Page 66 of Caruso
It’s as if we are watching a movie playing out in plainsight and even the staff merely stop to watch the spectacle. There are no sirens, no attempts to break up this fight and as Damian falls to the floor unconscious, Giorgio stamps him hard in the groin before turning, slapping several one hundred bills on the table, before grasping my hand and pulling me swiftly from the room.
Chapter Thirty
Giorgio
That guy is fucking lucky I didn’t toss him out of the window—the unopened window.
Silence follows us as we leave the restaurant, and as I stride back through the club, it’s as if the crowd parts to let us through.
My temper is well known in Vegas. This wasn’t the first time I’ve beaten a man half to death, and it is never called in. Nobody ever makes a complaint or an accusation because it would be like signing their death warrant.
“Giorgio.” Taylor’s soft gasp invades my rage as we spill out into the alleyway, and as the door slams behind us, she says softly, “Thank you.”
I turn and note her worried expression, which stops me dead in my tracks. She appears so small, so fragile even, and as if I am the only man who can keep the world away.
I’m aware she can defend herself, but it doesn’t make me stop trying. If anything, I am already way too protectiveof her, and yet even her gentle touch can’t still the beast inside me.
I slam her against the wall and get up in her face and hiss, “Did you?”
Her eyes widen, and rather than fear, anger sparks in them.
“Fuck you, Giorgio. Do you really think a fucking virgin turns tricks at Damian’s clubs?”
It settles my rage a little, but the jerk in me growls, “You have more than one hole, sweetheart.”
A swift knee in my groin is my reward, and as I loosen my grip, she twists out of my arms and lands a resounding slap across my face. I take the pain because I probably deserve that and this time she spins me around so my back is to the wall and hisses, “The reason I left is that that creep instructed the manager to educate me in the way it works in that bar. He considered it was his right and attacked me in his office one night.”
Her face is the picture of a warrior as she growls, “He soon learned I wasn’t interested—the hard way—and so I left. I didn’t look back, and I had lasted exactly two days. They hired me as a bartender, nothing more, but for some reason they believed I could earn them more money by screwing their punters in a different way. I turned down their kind offer as I destroyed the guy’s balls, and then I ran and never looked back.”
Despite myself, I begin to laugh at the thought of the creep discovering this slip of a girl is more of a ninja that the heaviest doorman he employs. I would have paid to see that, and Taylor huffs, “So thanks for theshow, but I can defend myself. Now you can see why I had exhausted my options before I came to you and became your whore. If I can’t beat them, I may as well join them—isn’t that what creeps like Damian think?”
She wipes a tear away as she spouts anger, and I swear that sight will live with me to my dying day. I want to react. To kill, to maim, to burn down the bars with Damian and his managers inside. I do none of those things. Instead, I wrap my arms around my woman and hold her close. Stroking her hair as I make a promise.
“Your past is not part of your future. Your life begins now, and whatever happened back then isn’t worth talking about. We have all done things we’re not proud of. Been in survival situations to live and the fact you arrived here without compromising your integrity is more valuable than any of the riches we own.”
I squeeze her tightly and kiss her softly on her head and whisper, “You’re a Caruso now, angel, and God help anyone who attempts to mess with that.”
For the longest time we stand huddled against the wall, the sounds of the city a mere stone’s throw away. We are safe here, away from the madness, locked in our world of depravity and demons, us against the world.
After a while, Taylor whispers, “I want to go home now.”
“Anything you say, angel.”
The fact she thinks of The Artemis as home lifts my heart and as we walk slowly down the alley, my arm drapes over her shoulders and a sense of calm settles over me as I face the fact that Taylor is going nowhere withoutus—ever. We will never set her free. She belongs to us now, and as it turns out, we belong to her.
When we reach the apartment, my heart sinks. They’re home already.
Taylor makes straight for Matteo, and as his arms fold around her, it’s like a spear in my heart.
Tommaso scowls as she smiles at him, and Matteo’s eyes burn a hole in me as he searches for anything to use against me.
I touched her. He will not be happy with that.
I fucked her relentlessly and not in a gentle way.
I took her to a fight and allowed her to watch me beat two men almost to death. Then I tortured a man and allowed her to join in the fun.
It was hardly the stuff of romance novels, but she loved every second of it. He would hate it though, so I return his glare with defiance and chuck my body on the couch.
