CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: WINTER
“Itseemsyouhaven’t learned your lesson.”
Giovanni’s cold voice comes from over my shoulder and I turn to finding him standing behind me.
My feet are in the pool, and they instantly feel freezing as I take in the look on Giovanni’s face.
He’s pissed.
His features are twisted in anger, his hands tucked into his pockets and his shoulders are tight. He remains a foot away from me and I consider running.
I don’t know what the hell it is I’ve done this time, but he’s wrong, I did learn my lesson last time. I’m not about to mouth off to him or try to fight back.
My eyes flicker to the door behind him that leads into the house. I don’t have to fight, but I can run. I can lock myself in my room and breathe for as long as it takes for him to break my door down.
Except my door doesn’t lock from the inside, it only locks from the outside.
The bathroom then, I can hide in there until he drags me out.
He watches me closely and his jaw tightens. “Don’t even think about running, Winter. If you do, I just may accidentally break your neck.”
My heart is rioting and as my body goes numb, I think I’m truly having a heart attack for real this time.
“I don’t know what I did,” I manage to get past dry lips.
I’m off today and I wasn’t told that I had any plans, so for the most part I’ve been sitting outside alone, allowing my thoughts to run wild. I hadn’t even bothered to put on a swimming suit or get all the way in the pool. I’d settled for the shorts and tank top that had been sitting on my nightstand instead.
And as Giovanni’s gaze moves over my body, I wonder if he was the one to set up this ensemble, if he planned whatever is about to go down before I even woke up this morning.
“You can pretend to be innocent, but it’s not going to change the outcome,” he says, keeping his gaze leveled on me as if it’s going to suddenly make me confess.
But I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to be confessing to.
“Fine,” he says after a moment, “Play dumb then.”
He pushes up the sleeves of his white dress shirt and I tense up.
Fuck.
He steps forward and there’s nowhere to try to run to at all. I think about hopping into the water, but I can only move so far before I get to the deep end and if Giovanni doesn’t drown me then the high water certainly will.
I miss the final step that Giovanni takes, bringing his feet right into reach of me. I don’t miss his hand wrapping my hair.
A scream finds its way from my throat as his fingers tighten in my curls and he yanks me. I try to pry his grip loose but he doesn’t let go, and then he’s pulling.
I cry out as my thighs scrape against concrete, burning. I twist, trying to get away but it only makes it worse. I thrust my hands against the ground, trying to crawl so he isn’t dragging me, but he’s forceful, continuing to pull as my scalp and legs scream in agony.
It feels like he’s going to rip my hair right from the scalp a moment before the concrete eats the flesh right off of me.
He finally lets go and I slump to the ground before pushing up on my hands to look at the damage that has been done. I can only see blood.
Giovanni looms over me, gripping my chin tightly and taking my gaze off of my damaged legs.
“Last time to tell the truth, Winter.”
“I don’t know,” I tell him. At some point tears had started leaking from my eyes and they flow freely now as I look up at him. The sun is high right over his shoulder and it makes his side features blur as the glare shines right down into my face. But I don’t miss the way his face tightens further.
“Diamond. Hawthorne.” he says each word like they’re two complete sentences of their own.