“You belong to me, do you understand me Enzo?” He says my name clipped and hard, not Soldier or Soldier Boy.
“I understand,” I comply even though I don’t understand shit.
“I own everything, your heart, your mind, your fucking body. You try to replace me and I’ll kill you and whoever the fuck you try to replace me with.”
“I’m not trying to replace you Maximo.” The thought has never crossed my mind, not even when he goes off alone to indulge in sex with others, no matter how much it hurts every fucking time.
How it breaks my heart.
“Don’t fucking lie to me!”
I slowly try to pull my wrist away from him, but when he doesn’t relent I use more force, pulling out of his grasp. The hurt that flashes in his eyes lets me know there’s not going to be any reasoning with him right now. I don’t know what has set him off, but I haven’t seen him like this in a long time. He used to be less secure in our relationship in the beginning, though he never admitted it. But when he realized I wasn’t going anywhere, no matter what he did, this manic side of him disappeared.
He still gets possessive and clingy, angry and out of control. But not like this.
“That’s how it's going to be then?” he asks, hopping off of me like I’m on fire.
I shouldn’t have taken my wrists away from him.
I realize it too late. That allowing him to cling to me had at least grounded him a little bit.
He backs away toward the door.
“It’s not any way, Maximo. Come get in the bed and talk to me, we’ll settle this.”
He scoffs, his eyes hardening. “Fuck you, Enzo.”
It’d taken me too long to go after him when he left. I’d stood in my room in shock, trying to analyze what was going on, but I should have known it was a puzzle I wasn’t going to be solving anytime soon.
When I went into the garage and saw my car gone, I’d searched for my keys, thinking he’d taken his set, but sure enough mine were gone. He had to have swiped them off of my nightstand when I wasn’t paying attention.
He hadn’t answered my calls all night long or this morning.
Now I have no way of even knowing if he’s okay.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Lucia’s voice brings me back to the present and even though she’s trying to be reassuring, I can tell that she’s worried as well, it’s in the waiver of her voice. “I’m going to call around, see if anyone has seen him. I’ll call you once I get a bead on him. In the meantime, don’t panic.”
The line goes dead.
Despite Lucia’s reassurance, I panic the whole way to the house, my hands shaking as I pull Winter out of the car.
Maximo is okay, just focus on Winter right now.
I usher her into the house, taking her up to her room. She’s completely out of it, just allowing me to move her around like a doll. I push her gently to get her to sit on her bed. She wraps her arms around her body, those eyes still vacant.
This isn’t the first time she’s been shot at.
If you hang with the Costas, then you better bet you’ll get a nice introduction to shootouts within the first week of being around them. And Winter has been here for months.
But I know the brain is a fickle thing and really, normal people don’t get used to being shot at like the rest of us.
Likely ,she’s more on edge after nearly dying a week ago.
I check my phone, making sure the ringer is on and that I haven’t missed any calls or texts. I come up empty. Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose and blow out a long breath.
Settle down.
I nod to myself, taking even breaths. Once I’m done, I put a plan into action. I’ll stay here and take care of Winter, pretend like Maximo isn’t MIA. And once Vito and Giovanni get here, I’ll get in the car and drive around town and find Maximo myself. Once I do, I’ll beat the shit out of him for the first time ever.