Athena
I stared at Luciano with a frown scrawled all over my face. What the hell was he going on about? He stormed towards me, his face popping with anger. Was he going to hit me? Ha! No way in hell!
He halted before me, breathing heavily as he glared down at me. What on earth was going on with him? “What the hell were you doing with that son of a bitch?!” He spat in a deep low voice.
“You’re going to have to be more specific, who you’re fucking referring to!” I yelled in return. As far as I was concerned, there was just one SOB and he was standing before me!
“Don’t play games with me, Cara!” He bellowed. “He has no right to touch you!” Luciano growled, his voice dripping with anger. “You belong to me, and only me.”
I almost laughed at how delusional he sounded. “Are you drunk? Because you seriously are tripping right now.”
I stood my ground, as I retorted, “I do not belong to you. I am my own fucking person! And who the hell are you talking about?!”
Luciano’s eyes narrowed and he whipped out his phone, holding my gaze. What the hell crawled up his pants? I hadn’t expected he would come home, yelling his head off at me like some jackass.
“Marcus,” he drawled with a dangerously dark voice. His eyebrows were arched as he watched my movements carefully.
Wait a minute, Marcus? My eyes widened in realization. Oh crap! He must have seen us. Oh shit, now it made sense. Now it fucking made sense. I stepped back as fear tinged with just a little bit of guilt washed over me. Luciano looked dangerous. Fucking hell. How do I get out of this mess? With that look in his eyes, he could do anything.
And that was damned terrifying!
“Get up here,” he ordered and ended the call, while his eyes remained fixed on me.
“Luciano,” I called gently, raising my hands. “You’re going to make a big deal out of nothing, aren’t you? Will you try to calm down?”
Luciano grinned and it definitely wasn’t the pretty kind. He began undoing the buttons on his shirt. The door opened behind Luciano and Marcus stepped in, looking confused as hell. “Boss?”
Before he could say one more word, Luciano pounced on him, driving his fist straight into Marcus’ face. The latter groaned, clutching his nose, and staggered away from Luciano, looking shocked as hell.
“Oh shit!” I screamed, stepping back in shock. “What the hell?!”
Luciano shot me another one of those cold-blooded grins as if to say watch me, walked over to Marcus, grabbed him by the shirt, and punched the crap out of him.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest. What the hell was going on? Why was he being such a barbarian?!.
“Luciano!” I yelled, rushing at him, trying to pry his arms off Marcus. “Stop! Please, Luciano!” I pleaded. He had gone mad!
My screams fell on deaf ears. Marcus simply took the hits, getting bloodied by the minute, not fighting back. “This won’t solve anything. You’re only hurting him!”
Luciano ignored me, continuing his assault until Marcus was nothing more than a heap of crumpled mess on the ground. Luciano stopped then, breathing heavily, staring at me through narrowed slits.
I had forgotten who the madman before me truly was. I had forgotten I was dealing with a mafia bastard who felt he was entitled to everything.
“I’ll leave!” I said with a blank look on my face, terrified at the display of madness but I sure as hell would not show it. That seemed to pierce through the craze that enveloped him. Luciano frowned, stepping towards me.
“You can’t,”
“I can and I will!” I hissed. “You can’t keep me here and you certainly cannot tell me what to do!”
He laughed as if I had just told a joke, his hands dropping with blood. “You cannot leave me, remember? I decide when to let you go. I decide when we’re over!”
“There is nothing between us!” I spat, stepping away from him. “I could never be with someone like you!”
Luciano’s eyes narrowed, his lips curling into a menacing smirk. “Nothing?” he scoffed, reaching for Marcus again. “I’ll keep hitting him until you give me the answer I want to fucking hear!”
“You’re a monster!”
“Yes,” he grinned. “I am. And you are mine! Fucking mine, Raven! If a man so much as look at you for too long, well he should prepare to gouge his fucking eyes out!”
“Lord, you’re crazy,” I whispered. He really was crazy. Nothing else could explain the look in his eyes. And perhaps if he hadn’t chosen to murder poor Marcus, I might have felt special.
Yet all I could think about was the blood dripping down Marcus’ face and his groans of pain.
Your fault, my mind blamed. It’s all your fault.
“Perhaps you need a reminder,” Luciano hissed, letting go of Marcus and stepping closer. His hands, stained with Marcus blood reached for me and I flinched I fear.
“Get away from me!” I yelled, drawing back as quickly as I could. Hurt flickered in his eyes and slowly his breathing returned to normal.
“Cara,”
“Don’t Cara me!” I snapped, hating the way my voice came out hoarse at the end. I had the crazy urge to cry at the way he looked at me. As if he had just realized what he’d done and wanted to make amends for it.
“Look at me-”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “Look at you? And see what? A murderer? A bastard who doesn’t care what his fists or actions do to people?”
“You made me do this!” He accused, appalling me even more. “What were you thinking, allowing him to hold you like that?!”
“I don’t see how that was any of your business! What the hell do you want, Luciano?!” I screamed. “What do you want exactly? One minute you’re hating and doing everything you can to break me, the next, you think you have some sort of claim over me!”
“I don’t think. I know I have a claim over you,” He hissed, glaring over his shoulders at Marcus. “You belong to me. And I believe that is clear as hell now, right Marcus?”
A very bloodied Marcus nodded weakly and groaned when Luciano tapped his belly with his shoes. We stayed glaring at each other, me glaring at the asshole from hell who had the nerve to look haunted after he had just thrashed a man to hell and back!
Belong to him? He was delusional! He had gone crazy! And fuck, it was terrifying. In those long horrid minutes where he punched the daylights out of Marcus, I came to understand why the lord of the mafia was feared all over the country. He was a fucking beast!
“Are you done raging?” I asked, folding my arms, trying not to be intimidated by him.
“Depends, will you touch him again?”
I blinked and a tear slipped down my eyes. Stupid. Fucking stupid! Why the hell was I crying? In front of this jackass nonetheless. I wiped the tear furiously, hating myself for feeling hurt.
Luciano’s gaze softened and he stepped towards me. “Raven-”
“Don’t come near me!” I said in the calmest voice I could muster, livid as hell.
Now he wanted to talk? Hell, he could go on ahead and solve all his problems like a damned barbarian if he wanted! As long as he stayed away from me, I’d be fucking good!
“You shouldn’t have allowed him to touch you,” he said, accusingly. “I lost my shit after seeing that video.”
“You spied on me,” I replied. “You fucking spied on me?!”
“That’s not the point!” He defended.
I gave him a look that I hoped told him just how ridiculous I thought he was. “You had a point? Because honestly, it’s gotten lost in all that blood on your hands! I thought Marcus was close to you!”
“Close or not, he should have kept his hands to himself!” He bellowed. “I will do this over and over again if any man breathes the same air as you! You are mine! Mine to fucking use and discard as I, please! Mine to hold!”
“You can go on ahead and believe that,” I hissed. “But that would be you deceiving yourself. I do not belong to you. I do not care about you. I will hold whomever I please. And seeing this today, this shit you just pulled, it’s a reminder that I need to get my ass out of this mad house before I lose my shit too.”
“You cannot leave!”
“Watch. Me.”