by Bethany-Kris
The idea of having to deal with Franco more than he already was churned his stomach with irritation. Then again, Kim slipped into his thoughts, and Gio couldn’t imagine leaving her behind.
“I need time to think about it, Max. I have my family to consider, too.”
The Sorrento leader gave a single nod of acceptance. “I’ll take that over nothing. It’s better than what I had before.”
Gio stood from the chair. “Are we—”
A phone on the desk rang, interrupting Gio’s attempt to leave. Out of respect, Gio waved for Maximo to take the call before they finished their conversation. Maximo picked up the phone on the second ring.
“Ciao?” A beat of time passed and Gio knew instantly something was wrong by the way Max’s eyes narrowed and his shoulders tensed. “Why would you do that, Franco?”
Gio cringed at the venom in Maximo’s tone.
“Give that girl a bit of breathing room, son.” Maximo grew silent, shaking his head. “What do you want me to do, huh? You did this, Franco. Don’t forget, it was what you wanted. I suggest this time, you leave her be and keep away for a while. And no, you will not send your guys out looking for her. She’ll come back when she’s cooled down. Let her have time to do that.”
Maximo hung up the phone without another word.
Gio felt an uncomfortable pressure build in his chest. An impending sense of dread climbed up his spine. “Everything okay?”
“No,” Maximo growled angrily. “Another mistake of my son’s.”
“Franco marrying Kim, you mean?”
Gio was under the impression Maximo was in agreement about the arranged marriage. Maximo didn’t speak about personal affairs—today was a surprising exception—so it was only an assumption on Gio’s part. The man looked anything but pleased behind his desk.
“They’re both passionate people,” Maximo murmured, staring at the phone on his desk like he wished it would disappear. “Unfortunately, you need the right kind of passion to make the worst parts of marriage bearable. They just don’t have it together. The two of them, it’s an awful mixture of obstinacy and resentment from both ends.”
Gio couldn’t help but defend Kim in some way. It wasn’t like she had wanted a marriage with Franco to begin with. “She seems like a great woman, though.”
“She is … but again, that doesn’t mean she’s great for Franco. For someone else, I have no doubt she’d be the perfect wife, lover, and friend the man needed. Just not for my son. It’s too bad he can’t see through his own bullheaded shit to realize it.”
“Marriage is a make it or break it kind of thing,” Gio said. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask Maximo how he could approve of Franco’s treatment towards Kim, but he knew he shouldn’t. There were lines he couldn’t cross, and that was one of them.
“Or fake it until they make it,” Maximo replied sadly. “There’s a lot more of that going on between those two than I like to admit. This won’t end well, but I’m not sure which one it’ll end for first.”
That’s what Gio was afraid of.
• • •
Gio was lost inside his head as he stared out the windshield, still parked in front of the Sorrento leader’s home. He was trying to decipher parts of his conversation with Maximo, but found himself focusing too much on the phone call before the meeting ended.
The buzz of his phone signaling an incoming text finally snapped Gio out of his thoughts. Plucking up the device from the center console, he read the text three times before it registered.
I know it’s odd for me to ask you, it read, but have you seen my sister lately?
Gio frowned, hitting the call button to phone Cody. It was odd for the kid to ask Gio that. He was careful about hiding even the slightest suggestion of his feelings for Kim. He couldn’t stand to think what might happen to her if someone did find out.
Cody picked up on the first ring. “Hey, Skip.”
“Kim’s missing?” Gio asked.
“I guess,” Cody confirmed quietly. “Dad got a call a while ago asking if she showed up here. She’s not. I just thought I’d send out a text to a few people and see if they happened to see her anywhere. Heard you were out today and thought maybe you might have seen her, so.”
“Doesn’t she live in the dorms at the college?”
“Uh, not anymore.”
Kim lived there yesterday when Gio took her to Lake Mead. She was insistent on staying in her dorm until the wedding when she wouldn’t have a choice but to move. Surely something like that wouldn’t have changed in a day.
Gio pushed the rising worry back and tried to sound disinterested. “Oh?”
Cody sighed. “I don’t know, at first I thought Kim could handle Franco. She’s stubborn as fuck. She didn’t need the overprotective big brother growing up, just a partner in crime. Girls like her, they have a tendency to break a guy’s wall down and bleed their way in.”
Oh, Gio knew it. Every part of that woman was swimming in his blood with no intention of leaving.
“I thought she could handle him,” Cody repeated quieter.
“Franco’s … different.”
“He’s a first-rate asshole, you mean.”
“Basically,” Gio agreed. “What happened?”
“It’s like pulling fucking teeth to get anything from Franco’s guys sometimes.”
“They’re scared of him for all the wrong reasons.”
“Yeah,” Cody agreed. “I did take a drive over to Kim’s dorm. One of the girls who knows her was there. She said something about Kim coming back from classes to an empty dorm and losing her shit.”
Gio rolled his eyes. “Is this another one of his car tricks like when he switched out her Mazda for that Mercedes she hates?”
“How’d you know about that?” Cody asked.
Shit. Gio needed to be more careful about blurting out things he wasn’t supposed to know. “Heard it through the grapevine when I mentioned the car was nice.”
“Oh. Well, yeah, basically. Apparently Franco showed up at the dorm shortly after my sister, and when she refused to leave, there was a big screaming match. The girl said she heard something about Kim disappearing for a day and night. Then, Franco tossed her laptop down a flight of stairs.”
“Why would he do that?” Gio asked for the sake of seeming ignorant, but he knew exactly why. Kim wouldn’t back down on the topic of finishing school, so Franco was pushing her into it without her consent. Again. “Seems a bit harsh to me.”
“A fight that’s been ongoing,” Cody replied vaguely. “Anyway, my sister skipped out. Franco’s guys were blocked in by the security who were called to the building after the fight got too loud.”
“So they couldn’t keep on her tail,” Gio said, filling in the blanks. “When did this go down?”
“A couple of hours ago now. I probably shouldn’t worry, but I am. Like, something’s wrong, and it’s more than Franco.”
“She’s not picking up your calls?”
“Took off without her bag. I’m guessing her cell is in there. I don’t know where in the fuck she could go that she doesn’t need money to keep her hidden.”
Gio’s head snapped up, an understanding dawning on him. The sky was already dark outside, which meant the places to go were limited. Chances were, he knew exactly where Kim was if her propensity to rebel against Franco’s constant demands were any indication. She didn’t need money to get her anger out and piss Franco off. After all, Gio learned that first night he partied at Pulse no one needed a damn dime to get anything they wanted other than liquor. If someone was high enough or in a decent mood, they’d hand over whatever they had.
“Let me know if she shows up, and I’ll keep an eye out myself,” Gio said, already turning his car on.
“Will do. And hey, thanks man.”
“No problem.”
Gio didn’t think Cody would find much gratitude for him if the kid knew the truth.
• • •
Gio weaved in and out of people at Pulse, av
oiding the hands of random people trying to pull in him to dance. He wasn’t in the mood to party.
In fact, now that he thought about it, he hadn’t been in the mood to get himself lost for a long fucking time. He hadn’t done a whole hell of a lot since coming out to Vegas, either. Not since that first night he tracked Kim down, anyway. The Molly he’d indulged in then was the last substance he put into his body other than cognac and cigarettes.
Gio couldn’t remember a time when he had ever gone that long without getting high or smashed in some way. Probably longer than he wanted to admit. It was like doing that shit had become a part of his identity. Gio was the crazy one of his brothers—always unpredictable and reckless.
A distant part of him laughed it off and said he was in control. The sober part knew that wasn’t the case. Thinking about it with a clear head, Gio understood what he thought he was doing because he enjoyed it had become more of a habit than a pleasure. It didn’t make a difference if the habit was one he didn’t depend on to function; the issue was still real.
Gio didn’t even have to wonder what had changed to make the partying unneeded in his life. Kim. Wasn’t it always about her, now? It helped that he never had to wonder why he liked the darker scene of a partying lifestyle. Chasing down the desire to feel something other than boredom had been a pastime of his forever. Nothing was ever boring with Kim.
And hell, did she ever make him feel.
Fuck.
He probably owed a few people an apology or two.
Later, Gio told himself, still pushing through the crushing sea of people in search of Kim. Deal with that shit later.
A brief flash of blonde and blue caught Gio’s attention out of the corner of his eye. It disappeared back into the swaying wave of people almost instantly. Like an invisible rope was tied to his middle and forcing him to move, he instinctively changed directions and moved towards whatever—or whoever—that might have been.
Jesus, he hoped it was Kim.
In no way did Gio want to return her to Franco’s abusive ways, but he needed to know she was okay. For his peace of mind and to get that dull ache out of his heart and chest, he had to know.
The closer Gio came to the spot, the more the people moved with the music. Faster, harder. He ignored the goers, skimming over faces in search of the one he wanted to find. Even the techno pounding through the speakers vibrated the floorboards. Being sober, Gio felt suffocated by the people surrounding him.
Pushing his way through another wall of bodies, he spotted Kim. Gio stopped, all of the air rushing out of his lungs in one hard breath. Someone slammed into his back, causing him to stumble. Anxiety overloaded his senses.
Surrounded by a crowd, there were three men specifically with attention all on Kim. While they were all dancing, it was more than just that. Hands were disappearing under the skirt of her blue dress. A mouth was at her neck, tasting her skin. The guy behind Kim had his hands to her back, holding her.
The sight would have been enough for Gio to turn and walk away. That was the last thing he wanted to see and the most painful sensation sliced through his heart because of it. Something stopped him from leaving, though. Her mouth was too lax, and her dazed, hooded look a huge concern. It only took Gio a second to realize the guy at her back wasn’t just holding her, he was holding her up.
If she was high, that was one thing. This was way more than high.
Not even thinking about it, Gio forced his way through the rest of the people. The first thing he did was slam an opened hand into the side of the guy’s head with his mouth on Kim’s skin. The man staggered and fell to the floor with a shout. Anger pulsed through Gio’s blood like a drug at the thought of another man touching Kim.
Kim was his.
No one should have her like he did, and certainly not when she was too goddamn high to even understand what she was doing. When a female was too strung out to comprehend her choices, yes was still a huge fucking no in Gio’s world.
“Stay down there, or I’ll fucking kill you, asshole,” Gio snarled at the guy trying to get up from the floor.
“Hey, hey—”
Gio spun on his heel and shoved the man talking behind him. Since his hands had been the one going up Kim’s dress, Gio didn’t want to hear him, either. He went sprawling into the dancing bodies behind him, tossing several people to the floor with yells of anger and shock. In the background of the patrons, security had finally taken notice of the fight beginning to take place in the middle of the venue. They were moving towards him at a rapid pace—several of them.
That didn’t stop Gio.
He went after the guy who had been holding Kim up from behind next. Problem was, the fucking tool was still holding her. It was the only thing keeping Gio from smashing his fist into the guy’s skull and breaking every bone in his hand in the process.
“Let her go,” Gio ordered.
“Take her,” the guy mumbled. “She’s so fucked up.”
The huge eyes the guy sported mixed in with the paranoid stare and dilated pupils told Gio he was likely higher than a kite. And probably on some kind of upper. Gio didn’t pay him any mind, simply snatched Kim into his embrace and felt her knees buckle the moment he tried to let her stand on her own. The fear racing through his body intensified. A slurred whine escaped her lips. She was soaked in sweat.
Those eyes of hers were barely opened but even when she did try to widen them, her pupils were so enlarged he could barely see the blue of her irises. Her breathing was tight—fast pants but no real intake. As if she were struggling to get the air in and make it stay.
Gio laid his opened palm to her neck, feeling a tremor rocking his hand as he felt for her pulse. It wasn’t like he had to search to find it. The damned organ was beating like crazy. Far too fast for it to be healthy.
“God, what did you do? Hey, hey, hey,” Gio chanted, picking her up to cradle her. “Open your eyes, Tesoro. Open them up and look at me. You have to keep awake. You gotta, baby.”
The words repeated over and over, but fell on deaf ears. Kim only blinked, dazed. She didn’t even flinch when he rolled his knuckles along her sternum, an action that should have been especially painful and irritating.
The panic welled stronger. He knew what this was. How could he not when he’d spent most of his life drugging and drinking on a regular basis? Kim was either overdosing or pretty damn close to it. It wasn’t so much a matter of if she was, but when. Because obviously she took something, or several, which her tolerance level couldn’t handle. What he needed to know was the drug, or the combination of substances, that caused this. Sometimes understanding was the key to keeping someone alert enough to hold the overdose at bay.
And sometimes it wasn’t.
“What did she take?” Gio asked, glancing up at the one man who had been with Kim that hadn’t disappeared. The one who had been holding her up. People were surrounding them, staring and unmoving. “I asked you a fucking question! What did she take?”
The guy shrugged. “Don’t know, but everybody’s flipping kinda hard in here tonight, you know. Really hard. She gonna be okay?”
Gio cursed under his breath, keeping his knuckles rolling firmly along Kim’s sternum. She was finally reacting to the action, trying to move out of his hold, but weakly. Gio wouldn’t let her go, and if the painful sensation caused her to stay somewhat alert, he’d continue it until she was cussing him out and talking remotely coherently.
Flipping was a term Gio knew all too well. It mostly referred to a user mixing MDMA—Molly—with another kind of drug. There were a few different combinations, and each one had a different effect. Depending on the kind of trip someone wanted, that was the type of concoction they were to use to achieve it.
There were downfalls for people who flipped with Molly and didn’t have a decent enough tolerance built to mix substances. Chances were, whatever was being handed out was what most of the people who were high were using. If it was being given freely, or openly offered for cheap, it
was less of a hassle than trying to seek out someone who had exactly what you wanted.
“Flipping with what?” Gio asked.
“Candyflipping,” the guy said.
Of course, Gio thought, shaking his head back down at Kim.
Candyflipping was mixing LSD and Molly. Anyone with any experience in candyflipping knew to take the acid first and about an hour later, pop a Molly or two. The highs would alternate between the psychedelic effects LSD offered with euphoric intermissions the Molly gave off. The intense visuals from the acid were aided by the emotional tendencies of the MDMA. It wasn’t a surprise Pulse would be a hotspot for people who wanted to candyflip. Between the music, the lighting effects and the bodies constantly moving and touching, it was a candyflipping dream.
However, it was a combination that needed someone who knew how to take it or else the comedown could be bad. It was known to lead to a paranoia-induced ending instead of the exhilarating high it should have been.
Gio needed to get her out of there and into somewhere safer and comforting. Anywhere else but the extreme hyperactivity of Pulse. A person couldn’t calm in a place where it was specifically designed to make the experience of a high the best it could possibly be. Kim felt feather light cradled in his arms. The hotel he’d been staying at was a twenty-minute drive from Pulse, and that was the only destination in his mind.
One of the security guys had a different idea. “Closest ER is four blocks away.”
Gio brushed the suggestion off. Hospitals were out of the question. The last thing Kim or Gio needed was for someone to find out any of this had happened at all. They certainly didn’t need to know Gio had been the one to find Kim. Too many questions would be asked.
“Can’t take her there,” Gio replied, walking away from the people.
“She probably needs—”
“I’m aware of what she needs. And that’s not a hospital.”
Chapter Fourteen
Kim slipped in and out of awareness. There were points in her lucidity when she understood something with her was wrong, other times when it seemed like everything else around her was wrong, and the rest she didn’t know anything at all.
