Book Review: It Kills Me

Title: It Kills Me
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Romance, Fiction, Crime

What It’s About: Scarlett goes to visit her dad, who is dressed in a suit, and he tells her that he is meeting him a potential partner for his business. The man comes and he is extremely handsome so much so that Scarlett’s breath is taken. They sit and talk business but once Scarlett father Dante steps away the man whose name is Axel, talks to Scarlett and asks if she is Dante’sWhore and tells her he will pay for her too. Scarlett clarifies that she is his daughter. She says that she will take over his business some day and so she does not mix business with pleasure, and adds that she could tell her father about all he says but when he calls her bluff, she doesn’t.

Axel talks to Scarlett several times as she’s working on me patio or balcony And makes many comments to her That she should consider having sex with him. Each time Scarlett rebuffs his offer and tells him that her father has taught her not to mix business with pleasure and besides she has a boyfriend. During one such visit, Axel tells her that Dante does not like her boyfriend, and Scarlett asks her dad to grab dinner, where they talk about her boyfriend and he tells her the truth—that he wants someone who focuses on Scarlett as if she is the only one in the room, including when she’s not around.

She attends a gala at an event with her boyfriend, Ryan, who is acting coldly towards her. Scarlett presses him on more information and he tells her that her connection to the underworld- calling her father a drug dealer, which he really is—is a problem. At first it wasn’t because they were hooking up, but thinking about having a family, he cannot imagine them being around this especially if she wants to take over the business. Scarlett ends the relationship, and then goes to grab a drink or two where she encounters Axel, who tells her that she is worth more than that. She tries to tell him that they should have sex, but he tells her that he is not someone’s rebound. She goes to the restroom, and finds her father there when she comes out. He tells her he is sorry when she tells him that she and Ryan are over. Axel is drinking at the bar, watching Scarlett when Dante sidles up to him and tells him that they need to have a chat, then takes him into a side room where Axel is surrounded by Dante’s men. Dante ultimately threatens Axel to stay away from Scarlett because he is not good enough for her. Axel talks to his friend, Russell, afterwards about Dante and decides not to pursue Scarlett at all after this.

Axel visits his father and once again he attempts to have a conversation with his dad, who tells him that he is not his father and that he does not have a son. After that, he goes to see Dante and Scarlett asks him how he is doing, which is not a question that he has been asked in a long time. Then one time Scarlett is at a bar and a man starts getting handsy with her, and she pushes him away, and trips him after he calls her both a bitch and a cunt. Axel comes to the rescue and makes the guy apologize to her and tell Scarlett that he has a small dick after Axel breaks his face. he then gets her a drink after the guy walks away and is protective of her until he decides to go away as well to the other side of the bar where he is with his friends. One of Scarlett’s friends asks her about him and when Scarlett tells her that he works for her father nd that she does not mix business with pleasure, the girl tells her that he’s fine and she would not give him up. Scarlett decides to go for it and sees another woman making her way towards him. The other woman makes it all the way to him first and takes the seat next to him, until Scarlett comes up to him and ask Axel if the seat is available and then sits in his lap, to which he responds that it is available. They go to his home and have sex and then the next morning they have breakfast together. He tells her that he will come by her house and they will have dinner together that she makes. indeed she does make the food and they start having sex in the kitchen during cleanup and then he takes her to her bed, where they spend the night. Axel does realize that Scarlett loves her father so much and that they will always be a dirty little secret.

Scarlett does ask her dad why he made the rule about never mixing business and pleasure and he tells her that he had a tryst with someone while she was in college that caused him a lot of harm in business—supply chain and distribution that he was still dealing with to this day. Dante also takes Scarlett and Axel to a meeting with some of his distributors, and Scarlett acts like a completely different woman-putting money in the strippers g string and smoking a cigar, while listening to her dad talk about killing off police officers or their family. Axel steps in when Dante threatens his people and tells him to trust him. Dante then stops him at his car when they return to his home and asks him what the hell that was about.

After the conversation with her father, Scarlett texts Axel that they should stop and be over. Instead, he comes over and they. Have sex, after which he takes her out to pizza and they talk about her presence at the meeting and then she tells him that her father does not approve of him, so they can’t be together. Axel ignores her for many days, until she texts him again, and then he goes over her house and they have sex again. They argue about her taking over the business, but once they get food, the way she smiles at him, all is forgotten

Scarlett goes to the Opera with her father who is upset about something even after his business trip. She returns to the balcony and overhears her father talking to someone about something, and when she asks him bout it, he tells her that he doesn’t like Axel. Then he explains that he has known for a while that Axel is really Alexander Moreau, and that he was convicted and served two years in prison for assault and rape. Scarlett returns home and starts to google him but decides to not go through it and instead waits for Axel to come up. he comes over and they talk during which he gets upset that she already has looked it up and already knows what’s happened based on the research in the public domain. Instead, she asks him what happened and to explain it to her, which stuns him. He tells her that he was married to a woman who was previously a bartender, and had set her sights on him. They had a prenup but she planted evidence when they started heading to divorce that he was abusive and a rapist, so he was convicted because she wanted money. His family disowned him. Scarlett believes him and he tells her that they have a bigger problem-her father knows. They have sex and he leaves the house as if they had an argument.

He talks to Theo who tells him to let her go because this will be an even bigger headache, though Axel doesn’t know how to walk away from her because she only knows him for a month and already sees through the conviction-something his parents don’t even see. He visits his parents, and this time the lawyers tell him that he has been served and they are doing everything in their power to get rid of him from the inheritance and his parents lives. He asks them why do this when he hasn’t even been problematic, and his dad tells him that he is no son of his and is a criminal, and he doesn’t care if Axel buries them in court for 20 years, then reveals that he will be giving Axel’s inheritance to Axel’s cousin, Antonio, who Axel claims will run it to the ground. Axel returns home and sulks until Scarlett messages him and then he goes over and they eat ice cream, during which he tells her about how his family disowned him and that saddens Scarlett because she knows that there is nothing she could do that will make her father stop loving her, and tells him that he deserves that.

Scarlett goes out on a date with another guy at Axel’s request and she listens to the date, and when he ask her to tell herself about him, she tells him that she’s the daughter of a drug dealer, which ends the date as soon as possible, because he is the son of a police officer. She returns home and hangs out with Axel. Then when she sees her dad at her job, he seems a lot happier, and asks her about her dating life—she had not believed that he was keeping tabs on her, until he starts asking her questions about dating that are extremely suspicious including his mood. Axel tells her that her dad has stopped watching them both, and they go out on a date to a restaurant, where they talk a bit more about his marriage and how his ex-wife got past his parents, to the point that they liked her and believed her over him. He tells her that he’s not the type of person who will seek revenge against her. They return home and have sex.

Axel attends the gala and talks to a blonde haired woman, who turns out to be none other than Cassandra, who went to school with him and was playing violin with him as second chair. He introduces her to Dante and Scarlett, and he can tell that Scarlett is pissed off because she overawed the conversation where Cassandra had told him she had a crush on him and asked him if he was seeing anyone to which he had said no. He makes introductions between Dante and another man, and the two go off to talk while, Scarlett disappears in anger. Cassandra shows up and he tells her to fuck off, and that he lied, then he text Scarlett and calls her to speak about why he is doing what he is doing. Later that night, as they are leaving, he stares at her and then Dante comes by and stares back at him. Axel doesn’t care.

They have sex that night, and they spend the night together, and have breakfast. They even speak the next morning about having children and Axel tells her that he wants to have kids, but he would have to get out of this business to spend more time with his family. That evening, he goes to meet Dante and solidify the plans on the introduction he made at the gala, and Dante brings out his father, who already has a broken bone, and points a gun at him. He tells Axel that he will shoot his father if Axel doesn’t promise to break up with Scarlett as he is a rapist and a wifebeater and Scarlett deserves better. Even though Axel knows that his dad will never reconcile with him, he wants to save him, so he agrees to give up Scarlett, and Dante shoots his father in the arm, after telling him that he had thought to take his mom, but that he’s too much of a gentleman. He also informs Axel that he will have his men watch his parents to make sure that he doesn’t break the oath. Axel takes his father to the hospital, and waits as the doctors perform surgery, and when his father wakes up, Axel can see that he’s terrified of his own son. The father asks him to leave, so he apologizes and leaves.

Scarlett hasn’t heard from Axel in a long while, and he hasn’t responded to her text messages, but then she sees him come over to h er father’s estate, and goes down to talk to him. He tells her that he will speak with her later, and tells her to go away before her father sees them. He does come by later that day and tells her that they are over and that he’s afraid of commitment, but Scarlett doesn’t believe it and asks him to tell the truth, asking whether her father said something. He tells her no, and goes home, where he gets drunk, only for Scarlett to show up and seduce him. He wakes up the next morning and tells her that it is still over, and she does not believe it but finally tells him if he wants to be a man, he know where to find her. He never goes after her. The next day he sees Dante, who tells him that he didn’t do his job so they will kill his parents. He explains that it’s not so easy to get rid of Scarlett because she doesn’t believe it, and keeps asking if her dad said anything, which he keeps denying. Dante tells him that he is going to take her to a restaurant at 7pm, and to come with another date, which will solve the problem and that she will get over it. Axel tells him no. Dante does take her but she does not want to go out to the restaurant and is not even remotely interested. she tells her father about her relationship and asks if he has something to do with it, to which he tells her that he didn’t even know about it until she mentioned it, getting upset at her. She apologizes, and after paying for the bill, he goes to the restroom, and she watches as a familiar person-Axel appears and gets Cassandra into her seat, at which point she realizes that he was more interested in Cassandra but couldn’t text her, and decides her father has nothing to do with it. She texts Axel good bye and they leave the restaurant.

My Thoughts: Oh my goodness, the relationship between Axel and Scarlett is sizzling. I really love the two of them together, and the way that they are a push-pull kind of relationship, where neither seems to be giving the full parts of themselves, and yet they work together so well. Dante seems to be a bit of a jerk to me, and the fact that he went so far as hurting Axel’s father to the point that they will not reconcile at all is heartbreaking. Part of the appeal for the relationship is that both of them actually worked together to hide the relationship from Scarlett’s father because they knew that he wouldn’t approve of it, but Axel specifically wants it to be more, not hidden like a dirty little secret. What I did love about Scarlett is that she’s able to think for herself—her father tells her that Axel was convicted of rape and abuse of his ex-wife, but before she googles anything, she thinks about his actions, and how they have been anything but abusive; rather, he seems to revere her in his words and his actions. And I think that truly gave them a chance to get closer in their relationship, where Axel’s disappearance and even his date with Cassandra really breaks Scarlett’s heart.