Page 134 of Fighting With Light
“I love you, too, Tarzan,” I mutter, kissing his face.
He curses and kisses me back hard, fast, needy, and sad. I will come home to him. If it’s the last thing I do, I will come back to the one that holds my heart in his hand.
“I love you, too, and no matter what happens, I always will.”
48
Aelia
Ben and I siton the plane next to each other. He’s no worse for wear. In fact, he looks…rested.We drove from California straight to Las Vegas, Nevada, and then grabbed a plane back to Boston. Ben hasn’t said a word, and I’m afraid to tell him to keep his mouth shut because he might just tell my dad everything simply out of spite. So I remain silent and let my mind drift to last night.
Liam carried me out of the water and straight to bed. He made love to me as if he was never going to see me again. My heart twists at the thought. He wiped my tears and I left my mark on him. We gave each other everything, so if it was goodbye, then it was the best we could have had. I told him over and over again I would come home to him, that this pain would be worth it, and the pain would heal.
I’m not sure he believed me, and I’m not sure I believed my own words, either. My father is unpredictable, especially when angry. It’s why I had to pull bullets out of my brothers because he sent them on a run they weren’t ready for. If he believes he has been wronged, then he will make sure everyone knows it. I’ve seen things that I don’t like thinking about and have buried deep. I know what he’s capable of.
***
Romeo was waiting for us at the airport. I hugged him tight and Ben assumed his quiet bodyguard duties. We ride in silence back home, and I mentally prepare myself for what I have to say. I know I have to come up with an excuse for why Iwas gone so long. Other than I’ve been seeing a man, which will make me look like a slut in my father’s eyes, but I don’t care. I will look any way I need in order to be done with him, and still keep my mother safe.
Romeo pulls up into the long curved driveway and parks the Bugatti next to the fountain.And they say crime doesn’t pay.
“He’s pissed, Aelia. Just tread carefully and don’t snap back. You know that always makes it worse.”
I nod and Ben opens the door for me. My feet pause and I look at him carefully, trying to judge what he’s going to do when that door opens. He looks me in the eye and dips his head once. Maybe that means his loyalty really is to me and not to my father.I guess I’m about to find out.
The front door opens and one of the henchmen steps to the side, allowing us in. I look to my right, Mom’s wing, and force my feet not to move in that direction. If my brothers were able to draw my dad’s attention away from her, the last thing I want to do is bring it back.
High heels click down the hall and into the sprawling Italian marble-floored foyer. There are two staircases on each side of the entry to the back of the house. The right staircase to the right wing of the house, the left to my father’s side. A super model-looking woman clicks into the foyer and she looks down her nose at me. She’s likely a prostitute that’s simply paid better and is good at organizing things. My father has had whores for most of my life. He was done with my mother long ago. But in my world, divorce is never an option. There are people on the side. Some don’t even bother trying to hide it, one of them being my father.
“Your father wants to see you and Ben upstairs in his office immediately.”
I squeeze my hands into fists, forcing myself not to flip her off. “Wow, whores are employed as part of the welcoming committee now. I wonder what else Marco Costa will come up with next!” I say in fake excitement.
She sneers and flips her hair, clicking back the way she came. I probably shouldn’t be so mean…it just slipped out. This place bringsout the worst in me.
Ben stands silently beside me, and I glance at him one more time before I start climbing the left staircase. All I can do is pray now. I have a plan in my head. Let’s hope I can get away with it.
I walk down the hall to my father’s office, the third door on the right. It’s like a red door in my nightmares. As a child, just wanting to be closer to her father, I ran to him one day and threw the door open, only to find him with a woman who was not my mother. I ran away, leaving the door open and hearing his disgusting grunts all the way down the hall. It no doubt scarred me.
Another time, for some reason, my child mind decided I should try again, only I knocked this time. He told me to come in, and I walked in to find him with a knife at a man’s throat. He stared at me as his knife sliced through the man I had never seen before, and I watched in horror as blood poured from his throat as he gasped for air, and I just froze. My father wanted me to see what he did to people that crossed him.
At the time, Romeo was just walking past and grabbed me and took me to my room. But it was too late to protect me. That was the first time I had seen a man die, but it would not be the last in my twenty-nine years of life. I learned my lesson that his office was a place I never wanted to be ever again. So I never went back, but it didn’t matter because I saw more than any child should ever have to.
I lift my chin and force my hands to stop shaking and remember what I’m here for. There is a plan in place, and I have to complete my part of it, or Liam and I will never have what we have fought and bled for. I will not fail.
My knuckles rap on the door and I take one more deep, clean breath, letting the cold, calm apathy slip over me as if I’m underwater.
“Come in,” he commands.
I open the door, and Ben follows me inside, leaving it open. My father is wearing his classic four-piece suit, just like my brothers, and his dark Italian hair is slicked back to perfection. There’s a reason a parade of women have been in and out of this house. The Costa family is easy on the eyes. My father is a good-looking man and so are my brothers. My mother and I are the side pieces, but we are beautiful.
“Where have you been?” he spits.
I flip my nails back and forth, looking at the blood red on them. It felt fitting. “Around,” I sigh.
“Give me your phone,” he says.
“No,” I tell him. I haven’t had a chance to text Liam to tell him that I’m okay. I didn’t want to risk it in front of Ben or my brother. I haven’t had a moment alone since we left California. I’m sure he’s tracking it, but it won’t work if it dies.
