I don’t know what came over me.
I seriously don’t.
But I reacted before I could think too hard on it.
The moment his belt let loose, I reached for it and wrapped it around his head twice.
He wasn’t expecting it, so I was able to loop it twice before I hauled it backward with every ounce of strength that I had, pulling so hard that the edges of the belt started to make my hands bleed.
I pulled and pulled.
Dario struggled and struggled.
The stupid video that he’d been watching played in the background on repeat.
His struggles started to slow, and soon he wasn’t doing anything but sitting there limp.
“Hey,” a calm male voice in the middle of my deep, dark, turbulent sea said. “You okay?”
I pulled myself viciously from that flashback, cursing myself for letting my mind go there.
It’d been five years, and that night still gave me terrors.
It didn’t help that my brother never let me forget it.
And tonight I had to have dinner with the asshole.
A mandatory dinner that I would never hear the end of if I didn’t attend.
I didn’t know why they wanted me there.
It wasn’t like it was pleasant for anyone.
My dad thought that I was a failure.
My mom went along with it because it was easier than getting her face bashed in for supporting me.
And my brother? Well, he actually liked me being there. But only because he got to torture me in person instead of leaving me presents to find. Or making it hard for me to find a job in this town.
I’d already been let go from the hospital, a doctor’s office, and an outpatient surgery center.
Though my brother let me get established, make friends, before he went and ruined it for me.
My brother, the Irish Mafia’s bitch boy, thought he had a lot of pull.
He didn’t.
He just knew how to annoy people enough that they found it easier to let me go than deal with him.
I stood up, scrubbed my fingers along Neo’s jowls, then went to my bedroom and searched for something appropriate to wear.
I always, always wore pants.
Dresses and skirts were too easy access.
I also made sure to wear layers.
No way would I be caught dead without wearing something underneath.
