Page 4 of All Your Firsts

“What? You think I’d have been able to just leave? You haven’t been around in almost seven years, Gage. News flash, I’m nolonger the naive fourteen-year-old girl you remember, and you sure as hell don’t look like the sixteen-year-old I remember. So let’s cut the bullshit. You have no idea what our father has been like. What he’s capable of.”

I can feel the inside of the car reach subzero temperatures the second the words leave my lips.

My attention shifts to Gage, who has a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel, his narrowed eyes fixating on me.

“Where the hell do you think I’ve been all these years? Vacation? Our father is the one who practically locked me up.”

I tear my gaze away from him and shift my focus to the dark view outside the window. I can be upset all I want about how our father has treated me, but when I think about what Gage has faced, my grievances seem insignificant.

I remember him and Marco going into my father’s office. Their sobs echoed through the halls when they emerged, sometimes with visible bloody wounds. It makes me feel petulant and childish compared to that.

“I’m sorry.”

Gage sighs heavily. “Me too, Ro.”

The longer we sit in silence, the more the anxiety builds within me, like a volcano ready to erupt.

“Are we almost there?” I murmur as I look out the window. “Wherever there is.”

“Almost,” Gage says as we pass a welcome sign that looks straight out of a Hallmark movie where small-town girls return home for the holidays and reunite with their long-lost loves.Experience Wilding. Population of forty-five hundred.What the hell are we doing here?

“I have a friend who lives here and will watch over you for a while,” Gage says as if reading my mind.

“So, I won’t be free. I’ll just be handed off to another. Forever a prisoner.”

“It’s the safer alternative to your half-assed plan.”

“How did you know I was planning on running tonight, anyway? You practically showed up out of thin air.”

“I have my ways.”

“How unbelievably vague.”

As we pull into the driveway of the large two-story home, the sight of the rich red and brown brick, black shutters, and two towering columns at the entry catches my attention. This is the type of home you’d read about in a book with a happy family, complete with a white picket fence, nightly family dinners where everyone talks about their day, and a cute little dog.

“This is your friend’s house?”

“Yeah, his name’s Vic. He has a guesthouse you can stay in.”

“Why aren’t I going with you?”

“I’m in Chicago. It won’t be safe.”

“And what if I don’t want to do this?”

“I take you home. I don’t want you somewhere unknown for anyone to just take advantage of you.”

“Even if I have to marry a psycho against my will? Do you know who they planned to marry me to? Manuel. He used to pluck the wings off the butterflies in our mother’s garden. A true fucking psychopath hurts harmless beings. I’d be whacked before we hit our first anniversary.”

Gage remains silent, much to my dismay. The sweet older brother who used to take me to get ice cream when I was upset is no longer here. Like everyone else in the family, he grew intoa hardened Mafia man with little to no feelings. He cares for nothing but his own personal agenda and rules. If I didn’t feel so disgusted by the revelation, I’d be disappointed and heartbroken.

Gage blows out a breath. “I won’t take you back home. Just—”

The shrill ringtone of his phone pierces the silence, prompting him to swiftly answer, listen with a couple of grunts, check the time on his watch, then hang up.

“Listen, I have to go. I wanted to introduce you to Vic, but he’s taking longer than I thought. Will you be okay?”

“Yep.”

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