My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 23

Gianna

━⊰ ❦ ⊱━

The thin soles of my sneakers did nothing to protect me. Underneath the socks, the skin on my feet was broken. I had done it to myself, the sharp, stinging lines I had carved into my own flesh just days ago. Now, the heavy pounding of my weight against the roots and rocks made the wounds split wide open.

I felt the warm, wet soak of blood inside my shoes.

"Please," I whispered, "What is this?"

The screams of the other girls had faded into the distance. All I could hear was the thumping of my own heart and the wet, squelching sound of my feet inside my sneakers.

I forced myself to stand up. I had to. If I stayed here, the men in black bands would find me.

I limped forward, my teeth gritted so hard my jaw ached. Every time my left foot touched a stone, a fresh bolt of agony shot through my body. I leaned against a tree, the rough bark scratching my shoulder.

The bell from the mansion rang again. It sounded closer now. The hunters were out.

And my fear didn't stay in the present. It started to bleed into a memory, pulling me back through time until the red mist of the forest turned into the cold, gray rain of a different night.

I wasn't twenty-one anymore. I was sixteen.

I was running then, too. My lungs were burning, and my hair was plastered to my face by the storm. The streetlights were flickering, casting long shadows over the wet pavement. I could hear the heavy thud of boots behind me... many boots.

"Don't let her get to the main road!" a man yelled.

"Check the alley!" another voice screamed, "The Boss wants her back before the sun comes up. Find the Princess!"

I had ducked behind a metal trash can, my breath coming in fast, jagged gasps. I pressed my small hands against my mouth to stop the sobbing. I was shaking so hard the trash can rattled against the brick wall.

Clang.

The sound echoed in the quiet alley.

"There!" a voice boomed, "In the corner! Get her!"

I had scrambled to my feet, my thin shoes slipping on the oily puddles. I didn't look back. I just ran. I could hear them calling out orders to one another, closing the circle.

"Princess! Stop running! It only makes it worse!"

I had tripped over a wooden crate, the rough wood tearing into my palms. I felt the sting of the scrapes, the heat of the blood trickling down my wrists.

Back in the red forest, the memory pressed against my brain until I couldn't tell which night was real.

The pain in my feet from the cuts felt exactly like the stabs of the glass I had run over five years ago. I was still that girl. I was still the one being hunted.

"Find the Princess!" the voices in my head screamed.

I squeezed my eyes shut, "Please," I whispered to the dirt, "Not again. Please not again."

The boots in the red forest were very close now. They weren't running like the men in the alley. They were slow. They were patient. They knew I was trapped. They knew I had nowhere left to go.

The memory of the gray rain and the men calling for the Princess shattered like glass.

A high scream ripped through the red mist. It wasn't a scream from five years ago. It was happening right now, just a few feet away from my hiding spot.

A girl in a red ribbon was pinned against a wide tree. Standing over her was a man. He didn't look like a person anymore. He wore a mask that was split down the middle, half bone-white, half pitch-black.

He didn't say a word. He reached down and grabbed the edge of her skirt. In his other hand, a long silver knife flashed. With one violent jerk, the blade sliced through the fabric like it was paper. The denim tore away, falling into the wet grass.

My heart stopped. I waited for her to scream for help, to fight, to run.

But she didn't. She threw her head back against the bark and let out a loud, wild laugh. It sounded like she was losing her mind.

The man in the mask grabbed her waist and flipped her around so her chest was pressed against the tree. He leaned his heavy body into her, pinning her there. He reached around and started to stroke the skin between her legs, his fingers moving hard and fast.

"Yes, yes, Oh God!" she moaned.

The girl’s laughter turned into a loud moans. She arched her back, reached behind her and held onto the same man.

The man dropped his knife into the dirt. I watched, my eyes wide and stinging, as he entered her from behind. It wasn't soft. It was a hard pounding that shook the girl’s whole body.

He grabbed her hair, pulling it back so he could bite the side of her neck. He wasn't being careful. He was taking what he wanted, and she was begging for more.

I had never seen anything like this. This wasn't normal, this was something else. It wasn't sex, it was two animals fighting in the dark. The sound of their bodies hitting each other was loud, a wet, slapping noise that drowned out the wind.

I felt a wave of sick heat crawl up my throat. I wanted to look away, but I was frozen. I watched the way his muscles bunched under his black shirt, the way her legs shook as he pushed her harder and faster against the bark. They didn't care that someone might be watching.

If that was what happened to the girls in red ribbons, what would they do to the girl in pink?

The sound of the man’s heavy breathing and the girl’s wild, messy laughs filled my ears until I felt like I was going to be sick.

I turned and bolted into the deep fog.

The trees were a blur of dark brown and blood-red smoke as I ran. I looked back over my shoulder for a split second, checking to see if any man in the mask had heard me.

That was my mistake.

I didn't see the thin, dark wire stretched across the path between two old trees.

As soon as my shins hit the metal line, I felt a sharp snap. A heavy coil of rope and wire hidden under the leaves surged upward with a loud hiss. It wrapped around both of my ankles like a snake.

"Ah!" I let out a choked cry as my feet were pulled out from under me.

The world flipped. I went down hard, my body hitting the forest floor. I landed right on my stomach, the wind knocked out of my lungs in a sharp gasp.

I lay there, stunned, my face pressed into the wet dirt and dead leaves. I tried to push myself up, my palms digging into the mud, but the trap was smart. The more I kicked my legs, the tighter the wire bit into my ankles.

I was pinned to the ground like a butterfly on a board. I couldn't crawl forward. I couldn't turn over. I was stuck on my belly.

I looked back over my shoulder, my vision blurry with tears. My legs were pulled straight and tight, held by the wire that disappeared into the dark canopy of the trees above.

I was caught.

I was a prize waiting to be collected.

Through the red mist, I heard the slow thud of boots again until it stopped right behind me.

I didn't have time to look up. A heavy weight suddenly dropped onto my back, pinning me even harder into the mud. A man’s knees were on either side of my thighs, and his large, rough hands began to move over me.

He didn't start with my face. He started with my legs.

He moved to my feet and sliced through the wire. The tension snapped, and my legs fell flat against the ground. The pain in my ankles was dull and throbbing, but I didn't care. I was free.

Raphael grabbed my waist and flipped me over onto my back. He didn't do it gently. He moved with a frantic, shaky energy. He hovered over me, his hands hovering near my face like he wanted to touch me but something was holding him back.

"Gianna," he breathed. His eyes were dark, scanning every inch of my body. He saw the dirt on my top, and my face, "Look at me. Look at me right now."

I looked up at him, my vision blurry with tears. The red light made the tattoos on his chest look like they were bleeding.

"Who put this on you?" he hissed as he reached out and grabbed the pink ribbon around my neck. He didn't pull it; he just held it between two fingers like it was filth, "Who gave you this color, Gianna? Answer me!"

"The... the girls at the party," I sobbed. I tried to pull away, but he pinned my shoulders to the mud. He wasn't hurting me, but he wasn't letting me go either.

He was holding me like I was his most prized possession and someone had tried to steal it.

"How did you get here?" he asked, his voice was shaking with anger, "How did you get out of that house? Who brought you to this place?"

I tried to speak, but my throat felt like it was full of sand, "C-Ciro," I whispered, "He said... he said it was just a party. I was bored. I didn't know about... this. I didn't know about the ribbons or anything, I swear."

Raphael’s face went white. His jaw tightened so hard I thought his teeth might crack. He looked toward the mansion, his eyes turning into cold, hard stones.

"Ciro," he repeated.

The name sounded like a death sentence.

He reached down and grabbed the pink ribbon around my neck. He didn't pull it, but his fingers brushed against my skin, and they were ice cold. With one quick tug, he ripped the silk away. He balled it up in his fist and threw it into the red mist like it was trash.

"You are not a prey," he snarled, "Do you understand? You belong to the Capones. No one touches you. No one looks at you. No one hunts you."

My breath broke. A sob tore out of me before I could stop it. Everything hit at once.

Fear.

Pain.

Relief.

He reached out and slid his hand into my hair, his silver rings cold against my scalp. He pulled me up until my chest hit his bare, tattooed skin. He held me there, his arms wrapping around me. He was shaking, his heart drumming a fast, angry beat against my ribs.

"I will kill him," Raphael whispered into my hair. "I will kill him for bringing you here."

I felt his grip tighten, his fingers digging into my back. He wasn't the boss from the office anymore. He was a predator that was hunting me. He was guarding me. He tucked my head under his chin, shielding my eyes from the red smoke.

"If any man in this forest touched you before I got here, tell me now. I’ll figure out who it was..."

I just shook my head, burying my face in his neck.

Suddenly, he reached down and scooped me up. He didn't ask. He just slid one arm under my knees and the other behind my back, lifting me off the ground like I weighed nothing. I let out a small cry as my bloody feet dangled in the air.

He pulled me tight against his chest. His leather jacket was cold against my skin, but his body was burning hot.

He started walking back toward the mansion. He held me so close I could feel the fast, angry thud of his heart against my shoulder.

"If anyone else had found you in that ribbon," he said, "they wouldn't be walking you back to the house. Do you understand how lucky you are that I am the one who caught you?"

I pulled my face away from his neck and looked up at him with tears clinging to my lashes. He looked down at me as he walked through the red mist. I was terrified of him in that moment, but in this screaming forest, he was the only thing keeping the other monsters away.