13. Valeria
VALERIA
The drive back in Nico’s car is dead silent.
I hold his coat around me and stare out the window, but I’m not really seeing anything. My lips are swollen, and my throat aches. My panties are soaked.
I should feel shame now. I have a few thousand dollars in cash on my lap. I can still taste his cum in my mouth.
Mostly, I feel listless.
I lost my job today. My parents are gone. Stefano will probably try to kill me the next time he sees me.
I’ve always thought of myself as the type of person who could meet any challenge with hard work and a vision, but I can only take so many hits. I’m not invincible.
After a while, I recognize the streets around us.
He’s taking me back home.
Maybe he’s changed his mind about putting a baby in me.
I should say something about the break-in, but he probably already knows. He’s probably taking me here to rub my face in it.
I’m exhausted.
My eyelids weigh heavier with every blink. I’m not sure if I can drag myself through any more.
If he drops me off and leaves, I could throw on some of Mom’s old clothes. Take the train. Slog back to Lacey’s apartment. I slump against the car door. The night stretches before me, infinite and grueling.
Nico pulls to a stop in front of my house.
The neighbor’s dog is barking again. The houses along the street are dark, curtains drawn.
I’m dressed in underwear and heels. I don’t want to leave the warm car to step into the freezing night air, even for the short walk to my front door. I don’t want to pick my way through the wreckage inside.
But I have to.
“Thank you for the ride,” I say and reach for the door handle.
“I didn’t say to get out.”
My heart rate fires up like an old lawnmower.
Nico steps out of the car, takes long strides around the front, and opens my door. I have his coat, but he doesn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable in his T-shirt as white vapor billows from his mouth. “We’re packing your shit, and then you’re coming to live with me.”
I shrink into my seat. “I’m not doing that.”
He scrubs a hand over the top of his head and laughs darkly. “I gave you your space. I let you do what you wanted. I let you live alone. We’re done with that now. Get the fuck up, pack your shit, or I’m bending you over the hood of the car and spanking your ass raw in the middle of the street.”
I launch to standing, nearly stumbling on my death-trap heels. “Don’t be a dick.”
Nico grabs my arm. “You see, that’s the thing. I think you like when I’m a dick. I’m racking my brain over here, and I can’t find any other explanation for why you marched your pretty ass over to a fucking strip club besides to get some attention. You got a thing for angry guys, Val?”
I clamp my mouth shut. I’m too tired to argue with him.
Nico sighs.
His coat is barely long enough to cover my ass as he drags me up the driveway like an oversized rag doll.
He tears open the front door—unlocked—and stops fully in his tracks.
“What the hell?” Nico glances at me, shock and anger clashing in his features. “Did you know about this?”
I wrap his jacket around myself. By the look on his face, he’s either a very good actor, or he had no clue. Contradictions, contradictions. “Don’t play coy, Nico. You knew.”
“I had no fucking idea—” he cuts himself off, jaw tightening. “Your stuff still here?”
“No. I’m staying with a friend—”
I shriek as Nico picks me up, swings me over his shoulder, and walks back out of the house.
My pussy is on full display as he takes me down the front steps and carries me to the car. He drops me back onto my heels and yanks open the door. “Get the fuck in.”
I don’t argue, not when he’s on edge like this, and scramble to get inside before he lashes out.
The second I’m inside the car, Nico slams the door shut, walks around the front, and throws himself into the driver’s seat. For several long moments, he doesn’t say anything, just breathes harshly, his hands curling into fists on his thighs.
“Where does your friend live?” he asks through gritted teeth.
“Nico—”
“Not tonight, Val. No more. We’re done with this shit. Tell me where your fucking friend lives, or I call up Salvatore, and have him send a man there.”
I tell him the address, and he starts driving.
I want to cry. I clench my jaw and stare out the window instead.
Let him be fucking mad—that’s the whole point. He’s at his breaking point? Good.
This is what the rest of his life will be like if he doesn’t pick someone else.
So he didn’t know about my house getting broken into. That doesn’t absolve him of anything. If he really is innocent, then this whole experience can be a glimpse into what he’s signing me up for.
When we get to Lacey’s apartment complex, I remember the duffel bag of cash that I have in her bedroom. Nico can’t go upstairs with me. I don’t know what he’d do with it—he says he’ll give me an allowance, but I don’t trust that. I don’t trust him.
He pulls into the parking deck and unbuckles himself.
“Wait,” I say. My heartbeat ramps up speed. “Let me see if Lacey will bring my things down. Please. I don’t want her roommates to see me.”
“She better be quick, because you’re not going up there without me.”
“Can I use your phone?” My phone is still in the club. All I have is my lingerie and my cash.
Nico shoves a phone with a taped-up screen into my hand. I tap out Lacey’s number with shaking thumbs.
Hers is the only phone number besides my own that I know by heart.
She answers on the first ring.
“It’s me,” I say.
“Val? What happened? Why the fuck was Stefano there? I’ve been calling you all night! I was about to call the police.”
“Don’t do that,” I say quickly. “Lacey, I need you to listen to me and just do what I say. Are you at your apartment?”
“Yeah, but—”
“I need you to pack all my stuff—all my stuff—and bring it to the parking deck. Right now. I promise I’ll explain everything as soon as I can.”
“Whose phone is this? I’m calling the cops.”
“Lacey, on your mother’s life, I need you to do what I say. I promise you, I’m safe, and I’ll answer all your questions later.”
There’s a moment of silence. I’ve never used her mom’s memory like this before.
“I’ll be down in five minutes.”
Time stretches long, weighed with silent tension. Nico’s anger radiates in scorching waves, as suffocating as the mouth of a volcano. When Lacey arrives, lugging along all of my belongings—and my pink duffel bag of cash—I burst out a sigh of relief before guilt worms its way home under my skin.
I swore I’d never drag her into any of this mess, and in a single day, I’ve made her go to a paternity center, traumatized her at the club, and forced her to haul all my bags to her parking deck in the middle of the night with no explanation.
Though, she doesn’t look traumatized as she gives Nico her signature death-stare through the windshield. My heart swells with affection.
He pops the trunk. “Tell her to throw your shit there.”
“Can I get out? To tell her goodbye?”
“Don’t be dramatic. You can talk to her later.” His hand flexes on the wheel. He exhales. “You can get out, but you’re getting right back in after.”
I tear open the door and dash to Lacey, throwing my arms around her in a fierce embrace. She drops my bags and squeezes me back, crushing the air out of my lungs.
“Val, I thought they hurt you,” she mutters. She releases me and looks me up and down.
I can only imagine what she sees.
Her eyes widen at the sight of my smudged lipstick. “Val, did he force—”
“No,” I say, heat rising to my cheeks. “It wasn’t anything like that. That’s my fiancé.”
“The Armani model with the fucking snake tattoo on his neck? That’s Nico?”
God, I hope Nico didn’t overhear that. His ego doesn’t need the stroking. “I have to go right now, but I promise you I’m safe. Don’t call the cops. And I’ll explain everything as soon as I can.”
She still looks doubtful, so I add, “I promise.”
“If I don’t get a call tomorrow, I’m filing a missing person report.” She throws her arms around me again, and I hug her back tightly. “Stay safe.”
“You too.”
When I get back in the car, Nico’s silent. He drives out of the parking deck, and Lacey’s worried face disappears behind a wall of concrete.
I am never going to be able to make this up to her.
“That your friend?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“Lacey.” He says her name like he’s committing it to memory.
I snap my head toward him. “Leave her alone. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Alright.”
He doesn’t say anything else, but he doesn’t seem as tense as before. Eventually, I lean my head against the cold window and close my eyes.
When I open them again, Nico’s turning off the engine. He opens his door, and I startle awake like an air horn’s gone off next to my ear.
He’s heading for the trunk.
I can’t let him grab my bag of cash. I stumble out, making my way to the trunk.
A car drives past us in the parking deck, and I tighten his coat around myself. Nico’s gaze coasts down my body before flicking back to my face with a look of frustration.
Or lust.
I shiver in a way that has nothing to do with the cold.
Nico steps away from the car, all of my bags in hand. “Let’s go.”
I flinch at every sound as we walk from the parking garage to the apartment lobby. This late, there’s no one around, but I’m mortified at the thought of a group of nuns or school kids turning the corner.
The elevator doors open, and I dash inside. Nico steps in behind me.
“Nervous?” he asks. There’s a hint of teasing in his voice.
“You would be too if your whole ass was hanging out.”
The bags shift in his arms as he leans back to catch a lingering glance at my backside. “Not your whole ass.”
The elevator arrives at Nico’s floor. He carries my things down the hall to his empty apartment.
Unsure of what else to do, I follow him.
His apartment door clicks shut behind us. “Come on.”
My nerves twist and fray as I take off my heels and trail him to his bedroom. This time, I can focus on what the rest of his room looks like. A huge bed on a solid wood frame eats up most of the space, but it’s tiny in comparison to a painting in abstract splashes of red that hangs off the wall.