Merciful Beatings

For the rest of the evening, I tried to convince myself the pain I was feeling was greater than the image of Dante I had created in my head.

At the warehouse, we didn’t have the time to even think of a woman, let alone fully fantasize about one. All I saw were men’s locker rooms, sweaty biceps twice as big as mine. But they never moved me.

At least I thought they didn’t.

I was basically walking on a thin line, I didn’t have the time to think about my sexuality or its desires. But here, I was somewhat free. A walking corpse, but a free one. No more missions, no more side quests, no more blood. Just him.

As I stepped into the bathroom, I shook it off immediately.

‘At least I don’t get to see him everyday’ I murmured to myself.

How bad could it possibly be?

Except it got bad really fast.

The next morning, my body automatically woke up earlier than it needed to. I was still tired, but I just couldn’t sleep.

After minutes of twisting and turning, I eventually got up from bed to brush my teeth. I took my time because I had it.

By the time I opened my door, it was exactly seven p.m.

I walked straight to Amelia’s room. I wasn’t openly admitting it, but my head was still fuzzy from the previous day and I didn’t want any reminder of it.

I stood at her door for a few seconds before dropping my head. I ran a hand through my hair and reluctantly faced forward. Cleaning her room first wasn’t an option, even though part of me wanted to break the rules just to see what he would do.

When I got to his door, I took a deep breath. I was still familiar with his schedules so I knew he definitely wasn’t going to be home. But I could already smell his cologne and that was already sending me into an orbit.

I walked in anyways, rolling my eyes before repeating the same steps. Change the sheets, clean the surfaces, blah blah….

As I moved to his bedside table, a file caught my attention. I knew not to touch it, but curiosity got the better of me. I stretched my head towards the door to see if anyone was coming.

When I was sure no one was, I opened it.

There were images, as well as information of random people. Possibly the people on his hit list. It didn’t look like anything I hadn’t seen before, but the last name caught my attention.

Allen.

He didn’t have any picture or information. His folder was just blank.

“Mhmhm,” A voice came from behind me.

I turned around fully confident that it was Ken.

But as luck would have it, Dante was standing by the door looking furious.

“D-Dante, I mean sir. Ugh, I was just- uhm.”

I couldn’t even get my words out.

“Who gave you permission to touch my stuff, young Luca?”

“No one! No one permitted me, I was just cu-”

“So you touched my things without being asked to?”

He started to move closer.

I couldn’t tell if it was the bloodshot eyes or his extremely strong cologne, or the way his shirt was tight enough to show his biceps. Whatever it was, it made my heart race.

“How dare you move things without my permission?”

He was standing barely an inch away from me now. Our eyes connected. I could’ve sworn that was his last straw and he was ready to rip me to shreds. I saw it in the way he looked at me. But before I could get a word out, I saw something else,

Restraint.

But it didn’t last for long.

“I-I’m sorry sir.”

He grabbed my chin, hard. I don’t know how but it stopped me from breathing.

“What was that?”

Oh the possession in his voice did something to me. And I knew that was the last thing I needed to be thinking about but I couldn’t help myself.

As much as I was shaken to the core, I was also picturing something completely inappropriate.

“I said I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

“Speak up.”

His grip tightened. I held onto his hand, not trying to pull him away, just holding onto it in hopes he’d see me struggling and actually care.

“I’m sorry sir!”

He gripped tighter one more time, then slowly let me go.

Even then, I still couldn’t breathe, and I wasn’t going to show him how scared I was.

“It won’t happen again,” I said, checking if he had broken my jaw.

He laughed a bit, “I’d like to see it happen again.”

I gulped.

Only after he took the file and walked out did I finally relax.

I frantically tried to catch my breath, even falling on the bed.

That threat canceled all the thoughts I had. There was nothing sexy or redeemable about him, and there never will be.

But he still showed me mercy, and it should have counted as something, but it unfortunately didn’t.

My breakdown only lasted five minutes. I knew Amelia was going to be home sooner or later.

I picked myself up, finished up with his room and moved to hers.

I did the usuals and this time it took me barely twenty minutes. I was fast…mainly because I wasn’t thinking of anything at all. I had seen worse days, but what I just saw might’ve put me in a shell shock.

As I was about to leave, she walked in.

She stopped to look at me. It didn’t look like she cared about my presence but she took a moment to look around the room.

I froze in place as she moved around.

“You missed a spot,” pointing at a portrait of her. “Here.”

I hurriedly moved towards it and started wiping. I was sure I had cleaned it already but I didn’t argue.

“Where’s Ken?”

“Ugh I—”

“I’m not my wretched husband…”

She looked at me like she was trying to figure out what to call me.

“Luca.”

“Luca! Right,” she said as she took her shoes off. “Anyways, I’m nothing like Dante, you can relax around me.”

“Oh, yes ma’am.”

“I know I was a bit mean the last time we met, forgive my rudeness.”

That was the last thing I was expecting her to say. It messed with my brain in a way I didn’t like. First he retrained himself for ripping my head off, now his wife was apologizing to me, a nobody.

“It’s no problem, ma’am,” I replied, almost choking on my words.

She smiled faintly.

“I haven’t seen Ken today. I haven’t been downstairs.”

“Oh okay then. When you see him, tell him I need him to get someone to take my car out for an oil change, pronto.”

I nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”

“You can leave.”

I nodded again and left the room.

I literally had to pause to catch my breath again. I didn’t even realize I had stopped breathing.

Everyday I wondered how and why I got into this family, but the more I wondered, the more I got tired.

Eventually, I went to the kitchen. I was starving.

I met Ken there.

“Luca, you were up early today weren’t you? I couldn’t find you in your room this morning.”

“Yeah, I got up early.”

“Good. Keep it up.”

I rolled my eyes, “Like I have a choice in this house.”

Pete laughed, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

“Pass me a plate,” I replied.

He served me and I immediately started eating.

“Oh, Ken,” I mumbled.

“Don’t talk with a mouth full,” Pete said.

I took a few seconds to chew, then spoke again.

“Amelia said to tell you her car needs an oil change and to get someone to do it as soon as possible.”

“Oh okay, you do it.”

My eyes widened, “What?”

“You have the least amount of work, I'll text you the address. You can drive, yes?”

“What?”

He gave me a tap on the back, “You’ll be fine.”

Then he left.

I turned back to Pete who was now desperately trying to hold his laugh in.

I shook my head and continued with my food.

By the time I was done, Ken had sent the address and instructions.

I scrolled down and saw a text from someone else,

Marcel