Page 108 of The Man with a Treasure

Neither of us replied.

With building anger, Scarlett asked, “Inside my home?”

We both nodded.

“Family tricked family?”

This woman still had so many basics to learn. It was tragic that she had to learn them while being taught that her very home was possibly as dangerous as the world she needed protection from until she learned right from wrong.

To show how innocent she still was, or how survival had been key for all her life, her next question slew me. “Will you both protect me while I sleep there?”

Basics. This abused woman was concerned about her basic necessities.

I vowed, “As much as permitted, we will.”

Her questioning the word ‘permitted’ had me explaining that there were limits to what I could do inside her home. That her grandfather had the final say. That he was our boss and we had to obey.

“But,” I told her, “your mother has granted Sal and me permission to be your personal guards when we return.”

“So, you can be in my room.”

Every revelation caused more explanations. “Yes and no. And definitely not as we are now. Here.”

“Explain.”

“Scarlett, I will not be able to hold you,” my throat tightened, “or lay in your bed. Nothing like that.”

Her arms fell to her sides. “No.”

I swallowed. “Please know it will not be because I don’t want to.”

Her eyes went to Sal, who was holding his chest, sorrow owning his expression. “I can honestly say you are one of the most important people in my life.”

Scarlett sounded so sad now. “Then why? Why can’t we just be who we are together?”

If I didn’t have to stay alive to protect her, her desperation and pain would have caused me to put a bullet in my head at the thought of causing her so much misery simply by not being with her as we have been. She sounded so raw and confused. I felt like we were ripping away the little bit of stability she had. It was her ‘hired guns’ who she knew and trusted. She soon would have to learn we were beneath her.

I tried, “It isn’t proper.”

Of course, that word confused her even more. I never knew how ‘status’ was so full of bullshit until having to explain to a young woman who lived by the feelings of her heart alone. Sal was right. She didn’t care about monetary possessions or who was ‘better’ than who. She couldn’t have cared less about anything the world, mistakenly, valued on a daily basis.

Scarlett was the epitome of ‘living in the moment.’ How her heartbeat was all she valued. And beat it did, for me and Sal.

Frustrated with all my explanations of ‘proper,’ this smart woman asked, “Why does my ‘virtue’ matter so much?”

And here we go… “Because of marriage pro—” I quickly reworded ‘prospect’, to not remind her of bikers, “a man your grandfather may want you to marry someday.”

“Marry?”

“A man you spend your life with. Someone that makes your heart beat.”

She waved me off. “I already have two. No need for another. I will tell my grandfather no.”

Sal mumbled, “I am so in love with this woman.”

“You don’t understand, Scarlett. Your grandfather, he, uh, uses marriages to benefit his business.”

“No.” With a furrowing brow, she insisted, “My heart says that is wrong.”