Vincent (Made Men Book 2)(100)

Lake deserved better than that after what she had done. She didn’t deserve to be frightened one more time in her life. Vincent didn’t even fucking deserve her. He knew he should make her go and not give her the choice to leave at the end of the summer. However, like he had told her the previous night, I’m fucked-up.

Vincent took a deep breath, smoothing his hair down. It really wasn’t the day to be a made man. So much questioning was happening on how the fuck the night had happened. He didn’t know anything more than the obvious since Lucca was handling the situation. When or even if they figured out all the details, he wouldn’t know. Vincent was still only a soldier, regardless of whom his father was, which was why he had to spend the day working on new security details.

The codes were all changed and only given out to certain men in the family. There was also a new guard on the top floor who stood beside the elevator. They had never required a guard there, since it was watched by surveillance. Besides, in order to get to Dante’s office, you had to walk down the long hall then be let in to the security room with the TVs and guards, and then you could finally get into his office. Not to mention, you were a dumb fuck to even want to get on his elevator and punch in the code in the first place. However, someone had still done it and managed to take Al out.

Vincent slid his card through the door, eager to see Lake again. He had hated leaving her, not wanting something like the night before to happen to her again. If it wasn’t for work and the new guard, he wouldn’t have.

Quickly going up the stairs when he hadn’t seen her downstairs, he felt déjà vu when she wasn’t there. Fuck, no, no, no! It was like he knew she wasn’t going to be in the bathroom already.

Vincent picked up his phone, calling her quickly. Just like last time, it went straight to voicemail. Running downstairs, he noticed his keys were gone. She had blatantly left him.

Going out the door and down the hall, he stopped in front of the guard. “Girl, light-brown hair—”

The guard interrupted him. “Tall and hot? Yeah, she left here earlier today.”

Vincent flexed his jaw. “When? Did she say anything? Did you notice anything?”

“I guess a couple of hours ago. She just seemed like she was in a fucking hurry…”

Vincent was already running down the hallway toward Dante’s office, praying Sal would be in the security room to help him find out where she had gone.

Goddammit, Lake!

He knew something was terribly wrong. He just knew it, like he always did with her. Vincent couldn’t take this anymore. She was literally killing him every time she did something like this.

Why does she fucking do this to me? It was to the point that he believed she enjoyed it.

* * *

Lake’s knuckles pounded on her mother’s front door. Something felt off to her, but she didn’t exactly have time to worry about it, afraid John might be back at any moment.

When her mom opened the door, Lake covered her mouth as she saw her crazed appearance. Holy shit.

“Mom, are you—”

“Yes, yes, hurry. Come in.” Her mother quickly grabbed her arm, dragging her in and then locking the door behind her. “My bags are upstairs.”

She continued walking with her mom up the stairs as she held her arm rather tightly. Her mom seemed a little wild, and her gut screamed at her that all this was going down wrong.

When her mom led her down the hallway that held her old bedroom and not her mother’s, she was confused. “Your bedroom is the other way.”

“I’ve been sleeping in the workout room.” Her mother put her hand on the door handle.

Lake was shoved inside by her mother when she opened the door, and a hard slap across her face had her falling to the floor.

“You little trailer trash whore.” John spit on her body.

Lake, feeling dazed from the hit, looked at her mother who had tears in her eyes. “Mom, go!” Then she started to kick at John when he tried to grab her.

He managed to slap her hard across the same cheek again. “Fucking stupid piece of shit, your mother doesn’t love you.” He grabbed her by the hair, dragging her across the floor. “Don’t just stand there; open the attic, bitch!” He sounded out of breath.

Pam started crying as she pulled down the string and started opening the stairs.

Lake tried to fight him as tears began to streak down her face. She was successfully tiring him out but Pam had joined in, helping him pull her to the unfolded stairs.

“Mom, why are you doing this?” Lake cried, hoping her mother would come to her senses. The two had clearly gone off the deep end since she last had seen them.

“I’m sorry, honey. He made me get you here. I can’t clean and cook for him right.”