Psychotic Love (a mafia love story)

Chapter 26

ECHO'S POV

"I love you."

Luca's words are a spear to my heart. I say nothing as his lips leave my forehead and his eyes gaze into mine.

"No, you don't. Don't say that." I shake my head.

"But I do, and I've wanted to say it for a while now. That day we were in the pool. I just knew it. I felt it. I love you, Echo."

"I told you I hate you just hours ago. You ask me if I mean it, and I tell you yes. You can't love me. I...I don't want you to love me."

"I don't care. I love you. You can reject it all you want, but my love will always be here for you."

I stand from the bed trying to get him to understand the words that keep leaving his mouth. "YOU DON'T FUCKING KNOW ME, LUCA! And after what you just did to me? I know I said I forgive you but I didn't fucking forget." This is a fucking joke. Does he even know what love is? Hell, I don't even know if I know what love is.

He only looks at me with that same emotionless face. I don't have a damn clue of what he's thinking.

"I know you," He says flatly.

He honestly might know me better than anyone besides Vic. He always knows what I'd prefer, what I want to do, or when I just want to be left alone to drown in my emotions for the hell of it. Maybe he does know me.

He knows my favorite color down to my favorite movie. Luca is very studious of me. He's probably picked up more on me than my parents have in my entire lifetime. But I don't feel like that's enough. He has hurt me. He's right up there, competing with my father for first place at this point. Which one of them will get the award for hurting me most?

"I'm not asking you to say it back, but I am asking you to accept it."

"I won't ever say it back," I say shaking my head slowly. I catch a sudden shift in his face. A hurt one. In the blink of an eye, it falls flat again.

He shrugs his shoulders. "I think you've learned enough to know that I've never cared about how you feel about me. You can hate me, you can wish me dead, but that won't change the way I feel about you."

Luca stands from the bed towering over me. "I love you," he says.

I sigh. I don't believe him. You don't treat the people you love like this. "Whatever, Luca."

I walk away from him and exit the room. I'm going back to my room. I don't want to be near him after what happened last night. I remember him dragging me into that basement and the fight I put up with him, but I think I dissociated for most of the time I was in there, or maybe I slept. I don't know, I can't remember. I just remember darkness and then telling him how much I hate him, in what felt like seconds later.

On my way to my room, I bump into a very frantic Dario. "Watch where you're-"

He cuts himself off when he gets a glimpse of my face. He frowns. "What happened?"

"Luca," I say before turning to walk away. Dario grabs my wrist.

"Why did he do that?"

"Because he's Luca." He acts like he doesn't know his boss.

"Hey, I'm gonna talk to him, okay?"

"Don't bother." I pull away from his grip and continue on to my bedroom. I don't need Luca lashing out at me because he thinks I went to Dario for help.

He's out of his fucking mind. What is wrong with him?

I'm out of my mind too. I just forgave him. It's in my nature. I mean I'm not surprised, even though I knew I shouldn't, I did anyway. It's what I used to do with my dad. He'd lock me up or hit me, then he'd take me out for ice cream and tell me how much he loved me, convincing my little brain that because he said sorry and "made up for it", it was okay. He convinced me it was okay to abuse me as long as he did something to make up for it.

I know that this is what Luca is doing to me. I'm fully aware. But my mind lets down all of its walls, letting his manipulation play its tricks on me, anyway.

Sometimes I sit and think. The way Luca treats me is not normal. The physical abuse and the threats he sends my way if I do something he doesn't like. It's not normal. Much like my father he uses fear to keep me in line. No one should have that control over me.

I want to get away from Luca, but I don't know how. I can't just leave, he'll find me and probably do worse to me when he does.