Sweet Truths & Silent Lies ✔️

CHAPTER 05 - ❝the devil himself❞

Asshole.

"You're an asshole!"

"It's your choice, sweetheart. No one will get hurt, but if you try to escape... Your friend Eden would have to be visited to teach you a lesson. Your choice."

I start to pound my fists against his rock hard chest-punching and punching him like someone would bang on a door to get someone's attention. I punched his chest, pulled at his jacket that probably cost more than a hundred dollars, and punched him again until the top button of his black buttoned-up shirt flew off, landing on the gravel sidewalk with a small thump. Even though his shirt was ripped at the top, he still didn't make a move to try and stop me.

The tears were streaming down my cheeks and my hands started to hurt from punching him so much and so hard repeatedly, but I kept on going and going until I finally just stopped, but I realised that it wasn't me who stopped willingly, it was his brother who pulled me away from him to stop my punches.

Vito holds me tight against his body to prevent me from charging at his brother again. His arm was snaked around my body, keeping my back flush against his chest. Vito was taller than me. His chin barely grazed the top of my head.

I pull Vito's arm away, stepping away from him to take a breath.

Giovanni's words played like a record inside my head: "And if you do manage to escape, emphasis on if, where would you possible go? Would you go to your best friend?"

They really were remorseless. They were completely heartless.

"You leave my best friend out of this." I say through gritted teeth to Giovanni.

"That's not up to me." Giovanni says. "It's up to you. You see, if you go to her, her death will be on your hands, sweetheart. Go somewhere else and we'll find you. We'll find you over and over again. You can't escape us. It's useless."

He steps forward, towering over me. He reached his hand out toward me, tucking a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. His thumb grazed my earlobe, sending an involuntary shiver cascading down my back.

"And don't think about going home either because there isn't one anymore." His mouth twisted in an evil smile. "It's gone. It has been burnt to the ground along with your brother's body and everything you have ever owned."

I feel my entire world crumple to the ground along with the little dignity I had left, along with the strong façade I was trying to keep up to hide the fact that I was scared shitless of them, but now I wasn't afraid of them anymore.

I was angry at them for taking my home from me. I was angry at them for taking my brother's life, and now they took my freedom away from me by keeping me locked prisoner inside that mansion of theirs.

I didn't ask for this. I thought. I just want to go back home and watch the news like this life wasn't my reality, but I couldn't. This life was my reality now and I couldn't escape it, even if I tried. They would find me over and over again.

My eyes were icy when I tilted my head to look up at Giovanni still towered over me. I felt Vito's gaze burn right at the back of my head. He was close behind me, just in case I use the gun Giovanni offered me yesterday on his brother today and with the way I was feeling right now, I wanted to shoot him.

"I hope you burn in hell." I tell Giovanni, my words coming out as a whisper.

He leans down, his face mere inches away from mine. A strand of his onyx-coloured hair tickles my forehead, and then, out of nowhere, his lips brushed the skin of my earlobe faster than I could pull away from him and his lips.