Page 75 of A Taste Of Darkness

“So punch me,” Alessandro challenged. Once again, I heard him take a step, and from there, it all happened within seconds.

Arlo turned around and pushed Viola into my arms, pulled out his gun, and aimed it at my brother who had an arm wrapped around Dahlia and his pistol pressed to her head.

Alessandro’s face suddenly turned white as a ghost, and only then did I realize that Arlo moved and I was in sight of everyone.

My brother pushed Dahlia off him and aimed his gun at me instead. “You’ve got some balls showing up here.”

Viola was still screaming, but I handed her over to her parents. Alessandro wouldn’t have cared about Viola in my arms if he would’ve shot me.

And they wondered why I wanted nothing to do with my family.

No kid, no matter how strange I found them, should have to grow up under these conditions. Feeling protected in a way was one thing, but fearing your parents wouldn’t make it home at the end of the day was another.

Growing up I was taught that murder was just a silly game, that it was fun. It was wrong of them to teach me that. And growing up watching your uncle rape women and it being okay with your family was… Fuck, I didn’t even have the words to say what it was.

It was definitely all the shades of fucked up.

“If I were you, I’d lower that gun right now,” I said calmly.

“And why the fuck would I?” He laughed. “If I kill you, at least your funeral hadn’t been a waste.”

For a moment, I didn’t know what to reply, but then it was like he handed the answer right to me. “You still answer to me, Alessandro.”

“The fuck I do.”

“Think about it,” I said. “The only reason you ‘don’t answer to me’ is because you thought I was dead. I’m very much alive. I wasn’t kicked out of the family, I wasn’t disowned, and since you all believed I’d died which, clearly, I did not, no one ever took my title from me. I’m sure you still remember what happens when someone doesn’t do as I say, huh? Sure, it’s been a while, but I believe your two lousy brain cells can think back to your childhood.”

The childhood where every time Alessandro tried telling me what to do, he received a punishment. The more often he was punished, the worse the punishments got.

His jaw clenched, his hand shook with anger but, slowly, his arm lowered.

At that moment I realized that I still held more power over everyone in this place than I wanted. And for once, it might’ve actually been helpful.

38

TEARS OF GOLD

Sterlie Adams

“How often did you sneak out as a teenager?” I asked, looking toward the now dark blue sea. We couldn’t go out during the day as the risk of getting caught was too high, so Milo took me to the beach once the sun set.

I’d never been to the beach at night. It was colder than I anticipated, but Milo lent me his jacket, so that helped.

We were sitting on a blanket on the sand, watching the waves. Since the beach was mostly empty, there were limited noises around us.

It was the first time we’d been here in two weeks, and I kind of wished I could’ve enjoyed the view in the daytime, but I knew it was too dangerous.

“Too often,” he replied.

“How many times did you go clubbing then?” I looked at him, smiling at the single strand of hair that fell into his face. I liked that his brown hair was a bit longer.

Milo chuckled. “Believe it or not, but I never did. Every time I snuck out it was just to get away from my responsibilities for a while. I found this small cave between a couple of huge rocks, so I went there for a few hours until I had to sneak back home before my parents noticed I was gone.”

The tips of our fingers brushed, and my gaze instantly fell to our hands. “Milo, can I ask you something?”

“Always.”

“This might be a little forward, so if you don’t want to answer, that’s fine. But… why am I the only person who has permission to touch you?” I asked. “I know you roughly told me before, but you never told me where that came from. Why can’t other people touch you?”

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