Deadly Vows - Chapter 7 (Patreon)

We arrive at the restaurant, and of course, the valet takes the car to park it. The hostess leads us to a dimly lit table toward the back of the restaurant. I have settled for a black lace dress since I am still in mourning. I mean, I have only buried my father earlier in the week, and Luca’s father doesn’t care to give me time to get over it. According to Luca, he insists that I show up with Luca to the dinner.

Luca has been cranky around the house, and I know it is because of me. I haven’t smiled or spoken in two days. I don’t want to. I don’t have anything to say. Even when Luca has come home with flowers for me, I’ve completely ignored him and the flowers. But instead of taking it out on me, Luca takes it out on a member of the kitchen staff.

“Luca! My son and his lovely wife.”

Luca’s boisterous father greets us as soon as he lays eyes on us across the room. Luca steps up and greets his father, giving him a hug before pulling my chair out for me to be seated. It is obvious Luca and his father get along swell. Who wouldn’t when you have Luca Pasquino for a son in this line of living?

Luca’s face lights up as he speaks to his father. They speak of trivial things, like games, and they speak of the business. But not once does Luca’s face fall to that hard exterior I am so used to seeing. For a moment, I feel my heartbreak. I just want Luca to love me and show that he does. I want love like Ari and her husband’s. It is obvious I am not going to get that, though.

I feel a nudge on my arm and look up to see Luca and his father watching me, Luca’s face back to the one that I am used to.

“I’m sorry, I seem to have been wrapped up in my own little world over here,” I say quietly, not liking the scrutiny I am getting from them.

Luca’s father clears his throat. “I said I’m sorry about your father.”

I nod to him and express my gratitude, but inside I want to take the fork in front of me and gouge his eyes out.

“It’s a shame, really. I thought the plan he proposed was a good plan. To join us together, we would have more strength than the Russians and the Chinese combined. But he just had to be greedy for power.”

I look up immediately. Have I heard that right? He is admitting to killing him?

Luca’s father is watching me with the same gaze Luca watches me with, calculating my every move. He is waiting for me to show a sign of weakness.

“I really would have preferred if Luca killed you too in that warehouse. Would have been fewer strings to tie up.”

My heart slams against my chest at his words.

“Father,” Luca starts warningly, but his father continues.

“All I’m saying is, I told Luca to kill you too in that warehouse. But for the first time in his life, he defied me. Told me straight up no and to shove it.” He chuckles, as if remembering the moment. “I’m guessing he has a good reason.” He laughs to himself.

But I am shaking. He has told Luca to kill me? I’ve had no idea.

I feel a warm hand on my thigh underneath the table. I look up to see Luca watching me with an unreadable expression on his face. I turn back to the table and watch the white linen, not knowing what else I can do right now.

After a while, I get up from the table and tell Luca I am going to the bathroom. Once I reach the bathroom, I lock the door and let my tears out. My tears of anger and frustration and sadness. I don’t know how long I stay in the bathroom, but once my tears stop, I wipe my eyes and exit.

I walk right into someone and stumble backward, caught off guard and balance.

“Whoa, there, miss. Are you okay?”

I nod and look to thank my savior. He is a tall waiter. His hair is a light brown, and his eyes are a piercing blue color. He is very handsome. Not as handsome as Luca, but he is good-looking.

“I’m fine,” I lie. I try to walk around him before Luca comes looking for me, but he stops me.

“You don’t look fine to me, ma’am.” He gives me a small smile. “Looks like you’ve been crying.” He holds out a tissue to me, and I take it gratefully.

“You know, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I know it must have you pretty upset for you to be in such a rush to not be watching where you’re going.” He is still smiling at me.

“I’m sorry. I just got caught up in my emotions and wasn’t paying attention.” I look away frantically.

He chuckles lightly. “You shouldn’t let things get to you, miss. You are too beautiful to let your light dull in this cruel world.” He smiles widely at me. His smile is so contagious that for once in almost two weeks, I smile back.

Everything else happens in a blur.

I don’t even see it coming. The waiter is slammed against the wall, hard. He cries out in shock, and I see Luca’s hand around his throat. He lifts his hands up out of reaction in surrender, and out of nowhere, Luca plunges a knife into his right hand, nailing it to the wall. The waiter grunts in pain, ready to cry out.

Luca pulls another blade from somewhere, and his voice seeps out like venom when he speaks. Luca looks terrifying, to say the least. His lean body has this man pinned indefinitely to the wall.

“Make a sound, and I will cut your tongue out,” he hisses with hate at the waiter.

The poor guy looks shocked and terrified. His eyes are as wide as saucers. I am standing right next to them in shock, with my hands over my mouth. I barely have time to register anything. Luca turns his gaze on me.

“You go to the bathroom and this?”

I open my mouth to say something, but he cuts me off.

“Don’t fucking speak. I’ve been trying to get you to smile for two fucking weeks, and this guy comes along and manages to do it in three seconds?” he hisses.

Wait, he's mad because the waiter made me smile?

He turns his attention back to the waiter. “I suggest you go find a job somewhere else before I kill you.” Luca doesn’t even take the knife out of the guy’s hand; he walks away from him and snatches me by the arm. He doesn’t even stop at his father’s table. He walks by and speaks as he passes.

“We’re leaving.”

He doesn’t wait for his father’s reaction. I look back and see his father leaning back in his seat, a wicked grin on his face and an evil glint in his eye.

Once our car is pulled around, Luca quickly gets in and we take off out of the parking lot. Luca is driving like a crazy person. I look at the speedometer and see we are going over ninety.

“Luca, please slow down.” My voice comes out in frantic desperation.

“You don’t fucking talk to me! I have tried to be patient with you, and you go and smile at that guy?” He is shouting, and the speed of the car accelerates.

I decide not to speak again, because it will only make him angrier and drive faster.

We reach the house in record time without any police officers stopping us. He gets out of the car, slamming the door, but I stay in, afraid of what awaits me if I get out. Luca stops midstep and looks at me in the passenger seat.

“Get out of the fucking car!” he shouts, but I shake my head no to him.

I am terrified. He walks over to my side of the car, and I lock the door quickly. If I thought he was mad before, he is angry now. He punches the window, and I scream. He hits it again with his fist, and I scream again.

“Elise, open the fucking door now!”

I don’t respond to him, and he pulls out a gun, aiming it at the window. He fires off shots, and I scream, expecting the glass to be broken. But it is not. That explains it. This car has bulletproof windows. He is shooting at them to make it weak enough to break. He pulls out another gun and fires away at the windshield.

“Elise! I swear to God, open the fucking door now!” he shouts, but I ignore him, only delaying the inevitable.

He begins beating the window, and I can hear the cracks. I close my eyes and put my hands over my ears. Next thing I know, glass is sprinkled all over me and I am being jerked out of the car and dragged into the house. I kick and scream, the cement driveway digging into my skin. But Luca doesn’t care.

He drags me through the house, not making a sound. We reach a bedroom I haven’t been in before, and he throws me in, locking the door behind him. I can almost vomit from the look in his eyes. Pure, unfiltered rage is reflected back at me.

“You want someone else, is that it? Do you want to belong to someone else? Would you rather go and fuck that waiter than me?” he shouts at me.

I can only whimper in response. He falls to the ground next to me, and I can feel the cool tip of his blade press against my collarbone.

“Would you rather have someone else touch you the way I do, Elise?” His blade presses into my dress and the tear of the fabric echoes throughout the room as he cuts the front of my dress open.

“Tell me whom you’re married to, Elise.” He looks up and meets my eyes with his gray ones.

“You.” My voice comes out in a shaky whisper.

“That’s right. Me. No one else. Only I can make you feel like you do.” He traces the blade lightly over my stomach. I whimper aloud, biting my lip. My heart is thundering against my chest.

“Luca, please, I’m sorry.”

He ignores my pleas and slips a hand in my underwear. My body betrays me, as I begin to feel pleasure from his touch.

“Only I can make you feel this way, Elise.” He removes his hand and looks me in the eyes. I don’t know what sick thing he has planned for me, but from the glint in his eyes, I know it can’t be good.

“Whom are you married to?” he asks lazily.

“You,” I answer almost immediately.

“No, sweetheart. What’s my name?”

“Luca,” I answer him again.

“Say it again.”

“Luca.” I can feel his blade trace my stomach, going toward my ribs.

“Again.”

“Luc—ahhh!” I am cut off as agonizing pain rips through my side. Luca is dragging his blade down the side of my body. I can feel the blood trickling down my side. I try to move, but Luca is holding me down.

He finally picks up the blade.

“Whom do you belong to?” he asks so calmly. I am breathing hard, unable to catch my breath.

“L-lu—”

No sooner have the words left my mouth than Luca begins to drag the blade down my skin once again. I writhe and scream in agony. This time, he doesn’t stop; he just keeps going.

The blade leaves my skin, and I am sobbing and crying. I hear Luca’s zipper to his pants, and immediately I try to roll over and crawl away. I can feel the blood oozing all over my side, spilling into the carpet.

Luca immediately rolls me over and pins me down. I have barely any energy to fight him. He separates my legs and enters me roughly. I cry out loud. He leans on top of my body, rubbing against the new wounds he has given me on my side. I cry out from the pain, sobbing and groaning. With every thrust, he rubs against my skin, causing me more and more agonizing pain each time.

He grabs my jaw, making me look at him as he fucks me ruthlessly on the floor.

“Whom do you belong to?” he says out loud.

I can’t think; I can only feel. Even though there is pain where he has cut me, I can feel pleasure from his earlier ministration. His grip on my jaw tightens.

“Who are you fucking married to?” His voice snaps me out of my trance.

“Y-you,” I groan out.

“Say my goddamn name.”

“Luca,” I gasp as he thrusts deep.

He smiles an evil smile at me.

“That’s right. You’re married to me. You belong to me. Luca Pasquino. You’re mine, Elise, and nobody else’s. Don’t you ever forget that. Do you understand me?”

The pain mixed with the pleasure is too much, and I feel myself spilling over as my orgasm hits me hard.

“Yes!” I shout out.

“Only I can make you feel this way. Me. Your fucking husband. No one else,” he hisses as he ruthlessly fucks me through my orgasm.

I nod and groan, unable to handle the pleasure and the pain. And possibly the blood loss. I black out.

The next time I awake, I am lying in bed, with Luca’s arm wrapped around me, spooning my back side. I can feel his rhythmic breathing against my back. There is a dull throbbing on my side. The tears immediately come. He has fucking sliced me open because a waiter has made me smile. I shift in the bed and slowly move out of Luca’s grasp, heading toward the bathroom.

Apparently, he has bathed and clothed me while I've been passed out, moving me back into our bedroom. I am wearing one of his shirts. I look in the mirror and lift the massive shirt I am wearing. There is a cloth gauze wrapped around my torso. The dull throbbing is getting worse, and I begin to unwrap the gauze, each layer I peel off making me more and more terrified to see what horrible scar will be waiting underneath. As the cloth gets thinner, I can see the pinkish tint seeping through in spaced-out patterns. My breathing speeds up as I get closer to my skin. I let the cloth fall to the floor and gasp at what I see carved into my ribs. Reaching all the way from the underside of my breast to the top of my hip bone:

L U C A

His name is carved into my skin, the angry red lines a reminder that he has used a knife to do so.

I hear shuffling and see Luca’s tall figure leaning in the doorway of the bathroom, his steel-colored eyes rooting me to my spot as he leans away from the doorjamb and makes his way toward me. He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into him, kissing my neck.

“You’re mine, Elise.”

I can’t stop the sob that escapes my lips.