Chapter 71 - SEVENTY ONE

Chapter 71: Chapter SEVENTY ONE

ANGEL

I rushed out of the store before Gummie could say anything more, I didn’t even respond when she yelled out a goodbye.

Vincenzo was waiting just outside the door, leaning, a cigarette dangling from his lips when I emerged. The moment he saw me, he tossed the cigar, scrunching it beneath his shoes.

His eyes were scanning my face, his eyes narrowing like he could tell something was wrong, I expected him to probe. He didn’t.

"Ready to go home?" he asked instead.

I nodded, the word home sticking in my throat like glue.

The drive back was silent and for some reason, Vincenzo seemed even more tense, he was scrolling through his phone and I couldn’t tell if it was something in it that made him look mad, or if it was something else.

He didn’t ask me anything, and I didn’t volunteer to speak up.

We pulled up to the mansion and my body was quivering with anticipation which I was trying to hide. I couldn’t wait to sink into that soft cloud nine when the candies dissolved in my body, I became almost breathless with excitement. The ecstasy was only a few doors away.

I could hear Vincenzo’s footsteps behind me, I walked faster, with the intention of heading to my room.

He could deal with whatever was making him pissed off.

"Wait."

Vincenzo’s voice stopped me just before my legs touched the stairs.

I turned slowly, impatience biting into my tone. "Is there something else?"

His eyes were dark. Fixed on me with an intensity that made the hairs on my arms stand up.

Why did I feel like I was in trouble? Surely, there was no way that—

"Didn’t we agree that you won’t try to hurt yourself?"

I stared at him, actually confused. "Yes?" My brows squinted. I thought I hadn’t done that.

He stepped forward. One step. Two.

My whole body stiffened as he towered over me, his eyes were cracking now. Angry.

"So, isn’t there something you should be giving me?"

My heart slammed hard in my chest. "Like what?" I kept my voice innocent.

"Your bag, Angel. Give it to me." He pronounced each word coldly.

"No." I said. Defiant. Pulling the bag closer to my body, glaring at him even as panic spread through me. How did he even know what was inside?

He moved in a rapid blur, yanking it from my grip with a strength that made mine very weak in comparison.

I screamed and lunged for it, trying to grab it back, but his arms were longer and his muscular body was a wall I couldn’t get past. He dumped the contents onto the floor between us.

"They’re just sweets!" I screamed in annoyance.

Vincenzo looked at the candies scattered across the polished floor.

Then his eyes cut back to mine. The expression on his face made my stomach twist coldly.

Even with the perfect disguise of the sweet wraps, he knew exactly what he was looking at.

"It doesn’t look like candies to me."

"If you want it so badly you can just have it," I sneered, spinning around and starting to stomp toward the stairs, fury and panic warring in my chest.

I needed to get away from him. If only I could get into my room—

"Angel."

His voice stopped me again. Commanding. Dangerous.

"What?" I snapped, turning to glare at him.

But my heart was faltering with fear. Because I’d anticipated this. A part of me had known Vincenzo might get suspicious, which was why I’d tucked the rest of the candies in my underwear.

Inside forbidden places where his righteous hands would never reach.

Vincenzo was silent, studying me with eyes that felt like he was seeing right through my anxiety.

"What?" I repeated, sharply and defensively. "You think I’m hiding more? Want to check my bra?" I cocked my jaw, letting my voice drip with sarcasm. "Maybe you think I stuffed them up my pussy. Want to spread my legs and have a look? Bet you’ve been dying for an excuse."

"If there are more, give them to me." He said softly, his tone sounding persuasive—threatening at the same time if it made sense.

"There’s none. See?"

I shook myself slightly, trying to prove there was nothing there. I must have moved too hard.

I could feel it.

The shift happened in slow motion. Something inside my shorts dislodged—I felt the small weight of it slide from where I’d pressed it against my skin.

It traveled down my inner thigh with agonizing slowness. I held perfectly still.

Willed it to stop. Clenched my thighs together as discreetly as I could, trying to trap it before gravity did what gravity always does.

It didn’t stop.

Horror bolted through me as it dropped lower into my shorts.

The candy tickled the inside of my thigh one final time, and slipped past the hem of my shorts.

It fell.

A single candy hit the polished floor with a tiny click that split the silence like a gunshot.

Vincenzo and I both looked at it. Sitting there on the floor between us, innocent and damning.

Vincenzo’s eyes traveled from the candy back up to my face. Slowly. And everything gentle, all the patience and fatherly care out of his gaze instantly.

What replaced it was pure rage burning so hot it stole the air from the room

"Get down here," he said. Quiet. Lethal. "Now!"

For a second, he was so terrifying that my body obeyed before my brain could override it. I came down the stairs slowly, each step heavier than the last, my pulse a frantic drumbeat in my ears.

"Bring out all of it," he ordered.

"The pills make me forget." The words came out small and defensive, pitched high like when he’d caught me doing naughty things as a child.

Pain and contempt twisted across Vincenzo’s face like two venomous snakes eating each other. "Did that bastard make you take drugs?"