Enraged I dragged her behind me to the kitchen table. Swiping it clear with my free arm I threw her face first onto it, her arms still tied behind her back. I lifted her dress and ripped her thong from her. Keeping one hand at her neck I held her in place as she tried to buck free. Using my free hand I unzipped my pants and pulled my cock out. Angrily I kicked her legs wide before forcing her hips up and plunging in.
As soon as I sunk all the way in I stopped, stunned as I felt something give way. Absolute tightness gripped me. What the fuck. This wasn’t possible. Looking down at the part of her face that I could see I watched as tears poured unchecked down her face. Christ, even in the position that I had her in where there was no give she was still trying to get away. Keeping my grip on her neck I pulled back, feeling each movement as her dry pussy fisted me. Finally free of her I looked down in shock at the blood that stained my cock and her thighs.
Confused I shoved myself back into my pants and then slowly pulled her dress back into place, looking at her ass while I did it. My mind kept telling me something that couldn’t be true. Why were there no marks on her ass? As hard as she had us beat her last night, there should still be marks. I unzipped the back of her dress, ignoring her stiffening. Again her back was soft and unblemished. The whip scars that I noticed last night weren’t there. Re-zipping her dress I let the back of my hand touch her skin as I went. It was soft and smooth. My eyes weren’t deceiving me. What the fuck was going on?
I gently raised her from the table, ignoring her shudder of fear as I set her back on the feet. I turned her around to face me lifting her and sitting her on the table. “Don’t scream,” I murmured as I removed the tape from her mouth. Tilting her chin up I accepted the anger, fear, and hate in her eyes.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Victoria Genovese.” She answered in a firm voice, despite her wobbling lips.
“Who is Caterina Genovese to you?”
“My twin.”
Of course she was her twin. “Why did you kill that girl?”
“I didn’t kill…”
Grabbing her chin firmly. “Don’t fucking lie to me. I saw you dump the body. Now I’m going to ask you again. Why did you kill that girl?”
Mutinous was the only thing to describe to look that she gave me. “I didn’t kill her! Caterina did! Caterina is a sociopath, just like Enzo. Now untie me, get the hell away from me, and I’ll explain what’s going on.” I really shouldn’t have been amused but I admired the fact that she was willing to fight back, given the position she was in. Quick as lightning I gripped her neck and got in her face but there was no fear when she spoke. “Do you think that scares me? Do you think you’re the first person to get off on hurting me?” She leaned forward into my grip. “If you’re going to kill me, do it. If you want answers let me go and untie me. Either way, get to it,” she croaked defiantly.
I gently rubbed her throat with my fingertips before leaning in till my lips touched her ears. “If you try anything I’ll hang you from the ceiling and reenact everything on those tapes with you before I kill you.” I whispered silkily satisfied with the whimper of fear that she couldn’t hold back.
Carefully releasing her throat I gripped her hips, bringing her tightly to my body before taking us a step back so she could slide to the floor. Keeping her there I reached into my pocket and pulled out my knife. Opening it I slid it down her arm before slicing her bindings and stepping back. She raised her face and looked at me with enough coldness to cause frostbite before shouldering past me and gingerly sitting on the couch. Angry at the twinge of guilt I felt, I told her to start talking more harshly than I had to.
She glued her eyes to the wall behind me and started her tale.
Chapter 12
Staring at the man that just raped me and tried to kill me I wanted to tell him to drop dead, but I knew I couldn’t. Unless I told him everything, and he believed me, he was going to kill me. I think that I’d almost prefer it to the shame coursing through me as I was forced to sit here with his two friends who had just watched him hold me down and take my virginity. I could still feel the wetness of my blood sticking to my thighs. I just wanted to curl into a ball and die but I was made of tougher stuff. Caterina and Enzo had made sure of that.
Keeping my eyes focused on the wall behind his shoulder, I started my tale. “My father and brother Enzo were sadists. They enjoyed hurting others, including their own family.” I shuddered as memories of my childhood rushed through me. “When my father died my mother remarried to the man that took over our family. Our life became good, especially when he sent Enzo away. When I was fourteen, my sister Caterina murdered my mother, my stepfather, and his underboss. She said that my stepfather and his underboss had raped her while my mother watched, egging them on. I didn’t want to believe her but she was covered in bruises and marks so I couldn’t help but believe her. She begged me to help her, and I did. I set the guesthouse on fire to cover the crime.” A humorless laugh escaped that I couldn’t help. “She was my twin and yet I probably knew any stranger better than I knew her. “Caterina waited until her bruises healed before planting the knife and bloody clothing in my room. She called the cops. They searched and I was arrested for their murders.”
I took my gaze from the wall and looked into Dominic’s eyes. “She gave a wonderful performance. There was no way that I could say that it was really her all along after I found out what she had done. Everything pointed to me. Once she knew that there was no way for me to get out of the charges she came to gloat, and I met my true twin for the first time. She laughingly told me how our parents had walked in on a fuck fest she was having with our brother Enzo.” Watching the disgust form in his eyes just made me want to tell him more. “She was the female version of Enzo in every sick way, and I never saw it. No one had, because unlike Enzo she hid it from the family. She told me how she and Enzo had taken their time killing them. You saw the tapes in the other room. Can you guess what she told me they did to my mother before they killed her?” I spat, angry that he was forcing me to relive this. “They had planned to kill the whole family but being found out ruined their plans, so they used me as a patsy. She said that I was going to be the lucky one because at least I’d be alive in prison. What she couldn’t have guessed was that she never fooled my grandmother, Rose. Grams saw right through Caterina. She never believed that I had done the killings, and she spent millions to make sure that I was declared temporarily insane and committed only until my eighteenth birthday.
“Catherin and Enzo had bought our family lawyer and the phony will he concocted left everything to them, cutting Nero and me out. That’s what all the deaths were about. The money and the power. Enzo seized control of the family. He would have killed Grams and Nero, but Grams still had enough power to protect them.” Rubbing my hands over my face I leaned back against the couch. “We spent years looking for a way to destroy Enzo before Angelica did it for us. I’m not here to hurt her. What she did should have been done long ago,” I said softly. “You can’t imagine the relief I felt when Nero came and told me that Enzo was dead.
“After Enzo’s death Caterina dropped out of sight. She knew that she was next. Those tapes that you found were left at my door—a gift from my dearly departed brother, or so I thought. They were actually from Caterina. I think with Enzo dead she wanted someone to share her insanity with. The tapes were horrific. Some were woman that I had never met. Others held childhood friends who either disappeared or never spoke to me again. Then there were Angelica’s tapes. No matter what Enzo had done to her, she never let him win. I began tracking down Enzo’s victims, helping those I could, but I was obsessed with Angelica. Why had she survived when so many others hadn’t? I hired people to find out any information about her and your family that I could. I couldn’t believe my luck when Maria decided to go back to college. It was like a sign.”
“What about Caterina? Why is she here?” Dom interrupted.
“Caterina’s here to destroy Angelica and
your family for taking Enzo from her. In her twisted mind she thinks that Angelica killed Enzo when he chose Caterina over her. Caterina’s insanity is only matched by Enzo’s. I don’t know if she has been planning this all along and is just using me as the scapegoat again. That body that you saw me dump was a warning for me not to disturb her plans. Last night she somehow drugged my drink and switched places with me at the bar. When I got here there was a message that if I didn’t clean everything and get rid of the body by midnight that she would kill Maria.
“She has my phone, so I suggest you tell Maria to not answer my calls before Caterina lures her to her death or uses her as bait to draw Angelica out. Caterina videoed killing that girl and since I’ve already been institutionalized for murder it won’t be a hard sell to the cops that it was me. So Dominic, you wanted the truth. Now you have it. What do you plan to do?
….
Staring at the girl in front of me I didn’t know what to believe. I believed that there were two of them. It was the only way to explain the one in front of me being a virgin, but the rest? Fuck, it was just too crazy. Most of what she said would be easy enough to check, but still. My gaze was drawn down to the blood on her thighs peeking at me from under her skirt. Before I could think about what I was doing I walked over and grabbed her arm. Ignoring her stiffening I pulled her over to the bathroom and closed the door behind us. Careful of the glass, I sat her down on the edge of the bathtub and told her to “Stay.” I turned on the water in the sink and grabbed a towel and wet it as soon as the water got warm. Turning back to her I saw that she still sat stiffly, eying me wearily. Blocking out the shit in my head I went down on a knee in front of her and laid a hand on her knee to spread her legs.
Big mistake, if the hand that just hit me hard enough to leave an impression was anything to go by. I grabbed her dress between her breasts and pushed her back down onto the tub lip before she could do anything more. She went wild, jerking and scratching and trying to get away. Afraid that she was going to hurt herself even more I hauled us both up and out of the bathroom. Ignoring the looks being thrown at us I took her to the only other room in the place with any privacy—the bedroom. Christ, if she was wild before, she was ferocious now. I held my hand over her mouth to cut off her screams then threw her on the bed and covered her with my body. I didn’t expect the bite. I was trying not to hurt her, but she got my hand in her mouth and bit down hard. Motherfucker, what was it with the crazy bitches in this family? Tearing my hand free only gave her the opening to start screaming again. Hoping that I wasn’t going to lose part of my lip I did the only thing I could and covered her mouth with mine to catch her screams.
Fuck, that one touch seemed to do what all my wrestling with her couldn’t. She stopped. Not a movement, not a peep. She just froze, which was unfortunate because one touch of her lips had me heating up. Gently I moved my lips against hers, coaxing her to open enough for me to get a taste and what a taste it was. Her mouth was hot and wet, just like I thought it would be. Just like that the fantasies of what my dick would feel like in that hot little mouth came rushing back. I rubbed myself against her as I wondered if she could take me like her sister had. Hard and deep. Those little moans she was making were driving me crazy until I realized that they weren’t moans, but whimpers. I cupped her face with my hands and gently brushed away the tears falling from her closed eyes. Watching closely as she opened them I was gutted by the fear I saw in them as she whispered in a voice barely loud enough to hear. “Please don’t hurt me again.”
Christ. I leaned forward and touched my forehead to hers. “I won’t hurt you like that again. I promise. Now stay still.” I picked up the towel I had dropped and spread her legs. She was shaking in fear but she didn’t move as I gently wiped away her innocence. In my whole life I had never felt like such a piece of shit. Staring at her terror-filled face the only thing I could see was my sister the night we went to the hospital after her rape. I don’t know if what I did next was for her or if it was for me, but I gathered her up into my arms and rocked her slowly as I held her. It took a while but she started to relax, everything that had happened was catching up with her. As soon as I was sure that she was deeply asleep I carried her back to the living room and put her on the couch. I motioned for Chris and Marcus to follow me and led them into the bedroom. “Pack everything up and load it into the cars. Don’t miss a single piece of paper or disc.”
“What about her?” Marcus asked quietly.
“We’ll take her with us.” About to say something that I knew could get us killed I looked the two of them squarely in the eyes. “For now we keep this between us—at least until we know the truth.”
Just as I suspected Chris started cursing, but Marcus just continued to stare at me. “You understand that blood won’t protect you if Lucca finds out you kept this from him,” he said.
I gave him a sharp nod to tell him I understood. I understood that if something happened because I kept this from him there was a good chance that there would be a bullet with my name on it, and it would be delivered by my own brother.
Chapter 13
I was in heaven. Pushing my face into the soft pillow I almost purred until I realized the bedding in my dorm was from Walmart and made my skin itch. I sat straight up and looked around wildly, wondering where the hell I was. It took a minute for my sleep-filled mind to process everything and last night came rushing back. I jumped from the bed, grabbed my dress from the chair and threw it on, not even wanting to think how I had gotten out of it.
I grabbed my shoes then paused at the door and pressed my ear to it, listening for any noises. Satisfied, I opened it and quietly went into the hall. I immediately heard voices coming from the direction I needed to go. Racking my brain, I tried to remember what I saw of Dom’s apartment the night I came to tutor him. As I made my way up the hallway the voices became louder. I froze.
I recognized Chris’s voice. “Our contacts finished the check on her. Everything that can be verified was true.” As if I would lie about that, I thought. Silence stretched for a long minute before he spoke again. “Dom, we have to go to Lucca with this. If he finds out that we kept this from him being out of the family will be the least of our worries.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Dom answered angrily.
“Dom, Marcus and I feel like shit for what happened last night, too, but we can’t take the chance that she’s really working with the sister.”
“She’s not.”
“How can you know?”
“I just know.”
“She’s lied to us for weeks. Disposed of a body. Fuck man; are you really willing to stake our lives on a feeling? To stake Maria’s life on a feeling? Because that’s what you’re doing. If you’re wrong can you live with yourself if the next body she’s dumping is Maria’s? Hell, what if she talks Maria into bringing her to your family home? Can you live with yourself if she gets Alexa? Do you want to stand over your baby niece’s body and say I could have stopped this?”
“He’s right,” I said, stepping out into the open and drawing three pairs of eyes. I was being such a fool. Only I would turn myself in to stop him from getting killed instead of saving my own life. No wonder Caterina knew I’d take the fall for her. “Not that I would do that stuff, but that you can’t take the chance.”
“Why didn’t you just make a break for it?” Dom asked.
“Because I’m an idiot,” I said, meaning it. I dropped my shoes to the floor, sat down in a free chair and tucked my legs under me.
Dom gave me a small smile and nodded before he turned back to Chris. “Like I said, I just know.”
Chris bowed his head in defeat. “So how do we handle this?”
Dom turned back to me. “How didn’t we know about you? Our computer guy has never made a mistake like this. Why didn’t you come up in the check?”
“After I was committed, Grams hired some people to make sure I disappeared—even from the memories of the other families. As far as any
record says, my family died in a fire. There were no newspaper reports other than that, and even when the cops put everything together not a word of it leaked out. As children we were never really brought out together in public, and we went to separate schools, so when Caterina made her debut no one even suspected that there were two of us. And Caterina being Caterina, she never would have told anyone about me. She wanted all the limelight. My birth record is there if you know what to look for, but there’s really no record of me until I turned eighteen, so your guy would never have thought to look for me. I mean everyone knew about Enzo, Nero, and Caterina, so why would anyone suspect for a moment that there was another sibling. Nero runs our businesses and it even looks like he has all interest in them. I’ve been the silent partner that no one knows about. Hell, even when I go out with Nero and Grams in public everyone just assumes I’m Caterina, and we just let them.” I shrugged. “No one really knew I existed. I was the ghost of the family; I was there but not there, looking away from the pity I saw. That’s why your guy didn’t know about me.”
“Does your family know that you’re here?”
“No. They never would have let me anywhere near Angelica or your family. They would think it was committing suicide,” I answered. “How did you know who I was? I mean when you thought I was Caterina?”
“The videos. My family received word that you had them and that they were dangerous to my sister-in-law. So we had you followed. We lost you at the airport but we knew that you were coming to the college,” Dom said.
Suddenly the reality of everything hit me. “We’ve all been played,” I whispered, causing the tension it the room to skyrocket.
“What do you mean?” Dom demanded. The look on my face caused him to sit up straight.
Dominic (The Family Book 2) Page 6
