“Don’t be a brat right now. Regardless of what’s happened between us or what you think, cara, you know me. And you know there is no way in fucking hell I’m letting you out of my sight until I know that motherfucker can’t come after you again.”

  I do know him, and the second I saw him, and then when I heard Perry the second after that, I knew this would be an issue. “He got arrested.”

  “He could make bail.”

  “Gio, I—”

  “You come stay with me, or I crash on your couch. You pick. That’s about the only decision I’m letting you make about this shit.”

  Maybe if I had a little more fight left in me, I’d argue with him. Or maybe if I wasn’t so fucking tired, I’d think of a plan to avoid this, but for now, I officially throw in the towel. All I want to do is crawl into my bed and close my eyes. I want this horrible chapter of my life to just be over. “I’m not going to your place,” I concede. The absolute last thing I can take right now is seeing him with that woman again. Seeing him with any woman was always hard for me.

  Even though I was the one who slept at his apartment, ate breakfast with him, went in the locker room before his fights, and was a pseudo member of his very large family, it always destroyed me that I would never have that part of him because we were only ever friends. Best friends, but always only friends.

  I hung on for as long as I could, but before it completely ruined me, I left. I couldn’t take it anymore. And he is and always was completely oblivious to the fact that I lived and breathed for him.

  “Billie took my Rover so I could drive you home. Don’t want you getting in a wreck with how upset you are.”

  “I’m fine to dri—”

  “Not an option.”

  He opens the door to my dark silver Impala, a car I am so proud of because I saved for it for years. When he closes it, I whimper, forcing myself to hold back the tears as he walks around to get in the driver’s seat. I just need to placate him. Explain my situation with Perry and then he’ll leave.

  He scoots the seat back and starts the engine, then raises a thick brow at me. “Where do you live?”

  It takes a second for me to answer because I’m still kind of totally and completely shocked that he’s here. He’s in my car. A foot, a breath away. “Oh, um, Ivy Lane, right past that security company.”

  He smirks and drives me home silently, which I’m grateful for because I’m pretty sure being this close and smelling his sweet and spicy cologne will cause me to combust. When we get to my bungalow, he pulls in the driveway, and I get out of the car before he can come around to open my door.

  “You own this?” he asks as we walk up the couple of steps to the front door.

  “Rent.”

  I unlock the door, and once inside, I drop my purse and keys onto the floor, glancing around to make sure everything I need hidden is out of sight. He takes one step in and looks around.

  “I just moved in two days ago. As you can see, I still have a lot of unpacking to do.” And I don’t have a couch, so that means he’ll have to leave. I head straight for the fridge where I grab a bottle of wine and pour myself a glass. Gio hates fermented grapes, so I don’t even offer him any. I hop up on the counter, and he leans against the wall, waiting. It’s been almost nine years, but it feels like I saw him yesterday.

  This is weird… but it’s also us. We were practically perfect together, and he was my absolute best friend on the planet.

  “I really don’t even need to tell you because you already know,” I say softly, embarrassment that I’ve gotten myself in this situation making me feel small. I wasn’t going to ever tell him about the details with Perry, but now that he knows, and I see the look of pity and sadness, I remember exactly why I wanted to hide it from him.

  “That you were with some motherfucker who beat you?”

  Taking a swallow of Riesling, I nod. There’s no sense in trying to make it seem less than it was. Yes, Perry hit me. But technically only once. “He didn’t beat me. After he hit me the first time, I decided to leave him. Then he found out I was leaving him, and he got physical again.”

  “When?”

  I set the glass down, my arms instinctually wrapping around my torso, and look over his shoulder because I can’t look into the depth of his eyes. “Two days ago.”

  A vein pops out on the side of his forehead, and he drops his arms that were crossed. “Take off your clothes,” he demands.

  Chapter 2

  Gio

  “Excuse me?” she gasps.

  I step toward her, and she flinches so hard her head hits the cupboard. “No way.” I don’t stop until my hands are on her face. “You know I’d never, ever fucking ever hurt you.”

  “I know, I’m sorry.”

  I watch my thumb as it trails across her cheekbone, and the realization of how fucking much I missed her hits me like a KO punch straight in my fucking head. All those years I just let myself be angry with her because it fueled me and was easier, even though it was cowardly. And now that she’s back, I… I can’t think straight. One thing I know for sure, though. I need to know what he did to her. “Let me see.”

  She scrunches her brows together. “What?”

  “I want to see what that motherfucker did to you.” Pure panic shines in her eyes now. She scrambles to get away from me, but I grab her hips and set her on the ground. “Show me.”

  “No.”

  “Let me see, cara.”

  She shakes her head. “I don’t want you to.”

  “Tough.”

  I bring my hands up and grab the bottom of her shirt. Her breath hitches as I lift the material, exposing her stomach, and then look into her eyes as she raises her arms and the shirt glides over her head. “Gio.” Her bottom lip trembles, and I catch her tears with my thumbs.

  “Shh.”

  Her eyes close, and I force my gaze down to her slender neck, past the light pink bra, and then stop. I clench my fists together and slowly release them as I drop to my knees.

  I should have killed him. Just the fact he had the most precious woman in the world and didn’t take care of her makes me want to murder him.

  I turn her around, and that’s when I see the obvious footprint-shaped bruise on her back. “He tried to hit me, but I ducked, and then he threw me to the ground and kicked me.” When she turns around again, I pull her to me, wrapping my arms around her and resting my head on her flat stomach. Years of regret for not bringing her back make me hold her tighter… disappointment in myself for letting my pride get in the way produces an outrage I’ve never felt before.

  “Never again,” I promise her.

  “Okay.”

  “He’s never going to touch you again. Nobody is ever going to fucking touch you again.”

  Her hands glide through my hair, settling a calm through me, as she says, “Okay.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I should have been here.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “It is.”

  When she left, I was so mad—God, so fucking mad at her—that I never wanted to see her again. My pride, my ego, and my dick were all fucked up over her, and instead of going after her like I should have, I let her walk away. Then I got myself in a shitload of trouble, and there was no way I was in any state to take care of her when I couldn’t even take care of myself.

  I’d envisioned so many scenarios about how it would be when we saw each other again, but this wasn’t one of them. I wanted to still be mad at her. I want to continue to love to hate her, but when she touches me, everything else but her vanishes.

  I’m pulled back to the moment I met her, her wide eyes shocked as she ran into me in the hallway of our apartment building. And the years we had together simply wash out the ones apart.

  I turn my head, smelling her skin as I go—vanilla—and bring my lips to the small apple-shaped birthmark on her side. She trembles beneath me, and I stand. “I’ll kill him if he touches you again.”

  “Gio, he—”

  “No. That’s so messed up. There is no fucking way my girl, my best friend in the entire world and the only woman aside from my family who I’ve ever loved, should ever have even one mark on her. I may have done a lot of shit wrong in my life and with you, but I promise you I will not make the same mistakes again.”

  As I hand her, her clothes, the initial shock of seeing her is wearing off and being replaced with unadulterated anger. Fuck why she left, fuck all of it, except the fact that whatever happened to her with that asshole is something that never fucking should have. “Go take a shower. I’ll order some pizza.”

  She yanks the stuff out of my hands and rushes down the hall as I grab my phone. I call Q, the tech guru at Royal Ace, the security company where I work. He answers on the second ring.

  “Hey, man.”

  “Hey. I need a background on someone. Detailed.” Because I know there’s more to it. She’s hiding something; I just don’t know what. Aside from the embarrassment, there’s… something else that I’ve never seen before. I don’t want to get into it with her now because of what she just went through, but I will get to the bottom of it.

  He takes a second, which I can only assume means he’s getting something to write the name down with. “Whatcha got?”

  “Perry. I don’t know his last name, but he just got arrested about an hour and a half ago at Union Square mall for violating a restraining order on Whitney Shae.”

  “Okay, let me do some digging. I’ll get back to you when I know something.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” He hangs up, and that’s exactly what I like about him. He’s to the point and doesn’t ask questions. He knows damn well I’m not working right now, so what I’m asking him to do is personal, but he’ll never call me on it.

  I glance around her place. Whitney’s house is perfect for her. It’s small without being too cramped but big enough to be comfortable. While I’m waiting for her to get out of the shower, I order a pizza, extra cheese with alfredo sauce. The only dairy she eats. She also hates mushrooms and black olives but can eat an entire jar of green ones. She’s a total bottled water snob and only ever chews on cinnamon gum.

  The living room has one large picture window that looks out the front of the house. A wall separates the kitchen, but if you’re standing by the stove, you can see to the front door. She still has boxes stacked throughout the house. There are two bedrooms, one with a small dresser and a bunch of boxes, and the other with a big bed with a light pink flower pattern on the comforter. Pink was always her favorite color.

  Figuring she’ll want privacy when she gets out of the only bathroom in the hallway, I go back to the kitchen and lean on the counter. I grab my phone and call Royce, the director of security and the one who oversees day-to-day operations.

  “Who is she?” he answers in way of greeting.

  “Jesus, you are all a bunch of gossips.”

  “Billie told Carter,” he replies, which is all the explanation I need even though I already knew that was exactly what would happen. Then Carter would run his mouth to Royce.

  I lower my voice when I hear the water shut off. “I need a few days off. Only thing on my schedule tomorrow was a safe transport. Figure someone else can cover that, and hopefully, you can get someone to fill in on my personal protection the couple of days after.”

  “Yeah, man. If I can’t find someone, I can cover it, too. It’s not any overnighters, so it’ll be easy. And if it runs into next week, we’ll just reschedule your training clients. Now who is she?”

  I’m not really sure how to answer that. She was, she is… “Everything.”

  “Sorry, I don’t have a couch yet.” She sneaks up on me just as I hang up with Royce. “It’ll be delivered in a couple of days.”

  When I turn around and get a whiff of her shampoo, it’s insane how it takes me back in time. “You’re still using that vanilla shit?”

  “It’s not shit. It smells good.” She rips open a box and grabs a hair dryer. “Be right back.”

  There’s a knock on the door while she’s drying her hair, so I answer it and pay the delivery kid, then set the pizza on the counter. She’s gotta have napkins or something somewhere, so I look through some boxes, and when I find the one that says kitchen, I rip it open. Right on the top is a red water gun; the same one she kept in her silverware drawer.

  She walks into the kitchen, and I twirl the gun around my finger.

  “You better not. I am so not in the mood for that.” She starts to back away from me, and I laugh.

  “I won’t. But do you remember the last time we went to battle with each other?”

  Her face sobers. “I remember everything, Giovanni.”

  “So you remember torturing me at yoga?”

  “Hey, you were the one who made the bet with me and lost.”

  “Okay, but in my defense, I’d known you for four years at that point. We spent almost every single day together and never once did you mention that you were an insanely good dart player.”

  She giggles. “That’s because you were better than me at everything. I had to keep an ace up my sleeve.”

  “Well, it worked. Because losing a bet to you and having to endure an hour of that shit was hell. It was so fucking hot in that room.”

  “Don’t forget slippery,” she taunts.

  “I swear, that was one of the only times in my professional fighting career when I fell on my ass for any reason.”

  “You were dripping sweat and had a puddle around you, but I still can’t believe you fell. You just…” She bends her arm at her elbow at a ninety-degree angle and brings it to her thigh. “Whoosh. I’d never seen you lose your balance before, but holy crap, G, you fell in hot yoga.” Her laughter is exactly what I want to hear right now. I need to get her comfortable with me again so I can find out what’s gone on since she left. I can’t figure it out if it’s something she’s hiding or ashamed of or afraid to tell me. I’ll give it some time, but I will get her to tell me everything.

  Whitney

  I never thought after what I’ve been through recently that I’d be laughing an hour after my ex got arrested for violating the restraining order I filed against him.

  Gio had always been protective of me, especially around guys, so the fact he was there to see the worst mistake of my life made me equal parts embarrassed and relieved. Because honestly, Perry scares me. I wasn’t sure what he’d be capable of, but the fact he came to my work and tried to grab me over the counter freaks me out.

  I was afraid he could get like that, but it shocked me that he actually did.

  So I have to tell Gio the truth, or at least some of it, even though it’s really hard for me to admit. “I came back because I knew you’d protect me.” I feel tears slide down my face and hold my arm out when he tries to come to me. “I… I wasn’t sure if he’d come after me or not, but obviously, he did and running into you at the same time wasn’t planned, and I know that it would be asking a lot from you if I needed you, but—”

  He swats my outstretched hand and wraps his arms around me. And for the first time in years… years, I feel safe. My body relaxes and goes limp, and the pain of the past eight years all comes to the surface. It explodes out of me, and I cry hysterically in his arms.

  I cry because I missed him. I cry because he missed out on so much with me. I cry because I feel guilty. I cry because once he finds out the truth, I’m going to lose him again. And I cry because I’ve been so strong for so long, and I can’t do it anymore.

  I feel him lowering us to the ground, and then he’s rocking me back and forth, telling me everything is going to be okay. He’s here now, and nobody will ever hurt me again. His words soothe me, and I believe him. The crying jag, though dramatic, has been a long time coming. I couldn’t let go until now. I couldn’t show anyone weakness, so getting rid of all those emotions makes me feel so much better.

  “I got… got your shirt all wet.” I pull away from the damp cotton.

  “Don’t give a fuck, cara. I care that you’ve been crying so hard for the past ten minutes I was afraid I would have to take you to the hospital.”

  He always hated it when I cried. And the only time I ever really cried around him was during movies. So the fact that I am right now and the reasons for it are going to make him mad. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize.”

  I lean back over and grab a stack of napkins out of the kitchen box and wipe my cheeks. He grabs my chin and turns my face. Even on his lap, he still towers over me, so when he drops his head, our foreheads touch. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

  Yep. He knows. Just as I knew he would. But I can’t yet.

  “Tell me.”

  I sigh and push myself to standing. No way can I do this with him so close. He gets up too and stands in the middle of the kitchen while I hop up on the counter by the sink. I won’t tell him everything yet, but I’ll tell him this. “It didn’t start the way it ended, and I swear, I swear, Gio, he would act like he was going to hit me, but he never did. I knew one day he would, and I was right. So I planned it all before I left him because I knew I had to be smart about it. Men like him… they don’t like being told no, and they don’t take kindly to a woman outsmarting them. I took pictures, I researched everything, and when I was ready to go, he found out and something snapped in him.”

  “How long?”

  “It was about seven months ago when I decided to leave him because he hit me, but the intimidation had been going on for a couple of years.”

  Gio’s frame turns to granite. “You kept yourself in that situation for years on purpose?”

  “Yes.”

  “What the fuck is the matter with you?”

  “Giovan—”

  He drops his arms and holds his fists tight at his sides, the veins in his forearms pulsating as he tries to control his temper. “No… don’t you dare Giovanni me, Whitney. You knew you could come to me any time, and I’d drop everything, everyone to take care of you.” He nudges himself between my thighs. “You know that and don’t pretend you didn’t because no matter what happened between us that night, you know I love you and would do anything for you. Anything. You just told me you knew I’d protect you if it came to that. You knew I’d do whatever it took, but it took you years? So tell me… what the fuck?”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17