Page 58 of His to Keep
“Okay,” Gio says carefully. “Tell me about him.”
I take a deep breath. “He enjoyed hurting me. I don’t mean beatings or anything like that, but whenever he escorted me somewhere for Jason he’d grab me too hard, drag me around. He left a lot of bruises.”
Gio goes rigid beneath me, and I don’t need to look at him to know his face will be a mask of fury.
“He bruised you?” Gio’s voice is tight with tension.
“Yeah. He also did this thing where he used his knuckles to rap the top of my head. You know, like he was knocking on a door. He’d yell at me, asking if I had a brain in my head.” I let outa nervous laugh. “You know, when I say it out loud, it doesn’t sound like I suffered much. I mean, Jason and Jasmine were also mean to me, but nobody beat me.”
“They tortured you in other ways.”
“Yeah, they did.”
I tell Gio all about the isolation of being locked in my room almost all the time, of being fed the bare minimum and having lukewarm showers because I wasn’t good enough to use the hot water Jason paid for. I share the pain I felt when they mocked me over the murder of my family. Every awful thing anyone said or did to me in the Henry household comes flooding out. Once I start speaking I can’t stop until I’m done. As I confide in Gio, a pressure is lifted from my chest.
“You withstood it all, kitten.” Gio hugs me a little tighter. “They tried to break you, but you were too strong for them.”
“I get that from my mum.” My breath catches at the back of my throat. “I miss her the most.”
It kills me that she won’t be around to share all the major events in my life. I’d have loved to have her at my wedding and if I ever have kids, I know she’d have been the greatest grandmother.
“Of course you miss her.” Gio strokes my cheek. “You know, if you need to cry, go ahead. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable in front of me. I’ll never take advantage of your moments of weakness.”
His words are unnecessary since his actions have already shown me what kind of man he is. I shake my head. “I don’t need to cry. Now I’ve told you about it, I feel… liberated, I guess. It’s like a weight’s been lifted.”
“I get that. When I told you I dreamed about being shot, I definitely felt lighter afterward.”
Wriggling out of his grasp, I prop myself up on my elbow and look down at him. “Gio, you barely said a word about the shooting.”
“I said enough.”
There’s no point in arguing. This silly stoic man will tell me more when he’s ready. Of course, I may be old and gray when that happens. Until then, I’ll mop his brow when he has nightmares and soothe him back to sleep.
“So, Tommy McCain’s the one you want to suffer?” Gio’s question deftly switches the focus back to me once more.
“Well, I want to see him, Jason, and Jasmine bleed, but I reckon Sandy should be the one to deal with them. He’ll need to make Jason suffer since he was the one who actually murdered my family. Tommy wasn’t there that night…”
“So, it’s only you he harmed?”
I nod. “Sandy’s vengeance will be for our parents, for Jamie, Erin, and Lorna. You’ll exact revenge on the man who hurt your wife.”
“Yes, I will,” Gio says decisively. “Do you realize you’ve started calling your brother Sandy? He was surprised by it.”
“Well, it’s what everyone else called him. I never thought it suited him, but now it reminds me of when we were a family.”
Gio caresses my arm soothingly. “You can be a family again.”
“I hope so. Once Jason and his crew are wiped out and Tommy McCain is gone.”
Gio’s expression darkens. “I’ll make him bleed for you, kitten. I’ll cut his dick off and shove it down his throat. Then I’ll rip his heart from his chest.”
To any other woman, his words would probably sound horrific, but to me they’re a declaration of love. Safe in the knowledge he’ll protect me, I cuddle into Gio and go back to sleep.
CHAPTER 20
Gio
When I heard Eilidh’s family lived in a castle, I somehow imagined it would be some modern building masquerading as the real deal. As we pull up to her home I’m shocked to find I was mistaken. Dunblair Castle is, in fact, a genuine medieval building. We drive, in the chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce that met us at the airport, over an actual drawbridge, across a moat that would once have been filled with water to repel invaders. The castle is constructed from massive stone slabs. It has towers at its four corners, joined by longer, lower buildings. I’m amazed as I glance up to see arrow slits in the walls.
