Page 136 of Driftwood Daffodil

What? Someone drugged me? Why would anyone drug me? That seemed like a waste of time. I wasn’t a hard person to lure away. Veda once got me to do her chores for a month for a stick of…

Realization caused a quiet grumble to roll out of my mouth.

Simon.

Slimy bastard. I should’ve known. He was way too cheap to bring his own alcohol, let alone buy bourbon.

“Who was it?” Gio barked down at me.

I opened my mouth but he cut me off.

“And don’t tell me you don’t know. I saw that look on your face.”

Damnit. Was I that obvious?

“In case you forgot, you tried to kill me… twice.” I pointed out. “So maybe whatever look you think you saw was brought on because you once again have your hand on my neck.”

Case and point.

“Don’t fuck with me, Nova,” Gio growled. “Who was it?”

I looked him dead in the eye and said, “Frankenstein.”

Gio’s emerald eyes visibly darkened, causing a shiver to shoot up my spine.

“You want to play this game, do you?”

I had no idea where Gio got his super speed powers from, but before I knew what was happening, Gio flipped me onto my stomach, pressed his hand down on the back of my head, and smashed my face into the mattress.

“What the—” was all I got out before a heavy hand cracked off my ass.

And I meant cracked.

The sound from Gio’s slap rang through my ears while a fiery burn crawled up my tailbone, making me cry out. And he didn’t stop there. The onslaught continued while Gio muttered and grumbled over me. I fought back, kicked my legs and swung my arms back to claw at him. Not that it did any good. Gio just carried on hitting me like I was nothing more than a nuisance.

It was agonizing, humiliating, and I had no clue how to make it stop. The only grumbled words of his that I could make out were opossums, smiles and purity. How the hell did those three things fit together? They literally had nothing in common. Gio was making no sense. If I knew what he wanted me to say I would’ve. I’d have promised my first born if that’s what it took to escape his heavy hands.

At one point my ass went numb, either from permanent nerve damage, or from my mind checking out. Either way I gave up. I laid there and took it. And even then Gio didn’t stop until I was out of breath and the tears streaming down my face started to dry up.

The few minutes of silence that followed were the longest of my life. I kept waiting for his hand to swing through the air. When it didn’t I was pathetically thankful that it was over. Relief washed over me, until I felt Gio’s hot breath warm my ear.

“Let’s try that again, shall we?”

All I could do was whimper back.

“Who? Drugged. You?”

After an assault like that, any sane person would jump all over the opportunity to confess. I was not one of these sane people.

I rolled my head to unbury my face from the mattress, and peeked back at Gio, “Hit me harder Daddy.”

Ever seen someone’s mental sanity crack. Like every logical thought in their brain spontaneously combusted at once? Well, it was a sight to see. Gio’s head jerked to the side while his eyes went blank for a split second. It was what came after that made me rethink my smart mouth remark.

In one swift motion Gio either swept me under him or crawled over me – it happened too fast for me to be sure – and I found myself once again pressed into his annoyingly soft bed. Except this time it was his weight holding me down, not his hand.

I kind of missed the way his fingers dug into the back of my skull. I could at least try and flail then. Now I was trapped and left with nothing but sad slaps of my hands on the bed. It was pathetic.

I was pathetic.

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