Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“What, like kidnap you?”
“I would prefer that,” I hiss. “Instead of worrying about how to deal with this mess with Dad, I could just disappear.”
“What happened, Mia, to make you prefer that?”
But I can’t say. I can’t even bring myself close to saying it. It’s not like I’m special. Lexi experienced her fair share of hell and could talk about it eventually.
“It’s okay,” Lexi whispers. “You don’t have to say.”
“Maybe this will be a good thing,” I say. “Maybe I’ll be able to make myself feel something for Vito, whoever he is. Or maybe I’ll turn numb and stay numb, and that will be me from now on.”
“I can’t imagine you like that,” Lexi murmurs.
I shrug, looking at the floor.
“Listen, I’m here for you, okay?” Lexi goes on. “I know you’re not ready to talk about it right now, but I’ll be here when you are. If you don’t want to marry that man, you don’t have to.”
“Please don’t say that outside this room,” I tell her.
Lexi sighs heavily. I keep looking at the floor. If I look up, I’ll have to see the judgment in her eyes. When she had a big bad wolf, that pervert Ralph, I helped her to go after him. I was pretty brave. I think I can pat myself on the back for that, but Ralph and Dad are different kinds of monsters.
CHAPTER 5
Dante
“You good?” Colt says when I return to the garden.
I won’t tell him what I’ve been doing. It was like some dark instinct drew me after Mia. Following her up the stairs, I lurked outside the bedroom, listening like I was on a job. I heard what she said. You don’t know what it’s like to want somebody to make me disappear.
An idea boils in my mind, appealing to my dark side, pieces fitting together even when I know they shouldn’t be.
“Yeah,” I say after a pause.
“Want that photo?” he asks.
I nod. “Let’s get a selfie with the party in the background. That’ll satisfy Ma.”
Mia’s husband-to-be, Vito and Leonardo Marino are laughing together on the other side of the garden. Everybody seems to like him. Nobody else seems to have noticed that panicked look in Mia’s eyes, and nobody else heard what Mia said to Lexi. She doesn’t want to marry him. It has something to do with her father.
Colt and I take the photo. I do my best to smile so that Mom can enjoy the photo, and then I put my phone away and head for the house.
“You’re leaving?” Colt asks.
“Stuff to do,” I tell him.
“Suit yourself.”
I have to leave. If I don’t, I’ll do something foolish. I’ll smack Vito across his mouth, causing problems that will cost me my career. Or I’ll run upstairs and tell Mia I’m here for her, always, no matter what. She doesn’t have to be afraid. She doesn’t have to…
Suddenly, she’s in front of me. She’s just walked down the stairs. I don’t know where Lexi went. It’s just Mia and me in the wide hallway, the sounds of people talking and music coming from the adjacent rooms.
“Oh,” she says, stopping short and looking up at me.
I curl my hands into fists, fighting the desire to run my fingers gently through her hair, to tell her she doesn’t have to face this, whatever the hell it is, alone.
“Mia,” I say, nodding, struggling to keep my voice calm.
“Dante,” she replies.
“Uh, congratulations…”
For a moment, her eyes flare wide. I think she might tell me the truth, how scared she is, but then she plasters a fake smile on her face. “Thank you so much!” she says, seeming bubbly.
“Well, I better make myself disappear.”
The phrasing is probably cruel, but that dark part of me is still ticking away, calculating, wondering.
“Hmm, okay,” she says. “Disappearing has its upsides, I guess.”
“Do you mean that?”
I take a step closer to her, my tone getting too earnest.
Sometimes, something just snaps in me. Sometimes I don’t give a damn. I try to hide it behind the enforcer shield, the bullshit, or maybe that’s who I really am. But around Mia, it’s too easy to let myself slip. She looks up at me, half smiling, half terrified.
“Uh, sure?” she says, making it a question.
“Ah, there she is,” Vito says, walking down the hallway, and my blood runs cold. Every single inch of my skin blazes, and something deep and fucking hungry starts pulsing in me. It’s like my woman and I were in a bubble, and now a predator’s approaching. I almost drive my fist into his face. He grins.
“I was looking for you,” he says, moving his arm as if to touch her.
Mia slides out of the way, a smile fixed on her face, her eyes wide and panicked.
“She gets shy,” Vito tells me with a sick wink. I keep my face calm. I show nothing. I just stare. “Did you hear me… Dante, right? Like the devil. I think there was something like that, right? Huh?”