Page 69 of Bittersweet Endings
I gasped as his hand pulled my face to his, and I was lost in the heat. I’d forgotten the way he made my body come alive. All the memories of our time together and how all of it wasn’t bad. How I’d felt safe and protected, even if the back and forth was making me crazier.
“No.” The word came harsher than I thought it could, not with him so close.
He sighed, annoyed and almost disappointed. “If I can’t have you, no one can.”
I could’ve laughed at the audacity. It was such a stupid response. Yet I knew he spoke it with nothing but truth. A Capo, claiming what belonged to him.
Carmine went for my hand, and I tried shaking him off. The knife going to his throat. His smirk was condescending, because he thought I couldn’t do it.Iknew I could. And I would. If I had to. If it meant losing my freedom.
A haze settled over Carmine’s expression. I could feel the tension. The slightest tick in his cheek. The quick, subtle glance behind me.
“I’ll always protect you,” he whispered. It was soft, kind. And then, out of nowhere, he shoved his seat back and raised a gun to my face. “We’re leaving. And you’re coming with me.”
What the fuck was going on?
“Up. Now.” He motioned with the gun for me to move. “Let’s go, Octavia. Don’t make me carry you out of here.”
The change scared me. I stood on shaky legs, and Carmine gripped my elbow to steady me. I discarded my napkin on the table and felt a confusing, traitorous tear splash across my cheek. I went to grab my clutch and stumbled backwards into Carmine.
Peiro sat at the table behind us, the man I thought I knew long gone. The smirk was cocky and something else. And I wanted to wipe it off him. Two men loomed at his back while their guns remained at their sides. Peiro slowly pushed to his feet, glaring at Carmine. Then, he spared me a single glance, and I had the urge to vomit.
The man I thought of asfamilyhad mutilated me. Had taken pieces of me I was never going to get back. There was a time when he’d watched out for me, cared for me in a way that was different from the others. I’d felt special, like he actually saw me and I wasn’t just a job.
And all that had been ruined.
How hadn’t I seen the darkness that surrounded him? How hadn’t I noticed his resemblance to Uncle Rick?
“Hello, Octavia.” Peiro scowled as Carmine grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him. “That’ll be the last time you touch her,” he warned.
“Will it?” Carmine taunted. “Or will it be when I’m covered in your blood? Fuckin’ her as she’s screaming my-fucking-name.”
“You. Won’t. Touch. Her,” Peiro shouted each word. “She doesn’t want you!”
“And you think she wants you?” Carmine laughed. “Do you really believe that she looks at your mark and thinks pleasant thoughts about you?”
“I know she does because she’s mine. I marked her foreveryone to know.” Peiro glanced at me again before returning his focus to the beast in front of him.
“She wasn’t thinking about you when she was lying under me. On my table. In my bed. My head between her thighs.” Carmine’s arm came around, tugging me into his side. “She doesn’t think about you, not even when I licked. Every. Fucking. Scar.”
Spit flew out of Peiro’s mouth as he screamed, “She. Is. Mine!” He ripped his own weapon from his back, pointing it at Carmine. “She belongs to me. And you’re outgunned, motherfucker. Octavia is coming with me, Carmine. Now.”
“I see two dead assholes and a dumb fuck. And I’m outgunned?” Carmine was so sure, confident. “Octavia is hopping a flight and coming back to Cali. With. Me.”
His grip on me tightened when Peiro stepped forward, shouting incoherently. Carmine tensed and dropped his hold on me. Readying his stance and taking aim.
Peiro kicked over a chair. “Fucking move. I don’t want to shoot you. I won’t hurt her!”
“Hurt her?” Carmine said at the same time I asked, “Hurt me?” Absently, my hand went to my stomach, the scars burning my flesh. “All you’ve done is hurt me. You raped me. Scarred me!”
My voice didn’t waver as I spat everything at him. Undoing my skirt just a little, I pulled it down to reveal the ugly marks that were embedded into my soul.
“This isn’t your masterpiece. This is the fucked-up marking of a psychopath.” I lunged around Carmine but he grabbed my bicep, halting me. “I’m not yours! And I never will be!”
“Calm down,” Carmine chastised.
“Don’t tell me what to do!” I lunged again but his hand waslike a steel band holding me back. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate. You. For what you did!”
Peiro flinched but quickly recovered. “You just don’t remember how good it was. How good we are together.” He glared at Carmine. “Once I’ve erased his touch from your body, you’ll remember what we had.”
