“Would have seemed longer if you didn’t sleep the whole way.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine. Let’s get inside.”
I grab River and his changing bag, and she picks up our bags. Unlocking the door, I step inside and for the first time since we moved here, it feels like coming home. I leave Rudi to dump the bags and head upstairs to put River to bed. Every step I take up the stairs feels like I’m climbing a mountain. Opening my bedroom door, I freeze.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” I demand.
Annabel is rifling through our drawers dressed in one of my skirts and a tank top. Holding River tighter in my arms, I lean back in the doorway and call for Rudi.
Annabel doesn’t move, she doesn’t look guilty at being caught, more like exasperated that I’ve disturbed her. I listen to Rudi run up the stairs. She frowns when she sees the Mayor’s daughter. I pass her my son and instruct, “Take him to your room.”
She looks between me and Annabel but doesn’t need to be told twice. She leaves and I step farther into my room. The one space that belongs to me and my husband.
“I’ll ask you again, what the hell are you doing in here?”
“Why are you back?”
That is what she has to say after I have caught her in my room, wearing my clothes.
“You don’t get to ask the questions. Get the fuck outta here.”
A creepy ass smile smothers her face. “Why? What are you going to do? You can’t throw me out.”
“I think you’ll find I can.”
“My father won’t be happy.”
“I couldn’t give a shit about your father. This is my home and if I don’t want you here, you won’t be.”
She holds her hand up and wiggles her finger. “Tut-tut, Victoria. Luca wouldn’t let you. He wants me here.” She strolls around my room and drops down on my bed. “You should take the kid and leave now before we kickyouout.”
I can’t help the laughter that bursts from me, not that I find any of this remotely amusing.
She loses the creepy smile and jumps off the bed, moving fast toward me. She comes to a sharp stop, inches from my face.
“Luca is mine, you need to leave before he returns,” she tells me.
“You can’t deal with crazy, darlin’.”I hear my dad tell me.
“You know how this is going. Make the first move, sweetheart.”I hear my grandpa grunt.
Luca keeps two guns in here, but one is under the bed and the other behind the bathtub. Annabel stands between me and the both of them. The closet gun to me is the one on top of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom down the hall.
I don’t trust turning my back on her, I grab a fistful of her hair and drag her out of my room. She claws at my hand and with a surprising amount of strength I didn’t give her credit for possibly having, she prizes my fingers away and shoves me into the wall. I bang the back of my head, but there’s no time to dwell on the pain. She comes at me again, slapping at me. I shield my head and kick out at her. I hit air. She hits me on the side of the head and my ear rings. With my hearing aid in jeopardy, I fall to the floor and crawl along the hall floor. I just need to get to the bathroom.
“I’m glad Luca isn’t here to see this, you’re so fucking pitiful.”
She yanks my hair, and I twist around and shoot up to my feet. Clasping her face between my hands I tell her, “If he were here, you’d already be dead.” Then I smash my head against her nose. I don’t know who it causes more pain, her or me. The guys make it look so easy.
Her scream pierces the air, blood trickling from her nose. “You bitch!” she shrieks.
She runs at me, and I try taking a step back, but we end up falling to the floor in a heap. Pain shoots across my shoulder. Did she just bite me?
“Fight, Victoria!”Grandpa’s voice urges me.
Using all of my strength, I manage to roll on top of her, and grab onto her hair, lifting her head I smash it down on the floor. River’s cries are muffled to me. I think I call King’s name but as he doesn’t come, I’m not sure. While she’s dazed, I leap off of herand run down the stairs. I stumble into the bar and nearly fall on my ass.
