BEND ME: A Dark Romance

by Leah Wilde

  “Oh, nothing, dear. You know me. I can take care of myself,” Mama Romano replied. Yeah, you sure fucking do take care of yourself, don’t you? Vince thought to himself bitterly.

  “Well, let’s meet up,” Vince said. “Maybe in a couple hours, if you’re available. I don’t have anything on the docket today, and I’d love to see you and catch up. We haven’t really had a chance to talk since I came back.”

  There was a slight pause in which all Vince could hear was the low, shallow sound of his mother’s breathing. Did she know what he was doing? Did she suspect him? Finally, she made a little “Mm” sound, and Vince could hear the unmistakable sound of her long fingernails tapping on a hard surface. His heart froze in his chest, and he looked around in every direction around the bus stop to make sure that nobody was watching him, waiting for an order from his mother to carry out a hit. But he couldn’t see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. You got this, he said to himself. It’s just your mother. You can manipulate your mother. You have the control. You can do this.

  “I really need to see you,” he said to his mom, still trying to keep his tone light so that he didn’t seem too desperate. “I just miss being around my family, you know? I need to check in with you to recharge.”

  “I understand that, darling,” his mother said. “All right. I’m free for the early afternoon if you want to get together for lunch and chat. You can come to the compound and we’ll—”

  “Come to the penthouse,” Vince interjected, wanting to arrange the meeting on his territory. It would be safer that way. He felt pretty confident that his servants, at the very least, were still loyal to him. His mother couldn’t pull off a hit on his own property. “You need to get away from the compound from a bit. I’m sure you have Guido and everybody else in your hair 24/7. I’ll have Yuri make you a nice lunch, and you can just relax and let my servants take care of you. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  Again, his mother was silent for an excruciatingly tense moment. Vince’s heart pounded against his ribcage, his body fighting off the urge to tremble as he awaited his mother’s response. Finally, she made another sound deep in her throat and said, “All right. That sounds lovely. Thank you, Vincent. I appreciate you reaching out to me after what happened yesterday. I know that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

  “No, it’s fine,” Vince rushed to say. “Really, I’d rather let Guido take care of all the hard bullshit and have an easier time of it myself. You know what I mean?”

  “Well, after being at the helm of things for three decades, I can certainly understand the appeal of a less hectic lifestyle, yes,” Mama Romano said. “I’ll be over at your penthouse in an hour, dear. Is that all right?”

  “Yes, yes, that sounds great. I’ll see you then,” Vince said, hanging up before his mother could make any demands on the type of food served for lunch. He knew she always had to control everything but not today. Today he was going to take back the power. Today he was going to win.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Fiona flipped over the piece of French toast in her frying pan, focusing on creating a relatively healthy brunch for her father, who had been nice enough to wear headphones all night long while she fucked Vince. In reality, though, her whole body was shaking a little bit, vibrating with energy that seemed to hum inside her blood cells, screaming at her to jump into action. But what could she do? Vince was taking care of everything, and there was no way Fiona could get involved and help him out without messing everything up. As far as Mama Romano was concerned, Fiona was permanently out of the picture. They needed the Romano matriarch to trust Vince if they were going to gather enough evidence to take control back from her and Guido.

  But still, it was driving Fiona crazy, sitting here doing nothing. There was no way she could clear her mind of worry, not when Vince was in the belly of the beast, surrounded by people who’d be perfectly willing to have him killed if he posed the slightest problem.

  Her phone dinged a moment later, tearing her out of her anxious thoughts. She flipped the last piece of French toast out of the frying pan and switched off the stove before reaching into her pocket to look at her phone. It was a text from Vince, telling her that his mother had just arrived at the penthouse and that “all systems were go,” signaling to Fiona that he was taping the conversation with Mrs. Romano. Good, Fiona thought, forcing herself to breathe a sigh of relief. Everything was going according to plan so far. Everything’s going to be okay, she told herself as she slapped some maple syrup and fruit on the plate piled with French toast and walked over to her dad’s bedroom to surprise him.

  She’d just dropped the food off with her dad, who was still listening to music with his eyes closed in his bedroom, when she heard a light knock at the front door of the apartment. That’s weird, Fiona thought as she walked to the main entrance hallway, just off to the side of the kitchen. They almost never got targeted by salesmen, and Vince was all the way across town.

  Fiona opened the door to reveal…Guido, standing there in a sharp suit with a bright, beaming smile on his face. “Hey, there, dollbaby,” Guido said, pushing Fiona aside slightly as he forced his way into the apartment. Fiona was so caught off-guard that she just stood there, watching with her jaw dropped open as Guido inspected the living room and kitchen area of her apartment.

  “What are you doing here?” Fiona asked, struggling to keep her voice steady even as her heart began to pound in her throat.

  “Just wanted to check in on my favorite girl,” Guido said, turning back around to face her, that vomit-inducing smile still plastered across his face. “How have you been holding up since you quit?”

  “Fantastic,” Fiona said in a deadpan tone of voice, walking back over to the front door and opening it wider to wordlessly tell Guido to get the hell out of her apartment.

  “Well, aren’t you going to offer me something to drink?” Guido said, raising his eyebrows and wrinkling up his forehead in mock-surprise, as if he was utterly shocked that she wasn’t happy to see him.

  “I don’t have anything to say to you,” Fiona said, gesturing for him to walk back out the door. Guido’s smile dropped then, and he stared at her with something cold and hard and mean in his eyes, but Fiona didn’t look away. She couldn’t show any sign of weakness, not now.

  “That’s not very hospitable,” Guido said, stepping a little closer to Fiona. She inhaled deeply, steeling herself as well as she could as Guido approached her, stopping only a few inches away from her. “You know, without me you probably couldn’t even afford this shitty place.”

  “I think you mean without Paulie,” Fiona said pointedly. “But he’s gone now, and I don’t work for you anymore. So get out.”

  “Hmm,” Guido said, clicking his tongue from behind his teeth in impatience. “You’re being very rude to me. I’ll have to think of a way to reprimand you.”

  “Get. The. Hell. Out,” Fiona said again, narrowing her eyes in an attempt to show Guido that she wasn’t afraid of him.

  “Or what?” Guido said, grinning again, his eyes alight with dangerous glee, like he was literally getting off on torturing her this way. “What are you going to do, Fiona?”

  “I’ll call the cops,” Fiona said reflexively, saying the first strategy that popped into her mind.

  But that clearly didn’t impress Guido or freak him out the way she’d hoped, as he just laughed and clapped his hands together loudly, like she’d just told the most hilarious joke he’d ever heard. “That’s good. That’s really good. You know, Fiona, I figured that my dad was a complicated man. I thought he was interested in you for more than just your good looks. But I guess I was wrong. You’re not very smart, are you?”

  Fiona didn’t say anything, staring at him with as much venom as she could muster.

  “Why don’t you come back to the compound? If you’re worried about my mother, don’t be. I can deal with her,” Guido said, stepping even closer to Fiona, until she could feel his hot, sickly breath attack her skin.


  Fiona cringed backwards, colliding with the wall behind her in an attempt to put distance between their bodies. “You’re pathetic,” she spat out as Guido laughed at her again.

  “Oh, yeah? Tell me why that is.”

  “You think I’m going to go with you just because you’re the big boss now? You think you’re untouchable, don’t you?” she said to him, feeling hysteria start to grip at her heart, making her say things she shouldn’t. Be smart, she told herself, fighting back the wave of bile that rose up through her throat. Be smart about this. Don’t let him win just because he scares you. You have to give Vince a chance to get the information from Mrs. Romano.

  “I am untouchable, though,” Guido said, slowly walking over until he was standing over Fiona, who was boxed in with nowhere to go. She couldn’t run from him, and she couldn’t scream for help, either. In this neighborhood, nobody was likely to come to her rescue. It was just her dad, who was probably half-asleep with music blaring out of his headphones. Besides, Fiona wouldn’t want to get him involved anyway. With his weak heart, there was only so much that he could do. “There’s nothing you can do to hurt me.”

  The desire to tell him what was really happening was so intense that Fiona had to bite the inside of her lip to keep herself from spilling every last detail about her plan with Vince. No, she told herself. You have to be strong. For both of you. For Paulie.

  She thought about reaching into her pocket to tell Vince that Guido was harassing her and making her feel unsafe. She knew that he would drop everything and run to her side to protect her, but even if she did manage to grab her phone and make a call or text before Guido could stop her, that would just endanger the plan with Mama Romano. This was their one shot, the one opportunity they had to get Mrs. Romano to let her guard down and confess some of her crimes on tape so that they could use the evidence against her. Fiona couldn’t risk that, even if Guido was now squatting down next to her, reaching out to rub her leg and making her want to throw up just from the disgusting way he smirked at her.

  “You’re going to come with me,” Guido said, reaching forward to cup the side of her face and move some of her hair out of the way. Fiona felt like retching right there in his lap, but she held herself back, glaring at him with all of the anger in her body, just so he would know how much she hated him. “I don’t want to fuck you here in this heap of shit. Come back to the compound with me, and we’ll see about your new place in the Romano family business.”

  “Fuck you,” Fiona spat out, shrinking back further against the wall and pushing Guido’s hands away.

  His smirk dropped, then, replaced by a scowl as he reached into his pocket to pull out a gun. Fiona held herself back from gasping in fear as Guido pressed the end of the gun against her head, the cold metal making all of her body freeze like she’d already been shot.

  “Oh, you’re going to fuck me, all right,” Guido said, shoving the gun harder against her head until she skidded across the floor away from him. “Oh, yeah, run. Make it fun for me. I like a little entertainment before I fuck the life out of you.”

  “You’re a sick piece of shit,” Fiona stuttered out, crawling across the floor towards the front door, hoping against hope that someone would see her in distress and come help her. “I’ll scream, you know. My dad’s in the house. He’ll hear me and come fuck you up.”

  “No, he won’t,” Guido said confidently, grabbing the back of Fiona’s shirt and dragging her back into the house before slapping her on the side of her face. “I’ll shoot him if he even so much as walks out here. Trust me. I have a lot of experience killing, babydoll, and your dad won’t faze me even a little bit.”

  Fiona swallowed to clear the huge lump in her throat, nodding to herself as she considered her options. Screaming wasn’t a viable choice, nor was trying to make a break for it by dashing to the street. Now that she told Guido that her father was in the house, he could just go and shoot her dad the second she tried to resist. Fuck, Fiona thought as she realized the severity of her situation. She was stuck.

  “Now get up,” Guido said. “We’re going to the compound.”

  Fiona forced herself to move, straightening up and following Guido out of the apartment into his car, every cell of her body screaming in protest the entire time. Guido nudged at her until she climbed up into the passenger seat before walking around the side of the car to jump into the driver’s side. “Now tell me, what’s your favorite kind of wine? I need to know how to make you loosen up,” Guido said as he put the car into drive and pulled away from Fiona’s apartment complex.

  “Fuck you,” Fiona muttered, turning to stare out the window, fighting off tears as she took in the sight of the blue skies around her. What was going to happen to her? Was Guido going to keep her as a sex slave, permanently tied up at the compound? Or was he going to kill her after using her once, discarding her so that his mother wouldn’t get mad? Either way, this was the end of her life. She’d rather die than let Guido touch her.

  But what about Dad? Fiona wondered, panic surging up inside of her as she thought of her father. Guido was definitely the type of vindictive piece of shit to take it out on Fiona’s father if she posed even the slightest bit of a problem to him. Even if Fiona managed to get herself killed before Guido could rape her, that didn’t mean that her dad wouldn’t still be in danger. Goddammit. Goddammit, goddammit, fuck it all to hell!

  “Be nice to me,” Guido said, reaching over to smack Fiona around the side of her head, almost making her collide into the window beside her. “Or I’ll have to find ways to punish you. You know we’ve got guys posted at your dad’s house. I can make this incredibly painful for you if you don’t listen to me.”

  It took every ounce of strength in Fiona’s body not to spit in Guido’s perfectly smug little face. She held herself back, clenching her hands into fists underneath the seat just to hold on. Guido was serious about this. He wasn’t going to let this go after fucking her once. He was going to control her until she died, and once that happened, he’d probably give the kill order to the men sent over to her apartment, ready to murder her dad at any second.

  That settles it, then, Fiona realized, a wave of calm washing over her as she settled on a solution. She’d have to find a way out of this without getting killed and wrest Guido’s power away. But how?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Vince was jittery, his fingers trembling a little as he poured the wine for himself and his mother. “That enough?” he asked, looking up at his mother, who gestured for him to keep going.

  “It’s been a hard week,” she explained with a tight, unattractive smile. She looked tanner than the day before, her skin more wrinkly. Vince wondered if she’d made a stop at the tanning salon after his dad’s funeral. It wouldn’t exactly surprise him, given his mother’s usual priorities.

  “Tell me about it,” Vince said, sliding into a seat across from his mom. “Really, I’d like to know. Has it been hard readjusting with Guido in charge?”

  Mama Romano took a large gulp from her wine before answering. “It hasn’t been the easier transition in the world, no,” she admitted, licking her lips before taking another sip of wine. “Guido’s a temperamental fellow, you know; he always has been. But I know how to rein him in.”

  Vince wasn’t so sure of that, thinking back on the deals with the underage girls that he’d discovered with Fiona, but for his mother’s sake, he nodded and smiled. “Of course. You know, I’ve just been worried about you, that’s all.”

  “Why’s that?” his mother asked, furrowing her brows together in confusion.

  Vince felt a little pang of guilt at that. He knew he wasn’t the best son in the world, but it hurt to realize that his mother didn’t expect him to care about her. Then again, she didn’t really deserve it, now did she?

  “I just know that you’ve been through a lot this year,” Vince said after sipping a little of his wine. He wanted to keep his head, though, so he wouldn’t drink much more. The wine was for his mot
her’s benefit, making sure she got loose enough to start talking about her more secretive business deals.

  “Every year, really,” his mother replied, drinking more wine until her glass was practically empty. She reached across the table to pour herself some more from the bottle. “But you’re right. This year has been particularly busy.”

  “And really hard, emotionally, too, I imagine,” Vince added.

  “Why’s that?” Mama Romano asked.

  “Well, losing Dad, of course, but then the other older guys who have passed away this year. Bobby. Old Tommy. You know, a couple others that I’ve heard through the grapevine died recently,” Vince explained, keeping his tone light and casual so that his mother wouldn’t get suspicious.

  His mother was silent for a moment, though, staring at him like she was sizing him up. Vince met her gaze as confidently as he could, keeping a soft smile on his face to compensate for the fact that his heart was thundering in his chest like a stallion, adrenaline flooding his body as his mother looked at him with some mixture of hope and suspicion in her eyes.