The Holy Ghost - M.E. Clayton Page 0,57
with this, and a small part of me believed him. “While I’d admit, it’s hard to think straight when your pussy is strangling my cock, I meant what I said, Francesca.” He leaned in closer and I could feel the rage coming off him in waves. “I will fucking see you dead before I ever let you leave me again. It doesn’t matter if Ciro and Luca come after me either because my life wouldn’t be worth living without you, anyway.”
“Phoen-”
He slapped his palms on the wood behind me, one hand on either side of my head, causing me to jump. “I give you my word, if you ever think of divorcing me or leaving me again, it’ll be over both our dead bodies,” he threatened.
I knew he meant every word he said, and maybe it made me stupid that I wasn’t repulsed by his offensive threats, because any normal woman would be. These were not sweet words of love and devotion. They were serious death threats should I ever try to leave Phoenix.
I looked him in the eye despite the shivers that ran down my spine. “I will not cower, Phoenix,” I told him. “I’m not going to be some scared, sniveling shadow of a woman who has to live by a barrage of rules that you set forth for me.”
He shook his head. “You still don’t get it, Frankie,” he bit out. “I don’t want you to be some weak, simpering female. That’s not what or who you are. What I want is for you to own your role. Be the woman strong enough to be in this life. You need to become one of us.”
I raised a brow. “Really?” I drawled. “Because if one of you got a message like the one Robbie sent me, you would have done exactly what I did. You would have taken control of the situation.”
Phoenix straightened to his full height. “That’s where you’re wrong,” he replied. “None of us would have taken off into a situation like that without letting the other two know what was going on. And you didn’t take control of the situation, did you? You became the situation, Francesca. A situation we had to come in and handle.” He grabbed my chin and held it between his fingers, careful not to pull at the skin that was stitched up. “We are a family, Frankie. There are no lone wolfs here. The sooner you understand that, the better.”
He was right, and I knew he was. Deep down, I had known I was being careless, but no one ever thinks they’re going to get kidnapped for fucking ransom. That shit only happened in the movies. Besides, I’d only been back home for not even a week. And it’s not like Phoenix and I had taken out an ad in the paper announcing our wedding. How the hell was I supposed to suspect I was up for kidnapping so soon?
Ignoring his lecture, and refusing to give him credit for the points made, I asked, “What about Robbie?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What about her?”
“She’s my friend, Phoenix,” I stated. “I can’t have you hating her.”
“Frank-”
“No, Phoenix,” I snapped. “I never told her not to say anything. I never told her she couldn’t talk about it or not to say anything to her boyfriend.” He didn’t look moved. “She was shocked when I told her who Luca was. Then she was doubly shocked when I told her who I was. Who I really was. It’s not…a crime or even unexpected that she would share the news with her boyfriend. Especially since I knew him too, and you know this.”
His arms flew out to the side. “Frankie, you were beaten and almost sexually assaulted. Possibly killed,” he reiterated. “And you want me to just forgive her lack of judgement?”
“I was beaten because I taunted them, Phoenix,” I clarified. “Had I kept my mouth shut and kept my ass planted in that chair, nothing would have happened to me. I’m the one who dared them. I’m the one who called out their manhood. I’m the one who perpetuated it.”
“Frankie, I-”
“Robbie was beaten because she caught him texting me, Phoenix,” I continued, refusing to let him dismiss what Robbie meant to me. “She caught him and tried to protect me. You saw her. She looked like that because she tried to protect me. And what did you guys do? You treated her no better than Randy!”
“Oh, make no mistake, Francesca,” he sneered.