Vincent (13 page)

That was when the moment died for her. He only cared about her because of Adalyn.
Of
course
it wouldn’t be because of me.
Finally, she understood the difference between them. She cared about Vincent because she liked him, not because he was her best friend’s brother.

Lake felt stupid, knowing he would never like her based on her alone. Lucca had made it clear to her that only Italians could be in the mob, and Vincent could only love one thing—the mafia. If he ever settled down, it would be with some sexy Italian woman, so if they ever had kids, his sons could follow in his footsteps.
I would only taint the Vitale family’s name.

She jerked her hand from his grasp. “Is it fixed?”

“Yes. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” she said, trying to pull out the stick the hood was balancing on.

Vincent quickly grabbed the hood of the car. “Jesus fucking Christ, you’re going to chop your fingers off!” he screamed at her.

“If I did, you would only care for Adalyn’s sake, right?”

When he simply stared at her without saying a word, she stormed off and got in the car, slamming the door shut. Quickly, she turned the key in the ignition, and it finally started.

Vincent was barely able to shut the hood and move safely out of the way before she could run him over.

Dammit, God! You couldn’t have let me win once today?

Luckily, the look on his face as he jumped out of the way gave her some peace.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Nightmare on Fourth Street

She just fucking tried to run me over, didn’t she? She fucking did!

Vincent was doing that girl a favor, and she didn’t even know it. He didn’t enjoy telling her he only cared about her because she was his sister’s best friend. Hell, he wanted himself to believe it.

‘Because you’ll just tell me it’s a mistake and leave me again.’
That one sentence had about ripped his heart out, and he had previously been certain he didn’t even have one. She had one foot already out of Kansas City, and when the time came for her to go to college, he couldn’t leave with her. Lake would never budge about getting out, and he would never budge about leaving.

Sure, he could play with her, have his way with her for a little while, but he could see the outcome of it all. Vincent would destroy her; completely and utterly destroy something precious which was already on the verge of breaking.

Seeing that bitch talk to her that way at the mall, he had finally seen an ounce of why she had said she could relate to Chloe. His gut told him she might have had it bad her entire life, and he had been too stupid to see it.

Vincent began to vaguely remember wanting to turn the car around when he had dropped her off at her mom’s house.
I should’ve turned around
. He was sick at the thought of all the shit she might have gone through over the past couple of months.
I left her there.

The place where his heart was supposed to be began to ache. He had never experienced it before. Afraid, he shut his conscience out, not able to listen to the voice in his head explain the new feeling. Therefore, he replaced it with one he knew all too well, one which whispered his sinful desires. He let the feeling of rage begin to take over his body. It was clear; destroying her would only break him, and he was unbreakable.

Vincent heard the door slam. Looking up, he saw Amo’s furious face walking from the house.

“Your sister doesn’t shut the fuck up, does she? No fucking filter at all. The entire time, I had to hear her talk about how hot Nero and Lucca are. She’s sick and twisted, just like you. She would fuck Nero’s eyeballs and Lucca’s Escalade if she could.

“While I was listening and trying not to picture some very sick, fucked-up shit, I look out the window to see if I could get the fuck out of there, and I see Lake bent over the fucking car. You were experiencing every man’s wet dream, and there I was, trying to distract your sister for you so you could have it. You get the image of her sweet ass tonight when you fall asleep, while I’ll be having a goddamn fucking nightmare about your sister fucking a green Escalade!” Amo finished by finally managing to open his car door through his frustration.

Vincent tried not to choke on his laughter. “No one’s more sick and twisted in a bedroom than you, Amo. You’ll find something to make you forget.”

“You fucking owe me something for that, Vince, so why don’t you go find it for me?” Amo yelled before slamming the door shut.

What the fuck!?
For the second time today, he had to dodge out of the way to avoid being run over.

I probably deserved that one
, he thought, smiling as he remembered how stiff he had gotten from staring at Lake in those tiny Daisy Dukes. He’d had to try hard to get her to bend over the hood just enough to where the swell of the bottom of her ass cheeks popped out, but it had been one hundred percent worth it. He could no longer resist his urge to touch her, his hand already itching to do it again. He had thought her hand was soft.
But damn, her legs and ass are the smoothest fucking things I’ve ever felt.

He had touched many women but none had felt like her, and he had no clue how the hell that was possible.

Maybe she has a disease where she can only grow hair on her head?
Wondering if that disease even existed made him curious as to exactly how smooth she was in other places. Of course, that made him totally want to keep his conscience hidden forever and go back on swearing off Lake when he had only done it not even five minutes before.
Sure, we would crash and burn together, but it would feel so fucking good
, his sinister voice whispered to him.

“I really am sick and fucked-up,” he told himself.

*  *  *

Lake tried to muster the courage to walk through the front door. She had already been through a lot and didn’t know how much more she could take.

Turning the knob, she entered the house of horrors.

“There’s my baby who’s all grown up!” Her mother ran to her, giving her a hug. “I am so sorry I couldn’t make it, but I got you something to make up for it.”

“Oh, thanks, Mom.” She tried to sound as enthusiastic as she could.

As her mother dragged her into the kitchen, she saw John and Ashley sitting at the table, eating Chinese food while they shot her disgusted looks behind her mom’s back.

After her mother gave her a big gift bag off the kitchen counter, Lake watched her mother practically burst at the seams in anticipation for her to open it.

She was going to have to act really excited for whatever was in the bag. Pulling out the tissue paper, she could see the contents. It literally killed her to have to pull it out of the bag and reveal it to John and Ashley.

Grabbing the straps from the very expensive, very big designer purse, she pulled it out.

“Mom, this is too much. Thank you.” She smiled as big as she could while giving her a hug.

Looking over at John’s warped face, she feared the coming storm.

“You’re welcome, honey. I know you don’t like backpacks, and I thought you could put your books in it for college. Congratulations!” Her mother gave her another big hug.

“Well, it’s perfect. Thank you.” She needed to wrap this up and get the hell out of there. Ashley wasn’t even trying to hide her disgust and jealousy at that point.

“John?” her mother nudged.

“Congrats.” He licked his front teeth. “They forgot my spare ribs again. I need you to go back out and get them.”

Shit, shit, shit.
She had to think of something.

“Okay, I’ll be right back, honey,” her mother told her.

“Actually, I have to get back. Dad’s back home, waiting on me.” She tried to make sure John understood by emphasizing the
dad
part. He wasn’t going to be able to hold her up and torture her that night because her father was expecting her, but she was certain he was going to make her pay tenfold for it by the look on his face.

“That’s fine, honey. You can tell me all about graduation on Friday.”

Lake let out an unnoticeable sigh of relief as she put the purse back into the gift bag.

“Tr—Why don’t you go take that to your room. That way, it’ll stay nice and new for when the semester starts,” John told her.

She swallowed down the lump in her throat, “O-Okay. Be right back, Mom. We can walk out together.”

As soon as Lake excited the kitchen, she walked as fast as she could without breaking into a full run. Quickly, she went up the steps and down the hallway. She jumped up to retrieve the string, but only the tips of her fingers could reach.

“I thought you needed the extra workout. You were getting too good at it from what I saw the last time,” Ashley said, coming up behind her.

She turned around and held out the bag. “Just go ahead and take it.”

“It’s not very fun when you just give it to me.”

Lake put the bag back to her side when Ashley wouldn’t take it. The moment she did, Ashley snatched it out of her hands.

“Actually, it is, bitch.” Ashley began laughing. “Good luck getting into your shitty room now.”

Lake watched her walk off happily to her own room with her present in hand. She had known she wasn’t going to be able to keep it, and the truth was she didn’t even want it. Presents made everyone else in the world so happy, but to her, they only caused fear. The better the gift, the more scared she was.

That time she decided to run, not caring if anyone was going to hear. She needed to get downstairs before her mom left.

When Lake reached the top of the staircase, she knew she was too late. John was waiting for her at the bottom. If she didn’t have to work, she would have turned back around and locked herself in her attic.

Not having a choice, she slowly walked down the steps. About four up from John, she stopped moving and began to pray silently in her head.

“I have plans for you this weekend; big piles of shit only trailer trash scum can clean up. I own you, and you will find out how much I fucking own you in a few days. I’m going to make up for all the time I’ll lose when you go to college. The only thing which is going to help you get through it is the thought of what your piece of shit father would do to your mother if he found out how you were treated. What do you think those animals who think their shit don’t stink would do to her? I know you’re a retarded inbred, but I’m sure you understand me, don’t you?” He slowed the last part down as if he was talking to a baby.

Lake was reminded of why she had to put up with John torturing her and why she had to keep it a secret all these years. John was right; if she told her father or Adalyn, the mafia would come for her mother and kill her. There was no doubt about it. Her mom was her family, her flesh and blood, and she would do what she needed to do to keep her family safe.

She looked down at the ground in defeat. “Yes, John.” Lake had tried often to get out of those ‘Nightmare on Fourth Street’ weekends, but all her excuses would be shot to Hell whenever her mother called her father to complain. That always raised questions on why she didn’t want to go, questions she could never answer.

He stared at her a moment longer to instill the fear of what was to come before stepping to the side.

Once he moved, it didn’t take Lake two seconds to run as fast as she could down the steps and out the door. Fumbling with the car door handle, she finally managed to get in and lock the doors behind her.

Putting her face in her hands, she began to sob, asking God,
Why me? Why me…?

“Why, God?” Lake quietly cried to herself as she scrubbed the toilet.

Hearing the door to the bathroom open behind her, she snapped her head back to see John.

“Because you’re fucking nothing; that’s why. Now quit fucking crying. God isn’t going to help you.”

She covered her mouth, trying to stifle the cry about to come out from his hurtful words.

John went over to the bathroom counter and slammed his hands down as hard as he could, scaring Lake so badly she went dead-silent. “Get the fuck upstairs. This is exactly why I made you move into the attic. I’m sick of hearing and looking at nothing but a piece of shit.
Go
!” he yelled at her.

Getting up and running as fast as she could, she went down the hall, stopping only when she noticed Ashley on a stepladder from the garage. Slowly walking down, she watched Ashley use scissors to cut at the white string which was used to pull the attic stairs down to her new bedroom.

Ashley finally took notice of her and held out the string, showing her how much she had cut off. “I thought it was a bit too long. What do you think now?”

Lake wiped away at the tears which were sliding down her cheek without giving her an answer.

“You’re right, bitch. It needs just a little more taken off. You’re fucking nice and tall; you can do it.” Ashley sounded crazed when she said ‘nice and tall’ as she cut off another inch. “Perfect.”

She watched Ashley climb back down the ladder and move it out of the way.

“Go on, I want to see how high you can jump.” An evil sneer appeared on her face.

Lake merely stood there. She wasn’t going to let Ashley watch.

“Do you want me to call for my fucking dad? I’m sure he would love to watch this, too.” When Lake didn’t move again, she started to scream, “
Da
—
”

Lake quickly moved toward the string, not wanting John to watch her, as well.

More tears flowed from her as she jumped to retrieve the string. She failed the first several times, making it even harder on her to grasp it after it started swinging back and forth at each failed attempt.

Ashley’s sadistic laugh rang in her ears along with the words, “Higher. Jump higher, bitch…”

Lake wiped her tear-stained face using the backs of her hands, coming to the realization that reminiscing about her past tortures wasn’t going to help her stop crying, and crying wasn’t going to solve any of her problems.

She had to work that night and pull herself together if she was going to solve her biggest problem.

For an eighteen-year-old girl, it was sad to think that the only way she could save her and her father’s lives was to work in a sexed-up casino. Sometimes, life just wasn’t fair.