The pictures I’m most fond of, of course, are the ones of Kulani and me. Some pictures are from the day he taught me to surf. There’s one from the night of our first date, and so many more. In all of the pictures, it’s clear how much he loves me and me, him. I have to believe that he was sent from my mom. I was supposed to meet him.
I check my appearance one more time in the mirror and freshen my makeup. I’m just walking out of the bathroom when I hear the front door.
“Kulani?” I call after a moment of silence.
The air in the room changes as an awful feeling washes over me. I’m a little slower to walk out in the living room, but when I get there, I’m relieved to see no one is there. I must be hearing things.
My phone rings from the bedroom just as I think this. I turn around to make my way to my room, but I don’t even get to take one step before I see him, standing in Kulani’s doorway.
“Ah! Oh my god, Seth. What are you doing here?”
“You didn’t actually think I’d let you get away with making a fool of me, did you?” He laughs. He looks different. Rundown, almost. Whereas he was always put together at the resort, his hair is greasy and disheveled, and there are large black bags under his eyes. He looks like he hasn’t slept in weeks.
The dirty sweats he’s wearing are falling off his body, and he smells awful. He makes a move to grab me. I yelp, jump back, and put up my hands between us. “Please, just leave. I won’t tell anyone you were here,” I beg.
“Can’t do that, sweetheart. You took everything from me, and you’re going to be the meal ticket to getting it back.”
I cry out when he grabs my arm roughly and pulls me to him.
I don’t think, I just react. My only thought is getting away from him and to my phone. Before he knows what’s happening, my knee slams into his groin and it sends him doubling over.
As soon as his hand releases me, I make a run for it, but he recovers faster than I anticipated. “Come on, Aria. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be. I don’t want to hurt you…too bad.”
I’m almost there. Just outside the doorway. I can see my phone lying on our bed, but before I can cross the threshold, Seth grabs a chunk of my hair and yanks me back.
I land, hard, on the wood floor. All the wind is knocked out of me and the room is spinning after my head smacks on the floor. I shake off the pain when I feel Seth climb on top of me. I begin to kick and fight when I notice the white rag in his hand that he’s trying to cover my mouth with.
“Please, Seth. Stop!” I may not be able to fight him off on my own, but I know that Kulani is on his way home. All I have to do is fight long enough for him to save me.
“Stop fucking fighting!” I claw at his face. He tries to pull my nails from his face, but I’m holding on for dear life. I can feel his skin under my nails and his blood at the tips of my fingers.
I’m relieved when he drops the rag. For just a second, I let myself believe that maybe I’ve won, maybe he’s giving up, but I should have known better. My eyes widen out of horror when I feel his hands wrap around my neck and begin to squeeze. A black fog begins to seep into my peripheral vision. I know I have no choice but to let go.
My hands drop from his face, and I swear I can hear the sound of them falling on the wood floor next to me echo through my body. To my surprise, Seth lets go. I pull a breath into my burning throat.
The black fog is just beginning to clear when I feel the rag being placed over my mouth. Then…black.
Chapter Twenty-Three
In Bad Company
I gasp when a bucket of cold water is thrown on me. “Wake up, cagna!”
My eyes crack open. The first thing I see is a dirty wood floor. I don’t lift my head as the memories of Seth attacking me rush back. I struggle to stand and run, but I soon realize I’m tied to a chair.
What I can’t understand is if it was Seth who attacked and kidnapped me, then why is a man calling me a bitch in Italian? Tears sting my eyes when the man grabs my hair and yanks my head up. The water leaks out when I realize I’m staring at the last man responsible for taking my parents’ lives. Tony.
Tony laughs in my face, his laughter just as menacing as Sal’s stare downs. Chills run down my spine. “I see you recognize me. Good. No need to waste time on introductions” I cringe when his hand leaves my hair to trail seductively down the side of my face. “Little Gianna Donatelli. I always thought you were gorgeous. That’s why I tried to get Sal to negotiate you as payment, but the greedy fuck was always more interested in money. Such a shame.”
When his grimy hand begins to trail down my chest, I try in vain to break free from the ropes that are tied around my wrists. Tony and someone else laugh at my attempt to break free. I look to the side and see Seth standing in the corner.
“I’m sorry about the ropes, but I couldn’t risk you getting away. Not until we have a little chat,” Tony says while removing his suit jacket and rolling up his dress shirt sleeves. I take a second to look at my surroundings and recognize that I’m in the boat house at the other end of the resort.
My stomach rolls at the possibility of what his ‘chat’ means.
“Why?” I croak.
“What’s that?”
“Why are you doing this? Sal is in prison, probably for life. You could be gone and free. Why are you doing this?” I scream.
“You don’t think that snake will throw me under the bus in a second in exchange for a lighter sentence?” He roars in the small, wooden building.
“It wouldn’t have mattered! Everyone knows he killed my mom. It didn’t matter what kind of deal he tried to make.”
Tony starts laughing, and I want nothing more than to jump out of this chair and slam my first into his mouth.
I flinch when he grabs my chin and makes me face him. He brings his face so close to mine I can smell the liquor on his breath. I bite back a gag. “That’s where you’re wrong, Gianna. I killed your momma.”
“What?” I say. At the same time, I feel a nail sticking out of the back of my chair. As subtly as I can, I begin sawing the rope on it, trying to free my hands.
“Your momma was never part of Sal’s plan. It was only supposed to be your father. We didn’t even know she was home. I had orders to leave, but Sal is a fucking idiot! I wasn’t about to leave the fate of my freedom resting in the hands of your bitch of a mother,” he spits out right before a satisfied smile graces his lips.
Vomit claws up my throat when his lips go to my ear. “Your momma was a lot like you. Feisty. That was until I had my gun aimed at her head. Then she was begging for her life.”
I can’t fight it back anymore. I weep.
“Come on, man. You said you were just going to threaten her not to testify. You’re taking this too far,” Seth stutters out nervously.
“Am I paying you to talk?” Tony yells, and Seth’s face pales. “No! I paid you to bring her to me. Now, if you want your fucking money, I suggest you shut your mouth.”
Like the coward he is, Seth’s mouth closes instantly and he leans his back against the wall.
“You’re a coward,” I shout, both at Seth and at Tony.
“Is that right?” Tony says. “How is that, sweetheart?”
“You hate Sal because he is what you’ll never be.” I see the carefree face he had fall at my statement. “You want to be him, a leader, but you’ll never be anything but a goony, a weak bastardo who preys on women because they are weaker than you. You’re scum.”
I brace myself when I see his fist rise. Bracing did no good. As soon as his fist slams into the side of my head, pain like I’ve never felt before ricochets through me.
He pulls out a gun from the waist of his dress pants and aims it at my head. “You know nothing, cunt!”
“Hey!” Seth says. “You said you weren’t going to kill her! You were just going to threaten her so she would keep her mouth shut.”
I furiously begin sawing at the rope again when Tony turns his attention to Seth.<
br />
“Will you shut the fuck up?” he roars.
I’m scared I’m running out of time when the gun is aimed back my way.
“I didn’t sign up for this. I’m not letting you kill her.”
Tony turns the gun on Seth and pulls the trigger without blinking an eye. I let out a blood curdling scream.
Just as Seth drops to the floor, unmoving, the nail finally cuts through the last of the rope, freeing my hands. “God, that kid never shuts up. It’s no wonder you turned him down,” Tony says when he turns back to me.
“Where was I? Oh yeah.” Tony raises the gun toward me. I count to three and jump up before he can pull the trigger. I grab the back to the chair I was sitting in and, with every bit of strength I have, I smash it over Tony’s head. I hear his gun clatter to the floor, but I waste no time wrenching open the door and running out of the boat house.
“Help me!” I scream as soon as I run outside. It’s dark out and I’m dizzy from the pain in my head, so I just take off toward the woods, hoping and praying that this is the way to the resort.
“You can run all you want, Gianna, but we both know how this is going to end. Give up now, and I’ll make it less painful!” He yells. Yeah, right! I whimper and pick up speed when I hear him behind me.
I’m running as fast as I can and breathing so hard that I’m beating back vomit. I don’t even know if I’m running in a straight line because all the trees around me are spinning. I just keep repeating to myself, “Just a little bit further.”
That’s when I hear…nothing. No screaming. No footsteps behind me. Just nothing. I’m not naive enough to think that he’s given up. I don’t slow my speed at all, but it doesn’t matter because Tony appears out of nowhere and I run right into his chest.
“Please,” I beg one last time.
“Should have listened, sweetheart.”
His fist slams into me again. I fall to the ground. All the fight has left me. I don’t even struggle when Tony climbs on me. I don’t even scream when he pulls out the long knife. Only one tear escapes my eyes when he tells me, “Say hello to your mother.”
I cry out when he plunges the knife in my stomach. Unimaginable, white hot pain rips through my lower half and I instantly lose feeling in my legs. I love you, Kulani is my only thought when he pulls the knife out and raises it again.
I close my eyes, but the stab never comes. I open my eyes when I feel Tony leave my body, just in time to see Kulani throw the rock he just bashed into Tony’s head to the ground.
“You’re gonna die, motherfucker!” He roars before he climbs on top of Tony.
It’s not like I’ve given a whole lot of thought to how it would feel to be stabbed or to die, but this isn’t what I expected. I expected pain, but I’m just so numb, so cold.
My eyelids become so heavy it feels like someone is pulling them down. As the moments pass, it gets harder and harder to breathe. I know I’m dying. As much as I want to fight, I just don’t have the strength.
I crack my eyes open once more to see Kulani still on Tony. “Kulani.” My gurgled voice must break through Kulani’s rage because his head whips over to me.
I see him scan my body and his attention land on the blood. He lets go of Tony’s limp body and crawls through the dirt over to me. “Baby,” he croaks when he reaches me. I feel him apply pressure to my wound and hiss. “Just hold on, sweetheart. Help is coming. You just have to hold on.”
I want to believe him, but I know what I feel. I’m running out of time. I cry when I feel him lift me so he’s cradling my torso on his lap. “Kulani,” I whisper.
“What, baby?” I can hear the pain in his voice and it kills me to know that I’m doing this to him, that I’m leaving him behind.
“Thank y-you,” I stutter through clattering teeth. “You’re the b-best thing that has e-ever happened to m-me.”
“Stop talking like that, baby,” Kulani pleads as he moves the hair from my face. “You’re going to be fine.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Aria. That’s why you have to fight, honey, so we can get married and have little babies that look just like you. I just got you, sweetheart. Don’t leave me now.”
I smile when my eyes close because I can imagine all the beautiful things Kulani just said. “Open your eyes. Don’t leave me. Somebody help!”
Everything goes black.
Epilogue
Kulani
Six Months Later
It’s been six months since Gianna died…and ten months since she walked into my life. I knew, from the moment she kicked my ass in the woods, that she would be mine, that she would ruin me for all other women.
It was so much more than her beauty that drew me to her. It was her strength. Yeah, she didn’t tell me about her past right away, but one look in her eyes and it was easy to see the pain in them. If a girl who’s holding that much pain can still walk around every day like nothing is bothering her, she has to be strong as hell.
The more I learned about this mysterious girl, the more I fell. I’m in love, and I have no clue how that happened. I didn’t expect it and really didn’t want it, not after the life I lived. My parents were great, but I was so young when they died. The older I got, the more their memory died as well.
The strongest recollections I have are of my grandpa and the type of person he was—a liar and a cheat. I didn’t want to be around that or be anything like that. I was determined to keep anything to do with lying and cheating out of my life. That’s why I felt so betrayed when I found out she had lied to me.
I didn’t stop to think there would be a good reason behind it because, in my past, when I was lied to, the only reason was for money. I will forever regret walking away from her. I lost so much precious time. I’m a lucky son of a bitch that she even considered taking me back, much less did.
The night she spent spilling her secrets, past, and pain to me, I vowed I’d never walk away again. I would fight to the death to keep her with me, to keep our love alive.
I never expected to walk into my house a month later and see destruction. My worst fear came true. She was gone, possibly hurt, and I had no idea where she could have been. It was only luck that I heard her scream come from the woods when I was searching the Resort grounds.
I swear I ran as fast as I could. I wanted to spare her any pain I could. I would have taken all of whatever agony she was feeling a million times over if God would just let me reach her in time, but I was too late.
I don’t know what I thought I would see when I ran into the woods, but it wasn’t for some random man to be on top of my baby, getting ready to stab a knife into her.
I was overcome with a violent rage and a need to get her safe. I picked up the first thing I could, a rock, and slammed it into his head, but I didn’t stop there. I delivered blow after blow until her sweet voice called my name.
It’s then that I saw her blood soaked shirt. I was too late. I lost Gianna that night, and I’ll mourn her the rest of my life. But Aria, my sweet, beautiful, Aria, is still here and swimming this way with a smile so radiant, it could rival the sun.
It amazes me, how she can smile at me after everything she’s been through, after losing her mom, testifying, and then almost losing her life. She’s amazing.
It disgusts me that both Seth and Tony survived. The only good news is that they’ll both be right next to Sal and Vinny, spending the rest of their lives behind bars.
My nerves kick up when the surfboard Aria is paddling out here almost reaches the one I’m sitting on. I look to the sky and take some calming breaths.
“Hey, baby,” I say when she reaches me. I take a second to check out her sexy as fuck body in that teeny tiny bikini. My eyes rest a bit longer on the scar that now mars her otherwise perfect stomach, a scar that Aria hated for so long until I told her I loved it, that, to me, the scar is a physical way to show the world how incredibly fucking strong my girl is. She should wear it with pride.
“Hey yourself
. What are you doing all the way out here?”
“Thinking.” I smile.
“Oh yeah? About what?”
She laughs when I grab her, pick her up, and plop her down in front of me on my surfboard.
I bury my nose in her neck and breathe in her heavenly scent before peppering her collar bone and neck with wet kisses. “I was thinking about all the things you’ve given me.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. You’ve given me love,” kiss, “happiness,” kiss “and, life. But I’m a greedy man, Aria.” I pull back to look her in the eyes. She gives me a confused look, and then she tears up when she sees the diamond ring in my hand.
“Oh my God,” she whispers.
“I want you to give me your last name. What do you say, Rocky? Will you marry me?”
“Yes!”
The End
Acknowledgments
Limitless Publishing—Thank you for taking a chance on me and Love, Unexpected! Your company has been so amazing to work with. I feel so blessed to have met such wonderful people.
Scott and Bree—Thanking you for loving me through my craziness and supporting me through my dreams. I love you.
Mom and Dad—I love you guys. Thanks for procreating such an awesome child.
Tiffany—Thank you for sticking with me and always having the best synonyms for the dirtiest of words. Love you!
Boom—Seriously, I’d be lost without you. Thanks for the brutal honesty. I love you!
Lori Whitwam—You’re Amazing. Thank you for always answering my questions and never thinking I’m insane for asking them.
Beta Readers—I love you all!! I can’t express how much I appreciate every one of you!
Abbey Neil-Clark—You’re amazing woman! Thank you for everything you do for me. Mad Love!!
Also, to anyone who has ever supported me kind words, reviews, or just a like or share on Facebook, you’ll never understand how much it means to me and how much I appreciate your support.
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