Bones (Bonetti Brothers #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

ATHENA

I’m freaking out on the inside, while trying to appear calm and collected. He is asking too many questions, and I’m terrified he’s going to begin to piece things together. Luca has become the man of any woman’s dreams. I never would’ve imagined the man that held me captive, and planned to kill me, would be capable of this. He is good to me. Any other woman would be thrilled to get a brand new laptop. I’m afraid that stupid electronic is going to be the beginning of everything unraveling. I have no doubt Luca is going to question why I’m not using it. I can’t tell him the truth, because he’ll ask why. I can almost hear him now.

“Why can’t you read, Butterfly?”

When he mentioned getting me books, I panicked. I told him I don’t like to read, because telling him the truth was mortifying. Everybody can read. Everybody but me. It’s interesting that I was willing to do anything to get away from him, but now the thought of losing Luca is debilitating.

“I have some work to do. I’ll only be a few hours,” he says as we pull up to the house.

I smile. “That’s fine. I’m sure you have bones to break. Your fingers must be getting twitchy.”

He chuckles loudly. “My fingers have found other things more useful. I’ll be in my office, not breaking bones.”

We walk into the house, and he turns to me and strokes his fingers down my face. “I’ll be down soon, Butterfly. Make yourself at home. My home is yours.”

He kisses me quickly before he walks away and goes upstairs.

I kick off my shoes and settle onto the couch, and stare at the mural on the ceiling. My mother used to tell me stories about Greek mythology. It’s how I got my name. She was fascinated with it, but now as I stare at the pictures, it causes bile to rise in my throat. How could she leave her child in that hell?

Footsteps approach and Jimmy appears. “You have a guest, Mrs. Bonetti,” he says with a sick smile on his face.

A guest? I literally don’t know anyone, so that doesn’t make any sense to me. Penelope, maybe? Perhaps she wants to make sure I’m okay.

I nod as another set of footsteps echo in the distance, until they stop, and all the air in my lungs escapes. I tremble and cannot breathe. This isn’t happening. It’s a nightmare.

“Princess. I’ve missed you.”

My head screams ‘no, no, no,’ but nothing comes out of my mouth. I’m unable to speak.

“Time to go home,” he says.

I shake my head, and finally find the ability to speak. “I live here now.”

He chuckles with a sinister grin. “This entire building is lined with explosives outside. If you come with me, Bonetti is safe, but if you refuse, you’ll die together.”

I glance at Jimmy, hoping he’s going to save us, but he laughs. “Don’t look to me to save you, bitch.”

My father looks at me. “What’s it going to be, Princess?”

I hang my head down. “I’ll go. Don’t hurt Luca. I’ll do anything.”

He nods. “Let’s go.”

I rise off the couch and go to put my shoes on, but he says, “Don’t bother. You won’t need those.”

As I move closer, he grips the back of my neck hard, and we walk out of the only safe place I’ve ever known.

I love you, Luca.

I don’t say it out loud, because it will only anger my father. My dad is a monster regardless of his mood, but when he’s angry, it’s absolutely terrifying. We walk down the steps to a large white van and he opens the door. “Get in.”

Glancing back at the house, I get into the van as my entire world crumbles. He will make sure I never get away again. Luca thinks all my trauma is because of what Manny did to me, but he was child’s play compared to what my father does to me.

I watch as he hands Jimmy a stack of money, before he gets into the driver’s seat and begins driving away. It’s devastating to me that I know Luca will think I ran away from him after the perfect day.

My father gazes at me from the mirror. “You’re going to die in my house, Princess. You aren’t going to the basement this time. You’ll be in the hot attic. If he comes looking for you, he’ll look in the basement, but he’ll never think to look up there. No one will ever see you again. You did this to yourself.”

He thinks death is a punishment, but it’s not. I welcome it. Pray for it. My only wish is for it to come quickly. I know him well, so there’s no suspense as to what he has planned. I already know. This is my version of hell. And there’s no way out. No one to save me. My little slice of happiness is over now.

I stare out the window on the two hour drive to my final resting place. The trees whir by as we drive further into the country. Before long there’s nothing but grass and trees, as far as the eye can see. There are no other cars anymore. It’s just us alone in a rural area nobody even knows about. We pull up to my house of horrors, and a tear trickles down my cheek. I know what comes next, and it causes bile to rise in my throat.

He puts the vehicle in park and gets out, and opens my door. “We’re home. Are you excited?”

As always, he grips the back of my neck hard, until I cry out from the pain, and orders, “Walk.”

I walk up the wood steps to the farmhouse, and he opens the door and I go through it, with him right behind me.

“You remember where the attic is, Princess? ”

Without a word, I walk straight through the dimly lit hallway to the attic, which is above the hallway of bedrooms. He pulls on the dingy cord and the stairs appear. I walk up the creaky steps, and glance around the room I haven’t seen since my mother was here. It’s different now though. It used to have chests full of memories, but he’s changed things. Now there sits a metal cage, probably big enough for a large dog, but not much more.

He comes up behind me. “Take your dress off.”

“I came with you without a fight. Please don’t do this.”

My father grins at me. “You need to be punished.”

I stare at his gray hair and bushy eyebrows, and his blue eyes that match mine bore into me. “Do as you’re told, or it’s going to be worse.”

The tears fall as I remove my dress, and he groans in pleasure. It’s not like when Luca does it, this time it’s not a turn on, it’s disgusting. Revolting. There’s a lot I don’t know about society, but even I know this is not okay. However, my father does not, or simply doesn’t care.

“On your knees for daddy.”

As much as it is the last thing I want to do, I kneel. I don’t want to, but what I want doesn’t matter.

He grips my chin in his hand, lifting my head, as he forces me to look at him. “I failed you, Princess. I should have punished you more, taught you what was acceptable, and what was not. I’ll correct that now.”

Walking over to the corner, he picks something up and walks back over to me. It’s a large black leather made item. I think it’s a whip. Soon enough he confirms it. “I’m going to whip you, and then you’ll learn to do as you’re told.”

The first hit across my chest steals all the air from my lungs. He moves to my back and does the same there. The pain is unreal. I close my eyes and picture Luca’s face looking at me. This is how I’ll get through this, by leaving my body. The blinding pain punctures my perfect picture of my husband, and I scream his name, “Luca!”

My father laughs. “He can’t save you. Do you think you’re the only slut he was fucking? He’ll be deep inside someone else before today even ends.”

He drops the whip at his feet and unbuckles his pants as I sob, and he drops his pants to the floor, revealing the dick that literally makes my stomach turn.

“Open your mouth, Princess. Show daddy how sorry you are.”

I do, and he does what he always does. He fucks my mouth. My own father violates me in the worst possible way. But I’m not the same girl I was, so when he finishes, I hold it in my mouth. He kneels and grabs my face. “Fucking swallow,” he screams angrily. His face is less than an inch from mine as I spit his cum in his face.

“You fucking bitch,” he says, right before he punches me in the face repeatedly. I fall over, and he grabs my hair and pulls me to the cage. “Get in.”

My face hurts, as does my head. The pain is excruciating, and I know this will happen again and again. Whatever fight I had is gone. I crawl into the cage and he locks me in. Now I’m waiting, hoping that I’ll die. I have no doubt my father will follow through on his threats to kill me, but it won’t be anytime soon. He’ll use me, and abuse me as much as he can, before I breathe my last breath.