Chapter Fifty-Five
Save Me
Broken me yet? Lake was finally able to shake off their encounter as his words actually started to resonate in her mind. Broken me yet! Those words only started to scare her about Vincent more and more, knowing he was slowly gaining power over her body and mind.
She tried to focus on the other parts of their meeting. Yeah, like him giving me a favor! Thinking Lucca would ever care enough to give her a favor literally blew her mind along with the fact that he had told her to see him instead of going to Dante. Lucca was telling her that his door was always open if she needed it, but she didn’t know if she was going to have the guts to ever do that after their meeting.
From killing a person to letting you disappear… Those words whispered over her again. He was giving her a way out, and she knew it. Lake could leave the mob behind and not even think twice about it.
I can still see he hasn’t broken you yet…
Lake screamed when her cell phone rang, her thoughts fully scaring her at that point.
She grabbed her phone quickly without looking at the caller ID and spoke a shaky, “Hello?”
“Lake! My baby … my baby…” her mother cried into the phone.
She held the phone tighter, scared for her mom. “Mom, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“No, it’s John. He just…” she trailed off for a moment. “Could you come pick me up? He’s left and taken my keys. I need to leave and get in a hotel room before he … before he kills me.” Her mother became hysterical.
Lake ran into the closet, hurrying to get dressed. “I’m coming, Mom. I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you, baby. Don’t tell your father, Vincent, or anyone. They’ll kill him. I don’t want him killed.”
She bit her lip, contemplating. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”
The call ended, and her ear met silence.
Lake got dressed as fast as she could in her last clean outfit of the small amount of clothes she had taken to Kentucky. If she was going to stay with Vincent, she was really going to need to go to her father’s to get some clothes. However, that immediately got pushed to the back of her mind like it always had when something major came up. These past few weeks had really been ridiculous.
Running downstairs, she looked at Vincent’s car keys sitting on the table. Her adrenaline was pumping. What should I do?
First off, she was lucky they were even there. He was clearly still in the hotel, or he was out and had taken a ride with whoever he was with. She understood her mother not wanting her to tell, afraid they would kill him. That was why she had never told anyone about John, afraid they would kill her mother, as well.
Staring at the car keys, she knew Vincent was going to be fucking pissed that she had left. He had warned her never to do it again, yet she was thinking of doing that exact thing.
I can still see he hasn’t broken you yet…
Lake snatched up the car keys, determined to prove she wasn’t going to be broken.
* * *
Vincent wasn’t able to spend the day how he wanted—in his bed with Lake. He especially wanted it considering he had almost lost her the day before.
He didn’t remember anything after he had climbed the stairs and saw a fucker choking the life out of Lake. Everything had gone black until he had seen her scared face. As he had slowly approached her, the good in him had fought the bad back down.
When he finally had been able to get her alone, he’d had to feel her. He had needed to have her wrapped around him, and that had been when the war in him had begun. He had never fucked like that in his entire existence, needing someone so badly in that instant to the point both versions of him wanted her equally. The good in him had fucked her while the bad had finally gotten his chance at fucking her, too. Once his release had been met, he had finally maintained control enough to push away his darkness again. The darkness had finally gotten its little taste, and it wanted more, a whole fucking lot more.
I shouldn’t have fucking done that.
He was mad at himself that he had treated her that way, knowing she had been frightened toward the end, but he hadn’t been able to stop. There had been no stopping. He simply should have calmed down and gotten a handle on himself before he had touched her. That’s where I fucked up.
Lake deserved better than that after what she had done. She didn’t deserve to be frightened one more time in her life. Vincent didn’t even fucking deserve her. He knew he should make her go and not give her the choice to leave at the end of the summer. However, like he had told her the previous night, I’m fucked-up.
Vincent took a deep breath, smoothing his hair down. It really wasn’t the day to be a made man. So much questioning was happening on how the fuck the night had happened. He didn’t know anything more than the obvious since Lucca was handling the situation. When or even if they figured out all the details, he wouldn’t know. Vincent was still only a soldier, regardless of whom his father was, which was why he had to spend the day working on new security details.
The codes were all changed and only given out to certain men in the family. There was also a new guard on the top floor who stood beside the elevator. They had never required a guard there, since it was watched by surveillance. Besides, in order to get to Dante’s office, you had to walk down the long hall then be let in to the security room with the TVs and guards, and then you could finally get into his office. Not to mention, you were a dumb fuck to even want to get on his elevator and punch in the code in the first place. However, someone had still done it and managed to take Al out.
Vincent slid his card through the door, eager to see Lake again. He had hated leaving her, not wanting something like the night before to happen to her again. If it wasn’t for work and the new guard, he wouldn’t have.
Quickly going up the stairs when he hadn’t seen her downstairs, he felt déjà vu when she wasn’t there. Fuck, no, no, no! It was like he knew she wasn’t going to be in the bathroom already.
Vincent picked up his phone, calling her quickly. Just like last time, it went straight to voicemail. Running downstairs, he noticed his keys were gone. She had blatantly left him.
Going out the door and down the hall, he stopped in front of the guard. “Girl, light-brown hair—”
The guard interrupted him. “Tall and hot? Yeah, she left here earlier today.”
Vincent flexed his jaw. “When? Did she say anything? Did you notice anything?”
“I guess a couple of hours ago. She just seemed like she was in a fucking hurry…”
Vincent was already running down the hallway toward Dante’s office, praying Sal would be in the security room to help him find out where she had gone.
Goddammit, Lake!
He knew something was terribly wrong. He just knew it, like he always did with her. Vincent couldn’t take this anymore. She was literally killing him every time she did something like this.
Why does she fucking do this to me? It was to the point that he believed she enjoyed it.
* * *
Lake’s knuckles pounded on her mother’s front door. Something felt off to her, but she didn’t exactly have time to worry about it, afraid John might be back at any moment.
When her mom opened the door, Lake covered her mouth as she saw her crazed appearance. Holy shit.
“Mom, are you—”
“Yes, yes, hurry. Come in.” Her mother quickly grabbed her arm, dragging her in and then locking the door behind her. “My bags are upstairs.”
She continued walking with her mom up the stairs as she held her arm rather tightly. Her mom seemed a little wild, and her gut screamed at her that all this was going down wrong.
When her mom led her down the hallway that held her old bedroom and not her mother’s, she was confused. “Your bedroom is the other way.”
“I’ve been sleeping in the workout room.” Her mother put her hand on the door handle.
Lake was shoved inside by her mother when she opened the door, and a hard slap across her face had her falling to the floor.
“You little trailer trash whore.” John spit on her body.
Lake, feeling dazed from the hit, looked at her mother who had tears in her eyes. “Mom, go!” Then she started to kick at John when he tried to grab her.
He managed to slap her hard across the same cheek again. “Fucking stupid piece of shit, your mother doesn’t love you.” He grabbed her by the hair, dragging her across the floor. “Don’t just stand there; open the attic, bitch!” He sounded out of breath.
Pam started crying as she pulled down the string and started opening the stairs.
Lake tried to fight him as tears began to streak down her face. She was successfully tiring him out but Pam had joined in, helping him pull her to the unfolded stairs.
“Mom, why are you doing this?” Lake cried, hoping her mother would come to her senses. The two had clearly gone off the deep end since she last had seen them.
“I’m sorry, honey. He made me get you here. I can’t clean and cook for him right.”
“Get the fuck up there!” John yelled, out of breath.
Lake began to quickly crawl up the stairs when he hit her head on one of the steps. He was going to kill her if she didn’t get away. John wasn’t fit enough to climb up the steps and if she could get away, she could use the same time he was going to use to get her energy back.
John screamed at her as she went up the stairs, “I fucking own you, trailer trash! You are mine, you fucking whore!”
Her foot almost got caught when they folded up the stairs behind her.
She laid there on the floor, crying while she heard him brace something against the floor, locking her in.
Mom, why would you do this to me? She rolled herself into a ball. I’m your daughter. I’m your flesh and blood! She sobbed so hard a puddle of water started to soak the floor.
Lake wished this was all a dream, desperately wishing she was home. The home that came to mind wasn’t the place she had felt most at home for years, though. Instead, her father’s house had been replaced by Vincent’s.
She cried even more, her true feelings finally coming to light. I promise, I won’t ever run from you again. Please save me. The fact that she prayed for Vincent to save her instead of God proved her feelings to be true.
She squeezed her eyes shut, making another stream of tears coat her face. I love you, Vincent.