Giovanni by Bethany-Kris Page B

needed.
    Kim neither wanted nor needed, a new car.
    Franco thought her previous Mazda wasn’t nearly nice enough to be driven by his future wife. Kim thought the new car was too goddamn pretentious, given she hadn’t been one to flash what bit of wealth she did come from, and she didn’t like flashy people to begin with.
    Well, her fiancé didn’t care a bit.
    After yet another argument about her lack of class and behavior he felt suitable, her Mazda disappeared from her dorm room parking lot one morning. The new Mercedes rested in its place.
    There was something to be said for a pissed off woman. Any man with a lick of self-preservation would feel it coming for a mile and run as fast as he could to get away from that oncoming mess. Not Franco.
    It didn’t make a difference how logical Kim’s explanation was, or how politely she explained it to him, Franco was as stupid as a block of wood. What he wanted was what he wanted, and what he deemed appropriate was exactly what Kim would be whether she liked it or not.
    The car was one of the many things Franco took issue with. Soon, Kim’s clothing came under his scrutiny. Instead of skinny jeans and T-shirts for days spent at college, suddenly dresses were permanent fixtures in her wardrobe. Then, he started muttering about her looks. The way she wore her hair down. Or the fact that red lipstick gave the impression she was too loose.
    Whatever in the hell that meant.
    Kim was so over it. The control was suffocating her. She was dying.
    A loud voice in the back of Kim’s mind was quick to point out Franco’s actions and behaviors were typical abuse. Emotionally and mentally, he was breaking Kim down bit by tiny bit.
    Kim’s small circle of friends from college had distanced themselves over the last three months, annoyed at her lack of physical and intellectual presence. They didn’t know who she was anymore, what with her changes in appearance, sudden shows of wealth, and the two bulldog men of Franco’s who rarely left her side.
    She felt like nothing more than a fucking shell that only knew how to smile and nod at the correct times, but rarely ever talked or gave an opinion. The youthful, lively, easygoing twenty-one-year-old inside was desperately clinging to her college classes and dorm room because it was the last bit of freedom she had left.
    Pretty soon, that would go, too.
    Every part of Kim that made her who she was, Franco was taking away. Sure, Franco hadn’t laid a single finger on Kim in the physical sense, but he didn’t have to. The threat of what he could do rang loud and clear.
    There was definitely a dangerous side to Franco that occasionally peeked out enough to scare the hell out of Kim. It was like a boil of steaming anger that simmered just below his surface, and when prodded in the right way, blew like a volcano. Kim had witnessed Franco’s rage on scarce instances when he didn’t realize she was there. Or maybe he did and didn’t care.
    It could be the flash of a gun to someone’s face, Franco’s hand striking out to knock someone to the floor, or violent words that sent shivers crawling down Kim’s spine.
    Christ. He was killing her.
    Kim sighed, shifting her messenger bag on her shoulder as she stood in the driveway of her father’s home. It wasn’t like she wanted to have another useless conversation with Nunz, but what choice did she have?
    She needed some space from Franco, at the very least. Surely her father could give her that. Nunz owed her the illusion that he cared about her.
    Inside the home, Kim found her father in his office upstairs. She waited while Nunz finished the conversation he was having on the phone. Leaning in the office doorway, she nodded to her older brother, but not much else.
    The sibling relationship they once had wasn’t the same since her engagement to Franco. It wasn’t great before, but it was even worse now. Cody thought the marriage was an awesome thing for her and their family. Kim just