CHAPTER 5

(THE PAST)

PIETRO GIACOMETTI

Something was wrong today. There were a lot of things I could be mistaken about but there was not a thing about Caily that I could be mistaken about.

She had stepped out at exactly the time she was supposed to, she had given me those same bright smiles, she had grabbed my arm excitedly, a huge grin on her face but something wasn’t right about those smiles and about the way she grabbed my arm.

Those smiles had seemed forced and her eyes had not been as bright as they always were. And the way she had grabbed my arm? And she had grabbed my arms too firmly, like she needed me to protect her urgently.

“Something happened. What happened?” I questioned, my brows tightly knitted together.

“Happened?” She knitted her brows too, in confusion. Feigned confusion.

“Peaches, who messed with you?” I reached for her hand and held one.

For a second, vulnerability flashed in her eyes but it was gone the next second, replaced by happiness and brightness. FAKE.

“No one messed with me. I… I just could not sleep well because of the thing with Journie yesterday. I… I kept seeing that bloody sight over and over again.” That could have been the case truly but I knew that was not the case.

She was trying to cover up another case with this but I would let her do just that. It was obvious that she was trying to hide the person behind the dimming of her pretty eyes.

Figuring it out, finding the bastard or bitch, sending the bastard to hell. I would do all that for her without bothering her about it.

I reached my hand to her face and gently cupped her face.

“I won’t ever make you see anything like that in the future.”

“Forget about it.” She brightened up and grabbed my arm again.

“Let’s go to your room.”

“My room? Why?”

“I need a reason to go into your room now?” She asked and the tightening in my chest eased away a little

“You’ll never need to give me a reason to do anything you want.” I meant every word of that sentence.

“Then off to your room!” She skipped forward, letting go of my arm. I watched her skip ahead of me while I walked behind her with just one thought in my head. Finding the bastard.

It only took about a minute for us to walk into the living room of my home. My father was seated on a couch there and I watched him cock his head as I walked into the living room with Caily.

“Good morning Mr. Giacometti.”

“And who do we have here today? Pietro’s favorite human” He grinned at Peaches and I reached a hand to her wrist, grabbing her and pulling her close to me.

“I’ll take my favorite human away now.” I said to him, my eyes communicating more than enough that he should shut the fuck up more.

I pulled Caily along with me and didn’t let go of her wrist until we were in my room. I slammed the door shut after us, swallowed hard and then released my grip on her wrist.

“You should try having a better relationship with your dad.”

“Again, I need no relationship with anyone except you.”

Peaches would not understand and I was never going to let her understand how much I had the urge to hurt others, hear them scream, butcher them slowly, tear them apart, make them beg for mercy like desperate souls seeking peace, go even further, torture them so slowly that they give up on begging for mercy and choose to beg for death itself. She had no idea how insuppressible the urge to deny them of the relief of death was.

And for me, there was only one urge greater than that urge. The urge to protect her and keep her as mine for-fucking-ever.

“There you go again.” She sighed dramatically and headed over to my bed.

“Peaches, don’t sleep in my bed.” I hurried after her and yanked her away from my bed just before she could get onto it.

Her lips held a small pout and her eyes questioned me.

“Why? Being stingy with your bed now?” She asked, pulling her hand away from my grip and folding her arms across her chest.

“Don’t get into any guy’s bed.” I said and picked her up. I lifted her off the floor effortlessly and gently dropped her onto the couch.

The last time she had been in my room had been four days and thirteen hours ago. She had been in my bed for hours, reading a book and when she left? She had left her scent on my sheets. I was surrounded by that peachy scent all night and I had been uncontrollably hard all throughout the fucking night.

There was no way I could stand that torture over again.

“Would you watch the sunset with me tonight?” her enchanting voice asked.

“I will, Peaches.”

“And let’s watch the moon and the stars too.” She added and my brows furrowed. It was indeed a simple request but there was something about it.

Yesterday, she had not been too eager to go home and today, though it was still morning, she was already concerned about having to go home at night.

Whatever bastard was bothering my sweet Peaches, he was waiting until I was away before showing up.

“Peaches.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you have a crush? A boy you like in school or around this place?” Why the fuck I was asking this damned question, I had no idea.

“No. And I think it’s all thanks to you. You protect me from bullies but you have also done a fine job in making sure that everyone is so scared of you that they stay away from me. No one is close enough for me to actually like.”

“Good.” The word left my lips with satisfaction.

“Good? Good?!” She shot up from her seat, rushing over to me.

“You are happy I’m not getting a boyfriend anytime soon?” She asked, playfulness in her voice.

I only gave her a small smile, reached for her hair and tugged lightly at it. The hairband holding her hair up in a ponytail loosened and I pulled it out of her hair, letting her hair down her shoulders.

“Hey” She pouted in playful annoyance and turned away from me.

I watched with a light smile as she walked over to the framed drawing that hung on the wall.

“In the future, I will find a nice guy, fall in love with him and live happily ever-after.”

The smile was immediately replaced with a frown.

‘A nice guy’. Just like my father had said, Peaches was searching for a nice guy.

My jaws clenched and my hands balled into a fist, squeezing her hairband tightly. Too bad because there would only be one guy for her in this lifetime and even in the fucking next. And that one guy wasn’t so nice.

“Calm the fuck down, Pietro.” I muttered underneath my breath. There were no doubts to Peaches being mine and there could never be.

So instead of losing my shit over the imaginary nice guy, I’d better channel my energy into getting that bastard tonight.