Page 130 of Loving Lucia

“Yeah. I changed it to that for him.” Giulio grins at me and Damien. “Look, just one small, gory detail. I really want to know.”

I realize why the voice sounds familiar: it’s Angelo Guerra. The same man who executed my father right in front of my eyes. Who stabbed a man in the neck with a pair of scissors on Pavone’s order.

I cover my mouth to suppress a whimper.

“Sure, why not. I castrated him. Made him choke on his own balls. Which, by the way, I’m fully intending to do to you if you don’t hand over Vanessa.”

My eyes widen at that, and I stare at the phone. I didn’t want to go with Victor, and I definitely don’t want to go with Angelo — especially now, when he’s talking about feeding Emilio Pavone his own balls. “Is Lucia okay?” I blurt out, unable to stop myself. I don’t want the attention, but I need to know if she’s safe.

“Vanessa? Hey! Yeah, Lucia’s very, very fine. If Rossi is there, tell him he was right, I was definitely getting really close to her. But you would too, if you saw how she can take three guys at once.”

I want to be sick.

My hand flies up to my mouth, and I try not to gag. So Lucia got away from Pavone, only to end up back with Angelo and Victor and… a third person, someone she hadn’t told me anything about. That doesn’t seem fair, after everything she’s gone through.

“Let her go!” I say fiercely. “She doesn’t deserve for you to be… to be touching her. None of you should be touching her!”

Giulio bursts out laughing, almost drowning out the sound of Angelo chuckling. “Damn, Guerra. It’s a shame you’re back with that dick Corvi. I think we would have gotten along. But hey, just so you know—my dad was the easy target. I’m not half as unobservant as he is, and I’ve been building up my own resources. Also, did you know the strip club and brothel situation in Benton is just fucking sad? How does anybody have any fun in your town?”

There’s a slight pause on the other end before Angelo responds, “You thinking of fixing that?”

“Mm. I might. Now, thanks for the update. Hope the convo was long enough for your tech guy to figure out he can’t actually trace the call. Ciao!” Giulo ends the call and tosses the phone on the table.

Damien lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Did you have to provoke him?”

“I didn’t have to. But I wanted to.” Giulio gets up then and closes the distance between us. He’s the same height as me, but of course that doesn’t stop him from being just as intimidating as Damien. “So. Why the fuck do they actually care about you? They’ve got the Bellini girl they want, right?”

“I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head. But Victor had seemed keen on having me go with him, too, and now Angelo made it sound like he actually cares whether they keep me or not. And Lucia had claimed they were more than what they seemed… I don’t tell Giulio that, though.

“Maybe they’ve got a buyer lined up?” Giulio reaches out to touch my hair, and I flinch away. His smile drops a little, and I’m terrified he’s about to hit me, but he sighs and heads back to the couch. “Damien, let’s just fuck her. I need something to unwind after this fucking day.”

“No!” I say quickly, straightening up and tugging away from Damien’s touch on my shoulder. “Neither of you is fucking me.” My voice is high and thin, and it’s all too obvious even I know there’s nothing I can do to stop them if they make a move on me.

I whimper when Damien winds a hand around my waist. “Sure. How do you want her?”

I slam my hand on his arm, but Damien is like a statue. I try stepping on his feet, although fear has me using far too little force.

Giulio’s looking a lot more interested now though. “Actually… Slayer would have fun with her, wouldn’t he? Yeah. Let’s call Slayer. Make it an evening of it.” He reaches for the phone again, then sighs and throws it against the wall. It clatters loudly, although the case prevents any parts from going flying.

He reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a different phone and hits a few buttons. I feel Damien’s fingers curl and dig into my skin.

“We don’t need Slayer to have a fun evening,” Damien says. “It could just be the two of us.”

Even in the midst of my fear, I don’t miss that he saidthe two of us, and somehow, it doesn’t feel like that includes me. I bite my lip, not wanting to comment on it, and I go still under Damien’s hand.

“Nah. I promised Slayer he could have all the new girls, anyway. And Vanessa is very, very new.” Giulio puts the phone on speaker, again. I can’t figure out if he just doesn’t care about privacy, or if he wants to scare me.

Probably both.

After two rings, someone picks up. “Hey, Jules,” the deep voice says. “Done with the wedding party so soon?”

“God, you shoulda been there. It was fucking insane.” Giulio winks at me. “You might have heard already, but the place got shot up. A fucking church! Who does that? Anyway, you can hit up your contacts in Benton for all the details, but the important part: I got a new girl out of it.”

“I’m not a ‘new girl,’” I protest, trying harder to pull free from Damien’s grasp. “I don’t work for you, I’m not your new anything.”

That only gets a laugh from the other end of the line. “Color me interested,” the man drawls. “Tell me more about this… non new girl.”

I stiffen when Damien lowers his lips to my ears. “He likes it when they struggle and cry,” he whispers.

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