Broken Beginnings (The Moretti Crime Family 3)

“Claire, look at me.” Lucca’s voice reaches me, but only barely.

I shake my head slightly, making the insistent pounding inside my skull worse. I’m so confused, so lost. None of this can be real.

A few seconds later, I blink my eyes open again, hoping my surroundings have changed, but I’m still in the hospital bed. Lucca is still standing in front of me, looking at me like he knows exactly what I’m thinking of him now.

“Please, don’t look at me like this. All I did was protect you. He could’ve killed you. Hell, he almost did.”

“I… you’re a bad person. You work for bad people. My father told me. Told me you would hurt me.”

He takes another step toward the bed, and my entire body trembles. Pausing mid-step, he says, “Claire, I would never hurt you.”

“Don’t come any closer… or I’ll scream.”

“Okay.” He lifts his hands like he is showing me he’s not a threat before he takes a few steps back.

“I’m going to make this right…” The distance between us makes it harder to hear him now, but I don’t want him to come closer again. I have to look at his lips and watch them move to make out the words he is saying. “I will protect you, provide for you, and ensure you’re always taken care of.”

His words are heartfelt, and if he had said them to me a week ago, I would have been over the moon. Now, everything has changed. Now his words make my skin crawl.

I can’t shake away what I saw. I can’t forget the person he transformed into. He’s an evil man. A horrible man. Yes, my father hurt me, but he was still my dad, the only family I had. He didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve what happened to him any more than I did.

“Claire, I know you’re scared right now, but I swear, I’ll make this right. I won’t ever let you down again. From now on, I’ll never let you out of my sight.”

His words cause a shiver to run down my spine because I know he is telling the truth. He is never letting me go again, and right now, that’s scarier than anything else.

That fear has turned to my salvation. The words that caused me to shiver back then are the only thing that can stop me from falling apart now.

A maid brings down my breakfast and hands it to one of the guards, who opens the cell and enters. My natural reaction to this man is to curl up in a ball and hide. I know that’s what he expects, so maybe that’s why I don’t do it.

“What do you think I can get you to do for a…” his eyes roam the tray and then fall back on me, “a peanut butter sandwich?” The way his tongue darts out over his bottom lip and his eyes gleam with lust, I’m sure whatever he wants isn’t something I’m willing to offer.

“I just want my food. Please…” I try not to sound as weak as I feel.

Lucca said to be brave, to be strong. I can’t give them the reaction they’re expecting. Even if it terrifies me, I have to do the opposite of what my brain says, which is to huddle in the corner and cry.

The guard advances toward me and tosses the tray onto the ground. I jump back and collide with the wall, watching as the pitiful peanut butter and jelly sandwich flies across the dirty concrete.

“You think you’re protected because of that fucker, that he’s going to come back and save you.” The guard grabs me by the throat and squeezes. I freeze, my body becoming a block of ice. He leans into my face, and I can feel his hot breath on my cheek.

Tears spring from my eyes and slip down my cheeks without approval. To cry in front of these men is to give them a loaded gun and beg them not to shoot me.

I can’t control my fear, not here, in this place. I’m afraid of what may happen next. The darkness in his eyes sends a shiver down my back.

I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to escape, even if that meant I had to crawl inside a dark place in my mind.

Thankfully, the other guard walks into the cell and interferes before anything more can happen. “Let her go, Yuli. She’s not worth getting your head blown off for. You heard what the boss said. We have to wait until Lucca is dead before we can have our fun with her.”

Yuli releases me, and I sag against the wall. I’d be relieved he let me go, but my fear spirals after hearing what I just did. Are they planning to kill Lucca? Oh god, I have to find a way to warn him. If anything happens to him, I’ll never get out of here. I’ll never be safe again.