Authors: Bethany-Kris
Gio rolled his eyes. “Is this another one of his car tricks like when he switched out her Mazda for that Mercedes she hates?”
“How’d you know about that?” Cody asked.
Shit. Gio needed to be more careful about blurting out things he wasn’t supposed to know. “Heard it through the grapevine when I mentioned the car was nice.”
“Oh. Well, yeah, basically. Apparently Franco showed up at the dorm shortly after my sister, and when she refused to leave, there was a big screaming match. The girl said she heard something about Kim disappearing for a day and night. Then, Franco tossed her laptop down a flight of stairs.”
“Why would he do that?” Gio asked for the sake of seeming ignorant, but he knew exactly why. Kim wouldn’t back down on the topic of finishing school, so Franco was pushing her into it without her consent. Again. “Seems a bit harsh to me.”
“A fight that’s been ongoing,” Cody replied vaguely. “Anyway, my sister skipped out. Franco’s guys were blocked in by the security who were called to the building after the fight got too loud.”
“So they couldn’t keep on her tail,” Gio said, filling in the blanks. “When did this go down?”
“A couple of hours ago now. I probably shouldn’t worry, but I am. Like, something’s wrong, and it’s more than Franco.”
“She’s not picking up your calls?”
“Took off without her bag. I’m guessing her cell is in there. I don’t know where in the fuck she could go that she doesn’t need money to keep her hidden.”
Gio’s head snapped up, an understanding dawning on him. The sky was already dark outside, which meant the places to go were limited. Chances were, he knew exactly where Kim was if her propensity to rebel against Franco’s constant demands were any indication. She didn’t need money to get her anger out and piss Franco off. After all, Gio learned that first night he partied at Pulse no one needed a damn dime to get anything they wanted other than liquor. If someone was high enough or in a decent mood, they’d hand over whatever they had.
“Let me know if she shows up, and I’ll keep an eye out myself,” Gio said, already turning his car on.
“Will do. And hey, thanks man.”
“No problem.”
Gio didn’t think Cody would find much gratitude for him if the kid knew the truth.
• • •
Gio weaved in and out of people at Pulse, avoiding the hands of random people trying to pull in him to dance. He wasn’t in the mood to party.
In fact, now that he thought about it, he hadn’t been in the mood to get himself lost for a long fucking time. He hadn’t done a whole hell of a lot since coming out to Vegas, either. Not since that first night he tracked Kim down, anyway. The Molly he’d indulged in then was the last substance he put into his body other than cognac and cigarettes.
Gio couldn’t remember a time when he had ever gone that long without getting high or smashed in some way. Probably longer than he wanted to admit. It was like doing that shit had become a part of his identity. Gio was the crazy one of his brothers—always unpredictable and reckless.
A distant part of him laughed it off and said he was in control. The sober part knew that wasn’t the case. Thinking about it with a clear head, Gio understood what he thought he was doing because he enjoyed it had become more of a habit than a pleasure. It didn’t make a difference if the habit was one he didn’t depend on to function; the issue was still real.
Gio didn’t even have to wonder what had changed to make the partying unneeded in his life. Kim. Wasn’t it always about her, now? It helped that he never had to wonder why he liked the darker scene of a partying lifestyle. Chasing down the desire to feel something other than boredom had been a pastime of his forever. Nothing was ever boring with Kim.
And hell, did she ever make him
feel
.
Fuck.
He probably owed a few people an apology or two.
Later
, Gio told himself, still pushing through the crushing sea of people in search of Kim.
Deal with that shit later
.
A brief flash of blonde and blue caught Gio’s attention out of the corner of his eye. It disappeared back into the swaying wave of people almost instantly. Like an invisible rope was tied to his middle and forcing him to move, he instinctively changed directions and moved towards whatever—or whoever—that might have been.
Jesus, he hoped it was Kim.
In no way did Gio want to return her to Franco’s abusive ways, but he needed to know she was okay. For his peace of mind and to get that dull ache out of his heart and chest, he had to know.
The closer Gio came to the spot, the more the people moved with the music. Faster, harder. He ignored the goers, skimming over faces in search of the one he wanted to find. Even the techno pounding through the speakers vibrated the floorboards. Being sober, Gio felt suffocated by the people surrounding him.
Pushing his way through another wall of bodies, he spotted Kim. Gio stopped, all of the air rushing out of his lungs in one hard breath. Someone slammed into his back, causing him to stumble. Anxiety overloaded his senses.
Surrounded by a crowd, there were three men specifically with attention all on Kim. While they were all dancing, it was more than just that. Hands were disappearing under the skirt of her blue dress. A mouth was at her neck, tasting her skin. The guy behind Kim had his hands to her back, holding her.
The sight would have been enough for Gio to turn and walk away. That was the last thing he wanted to see and the most painful sensation sliced through his heart because of it. Something stopped him from leaving, though. Her mouth was too lax, and her dazed, hooded look a huge concern. It only took Gio a second to realize the guy at her back wasn’t just holding her, he was holding her
up
.
If she was high, that was one thing. This was way more than high.
Not even thinking about it, Gio forced his way through the rest of the people. The first thing he did was slam an opened hand into the side of the guy’s head with his mouth on Kim’s skin. The man staggered and fell to the floor with a shout. Anger pulsed through Gio’s blood like a drug at the thought of another man touching Kim.
Kim was his.
No one should have her like he did, and certainly not when she was too goddamn high to even understand what she was doing. When a female was too strung out to comprehend her choices, yes was still a huge fucking no in Gio’s world.
“Stay down there, or I’ll fucking kill you, asshole,” Gio snarled at the guy trying to get up from the floor.
“Hey, hey—”
Gio spun on his heel and shoved the man talking behind him. Since his hands had been the one going up Kim’s dress, Gio didn’t want to hear him, either. He went sprawling into the dancing bodies behind him, tossing several people to the floor with yells of anger and shock. In the background of the patrons, security had finally taken notice of the fight beginning to take place in the middle of the venue. They were moving towards him at a rapid pace—several of them.
That didn’t stop Gio.
He went after the guy who had been holding Kim up from behind next. Problem was, the fucking tool was still holding her. It was the only thing keeping Gio from smashing his fist into the guy’s skull and breaking every bone in his hand in the process.
“Let her go,” Gio ordered.
“Take her,” the guy mumbled. “She’s so fucked up.”
The huge eyes the guy sported mixed in with the paranoid stare and dilated pupils told Gio he was likely higher than a kite. And probably on some kind of upper. Gio didn’t pay him any mind, simply snatched Kim into his embrace and felt her knees buckle the moment he tried to let her stand on her own. The fear racing through his body intensified. A slurred whine escaped her lips. She was soaked in sweat.
Those eyes of hers were barely opened but even when she did try to widen them, her pupils were so enlarged he could barely see the blue of her irises. Her breathing was tight—fast pants but no real intake. As if she were struggling to get the air in and make it stay.
Gio laid his opened palm to her neck, feeling a tremor rocking his hand as he felt for her pulse. It wasn’t like he had to search to find it. The damned organ was beating like crazy. Far too fast for it to be healthy.
“God, what did you do? Hey, hey, hey,” Gio chanted, picking her up to cradle her. “Open your eyes,
Tesoro
. Open them up and look at me. You have to keep awake. You
gotta
, baby.”
The words repeated over and over, but fell on deaf ears. Kim only blinked, dazed. She didn’t even flinch when he rolled his knuckles along her sternum, an action that should have been especially painful and irritating.
The panic welled stronger. He knew what this was. How could he not when he’d spent most of his life drugging and drinking on a regular basis? Kim was either overdosing or pretty damn close to it. It wasn’t so much a matter of if she was, but when. Because obviously she took something, or several, which her tolerance level couldn’t handle. What he needed to know was the drug, or the combination of substances, that caused this. Sometimes understanding was the key to keeping someone alert enough to hold the overdose at bay.
And sometimes it wasn’t.
“What did she take?” Gio asked, glancing up at the one man who had been with Kim that hadn’t disappeared. The one who had been holding her up. People were surrounding them, staring and unmoving. “I asked you a fucking question! What did she take?”
The guy shrugged. “Don’t know, but everybody’s flipping kinda hard in here tonight, you know.
Really
hard. She gonna be okay?”
Gio cursed under his breath, keeping his knuckles rolling firmly along Kim’s sternum. She was finally reacting to the action, trying to move out of his hold, but weakly. Gio wouldn’t let her go, and if the painful sensation caused her to stay somewhat alert, he’d continue it until she was cussing him out and talking remotely coherently.
Flipping was a term Gio knew all too well. It mostly referred to a user mixing MDMA—Molly—with another kind of drug. There were a few different combinations, and each one had a different effect. Depending on the kind of trip someone wanted, that was the type of concoction they were to use to achieve it.
There were downfalls for people who flipped with Molly and didn’t have a decent enough tolerance built to mix substances. Chances were, whatever was being handed out was what most of the people who were high were using. If it was being given freely, or openly offered for cheap, it was less of a hassle than trying to seek out someone who had exactly what you wanted.
“Flipping with what?” Gio asked.
“Candyflipping,” the guy said.
Of course
, Gio thought, shaking his head back down at Kim.
Candyflipping was mixing LSD and Molly. Anyone with any experience in candyflipping knew to take the acid first and about an hour later, pop a Molly or two. The highs would alternate between the psychedelic effects LSD offered with euphoric intermissions the Molly gave off. The intense visuals from the acid were aided by the emotional tendencies of the MDMA. It wasn’t a surprise Pulse would be a hotspot for people who wanted to candyflip. Between the music, the lighting effects and the bodies constantly moving and touching, it was a candyflipping dream.
However, it was a combination that needed someone who knew how to take it or else the comedown could be bad. It was known to lead to a paranoia-induced ending instead of the exhilarating high it should have been.
Gio needed to get her out of there and into somewhere safer and comforting. Anywhere else but the extreme hyperactivity of Pulse. A person couldn’t calm in a place where it was specifically designed to make the experience of a high the best it could possibly be. Kim felt feather light cradled in his arms. The hotel he’d been staying at was a twenty-minute drive from Pulse, and that was the only destination in his mind.
One of the security guys had a different idea. “Closest ER is four blocks away.”
Gio brushed the suggestion off. Hospitals were out of the question. The last thing Kim or Gio needed was for someone to find out any of this had happened at all. They certainly didn’t need to know Gio had been the one to find Kim. Too many questions would be asked.
“Can’t take her there,” Gio replied, walking away from the people.
“She probably needs—”
“I’m aware of what she needs. And that’s not a hospital.”
Kim slipped in and out of awareness. There were points in her lucidity when she understood something with her was wrong, other times when it seemed like everything else around her was wrong, and the rest she didn’t know anything at all.
Her thought process moved slowly. Her understanding of her surroundings was non-existent. Little made sense as she blinked and swallowed, turned her head to see blending colors bleed together, and then blinked and swallowed again. A tightening in her chest made it difficult to breathe, like an elephant had perched itself on her body.
Elephants were not fun when they were sitting on someone.
It needed to go away.
“Elephants, huh?”
Kim recognized the dark, male tenor, but couldn’t place a person to go with it. Somehow, deep inside her soul, she knew it was wrong that she didn’t know to who it belonged. The slightly amused voice held a faint hint of fear, which sent sparks of panic dancing up her spine.
That anxiety must have shown though Kim didn’t know how. Warmth touched down to her arm, soothing away the worries instantly. It was only then she realized the rest of her body was numb but for the one spot where heat was blooming and spreading. She focused in on that feeling, those bleeding colors clearing, and felt herself beginning to drift off again.
It didn’t last long. A sting ricocheted up and down her arm. That warm, wonderful feeling that wasn’t supposed to be bad pinched her and
ouch
… it hurt. Kim flinched away from the painful sensation.
“Sorry, I know it hurts. I can’t have you closing your eyes again. It takes too much to get you out of it.”
Kim’s mouth finally caught up to speed with the rest of her body and decided to work. “
Ow
.”
Kim decided she hated that warm whatever with the familiar voice. Hated it.
“Hey, now. Don’t say you hate me,
Tesoro
. That’s breaks my fucking heart like you don’t even know.”
Pressure dotted on both sides of her face, letting heat crawl over her cheeks and willing the numbness there away. She felt her head being tilted to the side and up. Repeatedly she blinked to make the swelling masses of everything clear from her line of sight. One hand was holding a steering wheel, the other her jaw. Green eyes surveyed her before turning back to the road just as fast.
Giovanni
.
Relief filled her as understanding dawned.
Pulse flashed into her mind. Photograph-like memories still and stained with holes of memory loss, flickered one after another. Franco’s words, his anger, and his actions. She wouldn’t disappear on him like that again, Franco promised. The lights moving around her, hands touching. Bitter flavor on her tongue.
Giovanni.
Something was still wrong.
“You’ll be okay,” Giovanni murmured. “Just keep looking at me,
dolcezza
.”
She did, but the overwhelming colors formed all over again, still threatening to take her under.
• • •
Kim was hot. She was lying on a soft bed. The place was quiet but for her fast-paced breathing, and her mind was beginning to clear from the haze, but she was still
hot
. Too goddamn hot. From the soles of her feet to the tips of her fingers, a fever raced over her skin.
And her hands were shaking. Or was that her entire body trembling?
Jesus, what was wrong with her?
Impulsively, Kim reached out for Giovanni but came up with nothing. He hadn’t left her side as far as she could remember. He talked her down from the stifling paranoia, his voice reassuring during the acid-induced delusions. But now … Where was he now?
The sheets on the bed were a stark white, the walls an earthy brown. Her mouth felt dry, but her body was sticky. She wasn’t afraid anymore, not with the scent of leather, smoke, and man surrounding her with familiar comfort. Kim stared at her surroundings, which was mostly the sweat soaked bed sheets her face was resting in. She decided moving wasn’t a good option because of her sluggish thought process and the dizziness muddling up her vision.
With every thundering beat of her heart, the temperature in the room only seemed to increase until Kim could barely breathe at all. Fuck, why was she so damned hot? And her heart—it was racing like crazy. Nothing about that was right.
“
Gio
!”
“Yeah?” His raspy answer to her call came from only a foot or two away behind her. Kim turned to her other side with great effort, every inch of her frame seemed like it weighed a hundred tons. Giovanni sat in a chair he must have pulled away from the wall, but he looked exhausted, even to Kim’s screwed up mind. “What is it,
Tesoro
?”
Kim swallowed compulsively, her throat raw. Speaking wasn’t as easy as she thought it was. “I’m … really, really …”
“Kim,
così fan tutti
,” Giovanni said, the sharpness of his Italian order for her to look at him breaking her out of the daze. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Hot. I’m too hot.”
Giovanni was out of the chair in an instant and kneeling over her on the bed, his speed making her dizziness worse. Hands that were far too warm placed down to her skin over and over, annoyingly so. That did nothing to aid in cooling her down and instead, only irritated her until she was cussing at him to leave her alone. Kim attempted to swat his hands away but failed miserably.
“Stop it, Giovanni, you idiot. I’m fucking
hot
, I said.”
“You stop,” he growled right back, stilling Kim. “You’re burning up. Don’t you feel that? It means you’re trying to come down, but it’s going to be really fucking shitty when you do.
Cazzo
… come here.”
Kim couldn’t object to whatever it was that he wanted because Giovanni plucked her up from the bed before she could voice her displeasure again. Cradled in his strong arms, the heat doubled once more, sickeningly so. She settled for calling him a name she probably wouldn’t otherwise, which he just ignored.
A few steps later and the brightness of a bathroom all but blinded Kim into silence. She tried to turn her eyes away from the light, but it was too late. The damage was done. Nausea swept through her insides so fast she couldn’t even warn Giovanni it was coming.
Somehow, he seemed to know.
Kim found herself with her knees on the floor in front of the toilet. Giovanni’s arm wrapped around her middle, keeping her upright while his other hand tangled into her hair, pulling it out of her face. Sickness spilled into the porcelain bowl. There wasn’t much to come out, but it hurt like nothing else. The unwavering bout of heaves that followed the vomit was worse.
Definitely not as bad as the mortification bubbling up with it all. More than anything, Kim wanted to hide. She felt like she needed to crawl away from the man holding her.
“Please leave me alone,” Kim whimpered. “
Please
.”
Giovanni’s hold around her midsection tightened. “It’s all right. It’s okay. You’re fine.”
Kim shook her head as tears fell. Gently, he rocked her to and fro, a soft shushing sound coming from his lips that pressed to the spot behind her ear. As comforting as it was, it also broke her heart to a million and one little pieces. It would never be able to repair itself, now.
She was so fucking in love with this man. Loved him like her lungs needed air and the earth needed the sun. Kim knew it, she just couldn’t handle the reality of it. Because loving Giovanni meant nothing more than pain. A heartache she didn’t want. She couldn’t have him, not for life. Forcing him away and keeping her own distance was easier.
It
should
have been easier this way. A clean break. It was anything but.
Kim was so stupid. A dumb little girl playing pretend in a grownup world. She just cried harder because of it. “Please, stop …”
Giovanni sighed deeply. “You good, or can you move?”
Kim didn’t know what in the hell she could do, so she didn’t respond at all.
“Come on, Kim, talk to me. You need to cool down. You’re overheating and it’s not good for your brain cells to be slowly cooked to death by a fever. A seizure, that’s what’s going to happen if I don’t get your body temperature down and quick. Do you understand that? A fucking
seizure
.”
How did he know this shit?
“I handled all the other crap tonight,” Giovanni continued behind her, “but if you go into a seizure, I’m calling for the paramedics. It’s too dangerous. I can’t fix that shit.”
“Yeah, okay,” was the best reply Kim could come up with.
Kim let him lift her from the floor. Giovanni flushed the toilet at the same time they came to stand. The vertigo and shaking she’d experienced earlier returned with damning force. Kim didn’t even bother trying to support herself. Giovanni’s solid form helped her stay upright.
In the back of her mind, Kim was aware the cognizance she had of her thoughts and body was returning slowly. She wasn’t plagued by the swarms of colors that didn’t make sense and only frightened the hell out of her. There was no confusion swimming through her thoughts. The sluggishness was still there, and a soreness was beginning to accompany it.
That heat, though … it was still as suffocating as ever.
“Breathe,” Giovanni ordered her as he turned on the shower. “And not like you’re running a marathon, Kim. You need to slow it down. Panting only makes your heart rate increase. Help me out a bit here.”
Kim tried to do as he suggested, but didn’t have the first clue if she was succeeding or not. Getting the air in her lungs was nothing. She craved the oxygen. It was keeping it there that was hard. The moment she inhaled, she immediately felt the need to get it out to release the pressure in her chest.
“Good, that’s better. Ready?”
Kim didn’t understand what Giovanni was asking her until the water hit her. It wasn’t freezing, but it wasn’t warm, either. She shrunk away from the cool spray coming from the shower head, only to find her face buried in Giovanni’s chest. He didn’t seem to mind, instead hugging her tightly as water soaked them both.
Once Kim got accustomed to the temperature, the relief was practically instant. The cooling sensation had her sighing. It wasn’t long before Giovanni was sinking down to the floor of the shower, taking Kim with him. She stayed curled in his embrace and let the cold spray do its work while her thoughts and heart continued to race.
“Calm down,” Giovanni said quietly. “I know it’s hard, but you need to relax a bit. You’re going to feel sick and like absolute shit. Just expect it. Feel your heart,
Tesoro
. It’s hammering too fast.”
Kim didn’t know how to do what he asked. It was impossible, given the way she felt. All the stupid things she had done were just catching up with her. Sure, some of her memories of the last few hours were missing, but most were still there.
“Twenty-one-years-old and you’re going to give yourself a fucking heart attack. What were you thinking?” Giovanni asked, his hold on Kim constricting like he was afraid to let go.
“That I didn’t want to feel.”
“Funny, it’s the complete opposite for me.” Giovanni made a sound Kim couldn’t decipher. “But because of him, really? You almost killed yourself because of
Franco
, Kim.”
“Better I do it than him,” she replied, knowing very well how that sounded. “It’s a lot quicker than the way he’s doing it, I guess.”
“Jesus Christ.” Giovanni’s forehead pressed to the back of her neck and she swore she could feel his teeth clenching. “And what about the rest of us?”
“I don’t know—”
“Me, Kim. What about
me
?”
For a split second, the heart in her chest stopped, right along with her air. “What?”
“God, don’t you know what that would do to me? When I found you like you were, I couldn’t even think. So fucked up. If I hadn’t been able to find you, there was a good chance you could have overdosed in that place and no one would have even noticed until it was too late. Why would you do that to me?”
She hadn’t really thought about it that way. Her careless actions seemed a great deal more selfish when she did. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you?”
Kim didn’t answer; she wasn’t sure how without feeling like her whole heart and every piece of her soul was being broken apart by things completely out of her control. It wasn’t Giovanni’s fault she was so fucking addicted to him—to loving and wanting him—that even being near him was so punishing to her heart she couldn’t stand it.
The trembling rocking Kim’s frame increased, but it wasn’t because she was cold. Giovanni held her tighter in his embrace, drawing her in closer to his body. Even though it hurt to be that close to him, she rested her cheek on the spot where his heart beat below and let it soothe her. Giovanni was clearly angry and hurt with her, but he still held her. He still wanted her.