My head slams back, and I’m thankful I’m sitting on a sofa as my head bounces off the back, but blood instantly covers my face, running into my mouth, and I know he’s just hit me, and just not a slap this time.
No, this time, it’s worse.
It hurts so much more.
I see stars and blackness.
Hands grip my already raw face, and he pulls at my sore jaw.
“You asked for it, remember that.”
I try to pull away, but he lifts me under my chin and forces me to a standing position. I can’t do anything but follow him, although shakily, as I go to where he wants me, his hands holding firmly. He forces me to a stop when he gets to Merci, who’s still lying on the floor. I watch in horror as he lights a cigarette and then takes a long draw, blowing the smoke in my face, before he lowers it to her skin. He forces it into her shoulder, where her skin is bare, and pushes it harder into her flesh.
The smell of burning flesh hits me before her screams do.
Chapter Three
Lucas
“The kid has been asking where she is,” Sergio says as he walks into the back room of the bar.
After my father took her, I came here. It’s better that I’m not where I can smell her. And believe me, her smell is everywhere in my place. It’s on every surface as if it’s teasing me that I willingly gave her up, but she wasn’t mine to begin with.
When did that ever stop me, though?
“You still give him a lot of power,” Sergio comments.
It takes me less than two seconds to get out of my chair and into his face. My hand wraps around his throat, and I push him back, squeezing. He doesn’t fight me because he knows if he did, I would end him.
“Have I taught you nothing?” I bark. His face goes white, and his eyes are large. “You may be my second-in-command, Sergio, but do not forget your position. Do not think because you are a friend that you can step into the subject of the family. You should know better.” I squeeze harder before I release him with a push and step back. “Do you understand?”
He rubs his neck as he catches his breath, and for a second, I think about what would have happened if I had killed him. What would that mean for me?
Sergio is by far my most trusted man. No one else knows about my father other than him. I guess it’s why he thinks he can comment on the relationship.
He can’t.
I don’t want him to.
The subject is taboo.
He knows this.
“Of course, sir. I get it.”
A loud knock is heard coming from the door.
Sergio steps past me to get it.
“Tell whoever it is, I’m busy.”
He doesn’t say anything more as he leaves.
Opening my phone, the first thing I see is her.
“Fuck off, Sergio.”
I know that voice. So I stand as the door is pushed open, and my father now looms there with Sergio behind him, shaking his head.