Bound (The Devil’s Vow #2)

22. The Price of Innocence

Chapter twenty-two

The Price of Innocence

I remembered the way my Nightmare Guard used to stand in the doorway, so still, so calm. His body had been slimmer, less defined, but still imposing in a way I hadn’t understood as a child.

My heart twisted painfully in my chest.

And I couldn’t decide whether this new information was comforting or more terrifying.

I stared at him now, at the man he had become. His bare chest, littered with tattoos and scars.

He was a world away from the boy I had once known.

The innocence was gone.

His body was thicker now, stronger, his muscles rippling beneath his skin.

And those green eyes, once so full of life, were now cold, hardened by years of violence and death.

The realization made me sick.

The guard who had protected me from my nightmares as a child had grown into the very monster that now haunted me.

He was the nightmare.

How did that happen?

Gianni watched me carefully and blew out smoke.

I swallowed. “You were my. . .”

He leaned his head to the side.

“You were my Nightmare Guard.”

His lips twitched, almost like he was going to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “That was what you called me in your head?”

“Yes.”

“My father spent his days preparing my older brother Stefan to take his throne. . .but he knew I had a liking to his world too. So, when I turned eighteen.” Gianni put his view onto the theater’s blank screen as if a film were playing right before us. “My father took me to Maximo and figured that any job that I could get from the Don would really help me. At least I would be close to the Don in some way.”

“So he made you my guard for the night watch?”

“I shared the duty with three other guys who always fucked around in the hall. One almost never showed at times. He never took watching over you seriously. It pissed me off.” Gianni frowned. “In fact. . .the job was considered low to many. My father thought Maximo was slighting him and me, and well. . .the guards also saw the position as a slight too.”

Anger swelled in my chest. “Because who would want to watch over Maximo’s black step-daughter—the least important person in the house.”

“That’s how they saw it. Not me.” Ash fell from Gianni’s joint. His attention remained on that screen. “But uh. . .I thought watching you was very important. In fact. . .I think it was because I saw Genny in your eyes. You were only ten at the time and. . .”

The same age when your sister died.

My heart twisted some more.

“And you were a ballerina like Genny too. A few times when your day guards would call out because they had to do a funeral or something for Maximo, he asked me to come and my mother even. . .”

“What?”

“She would get so excited that I was taking you to ballet class. She always wanted me to get some pictures of you dancing.”

I parted my lips in shock.

“She felt bad for you. . .being a little girl in that house. Maximo never let her or the other women come by to help with you. My father said he was protecting you from having too many people in your ear.”

I couldn’t have even imagined having a strange woman take on the role of my mother then, but it might have helped with the loneliness.

“Anyway, I took pictures for her and that was kind of the start of everything. . .Maybe we both saw you as Genny or at least her friend.” Gianni scratched his head with his free hand. “Why is it that when a person dies they just remain that same age as if. . .not even in your mind. . .they can grow?”

My throat tightened.

He turned my way. “Even now Genny is ten and wearing a blue swimsuit with a rainbow on it, and sometimes when I dreamt back then. . .you two would play together.”

I blinked, tears pricking the corners of my eyes.

Gianni's voice softened, and for a moment I could see the young boy in him again. The Nightmare Guard who’d used to stand in my doorway, protecting me from unseen horrors and secrets of the dark, feeling like maybe he was rewriting history and saving his dead twin sister.

He frowned at me. “And before you ask. . .I never saw you in any sexual way. Never. You were just young and fragile and. . .taken for fucking granted and. . .alone. . .and. . .tugging at the place in my heart that was only reserved for my sister.”

I hugged myself.

“And I felt sorry for you. Sometimes. . .my heart would ache when you would wake up screaming and. . .”

“W-what?”

“I even told my mother that we should adopt you, since Maximo really didn’t care about you. Fabio had laughed. Stefan raised his eyebrows. Corrado had my back of course, but he was just a kid. We’d been at the dinner table. My father shook his head, thinking I was being ridiculous. He’d said there was no chance because. . .Maximo had plans to marry you off one day.”

“So even then. . .back in the day. . .Maximo knew he would marry me off?”

“He had candidates when you were eight, and they were already grown men.”

Bile rose in my throat.

Gianni gestured to the door. “The six heads in that closet on the top shelf. . .those were the different men that he had planned to sell your virginity to.”

I blinked.

“Old, nasty men. All for power deals. A senator to get a RICO law halted in the state. Two were old dons from Italy. He’d planned to fly you off there to get more international territory. There was a French ambassador too. A sick one that only liked to fuck women when they were unconscious.” Gianni took a long pull on his joint.

More smoke curled into the air before he exhaled slowly. “Dreadful human beings. All of them.”

A shiver coursed through my body.

The bitterness in his voice made my chest ache. “But I’m going too far ahead. . .”

Not knowing what else to do, I kept going back until I leaned against a wall.

Gianni smiled at me. “Your Nightmare Guard.”

“You took my teddy bear?”

“Vito took it.”

“And my mother’s picture book.”

“Vito took that too.” Gianni’s expression twisted to anger. “For four years, I came to watch you at night—ten to fourteen. Odd shit would happen at night too. It was always so busy. During initiations for Made Men or little fucking impromptu shindigs that Maximo would have. . .drunk Capos would come up and try and get in your room.”

I widened my eyes. “What?”

“Sick bastards. A few were Made Men. They always tried to puff their chests up and try to bully their way into your room. Many had the nerve to tell me to keep it a secret from Maximo. I was small compared to them, nobody important even, but. . .I never backed down, and I never kept it a secret either.” Gianni puffed on his joint. “That was why sometimes you would hear men dying in the middle of the night. It would be them meeting Maximo’s wrath. He would always yell out and say your mother’s name right before he took their life.”

What the fuck? All of this was going on?

Gianni continued, “I still don’t know if your stepfather truly loved your mother or just. . .loved the idea of loving her. . .because you look just like her so. . .why didn’t he truly love you too?”

“I. . .don’t know.” So taken back by all these memories and emotions, I lowered, sinking to the floor, my back sliding down the cold wall.

Once I got to the floor, I hugged my knees close to my chest as Gianni’s painful revelations washed over me.

It felt like I was learning my life's story for the first time.

“Little girls shouldn’t have all the nightmares you did. It was insane. You had more nightmares than me.” Gianni shook his head. “Sometimes I wanted to hug you, but. . .who the fuck was I to do that?”

I bit my bottom lip.

Gianni walked over to a glass of water and was about to drop the joint in there.

“No.” I held out my hand. “I need it.”

He blinked at me in surprise and hesitated but eventually he walked over to hand me the joint.

Once I grabbed it, I took a long drag, coughing a bit as I pulled the smoke into my lungs.

He gazed down at me. “Do you want something to eat?”

“No, but I do want wine.”

With that, he went over to the table, uncorked a wine bottle, and poured some into the glass.

Oh my fucking God.

I took another hit of the joint.

Gianni returned with the glass of wine and held it out for me.

Right as I grabbed it, he slipped his fingers along mine and shivers ran through me. And they weren’t ones of fear.

Moving my hand away, I swallowed and set the glass down next to me.

Gianni watched me silently.

There was a sadness there, an undercurrent of hurt and anger that was as dark and heavy as the secrets he'd revealed.

I handed him back the joint. “Tell me more.”

He took it. “There’s so much to say. What else do you want to know right now?”

“When did you start becoming attracted to me?”

“We shouldn’t start there yet.”

“Why not?”

“You need the full story.”

“Then, tell me.”

Sighing, he took the joint back to that glass of water on the table and dropped it there. “I had girlfriends that whole time I was your guard. All types. All sizes. I was young with money in my pocket and guns holstered at my sides. Stefan had a new car. On my nights off we would run the fucking streets.”

“Life was decent, and then things suddenly changed for me. . .” His gaze flickered back to the movie screen. “It was two days after your fourteenth birthday. I got to the house and. . .Maximo told me that I had a new position. He congratulated me and said that I’d proved my loyalty and would now be his son’s night guard.”

“Watching Vito must have been a big deal.”

“Very big. The one that would one day take the throne. The future Don of Obsidian Bay.”

“That would have been a huge position for someone. . .twenty-two.”

“It was my big break, but. . .I wasn’t happy.”

“Why not?”

“I worried that since you had started puberty even more sick fucks would be trying to sneak up to your bedroom at night.”

I shivered.

“So. . .I told him that I didn’t want the new position. Fabio was next to me and he had fucking let out this long exasperated breath like I was ruining my life, but I just felt so strongly about it. I knew my father and even Stefan would be pissed, but Mom. . .she would happy.”

I pursed my lips.

“And that was when Maximo told me that you were gone. That morning, you’d left for boarding school.” Gianni frowned. “All that time I had no idea you were going to be leaving. Maximo could have told me months or weeks before, it would have been nice to give you a present or something since it would be the last time I saw you. I would have liked to say goodbye. . .to walk you to the car or even take you to the airport and wish you luck.”

My bottom lip quivered.

“That moment. . .was the first small hint of my wanting to kill the Don. Never had I even let my mind go there.” Gianni’s green eyes met mine, filled with pain and regret. “I fell into the position of watching Vito who was almost always by Maximo’s side. That meant that my first kill was helping Maximo’s guards with some enemies trying to assassinate him during a lunch.”

I widened my eyes.

“My first kill was the shooter. It was dumb luck, but everybody thought I was a cold killer for getting him. My father was more than proud. And. . .I thought about you, hoping that you were happy at ballet school.” Gianni ran his fingers through his hair. “Then, it must have been months later when Vito fell asleep in Maximo’s office after Maximo was torturing some guy. That damn kid treated screams of death like a gentle lullaby. He was a sick little bastard even then.”

Horror surged through me.

“I carried that psycho kid up to his room and that’s when I spotted his fucking collection, right on the dresser.”

“His collection?”

“Your teddy bear, mother’s picture book, your hair, panties, nail clippings, . . .other things. . .ballet shoes, leotard.” Gianni shrugged. “I told Maximo. He shrugged it off and told me to have the maid clean it up.”

“So. . .” I trembled. “Vito was the one that was collecting everything.”

“He started it.”

“And. . .you continued it?”

Gianni turned away from me. “That night, I just took all the stuff. What the fuck was that little kid going to do? I think Vito was so embarrassed about it that he never even went to anyone and complained that the stuff was gone. And. . .Fabio thought I should throw all of that away, but. . .I put it on my desk in my room and just. . .kept it.”

I thought back to the collection in his office.

That at least explained some of the stuff from my earlier ages, but that damned sure didn’t break down everything.

It was only about thirty percent of the whole twisted assortment.

As if Gianni heard me, he continued, “One night I stood guard in Maximo’s office as he talked to his men. Vito was present to observe and learn. But. . .I happened to spot a pile of unopened envelopes with your name listed as the sender. When Maximo and Vito left, I grabbed them fast and took them home with me.”

I stared at him in shock.

“So. . .I told myself that I just wanted to know how you were doing and that I would put the envelopes back but. . .I never did.”

“Why not?”

“It had been four months’ worth of letters, Maximo was never going to give them any attention.” Gianni shrugged. “I kept them. Put the letters with the stuff I took from Vito and. . .my museum started.”

“Museum?”

“That’s what I call that section of my office.”

“Your. . .museum of me?”

“Yes. Your book. . .your mother’s book well. . .when I would have nightmares, I would turn the lights on, open it up, and read it to myself.”

I swallowed.

“And sometimes. . .although I’m ashamed to say it, but. . .I would sleep with your teddy bear and somehow I was able to get back to sleep with your scent and that softness.” He sighed. “I had girlfriends during this time. They couldn’t drive away the nightmares like that book and that teddy bear that smelled like you.”

My head spun.

It could have been the marijuana or this information all taking my senses over and heightening them.

“I didn’t think I was starting to have a problem until I just. . .one night. . .flew out to your final recital during your freshman year.”

My mouth dropped open.

“I told myself that since you had written in one of the letters that you would not be coming home for the summer, it made sense for me to see you dance.”

“Y-you were there. At my recital.”

“I was there. . .along with. . .”

“What?”

“Along with my mother.”

I blinked again.

“We both kept it a secret. She was so proud of you. I even made friends with two of your guards that Maximo had sent out there. I lied to them and said that. . .Maximo wanted pictures of your practices from now on and to deliver them to a special number—my number.”

I tensed. “Why?”

“I believed I was protecting you. . .” Gianni’s gaze was on me, that same intensity I’d come to know, but this time there was something different—a heaviness, like he was about to say something that had been weighing on him for years.

I leaned against the wall, gripping my arms tightly, trying to prepare myself for whatever revelation he had left to unload.

“Maximo,” he began. “He started interviewing candidates when you turned fifteen.”

“The candidates for my virginity?”

He exhaled a long breath, rubbing his jaw with his hand. “Yes. For your virginity. He didn’t even bring up marriage at that point. It wasn’t about that. It was all about the power of selling what they wanted most.”

“My virginity with no marriage?”

“Yeah. The price to fuck you for one night.” His voice was gruff, almost like he hated even having to say the words out loud. “Maximo knew that old money, powerful men weren’t looking for deals or even more money. They wanted something they couldn’t have anymore—to consume innocence. That was the real currency.”

I closed my eyes, and my whole body trembled.

Maximo had been ready to sell me, to feed the sick desires of powerful men, just for power or alliances.

No. He never truly loved my mother.

“He would always say, ‘There’s a high price to consuming innocence. How much are you ready to give?’ It was hard to listen to,” Gianni’s voice grew thick with disgust. “The negotiations. The way they talked about you like you were a prize, a thing to be sold to the highest bidder.”

I opened my eyes.

His eyes darkened. “That was when I started killing for personal reasons, not out of duty, but. . .for. . .the enjoyment of it.”

Shock coursed through me.

He stepped forward. “The first one was the senator. He was going to be the first to have you. Maximo was showing him pictures of you, dancing in rehearsals. I had to sit there and listen to them talk about you like you were property, like you weren’t even human. Vito chuckled the whole time. He loved it so much. Fifteen, and Maximo is explaining how tight your pussy is. . .I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t. . .”

I swallowed hard. “How did you kill him?”

Gianni’s jaw clenched. “I followed that senator for three weeks. Watched his house, studied his routine. And then one night, I had Fabio stand watch, made sure no one was around. I broke in, snuck past his security. He never saw it coming.”

My heart pounded in my chest, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “And you just. . .shot him?”

“No way. A bullet would have been too fast. I suffocated him, Queen. Quick. Clean. No blood, no noise. Wiped the cameras, the prints. Took his head with me.”

I widened my eyes. “Why did you take his head?”

“It felt right at the time.” He studied me, probably trying to gauge my reaction. “That night, I went back to my new apartment, I’d just bought. I looked through the growing collection I had of your things—items I’d taken from Vito’s stash, things from your recitals. And then I added his head to it.”

I stared at him unable to even speak.

“Besides my brothers, no one knew I did it. We kept it between us four. Not even my father had a clue,” Gianni said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “But the negotiations didn’t stop. More men came up, more conversations about your. . .tight pussy. Men had high bids. So I killed them too. One by one.”

The room felt like it was spinning. The walls seemed to blur and warp, the furniture swirled together in a dizzying motion.

“You killed them. For me.”

“I told myself it was to keep you safe,” Gianni’s voice was softer now. “But the more I killed, the more I realized Maximo was never going to stop. Plus, he began to see the death rising in my eyes, and started giving me bigger jobs, more responsibilities. Took me off Vito’s watch, and started sending me with him on hits. I killed with Maximo, no hesitation. Snitches, enemies, anyone he wanted gone. I moved up the ranks at a young age. My father was proud, but he also started to worry. My mother spent her days in church just. . .praying for my soul. . .”

My mouth went dry.

Gianni’s face darkened, and for the first time, I saw true grief in his eyes. “When my father died, I truly lost it. Maximo told me not to go after the men who did it. Said it wasn’t worth it. But I didn’t listen. I tracked them down, killed them all. I knew then that Maximo would come after me eventually. I was becoming a liability, so after I got my revenge. . .I went back to Landmark for your senior year recital.”

“You were there too. . .”

“I thought it would be the last thing I ever saw. I’d been watching you dance for years. So much fucking talent, but. . .that night, for the first time. . .I didn’t just see you as my little sister. Everything changed. . .”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “You were on stage, dancing, so graceful, so strong. Just seventeen. And for the first time, I saw you for who you really were—a young woman. Not just a girl I needed to protect. And my body. . . reacted.”

I didn’t know what I should even say.

He looked at me, and the raw honesty in his eyes nearly broke me. “I realized it wasn’t just brotherly feelings anymore. It was more wicked. More. . .sexual. . .more. . .possessive. I wanted you. And that scared the hell out of me. I felt sick. . .”

Silence filled the room, thick and heavy.

So many emotions flooded me.

Gianni broke the silence. “I took your panties that night while you slept, and. . .I went into your room. . .cut some of your hair so that I could smell it before I died.”

I picked up the glass of wine, needing something to anchor me.

Then, I took a large gulp.

“When I came back to Obsidian Bay, Maximo was waiting for me. I opened my apartment door and his goons and him were sitting in my living room, holding guns.”

“He was going to kill you?”

“I thought so, and didn’t care, but instead, he verbally reprimanded me. He said he understood why I went after my father’s killers.”

I was shocked that Maximo had done that, and now I wondered if he regrated that.

Gianni continued, “I should have been happy with Maximo, but for the first time, I realized that night. . .something very important.”

“What?”

“Maximo was fucking scared of me. He knew I was dangerous. Knew I was losing control, but had no idea why, just that he couldn’t stop it. . .or my brothers. I don’t think he decided not to kill me because he understood. He just was smart enough to know that if I died, Stefan, Fabio, and Corrado even would fucking come for him.”

Holy shit.

“And that’s when the plan started forming in my head.”

“The plan to take the throne from Maximo?”

He nodded slowly. “I knew I couldn’t just kill him. It had to be bigger. Several chess moves. I had to make sure no one would question my right to take his place.”

“How did you do it?”

“I started planting seeds. Made alliances, started turning some of his men against him. It wasn’t easy, but I knew Maximo’s weaknesses, and now I had a goal. You.”

“And the castle?”

“I bought it for you. I wanted you to think of the prince’s castle from your mother’s story.”

I thought about the other jars in his closet. “You killed Pierre.”

“Pierre?”

“He was a boy that I was dating.”

“That one that kissed you?”

“He did. It was my first kiss.”

Gianni’s calm mask cracked. Violence crept along his eyes. “So you understand why I killed him then?”

“No.”

“You should by now.”

“Gianni, that wasn’t right. He didn’t know—”

“It doesn’t matter—”

“He was innocent—”

“I don’t care. That first kiss was mine.”

I shivered. “You killed my ballet teacher, a few of my bullies—”

“And now you understand why?”

“But. . .” I gave up, seeing the truth of my situation all over his face.

Not only did he not care that he killed these people, he would have done it again and again, if given another chance. There was absolutely no getting him to understand the evilness in those actions.

“Gianni. . .”

“I told you on our wedding night to make peace with my being a monster.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“And you still don’t.”

I scowled at him. “Don’t talk to me like that.”

To my surprise, he looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry, Queen. You’re right.”

“I am?”

“I should talk to you with more respect.”

O-kay.

I swallowed.

Had I tamed the beast just a little or had I simply poked it into a small submission for now ?

I thought back to the collection. “I get that Vito started the collection, but it continued. . .you had so much of my stuff—panties, hair, nail clippings. . .”

“You’re lucky I didn’t have you chained in my apartment.”

A terrifying chill ran up my spine.

“By the time I started taking your nail clippings too, I. . .knew I was in trouble.”

“Why did you take them?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“I do.”

He rubbed his forehead. “Sometimes. . .I would eat them.”

I felt all the horror again as if I were right in front of those jars of heads. “B-but. . .w-why?”’

“To taste you.”

“And the hair?”

“Which hair?”

I wasn’t even sure how to answer that.

“The strands from your head, I kept them in my pocket and I would touch them during the day to keep me calm. Sometimes I would pull the strands out and sniff them.”

“B-because?”

“It would also calm me.”

“And. . .hair from other places?”

“From your pussy. Your underarms. Your legs. I mixed the strands with oil and jacked off with the hairy liquid.”

Dear God.

I gazed down at my legs. “You were right. . .I shouldn’t have gone into your office. . .”

“I told you.”

“These answers are too much.”

“But do you have more questions?”

I looked up at him. “I think I saw vials of my blood in there.”

“I got them from your doctors.”

“Why?”

“I’m a simple man, princess.”

“You are fucking not—”

“Well. . .what I mean is that the majority of the things I took once I realized that I wanted you was to either smell them or jack off too.”

“You used my blood to jack off?”

“Of course.”

“Gianni, that is not an of course situation.”

“To me it is.”

I stared at him in an awkward daze, knowing that he was absolutely serious.

“More questions, princess?”

I turned my attention to Isabella sitting in the cage. “Why did you get the bird and name her after me?”

“As I started dismantling Maximo’s power from the shadows, I had no doubt that I would be able to get you. Either I would take the throne from him and demand that he give you to me for marriage. Or I would make him so weak that if I kidnapped you, he would not be in a place to retaliate. In this dangerous game, you were my most precious prize. I was willing to die to get you.”

My breath caught in my throat.

“But. . .the bird. . .I got her to figure out what I would do once I had you.”

“I don’t understand.”

He glanced toward the bird perched in the open cage. “I needed to know what it would take to keep you close once I had you. To make sure you wouldn’t try to escape.”

He moved his gaze back to me. “I needed a way to make sure you stayed because you wanted to. Isabella used to fly free.”

“How did you catch her?”

“I went out to Midnight Forest on the edge of Obsidian Bay and I brought a special cage with me, lined with seeds she couldn't resist. The door was open. Once she flew to it, began to eat the seeds, and slowly get inside of the cage, I closed the door behind her.” Gianni's voice dropped to a whisper. “I watched her struggle for weeks, fluttering against the bars, pecking at the lock. And I imagined you being the same way. Trying to escape every day.”

I gritted my teeth.

“She was so angry, so scared. But over time, she started eating the seeds again. I would whistle to her. I would bring her things. I would show her the beauty of the grounds and keep her close to me. Soon. . .she began to sing, even in her captivity. And. . .I would read to her. . .sometimes. . .sing to her too and eventually she stopped trying to escape.” His gaze was locked onto mine. “After two months, I could keep the cage door open, and I realized that Isabella stays because she wants to. Because despite the way it began, this is her home. Even more, she knows I would never hurt her .”

The implication of his words hung in the air between us like a cloud of smoke.

“Isabella taught me that if I’d been violent, if I had forced her to submit, she would have fought, pecked, screamed. She would have hated me. But instead, I spoiled her. Fed her the best food, talked to her gently. Loved her. Never raised a hand to her.” He took a step forward. “I learned that being soft and patient would keep her from wanting to leave.”

A chill ran through me.

I realized that Isabella wasn’t just some pet.

She was an experiment, a rehearsal for me.

“I know I'm broken, Queen.”

I tensed.

“I know I’m not what you deserve. But I also can't let you go. This obsession for you, it is embedded within me like my cells, my veins, my blood.” He touched his chest with both hands. “Hopefully, you can find solace in the fact that you’re the only light I have left, and I’ll do anything to keep you safe. Even if that means keeping you close to me in ways that terrify you.”

It was more intense information that I didn’t know how to deal with.

Gianni took another step toward me. “So. . .”

I swallowed.

“Now you know about Isabella, but how about you, Queen?”

I quirked my brows. “What?”

“Will I need to close the cage door for you? Or can I keep it open?”