Chapter Fourteen #2
“He uh… raped me as he usually did. As he was coming, it was like his brain let him see what he was doing. For the first time ever, he realized it was me…”
“Uh oh…” Giovanni says, stifling a laugh.
“He died of a heart attack balls deep in me.” I cringe. Giovanni cackles, and I can’t help but smile at his laughter.
“I’m sorry. That’s probably insensitive, but that’s funny as hell. Death by cunt.”
“Yeah… It was… Gross,” I say. “Thank you for not treating me like I’m broken.”
“Pretty girl, we are all a little broken inside,” Giovanni says. “It’s eventually piecing ourselves back together that matters.”
I pull the car into the driveway, and Thane’s truck is parked behind Dad’s truck. I know I can’t sit here for three more hours, so I get out and gather as many bags as I can before Giovanni gets to the trunk and starts trying to take them all. When I get to the front door, it opens.
“Thanks,” I mutter to Thane as I step through. “Wait. How did you get in?”
“The door?” he laughs, taking the bags out of my hands and walking them to the kitchen.
“The door was locked,” I say, following him.
“Uh. Nope. It was unlocked,” he says. “This place is dusty as hell, girl.”
“Thane, I locked that fucking door,” I say firmly. Thane turns to look at me, and I realize that I’m panicking. “I locked it. I swear I did.”
“Take a deep breath. You’re safe,” Thane says.
“I have a doorbell camera on my parents’ front porch. I’ll just see if it caught anything over here,” Giovanni says as he looks at his phone.
“Look at me,” Thane says, lifting my chin. “I didn’t mean to be so indifferent. We both very much wanted you to come home with us, but we knew you needed time and space.”
“I thought you were done with me,” I sniffle.
“Never, baby. I promise,” Thane says, hugging me. “How does it feel? Have you thought about what you’ll do? You have a master’s in psychology.”
“Uh… So between life insurance and Dad’s savings, I have like two point one million…”
“Fuckin’ hell, girl,” Thane laughs. “Well, your options are limitless, then.”
“I want to be a therapist and eventually get my doctorate, but I don’t know if I am mentally stable enough for that,” I explain.
“You need to get used to being out first, but you are stable enough for whatever,” Thane says. “You are welcome to come to Meridian.”
“And do what?” I ask.
“Be a therapist. Instead of me being a trainer or doing scenes with anyone, I can just use you when I need to show someone something. So you can basically do the same as I do.”
“I’ve never practiced before, though,” I say.
“That’s why you’d start with me,” he says. “You can shadow me for as long as you want, and then we can get you one-on-one clients.”
“Uhh…” Giovanni says. I turn to him, and he looks concerned.
“What?” I ask.
“Unless you were expecting three masked men to come in here, someone broke in,” Giovanni says bluntly, turning his phone so I can see.
“Fuck,” Thane hisses. “We need to call Tabitha.”
“Why?” Reid asks.
“She and I know who this is,” Thane says. “It’s… We just need to call her.”
“Is she in danger?” Giovanni asks. “I’m not saying you two can’t take care of her, but if her being connected to you two is going to get her hurt, I’m about to piss everyone off and take her somewhere else.”
“You can’t just steal people, Gio,” I laugh.
“I’d do anything for you, Ayla. Time has done nothing but solidify that I'd walk through hell and back if you asked me to.”
“Uh…” I say. “You… I mean… But you said… I told you… Giovanni…”
“You’ve got it bad for her, don’t you, Giovanni?” Reid asks.
“I do, and with all due respect, fuck you if you have a problem with that,” Giovanni says simply, making Thane smirk.
“What the fuck is happening right now?” I ask.
“I’m not saying this to make you feel bad or anything, but I love you.
I have since we were four years old, and I’ve always known that.
We always prioritized our friendship above all else, so we never let things go anywhere, even though we both have admitted feelings on separate occasions.
I am perfectly content being your friend and nothing more because I still get to have you in my life.
But make no fucking mistake, Ayla Nicole.
If those two men put you in danger, I’ll take you, and they’ll never find you. ”
“You had me until the psychopathic kidnapper part,” I say, and he smiles.
“I admire how little you give a fuck about whether we would get upset,” Thane remarks. “It shows you truly care about her.”
“Hmmm,” Reid says, watching me. I realize I am grinning like an idiot, and I nearly panic thinking that I’ve crossed a line somewhere.
“Don’t do that,” Reid says. “Thane and I share you, so we can share with him, too. As long as he understands and can respect where Thane and I are, we are good.”
“They’re… I don’t know… Lovers,” I say. “Boyfriends? I don’t even know what I am.”
“You three are just partners,” he says. “And I am bisexual, so I have nothing negative to say.”
“Oh yeah?” Thane asks, looking Giovanni up and down.
“He’s a good boy who whimpers when he comes.
Don’t let the macho man fool you,” I say to Giovanni, cackling when he grabs at me, but I jump away.
Giovanni surprises me by grabbing my face and kissing me hard.
I melt instantly in his arms when they wrap around me.
When I pull back, I am breathless. “Whoa…”
“Sorry. You’re just too tempting,” Giovanni says with an innocent smile.
“I’ll tell you what,” I say. “Submit to both of them once, and you can have me.”
“Fuck yeah,” Reid barks out. “I mean… We’ll be gentle.”
“First of all, you’re a fucking liar,” I laugh.
“I don’t mean right this moment, but before you can do anything to or with me.
I need to know you can get along with them and that you three are compatible.
I’m not about to get pulled in three different directions.
You either share and get along, or I walk away from everyone. ”
“Good luck. Thane will just stalk you,” Reid says.
“I’ll help him,” Giovanni says. “I’m not letting you get away from me twice.”
“I need to see it to believe it, Gio,” I say.
“Okay,” Giovanni says with a soft smile. “In the meantime, we can clean this place up.”
“Can y’all…” I start to ask, but stop and look at the couch in the living room. “Can someone get that couch the fuck out of here?”
“The couch?” Giovanni asks.
“That’s where her dad died,” Reid answers innocently.
“Ah. Yes. Let’s get that out of here. Anything else?”
“Basically, all of the beds and chairs. I was probably raped on everything at least once,” I mutter.
“Why don’t we just get some dumpsters and toss everything?” Thane suggests. “There is nothing here worth keeping.”
“I have a box of Mom’s things in the attic, but otherwise, I don’t need anything. It just needs to be cleared out so I can clean.”
“Let’s do that. We can start piling shit into the living room and clean out whatever room you feel safest in. That's where we will stay. We can get some air mattresses and camp out in there.”
“The guest room is probably the safest,” I say. “So the whole house is in the living room?”
“Yeah, and then we can move it from there to the dumpsters. I can have a few delivered tomorrow,” Thane says.
“I have one coming tomorrow, too, so you can toss some shit in there, too,” Giovanni tells us.
“Thank you for helping,” I say. “I didn’t really plan to do any of this, but I know it needs to be done.”
“Once it’s done, you can move on and leave him in the past,” Reid says.
“What pieces do you want out first?” Thane asks me.
“Uh… The couch, his bed, and my old bed,” I say. “I can start in the kitchen.”
“Okay. Gio, why don’t you help her, and we will get those items out first?”
“Works for me. Come on, Bunny,” Giovanni says, nudging me.
“Oh God,” I laugh. “That name hits differently now.”
“Oh yeah?” Giovanni laughs.
“Bunny?” Thane asks with a smirk.
“Yeah, as kids, the girl would not sit still. She’d always be jumping around like a bunny, so I called her a bunny,” Giovanni explains.
“Look at her now, bouncing on cocks,” Thane chuckles. “She’s a good bunny.”
“Oh, I bet she is,” Giovanni says, scanning my body.
“Okay. I officially regret letting the three of you meet,” I say, turning to walk to the kitchen.
“You love us!” Thane calls after me.
“Yeah. Yeah,” I laugh, waving them off as I go to the kitchen counter to the bags.