Page 84 of Dangerous Games

My jaw clenches as I wipe my tears.

Fuck him.

Without a second thought, my hand darts out, grabbing his ankle. I give it a hard tug, pulling his feet out from under him. Dad sways, slamming into the counter near the register. I swallow a cry as the hold he has on my hair tightens and he takes me with him.

“God, I should fucking kill you for that!” Dad yells. “I’m done fucking around. He said he needed you alive, but he didn’t say you needed to be awake.”

I thrash around, desperate to get out of his hold. I grunt through the pain as I feel chunks of hair getting ripped out of my head. I’m not strong enough. Dad lets go of my hair long enough to wrap his arm around my neck, putting me in a headlock. I gag as the smell of musty sweat fills my nose. God, he fucking stinks. I claw and scratch at his arm that’s tightening around my neck, digging my nails in deep until I feel blood on my fingertips.

“Fuck,” Dad hisses but doesn’t let up. “I’ve had just about enough of you.” He covers the bottom area of my face with a cloth. Before I can figure out what’s happening, the world goes black.

Chapter

Twenty-Three

GIO

My phone vibrates in my pocket as Matteo and I walk to our cars.

“That went about as expected.”

“Were you expecting more?” I cast him a sideways glance as I pull my phone out. “I know you’re going to want to punch me for saying this, but you two are a lot alike in the sense of not asking permission to do things. You just steamroll your way in and do it.”

Matteo makes a noise in his throat. “I don’t steamroll. And I’m not the one who goes around cutting people’s dicks off and mailing them in a box.”

My lip tips up. “No, you just go around stabbing them in the hand.”

I smile to myself as I see I have a text from Bronwyn. I knew she would miss me. I abruptly stop walking, the smile wiped right off my face as I read her text.

“Everything okay?” I hear Matteo ask, but he sounds far away. I can’t focus on him. All I can focus on is her text.

Cara: dad’s at afk. shit is weird. help.

“Gio?”

I start running to my car, leaving Matteo behind. I beep the locks and throw up my door. Matteo’s hand catches it, stopping me from closing it.

“Let go,” I bite out. I’m seeing red.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Matteo demands.

“Bronwyn just texted and said her dad showed up at her job and is acting weird. She needs help.”

Matteo bites out a curse. “Let’s go. I’ll follow you.”

I don’t remember the drive to AFK. My mind switched to autopilot because I couldn’t stop wondering if Bronwyn is okay. I knew her piece of shit dad was going to show up again sooner or later. I just didn’t think he had the balls to do it at her place of work. The more I think about it, the more this feels like Dimitri sent him thinking I wouldn’t kill her dad like I did Brian.

How wrong he is.

So very fucking wrong.

He better hope there isn’t a hair out of place on her head when I get to her. I’ll stop at nothing short of burning the world down for her.

I illegally park in front of the store, barely throwing it in park before I’m out and sprinting inside.

“Bronwyn?” I call out as I frantically look around an empty store.

Nothing.