by Jax Hart
“I held Zio’s hand until the nurse came in and asked me if I was ready to let him go.
I nodded and watched as my world was ripped away. How could anyone be ready to let someone you love go?
Sometime near dawn, I exited the hospital. I was a walking Zombie. Everything inside of me was dead. I noticed a dark SUV parked a few cars down. So, he was still having me watched but couldn’t be bothered to answer my calls and texts? Fuck that. I walked past the SUV and inside a coffee shop, blindly ordering something just to have an excuse to walk past the car. I saw him looking at me in his rearview. I dropped the cup when I was close and quickly slashed two tires.
It was a numb kind of satisfaction when I peeled out and watched the SUV struggle to tail me. It didn’t matter. They knew where I lived but if I was quick enough, Diana Palermo would disappear.
He wouldn’t find me.
I’d find him.
But I needed space and distance to grieve the loss of Zio and deal with the devastated hole Roque’s betrayal left in my heart. The man decimated me. Broke me down just like he warned he would.
Did he know this whole time? Did Johnny’s crew dig up my past?
I drove back to our tiny house feeling the crushing weight of so much loss. I couldn’t breathe in that house.
Quickly, I packed and set plans in motion. Zio did train me very well. It was time to execute our “bug out” plan and disappear for a while. I was eighteen and a legal adult and no one could stop me from leaving.
I left the Explorer in the drive and used the car we kept in the garage under a tarp. An old Volvo wagon would be my getaway car. It was blue and nondescript. I turned back to the house. It was time to say goodbye.
I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t crumble. Instead, I drove south to Pennsylvania. Past farms and fields, past rolling hills until I reached a tiny college town called Altoona. Zio bought a log cabin on an acre here years ago. Paid cash. Before he slowed down, we’d summer up here, slowly stocking it bit by bit in case we ever needed a safe haven.
Well, that time had come for me. I needed a safe haven. A place to shut the world out for a while so I could heal, lick my wounds and never look back. I’d vanquish Roque Salvatore’s name where it was stamped across my heart. I’d burn it out until it’s nothing but jagged scars. The scar would always remain, but the love would be gone.
I kept busy, unloading the car. My eyes were dried out from all the crying I did on the way there. I opened a toolbox and popped a floorboard, my hands reached under finding the old metal box. Inside was a new identity. New birth certificate and social security number. Zio was smart and shortly after he took me in we made duplicate fake identities in case we ever needed them. Zio even opened up a bank account here and we slowly established ourselves over the years as summer people. We smiled but kept our distance. Me being here wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.
I grabbed some lighter fluid left over from grilling. Took the cover off the charcoal grill and dumped my license, old passport and papers inside. I dumped a quarter of a bottle on Diana Palermo. Dropped a match and watched her burn.
It was cathartic. Cleansing.
I lifted my chin. He wouldn’t wreck me a third time. “Roque Salvatore… we might be ill-fated soulmates, but I won’t break for you ever again. Next time, you will break for me.”
Just as I was about to add my cell into the roaring blaze, it rang.
It was him. My thumb hovered over the phone. Should I swipe? I hesitated but answered.
“Romina.”
My heart hammered. His voice was low, deadly and rubbed across my bruised heart like sandpaper. When he spoke my true name, it cut through me like a knife.
“Roque.”
“I’m coming for you. This time I won’t hesitate to finish what I should’ve…”
“Try,” I scoffed. “But you’re mistaken, I’m the one coming for you.”
He laughed low in his throat and I hated what the sound did to me. I loathed and lusted for this monster and he knew it. But I also know how he burned for me. I’d wield that weapon. Turning on facetime I let him see me standing in the yard.
My hair was still blue but my eyes glittered green. I cried out my contacts and never bothered popping new ones back in.
He held up his hand, displaying a gold band around his finger. “So, it’s true? You married her?”
“I did. I’m more powerful than ever.”
It hurt. I couldn’t breathe, the pain of him being with someone else was too great. He was my enemy, but he was also my lover. It was so hard to separate the two. They were still glued together even though I was trying to tear them apart.
“I never lied to you.” The wind picked up, blowing strands across my tear-stained face. I let him see the moment of me standing vulnerable in the dark. It would be my last confession to him before I called on my years of training and closed the curtain to the high school girl who hoped he and her could be more.
“Ah Romina, you’re so breathtaking when your broken just like I knew you would be. It’s oddly satisfying, knowing I was right. Do you remember that day?”
“How could I ever forget the day I was murdered?”
“I brought you back, bella. My hands stole your life and my breath gave it back. My hands pumped for your heart.”
“You’re sick. Getting off during sex by choking women…”
He shrugged. “It was always you… you made me crazy, wild. You made me high, the scent of hair, your soft skin… taking your life was an aphrodisiac.”
“You sick fuck. I was a kid.”
“Almost a woman and so what? You liked what I did to you. Craved more? Am I right? I still feel you coming all over me, Blue. You like the devil in me. Will always want him.”
“The only thing I want is your head on a pike.”
“Come for me then. Let’s see who’s right.”
“Darling? Where are you? Come back to bed…” He grinned but I sneered, confident it was a set up. A farce of a marriage. No one who knew him would ever call Roque darling.
With a curled lip I challenged, “Kill her. Do it. Show me, my ex-beautiful monster, take from her what you wouldn’t from me.”
His eyebrow rose. “Ah, Romina we were made for each other it’s too bad our souls got the wrong message. They crossed in the stars somewhere but went into the wrong bodies. If you weren’t a Fiorelli…”
“It wouldn’t matter. Your family killed mine. Zio’s… gone,” I managed to get out without choking.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Are you? That’s rich coming from the man whose entire family slaughtered mine.”
“It was never personal.”
“Well it is now.”
“I’ve taken all your firsts, bella. And I’m still not done with you.”
“Roque?” A sexy woman came into view. She was everything I’m not. Voluptuous. Sophisticated. But we did share a few things. She had darkness in her and I watched helplessly as she circles his neck with talon like nails and kissed him. I watched their tongues duel. I knew what he was about. He was trying to break me further.
“It won’t work. Your lips might be on hers but it’s mine you want.”
His eyes slayed me through the screen. The darkness in him was about to break free. Goosebumps broke out all over me. If I was smart, I’d end the call and hide under the covers. He was coming for me. I felt it in my bones. He wasn’t done. We weren’t done. Somehow our dark story was just beginning…
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Wow. I don’t even know what to say,” Chloe finishes, carefully closing Romina’s diary.
I swiped a hand across my face, trying to reign in the trembling. Everytime I remember…think of her… it brings everything to the forefront. That girl twists my insides up like a blender and she fucking knew it. “I might know where she is.”
“What? What are you waiting for?”
“For her to come to me.”
“That makes no sense. No wonder you
pace night after night. She’s alive and haunting you.”
“She always did.”
“I see that now. Roque, this story it’s… epic. Twistedly epic.”
“And it’s not over yet.”
“Don’t send me away, please. I need to know how this ends.”
“So do I little one. So do I. Go to bed. The sun’s rising and you’ve been up all night.” Chloe yawns and comes over to give me a hug, “You’r e totally loveable, Roque. Even when you’re bad. Maybe especially when you’re bad.”
I shook my head at the slim girl in my arms. Her words ignited hope that just maybe a broken monster like me could still be redeemed.
Dear Reader,
That’s it for now… my own world turned upside down as maybe did yours. Stay safe. Stay Healthy. Who knew this would be our new normal?
I am sorry if this version wasn’t shiny and perfect. We ran out of time. We all did. Sometimes the enemy is invisible and comes out of nowhere. We will overcome. Until then, escape into the world of books. You’ll never be quarantined there.
JH
Little Red meets her Devil hell bent on revenge…
Here’s a sneak peek of what’s ahead for Romina and Roque!
My fists clenched in my pocket. Adrenalin ran like wildfire in my veins as my eyes swept her from head-to-toe. I don’t speak as I slowly walk forward, flicking my wrist to indicate to my men that I wanted to be alone.
“No one will save you,” I rasp, cutting the distance between us. She finally lifted her eyes.
I smirked. “I’ve broken you.” But she couldn’t utter a word. Not with the thick piece of rope between those plump lips. Lips that I once dreamed of.
Cherished.
Loved.
But I’ll never let my heart trip and fall again.
But as my fingers stroke her soft cheek and her heaving breaths make her breasts bounce, part of me wonders what could have been. A thousand “if only’s” have me punching the wall above her head showering her in a layer of sheetrock.
I yank the rope from her mouth and press my bleeding knuckles to her lips, painting them red.
“Never.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’ll never break me.”
I rock back on my heels studying the pathetic form at my feet. Was she serious? I’d taken everything from her a man could. But I guess it wasn’t enough. Maybe the two of us were meant to break one another. Because I damn near lost everything I maimed and killed for. Rank. Power. Respect.
“Fine. Instead of the queen I treated you as…you can be my little whore.”
“No.”
She jerked her face from my hand.
“Yes, bella. Before you betrayed me, I was ready to put my ring here….,” I grab her left hand, “and my seed here….” I rubbed her starving belly. “I bet you miss it already?” I breath. “My cock filling you so full.”
Her eyes betrayed her. My words painted a picture of what could have been. But her family roots ran just as deep as mine. In our world vengeance trumps all. She made her choice the fallout is all on her. She bites her lip. The sight of my crimson blood on her tongue has me hard as fuck.
My hands make quick work of my belt. I stroke myself from root to tip inches from her. She shrinks back but there’s nowhere to go. Her bare back scrapes against the wall.
“I never loved you,” she spits, straightening her spine.
The devil in me rises. Fuck her. My family and this whole fucking world. I have everything. Everything a man alive could want. I will have her love. No matter how long it takes. I. Will. Have. Her. Heart. Just so I can smash it to pieces, leaving it shattered at my feet.
I could shove my cock in her mouth. It’d be easy. But I don’t. My fingers grab her by the chin. “Open your eyes. Look at me.” I command.
“No.”
“Do it. Or I’ll fuck your face.”
“You wouldn’t. I know you, Roque. You’re ruthless in everything you do until it comes to women. You’d never force one.”
“Exception is my new pet name for you, bella. Because you just became one.”
With that promise, the head of my throbbing cock meets her trembling lips. Soon. Both my seed and my blood drips from her mouth. Satisfied, I grunt feeling the last shudder roll through me as my own seed glistens in the moonlight from where it landed on her lips.
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