Her Dad’s Best Friend

"I want everyone to know that you belong to me. I want Ariana to know that she can't hurt you again."

I can't talk. I can't deny that hearing him talk about belonging to him isn't turning me on a little.

But how can I agree? A few days ago, he was threatening my dad's life. Now he wants to marry me. And then he's pulling the ring out of the box and putting it on my finger. I try to move and take it off. "Listen to me. You will be safer with this ring on your finger than you'd be without it."

"I can't. Don't ask me to do this, lacopo." My childhood fairytale prince is here in the hospital with me, but he's in the Mafia and he threatened my dad to make me move in with him. I don't know how to make my mental images of him match up.

"Wear it. We don't have to set a date. Just consider it protection."

"You think that she's going to come for you again? Won't she be even more motivated if she knows that I mean something to you?"

"I think that she already knew."

A female doctor walks into my room.

"Are you ready to be discharged?"

"Are you joking? She just got here." Iacopo explodes, walking towards the doctor. "She needs to stay overnight at least."

"There's no reason for us to keep her." Apparently the doctor can't be bullied by lacopo. "You can bring her back if she gets worse, but we don't have enough beds."

lacopo is glowering at her. I know that his money and power normally intimidate people. The doctor in this room doesn't care at all that he's lacopo Genovese.

"I'm putting in a discharge order now." There's a tablet in her hands. Iacopo's glare should make it burst into flames. "You'll be out within the next few hours." She just walks out, not caring that lacopo is about to lose his shit.

I have to fill out a bunch of paperwork before I'm discharged. The nurses are doing a bunch of stuff. They want my health insurance information. Iacopo is stewing in the corner. "You're ready to go."

lacopo looks like he's about to blow. "Is there a wheelchair?"

"Iacopo, I can walk." To prove it, I get out of bed. The change of position makes blood rush to my head. I wheeze a little bit as the room spins.

"You're getting a wheelchair."

We argue. I lose. In another minute, he's pushing me into an elevator in a hospital wheelchair. The nurse next to us is just shaking her head. She's gotten bulldozed by him, but I guess she sees this kind of thing often.

The car downstairs is ready for us. Iacopo picks me up and puts me in the car like I'm incapable of climbing up.

Chapter Eighteen

Running Away

Kelly

He gets into the car. His arm is around me, as if he can protect me from anything that would harm me.

We don't talk at all as we go home. Well, his house. I've been here such a short time that it's crazy how fast I've come to think of it as my home. He pulls me out of the car and keeps me in his arms. "I can walk." He's going up the stairs while still carrying me.

"No, you can't. You're sleeping for the rest of the day. I'll have the chef bring up some soup in a few hours."

Tags:

Source: