Double Blind (27 page)

“Get in,” he says in a tight voice.

“Officer, what’s—”

Suddenly, his hand shoves the small of my back and I stumble into the dark, empty room. I wheel around, but the officer closes the door and his back covers the window. I twist the doorknob and slam my shoulder into the wall, and then an arm reaches around my throat, yanking me back.

I scream as I’m pulled into a man’s chest. His palm swallows my scream and I hear his low hiss in my ear.

“Hello, Adriana. How’s Vince doing?”

Carmine!

His other hand winds around my waist and holds me snug. I struggle in his grasp, screaming useless words that won’t penetrate the thick door. He bends my neck backwards painfully, and I feel excruciating pain when I try to lift it.

“I’ve been waiting to catch you alone, and I’ve finally managed it.” He inhales and exhales in my ear. His voice sounds nervous. It makes the hairs on my neck stand up. “I just want you to know that I loved you and that I really regret this.”

“Carmine, no!” I scream into his hand.

I was so worried about what Carmine was up to outside the walls of this hospital that I never imagined he could be a threat to me here.

His hand flattens my lips. “Shut up.” His lips kiss the top of my head. “You chose Vincent over me, even though I could’ve given you everything you wanted. You women are all the fucking same.”

I jab my elbow into his side and he spins me around, slamming me into the wall. Carmine looks haggard, his eyes are bloodshot and his clothes—filthy. He looks at me with the same contempt in his eyes before he tried to kill me.

Defuse the situation.

“I love him, Carmine. Maybe if I met you first—”

“—You’re a vicious person,” he says in a low growl. “I was fine before I met you, but then you went behind my back with Tony to screw me over. How could you agree to do that? To fuck over someone you didn’t even know?”

I flinch from the ugly words hurled at my face. He’s right, but I still can’t spare him any sympathy. There’s just too much violence between us already.

“Carmine, wouldn’t you do anything for the person you loved? That’s just what I was trying to do. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway to save him.”

He slams his fist into the wall next to my head.

“What’s so fucking special about Vincent?” he bellows in my face. “Why can’t you fucking love me like I love you?”

Because you killed my father.

My voice rises hysterically as I try to save myself. “Carmine, listen. I liked you a lot when I first met you. You were handsome, polite, sensitive—you were a decent guy! I know that if I met you first, I would have dated you. But then you hurt me. You choked me.”

His face creases in pain. “I said I was sorry.”

“That doesn’t mean that I forgave you. Vince never raised a hand against me, and he never will. That’s—that’s why I can’t love you.”

Also, you killed my fucking Dad and I want nothing to do with you.

Still, he refuses to listen, shaking his head like I’m an irksome fly. “People act out all the time, that doesn’t mean that I—Christ, Adriana! You never even gave us a chance.”

“It’s not normal,” I say in a hushed voice. “It’s never okay to hurt someone you care about. I’m sorry that you grew up to believe that, but it’s wrong.”

Carmine looks down at his feet, tears in his eyes. He looks at me like I’ve hurt him, like I’m the cruel one.

“Just let me go, and I swear I won’t tell anyone.”

He sniffs hard and lifts his head, a trembling smile on his face. “Let you go? I don’t think so. Good fucking riddance, Adriana.”

His strong hands link around my throat before I can beg him not to. I stamp down hard on his shoes, digging in my heels into his toes. Carmine doesn’t budge. His thumbs press down over my larynx and I’m completely blocked from air. My heart races with everything I’ll never be able to do.

“Just relax, Adriana.”

Fuck you. I won
’
t give up!

But even if my mind won’t give up, my body is. My muscles scream for oxygen. I tear at his fingers desperately, gouging them with my nails, but he won’t let go. Carmine’s face streams with tears. He looks like he regrets it already.

“I’m sorry.”

I sink down to the floor, my legs giving out. Carmine follows me. My hands are limp and nothing really seems to matter anymore.

Vince! Help.

Even the voice in my head is faint. Carmine’s lips move and I don’t hear anything. All I feel is an excruciating burning in my lungs. My skin tingles and my face touches the cool tiles.

At least I’ll get to see Dad.

The door bursts open and several pairs of legs walk inside. The stifling grip around my throat slackens, and a sliver of oxygen makes its way into my lungs. Blood churns behind my ears as I gasp like a fish on land. Sound returns to my ears as I turn on my back.

Carmine flies against the wall as a tall, lean man wearing spectacles—a man I recognize as Paulie, shoves him hard. There are two others standing in the room: Vince and Nicky. The shorter man forces Carmine to kneel and takes his hands behind his back.

Vince is like an angry god, standing tall as if nothing happened to him, screaming something unintelligible as he swings his good arm, smashing his fist against Carmine’s face. Pain crushes both of their faces.

“FUCK YOU! FUCK YOUR MOTHER!”

His head rips to the side, blood spraying across the room. Paulie and Nicky jerk him back upright so that Vince can hit him again and again and again. Sickening, meat-like smacks fill the room, and I see blood blossoming over the gauze on Vincent’s chest. Then Paulie walks around and tries to stop him.

“You fucked up your stitches,” he says in an even voice. “Let me take over.”

“Vince!” I manage to croak out his name.

Carmine’s face is a bloody mess—unrecognizable. He drops to the floor like a stone and Nicky kicks his side savagely, his little face lit with malice. At the sound of my voice, Vince immediately drops to my side, his hands shaking. There’s blood all over his chest and shoulder. It looks like he destroyed his wounds.

“Breathe, Adriana. Just breathe.”

* * *

I don’t know if I can ever breathe easily again.

Wrapped up in Vincent’s comforter, I shiver and wish I had a stiff drink. Something to ease the pain. Something to make me forget.

Even though he’s in maximum-security prison, I still wake up with the sound of his voice in my ear, his fingers around my throat. He fractured the cartilage around my throat. It’s hard to swallow anything and I can’t be in the dark alone.

Weeks later, Vince is on the mend and I’m stuck in hell. Worse is the way he looks at me, like I’m a fragile glass doll.

He stoops in front of me, his eyes wide and dark. “Adriana.”

Careful fingers peel away the comforter and he strokes my side. His eyes grieve for me. He doesn’t understand what it’s like to feel like every shadow might be someone who wants to kill me.

“Jesus,” he says, looking at the horrific bruises on my neck. Rage simmers in his eyes. “Don’t worry, Adriana. He may be in prison, but he won’t be alive for very long.”

I don’t even want to know.

“You don’t have to watch over me every day. I know you have stuff to do.”

His eyes crease. “Ade, I’m not leaving you alone. Not when you’re like this.” Vince bends over and plants a kiss on my head. “Now, get up. I’ve a surprise for you.” He smiles when I swing my legs over reluctantly. Then he grabs my hands and pulls me up. Taking the silk scarf from my nightstand, he carefully wraps it around my neck and brings me out of the bedroom. In the living room, I see a woman sitting on the grey couch with her legs crossed. Her wave of highlighted hair sweeps over her shoulders as she turns to look at me.

“Adriana!”

It’s Maria.

“I thought you could use your best friend,” he says in a low voice.

She stands up, beaming at Vince and I. A lump rises in my throat when I see her smile, and I realize how much I’ve missed her. Before he can step away, I give him a kiss on his cheek.

“Thanks.”

“No problem, hon.”

Then I run across the room and join her on the couch. A spread of wedding magazines lays on the coffee table and Maria nearly chokes me in a hug.

“Hey, sweetie. Long time no see.”

My throat constricts and I choke out a sob. I don’t know why it feels so good to be holding her. Maybe she reminds me that everything has finally calmed down. I can finally hang out with my best friend like a normal person, and not have to worry about being shot.

“Vince told me that you’ve been through a lot.”

I inhale a shaky gasp. “Being away from him was the worst time of my life. They made me—” I stop suddenly, aware that I’m not supposed to talk about this with anyone. My arms squeeze her sides before I finally unwind myself from her.

“I think everything might be fine now.”

“Are you sure?” Maria bites her pink lip, eyes all over my face. I’m sure the bruises are visible through the scarf.

“I just need to heal from everything that happened.”

“We don’t have to talk about it, hon.”

“Okay.” I give her a watery smile.

“I’ll tell you what we
do
have to talk about!” She motions towards the many wedding magazines.

“You never stop, do you?”

She gives me an excited grin. “I
love
weddings.” She palms through the pile. “Okay, we need to look through these cause we are
way
behind schedule. God, just look at this.”

I love her for being able to drop something like this and carry on like it’s no big deal. She picks one of them and shows me the table arrangement spread and I look to my left. Vincent stands there for a moment, smiling, and then he disappears into his office.

* * *

A sea of shifting turquoise and deep blue stretches out to the pink horizon. I stand on a tiled balcony, which lifts above the cluster of brightly colored homes, clustered behind bright green cliffs. Endless rows of green grapevines wind around the cliffs and I breathe in the citrus air. Lemon trees surround the small hotel.

It’s incredible.

I hear his footsteps behind me and suddenly an arm snakes around my waist. I’m wearing nothing but one of his t-shirts, and the movement sends sparks all over my skin. His mouth finds my ear.

“What are you doing up so early?”

I smile. He never misses a thing.

“I just couldn’t sleep.”

He nips at my ear as his hands travel over my body. “I’m surprised,” he says in a husky voice. “After what we did last night.”

It’s strange and incredible to be with him out here, all the way in Italy. Here, he’s not a mobster. Here, he’s just Vincent. My husband.

A flush blooms over my cheeks as he wipes the hair from my face and kisses me. “I don’t want to go back.”

He sighs into my back. “I know.”

I turn around in his arms, unable to ignore the desire heating my core any longer. His hands move down my back, over my bare ass, which is still sore from last night. My hand runs over the ugly scars on his chest and shoulder, a horrible weight sinking inside me.

Vince snatches my hand and pulls me close to him, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “You’re doing it again.”

I can’t help it.

“Sometimes, I just think, maybe—”

Maybe we should go into witness protection.

“No.” The roughness returns to his voice. “Don’t even think about it, Adriana. Especially now that we’re married. I’m always going to be who I am. Why can’t you understand that?”

My heart thumps as he pulls me back inside the room, pinning me gently against the wall. I just feel his hands running up and down my neck. “I—I just want us to be safe.”

His eyes soften. “I love you, Ade. I’ll always keep you safe. Always.”

I love him, too.

He taps my nose lightly. “You’re my wife now. I don’t want to hear you mention that again, or you’ll get my hand against your sweet ass.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Oh, yes. I can.” A smile spreads over his face. “And things are going to change around the house. If you haven’t made dinner by five o’ clock every night, guess what’ll happen?”

His fingers gouge into my ass, twisting hard.

My core tightens as his hand grabs me. “I’m not a mob wife. You can fix your own goddamn meals.”

Vince lets out a laugh that he barely covers up with a growl. “You did not just fucking say that.”

“Yeah, I did.”

He grabs me, spinning me around so fast that I shriek, and suddenly I’m flattened on the bed as Vincent climbs over me, eyes teeming with energy.

“You will behave as is expected of you. Not because you fear punishment, but because you love me and you’ll do anything for me.”

Warm hands suddenly slide under my t-shirt, touching my bare stomach. I suck in breath as he moves higher, right to the curve of my breasts. Usually light fingers, he moves over the swell, circling around my nipple. I gasp and my core clenches tightly, electricity spreading over my skin.

My pulse throbs in my throat as a slow smile spreads over his face. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me. He can feel my heart racing under my breast. I look into his eyes, which smolder at me.

“You’re the best thing that happened to me, Vince. I would do anything.”

His eyes harden like black marble. The monster shifts in front of my eyes, wearing his sardonic grin. “Anything?”

Yes, dammit.

I keep my mouth firmly shut, tired of playing this game. My hands lift to his silky hair and I yank him down, so my lips fasten over his. His body weighs down over mine, his hardness digging into my hips. It sends a shock to my pussy. His hand slides between my legs and he feels the wetness gathered there. Tsking, he kisses my neck and pulls himself back.

Frustrated, I lay beneath him. I badly want my sweet Vince, but instead I have
him.
The other Vince, who excites and terrifies me, the bloodthirsty man who wants to hear my cries of pain. His palm wraps around my jaw, his fingers slapping my cheeks lightly. My blood rages.