“Meaning, once I understood how important I was, did I then take my safety as seriously as they did.” She gave me a sheepishly grim smile. “I’m free to go and come as I please now that I’m trusted with my own safety.”
I turned to Robbie. “What about you?”
“I was attacked the same night Frankie was kidnapped,” she shared easily. “I was trying to stop Randy’s plans to kidnap Frankie and I got beaten up pretty badly.”
“Oh, God, Robbie…”
She gave me a tight smile. “It gets worse.”
My eyes bugged. “It does?”
Robbie nodded. “About a month ago, some people from Randy’s unsavory past tracked me down, and they ended up…putting another beating on me.” I stared at this beautiful woman and couldn’t imagine the horror.
“The scars…” I whispered. Robbie had a scar above her brow and Frankie had one running down her left cheek.
Robbie nodded again. “Yeah,” she confirmed. “Anyways, Ciro’s…insistence that I stay home is because he was around for both beatings and…he’s overprotective about…making sure it never happens again. But even if he wasn’t, I know who I married. I knew his reputation and I knew what he did for a living. I understood the risk. If Ciro needs me to stay home to ease his mind and bring his heart peace, I’ll do that. I’d rather not, because I like to work, but I’m willing to…find a middle ground.”
“I think Luca wants the same thing from you, Remy,” Frankie added. “I think he wants you to understand the importance of who you are and who you’ll be once you marry him. He needs to trust you with your own safety, just as Ciro and Phoenix needed to trust us.”
I stood up and started pacing the back of the couch. “That still doesn’t make it right,” I argued. “He threatened my parents, for Christ’s sake,” I reminded them. “I can’t…that’s not okay.”
“No. It’s not,” Frankie agreed. “But if he did, there was a good reason for it, Remy. Luca doesn’t…he doesn’t fly off half-cocked. There’s reason behind everything Luca says or does.”
“I can’t quit my job,” I told them again. “I can’t let Luca take that from me.”
I honestly didn’t know if there was a middle ground with my career, but I did know that I couldn’t walk out on those kids. How was I expected to look myself in the mirror everyday knowing I was just another person in a long line of disappointments for them?
I couldn’t.
I had to be able to live with myself and I knew I wouldn’t be able to if I quit on them.
The worst part had been when Luca had fucked me over the couch. He had been demeaning and humiliating, but my body had welcomed his vicious intrusion. He’d be awful and I had hated him in those rough, degrading moments, but my body had obeyed his needs and had erupted for him.
It had been the most humiliating moment of my life.
It had also been the most sobering. How could I possibly still be turned on by a certified psychopath? I mean, he had to be one in order to threaten to kill his future in-laws, right?
There was also the glaring fact that, while Luca has said a lot of things, he’s never told me how he feels about me. He’s told me he wants me and that he plans on worshipping me, but that’s just physical and a show of respect. That’s nothing close to love. Hell, not even like.
I also wasn’t in the right frame of mind to listen to Frankie and Robbie’s reasoning. They weren’t asked to give up their careers by demand. They weren’t threatened to comply like I was. Our situations aren’t the same.
There was also the fact that my parents weren’t rich. They were financially responsible, but they weren’t rich. They spent a lot of money to send me to college and get my degree. For me to quit my job would be like spitting in the face of all their hard work. And I might not have been the best social worker out there, but I was dedicated to those kids. I am dedicated to those kids.
And to walk away from it all, why? So, that Luca Benetti could have…what? Like he had so eloquently pointed out earlier, he didn’t need me to get laid. He didn’t even need me to marry him. There were probably hundreds of women in the city dying to be the next Mrs. Luca Benetti. Was it because I