Twisted Hearts(39)

“You keep yourself entertained,” I gritted out. “You probably would have slept with one of those skanks if I hadn’t shown up.”

“I already fucked the blond skank, Kitty, and I’ll fuck the other skank once I’ve made sure you’re safely home.”

I tried to push him away, but he braced himself to both sides of me. “If you don’t back off, I’m going to kick you in the balls.”

He tilted his head and smiled, then he stepped back. He ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll call one of my brothers. They can take you home.”

We weren’t really dating yet, so what he did wasn’t even cheating, but it was so disrespectful that it hurt all the same. “So you’re sending me home so you can sleep with the next girl?”

He pulled out his phone, ignoring me completely.

I slapped the phone out of his hand, unable to stifle my anger. “When do you think you’ll stop sleeping around? I’m sick of this.”

“Who says I will stop at all?”

Was he really suggesting what I thought? That he’d keep sleeping around once we were married? I narrowed my eyes and jabbed my finger into his chest. “I don’t care if you’re a Falcone, if you and your brothers rule over this city, I won’t tolerate cheating. The moment we’re married, you’re mine and if you as much as kiss another girl, I’m gone. I’ll leave and no one, not my family, not my brother, not even your brother Remo will be able to make me stay. I’ll pack my things and find someone who knows how to treat a woman right.”

Savio’s face twisted with rage. He backed me into the wall. “What makes you think you can make fucking demands like that? I think you forget the nature of our arrangement. Marriage will make me your fucking owner, not the other way around. I can do whatever the fuck I want, can fuck whoever the fuck I want, and fuck you whenever the fuck I want.”

My lips fell open in shock.

Savio nodded, his eyes harsh. “I own you. I own your lips and your tits and your pussy. I own every fucking inch of you, Gemma.” He pressed his palm to my stomach. “And if I want to touch you, I do.”

I slapped him hard across the face. He gripped my wrists and pressed his body into mine so I couldn’t bring my knee up. I struggled but stood no chance. A battle raged in his eyes. “Don’t slap me ever again.”

I only glared, not trusting my voice.

“I know you think you know how to fight, but you’ve never fought a real fight in your life, Gem. You live in a world of fairytales and Disney princes, but that’s not how the world works. It’s an ugly place. A place where men don’t want to carry you on their hands, they want to see you on your knees, sucking their dick. They want to fuck those silly dreams straight out of you. I know I do.”

I could feel the first treacherous prickling in my eyes.

He breathed harshly and then he shoved away from the wall, and me, and stalked toward his phone.

I had half a mind to rush after him and kick him in the balls, but it took all my energy to stop myself from bawling. I hated that he had the power to make me want to cry. I hated that I was emotional. No matter how hard I fought, it didn’t change the fact that I was emotional. I’d lost count of the movies that had made me cry.

He typed a message into his phone then pushed it back into his pants. “Come on.” He reached for me, but I stepped away and left the room. He led me downstairs.

“Toni’s here.”

“I don’t give a fuck.”

“I’m not leaving without her.”

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me down the driveway and didn’t stop until we reached the gates. “She’s probably fucking Diego again. If not, I’ll call her a taxi.”

A Porsche pulled up and Remo Falcone got out. He was only dressed in boxing shorts.

“Can you make sure she gets home safely?”

Remo regarded me then his brother with narrowed eyes. He motioned for me to get into the car. “You didn’t mention I was supposed to play taxi for your fiancée.”

“I can walk,” I said.

“Get in,” Savio ordered.

Remo held the door open for me so I had no choice but to sink down on the passenger seat. I buckled up while Remo talked to Savio for a moment, then he slipped behind the steering wheel.

I leaned against the window, as far away from the terrifying Capo as possible. He started the car and pulled away. In the side window, I watched Savio return to the party. I took a shaky breath and blinked hard as I wrapped my arms around my bare stomach.

“What happened?”

I jumped. I risked a look at the man beside me. When his dark eyes met mine, I swallowed hard.

“Answer me,” he ordered.

“Nothing.”

He slowed then came to a stop, still a few blocks from my home. He narrowed his eyes. “If you want to make lying a habit, you should practice to being more convincing.”

I was too exhausted to deny it. “I caught Savio with two girls. He lost it and said horrible things to me.”

Remo considered me. “Savio’s used to women who do what he wants and who don’t talk back. If you act like them, he’ll treat you like them.”

I wouldn’t let anyone treat me like that, not even Savio Falcone. “I talked back, but I didn’t get through to him.”

Remo set the car in motion again. “I thought giving up wasn’t your style.”

I shrugged. “I’m done. I’ve tried for too long.”

We parked in front of my house.

I faced Remo fully. “Can you please cancel my engagement to Savio? I don’t want to marry him anymore, and I don’t think he really wants to marry me either.”

He became still. “You’re asking me to cancel your promise to my brother?”

I merely nodded. “Then he’ll be free to do as he pleases, and I can find someone who really wants to marry me.”





My head was pounding and when I opened my eyes, sharp pain slashed through my brain. I groaned, then rolled over, only to be met with a warm body.

Covering my eyes with my palm, I tried to move to the other side of the bed, only to touch another body. Blinking against the brightness, I sat up and checked my surroundings. I was in a bed with two girls. I slid down to the foot of the bed and stood, pressing a palm against my temple.

Slowly the events from last night filtered through the fog, cloaking my memories. “Fuck.”

I got dressed slowly, then headed downstairs. Passed out people were strewn about the house like a goddamn obstacle parkour. Diego was snoring on the sofa, only in boxers. Maybe he hadn’t seen Gemma last night.

That was probably the only good thing about the fucking shitshow that was my birthday. I made my way down the driveway to my car and froze. It was smeared with something brown. For a moment, I was sure it was shit, but as I got closer, I saw the remains of a chocolate cake on the hood. Someone, and that someone could only have been Toni, had rubbed the goddamn cake all over my car. I knew who had baked the cake though. A hint of guilt flared up unexpectedly.

I walked toward our mansion, which was probably for the best, considering I still felt slightly drunk.

It was already noon, so Gemma was supposed to come over in two hours. I needed to get my act together until then.

The entire family sat at the lunch table, having some kind of council of war from the look of it, even Fabiano and Leona were there with their daughter Aurora. She was crawling over the floor, trying to keep up with the rest of the kids, who were all older and more mobile.

The women of the family looked at me like I was a cockroach they wanted to squash, even Kiara shook her head with a disappointed look.

Remembering how I’d called Remo to pick up Gemma, I could only assume she had told him something and he’d recounted everything to Serafina like a fucking gossip.

I walked over to the table, surprised to see cake, my cake on there. “Aren’t you going to wait with the cake until Gemma and her family come over?”

“They aren’t coming over. Gemma asked me to nullify your engagement,” Remo said as if he was talking about the fucking weather.

I stared at him, feeling like I’d been sucker-punched.

Serafina got up to stop Nevio from trying to climb the bar. “You are the biggest idiot on the planet.”

Ignoring her, I walked around to Remo. “Don’t tell me you agreed to this nonsense.”

Remo pushed to his feet, looking pissed. “I told you to be sure you wanted to marry. I told you this wasn’t a fucking game. I told you that I wouldn’t tolerate you offending a loyal family again after what happened to the Carluccis. And what do you do? You not only fuck around, you do it in public.”

“I won’t give up Gemma, Remo. I don’t give a fuck what you say or decide. I’ll marry her. And don’t play the high card, you fucking kidnapped a bride and held her captive until she succumbed to your madness.”

Remo gripped my collar and jerked me against him, his eyes burning with rage. Everyone fell silent, and even the kids watched open-mouthed. Remo shook with the effort not to beat me to a pulp, or try at least. “Never mention it around the twins again, got it?” he said in a deadly voice. “You’re lucky I don’t want Greta to see me breaking your fucking jaw.”

My eyes slanted to his little girl, again in her favorite pink tutu, staring at us with huge terrified eyes. Nevio, on the other hand looked like he was getting a huge present. Massimo and Alessio watched in curiosity while Aurora kept crawling around.