Page 12 of Traitor
He slammed me against the wall and I braced myself. I looked over his shoulder and readied myself for whatever pain or sexual torture this man had for me next. But, the second I saw the back of her head, I froze.
Until Lorenzo’s knuckles cracked against my jawline.
“Don’t you ever embarrass me like that again. You understand?”
I fell to the ground and tried to keep my eyes on the back of that woman’s head, but it hurt to breathe. It hurt to exist. It hurt to still be alive.
And I felt blood pooling in my mouth.
It can’t be.
I had to be seeing things. She had to be a figment of my imagination. Because there was no way in hell—and no reason on this earth—for my mother to be at one of these things. I tried to recall the last time I’d eaten as Lorenzo pulled me up from the ground. I tried to think about the last time I had anything to drink as he dragged me down the pitch black hallway, murmuring to himself.
And when Lorenzo dragged me outside, all thoughts of my mother being at an event like this fell from my mind.
Especially when his car pulled up.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
I watched some of my blood-tainted spit fall against his suit and anger flashed in his eyes.
“You disgusting creature. Why the fuck Mateo ever wanted you around, I’ll never know.”
He shoved me into the back of the car we arrived in and I didn’t try to fight it any longer. I was going to die at the hands of this man, and I had accepted my fate. I curled my legs up just as Lorenzo slammed the car door shut, and I waited for the hard thump on top of the car that would signal our departure.
Until a familiar voice sounded just outside the window.
“We need to talk, Lorenzo,” Mateo said.
And even though the windows were fully tinted, I shot up like a bat out of hell and gazed through the dark glass.
Laying eyes on the man I never should’ve run from in the first place.
Yell for him. Cry out for him. Do something to get his attention!
I knew better than that, though. I’d spent enough time at the hands of Lorenzo’s bullshit to know that if Mateo didn’t leave with me tonight, he’d kill me. Or worse. I snickered at the thought. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever once considered death being a kinder alternative to something else.
And as the two men started talking, I quickly lost hope that the confrontation was about me.
Because with the way Teo was acting, it seemed like he didn’t even know I was there.
6
Mateo
“We need to talk, Lorenzo,”I said as he slammed the car door closed.
He whipped around on me and pierced me with a gaze I knew not to fuck with. “What the hell do you want now?”
I grinned. “That any way to treat a guest of the evening? I’m sure your brother wouldn’t like that kind of treatment.”
He gritted his teeth. “What do you want now,sir?”
I thumbed over my shoulder. “The chef for the evening isn’t making anything that’s gluten-free. There are people already bitching about it.”
He groaned. “God damn it, I hate incompetent fools. Thanks for coming out to tell me.”
I tried not to peek at the car and give myself away. “Nice selection of women you have up there tonight.”
