Page 96 of From My Past
“After all I helped you with? After everything I provided and gave to you?” His voice got louder with each word, his face getting more and more red, the vein in his neck pulsing. A full-force punch rained down on the side of my head. My vision started to darken.
“After all I did for you, you go off and whore yourself out to the enemy.”
He stalked towards me; his eyes trained on my every movement. I crawled backward, refusing to let my fear paralyze me. It was obvious that Luca wasn’t planning on making my pain quick. He wanted to feel each and every injury he inflicted on me but I had no idea if he would stop or if this was the time I would die by his hand.
My back hits the cabinets on the floor, there’s nowhere else to escape to…
“Do you know how embarrassing it was to explain this all to my father?” His fist hit my face in the same spot and I cried out in pain.
“Do you realize how good you had it?” He hits me on the other cheek and my head flips to the side.
“Of course not, you stupid bitch.” Luca goes to hit me again, but I block it by bringing my forearms up to absorb the blow.
I see Luca’s eyes widen in surprise.
“The brutes been teaching you something other than cock sucking, huh?” He sneers and kicks me in the stomach, making me gasp for breath. I double-over, my forearms hit the ground as I try to cover as much of my torso with the floor.
I just need an opening. I need to wait until I can turn the tables on him. What had Kieron told me?
A kick to my ribs. I felt like I had all the air in my lungs pushed outward and I couldn’t breathe in.
Focus, Talia. What did Kieron say about getting out when trapped?
“If you can, block every blow you can. Let them get tired and then when they falter, you attack with the biggest, strongest and truest punch you have. One well placed punch could win you the fight.”
I could already see, through my swollen eyelid, that he was slowing down. Luca’s adrenaline had been running so high and his hits had a shit-ton of force behind them so I know he wasn’t holding back. He was already coming down and getting tired.
“Pathetic.” He said with a chuckle. Before I could fully sit up, Luca had grabbed my hair and lifted me to look at him. “What the fuck did you do to your hair? I told you to keep it blonde because you look like a fucking clown with it like this, just like back then. I thought I trained you better than that.”
The searing pain from my scalp brought tears to my eyes, more so than the other injuries, but this was my moment. My hands were holding his forearm, trying to hold myself up so he wasn’t ripping out my hair, so I used my legs. I gathered all my strength and picked him between his legs as hard as I can. Immediately, the grip on my hair lessened and I backed up.
I mentally went over what Kieron taught me on how to throw a powerful punch. Making sure that my thumb wasn’t in my fist, I planted my foot and punched him straight in the nose.
He didn’t move, but the shock knocked his head back and I got giddy at how red his cheek got. Even if I didn’t draw blood from the punch, he’d have a hell of a bruise.
“You think you’re tough? You’re nothing. Nothing.” He growled in my face. Luca looked like a rapid animal; his blood-stained teeth bared at me, spittle stuck around the corners of his mouth, his eyes were narrowed at me in anger and I could see him shaking.
He asked me if he thought I was tough and I realized that; yes, because I was. I’d just lost sight of it.
I threw another punch, aiming for his ribs this time. “Leave.” I snap, venom laced the word tightly.
“Who the fuck do you think you are to tell me what to do? What would your dear sister think of you now? As soon as I’m done breaking you in every way possible here, I’m going to make sure she ends up in prison, cursing your name every moment of every day.” Luca wipes the blood from his nose and tries to punch me again. I can see it coming from a mile away though and block the blow to my chin with my forearms again.
My vision tinges with red and I go on the offensive.
I am done taking hits from him.
I am done listening to him spew nastiness and awfulness that absorbs into my conscious.
I am done letting Luca control my life.
“You won’t touch her. I’ll make sure of that.” I let the anger fuel my strength and I start attacking him. I know that the fight wasn’t pretty, but I was keeping Luca so busy blocking that he couldn’t strike out.
“I’m going to kill you, you fucking asshole!” I scream, Luca takes a step back to get out of range, but I follow. “You’ve stolen so much from me and I’m going to makeyoupay!”
The blood dripping from his nose and his eye made me smile. As I falter in steps, I knew it was going to give him the upper hand. I’d lost my footing and a punch didn’t land, giving Luca the chance to get my hand and pull me into him by a bruising grip on my forearm.
“You stupid bitch.” He laughs manically. “My turn.”
