Page 313 of Bad for Me

I’m instantly taken back to my childhood when we’d play hide and seek. Dad and Alessio would spend hours finding me while my brother Ozzy always chose shitty spots and was found within moments. I once hid under the kitchen sink and spent hours there. I didn’t even come out to use the bathroom.

Alessio had come into the room. I remember the way my heart pounded as his dress shoes tapped against the tiled floor, the way he called my name in a drawl that made me shiver. How my stomach dipped when he opened the cabinet door, peered in, but didn’t move the box of trash bags that had concealed me, and then continued to the next room.

Part of me always wondered if he had seen me, but pretended he didn’t so that I could win. But hiding now was the only way I’d win this game. No. It’s not a game. It’s my life, and I’m not going back to Boston with him. I hate Alessio Ferrara. When I left two years ago, I vowed I’d never go back with him.

Philly is my home now.

I pick up the pace, despite the burning in my legs and the oxygen burning deep in my lungs, and I make a hard left down a small alleyway and then a quick right. There’s a dumpster two blocks away I could climb in but I need to circle back and make him think he lost me. So, I dive around a parked car and crawl beneath it.

The ground is cold and wet from the rain this morning, but I force myself to remain calm, clasping a hand over my mouth to muffle the heavy breaths that I can’t stop. Alessio comes to a stop just ahead of me, his black dress shoes not even scuffed despite the amount of running we’ve just done.

He lets out a tsk loud enough for me to hear. “You want to hide from me, Hadley? I will find you.”

My stomach turns inside out at the anticipation. There had been a time when I did want him to find me. There’d been a time when I wanted my father’s best friend so badly that I was stupid enough to make a move on him.

He’d blamed the kiss on my vulnerability. I’d just lost my father, I was seeking comfort. I didn’t know what I wanted. I cried and begged him not to pull away. I apologized and agreed the kiss was a mistake. But still, Alessio pulled away.

I was alone when Dad died. My brother despised me. He treated the dog better than he treated me. And Alessio pushed me away. And then when I heard him telling Benny how he killed Dario? I lost any hope I had that we’d return to normalcy.So I left.

Boston stopped being my home the second Dad died.

Alessio turns, heading back toward the car. Toward me. I squeeze my eyes shut and pray that he won’t bend down to peek beneath the car.

But then again. Stupid me. Haven’t I learned that there is no god?

A finger brushes against my cheek, drying a wet spot, and I realize I’ve started crying. My eyes snap open, meeting his chestnut-colored ones.

He mutters something in Italian, his soft tone easing the pounding heart inside of my chest. His smooth voice always managed to calm me, and now is no different. Even though I want to run.

“Hadley, I didn’t want to do it this way. I swear, I didn’t want to force you to come back home. But there’s no time. We have to leave.Now.”

There’s urgency in the way he says it but I refuse to trust him. I certainly refuse to go anywhere with him after all the shitty things he’s done to me. A horrible pit settles in my belly as I finally take in what his words truly mean. “You’ve been following me?” I ask.

Oh god.Cain. What if he knows about Cain? He’ll kill him, just like he killed Dario.

Alessio lets out a frustrated sigh. “I didn’t want to do this,cara mia. But you’re leaving me no choice.” His hand moves to my neck, and there’s a prickling there before everything goes dark.

4

ALESSIO

“Was the ketamine necessary?”Benny asks, one brown drawn as he glares at me from the driver’s seat of the car.

Yes it was. If I didn’t knock her out, she would have fought me, and if she fought me, I would have fucked her right on the street beside that stupid fucking car she hid under. Instead, I say, “She ran from me. She wasn’t coming willingly. I did what I needed.”

I stand by the back door, trying to get the door open with a knocked-out Hadley in my arms. When he realizes it's not opening, he lets out an annoyed huff, then reaches behind and pulls at the handle. I settle Hadley into the back before climbing into the front seat.

He doesn’t wait for me to close the door, let alone buckle myself in before he’s peeling out of the hotel and heading for the interstate.

“Do you want to fill me in on why you think it's a bad thing that Cain Albero knows Hadley’s identity?” I ask, now that there’s time to.

Sure, from the outside it would be odd that Hadley came here under a new identity, but why would it make her a target for their family? Why would they have their son date her? I need answers.

“Because Ozzy Callagahn is paying him to be with her.”

I sigh. Of fucking course Ozzy is behind this. He’s been a thorn in my side ever since Oscar died. It didn’t take Benny long to figure out the reason Hadley left Boston. Her brother was an asshole. He pushed her away because he was threatened she’d claim his throne.

Oscar had left everything to her. She was his blood child while Ozzy was only his by adoption. Oscar and I went to law school together. We were best friends, and I hadn’t even known that.

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