won’t be waiting till our wedding night. I am going to break that cherry pussy in tonight. Hell, I might fuck you here and now. Make you scream as I stuff my cock in your tiny pussy while you cry like a little girl.”
Pushing at him as he yanks at me to slide me beneath him, I cry out. It cannot happen this way. Not in a back alley down a dark street with a man I hate. Thrashing beneath him, I scream as loud as I can, but it is no use. No one can hear me. Even if they can, who would come to stop this?
Hearing his zipper coming down, I panic. I push, I kick, I snap my teeth at him to bite him, I scream as loud, as long as I can. I am sobbing beneath him, but he just laughs, his huge hand grabbing both of my wrists to pin them above my head. He presses his tiny cock against me, and I almost throw up.
“Killing someone was not on my to-do list today,” a familiar voice rumbles of the sounds of my struggles. “But I can make room for it.”
Tilting my head back, I notice a shaft of light pouring into the darkness of the car. I am panting, naked, shaking beneath the weight of him. Still, I have never felt so good in my life. Because I thought no knight in shining armor would come to save me. I was partly wrong. My knight is glaring in Armani, rage in his dark eyes as he stares down at us.
One moment I cannot breathe because the weight of Santino on me, then I draw huge swallows of fresh air. His weight, his patchouli smell is gone. Covering myself as best I can, I tip my head back again. The world is upside down for a moment as I see three huge figures standing there. Only one of those men. Just one of them came here for me.
“You have no idea what the fuck you have just done,” Santino growls as he kneels on the ground, Stefano and Dario pointing guns at his head.
“Oh, but I do,” Gabriel shoots back after scooping me up in his strong arms. I sob against his chest as he cradles me close. “I just started a war, Marconi. One that will rain blood and brimstone down on Silver Shores.”
“Why? For what, for her ?”
“Hell, yes, for her. I will light this town on fire for her. You will burn with her father, have no doubts. Get your affairs in order, Marconi. Clock is ticking on your time because I am coming for you first.”
Gabriel tucks me into the back of his noble steed—his bulletproof SUV—and saves me from a fire breathing, patchouli smelling dragon.