Her eyes are huge as she stares at me. Her smile has vanished. And she’s now as far as she can get from me in her chair.
She’s afraid of me. I don’t have to ask her to understand that.
“You’re going to return me to him…” Her lip quivers and tears threaten in her big green eyes, clouding the sparkle there before.
“No.”
“I don’t believe you. You turned me over to him before. You want to wait a few days. Get your fill of me, and then pretend you found me when it’s most convenient to get back on Dante’s good side.”
“N—”
“I’ll tell Dante. I’ll tell him everything if you give me back to him.”
I pull the car over abruptly to the side of the road. I need to focus on her if I’m going to win this fight with her.
I grab her shoulders and pull her, so she is staring straight at me. I tell myself it’s so I have her full attention, and she can see into my eyes that I’m telling the truth, but it’s because I need to have my hands on her.
“If you believe one thing about me, believe this. I will never give you back to Dante. Even to save my own skin. You will never see Dante Russo again. He will never touch you again. Never beat you. Never rape you. Once I claim something as mine, it’s mine. I don’t share. I don’t change my mind. I will never let Dante have you again.”
“Dante won’t stop looking for me. Ever. You can’t assure that.”
I cock my head to the side and give her a wicked smirk I’m sure reaches my eyes. “I’m Dante’s security now. He wiped out his old team. He trusts me. Dante will never find you unless I want him to find you. I control Dante now. And I’m the best damn security in the country. You are free of Dante.”
My eyes scan hers, trying to decide if she believes me. I don’t know why it matters to me that she believes me. It’s frustrating me that I can’t read her.
“Do you believe me?”
Nothing. No answer on her face or from her lips.
“Gia?” I ask, with a warning to my voice.
“I don’t know.”
I sigh.
“Why? Why would you never turn me over to Dante? I don’t understand.”
So many heartbreaking images fill my head, and I almost forget where I am.
I shake my head, pushing the memories away.
“It doesn’t matter why. Just believe me when I say Dante will never own you again.”
I release her, and her body falls back into the chair, unable to hold herself up. I start driving again while we both sit in silence.
I do everything I can to not think about the gorgeous, feisty woman sitting next to me. When my mind starts counting her breaths, I change to counting the road signs we pass. When my eyes cut to the glow of her filthy skin, I punish them by playing images of Dante. When my nose takes deeper breaths, trying to get a whiff of her sweet smell, I roll down my window as we pass a cow pasture.
It takes us forty-five minutes to reach the small turnoff for my house. Gia fell asleep shortly after driving again. Her breathing has been slow and steady since.
I reached over around minute ten to tuck her hair behind her ear so I could see her pretty face better. She didn’t stir. I punished myself by digging my nails into my skin. I’m going to need a better way to keep Gia out of my thoughts when I’m on the job. This won’t work.
Now that we are almost to my house, it doesn’t matter if I think about her. I can act on my needs. Fuck her if I want.
No. I will not fuck a woman who was so recently touched by another man. He probably fucked her in his office before she ran.
I slow my speed as the car sways over the gravel path leading to my house. There is no sign for this road. There is barely even an opening among the trees. It’s how I like it. No one knows my house even exists back here.
Slowly, my black roof starts peaking out over the trees. The small cabin-like feel of the siding comes into view.