“No,” I whimper. “I wasn’t going to hurt you.”
“Liar,” he says. “You’re just like your father.”
He takes a step toward me and I shrink back into the chair, trying to make myself as small as possible…
The rage has consumed him, and I don’t recognize Massimo anymore. He’s become someone else. Not the boy I used to know, but the monster who kidnapped me. The monster who’ll hurt me now because I dared lift a kitchen knife toward him.
“Please,” I tell him. “I just wanted to escape.”
“I already told you there is no escape for you,” he says. He no longer tries to alter the pitch of his voice. What’s the point? Still, his voice sounds deeper than I remember it. More malevolent. “I told you every time you try to escape, that’s one more family member you’ll lose. But you not only tried to escape, you tried to stab me. So that’s two family members gone. Plus, you tore off your ankle tracker. Oh yes… you think I didn’t know? So we’re up to three family members. In addition to your father.”
“No,” I tell him, unable to help the tears that fall.
“And I’m going to punish you directly for this,” he says. “Right now. So you remember not to do it again.”
I close my eyes as he brings the knife closer to my face. I just sit there, trembling. He used to be so good-hearted. So beautiful. Now, he’s just evil embodied.
I flinch when his knuckles brush the back of my face. I feel the knife sliding into place behind my ear. I wonder if he’s going to cut it off, or just nick the skin at the top. I hope it’s not too painful. I hope—
And then I feel a tug against my scalp and sense him moving backward.
I open my eyes. He’s cut away a lock of hair.
“Something else to send your father,” he says mockingly. “In case he realizes the finger isn’t yours. But your hair he’ll know.”
He smells the lock and then shoves it into his pocket.
He turns to go, and pauses at the entrance to retrieve the tray. He left the risotto on the nightstand but I’m definitely not hungry now.
When the door closes and I hear the lock click, I slump in the chair.
Oh Massimo, what have you done?
7
Massimo
As I go downstairs, I remove the lock of hair and smell it once again.
Fuck, she smells so good.
I think of how incredible it felt to have her sitting in my lap, and how amazing her nipple tasted, and I find myself growing hard once more. But I remind myself she wasn’t giving herself to me. It was an act, meant to distract me, so she could bring a knife to my throat. I don’t really think she would have tried to stab me—she wouldn’t hurt a fly. Still, it turned me on all the more that she would do something like that. She’s definitely not as weak as I thought. Not at all.
When I consider what happened afterwards, and her reaction when she saw who I was, my arousal fades. I almost felt like some bad stage actor when I was standing over her and telling her I was going to kill two more members of her family. It wasn’t me. At least, it wasn’t theoldme. But it is who I am now, for good or for bad.
Still, it was so much easier to be cruel to her when I had the mask on and she didn't know who I was. But now that she knows it’s me… I wasn't sure what hurt more, her words, or the disappointment and horror on her face.
I shove the hair away and remind myself that she’s my prisoner. She told me to my face that she hates me. I thought I’d be able to have her as a fuck toy, but I wanted it to be of her own free will. It’s fairly obvious now she’s never going to willingly give herself to me. Still, I’m certain she was getting turned on when I played tongue volleyball with her nipple. But that was before she saw my face. She could have imagined me to be anyone she wanted. But now that she knows, there’s no more make believe for her.
Maybe that’s for the best.
I think of the pendant I saw around her neck. The very same heirloom she gave me all those years ago with the cherub engraving on the surface. The pendant her father stole from me. It’s rightfully mine. As is she.
I shake my head. Forget her. She’s an instrument of revenge and a path to riches. That’s all Angela means to me, nothing more.
Still, she’s seen my face now and that changes everything.
In the kitchen I find Luciano and Rosa finishing off the risotto I made. I take a deep breath before I break the news.
