Forbidden Fruit

14. Violence & lust

FOURTEEN

VIOLENCE & LUST

I f I thought that day at the beach was progress with Mr Marquesi, I was sorely mistaken. It was just a glitch in the matrix. The vision of his rare smile hasn’t left my mind in the past few days but it’s like he felt too exposed and has almost avoided me ever since.

He was off from work this afternoon and took Livia to the dentist, leaving me to pick up Anton by myself. The warm spring air smells of sea salt and I let my mind wander back to him as I enjoy the short walk to the school. Without Livia with me, I take the long road that follows hidden picturesque alleys painted bright oranges and blues, the fig trees covering them with welcoming shade.

I’m about to step onto the main road again when someone harshly grabs my bicep and pulls me back into the alley. Their thick fingers hold me so tight I yelp. My whole body stiffens. I want to run but my knees lock in place. I blink rapidly as I take in my aggressor.

“Chris,” I gasp.

I tug on my arm but his fingers tighten further, making me wince. “You’re hurting me,” I say, pleading for him to stop.

His face contorts with sick pleasure at my distress. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find you, Vaness’? You fucking owe me, and I’ll get what I’m owed one way or another,” he sneers.

My breaths quicken, my heart thumping inside my ribcage painfully. “Let go of me,” I greet between my teeth, pulling on my arm again, my fight or flight response kicking in. I try to yell. “Hel?—”

I can’t finish my sentence. Chris roughly pushes me against a wall and presses his hand to my mouth, cutting me off, his other arm across my throat. He reeks of alcohol and sweat. My hands shake as I lift them to his arm, trying to pry him off of me but he’s much bigger and stronger than me. And this time around, I don’t have a makeshift weapon.

My stomach hollows and my chest tightens as he chokes me and dips his head to my ears. I close my eyes and clamp my teeth together. I don’t want to see whatever is about to happen.

Suddenly, the weight against my neck is gone and air rushes into my lungs. My eyelids snap open and my jaw drops. The scene in front of me is surreal. I plaster myself against the wall as I watch Mr Marquesi punch Chris in the face over and over. His muscular body straddles my ex-roommate’s, who isn’t a match for the feral beast Lino is letting out.

Blood spurts from Chris’s nose. The angry red colour spurs me back into action, as though time moves at normal speed again.

“Lino, stop,” I call. His pause is brief, glancing back at me before he lands another blow to Chris’s jaw. The man on the floor is bleeding and moaning in pain, unable to move and slow to recover.

“Touch her again, you lose the hands. Show your face in my town again, you lose your life. Am I clear?” Lino’s voice is dark and laced with danger, and I swallow. A shiver of something akin to excitement rolls up my spine. I should hate violence, I’ve known it way too intimately. Yet, Lino’s words burrow into my core. I’m sick. “Am I clear?” he repeats and shakes Chris’ half-conscious body.

My ex-roommate nods and Lino lets him slump to the floor then straightens up. Chris scurries away and disappears in seconds. When Lino turns to me again, his hair is disheveled and blood taints his hands and white shirt sleeves.

“Are you hurt?” we ask each other at the same time.

I rush forward and lift my hands to his, turning them this way and that to find any wound on his knuckles. Taking a baby wipe from my bag, I dab at the blood and he lets me.

“Where is Livia?” I ask.

“In the car, just at the corner. She’s asleep,” he answers, his eyes focused on my face. They turn anthracite when he looks at my neck. His jaw clenches and he raises a hand, gentle fingers gliding against my throat. “Are you hurt?” he asks again. This time, his voice vibrates with rage, his shoulders are bunched up with tension and all I want to do is hug him. Thank him for being here when I thought I’d be alone again.

“It’ll be okay,” I say, averting my gaze and rolling up his sleeve to hide the blood. I don’t want the kids to know their father beat someone bloody. And that it made me feel safe. Not that they would know that last part but I know . And that’s enough to make me blush.

Lino misinterprets my reaction. With a light finger under my chin, he raises my eyes to meet his. “He’s never gonna come near you again,” he promises.

“He could go to the police. This could end badly, sir.”

“Vanessa.” My name on his tongue should be illegal. “He’s never gonna come near you again.”

Under the ominous promise is an admission. Lino Marquesi works closely with Alana Moretti, rumoured head of the local mafia. He’s a trusted advisor. I’m not sure what he does for her but the words he offers are more than just an offer for protection.

And what does it say about me that my thighs clenches in response?

I nod. “We should really go to Livia,” I whisper. I look at my watch. “And Anton will come out of school soon.” I give him a nervous smile and lower my eyes to see that our hands are still linked. I motion to move but he holds mine into his much bigger one.

“I…” He clears his throat and lets go, gliding his fingers through his hair and smoothing the strands away from his forehead where they have fallen. “You should take some time for yourself,” he finally declares.

I square my shoulders and slide my hands over my dress. They’re damp from the rush of adrenaline and I know when I get home tonight, I’ll crash, but right now, I need something to do. I don’t want to dwell on what just happened. Fear and lust are coursing through my veins and messing with my brain and I need the distraction of my routine to come to terms with what just happened.

“I don’t need time. What I need is to work.”

Lino eyes me warily but nods and we move in sync to take the kids back home.

W hen we arrive at the Marquesi home, I bid them good night and lock myself into my flat. Flashes of my past haunt me all night as they mix with Chris’s face in my nightmares.

My mother and I moved with my aunt Hannah when my mother lost her job. She made us work for every meal. I was doing more chores and child-rearing than homework the six months before my mother’s passing. In my dream now, Chris stands next to Aunt Hannah as I beg her for help to pay my mother’s cancer treatment. They both laugh as they choke me and kick me and tell me to work harder on the chores around the house while my mother withers away.

I startle awake, brow wet with drops of sweat, my heart pounding in my chest.

“I am safe. I am safe. I am safe,” I repeat to myself in the dark. My aunt can’t reach me. I left the day she beat me black and blue six months after my mother passed. And Chris? I don’t know what will happen to me but I trust Lino to fulfil his promise to me. I’m safe. The demons in my head can’t hurt me and the ones in my life won’t ever come close again.